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2 May 2007
[comics] Revenge of the Dark Knight — profile of Frank Miller … ‘Miller got famous for fight scenes that played like ballet across comic book pages bounded by rooftop water towers and dingy alleyways of Hell’s Kitchen in New York. Now he is far from his New York world and getting further from comics, where he has been a beloved figure; if this Hollywood player’s romance is a passing affair, can he comfortably go back to just the small pages? “That’s the hardest question. I love that community and love the freedom I have had there and the success there and appreciation. But I’m on this new adventure right now.”‘
30 April 2007
[comics] Forbidden Planet Blog: Steve Ditko documentary on the BBC … ‘Jonathan Ross has a programme coming up on the BBC entitled “In Search of Steve Ditko” […] Contributors include Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Mark Millar, Stan Lee, John Romita and Paul Levitz among others…’
19 April 2007
[comics] Massimo Belardinelli 1938 – 2007: A Tribute by Pat Mills — very sad to hear news of the death of this stalwart 2000AD artist from it’s earlier years … ‘It is also worth stressing his real devotion and loyalty to 2000AD. He was not working for 2000AD as a portfolio piece before he headed off to Marvel or Vertigo; in working on the comic he had arrived. It was where he chose to be. I can relate to that. As one 2000AD reader, Steve Earles, put it to me today, he was: “A true one-off. In this day of cookie-cutter clone artists we will not see his like again.” I concur…’
16 April 2007
[comics] A Script Review of Grant Morrison’s We3 — a look at Morrison’s script for New Line Cinema’s adaptation of We3 … ‘Much of the film is a long chase, a blend between one of Disney’s Fantastic Journey films and, perhaps, The Iron Giant by way of Robocop or another hard, gristle-strewn actionaer. It is also a brilliant and incisive exploration of freedom, instinct, will the universe’s natural orders… and the desire to identify yourself as an individual.’
14 April 2007
[comics] Stuart Immonen on Computers and Art: ‘…Huge imagebanks and community photosites started cropping up online. If I wondered whether the NYPD drove Ford Crown Victorias or Chevy Impalas (trick question– they use both), the answer was available in a matter of clicks. Need to know the typical architecture in the Pyrenees or the Ginza? No problem. The governing philosophy is this: reference is a device, and is only as useful as the artist who wields it is talented. In other words, ideally, it will spur creativity, not stifle it, allowing the artist to work efficiently and effectively.’
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13 April 2007
[comics] The Connections between Lost and Watchmen — interesting Wikipedia-style article … ‘In Watchmen there are a character named Bernard, who opened a magazine store to meet people after his wife, Rose, died. In lost Rose and Bernard are two minor characters…’ [via Pete Ashton]
8 April 2007
[comics] The Mile High Collection — interesting Metafilter discussion on the discovery a massive collection of Golden Age comics (reminds me of Seth’s wonderful Wimbledon Green) … ‘$2 million for Action Comics #1. $273,000 for Flash #1. This society is sick.’
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6 April 2007
[comics] Top 15 Unintentionally Funny Comic Book Panels — great list including some I’ve blogged before. Includes this classic panel: 
5 April 2007
[comics] Are People really that anxious to see Lois get spanked?!? — amusing collection of letters from Superman comics in the Sixties … ‘Dear Editor, Everybody keeps asking for a story in which Lois gets a super-spanking. You keep saving Lois from a well deserved thrashing by saying SUPERMAN is a gentleman and would never hit a lady. Well I KNOW he’s a gentleman. But what about a story in which SUPERMAN meets up with RED Kryptonite…’
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29 March 2007
[tv] Quotes from the Batman TV Series … Batman: ‘A reporter’s lot is not easy, making exciting stories out of plain, average, ordinary people like Robin and me.’ [via linkbunnies.org]
23 March 2007
[comics] 2000 AD Prog Slog — a blog covering a rereading of the first 1000 or so issues of 2000AD … On Judge Dredd in Prog 56: ‘You would have thought that if there were such a thing as a robot car with an ethics circuit that there would be a back up to it in case of failure or access to it would be limited to an administrator account that only the manufacturer would have the password to. In the Judge Dredd story that finishes this issue, all Dave Paton has to do to cause this critical function to fail resulting in his car, Elvis, to go on a four prog long killing spree is to pop under the bonnet and accidentally drop a spanner onto the circuit.’ [via Forbidden Planet’s Blog]
21 March 2007
[comics] Five Artists who should draw Dredd — interesting list from comics artist Chris Weston’s Blog. ‘…while we are at it could we please have a ROGUE TROOPER one-off by Joe Kubert?’ [via Blackbeltjones]
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20 March 2007
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13 March 2007
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12 March 2007
[comics] Captain America Killed — amusing Onion Vox Pop… ‘Yet another intelligence failure by S.H.I.E.L.D.. How many more screwups must we endure before Bush fires Executive Director Nicholas Fury?’
10 March 2007
[movies] Tom Cruise’s Starring Role in Watchmen Narrowly Averted … ‘I asked him point blank about Cruise, and he confirmed that he and Tom had been talking about it. A lot. But that now it looked like Cruise would not be appearing in the film. “He was interested,” Snyder confirmed to me. “I did talk to him about it for a while.” And would the role he wanted be Ozymandias? “That would be the role,” Snyder said.’
9 March 2007
[comics] Interview with Grant Morrison — this one from 1999 … ‘As writers, we have to know what’s going on, because our lives depend on it. Y’know, I get paid by the script. If I don’t do any scripts, my whole life falls apart, we have to keep writing. And we have to keep being aware of what the pop culture is saying. It’s not even a conscious thing, but you’re in there, you know what’s going on, you know what’s going to sell, you know what kids are interested in. And editors don’t, because they’re getting a salary, they don’t have to care. They’re set up, they’ve got their pension funds, so we actually know how the stuff is done. We know what people want.’
8 March 2007
[comics] How D’Israeli Drew Leviathan (Or, Drawing Comics from Scratch on Computer) — nice guide to how a page of D’Israeli and Ian Eddington’s 2000AD serial was created.
5 March 2007
[comics] Matt Murdock is a Dick … the infamous moment when Matt Murdock drops a kid down a lift shaft in Daredevil #209 … 
4 March 2007
[comics] The Image-Soaked Future — Bryan Appleyard on comics recent successes in bookstores. ‘…one rather banal reason for such success must be mentioned — Chinese printers. A few years ago, it became radically cheaper to print in China. For graphic novels, this was a turning point, as they are expensive to produce. The Jonathan Cape boss Dan Franklin, the form’s leading British publisher, estimates that Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan, with its fabulously complex and beautiful images, would have had to be sold at between £30 and £40 if printed in the West. Thanks to China, it sells for £18 — a lot, but not vastly out of line with a conventional hardback.’
3 March 2007
[comics] This Vicious Cabaret — Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s This Vicious Cabaret set to David J’s music … ‘They say that there’s a broken light for every heart on Broadway. They say that life’s a game, then they take the board away. They give you masks and costumes and an outline of the story.Then leave you all to improvise their vicious cabaret…’
1 March 2007
[comics] The Reversible Man — another classic Alan Moore Time Twister on scans_daily.
28 February 2007
[comics] E-Petition: ‘We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to award knighthoods to John Wagner, Pat Mills and Alan Grant, in recognition of the 30th anniversary of the great British comic, 2000AD.’ [via Barbelith]
26 February 2007
[comics] 30 years of the future — 2000AD is thirty years old today! Zarjaz, Earthlets! … ‘Judge Dredd is a complex character for liberals to deal with. Comics historian Paul Gravett, co-author of Great British Comics, notes: “He is a huge bully. But there are readers who quite like the idea. We show in my book a picture of a modern day policeman – they look just like Judge Dredd. In many ways we are living in Mega City One.”‘ [via The Coffee Grounds]
24 February 2007
[comics] When even Dave Sim Finds You Weird — Metafilter discuss Dave Sim recieving a book proposal from a Furry … ‘The more I think about it, the more Dave Sim reminds me of Bobby Fischer. Brilliant guy, but good for one thing and one thing only. The fact that Fischer is an ugly little Nazi sympathizer doesn’t make him less of a great chess player…’
22 February 2007
[comics] Whatever Happened to Miracleman? — a look at the tortured publishing history behind Marvelman / Miracleman … ‘Alan Moore recently announced on Internet podcast Fanboy Radio that 90-year-old Marvelman creator Mick Anglo is still interested in claiming rights from all Miracleman material.’
[comics] Ask Metafilter: How would one become Batman? … ‘Then it dawned on me… Batman is a savant. He is a highly functioning savant to be slightly more accurate. He reads a book and knows it, he hears something ans remembers it. He sees patterns everywhere, and understands them. This idea, is humanly possible (maybe) and makes him knowing so much pretty easy. The rest is in the training… and with enough time and money and drive to do it, he could be lethal. Especially if we go the savant route because learning where and when to strike would wouldn’t take as much training. Batman has a very rare form of autism.’
19 February 2007
[comics] The Time Machine — early Alan Moore comic from 2000AD with art from Jesus Redondo (this remains one of my favourite comics) … 
13 February 2007
[comics] The Death of a Role Model – Conclusion (some spoilers) — some interesting points on Dave Sim and the conclusion of Cerebus … ‘I find it amazing that the prelude to the end of Form and Void was echoed with my own impressions of the story as it ended. Can you imagine how Cerebus felt when he saw Ham (a man he greatly admired) had blown his own head off with a shotgun? That’s how I felt at the end of Form and Void. Dave’s brains, his effort, splattered on a steamy pile of clotting blood in the snow. I don’t know if that was the intended effect, but I find it really likely it was.’ [via Meowwcat]
9 February 2007
[comics] Dyspeptic Planet — Interview with Evan Dorkin. ‘…you know what? Football players are idiots, but nerds can be bastards too. Eltingville is about the tyranny of fandom, and fans who believe that everything that they buy and are into is just for them and no one else. And they hug it so close to themselves that they suffocate it. And they are not just these loveable little losers — well, a lot of them are [laughs].’
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[comics] Stupid Comics on British Girls Annuals … ‘These comics aren’t all fun and games. Real-world problems and issues were sometimes dealt with in a frank and open fashion, uncompromising and stark, facing society’s problems head on. For instance… Sometimes, sometimes Daddy buys you a pony, and that pony is SO mischevious and fun-loving that it becomes embarrassing at equestrian events! A real-world problem that many British teenage girls wished they faced.’ [via qwghlm]
7 February 2007
[comics] Harvey Pekar on Letterman — the infamous episode where Harvey seriously manages to wind-up Letterman … ‘You’re a dork, Harvey – Relax!’ [via Journalista]
[comics] Interview with Grant Morrison from 2004 … ‘This last year after my dad died and my cats died, I felt so bad and so hopeless but I had to acknowledge that I still felt. These feelings are not actually the negative kinds of states that they try to convince you they are. They’re feelings, and they’re all quite sharp and they’re all quite bright and alive. The meaning is that life HURTS in many instances, generally because it implicates us in something desperately precious and fragile and temporary.’ [via Pete’s Linklog]
31 January 2007
[comics] Warren Ellis, Novelist — Ellis on his new book Crooked Little Vein … ‘I sat down and wrote the first ten thousand words of an utterly unsaleable novel. I figured I could recycle the material into comics later. So I handed her this horror of a thing, complete with Godzilla Bukkake scene, and said, take this and leave me alone. Thinking, obviously, that she’d decide I was insane and never bug me again. Two weeks later, she phoned to tell me she’d sold it to Harper Collins in New York…’
30 January 2007
[comics] Belle de Jour and Judge Dredd: ‘…he only gives her six months imprisonment? You call that sympathy?’
24 January 2007
[comics] Gerhard and Aardvark-Vanaheim Have Parted Ways — Dave Sim and long-term artistic collaborator Gerhard have gone their separate ways … ‘Effective as of December 31st, 2006 Gerhard has parted ways with Aardvark-Vanaheim and long time partner Dave Sim. Dave is still in the process of gathering the funds necessary to buy out Gerhard’s 40% share of the company, but this will not affect the publication of future Cerebus volumes…’ [via Meowwcat]
23 January 2007
[comics] Mr. and Mrs. Natural — Update on Robert Crumb and family … ‘Comics have always bound the Crumbs. Aline and Robert met in 1971 after she heard about a large-rumped woman named Honeybunch Kaminski created by Mr. Crumb for his Snatch Comics series. Ms. Crumb, whose surname from her first marriage was Kominsky, bore a physical resemblance to Honeybunch, and she set out to meet the famous R. Crumb. “She was the first woman I met whose emotions didn’t scare me,” Mr. Crumb said.’ [via The Coffee Grounds]
[ireland] A Policeman’s Best Friend — Steve Bell on brilliant form today.
9 January 2007
[comics] Extraordinary Things to Come — Alan Moore discusses The Black Dossier his book about the history of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen … Moore: ‘Who did the music? It was me and Tim Perkins, pretending to be a 50s American rock and roll band. I’ve discovered, at this late stage in my life, that I am, in fact, an Elvis impersonator. But you’ll have to wait and listen for yourself, you know? [His voice assumes an Elvis Presley-like drawl] “Uh huh, thank you very much.” So there’ll be a lot of little goodies, because me and Kevin like that. We like having lots of nice little things in there. It reminds us of British comics of our youth, where there were always these kind of cheap giveaways included. But we’ve got some quite expensive giveaways in this one.’
6 January 2007
[comics] The Bride of Pressbutton — four pages from an un-reprinted Alan Moore Stars My Degredation strip in Sounds Magazine from 1982 … ‘Holy Shit! Willya lookit the Micro-Tolerances on that!!’ [via Forbidden Planet]
2 January 2007
[comics] A Tourist Map of Gotham — Who knew there was an Archie Goodwin International Airport in Gotham City? [via Kottke]
[comics] Another Free Comic to Download: Phonogram #1 by Keiron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie. [via Warren Ellis]
30 December 2006
[comics] Two Free Crime Comics to Download: Criminal #1 and Cross Bronx #1.
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