And The Cupid Goes To...

okay, so i finally finished writing the blog posts for the 2008 ghettoManga Award Winners!
the awards usually drop in february, but with the new baby and freelance project, came late this year. awards are handed out for excellence in comics, hipHop, art and popular culture. nominees were selected by myself and anyone who wanted to write in, and winners were selected by fan votes. thanks again to all the people who contributed or voted (and especially to all the nominees for goin' hard in '08!) in the biggest gMa's yet!

this year's Winners will each receive a greeting card with the gMa trophy design ("Cupid" seen here) on it and their name and the award they won (assuming i can get a mailing address for them). eventually, we will start giving out actual trophies...

anyways, here are the winners.

Comic of the Year
Proof

Hardcover/TPB of the Year
Freakangels

OGN of the Year
Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together

Emcee of the Year
Jay Electronica

Rapper of the Year
Talib Kweli

Vocalist of the Year
Erykah Badu

HipHop/Rap Group of the Year
The Roots

Artist/Illustrator of the Year
Jim Mahfood

Cartoonist of the Year
Bryan Lee O'malley

Video of the Year
Honey by Erykah Badu

Album of the Year
Eardrum by Talib Kweli

Movie of the Year
The Dark Knight

Champion of Children Award
Power Pack

Man/Woman of the Year
Barack Obama

peace,
-samax
ghettoManga.com
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Trade PaperBack of the Year

the ghettoManga TPB of the Year is the collection of Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield's fab webcomic Freakangels Volume 1. if you are unfamiliar with Warren Ellis, he's one of the craziest and most talented writers in the freakin' free world! in addition to being a mad genius, Ellis is also mad prolific, and the british scribe has a knack for working with hot, fresh, unknown (at least to me) talent. on Freakangels, he's workin' with Paul Duffield, who is smooth, skillful and consistent.
Fans of Ellis' superhero comics work will not have any problems getting into this post-apocalyptic science-fiction tale about gifted young psychics who try to pay for the great destruction they accidentally brought on by being down-low community messiahs. exploring the lives of the twelve "strange children born in England at exactly the same moment" gets really interesting when you find out that the Freakangels all banded together to put out one of their number, and he has started hypnotizing people and sending them after his mates for revenge!

Freakangels is a slow-burning fire. if you are an impatient ADD kid, or the kind of person who hates earthbound sci-fi, character driven comics or virtuoso animation-style art ... skip it. everyone else should click one of the pics to buy the TPB, or at least peep it online for free!

holla!

-ghettoManga.com

comics.hipHop.news.art.culture

Movie of the Year

the ghettoManga Movie of the Year is The Dark Knight, and one thing is for sure: even though it was not MY favorite movie (or even my favorite superhero movie) of the year, it was a great film, and voters overwhealmingly selected it here, and at the box office in 2008.
i doubt if any movie, let alone one about a guy dressing up like a bat and bitch-slapping the wicked, could live up to the hype The Dark Knight brought in with it, but i'd say director Chris Nolan comes damn close to a perfect superhero movie, with this follow-up to his fan-favorite big-budget debut, Batman Begins. even though it was a dark and dreary film, Dark Knight made me happy [as did its big brother Batman Begins] by breaking superhero movie molds. where most sequels in the genre choose to focus on the villain's sad story leading up to transforming them into the evil bastard that has to be stopped, Dark Knight respects the audience enough not to bother. rather than engage in poorly constructed psycho-babble, The Dark Knight sticks to the psycho. the Joker is an evil bastard that has to be stopped, and that's all you need to know.
this movie, like Begins, doesn't retread any existing Batman story, it creates a new one... part of the genius is that Nolan's films do what other superhero flicks don't: both Begins and Dark Knight actually add to the mythos of the character's universe. he ties the Joker to Batman flawlessly, showing how the strengths and weaknesses of both men tie them together as the ultimate arch-enemies. by the end of the film, Batman turns everything that has happened to his advantage, even the loss of everything he had hoped for the whole film. he is possibly the most pure interpretation of Batman's personality ever seen on screen.
The film is not without weaknesses. i still think these films rely too heavily on action movie logic, where a more horror-suspense bent would work better. talking while fighting, car chases, and technology effects are all a ton of fun, but i don't think they are Nolan's strong suit. speaking of which, the Batman suit still needs work... the cape doesn't do the Batman thing of adding to his general scariness that you get in the comic. the beauty of it is that like Batman Begins, the strength of Dark Knight lies with the story and the actors, not the action-superhero window dressing.
and the acting was fabulous. while there were no weak performances, the late Heath Ledger owned this film. i can't say enough about his low down, gritty, grimy performance. his disturbing performance earned him many awards and accolades, including an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. from his first scene, he erased every prior interpretation of the sneering mass-murdering anarchist Joker, grounding the larger-than-life "clown prince of crime" in the real world...
so anyways, in case you can't tell, i thought The Dark Knight was even better than Batman Begins. even with all the flaws i mentioned, i considered it an overall fabulous picture that will outlast its critics. the Batman is brutal and ruthless, and the Joker is even more so. just like we like 'em
holla!
-gM

Rapper and Album of the Year

ghettoManga's 2008 Rapper of the Year, Talib Kweli speaks with Hardknock TV.
veteran brooklyn emcee Talib Kweli had a reality check. as much as he would like to do records with his buddies Mos Def and deejay Hi-Tek, he hasn't been able to make it happen for a long time, and a brotha got bills. so, the non-Mos half of BlackStar decided to get his mogul on. in addition to droppin' a couple nice records, Kweli has started Blacksmith, his indie rap label (with such noteworthy overgrounders as Jean Grae and StrongArmSteady), continued to litter the digital countryside with mixtapes and generate hit singles. Kweli is a fixture in the true-school hipHop community, doing guest shots for rappers and neo-soul artists.

Kweli's Eardrum
is the ghettoManga Album of the Year for 2008...
it's a nice record. a few joints ("Hostile Gospel [deliver us]", "Give 'Em Hell", "In The Mood", "Eat To Live", and "Country Cousins") stand out at the moment. in what his press release called a "career defining album" with "hard hitting beats and inventive rhymes that serve to not only entertain, but also to educate" Kweli held up his end of it, dropping a nice, classic record. while Mos is conspicuously absent, Hi-Tek and a slew of other guests keep the balance, well BALANCED!

i like Kweli, and this record is what i've come to expect from him. step in the right direction for an artist who constantly insists he is not a solo artist. instead, Kweli insists he is "a frontman for a group of artists, lovers, poets and regular everyday folk" that make up his body of work... As a person who believes that most of today's solo hip hop artists belong in groups not on their own, i applaud Kweli's attitude... and as long as Kweli is unable to get together with co-conspirators like Mos and Tek, records like this one will do in a pinch.
holla!
samax.
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Hip Hop Group of the Year

Get Busy by theRoots.
the ghettoManga Group of the Year Award goes to the legendary Roots Crew. the Philly-bred hip hop band slugged it out in two other categories that they didn't win (Video of the Year for Get Busy, seen above and Album of the Year for Rising Down), but competitors didn't come close in the group category. I'm not sure if anyone really needs to be introduced to The Roots, since they have worked to strategically grow their fan base by approaching every album creatively and touring like there's no tomorrow.


Rising Up by the Roots, featuring Wale and Chrisette Michele
the Roots sometimes seems less like a rap group and more like a movement, spawning the website OkayPlayer and helping to bring many young rap and neo soul artists to the forefront. led by iconoclastic drummer
?uestlove, the band's many influences and diverse musical backgrounds draws fans of every stripe, but lest you think they are just another band playing in the rap arena, resident emcee Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter holds it down for the lyricists in the age of diminishing returns in the rhyming category. and in 2008 they once again brought friends like Dice Raw and Peedi Crakk along for the ride. right now, the Roots have taken a break from touring, kicking back as the house band on The Late Show... so maybe someone else will be able to sneak in on the group category next year.
maybe...
-ghettoManga.com
comics.hipHop.news.art.culture

Comic of the Year

the ghettoManga Comic of the Year is PROOF, the story of a well-dressed Sasquatch, working for a government agency called The Lodge, which captures and cares for creatures whose existence otherwise remains unproven (also called Cryptids). while the idea of such an agency is well-tread (Hellboy, BPRD, Perhapanauts, etc.), PROOF stands out because of its exceptional writing and the devotion of the creative staff. PROOF is (GASP!) monthly and on-time. the story is engaging and filled with intrigue that makes it well worth picking up.

Special Agent John Prufrock is interesting because he talks, thinks and behaves like a human being, even though he clearly knows he isn't one, yet he retains the desire to meet more of his kind. He is always immaculately dressed, as he was taught the art of men's fashion by... but that would be telling! check out Proof Volume 1: Goatsucker (v. 1) and The Company of Men. both books are available in trade paperback on Amazon.com and at any comic shop or bookstore. COP IT!
-ghettoManga.com
comics.hipHop.news.art.culture

Champion of Children Award

Power Pack rocked hard in 2008, taking adventures with Iron Man, Spiderman, Avengers, the Hulk and more, and that's why Power Pack gets the Champion of Children Award for showing love to the kids! writer Marc Sumerak and Gurihuri are crafting fun, fabulous tales that'll entertain kids and adults alike starring the world's foremost kid superteam! i take a lotta crap for it, but i've always LOVED Power Pack! and for whatever reason, Marvel has decided to relaunch Power Pack in a series of miniseries, TPBs and magazines with a cool cartoon style!

now the Power Pack is running around with Wolverine... sorta. Jack Power and Franklin Richards take a wild trip through the time-stream and end up face-to-face with a pre-teen Wolverine! But since young James Howlett is nothing at all like the hero he is destined to one day become, it'll be up to our time-tossed troublemakers to teach the once-and-future-Wolvie how to kick some butt! click the pic to peep preview pages.
Wolverine/Power Pack is in stores now. peep more kid stuff at the Champion of Children blog.
holla!
-gM

Cartoonist, OGN of the Year

Scott Pilgrim, Vol 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together
the ghettoManga Cartoonist of the Year Award for 2008 goes to Bryan Lee O'Malley writer/artist of the OGN series Scott Pilgrim. Part four of the series Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together was voted the 2008 OGN of the Year.
Explaining the appeal of Scott Pilgrim is not difficult. it's a book about a twenty-something slacker who falls in Luh... Luh... who really likes this delivery girl Ramona who just so happens to take short cuts through Scott's dreams (there's a really good subspace portal that passes through there...). the problem is he can only date Ramona if he agrees to vanquish Ramona's Seven Evil Ex-boyfriends, but that's okay, 'cause Scott also happens to have MAD fightin' skills!
as you may have noticed, Scott Pilgrim is filled with hijinx, action, and small to medium doses of mushy stuff! in Gets It Together, Scott and Ramona wrestle with the L word (no, not lesbian!), Scott's band gets a chance to record, and Scott is stalked by a mysterious swordsman... good times! OH! and Scott faces off with another of Ramona's Evil Exes who's a little different than the others. the events of this volume force Scott to grow up (a little... he ACTUALLY gets a JOB!), preparing for his eventual meeting with Gideon, the evilest Ex of them all in part 6!

O'Malley takes advantage of the OGN format (popularized by the mass importing of manga) as well as anyone i've ever read. the pacing and storytelling in Scott Pilgrim would be very, very difficult to pull off in any other format. O'malley's art is deceptively cartoony, like a cross between Schulz's Peanuts, Waterson's Calvin and Hobbes and your favorite fighting video game. O'Malley combines humor, action and adolescent sweetheart drama as well as anyone since Stan Lee and Romita on classic Amazing Spiderman. peep this CBR interview with Bryan Lee O'Malley for more, but really, just buy the books. the 200 plus page joints are available for ten bucks apiece on Amazon, and well worth the look!

peace.
-ghettoManga.com

comics.hipHop.news.art.culture

Video, Vocalist of the Year

Honey by Erykah Badu, 2008 ghettoManga Video of the Year
everybody knows who MY favorite singer is... when i opened up the ghettoManga Awards this Year to be voted on by readers, i was surprised to see that fans were feeling me... the lady who brought soul back, the often immitated but never replicated Erykah Badu walked away with the Vocalist of the Year Award, as well as the Video of the Year Award for Honey, off her super-fresh 2008 joint, New Amerykah, Pt. 1: 4th World War.
holla!

-ghettoManga.com

Artist/Illustrator of the Year

the 2008 ghettoManga Artist of the Year Award goes to Jim "FOOD ONE" Mahfood. Jim exemplifies the indie spirit of ghettoManga, and should be an inspiration for any artist out there getting their grind on. his work is so gutteral and immediate that many people don't like it on first viewing, but Food's pop-culture laden street hustle will get you if you let it! he doesn't limit himself to comics, attacking any artform he can get his hands on with equal fervor, whether rolling solo or with a crew...
jim Mahfood is the real deal: a street-level-yet-somehow- still-avante-guarde comics artist, painter and all-around underground phenom! his style is consistant, but still manages to surprise me every time...he alternately does it all: Live Art shows (a cross between painting and Freestyling), comics, street level ad campaigns, and other artsy goodness, while maintaining his own style and vision...

Jim stays in the streets of Los Angeles, doing every kind of art and music show, as well as doing design work like the Colt 45 campaign (fitting for an artist whose URL is 40ozComics.com). he recently met StreetFighter creator Yoshiki Okamoto at an event where he was invited to tag up a vintage StreetFighter arcade game. check your calendars, cuz he travels to comic conventions and music shows, or you can keep up with Food's exploits at his blog.

once again, props, congratulations, etc to ghettoManga Artist of the Year, Jim Mahfood aka FOOD ONE!
reckanize!
-ghettoManga.com
comics.hipHop.news.art.culture

Emcee of the Year

Emcee (or M.C. if you prefer) of the Year is a spitting Award, and this year's winner is Jay Electronica. who knows why other people voted for him, but i nominated him because he is quite frankly one of the most exciting new Emcees out there. reminiscent of a young Nas or Pharoahe Monch, Jay has been showing up on mix ceedees and viral videos a lot lately, so hopefully that means he's gonna blow up. if not, don't be surprised... Jay loves releasing tracks straight to the public via hipHop forums and websites. Jay's girlfriend/babymama/label boss Erykah Badu has questioned whether the New Orleans native will ever release, in her words, "actual albums", but that's on him... we'll enjoy the free music until he does...
-ghettoManga.com
comics.hipHop.news.art.culture

gM Awards: Man of The Year

well, i'll finally start rolling out the gMA winners and this was the easiest award to pick. many people did many different things in 2008, but no human being had more impact on the country last year than Barack Obama. Hate him or love him, Obama brought design, intelligence, and class back to politics, and high lighted the lack of it among some of his competitors. he was heralded as too black for white America, and not black enough for black America, but ultimately he reminded everyone what you can do if you play your cards right (he convinced Iverson to cut off his cornrows for God's sake!), even in the face of adversity.
the American public has treated him like a demigod (he was on more Tee shirts than Bob Marley), and now that the rubber has hit the road (who KNOWS if this stimulus thing is gonna work or not...), he still retains a pretty good approval rating. Politics aside, the ghettoManga readers have definitely spoken, as 86% of them voted to award Barack Obama with the Man of the Year Award.
uno.
-ghettoManga.com

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