BLOG

Here is Monday...

Yesterday brought Frank's latest scene report, this one guested by Kevin Czap of Cleveland.

Thanks to CCS and James Sturm we bring you Oliver Goodenough and Stephen Bissette in conversation on: “Marvel vs. Jack Kirby: Legal Rights and Ethical Might”. These are the conversations we should continue to have.

Also, thanks to James, we're proud to "publish" this fine work by CCS student and archivist Cole Closser: A comic strip essay on Charles Forbell's Naughty Pete (the whole run of which can be found in Pete Maresca's Forgotten Fantasy).

And finally, I was saddened to learn of the death of comics historian Les Daniels, whose 1971 book, Comix: A History of the Comic Book in America, was one of those library staples that indoctrinated many of us. He was also something of an official historian for Marvel and DC. I really know nothing more about him than what's on Wikipedia. I hope more details are pending, and I assume perhaps his editors at Abrams or Chronicle will chime in.

This morning, Rob Clough weighs in with a review of Craig Thompson's Habibi, which demonstrates that the range of possible opinions on the book is by no means restricted only to those found in last week's roundtable discussion of the book.

Thompson was also just interviewed over at the A.V. Club, and Abhay Khosla had a funny reaction to one of Thompson's more dubious claims featured in it.

One of the most frequent topics of discussion regarding Habibi is the question of its use of Orientalist tropes, and whether or not the book furthers racial and cultural stereotypes. Comics has been in the stereotype business for a long time of course, as the never-ending arguments over Hergé's early Tintin albums demonstrate. This week, a Belgian judge ruled that Tintin in the Congo (easily the most controversial of these books) is not racist. David Brothers had a funny reaction to some of the judge's more dubious claims.

The book designer Peter Mendelsund has an excellent post up regarding cover design choices, using various attempts at Lolita as examples, and in passing covers a lot of ground that will likely be interesting to any cartoonist.

Finally, three quick links: 1) Chris Mautner interviews Kevin Huizenga, 2) Chris Butcher talks about non-superhero comics, and 3) Chris Duffy and comics-editing colleagues from the late, lamented Nickelodeon magazine have launched a comics iPad app aimed at kids and featuring several of their cartoonists they used to work with in print.

Today, because our aim is to distract you from your troubles by gazing at those of others we bring you part one of Matthias Wivel's epic telling of the recent doings at L'Association.

L’Association, which has helped rewrite the rules of comics over the last twenty years, has been in an existential crisis over the last eight months or so, a crisis that went from a widely publicized strike by the employees and the election of a new editorial board consisting of six of the seven original co-founders—most of whom had been estranged from the publisher for years—to the departure of Jean-Christophe Menu, the controversial sole and de facto director of L’Association since 2006.

Elsewhere:

I guess because he's just awesome, Jim Rugg has compiled the Top Ten Greatest Vein Artists in Comics History (for, uh, November).

Anders Nilsen is interviewed at The Onion and inadvertently reviews the new Tintin movie. Score.

This latest Kickstarter project is news to me, but th
e irony of raising money to pay tribute to an aesthetic that made tons of money is not lost on me, or, I bet, the creators.

I like getting updates on past employees of Drawn & Quarterly because after so many years they're like long lost cousins or something. (I know, I know, add emoticons here).

We're halfway through the week now, and it's time to put the Halloween decorations away.

First, for your listening while undecorating pleasure, Mike Dawson interviews Julia Wertz for the TCJ Talkies podcast.

Also, for her regular webcomics column, Shaenon Garrity has invited T Campbell to write a guest entry on the perils of researching internet comics.

MetaFilter brings renewed attention to the double career of New Yorker cartoonist Syd Hoff, who moonlighted as a radical artist for The Daily Worker and New Masses. (via)

Matthias Wivel has an interesting theory about the villain from the new Tintin movie. (It's more plausible than the one in Anonymous, anyway.)

As many have been noting, Ng Suat Tong has done yeoman's work putting together scans and moments from throughout Jaime Hernandez's Locas stories that are referenced or otherwise alluded to in Jaime's most recent story, "The Love Bunglers". A good reference once you've read the book (but don't spoil it for yourself if you haven't).

A publication called School Libraries in Canada got a very good interview out of Dave Collier, regarding everything from his military enlistment to reading on airplanes. (Regular readers of this site get one guess who sent this link my way.)

Frederik Pohl remembers the longtime DC editor Julius Schwartz. I think some longtime Journal readers might be somewhat surprised at the piece's conclusion, but I guess Pohl's old enough now to be entitled to his own opinion.

I can't keep linking to every post on Eddie Campbell's blog (just bookmark it already), but this latest entry, with video of Gerald Early (who is really an extraordinary essayist), can't go without notice. Read and watch.

UPDATE: I forgot to link to this sad news: Steve Rude has been arrested after an apparent altercation with his neighbors.

Good halloween? Good.

So, today Matt Seneca brings us an essay about Yuichi Yokoyama's most recent books.

and Joe McCulloch did not let the candy go to his head. His week in comics is here.

Elsewhere:

A fine review of Gary Panter's current exhibition by TCJ-contributor Nicole Rudick.

Because no one (or dozen) web sites can contain him, Joe McCulloch has a killer piece up at the Los Angeles Review of Books.

And finally, Mimi Pond has a nice new comic in the LA Times.

LA and TCJ: Together working as one.

Okay, we've got a big-time treat for all of you today: a 13,000-word interview of Robert Crumb conducted by Gary Groth. Topics include Crumb's aborted trip to Australia, the Meese Commission, the Republican primaries, and corporate fraud. That's just in the beginning section, before Groth and Crumb more or less reenact the canceled Australian live appearance, with Groth passing along questions from a select group of inquisitors including Tony Millionaire, Kim Deitch, Megan Kelso, the Hernandez Bros., Trina Robbins(!), among others. A must-read, folks. All your friends will be tweetering about it.

Elsewhere:

Ray Davis has some notes after reading Eddie Campbell's Alec: "The Years Have Pants". He also reproduces (with EC's apparent permission) three pages from How To Be an Artist that were cut from the larger anthology.

Mike Lynch found an old YouTube clip of a 1988 Lynda Barry appearance on David Letterman.

Jessica Abel and Matt Madden are interviewed at length about the Best American Comics series. They talk a lot about the selection process, too. Worth reading before going off on your big rant about the book doesn't include this or that.

Robert Boyd reviews some recent graphic novels.

Dan Wagstaff has a short but sweet Q&A with Jason over at the Casual Optimist.

Finally, novelist Tom McCarthy (author of Tintin and the Secret of Literature) really hates the new Tintin movie. Here's a sample:

Perhaps this movie will be studied, in years to come, as a Žižekian example of a dominant ideology's capacity to recuperate its own negation, or something along those lines. For now, we just have to wonder how Spielberg went so wrong, or if he was in fact involved at all: so badly put together is this film that it's easier, and perhaps more comforting, to imagine a semi-simian marketing committee writing and producing it under the banner of his name. If your children love the Tintin books – or, more to the point, if they have an ounce of intelligence or imagination in their bodies – don't take them to see this truly execrable offering.

Well well, on the site today we have Casey Burchby's review of Gene Colan's Batman stories.

And elsewhere:

Our own Kristy Valenti offers some fine professional tips.

Lynda Barry is profiled in the NY Times Magazine.

As if glancing off our Habibi roundtable, here's an interview with Frank Miller about Holy Terror.

The Beat has a kinda amazing list of Stan Lee's various adventures in... ventures.

Evan Dorkin blogs about horror movies just in time. His Milk and Cheese book is also on its way out from Dark Horse and sounds like it's a doozy.

David Apatoff looks at a Lynd Ward image.

Finally, and this is only germaine to California, but here's an interesting piece about artists' "royalties" on resold artwork.

Today we have a big one for you. (And in the coming weeks, we have several more big ones in store.) Charles Hatfield has graciously agreed to moderate a critical discussion of Craig Thompson's Habibi (which you may have noticed has already generated a fair share of online debate). Now, for your reading pleasure, we present the results. The discussion's participants include Hatfield himself, Hayley Campbell, Chris Mautner, Tom Hart, Katie Haegele, and Joe McCulloch. As you can imagine, their viewpoints diverge. Read and weigh in. (This was all Hart's idea, by the way. Thanks, Tom!) A more formal review of the book by Rob Clough is forthcoming.

Elsewhere:

Bhob Stewart takes inspiration from Kim Deitch's recent essay on Roger Brand (& don't miss the growing comments thread beneath it if you haven't looked in a while) to repost one of his own collaborations with Brand.

Peggy Burns offers a lengthy & characteristically funny photo tour of her experiences at the recent Iowa Comics Conference. (That's the same conference Jeet wrote about here.)

The Warner Bros. lawsuit against Siegel & Shuster attorney Marc Toberoff continues.

Bill Kartalopolous writes about King-Cat creator John Porcellino for Print.

I am sure every single one of you is already familiar with this photo of a famous athlete reading a famous comic book, but it was new to me.

Somewhat similarly, I believe that I did once know that Seth was involved in the world of women's roller derby (a secret point of connection with Frank Santoro!), but somehow I repressed that knowledge.

The Financial Times has another profile of Hergé linked to the new Tintin movie. I am somewhat interested to see how the inevitable wave of similar profiles here in the United States will compare to what has been written in Europe.

Finally, Michel Fiffe interviews Paul Duncan and Phil Elliott, the writer/artist combo behind the 1980s independent sci-fi mystery series, Second City.

On the site:

Chris Mautner goes there. I thought about going there, but wasn't brave enough. Chris was brave. Oh, what? No, I'm just talking about the first month of 52. That's where Chris went. What did you think I was talking about?

Sean T. Collins, another hardy soul, went somewhere else, somewhere only Ben Marra could take him, with this review of Gangsta Rap Posse #2.

Elsewhere:

-Frank Santoro's cartoon correspondence course begins next week. Deadline to enroll is this Friday. You need this in your life.

-While my head is in Pittsburgh (even if FS is not), I gotta link to the second installment of Ed Piskor's web comic. It's gooood.

-Here's a NSFW Playboy cover by Michael Deforge. Er, sorta.

-Kim Thompson sends us links dept:

-Looks like Hugo Pratt's Corto Maltese is making a long awaited comeback to these shores. Now we can only hope it's not colorized and it's well translated and lettered. Please. Rizzoli, which occasionally dips into comics, is the house, so we shall see. No word on if this is a series or not.

-Marjane Satrapi and Persepolis co-director Vincent Paronnaud have a new movie coming out based on Chicken with Plums. This time it includes live action. Why, there's already a review! (via KT)

-TCJ contributor dept:

-Congrats to the aforementioned Sean T. Collins on his work for the annotated Game of Thrones. Sounds like his dream project come true.

-Matt Seneca has a whole host of links over on his blog, including one about an abandoned blog of Frank's (I think Tim and I were supposed to post, too, but we never did). The name was chosen for reasons related to other subjects in Matt's very post. It's easy math.

Weird dept:

So everyone's already read about that check used to buy Superman. It's being auctioned off next year. In my fantasies Alan Moore buys it, turns his camera on, performs a magical rite on it, sets it aflame, and then posts the clip to youtube, resulting in some kind of metaphysical tidal wave that... I dunno. Use your imagination. But! Other precious items are being auctioned off this year, worth mentioning just for the pix. Like Jerry Siegel's typewriter, his favorite tie (the grimmest "favorite tie" I've ever seen), and, of course, some locks of his hair. The entire description is worth your time. The auction house notes, in what I hope is a jokey aside:

Many collectors have speculated that Kirby's hair might be worth more, but we disagree. With genetic technology heading in the direction it is, one day you could make your very own Jerry Siegel clone.

And, yes, here's the hair, grabbed from Comic Connect:

Oh, comics. Comics comics comics. When will you ever learn?

Today on the site, something I didn't even realize how much I wanted to read before this morning: Joe McCulloch writes about Yuichi Yokoyama in his column this week, as well as his normal roundup of upcoming comics.

Elsewhere:

Eddie Campbell continues his excellent series of casual posts about romance comics, this time focusing on the men who introduced the category: Simon and Kirby.

Justin Green's blog is something else (as you'd expect from his comics, of course). Here's a post in which he reproduces a drawing done for a friend, ponders shifting public morality using Upton Sinclair's The Jungle as a landmark, and wonders about the future of intimate communication.

Speaking of Green, somehow I missed that last month he started a new site, and is posting comics on a weekly basis.

Tom Spurgeon interviews T. Edward Bak about his recent stay in Russia.

The Guardian runs an obituary for Francisco Solan López.

And oh yeah: this. I don't think there's been a project quite this promising since the publication of Alexandra Ripley's Scarlett.

On the site:

Yesterday Frank presented another scene report, this time written by Adhouse Books' Chris Pitzer, and guest starring two mentors of mine from my teenage years: Greg Bennett and Joel Pollack. Frank's just picking up steam on these reports, compositing an informal and analog portrait of lives and cities in and around comics.

Today we bring you Matt Seneca's interview with Gary Panter. A taste:

Well, Kirby is actually, he’s like Mayan glyphs and cubism and Fauve, he’s really kind of transcendent. And Ditko too is kind of transcendent, just in his portrayal of karmic waves, wave shapes. Indefinable stuff, he would make it completely concrete and work out a shape system for it. But most people, it’s about the guys yelling at each other. [Laughs.] Which is what’s great about Johnny Ryan’s Prison Pit comic. Just reduce it to the essentials!

And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention (again) that the comments under Kim Deitch's Roger Brand piece just keep expanding, as more old friends are found. Now it's starting to take on a broader portrait of the fan/collector comic book culture of the early 1960s in New York. Just scroll down and dive in.

Elsewhere:

Speaking of which, I've been pretty into Paul Kirchner's Dope Rider, mentioned in the Brand comments by occasional collaborator Tom Conroy. The site Kirchner's created has the full run of the character with commentary and photos. I gotta say, the comic is good fun with Steranko-meets-Wood visuals and the sharp end of the marijuana stick.

And, gee, I don't often think of cartoonist Chad Grothkopf, but Bhob Stewart just did.

Brian Ralph gives his current comic book reading list to Robot 6.

Today, R.C. Harvey returns to the site with a new installment of his column, this time a profile of editor/reporter/cartoonist Jud Hurd, who published Cartoonist PROfiles for decades:

Jud’s voice was probably the most well-known sound in the world of cartooning after the sound of a pen scratching a line on paper.

And Sean T. Collins weighs in on Kevin Huizenga's recently released Ganges 4.

Elsewhere, there have been several cartoonist interviews making the rounds: Ron Regé in Vice, Dan Clowes at the A.V. Club, Art Spiegelman at the L.A. Times, and Tom Gauld at the Rumpus.

Poet, novelist, and Madame Bovary translator Adam Thorpe was asked by the Guardian to list his ten favorite literary translations into English, and chose a comics series as one of his answers.

Eddie Campbell talks Alex Toth and romance comics.

Tucker Stone went to the New York Comic Con.

Finally, and this isn't really comics at all, except in the wider what's-going-to-happen-to-print sense, but I just have to say I've really been dismayed at how many ostensibly intelligent people have been taken in by this stupid video, which supposedly shows a young baby unable to understand why magazines "don't work" after using an iPad. What it actually shows, of course, is a young baby unable to understand either magazines or iPads—which is nothing to get excited about, because young babies aren't supposed to understand much of anything. (I bet the kid has trouble with the concept of doorknobs, too. Ooh, wooden doors must be doomed!) Whatever your feelings about the prospects for publishing, it's funny how desperate some people are for a dose of future shock, even when it ain't really there.

Today on the site:

-Hayley Campbell reviews Richard Sala's The Hidden.

-And I want to direct you, dear readers, to the comments on Kim Deitch's Roger Brand article. They form a remarkable partial composite image of Brand, and expand on Kim's memoir. We hope to gather these up in some digital form, with additional images, when time permits.  Scroll down.

Elsewhere:

-I'm pleased to see a new comic from Ed Piskor, this one looking like some kinda cultural overview. Intriguing.

-Tonight in NYC: Our man Jesse Pearson interviews Gahan Wilson on his amazing new book, Nuts.

-The venerable comic book letterer has a new print/game called "Go Freelance", beautifully illustrated by Shawn McManus. It's tragi-comic!

-The cartoonist Lilli Carre wrote in to tell us about the Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation, which she co-runs. It's in Chicago, Nov. 5-6, and sounds pretty awesome. There'll be work by lots of cartoonists and comics-related people, including Florent Ruppert & Jerome Mulot, Julie Doucet, Bendik Kaltenborn, Lori Damiano, Jesse McManus, Peter Larsson, and Nicolas Mahler. Sounds good to me.

-Old people dept:

-I always enjoy looking at work by the illustrator Bernie Fuchs. Here are some fine sketches and commentary.

-There's some controversy over late-period Jack Kirby work, summarized over at Bleeding Cool, with various sides represented, and put forth initially, based on Greg Theakston's new book, over at 20th Century Danny Boy.

-Sometimes the imitation is more fun than the original.

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.