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21 November 2001
[comics] Great Comic Panels #1: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller. [ Related: DK2 — DC’s PR Site for Dark Knight Strikes Back]  ‘You sold us out, Clark. You gave them the power that should have been ours. Just like your parents taught you. My parents taught me a different lesson…lying on this street… shaking in deep shock… dying for no reason at all. They showed me that the world only makes sense when you force it to.’
15 November 2001
[comics] Not a Hoax! Not a Dream! Not an Imaginary Story! Dr Doom’s reaction to 911…  [via I Love Everything]
12 November 2001
[comics] Excellent interview with Neil Gaiman in January Magazine … On Sandman: ‘At the time that I was doing it, I was very much hoping that it would change things for the medium of comics. Looking back on it, I don’t think an awful lot. It did an awful lot for Sandman in that graphic novels are still out there, they still sell 80,000-odd a year, year in, year out in America alone. But what I was definitely hoping would happen was the same kind of thing that happened when I read Alan Moore was doing on The Swamp Thing. I went: Well, hang on. Here is someone writing stuff for adults and writing stuff with as much imagination and verve and depth as anything else out there: any other medium out there. I wasn’t going: Oh, I want to write Swamp Thing. I was going: Oh, I want to create my own one of these. It will be interesting to see if in a few years time, the generation that was raised on Sandman do actually start creating more literary and more interesting comics.’ [ Related: Gaiman’s Website, link via Sore Eyes]
10 November 2001
[comics] Jack The Ripper: From Hell … a Master Mason comments on From Hell — the film and comic. ‘As unlikely as it may seem, From Hell is not simply a product of Hollywood greed or opportunism. It is based on a remarkable “graphic novel,” of the same name, by writer Alan Moore and artist Eddie Campbell. Graphic novels, a fairly new phenomenon, are pricey novel-length comics, most often published in quality paperback format and usually aimed at a teen or adult audience. From Hell, an engrossing retelling of the Jack the Ripper chronology, is possibly the most prominent graphic novel yet published. It weighs in at over 500 pages of a detailed story, with an additional 42 pages of notes and annotations, where Moore explains some of the more obscure details of Ripper history and gives reasons for choosing among the dozens of competing theories of who did what when. This is important to note because, despite the reputation of comic books for shallow plots and characters, From Hell, the graphic novel, is a multi-layered story that is more akin to the complex novels of Thomas Pynchon than to the simple comics of Walt Disney.’ [via I Love Everything]
7 November 2001
[comics] The Best of the Marvel and DC Comp Boxes — Mark Millar does brief reviews of last months comics… Millar on Marvel’s Alias: ‘Ah, Bendis. I love you. Who else would have Luke Cage shagging the title character up the arse in the opening issue of a new Marvel comic? I haven’t read issue two yet, but the buzz seems to be really building on this so I’m looking forward to it.’ [ Kinda Related: JinxWorld]
6 November 2001
[comics] Girls’ World — excellent interview with Dan Clowes about Ghost World … ‘”I once had this idea to do a comic where a mother tattoos a message on her baby’s head so that years later, when he’s losing his hair, he finally sees it. It would say something like, ‘I never loved you’.” Clowes lets out a bright, engaging laugh, so contagious it’s hard not to laugh along with him, until you realise exactly what it is he’s just said.’ [via Kooky Mojo]
4 November 2001
[reading] Snakes and Ladders by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell … ‘Sat in a sandwich bar in Westminster I meet the sharp south-London wideboy occultist that I’d created some years previously for a U.S. comic book. He looks at me. He nods, and smiles, and walks away. Years later, in another place, he steps out from the dark and speaks to me. He whispers: I’ll tell you the ultimate secret of Magic. Any cunt can do it.’
3 November 2001
[comics] Wanted: superhero — interesting analysis of Marvel’s business problems … ‘Comic-book publishing remains nicely profitable, with a 27% operating margin, but it contributes only 20% of Marvel’s revenue. Licensing has next to no costs but is stuck at 8% of sales–just where it was in 1992. The drag on the company is the Toy Biz division. It develops Marvel characters and Pokémon and World Championship Wrestling figures. The unit had an operating loss of $45 million on revenues of $167 million (72% of the total) in 2000. A plunge in toy sales this year has depressed results further.’ [via Neil Alien]
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1 November 2001
[comics] Pieces of War — interview with Joe Sacco from Sequential Tart … ‘I do comics because I’m a cartoonist. It’s as simple as that. My roommate is a documentary film maker and I see the trouble he has getting funding and making things happen. A cartoonist needs only pen and paper. I’m not taking a two-man camera crew with me on my trips. I think comics are an inviting medium, one that pulls in a reader who might not otherwise read a book about Bosnia or the Palestinians, for example. I feel I can present very hard and complicated material in comics form if I give myself the space. With comics, I feel I can really drop a reader into a time and place. The medium allows me to use flashbacks seamlessly. (Those reenactments popular in documentaries these days seem so embarrassingly out of place.) You add those attributes together, and comics turns out to be a great medium for something like journalism.’
30 October 2001
[comics] Scot plans to make Batman hang up cape — brief interview with Grant Morrison and Mark Millar from the Sunday Times … In the wake of September 11, violent superhumans are not enough anymore. We should be putting the current international developments in context rather than just having wrestling matches between colourful characters. I’ve already started writing X-Men as a pacifist comic. They don’t believe in violence. They want to change the world in other ways. I don’t think there will be as much fisticuffs anymore. I always thought that was rubbish anyway. I’m more into the philosophical basis of comics, the ideas they explore.’ [ Related: Newsarama on the Article, via Barbelith Underground]
28 October 2001
[comics] What Warren Ellis would do if he were a comics publisher [login as Guest] … ‘My initial plan would be to release two books a month. One of them would be original, and one would be reprint. There are major works that have, for whatever reason, been lost to the modern reader. AMERICAN FLAGG issues 1-12, Howard Chaykin. THE NEW ADVENTURES OF HITLER, Grant Morrison & Steve Yeowell with Nick Abadzis. NIGHT MUSIC, the short stories of P Craig Russell. Disappeared. I’d even attempt to license some away: DC Vertigo has let Milligan and Fegredo’s wonderful FACE vanish, and Milligan and Ormston’s darkly funny THE EATERS too. If they don’t want to publish them, I’ll publish them. Alan Moore has probably published enough creator-owned short work in enough venues to merit a collection. In fact, you know what I’d do? I’d assemble what was completed of BIG NUMBERS. I’d go to Alan’s for a couple of days and interview him fairly exhaustively about the project. I’d spend a week talking to a few other people by email. Give me another three weeks to collate and arrange it all, and I’ve got BIG NUMBERS: The Lost Graphic Novel, a book about the thwarted realist breakthrough work of the 80s.’
27 October 2001
[war] Steve Bell’s brilliant step-by-step guide to “smart-bombing”. ‘…can we talk about something else?’
24 October 2001
[comics] Two interviews with the Big Scary Hippy Magician Guy (who writes comics) … Comic Book Resources interview with Moore ‘The thing that turned me towards magic was a panel in From Hell where William Gull was saying something to the effect that the human mind is one place where all of the gods and monsters in human mythology are arguably real, in all of their grandeur and monstrosity. And after writing I thought, oh shit, that’s true. Now I am going to have to rearrange my entire life around this. There is no way to disprove it. I thought I was writing this great piece of Gothic villain dialogue. The gods and monsters inarguably exist and they are real. Because if they don’t exist how many people died because of them, or how many history changing things have been done in the name of these Gods that don’t exist? If they don’t exist why do they kill so many of us in their name?’ [via WEF] Massive Two Part Onion AV Club interview with Moore [ Part 1 | Part 2] ‘I’ve got the whole of Big Numbers plotted. I’d got this enormous A1 sheet of paper the size of a tablecloth that had been divided into 40 rows down the side, and 12 columns along the top. One column for each of the 12 issues, 40 rows for each of the 40 characters. And then, in this grid in tiny, incomprehensibly small biro writing which looks like the work of a mental patient, and which gives you a migraine just to look at it, there is what happens to each of the 40 characters in every one of the 12 issues. It’s this map of the entire plot. I’ve never done it with any other work, because it is kind of an insane thing to do. I’ve kind of got all that stuff in my head anyway, so the only real reason for writing it down on paper is just to impress and frighten. But because I’d still got the plot, we were able to reconstruct the basis of a 12-episode TV drama series. Whether it’ll ever make it to TV or not, no idea.’ [thanks to Kenny]
22 October 2001
[comics] Excellent, long Comics Journal interview with Peter Bagge by Gary Groth … ‘Ya know, Alan Moore recently described the current state of alternative comics to me really well, comparing it to right now as opposed to five or ten years ago. He said it’s kind of like somebody left the top of the soda pop bottle off, where it looks the same and it tastes the same, but the fizz is gone.’ [ Related: Bagge’s Website]
20 October 2001
[comics] Mad Man — MSNBC interview with Alan Moore … ‘[Interviewer] Are you planning on attending the “From Hell” premiere? [Moore] If left to my own devices, I wouldn’t. I’m not really a big cinema guy, and I don’t really like public appearances. I only signed up to be a writer. I didn’t really sign up to be a celebrity. When I became a comic writer there was no more obscure job in the world. But my daughters, they’ve got some sort of plan that involves kidnapping Johnny Depp and giving him roofies. So I’d probably better be there.’ [via Barbelith Underground]
19 October 2001
 [comics] One of the weirder comics of the 70’s: Superman vs. Muhammad Ali ‘From start to finish, the book is a miniature time-capsule of the era that spawned it. For starters, it sports a wrap-around cover depicting hundreds of late-70s celebrities from the world of pop culture. Entertainment legends like Frank Sinatra and Lucille Ball are easy to spot, but for today’s readers even the “key” inside the front cover may not explain the identities of all the has-been stars. Ron Palillo and Robert Heyges? (Here’s a tip: “Up your nose wit’ a rubber hose!”) Tony Orlando? Wolfman Jack? Trust me, kids, you didn’t miss anything. Sharing “the good seats” with these pop icons are comic book characters like Billy Batson, Hal Jordan, Oliver Queen, Barry Allen and Diana Prince. Little do they know that neaby sit the DC writers and artists who control their destinies (Joe Shuster, Jerry Seigel, Neal Adams, Wally Wood, Cary Bates, Gil Kane, E.Nelson Bridwell). Over there in the front row is something you don’t see every day — President Jimmy Carter sitting next to Sonny Bono and Batman (!).’
18 October 2001
[film] Interesting review of From Hell from the New York Press: ‘…despite its surface slickness and baldfaced artistic pretensions, this is an angry, empathetic movie. It’s genuinely interested in the lives of the poor, and righteously angry at the rich ruling class that has used the poor as servants, whores, entertainers and guard dogs since civilization began. The second half spirals into a bizarre conspiracy that turns history into a slanderous comic book, then delivers an intelligent, downbeat, provocative ending that’s sure to alienate most viewers, and finishes up by reminding us that nothing we just saw can be taken at face value because it’s all the memory of an absinthe-pickled opium addict.’
[wtf?] Bin Laden as Lex Luthor — Salon compares them… ‘Like bin Laden, Luthor is an ultramillionaire whose aim, we are told, is nothing short of the defeat of the civilized world and/or the enslavement of mankind (or, in the diabolical Saudi’s case, women). His loathing for Superman is personal: According to DC comics lore, Luthor went bad as a teenager when Superboy, rescuing him from a scientific experiment gone awry, inadvertently caused him to go bald. Similarly, the U.S. rescued bin Laden and the other mujahedin during the Afghanistan War, but then emasculated him by persuading the Saudis to take in our troops instead of his during the Gulf War.’
13 October 2001
[comics] Newsarama covers DC’s plans for The Authority with reaction from Mark Millar, Bryan Hitch and Warren Ellis. ‘The Authority will not appear in any form we recognize for some time to come. Because for it to work, it must be callous. It must be horrible, and violent, and must be gleeful about what it’s doing. If it’s not cranked up to ridiculous volume, viciously insulting to the genre that spawned it and blatantly absurd in its scale and its disregard for human life… it’s just another superhero team book. You can find those anywhere. Unfortunately, the clash between the Authority style and the real-life events and attitudes surrounding it means that, at least for a little while, it’ll have to be just another superhero team book. If it’s going to be published at all. Personally, I think the audience is ready for it. It’s escapism, and it’s revenge fantasy on the biggest possible scale. But the people who make the decisions clearly believe otherwise.’ — Warren Ellis.
12 October 2001
[politics] Political cartoonist Steve Bell visited all the Labour, Tory and Lib-Dem Party Conferences …. ‘Theresa May has a strange simpering manner and a magnificent nose, along with bags under her eyes that suggest a wealth of experience, though not in transport, local government and the regions.’ [ Related: Archive of Steve Bell Cartoons]
 [comics] Excerpts from Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s Watchmen courtesy of Amazon … [via Haddock] Rorschach: ‘Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach. This city is afraid of me. I have seen it’s true face. The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout “Save us!”… and I’ll look down and whisper, “No.” They had a choice, all of them. They could have followed in the footsteps of good men like my father, or President Truman. Decent men who believed in a days work for a days pay. Instead they followed the droppings of lechers and communists and didn’t realize that the trail led over a precipice until it was too late. Don’t tell me they didn’t have a choice. Now the whole world stands on the brink, staring down into bloody hell, all those liberals and intellectuals and smooth-talkers… and all of a sudden, nobody can think of anything to say.’
9 October 2001
[comics] Comic Book World Is Not Immune From Terror Attacks — another look at Marvel and DC’s reaction to 9-11 with comments from John Romita Jr. and J. Michael Straczynski… ‘Although Mr. Romita tries to limit the violence he draws, he regularly blows up empty warehouses, knocks off portions of buildings and shows Spider-Man battling evil in the streets of the city. “I have done this before — why is this so hard?” Mr. Romita said in a telephone interview, as he sat in his office in San Diego, drawing pictures of superheroes quietly aiding firefighters searching the debris. “The answer is obvious,” he said of his creative struggle. “There are thousands and thousands of people beneath that rubble.”‘ [via WEF]
8 October 2001
[comics] Chick Christian Comix … links and brief comments from Disinfo on Jack Chick. ‘Hell is a very real place to Mr. Chick. He sees Demons lurking around every corner, and this special brand of paranoia and literal-mindedness endows his work with its sick charm and has granted him status as a pop culture icon among some of the very people that he probably despises. This is the absolute zenith of contemporary religious kitsch!’
6 October 2001
[comics] To be Precise, Tintin — another look at Michael Farr’s Tintin – The Complete Companion … ‘In a career of more than 50 years, Hergé produced only 24 Tintin books. Had he been less meticulous, he might well have been a lot more prolific, but I doubt he would have ended up being so widely loved and admired. Picking up a Tintin book the other day for the first time in many years, I found myself torn between a narrative-driven urge to race through the frames as quickly as possible and an impulse to linger and wallow amid the lovingly realised visual detail, the brilliant evocation of time and place. I don’t think there are any other books which made quite such an impact on my childhood imagination as Tintin.’
4 October 2001
[politics] Steve Bell in Brighton — Tuesday and Wednesday … ‘Blair sweeps in, looking serious, determined, resolved and orange. It’s been niggling in the back of my mind as to why everybody on stage at this conference seems to be orange. It must be a combination of the lighting effects and the backdrop. Or perhaps they’ve all been inoculated against chemical attack with Sunny Delight.’ [ Related: Archive of Steve Bell Cartoons]
3 October 2001
[comics] Will Superheroes Meet Their Doom? … Time on what happens to the mainstream comic book industry after 9-11. ‘…publishers Marvel and DC may feel the impact most of all. They are both located in New York, but that’s not the reason why. They both specialize in a kind of entertainment, superhero books, that suddenly seems off-key. Who can now abide the fantasy of an evil madman’s nefarious plot to kill thousands of people being foiled by a muscle-bound troglodyte?’ [via Comic Geek]
2 October 2001
[politics] Steve Bell in Brighton … Britain’s finest political cartoonist visits the Labour Party Conference. ‘To Brighton, storm-lashed and ready for war. It’s also where I live, so, as a ratepayer paying for this steel-ringed, machine gun-equipped securityfest, I am already irate.’ [ Related: Archive of Steve Bell Cartoons]
[comics] Tintin’s Nazi Spin — review of Tintin: The Complete Companion by Michael Farr. On Hergé’s war years: ‘…even Farr struggles to offer a positive explanation for The Shooting Star, written in 1941, about a European expedition to recover a meteorite from Arctic waters. In the wartime version of the adventure the rival expedition is American and funded by a sinister Jewish financier called Blumenstein. In later editions the financier was changed to Bohlwinkel and the country to Sao Rico, but the unmistakably anti-Semitic caricature remained.’
1 October 2001
[comics] A couple of preview images and some PR for Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Strikes Again … ‘The Dark Knight returns once again – trimmer, more streamlined, and with a vitality that hasn’t been seen since the first years of his war on crime. Together with his army of Bat-soldiers, including Carrie Kelley – formerly Robin, and now the new Catgirl – the Dark Knight wages a new war on a diseased world that’s become completely lost. But to fight this war successfully, he must first return to being the World’s Greatest Detective and discover what has become of his former allies who were once the World’s Greatest Heroes.’
27 September 2001
[comics] Tragedy Hits America — Jack Chick on 9-11. ‘…here is a word of caution….politicians are trying to hold this whole mess together by creating some kind of all encompassing, universal “god”, composed of all kinds of “gods”, that doesn’t offend anybody including the Muslim god “Allah”. The Bible says there is only one true God, who did have a Son and that Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the answer for the needs of every human being. Our God is a jealous God and will share His glory with none other’ [via Fark]
16 September 2001
[comment] Fall of Empire: Bombs and Magic … Grant Morrison on 9-11. ‘Their destruction in this week’s monstrous assault on thousands of unsuspecting people, signals an end to America’s illusions about itself, its purpose and its boundaries. The isolationist image of a proud cowboy nation using super technology to defend us all against Cold War evil empire nuclear missile attacks is shattering along all its fault lines. Superman has just been exposed to Kryptonite. The American Century is very clearly over now as the shift in global power moves away from hi-fi monolithic, ‘individualistic’ structures towards lo-fi, viral cell culture models.’
14 September 2001
[comics] Comic Book Monsters — from the Letters Page of the Guardian. ‘The omnipotence of American culture and childhood innocence ended in our house on September 11. I sat with my young son watching the images from the World Trade Centre. Suddenly we saw people hanging from the windows at the top of the stricken tower. “Mum,” he said, “where’s Spiderman? He could save them.” Later, as I tucked him up in bed, he asked sleepily, “Is Spiderman not real, mum?”‘ [via Comic Geek]
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10 September 2001
[comics] Don’t Ask the Writer — interview with Alan Moore concentrating on From Hell … ‘The land of suntanned starlets and chiseled action stars would be a strange fit with the 48-year-old Moore, who could be a character out of a Victorian melodrama, with his wild mess of long black hair, beard and ominous voice. “Having a deep voice and kind of being physically imposing, you tend to find that you can talk almost any old rubbish and can make it sound creepy,” he acknowledges.’ [ Related: From Hell Movie Trailer, link via Comic Geek]
9 September 2001
[comics] UltraMoore… tributes to Alan Moore (in Italian and English) from various notable comic creators… Barry Windsor-Smith, Eddie Campbell and Jay Stevens. Windsor-Smith: ‘The intelligence and perspicacity of Alan Moore’s MARVELMAN was responsible for bringing me back into the field of comics. For that, I’m torn between loving and hating him.’ [ Related: Alan Moore Fan Site]
8 September 2001
[comics] The Old Bastard Speaks! … Long, interesting interview with Warren Ellis in Comicon concentrating on the business of comics … ‘I mean you may remember back in the eighties when the term graphic novel was coined. There were some serious graphic novels, but there were a great many 48-page books called, ‘The Incredible Hulk vs. The Living Monolith Graphic Novel’, which led to the form being buried. It’s a little early to tell. Things like Jimmy Corrigan shifting in the tens of thousands and presumably things like Safe Area Gorazde and Pedro and Me doing similar numbers can only be a good thing. But in the eighties the only real breakout, serious, non-genre graphic novel was Maus. And now there are a spread of them. So that alone is better.’ [ Related: Ordering Comics, WEF]
5 September 2001
[comics] Plan To Get Laid At DragonCon 2001 Fails … ‘According to Melcher, women in his hometown of Calhoun Falls “wouldn’t know the Green Lantern from the Green Arrow.” As a result, he has not had a date since former girlfriend and longtime Illuminati: New World Order opponent Carrie Lenz broke up with him in March 2000. “I know a lot of girls online, but that’s not really the same,” Melcher said. “I needed to see some face to face.”‘ [via Comic Geek]
4 September 2001
[comics] The antique rude show — the Guardian looks at Chris Ware’s Acme Comedy Library … ‘…Ware’s emotional levers typically pivot not on what is realised or revealed, but on that which is withheld: “You can now make more money than your grandparents did. You can also drive really fast and change your sex. You can find friends without having to go to church, and you can see movies in your own house. You can get pictures of naked people almost anywhere and you can curse out loud freely. You can get your face stretched tight like when it was new, and you can be sick and not die for a really long time. You can even wash your clothes in a machine, so why can’t you figure out a way to be happy all of the time?” (that’s an “advert” for Dr Linn’s Bronchial Wafers.)’
[comic ads] Count Dante, so-called Deadliest Man Alive (he died in 1975) has his own website and was actually the World’s Deadliest Hairdresser … ‘Count Dante personally went to Muhammad Ali’s (Cassius Clay) house on the south side of Chicago and challenged the Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the world. Count Dante’ also challenged the World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion and the World Heavyweight Judo Champion. Count Dante personally entered the contest and defeated all the comers.’ [via Memepool]
3 September 2001
[comics] Side by side in the fantasy league — Roger Sabin reviews recent comics in the Observer including The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill … ‘The ‘league’ is led by Mina Murray from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and consists of H. Rider Haggard’s Allan Quartermain, Jules Verne’s Captain Nemo, R.L. Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde and H.G.Wells’s Invisible Man, all brought together to combat an evil criminal mastermind from the East and his band of ‘sly Chinee’. Thus begins a penny-dreadful adventure that mimics modern superhero team-ups – Moore’s own Watchmen comes to mind – while retaining an all-important sense of humour. This is very postmodern humour, you understand – Quartermain is discovered in an opium den and the Invisible Man is caught hiding in a girls’ school. Yet it never threatens to overwhelm what is essentially a ripping yarn of a rather quaint kind: you feel that Moore and O’Neill really yearn for a bit of old-fashioned romance.’
1 September 2001
[comics] Working the web: Graphic novels — the Guardian looks at on-line comics … ‘One thing is clear, though: while mainstream culture is just catching up with comics – sugaring the pill by calling them “graphic novels” – comics have already moved on, by moving online. Free publishing space, interactivity and the possibility of animation are giving an old medium a new life.’
31 August 2001
[comics] The Sandman Ate My Balls … ‘It’s Destiny’s luck to run out of balls.’
30 August 2001
[more oj] The UKBlog Kids do more O. J. —
29 August 2001
 [oj] When O. J. Simpson met the UKBlog Kids… it was Murder!
Think you can do better? Here’s the original… go crazy… and email me the results.
Links: OJ and the Dingo Kids met… Metafilter, NTK.
 [comics] Joe Matt’s Girl from Ipanema Talks Back… one of the characters from The Poor Bastard book gives her side of the story … ‘Joe’s rapport, or demeanor if you will, with me was always ranging from hostile to aloof & indifferent. He was very antisocial. At the time I figured he was just a bit off because he was insecure. Hostile, but not in an overtly aggressive way. Not outgoingly hostile, he was just never really there. And never really nice, just nonresponsive & I thought just a bit superior & condescending. But I definitely didn’t see the human equivalence of infatuation. He probably came across as nervous sometimes too but it was all linked to his personality because he seemed pretty introverted & not very friendly.’
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28 August 2001
[comics] The Great Comic Book Ads — looks at the weird things you can buy from the back of old comics. I always wanted to be a GRIT Salesman… ‘I’ve easily read 100 comic books for every book I’ve read, but that’s mostly just because I’m not very smart.’
25 August 2001
[wtf?] Marvel’s Next Hollywood Connection? Celebrity comic writers — the next big thing in mainstream comics… ‘…Freddie Prinze Jr. – maybe the busiest young actor working today – wants to try his hand at writing comic books in the coming months, while he takes a break from acting.’What next… Perhaps Robert Downey Jr. will write Wonder Woman? ‘Police also found a Wonder Woman costume in Downey’s hotel closet, which authorities believe may have been worn by a woman who had been in his room before police arrived.’
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[comics] Mad Magazine Vs. J. Edgar Hoover — the FBI investigated Mad Magazine after J. Edgar Hoover was mentioned in the magazine … ‘Several complaints have been made to the Bureau concerning the Mad comic book, which at one time presented the horror of war to readers. Various comic books of this nature were brought to the attention of the Justice Department, which rendered the decision that such books did not constitute a violation of the Sedition Statutes.’ [via Comic Geek]
24 August 2001
[comics] Cartoon strip seeks to be first of the first books — Jimmy Corrigan in shortlist for this year’s Guardian First Book Award. ‘Ware has won rave reviews for his subtle, innovative book with its dark portrayal of alienated wage slaves and dysfunctional family relationships. The title character is an introverted office dogsbody whose awkward reunion with his long-lost father brings him further confusion and pain. The author is already being championed by last year’s First Book Award winner. “He should win immediately – I don’t even care what else is on it,” declared novelist Zadie Smith. “It’s a work of genius.” The author Nick Hornby is another fan, who said Jimmy Corrigan was “too beautiful to take anywhere”.’ [ Related: Buy Jimmy Corrigan at Amazon, Chris Ware at Fantagraphics]
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22 August 2001
[comics] Sophie Crumb, sketching her own artistic ‘World’ — USA Today on Robert Crumb’s daughter Sophie … ”’Last night, this guy, a fire juggler I met on the street, was looking at something I did and he said, ‘This looks like R. Crumb.’ I said, ‘That’s my dad!’ Crumb, who doesn’t see the resemblance to her father’s work, hopes to avoid cashing in on his fame and plans to pursue a career illustrating children’s books. ”I wish my last name would have nothing to do with it,” she says. ”I thought that Crumb was a common name in Kansas.” She pauses. ”I have to get married to a French guy soon.”’ [via Comic Geek]
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