Whoa-kay, lots of links today. First off, Frank Santoro has his latest travel report, in which he makes some announcements anyone in the NY area is going to want to hear.
Then, we present a preview of Dan Zettwoch's new Birdseye Bristoe, which feels to me like a potential breakout book. I have always really enjoyed Zettwoch's work, and the way he tirelessly experiments with formats, panel breakdowns, and storytelling techniques of all kinds. What's also nice is that his stories work. (Some cartoonists who create "experimental" comics don't seem to notice or care when their experiments fail, and just publish the results no matter what. This might be the correct response if comics was a science instead of an art.)
We also have Rob Clough's review of the latest Jason collection, Athos in America.
—Speaking of Jason, the National Post has a short profile of the Norwegian cartoonist.
—The Doug Wright Awards were announced, with Kate Beaton, Ethan Rilly, and Michael Comeau taking the top prizes. (For those who like comparing and complaining about comics awards, it is worth noting that Best Book winner Hark! A Vagrant was not nominated for an Eisner this year.)
—Speaking of Canadians, Tom Spurgeon has a long interview with Jam creator Bernie Mireault.
—Octopus Pie creator Meredith Gran talks to Gary Tyrrell.
—Newspaper History department:
1. Frank King explains where he got his characters for Gasoline Alley.
2. Peter Huestis has posted a whole bunch of difficult-to-find old Jimmy Hatlo cartoons.
—Adrian Tomine immediately jumps to the head of the list of cartoonists who have created covers for Thomas Pynchon novels.
—Chris Mautner has a photo diary of the MoCCA festival.
—James Romberger has a new online strip.
—Jason Thompson provides an excellent in-depth overview of Shigeru Mizuki, the artist responsible for Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths. You should know about him.
—Daniel Best continues to do the Lord's work, gathering and posting legal documents related to the Superman case. The latest is a letter from attorney David Michaels, who had been previously been suspected of stealing various documents from Marc Toberoff and leaking them to DC. He gives his side of the story in the letter at the link.
—For a certain kind of person, the next two links—blog posts written by Steve Ditko biographer Blake Bell about his relationships with Ditko, Dave Sim, and Jesus Christ—will be the most interesting things they read all day.
—And finally, via Mike Lynch, a documentary about the infamous Jack Chick, posted in its entirety:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kUqhttH056E
