The three-day weekend is over, and Joe McCulloch is here with another of his weekly looks at the new comics in stores, and — oh no! He's talking about Howard Chaykin's Black Kiss 2!
Fast-forward to 2012, and Black Kiss 2, the prequel/sequel to Chaykin's 1988-89 LA adult noir, and the bleakest comic he has ever made. This whole post is inspired by Tom Spurgeon, who, after expressing disturbance at the lack of online conversation about the series, declared it "almost ruthlessly unpleasant" and, ultimately, "the anti-life" - he's not wrong, this is a sordid comic almost beyond compare, but what fascinates me is Chaykin's misanthropy not so much directed at his fellow human beings, but against art. Specifically, the cinema.
Elsewhere on the internet:
—Lilli Carré talks to Robot 6 and Janelle Hessig talks to Amanda Verwey.
—Dylan Horrocks on Creative Commons, Creative Commons on Dylan Horrocks.
—Paul Gravett remembers Les Coleman.
—Editorial Cartoons: The New York Times reviews an exhibition devoted to how cartoonists of the time covered the Holocaust, and NPR talks to current cartoonists about how they draw Barack Obama.
—Dave Sim has a long update on how the funding for his Strange Death of Alex Raymond is going.
—Dave Weigel at Slate crafts a paean to Rob Leifeld, and the recent reboots of his comics by other artists.
