It's Tuesday, which means it's Joe McCulloch on the Week in Comics day. This time, his normal painstaking previews of the best-sounding comics of the week are being supplemented with a painstaking report on most everything he bought at last weekend's SPX.
Like Dan, I felt that this was one of the best SPX's I've attended. The guest list and panel programming was incredibly strong, the attendance seemed never to wane (but it never felt overcrowded), and a lot of people who don't normally come out came out. Tom Spurgeon was there, and has his traditional post-con report up here. If I remember correctly, he said he hadn't been to SPX in over a decade. This was a good year to come back.
Heidi MacDonald has a more business-oriented report up at Publishers Weekly. Special guest/Crockett Johnson biographer Philip Nel talks about his experience on a Barnaby panel here. And many more SPX reports are sure to come. If you want the full package, I'd keep checking in on the SPX Tumblr page, which shows no signs of slowing down yet. Probably the only part of the whole weekend that didn't quite work came in the form of super-corny presentation banter during the Ignatz award ceremony, but that's maybe unavoidable. All in all, a great time.
Elsewhere on the internet:
—Paul Gravett explores the comics connections of the great filmmaker Federico Fellini, with a particular emphasis on his collaborations with Milo Manara.
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—The New Statesman runs a long interview with Grant Morrison on his apparent departure from superhero comics, in which Morrison explains why he doesn't actually think Batman's gay, and how he's not a sellout for being honored by the queen, along with an assist from reporter Laura Sneddon, who helpfully explains for him why people are wrong not only to judge Morrison for his association with DC's business practices (probably fair), but also for Morrison's own "pragmatic" statements on DC's treatment of Siegel & Shuster. That part I'm not really following. (There also seems to be a buried reference to a semi-regular TCJ.com contributor, but I'll let you find that for yourself.)
—Allan Holtz profiles pioneering female cartoonist Ethel Hays.
—Humor in America has a solid review of Gabrielle Bell's new collection, The Voyeurs.
—Bobsy Mindless has all the Avengers vs X-Men analysis you need.
—And Forbidden Planet has videos displaying the jazz side of Harvey Pekar.
