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London Bloggers [Comic Blogs][Other Blogs] | 20 December 2001
[comics] Reining in a Dark Horse — long, interesting interview with Diana Schutz … On Dave Sim: ‘What do I believe? I believe that Dave is an extraordinary human being, extremely talented and that means that he deviates from the norm. Is he fucking nuts? Any more than any other artist? I don’t know. I think he’s very, very serious about his interests and his beliefs. When he focuses on something, it tends to consume him. […] Even back in the day when I was talking to Dave on a regular basis, his thoughts moved in very different ways from most people. Not necessarily wrong, just differently. Which is often a sign of genius. I’m not a psychologist. I have no idea. I think he’s a remarkable person, extremely different from the norm, which makes him both unusual and interesting. Is he fucking nuts? Got me.’ [via Cerebus Mailing List]
[movies] A couple of distracting film trailers —
19 December 2001
[comics] Moore and Hayter Talk About Watchmen — brief mention of discussion regarding a proposed Watchmen Film … Moore: ‘Watchmen was designed as a showcase of things that comics are capable of but aren’t so easy to achieve in any other medium. […] With a comic, you can take as much time as you want in absorbing that background detail, noticing little things that we might have planted there.You can also flip back a few pages relatively easily to see where a certain image connects with a line of dialogue from a few pages ago. But in a film, by the nature of the medium, you’re being dragged through it at 24 frames per second.’
18 December 2001
[comics] Time Magazine on the Best Comics of 2001 … On The Golem’s Mighty Swing: ‘Astonishingly, the book feels like the best baseball games: a seat-gripping drama made up of little dramas, all of which add up to something greater than just a game. Nostalgic without being saccharine, the art has the look of old baseball cards put together to tell a story.’ [via Warren Ellis Forum]
[comics] The Canny ‘X’ Men ‘”Was he not an alcoholic?” Morrison interjects. “I always thought he was called Iron Man because he had an iron liver. But that’s what I’m doing with the X Men. Taking them back to the basics. For example, Cyclops, Wolverine, you can tell what these people are just by their names.” Millar agrees. “That’s all I’ve tried to do is make things what they were. I’ve tried to strip them back…” “Naked X-Men!” says Morrison. “Eww. Would Cyclops’ eye beam out of anywhere else?” ponders Millar. “His arse? Arseclops?”‘ [via I Love Everything]
17 December 2001
[war] Bin Laden trail goes cold … ‘Commander Zeman insisted the ground forces attacking al-Qaida had located the terrorist overlord’s cave. When asked what it looked like, he replied: “It looked like a cave.”‘
[wtf] John Walker — American Taliban and Comic Collector … ‘Everything is mint condition except for the What If 23, and Daredevil 318 which are slightly bent in the lower right corners. These are the asking prices, but I will consider any reasonable offers.’ [Related: DD #318 and What If #23 on GCD]
16 December 2001
[comics] Grant Morrison talks about his plans for the New X-Men in 2002 … Morrison on issue #121 : ‘As you probably know, this sees Jean and Emma venture together into the brain of Cassandra Nova… where Charles Xavier’s consciousness is imprisoned in a symbolic landscape. Frank’s work is breathtaking… some sequences are like watching animation unfold on the page. Frank has an early-Disney-gone-bad element to his style which I love and this issue was written to really highlight that. Every page is a masterpiece of design and drawing. PLUS: Emma’s naked in this ish! AND Jean Grey is covered in sperm. And before the inevitable outcry, I hasten to add that Jean’s immersion in semen is entirely tasteful and essential to the storyline…’ [via Barbelith]
[war] Al-Qaeda loses itself in dream world — brief look at the “dream world” of a terrorist network. ‘… the dreams of bin Laden’s followers are more rooted in a perverted surrealism than the study of Islamic history or tradition. While the surrealists used dreams to enrich reality, the fundamentalists pursue their dreams to abandon it altogether. For bin Laden and company the reality of the modern world is a chaos where soccer, aircraft, skyscrapers, moonlight deserts and pilots converge. They reject it to build a new ontological structure, this time made of bits of modernity and antiquity, nature and artifice; magical realism and a fascination with gadgetry.’
15 December 2001
[distraction] Osama Smoking Gun Video — the latest translations … ‘UBL: Phil’s nowhere to be seen and Peggy’s left to run the Queen Vic Over Christmas.’ [via Metafilter]
14 December 2001
[tv] Dom Joly talks about his Home Entertainment … ‘We used to look at all those CCTV cameras and wonder who watched them, so we did things in front of them like mock executions of dogs. It wasn’t very funny so we slo-mo’d it, to give it pathos, then we put Passengers by U2 and Pavarotti on it and it worked. The music gives Trigger Happy totally undeserved depth – we can even drag a tear out of someone occasionally.’
[comics] Following on from an earlier post… the official transcript of the Newsnight Review on Jimmy Corrigan … Miranda Sawyer: ‘I like the pictures.’ [via Bugpowder]
[comics] Reefer madness — The Furry Freak Brothers Strike Back … ‘…they live in a state of blissful torpor relieved only by bursts of paranoia or stimulant-induced frenzy. As such, theirs is a world as edenic as anything imagined by Wodehouse, albeit with references to the Birch Society, Richard Nixon, and other 1970s cultural signifiers. They age at one-fifth of the rate the outside world does, yet by the end of this volume they are already dinosaurs, grumbling with distaste at the punk rockers who mock them as stupid old farts.’
13 December 2001
[tv] When Louis met Granny — the Guardian on Louis Theroux and Christine Hamilton’s Mum … ‘”I don’t like it. You want to make money from the media, but not in this sleazy manner,” said Christine’s mother to her daughter (she barely spoke to Neil at all, except to denigrate his spoken English). “It might be good for them,” interjected Theroux. “It’s good for you, it’s not good for them,” she flashed back.’ [Related: www.neil-hamilton-is-innocent.com]
[comics] Scott McCloud’s 24 Hour Comic Site — an old comic project finds a home on the web … ‘To create a complete 24 page comic book in 24 continuous hours. That means everything: Story, finished art, lettering, colors (if you want ’em), paste-up, everything! Once pen hits paper, the clock starts ticking. 24 hours later, the pen lifts off the paper, never to descend again.’ [via WEF]
[nyc] Tom Wolfe on the City of Change … ‘The case could be made that any post-9/11 federal appropriations to prop up business in New York should go first to the places where you can get Chilean sea bass with a Georgia plum marmalade glaze on a bed of mashed Hayman potatoes laced with leeks, broccoli rabe and emulsion of braised Vidalia onions infused with Marsala vinegar.’ [via Robot Wisdom]
12 December 2001
[war] Broken al-Qaida driven from their last fortress — Another report from Rory McCarthy… this time from Tora Bora. ‘To one side lay a large sheet of American metal marked “Dispenser and bomb, aircraft CBU 87B/B”, the casing for the cluster bomb unit which levelled this ridgeline. A handful of desperate mojahedin soldiers scavenged for scraps of metal among the dozens of unexploded, yellow, cylindrical anti-personnel bomblets scattered across the hillside. On a second sheet of green metal casing nearby an American soldier named Gary had scribbled his own brief marking before loading the cluster bomb into the hold of one of the B-52s. “For those whose dreams were taken,” he wrote, “here are a few nightmares. This is gonna shine like a diamond in a goat’s ass”.’
[tv] Nancy Banks-Smith on Lynne and Gary’s Marriage in Eastenders … ‘This was the first really funny EastEnders – an astonishing novelty. Of course, little Mo was being raped and Jane was dying of cancer and Pauline was giving us her Widow Twankey, but you have to take the rough with the smooth. Gary was marrying Lynne. Their first wedding was called off when Lynne’s sister slit her wrists. This time they got as far as the registrar’s, when who should arrive but Beppe, a barely intelligible Italian with a complicated beard. Beppe usually sounds like a cough drops ad, but love gave him lucidity: “Lynne, Lynne! Don’t do this! Marry him and everybody ends up unhappy!” Everybody, in fact, ended up in the ladies loo.’
11 December 2001
[tv] Something weird about Louis — Gyles Brandreth interviews Louis Theroux … ‘Why did Louis decide to make a film about the Hamiltons? “For a start, I thought they’d agree, which is quite important. And I’m interested in people who invent or reinvent themselves through the media. The Hamiltons have gone from being a serious politician and his wife to being media caricatures. Also, I thought there was something more, something going on under the surface.” As he says this, Louis is pulling a strange face, making saucer eyes at me. I raise an enquiring eyebrow. He hesitates. “Possibly,” he mutters, “some mysterious dimension to their relationship . . .possibly sexual in nature.”‘
[comics] Warren Ellis on Friends Reunited [login required] … ‘Just got back from San Francisco on a speaking gig, narrowly missing 9-11 (decided to head straight home via Chicago instead of heading into NYC to see some people — touched down at Heathrow just as the first airliner hit the WTC).’
10 December 2001
[cartoon] Weblog Angst … ‘Hmm. Actually, this snot tastes pretty good.’
[email] Excellent post on the life-cycle of a mailing list. Stage Five: ‘Discomfort with diversity (the number of messages increases dramatically; not every thread is fascinating to every reader; people start complaining about the signal-to-noise ratio; person 1 threatens to quit if *other* people don’t limit discussion to person 1’s pet topic; person 2 agrees with person 1; person 3 tells 1 & 2 to lighten up; more bandwidth is wasted complaining about off-topic threads than is used for the threads themselves; everyone gets annoyed)’
[celeb] Happy Camper — Independent profile of Julian Clary … ‘He’s done quite a few lengthy profiles over the years and I wonder how it feels, picking up a newspaper or magazine and reading all about yourself. “I always get bored halfway through. It’s a formula, isn’t it. You start with: ‘Julian turns up wearing an expensive-looking jumper and too much jewellery.’ Then it’s the potted history, which is when I glaze over, and then there might be an interesting bit at the end.” “That does sound slightly familiar,” I concede. “Change the formula,” he says. “How?” “I dunno.” “Ho-hum. That’s a nice jumper you’re wearing, Julian. Expensive?” “Yes. And rather hot.”‘
 [comics] First there were storTroopers… then blogTroopers… now comes various Micro Heroes and Villians. [via Neilalien] More:9 December 2001
[photoshop] Something Awful photoshops Bin Laden’s Mountain Fortress … ‘Wow, Osama is like a villain in a James Bond movie… except that he doesn’t speak English and doesn’t have any sexy female underlings because he thinks the sight of a woman’s bared ankle will scorch his retinas.’
[comics] The genius of Jimmy — Raymond Briggs on Jimmy Corrigan … ‘Jonathan Cape also publish Rushdie, Amis, McEwan and Barnes, so can this mean that the modest Mr F C Ware has got a foot in the door of this pantheon? After all, his book is thicker and more expensive than theirs. Full colour throughout! And does it mean that we will live to see an ancient Dame Posy Simmonds go tottering by? ‘
Bugpowder posts a transcript of a Late Show Review of Corrigan between Tom Paulin, Dominic Lawson, Craig Brown and Miranda Sawyer. Paulin: ‘…the colours are dreadful, it’s like looking at a bottle of Domestos or Harpic or Ajax. Awful bleak colours, revolting to look at, it’s on it’s way to the Oxfam shop.’ 8 December 2001
[profiles] First Among Gonzos — yet another Louis Theroux profile… ‘There have been moments when the Theroux charm hasn’t worked. “I’ve been surprised at some of the animosity,” says Clifford. “I had to take Westlife to a hospital which Louis was supposed to film. But the hospital said, ‘We don’t like the programme. We don’t want him to be there’. I suppose it’s because people think he’s taking the piss.” Although Theroux is friendly to his subjects to the point of deference, he does put some backs up. He was once found to be on a Combat 18 hit-list, proving in the nasty post-Dando world that anything is possible for a high-profile personality.’
[reading] DK2 … ‘Kids, these days. Can’t tell the difference between just plain old and classic.’
7 December 2001
[reaction] Heartbreaking Work — interview with Dave Eggers on his reaction to 911 … ‘They made 6,000 people, all with families and loves and dreams, into one amorphous symbol. The challenge now is for us to refrain from the same thing. Those lost do not, I don’t think, symbolize anything, nor does the attack. No act of murder can be symbolic–it’s always barbaric and should never be dignified in any such way at all. Six thousand individuals were murdered, and the best way to dignify the victims is to resist making sense of a mass murder.’ [via Bitstream]
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