In the latest issue of the New Yorker (available to subscribers only), Michael Chabon has a new short story:
Citizen Conn:
Short story about the attempts of a female rabbi at an assisted-living facility to reconcile two estranged comic-book artists
Category Archives: Comics
Alan Moore chat
How did I miss this? Alan Moore had a 2-1/2 hour chat with supporters of the kickstarter project to have a Harvey Pekar Library statue in Cleveland. Go watch, go watch now.
Before Watchmen, A Really Bad Idea
So, DC is going ahead and publishing a series of prequels to Watchmen. This is a bad idea on a number of levels.
First of all, the series has all the back story and information about all the characters. There really isn’t any back story to be told.What more do we need to learn about any of the characters that wasn’t already there in the original story?
Second of all, only one of the creators is involved. Dave Gibbons has given his blessing, but Alan Moore is laughing at it all. Without both of the amazing creators, then I doubt it could be anywhere near as good.
Speaking by telephone from his home in Northampton, England, Mr. Moore said, “I tend to take this latest development as a kind of eager confirmation that they are still apparently dependent on ideas that I had 25 years ago.”
Third of all, it makes no sense. There was already a movie. It didn’t do enough business to justify a sequel. There have been Watchmen merchandise out for the last 25 years. Does DC think they can make more merchandise sales off a prequel? It’s not going to appeal to little kids, so the merchandising opportunities are limited. They aren’t talking about ongoing series, so there really doesn’t seem to be any long term plan here.
Overall, this looks like DC grasping at straws to find something that will connect to people without any understanding of why Watchmen was special. There’s a huge gap between using Watchmen as an influence for a new series and trying to trade on Watchmen’s popularity to try and sell comics. DC has crossed the line and no one is surprised.
Harvey Pekar’s new book
The Flashmob Fridays blog takes a look at the upcoming Harvey Pekar book: Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland.
What I believe is the final completed work by the late author Harvey Pekar is now available, an expansive memoir that also performs about half of the time as a history of Cleveland, Ohio. The so-called navel-gazing, emo, whiny autobiographical comics of the ‘80s and ‘90s were never as large in number as detractors claimed, but what there were always found an antidote in Pekar’s comics, which addressed disease, relationship and work problems with either a crusty humor or resolve, a get-it-out-and-over-with quality that Pekar brings to this finale project.
Habibi by Craig Thompson
Craig Thompson is one of the more celebrated graphic novelists around. Each of his books is lavishly praised and awarded. But, for some reason, I just never like them as much as everyone else seems to. I thought Good-bye Chunky Rice was forgettable and Blankets was merely decent. So it was some trepidation that I picked up Thompson’s latest award winning novel Habibi. And, while I enjoyed it, I was still not thinking that it was as great as everyone makes it out to be. So, let’s go over Habibi and see why.
Continue reading
Batman/Hamlet
In the 90s, the Elseworlds superhero stories were all the rage. Steve Englehart had an idea for Hamlet as Batman that was never published, but he shares a synopsis with IO9.
Alone in a deserted turret of the castle, Hamlet calls himself a coward and berates himself. The Jester comes and talks with him, advising him to take his adoption of a false persona a step farther. If he, Hamlet, can’t make himself act, why not “become” a man dedicated to action? “They’ll still know who I am,” complains Hamlet. Then why not wear a mask? Something designed to show those who encounter you that you’re no one to be trifled with? Something to strike fear in their hearts! At that moment, a bat flies through the turret window. And so is born…the idea for the Bat-man.
Section Zero online
A decade (or so) ago, a bunch of comic creators decided to create their own imprint and publish some creator-owned books through it. And Gorilla Comics was born. Unfortunately it died soon afterwards due to lack of funding and the planned internet portal never worked out. And some of the books were left half finished. Karl Kesel has decided to post the existing pages of Section Zero (created by Kesel and Tom Grummett) on his website: Mad Genius Comics.
And not only is the old material being reprinted (reposted?), but Kesel and Grummett are going to be doing new material as well. Exciting news.
Morrisoncon
Anyone interested in Morrisoncon?
FALL 2012
A once in a lifetime opportunity to see Grant Morrison and 9 hand picked comic creator superstars, all together for one weekend, one time only.
It sounds interesting, but I’d be interested to see a few more details (such as were, when, who else and how much).
Best Book/Comics of 2011
Ground Rules first. This is a list of the best books that I read for the first time in 2011. The book/comics didn’t have to be published in 2011. And this is the best books/comics I read this year in no particular order
- Alison’s Bechdel Fun Home – Alison Bechdel is the creator of the comic Dykes to Watch Out For and the originator of the Bechdel Test for movies. This book is her memoir about coming out of the closet and her issues with her father (and his issues as well). Wonderfully told in a circular way, it must be read. My review.
- David Small Stitches
– A family doesn’t deal with issues, psychological and physical and a small by is left with stitches that the family cannot hide. A wonderful look at a dysfunctional family. My review.
- GRRM A Dance with Dragons – After years of ignoring them, I finally caught up with The Song of Ice and Fire in time for GRRM’s latest masterpiece. A huge cast of characters deal with issues on an epic scale. This is a series everyone should be reading. My review.
- Adam Levin The Instructions – A huge book covering a four days in the life of a small boy who may (or may not) be the messiah. This is a wonderfully told tale, but it isn’t for everyone. My review.
- Junot Diaz The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – A look at a boy who is so tied up in science fiction/fantasy that he cannot have the life he really wants despite the efforts of everyone around him. My review.
- Neal Stephenson REAMDE – Stephenson goes back to his Stephen Bury days to give us a modern day thriller with video games and technology and geography thrown in as sidelines. There’s been a lot of disappointment from some quarters, but it is still a great Stephenson book. My review.
This post is part of the thread: BestOf – an ongoing story on this site. View the thread timeline for more context on this post.
Are X-Men Human?
A podcast covering a comic book question that leads to a real-life lawsuit:
Reporter Ike Sriskandarajah tells Jad and Robert a story about two international trade lawyers, Sherry Singer and Indie Singh, who noticed something interesting while looking at a book of tariff classifications. “Dolls,” which represent human beings, are taxed at almost twice the rate of “toys,” which represent something not human – such as robots, monsters, or demons. As soon as they read that, Sherry and Indie saw dollar signs. it just so happened that one of their clients, Marvel Comics, was importing its action figures as dolls. And one set of action figures really piqued Sherry and Indie’s interest: The XMEN, normal humans who, at around puberty, start to change in ways that give them strange powers.
So Sherry and Indie went down to the customs office with a bag of XMEN action figures to convince the US government that these mutants are NOT human. That argument eventually became a court case that went on for years. Joe Liebman, former international trade attorney for the US Department of Justice, helps us understand the government’s side. And Ike, with help from director and producer Bryan Singer, reflects on the story of the XMEN, and tells us why this case is so poignant for anyone who’s fought to be different without being cast as an outsider.
H/T: Boing Boing and SlashFilm