Templesmith Choker? Cool Variant. McCool.

It’s been a minute since my last post, and my only excuse is that a lot of behind-the-scenes BSC business has been going down on top of the day-to-day operation. We have a lot of moves going on, and hopefully we are a site closer to Cobra Island development status. On the collection tip, things have been slow, as  while I’ve queried a bunch of artists for various commissions,   they are either too busy or not answering email (yet are twittering…a lot).  I’ve also struck out on some pages artists’ no longer had. Should be picking up here regardless though because my portfolios came in and I figure I’ll snap a pic and tackle them soon. Because they are just being put away in portfolio, it’s a lot of my recent stuff that’s probably been posted in various communities I frequent. Might still be semi-interesting though, because while going through them being reminded of them, I was thinking about the why behind the purchases. A lot of it is rather inexpensive and oddball, but I found that I was still rather aware at why I pulled the trigger on the items at the time. Also nice mini-surprises like seeing on one of my Dave Lapham (from Harbinger-lovely pre-Unity) pages, a sketch included that I hadn’t noticed before–stuff like that. It’s not blow your mind shit, but more exposing odd thought processes that make us pull the trigger on auctions. For this post though, I have an example of one of the aspects I touched on in Variety, Trade, or Death (or No Hooks, Chum).

I recently scooped a couple of copies of the Choker#1, a new six issue mini from Image Comics by Ben McCool and Ben Templesmith. I’ve frequently stated that I think some of the best comics being published today come from Image, and suffer only to a smaller base of the medium and invisible (not to be confused with transparent) publicity. Excellent talent and stories are showcased from Image each month, but that is not why I bought this particular issue. Much like I said in the aforementioned link, interest actually occurred due to a limited variant. Don’t get me wrong, I dig the shit out of Templesmith, though he has this penchant for being an artist whose work I completely love who’d most certainly up my buying rate single-handedly if he worked on more projects that conceptually interested me. In this way, he’s a lot like Ashley Wood, who I think is unbelievable, but me being an original art fan, if I like how you draw and not the concept, I’ll buy your OA (indeed just earlier this week I queried Splash Page about some Templesmith art), not your book/title. What’s the concept? Well, according to the official site:

Choker is a new hardboiled noir miniseries by award-winning creator, Ben Templesmith, and writer, Ben McCool.

I have heard this comic actually cures cancer, turns water into wine, can beat a chess grandmaster in 3 moves while toilet training a small effeminate dog.

Now that concept interests me! Again though, not what peaked my interest enough to buy a non-hardcover. Or rather, not what brought the title to my attention. What did get me was a sales listing over at the CGC boards for the Larry Comic’s edition that was limited to 1000 copies. Interestingly enough, there were issues with the release, described as “having a bad water/ink mix at the printer.” This affected the initial print run, including this variant. The seller did say that some got out in that initial batch (which would make them semi-interesting buys if Choker obtains a cult following.

Anyway, can’t wait for this to arrive and as always, Tomio is here to defend the e-hated variant, chokin’ vaunted fan-men out.

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1. Variety, Trade, or Death (or No Hooks, Chum)
2. The Toughest G.I. Joe Comic?
3. Dough Mahnke GOOD@UGLY Sketch Book