Super-Mega-back-from-California Post

Stoplight Sleep is finally back from its summer vacation!

To make up for last time, but post will include more music and comics than a SS post ever has.



1. Last year one of the greatest contemporary punk bands, Hot Snakes broke up. On August 15, Swami Records will release a live recording, Thunder Down Under including a live version of this track:

Hot Snakes - "LAX"

but not this one:

Hot Snakes - "I Hate the Kids"

Both of these songs are from Suicide Invoice.

Hot Snakes on insound
Hot Snakes on Amazon

2. Over the last few days I read Marvel Zombies, which a friend loaned to me. If you read my review of Walking Dead, also written by Robert Kirkman, you can plug in my comments about the dialogue in those books. I'm not so upset that the Marvel heroes don't sound like zombies, because who really knows. But I'm upset that the characters don't even sound different or like themselves. The story does take place in a alternate universe, apparently one where Wolverine, Iron Man, and Giant Man all talk the same.

Besides that small gripe, I really enjoyed the books. The stories fun, compelling, and graphically impressive. The 5-issue series was highly popular with every issue having at least 2 printings and a variant cover. I wouldn't be surprised to see a sequel to this miniseries.

Buy the Marvel Zombies TPB on Amazon

3. Robots in Disguise - "DIY" from their self-titled album.

4. Wasteland is out now from Oni Press. Antony Johnston (Spooked) and Chris Mitten created this comic about a post-apocalyptic world somewhat similar to that of Mad Max. In the first issue alone there's ton of action, punch dialogue, and hints of the magic(?) of the universe.

The Wasteland website

5. Here's a couple newer songs from bands that everyone has talked about:

Oh No! Oh My! - "I Have No Sister"
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - "Ramblin' Man"

Oh No! Oh My! on insound
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan, Ballad of the Broken Seas on insound

6. News from Comic Con: Adam Brody (The O.C.), Paul DeMeo, and Danny Bilson (father of Brody's co-star and rl girlfriend Rachel Bilson), and artist Jerry Ordway have created Red Menace, which Wildstorm will release this fall. The comic combines McCarthism and golden-age superheros. Read more at Newsarama.

7. A mini-mix. Enjoy.

a. Quixotic - "Anonymous Face"
b. Death Cab for Cutie - "405" (acoustic version)
c. Braille Stars - "Beautiful Fiction"
d. Songs: Ohia - "I Made the Change" (demo version)
e. Human Television - "Tell Me What You Want"
f. Monster Movie - "Letting You Know"

If you like any of these songs, please look into the artists and buy their stuff, or better yet, go to a show.

San Diego, Here We Come!

Stoplight Sleep is going to Comic Con!
That’s right, kids: this time when you don’t hear from me for several weeks, there’ll be a good reason for it. Oh My Art Stars and I will actually be in Cali for almost two weeks, but we’ll only be at Comic Con on Thursday and Friday. Along with volunteering each day, you may see us at the following:

Publisher booths, including DC, Slave Labor Graphics, Oni Press, and Fantagraphics; Tim Bradstreet’s booth in artist alley; (BB-11) IFC Presents: This Film is Not Yet Rated (10:15-12:15, Room 6A)

Thursday panels: Spotlight on Daniel Clowes (4:30-5:30, Room 8); Masters of Lowbrow Art, w/Tim Biskup and others (3:00-4:30, Room 5AB); Webcomics 101: Getting Started (6:00-7:00, Room 3)

Friday panels: We might try to get into Straczynski’s panel on writing (1:30-2:30, Room 3); Webcomics 102: Finding Your Audience (4:30-5:30, Room 1B); Boondocks (5:00-6:00, Room 6CDEF); 52: A Year in the Life of the DCU (6:00-7:00, Room 6B)

I’m also hoping to run into the guys from CGS, Lene from I Read Comics, and various artists/creators/writers, as well as random celeberties, such as Patton Oswalt and Brendon Small. I’ll try to post some music stuff before I leave, but if I don’t get a chance, see ya when I get back!

The Great Machine v. The Walking Dead

Brian K. Vaughn’s Ex Machina (Wildstorm) and Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead (Image) are two of the most popular comics on the shelves these days. They both come from writers who are probably better known for other work: Vaughn on Runaways (Marvel) and Y: The Last Man (Vertigo), Kirkman on Marvel Team-Up and Invincible (Image).

Although these books inhabit two ends of the graphic fiction spectrum, they employ similar narrative techniques. Both books follow a central character using no narration, occasionally cutting to scenes involving interesting supporting characters. Ex Machina follows New York’s Mayor Hundred, formerly known as The Great Machine, a superhero with the power to talk to anything mechanical. Rick, a cop who survived a zombie outbreak because he was in a coma, leads us through The Walking Dead.

In both cases, the reader isn’t allowed to easily see the story through the eyes of the character he or she might identify with most easily. Instead, we’re asked to empathize with the alpha-male, who has been placed in a position of power and given responsibility in a setting few of us could tolerate, let alone make important decisions in. Through both of these comics, we learn how hard it is to be a true leader.

The most recent Ex Machina trade paperback is Fact v. Fiction, the third volume in the series. In this arch Mayor Hundred checks in for jury duty, cracks down on fortune tellers, and hunts for his mother. Meanwhile, his associates hunt down a robot vigilante claiming to have been built by The Great Machine. Vaughn weaves the storylines seamlessly, along with flashbacks to Hundred’s past as a comic-shop regular, giving the book a made-for-TV-drama feel, similar to 100 Bullets or 52.

Although volume five of The Walking Dead is out now, I haven’t had a chance to read it. In the past week or so, I have read everything from the beginning of Miles Behind Us (volume two) until the end of volume four, The Heart’s Desire. Most of Miles Behind Us takes place on a farm that the main characters find on their journey. The next two volumes are set in the mostly-abandoned prison they claim as their new home. There’s lots of death, action, and sex along the way.

Finding the prison marks a turning point in the storyline, allowing the character’s to become slightly more settled and develop their own conflicts. Extreme times force extreme people and almost everyone evolved becomes polarized by some driving force in their life, whether it be grief, love, lust, or stress.

Charlie Adlard and Cliff Rathburn, who took over for original artist Tony Moore, have done a spectacular job with the gray-scaled Walking Dead. There was a day when I’d overlook non-color books; Adlard and Rathburn illustrate why that attitude has changed. Rus Wooten’s lettering rarely draws attention to itself unless required, the hallmark of a quality letterer. My only real complaint is the overuse of splash pages throughout the series, especially at the end of volume four.

Tony Harris and Tom Feister illustrate a vivid, animated world in Ex Machina. Their heavily-photo-referenced work stands out among the cartoony and/or stylized work of many comic artists. Occasionally shots feel hyper-realistic, like Harris has frozen the characters and their most awkward moments, a reoccurring weakness in the series. I occasionally feel like I’m watching an episode of Tom Goes to the Mayor. As another minor gripe, many of Harris’s large-bosomed females appear to be clones. In volume three alone, an unnamed victim, a fortune-teller, a prostitute, and a juror appear to be the same person. I’m never sure if this is a side-effect of the photo-refing or intentional. Jared K. Fletcher is a fantastic letterer.

Vaughn’s gift for writing shines in Fact v. Fiction. He’s one of the best in the business when it comes to drawing you into the story with an engrossing story and crafting realistic dialogue. Conversely, while Kirkman’s plot is effective, it often feels fluffed up with mundane details, such as where the character’s new clothes come from (a fact I would have assumed without the big meeting and speech). His dialogue often sounds over-constructed, like each character writes a note card of speaking points. Against the backdrop of probable-worldwide chaos, their highly organized speech rings false. However, I can give Kirkman the benefit of the doubt, since he’s writing scenarios born purely of imagination and Hollywood.

While Vaughn has created a hybrid of political thriller, slice-of-life realism, and post-modern superheroism, Kirkman has achieved what I previously thought improbable: he has architected a zombie story with truly interesting characters and novel situations. It’s seems easier to remain interesting and relevant when you’re dealing with a contemporary New York City, the NSA, and talking to toasters, but I’m impressed by Kirkman’s maturation of the zombie genre. That’s not to downplay Vaughn’s achievement. Ex Machina is one of the best comics you’ll ever read: guaranteed.

My Walking Dead/Ex Machina Soundtrack

1. Depeche Mode – The Dead of Night


2. The Crowd – Modern Machine


3. Johnny Cash – God’s Gonna Cut You Down


4. Death From Above 1979 – You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine


5. Rasputina – Herb Girls of Birkenau


6. Queens of the Stone Age – Burn the Witch


7. Mogwai – Robot Chant


8. Duke Ellington – Mendoza


9. Sam Cooke – Chain Gang


10. Pixies – Wave of Mutilation


11. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Weight of the World


12. José González – Love Will Tear Us Apart

Liner Notes

1. On many of these, it’s obvious which book they go with. I wasn’t too creative with a lot of them. I like the lyrics of the songs to add to story, not just the music. All the even numbers to with Ex Machina, the odds with Walking Dead.


2. I think this is good opener, something to bring you into the city.


3. This is a total traveling song. Use this anytime some one is driving down a car-littered backroad.


4. This is kinda the Automaton’s theme song.


5. I think this track would work well as atmosphere for the darker parts of the prison. The strings here are fairly dramatic.


6. I want the doorman at the fortune teller’s to be listening to this. It would also work when Hundred’s in the desert.


7. This is the zombie march!


8. I wanted something jazzy for the earliest comic store scenes. It could also work for the courthouse.


9. This would be great for scenes where they’re working at the prison.


10. I tried to think of what might be playing in a comic store in the late 80s/early 90s for one of the flashbacks.


11. This is Rick’s theme, mainly for when he takes the bike back to the old campsite.


12. I like this for the final confrontation with the Automaton and the every end of the story.

Today’s Links

Get a great deal on the first four or five Walking Dead trades at Amazon.
Buy Ex Machina: Fact v. Fiction on Amazon.