16 February 2008
[comics] If I Have To Explain It… — Evan Dorkin blogs a scan of the King and Kirby section of the Manhattan Phone Book … ‘Coincidence? I think not!’
13 February 2008
[comics] V Vs Scientology — interesting comment on the Forbidden Planet Blog about V for Vendetta masks used at recent protests against Scientology … ‘V masks have been a tremendous bestseller for us for a while, now I am starting to understand why!’
10 February 2008
[comics] Annotations to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier — from Jess Nevins … On a parody of the London Tube Map included in the book: ‘Many puns here: Maida Jump, Court Short, Turnham Blue, Colouring Inn, Tooting Bottom, Eating Broadly, Rothernot, Pen Stroke Newington, Upper Etching, H.B. Row, Ink Staines, Whiteout City, etc. Also no wonder than Mr Moore’s line would include “Chin Topiary” “Barking” and “Very Cross”…’ [via Feeling Listless]
8 February 2008
[comics] Coloring Comics, Old School — fabulous explanation from Todd Klein about colouring comics in the 70’s and 80’s … ‘I think the 1970s were probably the nadir of paper quality at DC. Comics from the 1940s and 50s had much better paper, and still look it today if well kept, but the company began cutting paper quality to save money some time after that, and when I started it was pretty awful. So, as you can see, any colors other than the primary ones were likely to come out mud.’
7 February 2008
[comics] On Collecting Comics … some useful advice from Eddie Campbell.
6 February 2008
[comics] Chapter 1 of Criminal Online — from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips … ‘Whenever things begin to fall to pieces, I think of my father.’ [via The Comics Reporter]
5 February 2008
[comics] A Wonderful Alan Moore Song — from MJ Hibbett who also did another favourite of mine Hey Hey 16K … ‘Well the entire shop went silent as everybody realised… a generations hero had caught us all buying shite.’ [via Blah Blah Flowers]
[comics] A Conversation with Writer Brian K. Vaughan — interview with the writer of Y: The Last Man as the long-running comic series concludes (link contains serious spoilers) … ‘People have been asking me for so long, “what’s it feel like to be done?” And I was like, not until I hold it in my hands will it feel like it’s going to be over. Actually, I haven’t read it yet, so there’s probably still another undiscovered stage of death. I’ll be angry over the ad placement or something.’
1 February 2008
[comics] Alan Grant’s Edinburgh Lecture — Forbidden Planet Blog reports from a lecture the veteran Judge Dredd / Batman writer gave in Scotland. On Dredd: ‘Alan had been re-reading some of his own early work – something he says normal weekly and monthly comics deadlines don’t leave much time for him to do, he rarely re-reads his own work – in preparation for the talk and is still surprised and a little depressed at how much of what he and Wagner wrote ‘as a laugh’, taking then-current social trends and blowing them up to ridiculous proportions (literally in the case of Two Ton Tony Tubbs), has gone from being satirical humour (something 2000 AD and Dredd in particular has always been good at and something I’ve always relished about it) to being rather too close to the bone (the League of Fatties was hilarious in the early 80s, now he reads about childhood obesity epidemics in Britain and America and suddenly the joke’s not as funny anymore…’
29 January 2008
[comics] Alan Moore in the 1982 BJ and the Bear Annual — scans of some early professional work from a UK TV annual.
27 January 2008
[comics] A List Of How David Banner Got Angry …
47. Being stuck in a cab in New York rush hour traffic – “You don’t understand,… I have to be there by 4.00!” – “Hey, mac, it’s rush hour, we ain’t gettin’ there til five, so relax.” – “BUT I HAVE TO BE THERE BY FOUR!!!”
23 January 2008
[comics] For Sale on eBay: Queen and Country #1 from Greg Rucka and Steve Rolston.
22 January 2008
[comics] The Strangeness of Brendan McCarthy — all-new blog from one of my favourite comic artists.
19 January 2008
[comics] Well Hello There, Robin … amusing behind-the-scenes photo of the 1960’s Batman TV Show.
17 January 2008
[comics] Horror in the Nursery — fascinating scans of an article with Frederick Wertham attacking crime comics from Colliers magazine in 1948…
16 January 2008
[comics] 17 Sensational, Free and Downloadable Graphic Novels — some great stuff here to take a look at including the start of Y: The Last Man, DMZ and Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol (all highly recommended).
14 January 2008
[comics] A Storytelling Thing — interview with Paul Grist, the creator of Kane and Jack Staff … ‘I went and printed out… I think I ended up printing 3000 copies of the first issue [of Kane]. Then I decided to try and sell them. That was a matter of sending out a sample copy to all the comic shops in the UK and selling it directly to them. And from that I found that, out of the hundreds of comic shops in the UK, there were about 15 willing to sell something like that.’
13 January 2008
12 January 2008
[comics] Dave Sim – the Song, not the Singer — fair-minded examination of why Dave Sim’s comic Glamourpuss is worth looking at … ‘Sim as he comes across in print is dogmatic, rude, paranoid, believes women to be subhuman and evil, and holds political and religious views which, to the extent that they’re comprehensible at all, are totally incompatible with humanity. He’s read the Bible as a struggle between Good and Evil and thought that Evil sounded like a good idea. Which is what infuriates me, because he’s destroying the reputation of the finest creative mind of his generation, and I’m sick of trying to defend someone who I find (as an essayist – again, no judgement of him as a human being implied) utterly repellent and inimical to everything I hold dear. But I have to, because he’s that good. Even was Sim’s comic writing as bad as his prose would imply, I would still want to read anything the man did just because of his technical skill.’ [via Meowwcat]
11 January 2008
[comics] Doonesburyland — Radio 4 looks at Doonesbury. Includes an interview with Gary Trudeau and contributions from Steve Bell and Martin Rowson. (This should be available for about a week from now – so check it out.)
10 January 2008
[batman] The OTHER Brian Bolland Batman story — creepy Batman story spotted on scans_daily … ‘I don’t consider myself a Bad Person…’
8 January 2008
[comics] The Rack — I’ve really been enjoying these entertaining comic strips about life at Yavin IV – a Southern Californian comic shop. Check out the start of the comic strip or this weeks staff new comic picks.
29 December 2007
27 December 2007
[comics] Four Colour Funnies in the Old Grey Lady — Metafilter discuss comics from Dan Clowes, Chris Ware, Seth and others published in the New York Times Magazine.
[comics] The Fabulous World of Glamourpuss — a new comic from Dave Sim.
19 December 2007
[comics] On the Twelfth Day of Christmas, My True Love Gave To Me… — a Christmas Special from Chris’s Invincible Super-Blog.
13 December 2007
[comics] Interview with Brendan McCarthy … ‘I’ve got about seven new pitches out with various comics companies at the moment, but I’m not working on an actual comic at the moment…’
8 December 2007
[comics] Another weird comic guest-star: Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen meets Don Rickles … ‘Kirby’s early 70s run on JIMMY OLSEN was his first work for DC after leaving Marvel, and DC let him go hog wild with the book. Kirby used it as a springboard to introduce his “Fourth World” concepts like Darkseid, the New Gods, etc. Oh, and famous insult comic Don Rickles’ twin, “Goody” Rickles.’
7 December 2007
[comics] Scans of Daredevil #133 — from 1976 – oddly guest starring Uri Geller … ‘Daredevil, Wait For Me — I’m a Mentalist, not an Acrobat!’
4 December 2007
3 December 2007
2 December 2007
[comics] The Ha Ha Ha Times — nicely done viral promo site for the new Batman film. Metafilter has more links: Marketing the Bat.
1 December 2007
[comics] Watchmen Movie Blog — a blog of the film production of Moore and Gibbon’s classic comic series.
30 November 2007
[comics] The 40 Worst Rob Liefeld Drawings — I try to keep it positive about comics but let me be clear here – Rob Liefeld is utterly shit. … ‘The most important thing you need to know before reading about all the terrible things Rob Liefeld has drawn is that he has never seen or talked to a woman in his life and has no idea what they look like or how their bodies operate. If you asked Rob Liefeld to draw a diagram of the uterus he’d put on a pair of gauntlets and punch the shit out of your chalkboard. This is how the man operates…’ [via Do You Feel Loved]
29 November 2007
[comics] Rare Viz comic auctioned for £950 … ‘The mint-condition “number one” edition from December 1979 had a guide price of £350-£400, and is one of only about 500 printed. But it went for double its estimate under the hammer at Anderson & Garland auctioneers in Newcastle.’
26 November 2007
23 November 2007
[comics] Kevin O’Neill Interview — O’Neill discusses the LoEG: The Black Dossier … On Alan Moore’s scripts: ‘…when I tidied up my studio, it was the first time I’d put all the scripts into one place, because it’d been written over a number of years. And the finished “Dossier” was bigger than a telephone directory, it was a monster of a thing. If that had all arrived at the same time, I doubt if I could’ve started the book, it would have been so formidable.’
22 November 2007
[evil] Ask Mefi: What fictional evil has great corporate branding? … ‘OCP, Omni Consumer Products. From Robocop.’
20 November 2007
[comics] More from Scans_Daily: The Haunt of Fear: Foul Play, EC’s most controversial story.
19 November 2007
[comics] League of Extraordinary Freelancers – Activate! — Screencaps from Alan Moore’s Appearance on the Simpsons … ‘Milhouse asks [Alan Moore] to sign his DVD of “Watchmen Babies” and asks which of the babies is his favorite.’
15 November 2007
[comics] Inside the Black Dossier — Alan Moore interview on the League of Extraordinary Gentleman: The Black Dossier …
…there was always an interesting thing where Frank Richards, the author of the ‘Billy Bunter’ stories, was having to turn out so many Bunter stories because of his gambling addiction. These were mentioned in an essay that George Orwell wrote, that were basically talking about how the Billy Bunter stories were just holding up the traditional British Empire values of racism and class consciousness in an approving light with the author apparently finding all foreigners amusing, and being very patronizing towards foreigners and women. Orwell wrote a very capable essay decrying all this, and foolishly, Frank Richards, stung by this review, decided to retaliate in a little letter where, in very wounded terms, went through all of Orwell’s points and tried his best to dismiss them. But he said, ‘As for Mr. Orwell’s point about me depicting foreigners as being comical, well, they are!’
6 November 2007
5 November 2007
30 October 2007
[comics] Excerpts from Posy Simmonds Comics Journal Interview — she’s interviewed by Paul Gravett. Posy on the genesis of Gemma Bovery: ‘…she was treating her lover in such a disgraceful way and she was surrounded by Prada bags and expensive shoe bags. She looked so bored and so miserable and she just exuded a kind of “Alas, what might have been.” This Italian friend, said, “Oh, look. There’s Madame Bovary.” So, later I said to The Guardian, “All right, it’s this.” And they said, “Fire away.”‘
27 October 2007
[comics] When did you last see your tutor? — fabulous ‘affectionate recollection’ from Eddie Campbell on Posy Simmonds … ‘I had a lady friend in 1981, just before the book under discussion appeared, who followed Posy in the Guardian (as she checked in on Feiffer in the Observer Sunday magazine and Claire Bretecher in the Times Sunday magazine whenever those other papers fell within reach) who had no idea what the hell I was talking about when I showed her the cartoon novel I was working upon. She saw no possible connect between what Posy was doing and what I intended. I mention this to show how far outside of comic book culture Posy is and was.’
23 October 2007
[comics] Partying with the ‘Dickster’ — Peter Bagge meets Dick Cheney.
21 October 2007
[comics] Travels in Toon Town Part 1 | Part 2 — first two parts of an on-going blog column on the architecture of cities such as Mega City One in comics … ‘Without Mega City One, Judge Dredd [..] would be a rather dull read. Dredd is a tiresome, unemotional leather-clad fascist who beats, shoots, and locks up ‘perps’ in tiny cells called ‘iso-cubes’. His emotional range is minimal, his dedication to upholding the law, unswerving. Yawn. Thank ‘Grud’ then – as Dredd himself might say – for the city and its buildings, its people and robots and the endless freeways and ‘pedways’ that spiral upwards for miles into the sky. Put simply without Mega City One, there would be no story to tell.’
17 October 2007
[comics] Orbital Comics Top 10 Lists — amusing lists posted in Orbital Comics in Central London … [via Kottke]
16 October 2007
[comics] Preview of The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier — the latest from Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill … ‘The story is set in an alternative-history England roughly 50 years after the Martian invasion of 1898. Quatermain and Murray, both strangely younger than when we saw them previous (and they were quite old back then — like, liver-spotted and wrinkled-prune old), are trying to track down a mysterious book that contains secrets about their League adventures and revelations about other League teams throughout history. Natch, there are some baddies who are desperate to make sure the dynamic duo fail in their quest.’