Yes, as a matter of fact, we are doing an awful lot of this series on Lubbockites who work in comics, cartooning, and animation. The Lubbock Comic Book Expo is coming up in just a little more than a week, and there are a lot of local artists who’ll be appearing there. So I want to spotlight as many of them as I can — comics reviews can wait. Today, we’re taking a quick look at Nicholas Webb.

Nicholas Webb was born here in Lubbock and graduated from Abernathy High School in 2003. He studied at the Art Institute in Dallas, but is now back in Lubbock.

He has worked as a sprite animator for a cell phone game called “Shadow of the Incubus” and was the colorist and letterer for Issues 11 and 14 of a comic called “Reynard City.” He also drew the cover for Issue 14 and will be the penciller for a future issue of the series.

Again, Nicholas is going to have a table at the Comic Expo on May 2 at the Civic Center. He’s just one of many extremely talented artists who’ll be on hand. Don’t miss the chance to stop by and say hi.

Not all of the Hub City’s comics ties are linked directly to comics creators — without supportive comics retailers, there probably wouldn’t be any sort of comics scene in Lubbock at all.

Way back in 1977, a guy named Don Mitchell started a used bookstore on 34th Street called Star Bookstore. He had a friend named Joe Gulick who had visited Mile High Comics in Denver, and Joe and his brother Mike discovered that Mile High got new comics much earlier than grocery stores, dime stores, and other places that sold comic books in Lubbock. Realizing that they’d be able to get comics a week or two earlier if Lubbock had a comics shop, they suggested to Don that Star should sell some comic books.

Soon after, in October 1977, Don sold the store to Mike, and the name of the store was changed to Star Books and Comics. Mike sold the store to a long-time customer, Sid Devours, in 1981. Books and RPG sales were phased out around 1992 to make the store all-comics, all the time. Sid died in August 1999 — his nephew Robert Mora took over the business and still runs it today. The name of the store was changed one more time to just plain Star Comics back in 2004.

The store is still located at 2014 34th Street, and they’ll be one of the vendors at the Lubbock Comic Book Expo on May 2 at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center, so you should be sure to stop by and say howdy.

We got a lot of local comics creators who are gonna be at the Lubbock Comic Book Expo on May 2, so I’m gonna start running these Comics Connections bits a bit more often. One of the more important comics folks we’ve got around here doesn’t draw or write comics, but he’s still had a huge impact on the comics world here in Lubbock: Rob Weiner.

Rob was a reference librarian at the Mahon Library here in Lubbock for 12 years. He took a position at the Texas Tech Library as Humanities Librarian a year or two back. He also serves as the Liaison for the College of Visual and Performing Arts and Librarian for Film, Art, Sequential Art, Music, Dance, and Theatre.

In case you haven’t noticed, the Mahon Library and the Lubbock Public Library System has one of the best graphic novel collections in the country, and Rob is the guy who made it all possible. He started building the collection 10 years ago and grew it from a few books to over 4,000. He has published numerous articles and given talks and seminars about building graphic novels collections for libraries.

Rob wrote an article in the 2008 issue of Texas Library Journal about the history of and how to catalog Graphic Novels. He is the author of “Marvel Graphic Novels: An Annotated Guide 1965-2005” and “Captain America and the Struggle of the Superhero,” both published by McFarland Press. He also wrote a chapter in “The Gospel According to Superheroes” that focuses on Captain America. Weiner has also written and spoken on the Grateful Dead, Music and Film topics.

Heck, Rob is really blowing up pretty big right now. Texas Tech is spotlighting his new Captain America book, and SciFiPulse has an excellent interview with him (as well as a cartoon of Rob as Cap that is far too funny).

And don’t forget, Rob will be at the Lubbock Comic Book Expo on Saturday, May 2! He’ll be giving a presentation on “The Reality of Spider-Man” at 11 a.m.! Don’t miss out!

I do believe we’ve mentioned the Lubbock Comic Book Expo, haven’t we? Sure, we have! Remember, it’s going to be on Saturday, May 2, at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center, during the annual Lubbock Arts Festival. It’s just two bucks to get into the Arts Festival, which is one holy heck of a bargain, and if you wanna head over to the Comic Expo, it’s dead solid free, which is an even better bargain.

Now let’s talk about some of our events for a bit. The one thing everyone seems pretty stoked about is our costume contest. We had a good one last year (I’m still impressed by the guy who dressed up as Fry from “Futurama” to win first prize), but it was pretty small. We want to have a lot more people in costume this year.

So if you’ve got a costume, please bring it! I don’t care if you’re young or old — they make a lot of really cool kids costumes nowadays, but there are a lot of dedicated cosplayers out there who make their own costumes by hand. So if you have a costume, wear it and come down to the Civic Center on May 2. The costume contest is set for 4 p.m. If you wanna come before that, we’d love you there — people in costume are great for bringing in more attendance. Heck, if we like your costume, we may send you to walk around the Arts Festival to help drum up some interest in the Expo.

So seriously, if you have a costume, we want to see you there! If you look like this:

We wanna see you!

If you look like this:

We wanna see you!

Heck, even if you look like this:

We STILL wanna see you!

Costume Contest! May 2 at 4 p.m. at the Civic Center! BE THERE!

Hey, wait a sec, I haven’t listed any of our scheduled presentations yet, and time’s starting to run short, so here’s the list right now:

11 a.m.: The Reality of Spider-Man with Rob Weiner

12 noon: Lubbock’s Comics Connections with Scott Slemmons (That’s me!)

1 p.m.: Texas Tech Library 2D Lab demonstration

2 p.m.: Texas Tech Library 3D Lab demonstration

3 p.m.: Flash animation with Paul Davidson from South Plains College

4 p.m.: The Costume Contest!

5 p.m.: The Future of Comics in West Texas with Will Terrell and Robert Mora

Is the Comic Book Expo on your calendar? It better be! Or else I’m showing you my Out-of-Shape and Unshaven Dr. Manhattan costume!

UPDATE: As Will Terrell notes in comments, the grand prize for the costume contest is a commissioned illustration by him! This is normally a $150 – $200 value, so y’all should feel free to get wildly enthused and start tearing up the joint.

Let’s take us a look at some comics about time travel. By which I mean, I’m actually reviewing these comics in the year 3942 and have just sent these reviews back to you in the past. In the future, we have robot vacuum cleaners and the Internet! YAY FOR THE FUTURE!

Booster Gold #19

This is pretty much just an epilogue for the last storyarc. We’ve got two versions of Booster running around ancient Egypt, Booster’s sister Goldstar gets set up for a heel turn, and Rip Hunter goes on a mission in time that almost gets screwed up by Booster’s deep time meddling.

Verdict: Thumbs down. This is just incredibly boring.

And that cover. Oy, that cover. Can I just focus on that word balloon?

Oh, I’m sorry, but my wishes involved a comic book that wasn’t mind-numbingly boring. That’s why I’m glad I’ve got this next one to read.

The Umbrella Academy: Dallas #5

Everyone’s running around 1963 either getting ready to assassinate President Kennedy, or trying to prevent the assassination. The problem is that Spaceboy, Kraken, and Spaceboy messed up their trip to the past and have spent the last few years in Vietnam, which is a heck of a long way from Dallas. So we get a very nice sequence where a bunch of American soldiers, including a chimpanzee, drag a mystical mummy through the jungle in a quest to end the Vietnam War early, but they get attacked by Vietnamese soldiers, who are all hopping vampires. Number 5 and Rumor, along with a bunch of Time Commandos are in place and ready to stop Future Number 5 from saving the President, so can the rest of the Academy get there in time to stop them?

Verdict: Thumbs up. It’s confusing as heck, but it’s also grand fun to read. Lots of great personality bits, lots of great action, and the battlefield scene with the vampires (while not really culturally precise) (unless that’s just an indication of China sending their own soldiers to help the North Vietnamese) is just wonderful fun. While “Booster Gold” is becoming a case study in how to make time travel both confusing and boring, this one is showing how to make it all look cool.

It’s the end of another rough-and-tumble week, and we all need a nice dose of the weekend to help us unwind. And what’s the best way to start the weekend? A heaping bowl of mindless violence and, as always, FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

This week’s brawl comes from July 1971’s Fantastic Four #112 by Stan Lee, John Buscema, and Joe Sinnott:

If there are two poster boys for rambunctious comic violence, it’s gotta be those two brawling beauties, the Thing and the Hulk.

Tiny Titans #15

As you might expect from this cover, this issue features an astounding number of bunnies.

It’s time for another meeting of the Pet Club, with Alfred laying down his ground rules to make sure that Stately Wayne Manor doesn’t filled with bubbles again. Supergirl is back, with all her super-pets, including Beppo the Super-Monkey, and Zatara, the boy magician, is back, too, bringing his pet bunny Abby. Hey, remember what happened the last time Beppo and Zatara were together? That’s right, Beppo got hold of Zatara’s magic wand and turned all the Titans into monkeys! So what happens this time?

Soooo many bunnies… Soooo much Cute Overload… And “Ka-Bunny!” may be the greatest sound effect in history.

We also get treated to Rose Wilson babysitting the Tiny Terror Titans, Li’l Disruptor, Dreadbolt, Miss Persuader (and her Atomic Toothbrush), and Copperhead. She shows the kids what’s under her eyepatch, then makes them some hot nachos. You wouldn’t think something so simple would be so good, but it is. And finally, there’s a quick epilogue where one of the bunnies reveals a completely unexpected secret.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Vast fun, made even better with a multitude of impossibly cute bunnies. Of all the all-ages books I read (and I’m still surprised that I read and enjoy so many of them), I think this is the one I always look forward to the most.

Ain’t feeling like doing any reviews today, so let’s see what’s in the link stash.

• Who’s going to be mayor of New York City?!
• Who’s teaming up with the Punisher?!
• This seems fairly weird, ’cause I’m a big fan of this contest, but I’m pretty sure this is the first time in years that there’ve been no results announced for the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. Did they get no entrants this year? Did they run out of money? Did they lose interest? Who knows…
• As far as this goes, (1) the Texas constitution doesn’t actually give the state permission to secede from the US — it says Texas can split into five all-new states, but it sure doesn’t give secession a thumbs-up. Bad enough that Rick Perry’s talking treason in an attempt to appeal to the crazies, but the poor idiot doesn’t even know his own state constitution. (2) Not that it matters. Kay Bailey is gonna kick his high-toned, hair-sprayed, uncharismatic, unbelievably desperate butt so hard, he’s gonna have to climb a ladder to put his pants on. No amount of kissing up to the crazies is gonna change that, ’cause Rick Perry is just a deeply dislikeable critter.
• Remember the trailer I linked a while back for the new film version of “Where the Wild Things Are“? You won’t wanna miss this trailer for “Everyone Poops.”
• Ladies and gentlemen: The NOM NOM Song.

That does it for my link stash, so I sure better have some actual content for tomorrow, right?

Things have been a bit busy, so I’ve fallen a little behind on some of my reviews, so here are a couple I’ve had sitting on my desk for a couple of weeks.

Madame Xanadu #9

The story finally moves into the modern world — or at least the early 20th century. Nimue has moved to America, still hoping to get her revenge on the Phantom Stranger. She’s also sleeping with John Zatara, future father of the superhero magic-user Zatanna. Nimue prepares a powerful binding spell designed to imprison the Stranger if he ever gets close to her. And in the background of all this, a cop named Jim Corrigan is making his way closer to the event that will turn him into the Spectre.

Verdict: Thumbs up. As I’ve said before, Amy Reeder Hadley’s artwork is just extraordinary. I love the background work with Jim Corrigan, and Zatara’s Italian heritage is played very nicely. Worst news about this comic? The next issue is going to be the last.

Crossed #4

Crisis follows crisis for the small group of survivors trying to escape the Crossed, the zombiesque sadistic mass murderers who have torn society down to the ground. They lose more allies to the weird Crossed infection, they watch the Crossed as they continue to evolve into smarter and more deadly opponents, and they do everything they can to get away before they’re killed or turned.

Verdict: Thumbs up. It’s gross, horrific, tense, and deeply unpleasant. I still say some smart film producer is eventually going to turn this into one heck of a horror movie.

Man alive, I had actual comics to review today, but then a major corporation’s public relations department had to go and make me mad.

If you missed the news, Amazon.com got hit with a heaping dose of rotten publicity this week. Somehow, either because of a computer glitch, hackers, or something else, books with GLBT, feminist, and health themes got reclassified as “adult” and de-listed — meaning you couldn’t find them if you did a search for them on the website. So you couldn’t buy “Brokeback Mountain,” “Lady Chatterly’s Lover,” biographies of Oscar Wilde or Harvey Milk, or even books about rape survivors and preventing teen suicide — but you could definitely buy “Girls Gone Wild” videos, sex toys, “Mein Kampf,” and “The Turner Diaries.”

Unsurprisingly, the online world completely blew up. Twitter went wild, Facebook went wild, the blogosphere went wild. And justifiably so, I think — Amazon is probably the largest bookseller, online or off, in the world, and lots of people buy books there that are unavailable at their local bookstores. And I do think this was either an accidental computer foul-up or a case of someone hacking the Amazon ratings system somehow — Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ leftward political leanings are pretty well-known, and he’s not the kind of guy to just start censoring books he doesn’t agree with, much less books that he probably does agree with.

Anyway, I don’t want to talk about how it happened, because no one really knows yet. I don’t want to talk about the fallout, because no one knows what it might be.

I used to work as a public relations guy, so that’s what I’m gonna talk about.

Because this was an absolutely spectacular failure.

Part of the problem is that the story broke on Easter Sunday, when just about everyone at the company was at home with their families. I cut their PR guys a little slack for that — it wasn’t like they were all in the office when people found out about it. But the thing is, this was the major topic of discussion online Sunday and Monday. Twitter’s top “trend” for the last few days has been “#amazonfail” and I can’t count the number of angry blog posts I’ve read about this. On Sunday, it was already shaping up as a major PR disaster for Amazon, something that they’d have to address as quickly as possible.

But they didn’t address it.

Sure, they talked to a few reporters. They released some statements, finally, late in the day on Monday. But the one place you never saw an explanation or statement was on Amazon.com’s website. And that’s where you need it most, because that’s where people were going to see what Amazon had to say. It looked like Amazon was going to ignore the problem and hope it would all go away. In a case like this, the embarrassment caused by admitting that your site had a problem is vastly outweighed by the need to get unhappy customers back on your good side. Having this happen, whether it’s a glitch, a hack, or on purpose, is a disaster, but taking too long to respond just makes it worse.

The idea that Amazon couldn’t get started on a PR response because of the Easter holiday doesn’t hold water. If you’re the PR manager for a company the size of Amazon, and something like this blows up, you don’t come strolling into the office Monday morning at 9:30 or 10 to start meandering your way through a response. You’re in the office on Easter Sunday or as early as you can get in on Monday morning to make sure a response is ready and uploaded onto the front page. A web-savvy company should know better than to let Twitter and the blogs spend a couple of days talking about a problem like this. It reinforces every bad thing being said about the company.

I suspect that part of the problem was that the legal department got involved and screamed “Don’t say anything! We’ll get sued!” Of course, keeping sullenly silent won’t actually stop you from getting sued if someone wants to sue you. And prompt and effective public relations responses are the types of things that turn angry customers — and angry authors and publishers — into people who understand what happened and are willing to cut you some slack while you get the problem fixed. So the correct response to the legal team would’ve been to lock ’em in a storage room and release a statement anyway.

In summary, with the recent PR screwups by Amazon and, a few weeks back, by the Sci Fi Channel, I’m almost convinced that I’m the only person who has a single clue about public relations. I guess I should send ’em a few resumes…