Congrats to ADDTF for one solid year of reading comics naked.

Also, welcome back ADD and In Sequence.

Did I miss anyone?

 
Trick

It's Halloween, and I have a cold. My delirium made last night's 60 Minutes II segment on Superheroes all the more interesting. Here is what I learned.

Abnormal minds write comic books.

The Spider-Man movie was a huge success thanks to all those ambivalent, nerdy losers in America who had no success with girls

Art Spiegelman, took the superhero genre to a new level with his graphic novel Maus. It was almost as revolutionary as Spider-man!

Stan Lee single-handedly created Spider-man, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, and most all of the Marvel Universe. But you probably already knew that.

Stan Lee is also a little hurt that he doesn't get any more than a lifetime position and salary from the characters he created ALONE.

Treat

Renee French guests on Maakies with this creepily beautiful strip. Via The Comics Journal message board.

Flyboy contacted me to rub it in that he and Nelson are hard at work on their second Shifter story. They sent me the first few pages, and it's lovely, of course. Bastards.









posted by Steven at 3:04 PM

 
NICKED!

Earlier this week I found out that I've been linked at the new Comics Journal blog, Journalista! My first thought was along the lines of "Oh shit! I've been found out! Must've been the Godzilla piece. Or maybe the MODOK entry." Happily, I have been plugged without comment. I'm actually a little chuffed by the whole thing. Thanks, Dirk.

Please check it out. It's updated daily, and has a huge amount of interesting news and links that you won't find elsewhere. I especially enjoy the entries on international cartooning. Endlessly fascinating.

While I'm at it, if you ever get a chance check out The Comics Journal itself. Many people are put off by the magazine (and potentially the blog and site, as well), but I can't think of another resource that has introduced me to so many great works. For introducing me to Barnaby alone, I am grateful. Not to mention the killer interviews with such artists as Kyle Baker, Noel Sickles, Hugo Pratt and David Mazzuchelli to name just a few.

Parasite

Riding on the coattails of the above blog, I have been enjoying the many links that Journalista provides. Egon Labs is chock full of comic news, with an emphasis on appearances and obscure newspaper and magazine interviews and articles. Thanks to this site I am considering skipping class on November 11 and heading over to Montreal for the Ben Kathor lecture "The Great Museum Cafeterias of the Western World".

Speaking of Architecture

Old news, but I've been meaning to squeeze it in. Al Hirschfeld, the famed caricaturist, will have a theater named after him on his 100th birthday (you have to register with the NY Times to access the page). If you aren't familiar with the man's work, please peruse this small selection of his work, or better yet, head to a library. He's quite possibly the world's greatest living cartoonist.

The former holder of that title, the late Charles Schulz, has a new museum in Santa Rosa devoted to his life and his work.

I just recently found out that there is a Ghibli Museum in Japan, devoted to the films of Hayao Miyazaki, director of Spirited Away, My neigbour Totoro and other fine films. I guess it shouldn't really come as much of a surprise to me that this exists. It looks better than Disneyworld, that's for sure.






posted by Steven at 1:08 PM