Linko! LXXI

* So, I'm pretty sure most comic people haven't been following this, but of late my acquaintances in the Young Adult/kid lit field have been going off on every conceivable means of social media about some pretty drastic condemnations of modern YA lit in two of America's biggest papers. First, there was a piece in the New York Times that asked the general question of "Why are all these books for teens so grim and gritty?" and then – the real kickstart to this whole ruckus – an article in the Wall Street Journal by Meghan Cox Gurdon about how truly hideously awful many YA books really are.

And hey, it's a pretty bland, pointless little article. It makes big claims about what YA literature really is and what it means for young readers without citing any kind of specific evidence. Mostly it just stirs the pot to get attention, but holy shit, what attention it's gotten. Anyone interested in following the action of YA writers, editors bloggers and the like speaking out against Gurdon's article can look into the Twitter hashtag #YASaves

Beyond that, anyone interested on seeing the kinds of broad reaction to this whole thing could do worse than to check out this blog post from writer Laura Ruby, this Publishers Weekly article on the whole kerfuffle, this Minnesota public radio piece on everything, this NPR roundtable featuring Gurdon and several folks who have publicly disagreed with her and lastly, the most recent disagreement to work its way back to the WSJ as the paper highlights why writer Sherman Alexie is taking them to task.

I'm not entirely sure that the YA writers who are up in arms about this piece aren't making a much bigger deal about this whole thing than it actually is. Then again, I do prefer this kind of discussion around books for young readers than crazy people burning Harry Potter because they think it's the Devil or some shit.

[Note: if you're wondering how I picked the above image, I went Google fishing for a YA cover that was particularly slutty and/or violent but chose this one because it had Twilight placed next to Smallville, which made me giggle for some reason. So there.]

* In much better kids book news, the School Library Journal ranked their picks for what should be the finalists for the Newbery Medal this year, and two of my professors books made the cut (they're the last two entries, FYI).



* Back on the comics front, there is a supremely great find up right now at Jacque Nodell's invaluable Sequential Crush blog: a 1974 DC romance comic that sure seems like it's about a young Lesbian girl. It is kind of hard to tell if that's the creator's intent for sure as the story swerves from openly addressing...well, anything at its end. Nodell wonders aloud whether or not a modern reading is pulling too much out of the strip, which is entirely possible, but I'll admit I have absolutely no frame of reference for what the average teenager knew/thought about their queer peers in the '70s. I've been reading a lot of hardboiled detective fiction from the '40s and '50s of late, and there's plenty of coded language (dandy or what have you) around characters meant to be gay, but I don't know when that kind of writing crossed in to pop culture to the point where I could watch "Revenge of the Nerds" in the '80s and get what the joke was about Lamar.

I think maybe I'll have to ask Lynn Phegley about this next time I go back to Michigan.

* Fantastic post by Heidi Mac at The Beat about the perceived dearth of women working in comics. I mean, I expect some of the dudes on the CBR message boards to only mean "superheroes" when they say "comics," but people who know better should really know better, and props to Ace for pointing that out.

* Hey! There's an anime show coming to Chicago. I may go for funsies.

* Folks interested in the "Parks & Recreation" book that just got announced may want to check out this article on Cricket by the show's writers who will be heading up that effort.

* Saving to listen to later: this podcast on kids comics featuring some of the dudes from Ape Entertainment's Richie Rich relaunch.

* I've never had the urge to get Showtime despite hearing some good things about its original TV shows over the past few years, but a sci-fi series headed up by Salman Rushdie could make me rethink that stance.


I've probably mentioned this before, but I love how Tom Spurgeon takes the time to go through the many blogs dedicated to classic comics and finds the really choice stuff so I don't have to. Included in this survey is:

* Al Wiseman's Punky – God, I love the kind of off brand cartoonists showcase strips that frequently pop up in more well known magazines. Also: why can't people draw like this anymore?

* Walt Kelly Fairy Tale comics - Related to the above opinions!

* Brief, but effective Irwin Hasen biography post.

* In depth post on Carmine Infantino's attempts to sue for the rights to The Flash. I knew about this only in brief detail before now, so hooray for this.

Linko! LXX!

Whew! OK, welcome back to a bunch of stuff I've had open in my browser tabs for week. To start, I just want to say that even though Ben's recent Tweet about this blog becoming a TV blog was both apt and hilarious, I'm hoping to get back into comics blogging with more regularity after our drawn-out Smallville-a-thon/Game of Thrones takeover. That is, after I burn off a final few TV-ish links.

* First, anyone who watched the last Smallville at least 35% seriously will enjoy director Greg Beeman's diary of the finale's production. Great photos too including the one above.

* By the way, the Twitter account I followed along with most during all the finale shenanigans was GrahamTracey's. Dude really loved that show in a way we'll never get.

* Probably not as much as this guy, though. (Thanks, Jim Gibbons)

* In other TV news, now that "Justified" has wrapped for the year, I really want to pick this or something like it up.

* And now on to the hard-line comics shit...


First up, an A+ post from Lea Hernandez about how she posed to be a cover girl for Rocketeer artist Dave Stevens. But really it's about so much more than that (and has tons of better imagery in the post). Also: Hernandez notes that she tried to get a spot in IDW's current Rocketeer anthology relaunch but was rebuffed by editorial. She's trying again, and I 1,000% would like to see what she's got cooking

* Great Anders Nilsen quote. I think I'm going to have to dig to figure where exactly it came from though.

* Friend sent me this and I'd never heard of it: Comics as a path to prison reform – both in promoting comics reading in the prison population and publishing true comic stories from inside the clink through the efforts of Lois Aherns.

* Ken Parille on Jack Kirby and Chris Ware at The Comics Journal.

* Speaking of Ware, here's a piece he did for local Chicago Magazine. (I believe this came from Tom Spurgeon weeks ago)

* This picture always makes me grin. I don't think it was really for anything except keeping the trademark fresh. Ditto these ones.

* A while ago, I was a bit down on the birth of the MTV Geek site, but they've been doing some fun blogging of late. Case in point: Alex Zalben talking to Joe Casey.

* A Topic To Return To Very Soon, But Just a Link For Now: Aquaman is the best damn superhero in comic history.

* On to the general Pop Culture arena...


Sad thing about how the internet works: if you don't take the time to watermark your art images in some way with your name, then you get no credit when people troll through Tumblr to make galleries like this one. Some names you can tell just looking through – Ethan Van Sciver for example – but the more bizarre/disturbing examples of fan art will be made by invisible elves I'm afraid.

* Please for you to read: a very nice, very short essay on childhood reading by my school adviser, novelist and all-around rad lady Anne Ursu.

* Required reading: The Paris Review talks about the seminal Our Band Could Be Your Life with author Michael Azerrad.

* Our bud Dan Brooks files a fun interview with Fastball frontman Tony Scalzo on his music today for Flight Path.

* Novelist and X-Men writer Victor Gischler is researching some kind of project by soliciting the opinion of men and dad's about their trips to Disney World/Land over the years. Go play along at this blog.

* To end on a totally cornball note: this was a very cute interview with the First Lady.

Linko! LXX

* As I'm sure most of you who know where I live have surmised, I will be attending C2E2 in a week, but I think I might be more excited for this:


More info here.

* New fun comics blog for bookmarking: Out of This World! I started with this run on Teen Titans also-ran Mal Duncan, but there's plenty more worth keeping an eye on. (Via Tom)

* And hey, did I never post this link to the History of Black Lightening? Good stuff there. (Via Heidi)

* The great Matt Zoller Seitz writes for Salon on a topic I've been thinking a lot about of late: Will future generations understand "The Simpsons"?

* All I know about the book You Killed Wesley Payne by Sean Beaudoin aside from what I've read on its Amazon page, but I'm going to buy it as soon as I'm caught up on more of my school readings.


* Fun new web comic! Geek Life comes from Bob Boyle – cartoonist and creator of my niece's favorite TV show "Wow Wow Wubbzy!"

* This is my personal political issue that every politician in America seems to be fucking up on, but even if you don't feel the same way, I highly recommend you read The Myth of Charter Schools by Dian Ravitch over at the New York Review of Books.

* Go read all the Kirb Your Enthusiasm posts at HiLo Brow.

* This meme is getting kind of played out, but Hipster Dinosaurs made me laugh.

* Finally, 87% of movies would be better with Michael Keaton in them.

Linko! LXIX

Ladies and dudes,

We're back to Linko! It's been a while since I had time to do a lot of these because I was dealing with the back-to-back traumas of the holidays and my first residency at school (more on that later!), and my browser kept crashing and losing all the links I'd been saving (I know, I know). Still, before we get into some recent internet goodness, there's two things I can't possibly let slip by even though they are weeks out of date.

* Man, it's a real bummer that Dirk Deppey is no longer blogging for The Comics Journal or anywhere for that matter. My general view is that I want to see more smart and discriminating minds engage the comics industry online rather than less – even when the more in question enjoy taking the time to call me stupid and shitty. Dirk's Journalista blog seems completely down on TCJ.com right now. That can't remain that way forever, can it? Ugh. In any event, best of luck to him, and I hope the TCJ folks have a pretty radical move on tap for the future of that site. Sean has more thoughts on all this.

* Right before New Years, the ComicsAlliance kids did a great job covering the breadth of the digital comics landscape right now, particularly David Brothers. Take some time to read their essays on censorship/price and reader desires as well as interviews with BOOM!'s Chip Mosher, IDW's Jeff Webber, writer Mark Waid, DC's Hank Kanalz and Fantagraphics Eric Reynolds. I think there's a few more interviews they did I'm missing here. Go to the site and search for "Digital December."


* As I was still trying to dig my way out of school-created e-mail hole, my peers were really killing it covering the official demise of the Comics Code Authority. I'm kinda of two minds on this whole thing. I agree and understand that the end of the Code is a noteworthy historical event, but I'm nowhere near the level of jump up and down happiness that some folks seem to have hit (not just that link...I've seen a lot of cheering). I personally think that comics as a whole shook off the whole "Wertham" influence in the past decade and maybe even sooner. It just keeps getting brought up because comic folks as a whole carry their beef around in mylar bags so they can bitch from a position of absolute certainty.

Anyway, there's been some interesting historical digging going on in the wake of all this and even some legitimate news in terms of the state of the organization's archival material. For one, MEGA props to Vaneta Rogers and Newsarama who not only broke Archie's half of the Code dissolution story but also did the lion's share of work in regards to the actual state of the organization and its members. Mark Seifert also did a nice job at Bleeding Cool of tracking down some of the tax records of the Code, Werthaming aside. Finally, Heidi seems on top of the quest for the Code's actual physical records. You'd think if DC was de facto in charge, they'd just issue one release and put all this shit to bed, right?

* And hey...Wizard was cancelled. I'm having a much harder time getting worked up over this than some of my bros, but then again, I expected the magazine to get killed about a year and a half ago. I think I may post a little something on that later this week, but for now you should check out Sean's roundup of responses and his brief follow-up. Also: I thought this remembrance by "before my time" Wizard staffer Doug Goldstein was a good indicator of how one group of editorial employees viewed the company just as my former co-worker and current Dark Horse staffer Jim Gibbon's piece on the Wiz was indicative of how a lot of us felt.


* In other "worthwhile comics reporting" news: Zack Smith's web comic series at Newsarama has been fun. Read his latest with Lucy Knisley here. Shaun Manning did a fine job rounding up the news on Shannon Eric Denton's latest Actionopolis kids initiative. Alex Dueben similarly rocked it in this Jeffrey Brown Change-Bots interview. And hey, if I can talk my own shit up for a moment (it is MY blog), I thought this chat with Alex Ross and Kurt Busiek turned out well (it's about Jack Kirby!), as did this roundup of retailer reactions to the death in this week's Fantastic Four. So there.

* And hey, I don't want to make it seem like I didn't dig on this Graphic Policy interview with David Hine about the response to his French Muslim Batman character, because I did. But the real reason to check it out is to see Hine's official headshot. BAD ASS.

* And hey, I was happy to see Heidi MacDonald (or ANYONE really) taking some time to talk to Ed Catto and then to Steve Rotterdam about their new Bonfire Agency venture. I'm still not quite sure that anyone in the comics reading population gets or cares about this kind of thing, and I'm not 100% that Bonfire looks to be an organization that works much outside the hobby shop establishment of production and promotion...still, good on them for trying something new.

* Dustin Harbin doing interviews? Rad. Dustin Harbin interviewing David King. Yes pleas. (Via Tom!)


* Is it just me, or is it a little crazy that the above is a page from an upcoming Marvel comic book? It's just me? Okay then.

* Love that someone is doing this that's not me: a super in-depth analysis of the history of Tim "Robin" Drake. Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Future installments will update at this tag.

* Catch up on the new Tezuka manga coming to the U.S. thanks to Katherine Dacey at Manga Critic.

* EVERY FUCKING YEAR I am reminded that my alma mater of Michigan State University hosts an annual Comics Forum by a random link about a week after it happened. It doesn't help that this year's installment was in January while last year's was in March. Here's the link to the website anyway.

* At least I've still got time to see the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art's comics exhibition tomorrow.

* My buddy Brian Warmoth and his ladyfriend Julia have a new phone app/social initiative in Chicago called Wish State. Looks pretty boss.

* Joseph Gordon Levitt seems like a pretty bright dude. Coulda guessed it, huh?

* William Gibson on modern computer hacking. Autoreblog.

* Carlton Cuse on life after "Lost." Ditto.


* Let's wrap this week with four really interesting (at least to me) info graphics that got forwarded my way this week:

Every actor connection in every Coen Brothers movie.

Every Generation 1 Transformer Autobot.

The 3,400% growth of Foursquare users last year.

Should I work for free?

Linko! LXVIII

* I hope everyone had a wonderful Krampus Day. Now that the brats have been whipped and carried off, it's presents for the rest of us. Get to know him better.

* I don't know if I've got the time to invest in these goofball Avengers movies, but they might be fun for ten minutes.

* Another CBR promo, you say? But hey...no bullshit Jason Aaron is turning in some can't miss columns.

* Dear Alex Buchet, thanks for posting the most fun thing I think I've ever seen on The Hooded Utilitarian. I'm pumped for the rest of this series, though I still wish it was laid out in a legible fashion. Beggars can't be chosers on TCJ, I guess.


* Awesome are of the month #1: Andi Watson drawing anything is great. Andi Watson drawing anything from Skeleton Key is super fucking duper great.

* Awesome art of the month #2: More bad ass Scott Pilgrim promo art.

* Everyone else is right. Chris Samnee's six-panel "Superman: The Movie" is legit.


* I've said how I'm an admitted sucker for Siegel and Shuster history, right? So crushing and awesomely inspiring all in once, the creators of Superman. Start watching the above 1981 BBC doc on the hero and go through til the end.

* Speaking of which, the latest online entry from Comic Book Comics is can't miss stuff.


* AMAZING SPANISH FUNNY ANIMAL COMICS.

* Owsley died early this year from an apparent suicide. That fucking sucks, man. R.I.P., Will.

* Kill some time this week with Time's Top 100 of everything. Hooray Wilson!

* I feel like I read too much bullshit arguing about the fate/future/finish of the novel or whatever, so I'm only bookmarking this thing by Harkuri Murakami for now.

* I know it's petty, but reading shit like this always cheers me up a little.

Linko! LXVII

* First of all, Ben and I have been slowly dreading the end of "Smallville" since we've started our blogging adventure this year so this is potentially great news. I really need to re-read the above mini too. I remember digging it more than I expected (where HAS Damian Scott been anyway?)

* Getting to this week's best and/or most overlooked interviews: Ben's chat with Kieron Gillen on Uncanny X-Men was really fun. Ben, are you doing the Tuesday Q&A's now, or was Kevin just drunk this week?

* On an entirely different comics front, Brigid Alverson's interview with Ape Entertainment's Jason Burns was enlightening. I think that whole "Why would you try and sell kids comics in the Direct Market?" question has been asked so often rhetorically that people forget how important it is to actually ask it of publishers. Related. You should read Hope Larson's Twitter response to the interview as well as the subsequent back-and-forth that she has with Olympians cartoonist George O'Connor (each word is a link to a new Tweet in sequence, BTW).

* Hey! Somehow I missed that Matt Duarte has been doing comic interviews on The Weekly Crisis, but I enjoyed this latest one with Stuart Immonen. Need to catch up on that blog in general, I do.

* Interviews I'm saving until I catch up on the series: Robert Kirkman at IGN about whether or not Merle is The Governor and one about the firing of certain writers that Heidi MacDonald links to here.


* Shameless CBR plug of the week: if those Image teasers didn't get you signed on for their new series than the Joe Casey/Mike Huddleston team should have. If neither did, see what it's all about thanks to Josh Wigler's announcement story.

* Holy shit, here's something: A young chap named Mark Millar interviewing an up-and-comer named Grant Morrison. In four parts: one, two, three, four. Blog is worth following if you're on Tumblr too.

* I think four people I know on Facebook posted a link to this Slate piece on MFA culture versus New York City publishing culture when it comes to literary fiction. It was interesting at the very least. I'm not sure I agree with a lot of Chad Harbach's blanket statements about either culture, and some of his specific examples fall flat, but in general I think its point about how each camp of writer's navigates their creative and professional lives is interesting and doesn't speak well towards more great books getting written in the years ahead of us as a result. Thank God for comic, man.

* In case we didn't mention it when you were looking, go bookmark Destructor.

Linko! LXVI

Oh man, you guys. It's been a crazy few weeks here at the CKT. Without getting too personal, we've all been swimming in it in our non-blogging lives, but with this edition of LINKO! I'm hoping to dump off everything that's been sitting in my browser for two weeks and see a big return to more dopey content here for our dozens of beloved readers. I've got a metric ton of cool stuff for you guys to check out while you eat your third cold turkey sandwich, so let's get to it!!!


* First of all, because he's been uncharacteristically quiet about this so far, I should say that Ben and his team at Marvel.com have CRUSHED IT with their brand new redesign. I know all those dudes at the House of Ideas put in a lot of late nights over the past few weeks on this, but it really shows. Do yourself a favor and check out some of the new content like this intro story on the site itself (Written by our boy TJ Dietsch), a new installment of Marvel Super-Heroes What The?!? featuring Doctor Strange, the first in an all-new series of "The Watcher" videos hosted by the talented Grace Randolph (writer for Marvel Her-Oes) and Ben's own roundup of creator's Thanksgiving thoughts. Good jorb on the new Marvel.com, guys! (Or should I say NuMarvel.com? Damn, that bit never gets old)

* And hey, if we're tooting our own horns today (and when aren't we?), I've got to say that my News team at CBR has been all over it this week. If you don't believe my, feel free to check out this week's trio of interviews on the ten year anniversary of Ultimate Spider-Man, Dave Richards' two-part chat with Jonathan Hickman on his Marvel U work, our own Kevin's catch-up with Ben fav Fabian Nicieza or the announcement of Scott Lobdell's new Image book, Shaun Manning's fun talk with Mark Waid about BOOM!'s latest Stan Lee comic, Steve Sunu's mega-interview with Garth Ennis on The Boys, Josh Wigler's always worthwhile commentary track with Nick Spencer on Morning Glories as well as Josh's indispensable interview with Rian Hughes or Jeffrey Renaud's back-to-back Batman interviews with Grant Morrison and the entire Batwoman creative team. Oh, and I myself filed stories on Jeff Kinney, Paul Dini's TV team, Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada. Just sayin.


* And man, have I had a ton of fun/weird/interesting interviews get sent to me or pointed my direction the past two weeks. Check out Hearty Magazine's chat with Fart Party cartoonist Julia Wertz (although we really need to knock it off with all this "female cartoonist" bullshit...would you point out that someone was a female school teacher?), Whitney Mattheson's two-part Edgar Wright interview held at Bergen Street Comics, this left field chat with Mark Waid about Shazam comics, a really solid interview with Marvel artist Reilly Brown on fitting in to big events, a random e-mail chat with Tom Brevoort and this "you probably never thought about it" interview with composer Bear McCreary on the music for "Human Target" and "The Walking Dead." Whew!

* And hey! My old pals at Wizard Magazine have reignited a web presence with the blog Pie Monkey! I always kind of liked the magazine's '90s insistence that those two things were always worth a cheap laugh, so they had me at that name, but the content on the site so far is enjoyable as well, like this early tease at what inside jokes are in store for the new "Thundercats" cartoon show.

* I also REALLY enjoyed Matthew Murray's profile of the relaunch of Brit kids comic The Dandy over on The Beat. I enjoy learning about comics that never make it to American shops anyway, but I also have a real soft spot for Bannanaman from way back in the way back.


* A lot of fun think pieces/essays on comics hitting recently too. Here's a Minneapolis newspaper piece on how Scott Pilgrim bridges the Hipster/Geek divide. Then there's this After Ellen piece on queer identities in comics. And Sean T. Collins is SO right that Gabe Bridwell's account of his time at a Paul Pope/Craig Thompson/Svetlana Chmakova-led artist's retreat is a must read, despite the awful site design.

* I read this NY Times opinion piece by sometimes comics writer and all-around nice young lady Mary HK Choi on living in New York as a young professional woman about three times, and I still don't know what I feel about it. There's plenty in there I can identify with, but I have a hard time working up sympathy for anyone who throws themselves into the big city party scene with gusto and is then chewed up by it. Maybe that's just me.


* Comics to read! The indie fantasy story PFS by Billy Burkert and Jaime Van Wart was great. Thanks to Tom Spurgeon for pointing it out as well as this classic Donald Duck comic which brought back "Ducktails" memories for me like whoa. And if you haven't gone through James Stokoe's Orc Stain blog yet for all the radical things in there, I have no idea why you're still reading this blog.

* One non-comics bit: Changing Gears is worth your time if you've ever lived in a rustbelt or Midwestern town. It's an NPR series funded by multiple stations in Michigan, Illinois and Indiana focusing on what cities like Detroit and Gary can do to reinvent themselves like Pittsburgh has.

* Finally, you look like shit:

Linko! LXV

* I thought our invisible blogging partner Kevin Mahadeo did a fine job interviewing David Hine for CBR's "The Bat Signal" column. The interview really highlights how malleable the incoming Batman Inc. series should be for expanding the Batman world for fans who like extra material, and Hine makes a strong case for being a writer who can deliver that stuff in a compelling way. Aside from the introduction of fun-sounding new French hero Nightrunner (previewed above from this blog and from the DeviantArt account of artist Trevor McCarthy who killed it on DC's Halloween Special), I find the idea that Hine will wrap some dangling plot threads from Greg Rucka's "The Question" serial an intriguing one at the very least.

* I've got my own profile of Diary of A Wimpy Kid's Jeff Kinney hitting CBR this week which I hope you'll read, and in the meantime, you owe it to yourself to read this fun interview with America's most popular kids cartoonist by my bud TJ Dietsch on MTV Geek. And holy shit! MTV Geek started letting their bloggers actually be the authors of their posts. So here's TJ's collection of work. Actually, that site is looking to be way more functional after its initial rough phase, meaning there's a dedicated comics category which makes finding cool stuff like this Janet Lee interview easier.


* I straight up love Milt Gross Super Mouse comics like this one for reasons I can't quite articulate. Thanks to Tom for always linking to them when they show up on the various Golden Age comics blogs I always forget to check.

* At i09: The great Jess Nevins delivers a history of the pulps.

* Everyone and their sister have linked to this already, but I wanted to put it here as much to save it for further study later as to share it with y'all, but you should read it anyway if you're caught up on Love & Rockets (And YOU SHOULD BE): Frank Santoro continues his examination of how panel grids work in comics by dissecting Jaime Hernandez's work in the brilliant Love & Rockets: New Stories #3.

* Somewhat related: Ben Towle digs into CMYK printing via a look at a kids book that plays with color overlays.

* Cute little comics about how a web browser works.

* Sean is right. Suzanne Mozes' profile inside James Frey's young writer-exploiting fiction factory is stomach-turning. Especially to someone with appreciation for/designs on writing good fiction for children. Ugh.

* I first got to know Jeet Heer's work thanks to magazine profiles for the now dead Lingua Franca, and I'm always glad to see him do more of that kind of writing even when it's not about comics. Case in point: the new Heer-penned profile of Canadian radio host Stuart McLean in The Walrus is great.


* You all know I'm a sucker for Rocketeer fan art, and the above example of Paul Salvi's crack at the character thanks to a challenge thrown out by Nate Cosby is a great example of why. Also: this one by Shawn McGwan is nice too.

* I can't stop reading articles about the lack of ambition/direction/ability to move away from home in my generation and thinking that no one is getting the reasons for this supposed phenomenon right. While discussing this stuff at home in Michigan this week, my older brother said, "You know, people moved back in with their parents in the 19 fucking 30s too." Smart guy, my bro.

* I know a lot of folks would disagree with me, but this article entitled "Modern Art Was CIA 'Weapon'" really put a smile on my face. Fucking America, yo.

* I'm weird, so when I found this student power point on The Types of Gryphons, I got really excited.

Linko! LXIV

* I seriously love reading Mark Waid comics more than a (sort of) grown man probably should, but there are days I love reading Mark Waid interviews even more than that. This week, I had one of those days when we posted a panel report on CBR of my bossman Jonah Weiland making the BOOM! Studios CCO answer 50 questions in 50 minutes at the Long Beach Comic Con. Yes, the photo above relates to this. Read it!

* Not a link but a semi-related observation to the above: almost no one short of Tom Spurgeon even mentions that LBCC is run by former Wizard employees and even fewer people note that said convention is run almost EXACTLY like the Wizard World Tour circa 2002 to 2007 (at least it seems much like that from afar). That's weird, right? I don't say this to disparage the LBCC folks, who have always been very kind to me and who seem to put on a show that a lot of fans and pros enjoy. I don't even say this as disparaging of the Wizard shows from that time, which I always had a fine time at as an employee and before that as a fan. I guess what I'm saying is that the Wizard brand is really fucking tarnished in a kind of skewed way (and I know some of you will go "DUH"), but I guess I always thought that the people bitching about the Wizard shows back then were bitching about something to actually do with the running of the shows. Maybe not so much?

* Anyway, something else I read this week that was highly enjoyable: Chris Mautner interviewing Jerry Robinson at The Comics Journal. More of these, please?

* Related: did anyone else watch the Stan Lee/Bob Kane video Tom posted last month? Because when Jerry Robinson comes up in conversation, shit gets BANANAS. Serial:


PART 2, PART 3

* Always great to see Ed Burbaker out doing interviews, even when it's the more "run and gun" promotional stuff. Here he is with CBR's own Dave Richards, and here he is with Newsarama's Vaneta Rogers on Incognito and then on Secret Avengers.


* Cool art time! The above is about all I can share of James Stokoe's "The Gronch" – a two-page tie-in to his Image Comics series Orc Stain – and keep this blog relatively safe for work, but you should totally click through. That book, man. I can't believe more people aren't talking about its weird, visually-dizzying, phallocentric world building.


* Here's something I won't spoil just so you can get pumped to click through to all its glory: Legion of Super-Heroes artist Yildiray Cinar's take on Superman and Batman. Dude is LEGIT.


* I'll spoil all of this last one because it's so cute, but please click through to the blog of Chad Thomas who did such a nice job on Scott Pilgrim and Ramona Flowers (Via). Also: worth your time to flick through Edgar Wright's official SP Halloween costume pics, on which Jami and I got featured.

* All right, Realistic Superhero Funeral was funny.

* Not Comics: Sean T. Collins' boys crashed the Phish Halloween show in genius fashion. I'm almost loath to share this link as the info going viral hurt my chances of pulling off a similar stunt some day.

* Also Not Comics: Ursula K. Le Guin is blogging!

Linko! LXIII

* It's Halloween weekend, children! While we'll doubtlessly be doing our regular silly costumed adventures this weekend, but for those of y'all that fall closer to the horror hound end of the holiday spectrum, I've got two killer links to kick off this weekend with. First up, be sure to check out our boy Sean T. Collins' latest creepy comic collaboration with artist Isaac Moylan: "I Remember When The Monsters Started Coming For The Cars."


* And on the other side of the spectrum, read our pal o' pals Justin Aclin's latest short story from his "S.H.O.O.T. First" comic series: "The House That Ate Halloween" at Robot 6. While you're at it, you'll want to see the entire Robot 666 series of spooky posts from this week.

* With that friendly plugging for people I know out of the way, let me be the 8,000th person to tell you that you really should read Shannon K. Garrity's "Ten Things To Know About The Future Of Comics." It's not a piece I can agree with 100% (what is?) and trying to analyze it point by point is kind of useless as I doubt I have any harder evidence to back up my ideas on where certain parts of the market are going, but as a pot-stirrer and conversation starter, it doesn't get much better than that column.

* Speaking of which, the best response I've seen Garrity's piece spur is Douglas Wolk's "Ten Things To Fear About The Future Of Comics" – same general thoughts I had on the above link apply.

* Best non-opinion comics writing I read on the internet this week? This solid Hope Larson interview by Suzette Chan at Sequential Tart. Larson is a cartoonist who's very open about her creative ideas and ambitions, and the questions here about the sense of place in her work really open her up to expound on her goals.

* Speaking of cartoonist's adept at talking about their own work in a revealing way, this Chip Kidd interview with "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau in Rolling Stone on the 40th anniversary of that venerable newspaper strip is pretty much can't miss (and, I should note, one of like 734 profiles of Trudeau that've hit this week...you should really just put his name in Google News).

* I was looking for some free audio software this week and stubled upon a program called ComicBookLover that purports to be the perfect system for reading digital comics – and when they say "digital comics" I'm almost certain what they really mean is "comics you've downloaded illegally." Anyway, it was super interesting to me that this product exists. Has anyone ever heard of it being used?

Linko! LXI - NYCC Edition!

So the 2010 version of New York Comic Con was quite possibly the most exhausting con I've ever worked. I was literally falling asleep at dinner Sunday night, and I had precious little time to hang out with anyone I wanted to see socially, though I'm glad I found a way to fit the most important folks in, including the CKT crew with special guest star Matt Powell. Anyway, since we've all been recovering while working full time since the show wrapped, I planting a flag with this special Linko! of everything the crew worked on over the show as the place where we (and by "we" I mean "maybe I") get back on the horse with our bloggery and what not. Let's do it!

* Being that it's my job at CBR News Editor not just to do a select number of panels and on floor interviews but to kind of cover whatever pops up during and around the convention. On that front, I kicked-off my show coverage proper with an interview with NYCC Head Lance Fensterman about the show and his expectations for it. Another big piece of "pre-show" news was the breaking bit about Marvel's partial price drop from January on, which I covered out the gate at the ICv2 Conference. In between multiple BBQ meals with Jonah Weiland, I filed a much more detailed report of everything at the Digital Conference days before all the audio from the thing just ended up on the Beat anyway.

* After the aisles of the NYCC floor were clogged and crowded with thousands of cosplayers, hug-givers and assorted people trying to trick Marvel into giving them work, I spent most of my time at the show in the bowels of the Javits Center reporting on panels. Luckily, most of my work was live reporting, meaning whatever I could fit into a story in the hour it was actually happening was all I had to do (a stressful process that pays off with less transcribing that night). In chronological order, I covered Marvel's X-Men panel, their unstoppable Avengers panel, the inaugural Marvel T&A panel, the famed "Cup O' Joe" affair and finally, Marvel's Next Big Thing wrap-up from Sunday. The Cup O' panel was particularly crazy as I spent most of it wishing they'd wrap it up so I could sprint to a bar immediately after to watch the end of my Michigan State Spartans' radical football victory over the hated University of Michigan Wolverines. NYCC, you'll never know the hate I hold in my heart for you after making me miss most of that game.


* I suppose the biggest piece of newsy news I covered as the show went along was DC Comics across the board price cut on monthly comics to $2.99. I spoke during the weekend with Co-Publishers Dan Didio and Jim Lee about the move – an interview which gave me more time than I usually get for these things. That was encouraging. Also, once I made it back home, I filed a report from another panel involving DC's evolving strategy for sales: The DC Nation Town Hall where Didio and Lee took fan questions on pricing, digital and everything else under the sun.

* It's no secret that the intersection of my job and these shows is built around publishing announcements from various players inside the mainstream industry. Over the course of the week, I did a few chats with folks on new comics unveiled at the show including a talk with suddenly very in demand writer Nick Spencer about his upcoming Iron Man 2.0 (AKA War Machine) series, a pre-show talk with Adam Beechen on Batman Beyond's extension into an ongoing series (and personally I think it's kind of genius the way they've been able conceptually tweak that concept to sell said series to the die hard Batman fans) and a rundown of the newly-reformed Atlas Comics with its two biggest players where they reveal the first creative team for an ongoing title.

* I know this doesn't technically qualify as NYCC coverage, but since I conducted and wrote up these interviews during the show, I'm placing them here: me and Grant Morrison on Batman & me and Scott Allie on Buffy.

* Oh hey, I also did two video interviews at the show, both of which turned out all right. They're with writer Marjorie Lieu and T&A themselves. Check them out below:



* OK, enough about me! I'm sure it'd get really annoying if I just went through and also posted up everything we did on CBR, but I wanted to at least draw y'all's attention to some of the news items that caught my eye at the show:

- First up, somehow this got largely ignored by a lot of places, but Archie Comics made a number of announcements at the show which were interesting – not the least of which was a new mini series for highly publicized gay character Kevin Keller – and you can read about everything they announced in the great Brigid Alverson's panel report.

- Brigid also crushed in on this Darwyn Cooke spotlight – "The Outfit" was one of the few big books at the show – and this Will Eisner remembrance panel – one of the more "New York" panels at a show you'd want to be chock full of them.

- On that same front, I dug Joey Pangilinan's write-up of a gathering of Golden Age greats at the show...the kind of thing we all really need to appreciate the hell out of while we can.

- Was also happy to see Disney Publishing out in force with not one but two panels announcing new initiatives and products. People seem to forget that that unit's been around for three or four years now – probably because they weren't getting many books out onto the market before now.

- Props also to my boy Dave Richards who killed it on the Marvel beat all weekend even though he was in Michigan the whole time. Two features he did that came out really nice: Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Oeming on their new all-ages series Takio & Bendis and new Ultimate Spider-Man artist Sarah Pichelli.

- Oh hey, Josh Wigler did it up in fine style on the Image beat as well, particularly on this story on Nick Spencer's new Infinite Vacation mini series.

* Finally, warranting his own bullet point is the CKT's own Kevin Mahadeo, who despite being lost somewhere in America right now filed stories on Scott Lobdell taking the reigns on Aspen's Fathom not to mention JT Krul continuing that publisher's Soulfire series and a rundown of Archaia's video game tie-in Bleedout.


* On the other side of the convention center's Skybox row, Benny Ben was holding down the Marvel.com video beat live on the air. I guess they'll be posting up what previously could only be seen as it happened, so if you want to watch Ben play Regis to Grace Randolph's Kelly, you should head over to Marvel's NYCC homepage.

* Oh hey, it looks like Kevin talked to Andy Diggle about Astonishing Captain America for Marvel.com as well. You two-timer, Kevin!!!

* I should probably also note that Rickey was all over the show despite being pretty sick, but since his job involves hanging on the floor at the DC booth and being super awesome to fans who walk up looking for Geoff Johns' autograph, but I can't link to that experience online. Sorry.

Linko! LX

* If you read one piece of writing on comics this week or maybe even this month, please for your own sake make it Alex Duben's EXCELLENT CBR piece on the life and work of Al Williamson. My boy even got George Fucking Lucas on the phone along with a lot of comics folk to make for a really nice tribute.

* I don't understand this French article about Moebius' Arzak because it's in French. Maybe you do? (Via)

* Our old Wizard forefather, HERO Initiative head and all-around swell guy Jim McLauchlin has a new blog: Unpopular Opinions. It's about media/journalism/etc. Bookmarked!

* Seant T. Collins crack Link: "Goodfellas" oral history at GQ.


* Hey, Look! It's Jill Thompson and Grant Morrison's first ever collaboration.

* Hooray for the internet: Superchunk performances from national television broadcasts: ONE and TWO.

* Kids book writer Adam Rex writes a letter to his younger self...about not reading his own reviews. Nice. (Via)

* Flint, Michigan Watch: We made the New York Times again...in a story on the trend of cities who are mayoral recall crazy. At least Flint started that trend?

* I found this Werewolf comic by Ian Anderson while goofing on Twitter, and it made me laugh. Anderson has a site full of other comics work – Citric Acid Comix – that seems worth a look.

* For a few years I've been absent-mindedly trying to find Archie's Super Hero Comics Digest Magazine #2 on sale on the cheap because I'm a wank for Archie superheroes and digest comics, but I've never bought it. Pumped when I saw that the Groovy Agent had a few of the horror stories from inside on his blog, though. (Via)

Linko! LIX

* Two issues in, and I'll admit to being impressed by Nick Spencer and Joe Eisma's Morning Glories series from Image. It's not a perfect comic or even the kind of thing that demands to be read by everyone for all the eggs its breaking, but its creators seem very confident in their ability to tell a big, sprawling, TV-style genre drama in the comics form, and that confidence carries you well through the few awkward moments in the book so far. If you're still on the fence about checking the book out, you could do a lot worse than by checking out my pal Josh Wigler walking through the first issue with Spencer at CBR. Lot of spoilers in there, FYI.

Still, maybe I don't need to be saying much on behalf of that series as apparently it sold out so fast in NYC this week that Tom Brevoort was S.O.L.

* Another worthy read for the week: this Comics Alliance roundup with some bigger retailers speaking to how the $3.99 price point has affected sales. I'm still not convinced yet that that price is causing as much trouble as some speculate or even upsetting as many fans as you'd think, but I would bet it's exacerbating a situation already under the influence of maybe a half dozen factors. Still, getting the opinions of comic sellers out there is a pretty important part of the discussion.

* Everybody and their third cousin Alice has already linked to this, but in case you missed it: Mark Andrew Smith and Matthew Weldon's New Brighton Archaeological Society comic is now online in full. Also kudos to Brigid Alverson for getting Smith on the horn to essentially ask him what the hell he was thinking doing that.

* Holy fuck, Dash Shaw:


More at the official web site for "The Ruined Cast." (Via)

* This NY Times story about a "comics in court" exhibit at Yale was a fun example of how comics have continued to crossover into other parts of our culture. In an odd way, so was this pice of political reporting in the paper for its offhanded Stan Lee reference.

* Hey, speaking of the Times: here's another profile on my poor, proud hometown of Flint, Michigan.

* In more fun news, Topless Robot had a couple of fun lists up this week including "8 Superheroes That Turned Evil But Got Better" by my friend Eric Drumm and "The 10 Coolest G.I. Joe Ninjas" which was less entertaining to me and more like the kinda thing that makes you go, "I can't fucking believe there are ten G.I. Joe ninjas in a list and I can name at least two that got left off." Speaking of Topless Robot, props to site editor Rob Briken for making me laugh yesterday by ReTweeting this.

* Finally, yeah that Joaquin Phoenix thing was a gag. Fuck Roger Ebert, I guess?