crumb genesis exhibit hatfield
§ Charles M. Hatfield visited the Crumb’s GENESIS art exhibit

Evidence of “mistakes” or second-guessing was pretty minimal, though; Crumb’s facility and focus remain mind-blowing. The underdrawing was completely hidden by his tight inks, and the hypnotic textures of the rendering were, well, just that. What I particularly enjoyed was seeing other viewers — ones unversed in Crumb’s work, or so I inferred from their sotto voce comments — confronting the pages in all their stubborn individuality, marveling at their strangeness, and often trying faithfully to read them in their entirety, one after another, until, in most cases, they gave up from the sheer surfeit. I heard more than one visitor remark on the impossibility of taking it all in.

§ Adam Kempa has the definitive work on the New Yorker 85th Anniversary Covers Hidden Image. [Via Flog.]

§ Graeme McMillan’s The 75 Books You Should Own For DC Comics’ 75th Anniversary is a pretty comprehensive list, but this feature needed more cover pictures!

§ Brigid Alversonreveiws two comics now found in print and examines the varying experiences.

I recently received review copies of print editions of two well known webcomics, Cyanide & Happiness and Copper (links are to the web versions). In both cases, I had read the comic from time to time but didn’t follow it regularly. And in both cases, I felt that the print edition did indeed present extra value over the webcomic. Read on to see why.


§ The Ugly Couch Show talks to David Glanzer about The Truth About Comic-Con Leaving San Diego:

David: Well, yeah, if we had our choice, we’d love to be in just one facility. That’s the way it’s always been. We’ve certainly seen and been to other events that have basically taken over part of the city. When San Diego hosted the Superbowl a few years back, the whole downtown corridor was superbowl headquarters. It’s really interesting, when you are downtown for Comic-Con, you have that same feeling, although it isn’t offical. Meaning, I can walk around or any attendee can walk around and you will see a good majority of the people in the downtown area wearing badges or carrying bags.

12 Astonishing X Men  Xenogenesis 1

§ We had previously missed the Cover Solicits In Three Sentences Or Less feature at 1979 Semi-Finalist, but it’s hilarious and many fine examples of the Brokeback pose.

§ Jeffery Klaehn hosts a Comic Book Retailer Roundtable from pre-cession 2008, so some of the answers may not be quite as timely…or they may be.

Gail Burt: Yes, I mean, I have to say that we have our core of hardcore enthusiasts, of course, who have been in the hobby for many years. Our core customer is probably between 28 and 45 years of age, has a steady income and is willing to mortgage his house rather than miss his comics. Very dedicated. We seem to see more than our fair share of women, compared to other shops, but I suspect that has to do with the fact that I’m well known as the owner, and have a couple of women on the staff. I think we’re also beginning to see women who have boyfriends or husbands into comics being able to find stuff of interest to them – I know at my store, we actively court them.


§ Mark Evanier spoke to a classroom full of youngsters

The group I spoke to consisted of two separate classes crammed into one classroom. When I was ushered in, the instructors were spending a lot of energy, as they apparently do all day, just getting the kids to stop talking and listen. I have a fairly good memory of my schoolroom when I was that age and I don’t recall us having quite that attention-deficit disorder. A generational thing? Too much exposure these days to fast-paced media? I don’t know enough about children in and of this age to be able to say. I do know that once I told these kids I wrote the Garfield cartoons, I got the undivided focus of about two-thirds of the room and when I mentioned that I used to write Scooby Doo, I snagged the other third.

Technorati Tags: