BLOG

Ah, the day has come: Jeet Heer returns! New fatherhood couldn't keep him away forever -- read the latest of his inimitable "Notebooks" for Heer's thoughts following the Iowa Comics Conference, on topics including but not limited to Joe Sacco's stage presence, crying while reading Love and Rockets, dead cartoonists, Jack Kirby's versatility, the future of comics publishing, academia's recent narrow focus, the dunderheaded Clint Eastwood, and going drinking with Peggy Burns. It's good to have him back.

Also new on the site: Host Mike Dawson's recent promotional tour has ended and so he has turned in a new episode of TCJ Talkies, this time featuring Nothing Eve creator Kurt Wolfgang.

Elsewhere:

The Guardian takes the opportunity given by the new Stephen Spielberg movie to run a mini-Tintin package, with a Nicholas Lezard appreciation for the series (he calls the film "Tintin for morons," fyi), and a rundown of authors asked to do a Sophie's choice between Tintin and Asterix. (In the latter, only Tom McCarthy really has the guts to take a firm stand and defend it vigorously.)

Tom Spurgeon reacts to our recent Jaime Hernandez coverage, and the comments threads it spawned.

Ben Katchor is interviewed by The Browser regarding "picture stories," and he picks five of his favorites. As you might guess beforehand, it's a stellar list.

Charles Hatfield attempts to pick out a list of ten works representing the last decade of independent comics.

Finally, Dan and I went to the Housing Works Bookstore last night to see the Dan Clowes/Seth appearance. I've seen Seth speak before, and he's always very good (not to mention funny and self-aware enough to probably surprise most of his detractors), but this was the first time I've been to a Clowes event. He was as sharp and incisive as you'd expect, but had a warmer personality than you might guess, too. Maybe that had something to do with Seth's presence. Anyway, if you are interested in either of these artists, I strongly recommend going to one of these joint events if and when they come to a town near you.

On the site today:

-Stefano Priarone contributes a fine obituary of the Italian comics figure Sergio Bonelli.

-Joe McCulloch brings us his week in comics, as usual, like the animal he is.

-And Matt Seneca turns in a review of Prince Valiant vol. 4.

And elsewhere:

-Paper Monument has a rare bit of drawn reportage on Occupy Wall Street.

-Tom Spurgeon rounds up the 10 big stories from NYCC. Amazingly, I don't think I care about 85 of this news. It's a fractured medium these days.

Finally, lots of talk about critics:

-Eddie Campbell has some very funny words about one critic in particular.

-Idiom Magazine brings the latest "we'll revitalize film criticism" game.

-And meanwhile, The New Yorker posted five of Pauline Kael's best moments, while her legacy is discussed in the NY Times.

First, we have some appreciations of Jaime Hernandez's "The Love Bunglers", written by Dan Nadel, with help from Frank Santoro and Adrian Tomine.

Drew Friedman picks his top ten favorite horror movies. I can personally vouch for all of his picks, save Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla.

The A.V. Club interviews Kate Beaton.

The New York Times reviews Craig Thompson's Habibi. Maybe I'm nuts, but it feels like the Times is getting a bit more sophisticated in its comics reviews these days.

Finally, Martin Wisse finds a recent (and very rare) four-part video interview with Shary Flenniken!

Today on the site:

Chris Mautner interviews the prolific writer George O'Connor. Says Chris:

To my mind one of the most interesting people working in the all-ages field right now is George O’Connor. For one thing, while he’s always been a fan of the medium, he came into the industry sideways, via a series of children’s books, starting off with the best-selling Kapow!

From there, he hooked up with Mark Siegel at First Second and produced Journey Into Mohawk Country, an adaptation of a centuries-old look at Iroquois life that’s perhaps most notable for the way O’Connor attempts to bring a modern sensibility to the story without corrupting the source text.

Elsewhere:

Apparently there is an enormous comic book convention taking place nearby, but reports are unconfirmed.

-In conjunction with said potential convention, the Jack Kirby Museum is doing some fun stuff, including a big rock show at Maxwell's on Saturday night. Also, the museum is mounting "Kirby Enthusiasm", which'll open at 5 pm at Maxwell's and features over 50 artists. Full run down on its site.

-Let's see... I enjoyed these "lost" John Buscema drawings... and we roll into the weekend.

Okay, still catching up a bit on links, so there's plenty of reading here...

Sean T. Collins pops in today with a review of Brian Ralph's post-apocalyptic Daybreak.

Emily Nilsson, Virginia Paine, and Tom Neely plan to continue Sparkplug Books.

Eddie Campbell on how to draw women's feet the Frank Frazetta and Craig Thompson way.

Gary Groth talks to the L.A. Times's Geoff Boucher about the upcoming Carl Barks reprints.

Nicole Rudick interviews Kate Beaton for the online Paris Review.

Art Spiegelman is interviewed about future publishing technologies in regard his new MetaMaus by Brian Heater at Publishers Weekly.

And Jeet Heer and Dwight Garner have both written reviews of the project.

Milo George points out a fun old Lynda Barry interview on YouTube.

I don't think Dan posted this last week, but if he did, no harm done repeating it, I guess: Inkstuds has gone video, and Brandon Graham is the first guest.

James Jarvis (of De Profundis) is doing a guest blog at PictureBox this week.

If I told you that a fan had recently been arrested for attempting to reenact scenes from a comic book, would you immediately think I must mean Chester Brown's Paying for It?

I think I got this from Abhay Khosla: A good discussion of Hergé's drawing techniques is on Quora.

First up:

On the site today is Kim Deitch's remembrance of the cartoonist and historian Roger Brand. I've been nagging Kim for months to do this and I'm thrilled with the results. The social history of underground comics -- or hell, most all of comics -- is not so well attended to, and Kim's going a ways towards remedying that as best he can.

Elsewhere:

Uhhh, this is sort of amazing. Someone at MTV decided to start a web site dedicated to its old Liquid Television animation anthology and garnish it with other oddball projects from the channel. Why does this matter, because now you can watch Richard Sala's Invisible Hands; Mark Beyer's The Adventures of Thomas and Nardo; and Charles Burns' Dogboy. Plus we get Aeon Flux (at last) and The Maxx. And Wonder Showzen. Jeez. It's rather amazing. I would guess it's a sort of "hey we did this, too" response to Adult Swim? But who knows...

What else, let's see:

-Here's a report on the talk I did with Dan Clowes and Adrian Tomine. Not reported on in this piece: My incredible good looks and quick wits.

-Joe Simon turned 98 and the Washington Post interviewed him.

-I'm glad Tom's thinking about this so we don't have to.

-Here's a series of posts on the fiction career of the late historian Bill Blackbeard (via BK).

-And finally, TCJ contributor Mike Dawson is interviewed on his own show about his new book Troop 142.

Back from vacation at last. Thanks to Dan for filling in for me. There are about a million online links I need to post while I'm catching up, so please bear with me while I get back to speed (and forgive me if I should have credited you for finding the link--in my attempts to catch up, I know I've accidentally lost track of a few sources.)

Joe McCulloch is here this morning, too, of course, with his regular roundup of the most interesting looking comics products being offered for sale this week.

Elsewhere:

1. Eddie Campbell writes about Craig Thompson's long-awaited Habibi, and briefly responds to Nadim Damluji's take on Thompson's usage of Orientalist tropes. (We are preparing our own coverage of Habibi now, and should have something on the book up soon.)

2. The recent Boswell to Alan Moore's Johnson, Pádraig Ó Méalóid, gets a revealing and lengthy interview out of Kevin O'Neill, mostly focused on his and Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series.

3. The art auctions to benefit Dylan Williams's family continue at Profanity Hill and The Divine Invasion, with new material being added all the time.

4. Ruth Franklin at The New Republic reviews Art Spiegelman's MetaMaus, his new book/DVD-ROM.

5. Vanessa Davis drew a Yom Kippur strip for Tablet.

6. Presented without comment: Rob Liefeld gives advice on how to deal with "haters."

7. Am I the only who didn't know they were making a film version of Tatsumi's Drifting Life?

8. HiloBrow's Joshua Glenn hands off the entire new 52-title DC lineup to an 11-year-old named Max to review. At Grantland, an adult named Alex Pappademas attempts the same feat.

9. Bob Temuka appreciates the latest issue of Love and Rockets.

10. If you only read one of the many Maurice Sendak interviews I have linked to over the last few weeks, this is a good one to pick.

On the site:

-We are thrilled to have a conversation between Jay Ruttenberg and Drew Friedman. Drew you've heard of, but Jay is one of our most favorite writer/editors in the biz. His Lowbrow Reader is the killer zine about comedy to end all killer zines about comedy.

-Yesterday ol man Frank Santoro got "Biblical" on the subject of superhero comics, and continuing his "scene report" series, has Ian Harker chiming in on the Philly scene.

And elsewhere, slim pickins in the run-up to NYCC this weekend:

-C.F. is interviewed at Heavy Mental.

-Tom Spurgeon interviews Mark Sable.

-Via Flog, a compilation of Jack Davis TV commercials.

See you soon.

Well, it's Friday and perhaps Tim is wrapping up his vacation in an undisclosed comics-free location. Me, I'm editing two enormo interviews for this site, both of which I think you'll be very excited about. And so, friends, enjoy these links today, catch up one the avalanche content you may have missed this last week or so (like Moynihan, Deitch, Piskor, Fischer, McCulloch, Metaphrog, Ryan, Latour) and dig the links below.

Charles Brownstein takes us through what the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is and does. (via)

Heidi MacDonald points out that longtime indie distro stalwart Tony Shenton is one of the very the last indie distributors standing, now that the brief-lived Haven Distribution has closed. Tom Spurgeon has some good analytical thoughts on the matter. Tony has been hugely supportive of me for over a decade now. He really is one of a kind. Stores: Give this man some love. He's IT.

Jeff Newelt has posted a killer list of his best comics for the last (Jewish) year, my own precious 1-800-MICE among them, but more importantly to you, dear reader, he highlights some overlooked gems, like Leslie Stein's hilarious, beautifully drawn, and beloved-by-TCJ Eye of the Majestic Creature, TCJ-contributor Michael Fiffe's Zegas, and the still resounding tome from Brecht Evens, Wrong Place.

Well, as usual, D&Q's Tom Devlin had more fun at a show than I did (but that's only because he LOVES comics in a way I might refer to as "unmanly"), and then rubs my face in it with a funny APE report in which he captures my grimacing vissage. Fantagraphics' Eric Reynolds posted a more subdued rundown, remembering those he missed, and me, I'll probably get to mine sometime next year. Sigh.

Oh man, there's an animated version of Batman: Year One that looks like they turned Miller and Mazzucchelli's work into a storyboard and then grafted the ugliest possible animation and voices on top of it. Score another one for the great minds at Warners. (via FS)

And here's an interview with cartoonist Gabby Schulz over at Fully Engaged Feminism.

Finally, I think this is new: An easy-to-use "Is it still under copyright" digital finder. Quick, start your own "archival" publishing company!

On the site today:

Michel Fiffe interviews Jason Latour on art, commerce, and working for Marvel. I enjoy Latour's art, and Fiffe has some good thoughts on the work and his own relationship to it. Check it out.

Elsewhere:

Did you hear the one about a box of Storeyvilles? I did, and now you will. Copacetic Comics has a box of the original printing of Frank Santoro's Storeyville in stock now, complete with an awesome run down on it. This is a must-have for the impossible-to-replicate printing alone, and I thought so long before I ever knew Frank.

The second issue of my favorite new anthology, Thickness, is now for sale online.

Jim Rugg has some words on Sam Kieth. I also have a real fondness for his utterly gnarly drawing style.

Jon Lewis gives us humans a new True Swamp.

In art news, Gary Panter is opening a show of paintings tonight at Fredericks and Freiser in NYC. And next week Seth is opening "The Great Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists" at Adam Baumgold Gallery, and you can head over to the web site now and take a gander. That is one handsome exhibition poster.

You'll be relieved to know I'm back in Brooklyn safe and sound. Today on the site:

Rob Clough writes about the output of Michael DeForge in the context of expectations and youth:

One of the reasons why I like DeForge is, like Shaw, he is an artist who just does the work. Whatever doubts he has about his own abilities or place in the world of comics doesn’t stop him from drawing story after story. He’s the engine behind any number of exciting anthologies, for example.

Elsewhere:

Hey, Inkstuds is releasing videos. And starting with Brandon Graham. Excellent.

Sorta comics-related but at least timely: I always like to see what PFFR the team behind Wonder Showzen and Xavier: Renegade Angel, is up to, and here's a good thing they did. Via FS.

In Montreal Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly visit Drawn & Quarterly. It's not yet confirmed if they tried poutine.

Paul Karasik would like you to know that he has a cartoon in The New Yorker. I like this quest of Paul's.

Kim Thompson interviews himself about Marti's The Cabbie. This is a handsome and vicious book.

Also not really comics, but related: Salon.com catches up with Nicholson Baker about the closing of the chain restaurant Friendly's. This entire article reminds of me Dan Clowes' Wilson, but for incredibly obvious reasons. I'm shallow, what can I say.

Stray thought: When I was interviewing Matthew Thurber at APE I glanced to the back of the room and saw Spain leading S. Clay Wilson through the back, in one door and out the other, shortcut style, and I thought to myself: "Those guys. THOSE GUYS". The awe subsided and I went about my business of talking to Matthew. A couple days before that, Thurber and I visited Michael McMillan, the great cartoonist, sculptor, painter and man. McMillan told some good stories about George Kuchar and Rory Hayes and names long past, but also of current names, of watching movies with Griffith & Noomin, Deitch & Cruikshank, Bob & Aline, and a good anecdote about Marty Pahls' porn collection. SF is kinda full of that history, and it floats around pretty casually, not like the more formal NYC. It's good that way.

Greetings.  Still on the road, post-APE.

Full link blogging and smart-ass remarks will resume Wednesday.

On the site today:

Kim Deitch takes us to the end of his musical road (for now). It's been an honor having Kim with us and, best of all, he'll continue to do some writing for TCJ in the coming months. If you have yet to dive in, now's the time. All twelve installments are just a click away.

and of course Joe McCulloch captures the week in comics, which is, in this busy fall season, yet another big one.

Ok people, stick with us, Tim's on vacation this week and I'm traveling from San Francisco to Los Angeles to New York. So... we'll keep it brief.

On the site:

Frank Santoro posts a Pittsburgh overview, including a scene report by guest writer Ed Piskor, a gag cartoon (weekly) by Michael DeForge, and a startling Storeyville original printing discovery. Frank is also looking for an intern in New Mexico, so, kind people, click over and dive into Frank's world.

And

Craig Fischer joins us with his new monthly column Monsters Eat Critics. We're thrilled to have him onboard, and here's a taste of his first paragraph:

I hope that “Monsters Eat Critics” sounds like the title of a Z-grade science-fiction movie, because I plan to write about genre comics, including science-fiction comics, rather than the alt-, art- and mini-comics so ably covered by other TCJ critics. Let me make clear, though, that I’ll be saying little about contemporary superhero comics, because I’m bored by the ones I’ve read and have nothing to express about them beyond a shrug and an annoyance that hype like “The New 52″ gets so much attention, even negative attention, on comics blogs. Even though future columns will discuss creators who simultaneously labored in and transcended the superhero genre—we’ll trot Kirby out for obligatory analysis, if only to rile Pat Ford—I don’t care about superheroes or the superhero-driven business of American mainstream comics. I’m looking for art in other genres, and I’ll begin with one of the most artistically accomplished genre comics of the last ten years, Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto (2003-2009).

See ya soon!

All right, let's get ready for the weekend with a new review by Rob Clough of The Collected John G. Miller. I have to admit, I don't think I'd ever heard of Miller before, but Rob's piece really makes me want to check him out.

Elsewhere: In an editorial that reflects an obvious love and knowledge of comics history unusual for a newspaper columnist, Samira Ahmed at the Guardian argues that as Albert Uderzo retires, Asterix should be allowed to do so as well.

The excellent book designer Peter Mendelsund interviews Chip Kidd about his working space, for the "From the Desk of..." series.

Gahan Wilson deserves a statue. I haven't yet read this interview with him, but I plan to do so as soon as I get a chance today.

Kate Beaton fans have a lot to read and listen to today.

Tom Spurgeon has a solid-as-usual review of the recent Alex Toth anthology Setting the Standard. My mother isn't really a big comics reader. I mean, she reads the funny pages in the paper, but that's basically it. I don't know what it means, but the last time she came to visit, she picked up this Toth book from the coffee table and tore through it in a couple days. (She was also a big fan of Benjamin Marra's Incredibly Fantastic Adventures of Maureen Dowd.) Go figure.

Flavorwire has a good interview with Daniel Clowes regarding The Death-Ray.

Today on the site we have an interview by our own Frank Santoro with cartoonist Jesse Moynihan, whose handsome new book, Forming, has just been released from Nobrow (via Adhouse here in the U.S.). Frank writes:

Jesse Moynihan is a force. Storyboard artist, writer, cartoonist, webcartoonist, blogger — he’s everywhere. Jesse will be at APE in San Francisco on October 1st and 2nd. Go say hi and buy something from him.

On the subject of APE, I'll be there this weekend with PictureBox and Matthew Thurber, who I'll be chatting with publicly Saturday at 1 pm. At 3 pm that same day (phew) I'll be moderating a discussion with Daniel Clowes and Adrian Tomine. And tonight the New York Art Book Fair opens. So you're in luck on both coasts.

And speaking of Clowes, here's a good interview with him on the occasion of the new edition of Death-Ray.

The Wall Street Journal has a nice story up about Toon Books and the great illustrator Hilary Knight.

Nick Gazin has a new column up over at Vice, with yet more about Monsieur Clowes.

Bhob Stewart has a good anecdote about working with inker Syd Shores on one of his last jobs, featuring the underrated Wally Wood-style artist Wayne Howard. A fine trifecta.

It's always a good moment when there's a new True Swamp comic strip.

Colleen Doran's character designs for Betty and Veronica. Very cool. Via.

Today on the site, big content week continues with a long interview that Gavin Lees conducted with the sui generis Scottish art team Metaphrog.

Also, Sean T. Collins reviews Prison Pit: Book Three, the latest release from our last interview subject, Johnny Ryan.

Elsewhere, Rob Clough presents his thoughts on the latest issue of Love and Rockets.

And David Brothers and Graeme McMillan offer the first two substantial reviews of Frank Miller's Holy Terror I've yet seen. They're both tremendously negative takes, but probably because of the book's subject matter, they avoid the yuk-yukking of most Miller-bashing. I expect a lot more of this kind of thing.

Also, interesting that this and Habibi are coming out on the same week, and so close after the tenth anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks. It's hard not to compare them as long-gestating responses to those events, even if they are only (in the case of Habibi) indirectly so.

Today on the site:

As usual, Jog brings us the week in comics as only he can see it.

And elsewhere around:

-The great Italian cartoonist Sergio Bonelli (Tex, Dylan Dog) has passed away. We'll have further coverage soon.

-Tom Spurgeon reviewed Ludovic Debeurme's Lucille and wrote an excellent obituary of Jack Adler.

-Harry Mendryk posts a note that The Simon and Kirby Library: Crime is on its way, and has some nice looking pix to as well.

-Eddie Campbell points us to an archive of the (unknown to me) 1980s small press duo Biff.

-Tim O'Shea interviews Michael Kupperman over at Robot 6 about his new book Mark Twain’s Autobiography 1910-2010.

-

Good morning, & welcome to another week of comics talk.

First, Ken Parille performs another comic-book dissection, and this time his laboratory frog is the spearhead of DC's bold new 52 initiative, Justice League #1. As Ken put it elsewhere: "Normally I write about comics I like and try to explain what's interesting about them. This time I take a different approach."

An energized Frank Santoro's back to layouts, and comparing two of his favorites: Gilbert Hernandez and CF.

And Chris Ware has just released a comic story available to be read only on the iPad. I haven't read it yet, but Sean T. Collins has, and he has a review for you right over here.

Elsewhere:

Michael Dooley allows Percy Crosby's daughter a platform to discuss her father's views on politics, peanut butter, and organized crime.

The Paris Review posts a report from the Friars Club release party of Drew Friedman's latest collection of old Jewish comedian portraits.

Brendan Burford has good taste.

Jacque Nodell talked with Jim Steranko about his only romance comic, and reprints the color guides.

And finally, don't forget that the Dylan Williams Divine Invasion art auction is still going on. There is some beautiful work for sale. [Jason T. Miles is running another eBay benefit auction for Williams's family, too.]

A big day on the site today, with enough reading material to carry you through the weekend and well into next week!

First we have Jesse Pearson's riveting (if I do say so myself) interview with Johnny Ryan, in which we learn more than I ever thought possible about the cartoonist. This is a must. Jesse begins:

There has never been an alternative comics artist who makes work that’s more divisive than Johnny Ryan’s. Shit, piss, farts, dicks, and pussies are his vanilla material. When he really gets rolling, he’ll deal in rape, murder, genocide, 9-11, AIDS, baby fucking, and the end of the world. The style of art in his humor comics—all cute and cartoonish—both undercuts and ramps up the disturbance factor. It’s dizzying.

And it gets even better from there.

And then we have Kim Deitch's eleventh installment of his memoir, in which he swerves into opera and gardening:

Our place had a nice bay window with plenty of sun, and for a period Sally had gotten into growing all kinds of different things. One day she took a shot at germinating some pot seeds from my current stash. I wasn’t relying on pot to draw all that much anymore, but I was still smoking the stuff. Well, that particular experiment was a roaring success and I soon took it over. It seemed to have awakened a latent farmer within me.

Well, friends, what more could you want? I will not direct you anywhere else -- I refuse -- because this should be enough! And it is!

1. After speculating about how Disney is going to respond to working with the anarchic and unprofessional employees of Marvel (i.e. "small talents with big egos"), Jim Shooter posts his contracts from Marvel in 2002 and DC in 2007. (via)

2. The much-missed Jeet Heer emerged briefly from the chaos of new fatherhood and several large projects to e-mail me a link to this appearance from another Journal fan favorite:

Heer also wrote this recent review of Michael Kupperman's new Mark Twain book.

3. Are old-fashioned maps (the kind with sea monsters and dragons) comics? Not really, but it may be hard for some to pinpoint exactly why when confronted with a few of the images in this short illustrated history of them.

4. Brian Chippendale takes on the New 52 at DC, reviewing the new Justice League and Animal Man titles, as well as various Marvel, independent, and manga titles.

5. Finally, there's something of a debate going on right now regarding the coherence (or lack of same) of the action scenes in recent blockbuster films. Jim Emerson started it off with this excellent video essay critiquing a chase sequence from The Dark Knight.

In the Cut, Part I: Shots in the Dark (Knight) from Jim Emerson on Vimeo.

A.D. Jameson defends the scene here, claiming that Christopher Nolan and his collaborators are trying a new and visceral approach to cinematic action that doesn't rely on narrative coherence.

All of that is interesting but not obviously related to comics. Except that it reminded me of many of Frank Santoro's arguments over the years (here's one) regarding the disappearance of the "classical" (for lack of a better word) cartooning style that was notable for its clarity, and was once evident in the work of everyone from the masterful Milton Caniff to the perennial critical whipping boy Don Heck. Nowadays, American action comics are almost all just big explosions, pointless decapitations, and impossible-to-parse (or believe) battle royale splash pages. Drawn in "photo-realistic" style, of course, so as to denote seriousness (not unlike how Nolan is supposed to be presenting a new "realism" in superhero films).

I don't have a coherent theory as to why this is so, beyond a general coarsening of the culture. Or at least the culture of this particular kind of action story. The normal thumb-sucking answer is to blame it on video games, but you don't actually see the same incoherence in your typical Xbox boss fight, so I don't think that's it, unless video games have simply spurred filmmakers and cartoonists to desperation due to lost market share. Further investigation is required.

Today on the site:

Hayley Campbell reads Nate Powell's Any Empire against an extraordinary backdrop and asks a few questions.

Elsewhere:

Jack Adler, the noted production man at DC Comics from 1946 to 1981, has passed away. Mark Evanier has a summary of Adler's career. Adler was responsible for the stunning look of DC covers in the 1960s, innovating in color and texture.

Our corporate overlords report that Linda Medley is selling original pages from the yet-to-be-published Starstruck mini-series Galactic Girl Guides. Worth a look for the scans alone.

Sean T. Collins has "Fifteen observations about Craig Thompson’s Habibi. This is the first real response to the book I've yet seen.

Jog's pal Peter Milligan is interviewed about his work for DC's 52, specifically Red Lanterns, and says:

I suppose one of the main aims of this book is to take what have hitherto been monomaniacal bad guys and turn some of them at least into something more rounded and more compelling.

Gotta start somewhere!

Over at the Forbidden Planet blog there's a report on an exhibition of work by Maurice Tillieux, whose Murder by High Tide is one my favorite books of this year, even though I'm still trying to figure out a way to write something intelligent about it. Click over for some juicy photos and good info.

And here's one of my favorite Jack Kirby stories -- 1958's The World is Ours.

Finally, I'll be giving a talk Thursday night at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art at 7 pm, with artist John Haddock. Come and heckle me if you're near Scottsdale, Arizona.

Joe McCulloch brings you another edition of his column, the only weekly comics buying guide that matters.

Kim Thompson explains the back story behind that mysterious photo comic from last week. It involves a very young Mark Gruenwald.

Another interview with Maurice Sendak, this time at the New York Times.

Matt Seneca innovates a new way to perform criticism online, starting a site just to demonstrate what he means for this dissection of a short Jerry Moriarty piece.

Stephen Bissette writes a follow-up post to his recent essay on not wanting to draw your graphic novel.

And this is old, but new to me: Kim Munson has posted the three Sundays of Lil' Abner in which Al Capp parodied Charles Schulz's Peanuts. (via)

It's a new week.

Yesterday Frank Santoro announced the beginning of a cartooning correspondence course. He says:

There are a lot of cartooning courses and classes available right now. CCS, SVA, and SCAD – but I want to do it differently: a one-on-one 8-week correspondence course over phone, e-mail and snail mail. I’d like to use the work and development for a book about making comics. I’m going to focus specifically on advancing your understanding of layouts, color, contour line drawing, and printmaking for producing comic books. The 8-week class is $500. This class is limited: only ten students will be accepted.

I would apply just to learn from the maestro, but he'd never take me. Anyhow, Frank's also posting some beautiful drawings on his own site, like this one.

And today we bring you the latest from R.C. Harvey, this time exploring a curious byway of comics history and education via the story of Max Eastman. Harv begins:

Whilst wandering lonely as a cloud in a foreign clime some years ago, I toured a couple nifty dusty old bookstores (the dust was a big part of the nift) and chanced upon a tome called Enjoyment of Laughter, a 1936 opus by Max Eastman. It was the author’s name that stopped me. Wasn’t Max Eastman, I asked myself, the editor of the rabble-rousing socialist magazine, The Masses, back in the 19-teens?

And elsewhere:

-Tom Spurgeon's moving, thorough obituary of Dylan Williams.

-Via Eddie Campbell, an excellent essay about the cartoonist Glenn Dakin by Rich Baez.

-Daniel Best explains why the team of Ross Andru and Mike Esposito was important.

-Not comics: This long piece about Alex Katz is a good look at an aging artist, manly competition, and the way one atmosphere of the art world functions. It pertains here mostly because of how it applied to artists in any medium, and because Katz remains, in many ways, an artist whose sense of line and figure is applicable to cartoon drawing.

This morning, we bring you a new installment of Sean T. Collins's column on up-and-coming cartoonists, this time featuring L. Nichols.

We also plan to continue adding new remembrances to our collection of tributes to Dylan Williams as they come in.

Elsewhere:

Alan Gardner comes out in favor of the newspapers who have pulled Garry Trudeau's recent Doonesbury strips previewing material from the new Sarah Palin biography, but I have a hard time understanding why, based on the strips published so far. This is pretty tame stuff.

Rich Baez writes a long post about the often overlooked Glenn Dakin. (via Eddie Campbell.)

Finally, you might have seen the photo comic made by a very young Kim Thompson that is currently making the rounds online. Or maybe you've been reading his most recent dream journals. What I want to know is if this is the same Kim Thompson whose heretical letter was published in Captain America 194 in 1976?

(Thanks, Sean Howe.)