News
I thought that the hatefest would end in September…but we’ve still got a few more haters to go…so one more week. But after that all will be sweetness and light, scout’s honor. (The ever-expanding Index of Hate is here.
On HU
Jason Overby on Jason Lutes’ Berlin and the rage for control.
Me on Thomas Nast and the art of betrayal.
Kinukitty on Maus and getting cute about the Holocaust.
Jason Michelitch on how the devil took Matt Wagner.
Cerusee on J. Michael Straczynski’s crappy Midnight Nation.
Joe McCulloch on the perfect women of Milo Manara.
John Hennings on hiding the Geoff Johns comics from the children.
Susan Kirtley on disliking Betty and Veronica to the utmost of her abilities.
Nate Atkinson on Benjamin Marra, racism, and comics conversations.
Domingos Isabelinho on Kirby as kitsch.
Matthew Brady on Kirby as king.
Utilitarians Everywhere
At the Atlantic I am skeptical about Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. Don’t tell my parents.
The editor at Splice let me write about my favorite Nick Cave album.
At Splice I’m not sure how Obama can lose.
Also at Splice, I talk about rooting for Obama even though I know he’s a child murderer.
Other Links
Chris Sims on how DC’s default storyline is rape.
Allan Haverholm on the differences between comics and illustration.
Kevin Drum on Obama and drone strikes.
Conor Friedersdorf on why he’s not voting for Obama.
This Week’s Reading
I finished Ivy Compton Burnett’s “A House and It’s Head,” read volume 2 and 3 of Axe Cop, and started Janice Raymond’s “The Transsexual Empire”, which is evil and also not much fun to read, but which I’m slogging through for my Wonder Woman book.
Reading: I read 2/3rds of Tezuka’s Barbara this week and it is awful. It’s like Kirihito and Ayako and MW but worse.
Most of the way through Gary Panter’s Dal Tokyo which is… I don’t know yet. Both intriguing and frustrating. I can’t even imagine how it lasted as a serialized strip for so long. (Well, I can imagine, it must been by the editor’s will.)
Secret Prison 7 (the “sell your boots” kickstarter project), which has an essay by me in it. Not a fan of most of it (not my style) but Tom Hart’s piece is great, as is Angie Wang’s.
Finished ‘Voyage aux îles de la Désolation’ by Emmanuel Lepage, prosaic travelogue that focuses on the environment, not on the traveller. Impressive art.
Read some Batwoman issues by Amy Reeder, didn´t like her drawings of Batwoman…but the rest sure looked good.
AB,
nice to see there´s one who appreciates Fritz Leiber too.
Your mentioning of Martin´s ‘Sandkings’ is exactly what I had in mind when I was writing “starting with interesting contributions to the SF genre and ending up writing fantasy stuff for commercial purposes.”
And vampires – here´s another modern vampire novel:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/834638.Empire_V
read a bunch of comics this week: The Furry Trap by Josh Simmons — which was excellent. There’s something really potent about Simmons’ recasting of horror in the form of sexual malevolence and spite.
Congress of the Animals by Jim Woodring — bloody Woodring, the guy reached his peak and has just stayed there year in, year out. I’ve “met” him twice now at signings/conventions and been too starstruck to say anything; the second time I just held out my copy of Weathercraft to be signed without saying a a word. He must have thought I was a total arsehole.
The Mysterious Traveler (vol. 3 of Fantagraphics’ Ditko reprints) — yeah, well, nobody reads these for the stories. Some good stuff in here, Ditko flexing his muscles, and the lead story has one of the Ditkoest visual concepts of all time.
Manara Erotica Vol 1 — a let-down after reading Manara non-erotica [!] vol. 1, especially once he gets into the heavy photo-realism in the last chapter of Click!. The book incidentally includes the rapey piece Jog eviscerated last week. Almost redeemed by a final five-pager from the early 80s, which is tres, tres metal hurlant.
Also read half of Fantagraphics’ 1922-1924 Krazy Kat reprint. I like this period of the strip a lot more than the later stuff; there’s just so much more depth and variety.