Tom Russell: May 2007 Archives

As some of you may know from the previous postings, I spent my Free Comic Book Day at Green Brain Comics, the best comic book store in Michigan. (Eat it, Vault of Midnight!)

I got to speak with such local luminaries as Matt Feazell, Suzanne Baumann, and Marty Hirchak, as well as owner/Lil' Lulu advocate Dan Merritt. Scott McCloud was there, as was John Hickey.

Who is John Hickey? John's another filmmaker/gamer/fanboy like myself, and I was very pleased to meet such a like-minded spirit. John also documented Free Comic Book Day at Green Brain Comics, and so I present to you both short documentaries.

First, here's mine:

It's the shorter of the two, clocking in at 2:32. Most of my youtube videos are between 1 to 3 minutes long, simply because I can't make them any longer without going over the 100 MB limit, at least not without sacraficing the quality of the video/audio itself. I find it challenging and a bit restricting at the same time.

John's documentary, by contrast, is nearly nine minutes long. And I think it looks pretty good, even with the compression. I like the structure of it, which pretty neatly divides the film into two halves, and I like the general overview of the Free Comic Book Day event. Mine kinda assumes that you know what Free Comic Book Day is already. And so, here's John's:

And there you have it. Two very different perspectives on one cool event.

Finally, an answer to the ultimate who'd win?

I did a short interview today with Scott McCloud. Nothing terribly in-depth; really, he communicates so well in his work that any questions one has about his ideas are generally answered within the text. But it was nice to meet him, nice to talk with him, and nice to share it with you.