Today it's time for Joe McCulloch's helpful guide to the Week in Comics. As usual, before he gets to the service-oriented portion of his column, Joe takes the time to examine one of the more esoteric byways of comics history, and this time, he goes even deeper into the weeds than usual:
Published in 2007 by the Arbor vitae in association with art agency Taktika Muzika -- an exhibition of the 322 photographs taken for the book toured at the same time -- Cecil's Quest is a very lovely 10.5" x 8" landscape-format hardcover, probably conceived as an art book as much as a comic, though it is certainly not a mere catalog of photographs. I am unaware of any prior comics works by Skála, though he has illustrated some children's books, and is doubtless aware of the storytelling capacity of images arranged in a sequential manner. He appears to have done basically everything involved with the creation of the book alone, from the building of models to the shooting of photographs, probably including the English-language lettering, although a translator (Robert Russell) is credited, as well as a lithography studio which aided in the graphic design and (presumably) the physical development of the photographs.
Elsewhere, there are ten million links:
—Interviews. Alex Deuben interviews Kim Deitch, Inkstuds interviews Dash Shaw, Hero Complex interviews Wolverine co-creator Len Wein about the new movie, the New York Times asks New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff about his cultural interests, Houstonia magazine talks to Terry Moore, Benoit Peeters and François Schuiten talk to Naoki Urasawa (!), and the Paris Review blog talks to Lisa Hanawalt. Whew.
—News. The Billy Ireland Library has announced a potentially major new comics show, and the Sequential comics app from the UK has now launched in the U.S. and elsewhere.
—Uncategorizable. Faith Erin Hicks draws a diary strip from her time as a guest at Comic-Con, noted garbologist Tom Devlin digs through Michael DeForge's trash, Tom Scioli revisits the work of Barry Windsor-Smith, Sam Henderson relaunches his website, Chris Mautner reviews the latest Mickey Mouse collection, and Frank Zappa collaborates with Robin, the Boy Wonder.
