Best Local Erotic Comic 2010 | Demi the Demoness | People & Places | Phoenix

Best Local Erotic Comic

Demi the Demoness

Writer, artist, and Scottsdale resident S.S. Crompton invented the character Demi the Demoness in 1992. Since then, stories of the sweet and sexy devil girl have been published in more than 25 comics by Rip Off Press, Revisionary Press, Eros Comix, and Crompton's own publishing company, Carnal Comics. The comic's enduring popularity can be attributed to a couple things: First, Demi is a cute, little cartoon character with big breasts who gets into all sorts of erotic adventures with her girlfriend, a banished cat-goddess named Kit-Ra, who also has exaggerated boobs. And second, Demi's incredibly dense for a demon; though she has long, curly raven hair, she often acts like a stereotypical airhead blonde, which makes her both laughable and lovable.

Best Superhero Training Ground

"Superheroes and American Culture" by Diane Facinelli

In a small classroom of about 30 honors students, Professor Diane Facinelli is teaching her students superhero basics. We're not talking weapons, X-ray vision, or the gift of flight (though we'e heard that can be learned on the ASU Quidditch team) — no, this is much more a look into what exactly makes a superhero. Students are encouraged to read comic books, pulp magazines, and graphic novels and apply themes and characters to everyday situations. Sure, a few honors kids might not be able to save you if you're getting mugged on Mill Avenue, but they just might have the costumes to play the parts.

Best Comic Convention

Phoenix Comicon

This annual, three-day event provides programming for a wide range of geeks, from anime films and costuming to hard-science panels and horror movie buffs. But the highlight of Phoenix Comicon has always been the comic book programming. In addition to the massive "dealer's room," where fans can find a treasure trove of new and rare comics, there are dozens of panels geared toward comic book culture, from drawing to writing to self-publishing. There are also the guests — Phoenix Comicon regularly brings in some of the biggest names in geek chic culture, including actor Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation) and Spawn creator and action figure mogul Todd McFarlane. This year, the biggest name on the guest list was Marvel Comics icon Stan Lee (creator of Spider-Man, Hulk, and X-Men). Even if it weren't for the dealer's room and panels, PCC's ability to draw the comic world's biggest living legend to the Valley makes it untouchable by any other local comic convention.

Best Political Kryptonite

Meghan McCain

Kryptonite doesn't necessarily have to be glowing and green to damage those vulnerable to its forces — kryptonite comes in many forms. U.S. Senator and former presidential hopeful John McCain's kryptonite is blonde, a little on the ditzy side, and has a pretty decent rack. McCain's daughter, Meghan McCain, is hell-bent on de-conservatizing the Republican Party — one gay marriage at a time. Before what was dubbed early on as the "fight of McCain's political life" — a conservative showdown with J.D. Hayworth — Meghan, a self-described "social liberal" boasted that her father was "coming along" when it came to his tolerance of gay marriage. Gasp! Weakened, but not dead, McCain fought on and defeated his interparty enemy, ensuring that the lesser of two evils will always prevail.

Best Place to See Action Figures

Arizona Pop Culture Museum

At first glance, the inside of the Arizona Pop Culture Museum in City North looks like a toy warehouse. Everywhere you look, there are rows of shelves crammed from top to bottom with colorful boxes housing action figures. The walls are adorned with numerous posters for comic books and sci-fi films. In short, it could be a kid's paradise — except that nobody's allowed to touch these toys. This massive collection of action figures (more than 10,000 in all) is the private bounty of Valley resident John Edwards, who's been collecting them since 1966. In an effort to promote education and creativity through his collection, Edwards put his treasures on display at the AZ Pop Culture Museum — and what a display it is: hundreds of Marvel Universe action figures (many custom-made just for Edwards) in a glass display case; every Star Wars and Star Trek action figure imaginable (including the coveted and valuable Caped Jawas), and dozens of figures by renowned comics guru Todd McFarlane. There are even G.I. Joe dolls of Bob Hope and Teddy Roosevelt. With an action figure collection like this in town, who needs to ogle eBay listings?

21001 N. Tatum Blvd., Phoenix, 85050 Map
480-515-4376
www.azpopculturemuseum.com

Best Local Comic Store to Appear in a Major Motion Picture

Atomic Comics in Kick-Ass

If you dig on movies based on comics, chances are good you saw Kick-Ass, the film adaptation of the comic by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. And why not? This film gives comic fans what they want: fistsful of action, a parody of Batman, and even an 11-year-old who drops the "C" word. Hell, Kick-Ass even gives a nod to local comics empire Atomic Comics by including it in the film. No, seriously. Check out the film. The producers could have come up with a random comic store name, but instead, they gave a shout-out to Atomic Comics.

Best Bat Cave

Phoenix Bat Cave

Not far from the Arizona Biltmore, there's a "bat cave" where more than 20,000 bats live. Every year, beginning in May and lasting through September, bats migrate to the area to give birth to their young. Around sunset each evening, the bats can be seen flying out of the tunnel in large groups, hunting for bugs. According to the Arizona Department of Game and Fish's Bat Conservation and Management program, there are two types of bats in the cave: Mexican free-tailed bats, and western pipistrelles. People can learn more about them each month during the summer, when the Game and Fish Department holds bat workshops near the cave. The bat cave is actually part of a Maricopa County Flood Control ditch, and getting there requires parking near 40th Street and Camelback Road, then walking along the north side of the Arizona Canal for about half a mile. The bat cave entrance is north of the canal and is marked with signs.

Best Alter Ego

Ben Quayle (a.k.a. Brock Landers)

If you're the son of a certain former vice president — and may have some political ambitions of your own — and feel the need to spill your guts about your broken "moral compass," you're gonna need an alter ego. Otherwise, your "Dirty" ways could come back to haunt you in a very public way. And you don't want that. GOP congressional candidate Ben Quayle's alter ego, while ultimately not alter-ego-y enough to avoid being revealed, takes the cake. While writing for "The Dirty," Quayle penned articles under the name "Brock Landers" — a fictional porn star from the movie Boogie Nights. What better way for the son of a "family values" politician to throw any nemesis off his trail than to assume the identity of a fictional porn star. His true identity probably never would have been outed, either, if it weren't for a super villain with an alter ego of his own: the notorious "Nik Richie."

Hero Worship

Angela Ellsworth

See: a video interview with Angela Ellsworth.

I was reading a piece about my Mormon heritage at a writing workshop when the instructor, Tania Katan, got incredibly animated and said, "Oh, my God, you've got to meet my partner Angela." It was one of those quick "No way!" moments when I mentioned that I was a descendant of William Jordan Flake, and then she said Angela is a descendant of the Snow family.

A little Arizona history here — the northern Arizona town of Snowflake was named after William Jordan Flake, pioneer and colonizer and visiting Mormon apostle Erastus Snow. The two combined their names to get "Snowflake."

Could it be? It was an energizing moment, like shouting, "Wonder Twin powers activate!" Then, Tania pulled a sheet away to reveal one of Ellsworths's Seer Bonnets. The Seer Bonnets are bonnets made from traditional pioneer patterns that have been completely covered in long pearl corsage pins. We're talking thousands — as in, 14,000-plus — of corsage pins, with which she painstakingly covered the entire surface of the fabric. The pearl ends on the outside, all the sharp tips pointing inward into the interiors of the bonnets. Seeing it was — to use a Mormon phrase — a revelation. It took my breath away.

Angela Ellsworth is an interdisciplinary artist whose art practice includes performance, drawing, and object making. Her work has been known to draw heavily on her Mormon roots, whether it be pushing a handcart on a walk from Phoenix to Mesa or a performance piece featuring imagined sister wives.

To me, having grown up in a small town, art — specifically, female art — very often meant "craft." I grew up in a family whose female members were masterful at crochet, quilting, baking, making Christmas ornaments, etc. What was immediately recognizable in Angela's work was a nod to these traditions while simultaneously taking them to extremes.

As it turns out, Angela is a descendant not of Erastus Snow of Snowflake, but from 5th Prophet Lorenzo Snow. So we're not wonder twins. But, still, her creativity and, more specifically, her willingness to peel the lid back and take a look at the matrilineal lines running within and throughout a patriarchal faith make her a hero(ine) to me. — Sativa Peterson

New Times contributor Sativa Peterson, who talks about her own Mormon roots, among other things, on her blog, www.sativapeterson.com, interviewed Angela Ellsworth on August 18 at Ellsworth's Phoenix studio.

I live in Phoenix because I love the horizon line. So I'm here for the horizon line and the landscape and sky . . . so much of my work is really about being here so right now it feels completely interconnected, my research, my art practice, my teaching.

When I was a kid I wanted to dress every day in a different theme. So, I did, actually. Like, one day, I'd go to school as a sailor or like a Swiss alpine hiker wearing lederhosen and with a rope around my shoulder, and then maybe a fortuneteller another day.

Phoenix could use more unexpected pioneers. Sort of pioneers of the everyday — or people who are navigating and maybe changing social space on an everyday level. Not people in power necessarily, but people one wouldn't expect to be a pioneer I think.

Phoenix could use fewer laws that restrict civil rights.

I have the superpower of smell. I can smell . . . things. Special particular things. Like when I walk into someone's home and there's a dirty dishrag somewhere I can sniff out where that is, and sometimes it's not even in the kitchen. I'm just saying . . . I'm not just going to the kitchen, I can find that dishrag.

The superpower I would want is to have my hearing do the same thing so that I could hear through multiple walls and I could listen to the ground and hear to the center of the Earth, and that I could hear through multiple different kinds of materials, you know like listen through a mountain. I'd really like that, but not in a noisy way. I'm really sensitive to sound, that's why I think I'm almost onto having this super power — so just fine-tuning. There's some tuning going on that pretty soon I'm going to be able to hear a cloud.

My hero is my great great aunt, Eliza R. Snow . . . [She was] one of the first plural wives of Joseph Smith, which gives her a certain amount of clout, but she never had children (because apparently she was pushed down the steps by the first wife, Emma Smith, when she was pregnant and miscarried and then she never had kids again). And she was called the poetess of the Mormon faith. And so she's a heroine for me because she found a way to, through creativity, kind of tap in to who she [was] within that larger community and maybe transcending it.

Hero Worship

Bob Hoag

See: a video interview with Bob Hoag.

I remember the first time I recorded with Bob Hoag. I was 23 and had been playing in bands for quite some time — long enough to know the score, anyway. Back then, Bob's studio was in a dingy industrial park next to what was probably a chop shop and the creepiest Circle K in the East Valley. The only other company in the studio besides Bob were the three stray cats he had taken in. They all had funny names like "The Fuzz Jr." and the "Shy One," and Bob always made sure to leave food for them before he left. The first time I saw all this, I remember thinking, "There is no way great records are made here."

Bob proved me wrong.

My band The Loveblisters spent two weeks at Mesa's Flying Blanket recording what would be our first EP. We didn't have a drummer back then, so Bob filled in. It didn't take long for us to realize that we weren't the great band that we thought we were.

At least not yet.

Anytime one of us missed a note or slipped off the beat — even the slightest — Bob would start us over, and if one of us wasn't cutting it while recording a track, Bob would put them on mute and turn to those of us in the room and say, "If he doesn't get it in the next three takes, I'm going to go in there and do it. I mean, you're paying me by the hour."

Bob wasn't just recording us, and what he was doing went well beyond "producing" us. He was whipping us into shape. We took Bob's mentorship, along with the masters, away from that session and found ourselves tighter and more polished than we ever thought possible. And the EP sounded stellar. So good, in fact, that New Times called it the best local pop record of the year.

Thanks, Bob.

Bob has done what he did with my band countless times with countless other bands. His résumé reads like a who's who of heavies from the Phoenix music scene over the past 10 years. From The Format and Dear and the Headlights to local favorites like What Laura and Black Carl, Bob has consistently taken scrappy, young, ambitious bands and polished them up while making huge-sounding records. In fact, many of the artists Bob has recorded have transcended local popularity and become prominent regional and national acts, bringing long overdue attention to the creative community that calls Phoenix home. — Lou Kummerer

New Times contributor and longtime Valley musician Lou Kummerer knows a thing or two about talent. He interviewed Bob Hoag on August 16 at Flying Blanket studio in Mesa.

I live in Phoenix because I absolutely detest the rain.

When I was a kid, I wanted to make movies. That was the only thing I wanted to do, and it's actually crazy that my whole life has ended up revolving around music.

While I'm driving, I tend to like to get to the speed limit as fast as humanly possible, and I like to try to take advantage of any open space on the road.

My favorite word is "piffy."

My least favorite word is "fetid."

My favorite sound is my wife's laugh. My kids' laughter is creeping up on that, but for now, it's still my wife.

The sound that I hate is motorcycles.

My favorite swear word is wookiefucker. (But I would like to be able to show this to my parents, so maybe skip that.)

My hero is my grandpa — my dad's dad. He's had a really awesome life and it seems like he's done everything really well. He has a pretty big family and he's been married to the same woman his whole life. He hung out with Joe DiMaggio in bars in Atlantic City and bought Frank Sinatra a drink once at the 500 Club in Atlantic City — so, of course he's my hero because of that. He's a man of integrity and honesty, but in a really simple and humble way. He's just everything I could ever want to be as a person. He's a solid dude.

Right before I go to bed, I almost always eat a bowl of ice cream and try to watch a half-hour to an hour of television.