Today on the Journal, we’ve got an interview with Gabe Fowler about this weekend’s Comics Arts Brooklyn festival. Longtime readers will know that Gabe used to do a similarly themed show in Brooklyn with former TCJ editor Dan Nadel and beard enthusiast Bill Kartalopoulos, but that relationship fell apart when they realized they were the same person.
"Is it possible to have a comics festival on the East Coast and not have Peter Kuper as a featured guest? How did you keep Dean Haspiel from attending?Kuper is a featured guest, partly because he is awesome and partly because he is a Pratt alum. We want Pratt to feel good about our newfound partnership and are taking the opportunity to focus on alumni who have impacted comics culture, such as Kuper, Bill Griffith, Paul Karasik, and Jules Feiffer, who will all participate in programming. I can just hear Haspiel bitching that I didn't personally handcraft a royal invitation for him to participate, but nobody gets that treatment around here. But really, he has been involved in our show in the past and I would love to have him."
ELSEWHERE
While it might be fun to ignore yesterday’s latest development in the longest and dumbest fight between two entertainment conglomerates, ya gotta admit: DC hiring away Brian Michael Bendis, the dominant creative voice behind the last two decades of Marvel Comics is big news. It’s not as big as it would have been seven years ago when the creator in question was still king shit of fuck mountain, but it's DC Comics--they didn't get ahold of John Romita Jr. when he was still taking chances, either. There's a lot of uninteresting articles out surrounding the move, but what unifies all of them is the total lack of access to the people and company involved. The move was announced via the DC Comics Twitter account at 6 in the morning, with a follow up tweet coming from Bendis a few hours later--and the rest of the day consisted of thinkpieces and shot-from-the-hip takes until George Gene Gustines remembered where he'd written down Brian's phone number. You'd think years of cheerleading might get you more access, but apparently, that isn't the case.
Anyway. If you've read a few Bendis comics in your time, then your prediction of "what this means" is as valid as the next persons. They will probably be readable, have a compelling enough thru-line that you will be curious about what happens next even if you don't really enjoy the experience. They will have too many words. But whatever it is, it'll just be another super-hero comic. It won't be as good as the ones you read when you were younger, it will be too expensive, and it will probably be drawn by someone you don't like. Enjoy!
ONWARD, TO INTERVIEWS
Jesse Jacobs, whose only failing seems to be that he's so effortlessly interesting that I take for granted that he'll keep getting better and have forgotten to be surprised at how consistently he does exactly that, is as fascinating an interview subject as he is a cartoonist. He showed up at Hazlitt in an interview with Matthew James-Wilson, the same person whose praises are being sung in today's Gabe Fowler interview.
I thought this Kelly Sue DeConnick interview was pretty interesting. I haven't read much of her writing, but it's rare to see a comics creator speak with such frankness about the nature of creative work. DeConnick seems to have been saddled with the "explain sexism to people" role that certain women in comics get assigned when they're smart and successful, and she handles that task with real passion.
