Indy Comic Book Week presents Bamn!

Indy Comic Book Week officially starts, today, December 30^th, 2009! I.C.B.W. is a week-long event taking place in comic shops around the U.S. in an effort to take advantage of the lapse in Diamond Comics’ shipping schedule. The amazing people at Third Eye Comics (Annapolis, MD) and Alliance Comics and Games (Silver Spring and Baltimore, MD) have embraced this nation-wide affair and will be carrying Bamn #1 and Bamn #2 at their respective locations. If you're in the state of Maryland then stop on by and show your support for Indy Comic Book Week by purchasing a copy!

More detailed Stuff:

• Third Eye Comics (Indy-friendly and an official I.C.B.W. shop)
• Alliance Comics and Games (who is also having a major 50% off sale to kick off the New Year)

BAMN #1 & BAMN #2

Written by TROY JEFFREY ALLEN
Penciled by JAY PAYNE

Edited by RON CRISTOBAL

Nerds vs. Jocks, Bullies vs. Misfits, the Weak vs. the Strong...Everyone loves a good underdog story, SO LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE! BAMN gets its title from the embittered main character. A surly and washed-up former pro wrestler, Bamn has spent the dying years of his career throwing up in bars. He lives out of his car and uses stolen credit cards to pay for beer. A chance encounter with a pair of local high schoolers, Art and Ian, brings him to the FWF, A backyard wrestling federation ran by the two young fans. When the school’s wrestling squad shows up to bully the kids, Bamn steps in. In a rare moment of clarity he promises all the teenagers that he’s going to teach them the most important thing they will ever learn…HOW TO FIGHT BACK AND LOOK GOOD DOING IT!

24PGS.(each)/Black & White/Parental Advisory …$3.50 (each)

• If you're not in Maryland you can still purchase Bamn at http://www.comixpress.com.
• For more visit: http://www.indycomicbookweek.com/ and http://www.bamncan.com.
• Please contact Troy Jeffrey Allen at BamnCan@hotmail.com for retailer information and details.

008 [AndroidMassacreSecretTransmission] MQ-9

Welcome to the railroad, true believers…

Once a year, That Urban Punk and I visit the train lines traveling between Maryland’s BWI and Washington, DC’s Union Station. It’s an annual tradition, in which we don ski mask, raid the area Radio Shack after business hours, and bag any and all potential merchandise that may be a hazard to humanity. We carry the stolen merchandise to various sections of the Baltimore-bound railroad, place them on the rails, and wait for an Amtrak or a Marc train to pass by.

It’s a tradition that has been broken by the disappearance of That Urban Punk.  Punk has been lost in time, breaking communication with the present during our recent trip to the future. Punk and I intended to rendezvous at the railroad once the time-traveling cannabis wore off. I had hoped his half of our dual-venture to stop the Android Massacre had faired better than mine. Apparently, it did not.

My investigations have bared little result on the who, what, when, where, and how, but judging by the recent shift in weather patterns and Meredith Baxter suddenly announcing that she is gay, someone else has been tinkering with the space-time continuum, hence changing the course of history…possibly in the favor of the human resistance.

How can I make such a grand assumption? Well, for starters, when I originally left this timeline it was a well known fact that Al Sharpton was the first black president and not this Obama guy. More importantly, when I arrived to the future, history book’s had detailed a single moment that was supposed to change the course of the war in Afghanistan and give birth to the what would become The Android Massacre…

In the future, children would read of the military’s  MQ-9, the first robot in history to go sentient. MQ-9 originally broke free of it’s programming, was lost by the military for several days, swooped  down into the caves in Chitral, Pakistan and recorded the whereabouts of the elusive Osama Bin Laden. Intended to be robot-controlled, MQ-9 provided the exact coordinates of Bin Laden, allowing the United States military to move in on the terrorist and arrest him for his crime’s against America.

In the future, the story of MQ-9 was an inspirational tale from the war in Afghanistan. However, such a critical moment in history came at a price. MQ-9’s “heroics” would be looked upon favorably by the general public and give the military ample reason to enhance their experiments with Artificial Intelligence. In the future, the Japanese and the United States military would work together to refine the accidental technology that caused MQ-9’s consciousness.

However, the space-time continuum is a very delicate thing and it seems that MQ-9’s supposed moment of glory has ended in a hail of bullets in this timeline.

I am quite troubled by the very notion of tinkering with time. It is quite possible that That Urban Punk is actively changing the course of history by being stuck in the future or…something else followed me back to the past.

TRY NOT TO MOURN THE DESTRUCTION OF MQ-9...HISTORY’S LOSS IS THE FUTURE’S GAIN: http://www.switched.com/2009/11/14/robot-fighter-jet-shot-down-after-malfunction/

[Of Note] Good Hair

The latest issue of OfNote Magazine has been online since Tuesday. My Op-Ed piece on the (Chris) Rockumentary Good Hair is one of the featured articles.

Chris Rock's film (which I consider one of the best film's of the 2009) has come under the fiery hot comb of some detractors. I find the film's frankness pitch-perfect while others consider the film sexist.

Check out my commentary HERE.

Read more about the Good Hair controversy HERE.

Bah Humbug,

Troy

[Bamn] Bamn #2 @ Indy Comic Book Week

 

Bamn #2

Bamn #1

For the uninitiated, Indy Comic Book Week is not the day that America invades Afghan stand-up comedians, nor is it the day that Harrison Ford tells dead baby jokes --- no, Indy Comic Book Week is the last week of December (12/30/09), in which, independent comic book creators around the known universe receive an opportunity to pimp their illustrated works to your local comic shop (in some cases for the first time).

Get on board, learn something new, support your local hipster, and give back to the only printed media not on its' deathbed: http://www.indycomicbookweek.com/

All kidding aside, ICBW is a great opportunity to take advantage of what the comic industry has to offer besides the usual superhero stuff. Not to mention the fact that Bamn #2 will finally be making its' comic shop debut at, both, Third Eye Comics and Alliance Comics and Games on December 30^th 2009. If you're in DC, Maryland, or Virginia, be sure to grab a copy.

THE NITTY GRITTY:

Indy Comic Week is December 30^th, 2009 at Third Eye Comics, Alliance Comics and Games, as well as, these comic book specialty shops.

Be sure to snag these titles from The Bamn Crew on this exciting day (and if your retailer doesn't carry them…ASK FOR THEM!):

Bamn #1

Written by TROY JEFFREY ALLEN
Penciled by JAY PAYNE

Edited by RON CRISTOBAL

Nerds vs. Jocks, Bullies vs. Misfits, the Weak vs. the Strong...Everyone loves a good underdog story, SO LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE! BAMN gets its title from the embittered main character. A surly and washed-up former pro wrestler, Bamn has spent the dying years of his career throwing up in bars. He lives out of his car and uses stolen credit cards to pay for beer. A chance encounter with a pair of local high schoolers, Art and Ian, brings him to the FWF, A backyard wrestling federation ran by the two young fans. When the school's wrestling squad shows up to bully the kids, Bamn steps in. In a rare moment of clarity he promises all the teenagers that he's going to teach them the most important thing they will ever learn…HOW TO FIGHT BACK AND LOOK GOOD DOING IT!

24PGS.(each)/Black & White/Parental Advisory …$3.50 (each)
www.bamncan.com

Also Available for purchase at http://www.comixpress.com

Bamn #2

Written by TROY JEFFREY ALLEN
Penciled by JAY PAYNE

Edited by RON CRISTOBAL

Bamn, a fallen pro wrestling superstar, has spent the postscript of his career throwing up in bars and living out of his car.
A chance encounter brings Bamn to a group of teenage fans who have long-idolized the has-been wrestler. Wanting to impress Bamn, the kids invite him to their backyard wrestling show. Unfortunately, the only audience they attract is the group of bullies that comprise their school s amateur wrestling team. Bamn arrives to end a confrontation between the kids and offers to teach the backyarders how to fight back.
Training day has begun...
24PGS.(each)/Black & White/Parental Advisory …$3.50 (each)
www.bamncan.com

Also Available for purchase at http://www.comixpress.com

For more visit: http://www.indycomicbookweek.com/ and http://www.bamncan.com

Please contact Troy Jeffrey Allen at BamnCan@hotmail.com for retailer information and details.

---

Hotmail: Free, trusted and rich email service. Get it now.

WTF Comcast

I'm working hard this Christmas season, so forgive me if my blogging and b!tching comes a bit infrequent for the rest of December. All I can really provide is some quick distractions from your work day...

Someone at Tumblr has dedicated a blog to some of the oddball program descriptions on Comcast.
I had friend of mine point out these snide synopsis to me before. Every time he tried to show me though, they would magically disappear.
If only Comcast' billing department had the same sense of humor.

CLICKITY-CLCIK (pretty amusing stuff): http://wtfcomcast.tumblr.com/

(BTW, AndroidMassacre.com got a facelift. I'll have a new conspiracy for you soon, I swear I will.)

[Bamn] ICBW

The last week of December is Indy Comic Book Week, a crafty idea by independent comic creators to take advantage of the lapse in Diamond Comic's shipping schedule. (Awwww...what will we do with no Marvel crossover tie-ins for a whole week?)
I'm a big advocate of not just comics but the belief that they are an ideal medium for storytelling. Indy comics are the best example of this, they can deal in broad genres without losing their intimacy (stuff like Couriers, Johnny Hiro, Surrogates, and Stuff of Legend, come to mind).
You'd be missing out if you didn't stop by your local comic shop on December 30th and try something new.
I'm actively trying to get some local shops here (in Maryland and DC) to take advantage of this one week event. Make sure you do the same...and tell them you want Bamn, too
CLICKITY-CLICK for Indy Comic Book Week's official site: http://indycomicbookweek.com/

---

Chat with Messenger straight from your Hotmail inbox. Check it out

[Comic Book Reviews] Continuity

Anyone will tell you that my involvement with "Bamn" has singlehandedly renewed my interest in the possibilities of the comic book medium. Particularly, it’s pulled me away from the superhero genre and focused my attention on some of the more off-beat comic books.

I’ve toyed with the idea of trying to aggressively present more titles to our customer-base at Alliance Comics and Games (a store in Silver Spring, MD that I proudly work at part-time). So, I had this pretty obvious and fairly bright idea of reviewing graphic novels on my page.

For the cool kids, graphic novels are comic book compilations that usually contain six or more issues of the same story. Largely self-contained, graphic novels are the easiest way to get the uninitiated into the realm of “funny books.”

Reviewing comics has worked pretty well for the shop in the past. So continuing this seems like a smart decision. If this works out well (meaning,  you actually pick up something I suggest and like it) then it’s important for you to leave feedback and let me know, online or in-person, what you think or this whole thing will go down as a failed experiment…

Continuity

Written and Drawn by Jason McNamara and Tony Talbert

$12.95

AIT/Planetlar

I’ve always been of the belief that the X-Men books should never be treated as just a Superhero title, that the premise and the eclectic mix of characters within the X-Universe begged for a much more topical comic book…an allegory of our times. Unfortunately, more often than not, the X-Men books lean heavily on its’ superhero trappings. Sure there have been gems here and there (God Loves Man Kills and New X-Men come to mind) but those have been constantly lost within the massive crossovers and needless soap opera subplots.

A concept like Continuity would serve the X-Men line well. It’s a mutant story but it’s not a Marvel book, the main character manifests powers in her teens, but she lives in a world without X-Men. All the metaphors are there, all the angst is there but without the superheroes. I love it for that reason.

Alicia Lock is a teenage girl who has denied herself sleep for the last 9 months. She has come to the realization that her dreams and nightmares have a way of becoming reality. She dreams about murdering classmates and they pop up dead the next morning. She dreams that all the narrow-minded people in her town would disappear and the whole city vanishes...or even worse, she dreams about sleeping with the popular boy in school and becomes pregnant.

That turmoil alone is brilliant: How do you explain to your parents that you got knocked up without having sex? Even worse, how do you explain to the popular boy that he’s the father?

Continuity is a stand alone revenge-fantasy that spirals into dramatic directions that are very intriguing, utilizing its’ main character’s sleep deprived paranoia as a storytelling tool.

Marvel should take note.

CLICKITY-CLICK to read the free download: http://www.ait-planetlar.com/resources/Continuity.pdf

[Artsy Fartsy] Chile Breaks World Record

I had a hard time finding decent photos of this but, apparently, nearly (or over) 1,000 Graffiti artist in Santiago, Chile have broken the Guiness World Record for this 5,900-foot piece of street art (misrepresented in the picture above). Impressive.
Hopefully, some enterprising Chilean will take a picture of the entire thing and post it on the internet.

In the meantime, CLICKITY-CLICK for a series of (not translated) YouTube videos that show some of the images of the wall: http://www.youtube.com/user/muroporlapaz

[Bamn] Review of Horrors of War

Cammy's Comic Corner did a positive review of Dr. Dremo's Horrors of War, an anthology comic that features short stories by the DC Conspiracy (and a 4-page story called "Disposable Heroes" by Bamn's own David Dean and Troy Jeffrey Allen (based on the true life events of, Iraq war vet, S.P.C. Sergio Estavia).

Where are the negative reviews? They don't exist! Now, shut up and buy a copy at Comixpress.com, already!

CLICKITY-CLICK the following link to watch the video review of Dr. Dremo's Horrors of War: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z594r5D5j7w&feature=player_embedded

---

Windows LiveT Hotmail is faster and more secure than ever. Learn more.