Tuesday, March 13, 2012

An open letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee

Dear Sirs,

You probably don't know me, but my name is Aaron Feldman. I'm 25 years old, and live in Toronto, Canada. I'm writing to you today because I would like you to consider my name when deciding on the nominees for this year's Nobel Peace Prize. I am currently unemployed.

I have always cared deeply about those less fortunate than me. In fact, my parents tell me that when I was five years old they took me to a mall Santa. When he asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I told him world peace.

Even though helping those less fortunate has been an interest of mine for a long time, it wasn't until only a few years ago that I began putting my philanthropy into action. In 2010, I participated in my first endeavour to make the world a better place; in order to stop child abuse, I changed my Facebook profile picture into that of a cartoon character. I chose the character Braveheart the Lion, a member, appropriately enough, of the Care Bears. Thanks to the new profile picture, I managed to prevent what I can only assume to be countless cases of child abuse across the world.


While this act alone would probably have been enough for me to comfortably associate myself with the Tutus, the Mandellas, and the Gyatsos of the world, my work did not stop there. Fast forward to 2011, when I decided to turn my attention to Prostate Cancer. In order to combat this wicked disease that claims probably-a-lot of lives a year, I, for the first time in my life, spent the month of November growing a moustache. This was not without its hardships, as within only a week the moustache had become a bit itchy. By two weeks, it had become very itchy. But I persevered, because of my devotion to the cause. By the end of the month, my moustache had become a force to be reckoned with, one that I’m sure gave comfort to any prostate cancer victims who happened to come across it.


Some people may have been satisfied with their contributions at this point, and they wouldn’t be wrong. But awareness campaigns, as far as I’m concerned, are like Pringles. One is never enough. After that, I became something of a Mother Theresa, only instead of focusing solely on lepers, I was spreading awareness for EVERY cause. Changing my profile picture to the colour pink for Breast Cancer. Changing it to a photograph of a grandparent for Alzheimer’s. Tweeting the lyrics to John Lennon’s Imagine to raise awareness for war mines. Changing my profile picture back to pink to support the search for a cure for homosexuality. As far as I was concerned, there was no such thing as a disease with too high a profile.

However, the crowning achievement in my campaign for world embetterment came only a few days ago, when someone posted a video by a group called Invisible Children, talking about the violence in Uganda, where children were being abducted and forced to fight in Joseph Kony’s militia. Not only did I watch the entire (29 minute!) video, but once I got to the end of the video, I stretched out my right index finger (my “awareness finger” as I like to call it) and clicked on “share this video”. Problem the fuck solved.

Now, I know that there are many great candidates for this prestigious award, and will not be sorely offended if you decide to overlook my accomplishments. After all, Gandhi never received a Nobel Peace Prize for all the work he did on behalf on the Indians (sorry, “Native Americans!”). That being said, I can honestly think of no better candidate for the job.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go send a needy child a picture of my favourite food.

All the best,

Aaron Feldman

Thursday, March 8, 2012

HardWear #2 Launch Party

If you live in the Toronto area, love comics, and aren't going to the Fan Expo this weekend, then head down to Paradise Comics this Saturday for the official launch party for Totem Sacred #3 and HardWear #2, two new comic releases by publisher UysFaber. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I contributed a story (Spectrum) to HardWear #2, so naturally I will be on-hand for signing.


That being said, the real stars of the show are the fantastic illustrators who worked on the two projects, including Rebecca Slack, the illustrator of Spectrum. You can see samples of her work (including some interiors to the Spectrum story) here.

Come on down to pick up a copy of either comic, nab a free sketch, or even just to shoot the shit about all things comic-related. I'd love to see you all there.

Where: Paradise Comics (3278 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON)
When: Saturday, March 10, 2:00pm - 6:00pm.

You can read more about it on the event's Facebook page.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Tdot Comics Book Club

TdotComics is a local site dedicated to keeping Torontonions up to date on all things comic-book related. Recently, site founder Alice Quinn started a segment on the site known as the Quinntessential Comix Book Club. Every month she'd invite guests on the show to discuss different graphic novels, usually under a general theme. Last month, I had the honor of being a guest on the show (this was my second appearance on the book club).

Here's the segment in question. The theme was Surrealist Super Heroes. The graphic novels in question were Umbrella Academy 1 and 2, as well as Doom Patrol: The Painting that Ate Paris. If you're familiar with the comics, give the video a watch. If not, then go out and read the books instead. They're all fantastic.



Though this would be obvious to anyone who watched my first appearance on the Book Club, this time around I seem to be much more comfortable, mainly because I knew what the fuck I was doing. However, looking back, I kind of preferred the conflict that came about when we couldn't see eye-to-eye on a book (last time, everyone loved Invincible, while I was a bit more ambivalent). This time around, we pretty much all loved the books. And that's boring. I want there to be yelling and name calling. If I get asked back, I'll try to suggest more polarizing comic books like Lost Girls or Transmetropolitan.



Also, I wrote an article for UysFaber last week, reviewing the newly-released Resident Evil: Revelations for the 3DS. Check it out.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

A Little Too Aaronic

Okay. Last month, UysFaber comics published issue 2 of their cyberpunk comic HardWear, which featured “Spectrum,” a story I wrote (you can still purchase copies of the issue at Paradise Comics in Toronto. Go! Go! Go!). This is the first of several scripts I’ve contributed to the book, with subsequent stories to be published in the coming months.



UysFaber has a table at the upcoming Wizard World Toronto, and I’ll be one of the guests doing signings, which means that for the first time I’ll officially be a Comic Book Writer in Artist’s Alley (this has always been something of a minor aspiration of mine). When filling out my bio for the Wizard World page, however, it occurred to me that I didn't have a site I could link to for anyone who might be interested in my work, and that I should probably get on that. But, I decided, why start up a brand new web domain when I have a perfectly good blog gathering dust?

Now, it’s been 3 years since my last post for Isn’t It Aaronic? (you can read the handful of short comedic pieces I’ve written by viewing this blog’s archives), but from now on this will be the hub for all the things I’m working on. This is where I’ll post info on upcoming comic stories I’ve written, as well as links to other sites where I’ve contributed reviews and articles. Short films, sketches, interviews, whatever.

If there’s something I’ve written that catches your attention, let me know. Leave a comment on this site, or send me an e-mail at feldman1@gmail.com, and I'll get back to you.