Three Count is a new column that spotlights, as the title suggests, three things from comics today. It’ll be three things with links, no more, no less. This is the second one, and a big bwahahaha to everyone who thought I’d only ever do one of them.
1. To Know: Steve Lieber’s alt.text skills are unparalleled
Earlier today DC revealed that the Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen: Who Killed Jimmy Olsen? team of Matt Fraction, Steve Lieber, Nathan Fairbairn and Clayton Cowles have reunited for a new story featuring Perry White as part of a one-shot that’s coming out next month.
While you can visit my original post from today to see what the final cover will look like, Lieber took to Twitter to show off an alternative cover he had created for the issue:
A couple of things to note here … first the additional sticks of celery in the pocket are splendid, but the real genius was the alt text Lieber supplied for the image (which he did the same week that Global Accessibility Awareness Day falls into, so double kudos for using al text at all):
Cropped part of a comic book cover. Perry White, an aggravated, tubby man with eyebrows like a couple of caterpillars, wearing an unbuttoned suit vest and a loosened tie, is holding a giant globe over his head. He’s chomping on a piece of celery because (it is implied) he’s trying to quit smoking and let’s be honest, it’s really difficult to quit.
2. To Read: Simon Roy’s Griz Grobus on Webtoon
If you haven’t checked it out yet, Prophet artist Simon Roy has a comic up on Webtoon called Griz Grobus, a fun genre mash-up of science fiction and fantasy. He’s working with co-writer Jess Pollard and colorist Sergey Nazarov on them. These comics originally appeared on his Patreon, but now he’s syndicating them to the wider audience offered by the webcomics platform, with plans for a print Kickstarter in the future.
So far Webtoon has featured two different stories. In the first one, “a prying scribe, an overly sentimental constable and a mayor” resurrect a priest-bot named “Father Stanley,” who is not what he seems. In the second one, a hungry wizard accidentally sends a war-god into the body of a chicken, who is “eager to spill blood,” as you can see above. Check’em out, and if you like them, you can see more by subscribing to his Patreon.
3. To Support: Moistly Harmless: How to Appreciate Newts and Salamanders
When I was a kid we had a pair of newts that lived in an aquarium in my room. I remember when we bought them at the local pet shop, I had no clue what a newt even was when my dad asked my brother and I if we wanted them. But of course I said yes after seeing the little salamander-like creatures in action. Everyone who came to our house thought they were salamanders, I had to try and explain why they were actually newts.
I probably would have had an easier time explaining it if … well, if we had the internet at the time, but also if I had a copy of Moistly Harmless: How to Appreciate Newts and Salamanders, a graphic novel currently up on Zoop for crowdfunding. It’s by Ethan Kocak, creator of another book my five-year-old self would have appreciated, Does It Fart?, as well as the webcomic Black Mudpuppy.
Kocak says Moistly Harmless “is a book I’ve had in my head for a long time; part field guide, part memoir, and all about my favorite subject. I want to cover how you can look for and find salamanders in the wild, why they need protection now more than ever and how best to care for captive specimens. But I want to do this book my way, which means with humor and in comic book format. This will be something unique and fun but also packed full of accurate, up to date scientific information.”
The project has reached its goal, but you still have 17 days to make a pledge and get a copy. I mean, who can resist that title?