Here are some things I found interesting in the world of minicomics, comic books, graphic novels, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics, cartoons, digital comics, other, etc. during the week ending 08052012:
"I was 16 years old, and my girlfriend then took me to see Herbert von Karajan playing at Carnegie Hall. And my mother, who was a Popular Front Democrat, said, “You know Von Karajan was Hitler’s favorite conductor?”, and I said, “Okay, you know. But I’m gonna go anyway, because my girlfriend will fuck me if I go.” And that was that." -Howard Chaykin.
- I've been having dreams about alien invasions. Notice that I did not call them nightmares. If there is one thing I am not afraid of it is aliens. I just bash them in their big bulbous heads. It is great fun. Brad McGinty draws monsters, aliens, Gremlins and stuff and then sells them to you. He posted some new prints this week. Good stuff. Worth a look for sure.
- Oh, and he keeps updating Battle Zoo and it keeps blowing minds. The Beat's mind = sploded. The Strange Kids Club minds = also sploded.
- The artings of the great and terrible Ashley Holt can been seen with your eyeballs in person in Spartansburg, South Carolina from right now through August 28th.
- Did you know that ladies read comics? It's true. For realsies. And (you might want to sit down for this part) they... make comics too! Ex-sex-sior true believer! If you don't believe me, The Beat has posted a bunch of interesting stuff.
- I estimate that at least half of the best comics coming out of North America in the past 18 months have been webcomics. But, according to the contents of the next Best American Comics book, I am totally wrong. That's right kids, nobody reads or makes webcomics and they are still not really comics. Kate Beaton? Never heard of her. Oh, don't yell at me about it you webcomic outcasts. Yell at Françoise Mouly. Yell at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
(Krunk Emperor Putin stolen from this jerk.)
- Following the Pussy Riot trial on twitter was the best decision I made this week.
- Before Sandman is burning in hell. So is Beetle Bailey.
- Paul Jenkins is crazy. I like that about him. And he is a really nice guy. The first time I met him was at an in-store signing. He was sneaking drinks from a can of Guinness he had under the table. It was happy hour somewhere.
- So I guess the last issue of Jeff Smith's RASL is out. I picked up the first few issues and really liked it but I never saw the last half dozen or so in any of the area comics shops. I admit that I get kind of excited when a good series ends. It motivates me to hunt down all the issues I'm missing and have a complete read through. Tom Spurgeon had some thoughts on the series ending. My thoughts include the idea that with Smith off RASL and Grant Morrison leaving Action Comics, DC should just hand Superman to Smith and let him and his Cartoon Books team handle the art, story, colors, editing, printing, folding, staples etc. Oh if only we could get a Superman comic at the level of quality of the average Jeff Smith comic. Just imagine how great the trade collection would be. That boom you just heard is a thousand librarians heads exploding at the thought of it.
- And speaking of Grant Morrison and Superpants (here is the interview some folks are pissy about) I don't really care what he says in an interview. I like his comics. Actually, when you take into account how awful editorial at DC is, I think his comics are miracles. And you can call him a sell out or be "disappointed" in how he spoke about Siegel and Shuster but the most scathing rebuttal of how DC has handled Superman is in Action Comics 9 which Grant Morrison wrote and managed to get DC to publish and the biggest love letter to Siegel and Shuster we are likely to ever see was All-Star Superman. And I know none of that is going to make wrongs right or put an appropriate amount of money in the pockets of the Siegel's and Shusters but... was it ever Grant Morrison's job to make those things happen? Let's not forget that Time Warner fired the one guy standing between them and more Watchmen. All I'm saying is, don't expect your favorite creators to be heroes. They just write them.
(Image from Black Kiss II stolen from Comic Book Critic.)
- The first issue of Howard Chaykin's Black Kiss II is out. Except maybe not in England. (And maybe not on your Apple supported cell pad pod phone apps.) I just can't overstate how much I love Howard Chaykin comics. So maybe you want to go buy two copies and mail me one. Chaykin talks about it here, here and here. UPDATE: The Brits get to look at the naughty bits too! Freedom!
- Hooo boy. I'm sure glad I did not accidentally buy my daughter that Storm statutory rape comic the last time I saw it in a half off box.
- David Mack's Kabuki: The Alchemy is one of the most amazing comics I've ever read. It is art about making art. Chris Ware level comics making but, In my opinion, much more interesting. Where Ware makes you want to kill yourself, Mack is inspiring. Yeah, yeah, I know, optimism is for losers. Pfftt. Mack implied on twitter this week that the book might be out of print soon so maybe you want to look into getting a copy.
(Image stolen from Julia Wertz's website.)
- Julia Wertz is running an excerpt from her upcoming book over the next few weeks.
- "No father should ever have to explain a terrible Batman story to his child. But sometimes, I guess it just can't be avoided, and when your kids find out about Hush, it's up to you to take responsibility."
- Josh Bayer talks to Pat Aulisio on Pat's podcast.
- Chris Mautner talks about Phoebe Gloeckner.
- Years ago some dude made some comics about Batman and a little girl where Batman punches up Superman and Ronald Regan's head says some funny things. No one liked it. It did not have any influence. It did not inspire a whole bunch of movies that did not make a bajillion dollars. And now, Warner Premier is releasing a direct to video cartoon and I double dog dare them to put Reagan's head in the thing.
Get More: MTV Shows
- Oh man again with the "Call Me Maybe" of comics, Kickstarter. Dave Sim talked about his Kickstarter. "I'm starting with the supposition that Kickstarter will still be a novelty and "where people go" through the end of the year or into 2013 so it's worth planning another campaign centred on the CEREBUS volume for 2013. But Kickstarter could very well turn out to be a "Just Too, Too 2013" thing by 2014 and a CB radio." Sean T. Collins had 16 thoughts on it. I talked about it a little last week. One thought I left out was that my main problem is that I don't have enough money to take advantage of all the great deals on there. Jerks!
- This is some amazing fighting comics stuff to look at. I've wanted to do that sort of thing for years but no one likes me.
- I went to see a wrestling show on Friday night and got to see this guy beat the snot out of three grown men. Yeah, I know it does not have anything to do with comics but you gotta watch it. Trust me.
- Olympic loser street comics.
- Top Shelf is offering an exclusive signed pre-order of Alan Moore's new book. I know this may sound crazy but it is totally possible to take pre-orders without making a Kickstarter video. What will they think of next!
- And finally- Freedom is just another word for seven years in Siberia.
Oh, and one more last thing! Did you know you can leave comments on these posts here at file under other? It's true! And, I'll probably respond. Twitter and facebook killed the message boards but that's no reason why you can't argue with me, praise me or leave me recipes. It's your intronet. Have fun!
And that's just a taste of some of the interesting things going out there in the wonderful world of comics and things. I can't keep up with it all but I do keep up with a lot of it on twitter and I try to re-tweet the good stuff. You should probably follow me there. If you did something to make comics better this week then high-five!
Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith
p.s. Say you want a leader but you can't seem to make up your mind. I think you'd better close it and let me guide you to my twitter feed.
p.p.s. Let's pretend we went to high school together on facebook.
p.p.p.s. Google + is another place you can read the same thing I posted here.
p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.
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