On HU
Featured Archive Post: Caroline Small interviews Nina Paley about copyright and culture.
The real realism of Killer Elite.
Chris Gavaler on time and timelessness in comics and politics.
James Romberger reviews a whole slew of recent comics.
Subdee compares Pacific Rim to the manga Attack on Titan.
Ng Suat Tong with a review of Suehiro Maruo’s adaptation of Edogawa Ranpo’s The Strange Tale of Panorama Island.
I provide a tour of some great muppet musical performances.
Utilitarians Everywhere
At the Atlantic I wrote about:
— how doofus Batman is the best Batman.
Miley Cyrus, Janis Joplin, and minstrelsy.
And more on Cyrus and Joplin and exemplary white people.
At Splice Today I write about
—wishing school would start and I could be bored.
—how I wish Jonathan Chait would stop encouraging us to go to war in the Middle East.
Other Links
Alex Pareene on how Roger Ailes is a paranoid nutcase.
Jessica Hopper on black metal. She sort of conflates all black metal with the fascist kind a bit, but it’s an interesting article nonetheless.
Jacob Canfield is pretty amazing in this tcj comment thread on indie titles and racism. Darryl Ayo has some great things to say too.
In fact…that whole thread is just really heartening for anyone who cares about comics. Yes, there are some folks who are defending obvious, stupid racism, in the same old we-love-Crumb-and-all-his-progeny vein. But there’s also just a ton of folks explaining why it’s time to move on from that particular dead end. Frank Santoro’s response to what is basically some pretty harsh criticism of his post is extremely balanced and respectful. It’s a serious discussion with a lot of smart people saying a lot of smart things about a topic that matters, in the best tradition of the Comics Journal. It made me really happy.
Thank you for leading me back to that Comics Journal thread. I would have thought it had played itself out — and thereby have missed some amazing contributions, even beyond Jacob’s (e.g., Darryl Ayo’s “you’re boring” take-down).
Darryl is amazing. David Brothers’ comment is great too.
Hey great, I thought you were actually being sarcastic about that TCJ thread when you wrote it was “a serious discussion with a lot of smart people” because everything after Jacob’s initial posts seemed rather silly for the most part but I totally missed Darryl’s comment too. I thought Jacob already nailed this whole issue so well last year here on this website with the much debated article on Marra and this Vice cartoonist whose name I forgot again. I’m also very happy there are people who take comics serious enough to bring up these issues, and who are as articulate as Jacob and Darryl. Thanks!
I was very happy with the resolution of the whole comments thread. I have to say, I did not expect it to blow up like it did – I thought it would be left at the 20 or so comments between Frank, Jason, and myself. The way it took off was very interesting, and there were some really great things written as a result of it. Ultimately, I think it ended on a positive note – the comments were closed at a logical point, and Frank’s apology was heartfelt and direct.
And, for once, I think reasonable people were actually in the majority, or at least more willing to speak up than usual. That’s a huge deal, considering how bad things get on other pop-culture sites.
Anyway, thanks for the nice words, you guys. It means a lot.