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.
