• Tag Archives minicomics
  • The Meaning Behind Canister X

    The Meaning Behind Canister X

    Canister X

    “Canister X” is an unusual name for a blog. There’s a story behind why that name was chosen. It’s not a terribly exciting story, but perhaps one that’s slightly amusing.

    As is required of authors, a website is needed. Most writers use their name as their domain name. I did that, too, once upon a time. But one year–I can’t remember which–I forgot to renew the apfuchs.com domain and then I lost it. I tried to re-register it only to find out someone had snatched it up. The site was in German. I had no idea who this person was and didn’t know how to go about reaching them to see if I could have my domain back, so I had to come up with something else. If memory serves me correctly, I decided to rename the site with something unique. I can’t remember the options I went through but “Canister X” came to mind and I assigned meaning to that name. The “Canister” part is after Ninja Turtles, you know, the container that had the mutagen in it. The “X” part was about the site being about anything and not locking me into a particular idea or theme, and as you can see from the content on this site, it’s fairly varied. Sort of a “you never know what you’re gonna get.”

    Later, “Canister X” also became part of the title of my minicomics: Canister X Comix.

    I hope to one day get my A.P. Fuchs domain back and then use it to point to here or vice versa, but until then, Canister X is the name of this thing so we’re running with it.

    This is your blog history lesson for the day.


  • My Graphic Novel Collection

    Comics and graphic novels are super important me, and they molded my storytelling and writing-style very early on in my career. There’s so much you can do with comics that you can’t do in any other medium.

    Nowadays, the comic book industry in general is in a state of flux, with eComics and webcomics pushing the standard periodical comic book to the wayside. Graphic novels are a big thing now, with comic companies like DC and Marvel tailoring their story arcs to be collected later. To a point, they’re kind of shooting themselves in the foot in that if the reader knows the periodicals will be collected later for a cheaper price anyway, why buy the more expensive single issues and wait 30 days between each installment? At the same time, graphic novels are a fast-growing market last I checked so if they weren’t profitable, the comic companies wouldn’t do them and only provide one option.

    In Europe, it’s mostly graphic novels in terms of publication, and I personally think this is where the overall comics industry is headed.

    For me, as much as I enjoy the single issues–especially in the world of minicomics–creating book-length comics adds a level of prestige to the literature that their single-issue version can’t offer even though, technically, each single issue is, nowadays, a chapter in a book-length work. At the same time, these “collected editions of story arcs,” aren’t really graphic novels per se, but collections, and there’s a difference. That’s another discussion altogether so perhaps we’ll do it another time.

    I usually have a graphic novel on the go reading-wise and add more to my collection when funds permit. Lately, I’ve been getting more and more into alternative comics as they carry more life, soul and authenticity than the current mainstream comics.

    Anyway, here’s my collection. A couple of them are my wife’s, and some are not in these pics because they are by our bedside or elsewhere in the room (remember I said I usually have one on the go? So does the Mrs.).

    I thought about taking them all out and arranging them for you, or clearing up the mess around them, but since I’ve always advocated writing should be about honesty, so should what I put on this blog so unlike my showcase pics of my own published books and comics, these are true bookshelf pics as per what Fridays on this blog is for.

    Enjoy.

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