§ Paul Morton presents an interview with Jason Lutes at Bookslut that, sadly, does not mention Battle for Wesnoth, but mentions everything else.
One of the things that’s unexplored in comics is the subtlety. When you’re drawing pictures, and in my case it’s black ink on white paper, the tendency is to work in broad strokes. That’s why in mainstream comics there’s a lot of fights and explosions because it’s easier to get people’s attention and budget-wise it’s easier to draw that stuff. I became more interested in the smaller, more closely-observed details and the ways you could do that in comics. A big influence on me was Chester Brown. He’s a Canadian cartoonist who really slowed things down in a way I’ve never seen before. He would have something happen over several panels or have a whole page of a character staring out a window. And that changed the way a comic could be read. It became really interesting to me and I wanted to explore it more. And because I really wanted to get outside myself and explore the lives of the mostly fictional lives I’ve created, to pay attention to them and how they behave and the subtleties of their actions just became a big focus. I self-consciously try to create a novel effect using comics, which is perhaps a weakness on my part. But I wanted to create these characters and pay attention to how they behave in these situations and then observe them closely so the reader hopefully will in some way think of them as real people.
§ Deb Aoki is running several polls on the best new manga of ’08:
You’ve already had a chance to vote for the Best New Shojo Manga and Best New Shonen Manga of 2008 — so now it’s time for the What’s your choice for the Best New Shonen Manga of 2008? Check out the 2008 Best New Seinen (Mens’) Manga Readers Poll page for plot summaries, cover artwork and links for more info about each nominated manga and choose your favorite, or scroll down to vote now.
§ Shocker! Actress who plays superhero actually reads comics. And not just superhero comics…
§ JK Parkin covers marketing and more at BOOM! in an interview with Chip Mosher.
§ Michael May tussles with what is the “other” category in comics.
§ Chip Kidd talks Bat-manga at Wired.
§ Spider-Man Musical Watch:Finally! Word from an actual U2 member as the Edge babbles on and on and on about his work writing the score (with Bono) for the Spidey musical:
Speaking for the first time about the project, the guitar icon revealed to the Sun that, “It is happening. We’ve written a lot of the songs at this point. It’s in a pretty good state, and I hope it’ll open this year. We’re not sure where in the world, but most likely it will be in New York”, he explained to The Sun.
§ This story reveals two things. 1) Krypton is rracially diverse and 2) Newsarama is now being syndicated at MSNBC.
§ Marvel had a pretty hefty printing malfunction:
Some Marvel fans who unscrupulously read their comic books in stores before buying them – a habit popularly known as Byrne-Stealing, in honor of former comics legend John Byrne– were amusingly vindicated on Wednesday, when it was discovered that behind the Humberto Ramos-illustrated cover of “X-Men: Manifest Destiny” #5 were the contents of an entirely different comic book, “X-Men/Spider-Man” #3 – which was not set to ship until January 14. The transposition is the result of a printing error.
§ After Ellen thinks it’s time for a superheroine.
§ And so does Jezebel: Wonder Women: It’s Time For A Female Superhero Flick
§ Finally, condolences to LEAGUE OF MELBOTIS on the death of its titular mascot.
Re: Ellen– I know Ice was dead, but she recently got better. I think Mockingbird was both abducted and dead.
When were Black Canary and Hellcat dead?
Hellcat was dead for a period in the ’90s. She went crazy and committed suicide in Ellis’s Hellstorm series, then got all better in a pair of Avengers/Thunderbolts team-up annuals. (Amusingly enough, when the Thunderbolts rescued Hellcat from Hell, they thought they were rescuing Mockingbird.)
I have no knowledge of Black Canary ever being dead.
And finally, does anyone else think it would be fun if Marvel just went ahead and printed Manifest Destiny 5 inside the cover of X-Men/Spider-Man 3?
RE: Diversity on Krypton
“Remember, as absurd as this sounds in an America finally enlightened enough to elect a black man as President … ”
Not nearly as absurd as this article.
Thank you so much for the condolences. We deeply appreciate your thoughts, and Melbotis would, too.
Re: Spidey meets Obama . . . exactly how hard would it have been for that artist to get some photo-reference of the President Elect?
Re: Diversity on Krypton . . . not having read any recent Superman comics, I don’t know if they’re actually depicting Kryptonians of color. But looking at the pages that the article cites as evidence, I do know that that reporter thinks that Mr Terrific is a Kryptonian.
“Re: Spidey meets Obama . . . exactly how hard would it have been for that artist to get some photo-reference of the President Elect?”
I’m more appalled by the shape of Spider-Man’s head in that comic. It almost looks like Red Skull trying to disguise himself as Spidey.
I was in my local comics shop this afternoon, and I saw the latest Superman and flipped through it. In fact, all the Kryptonians depicted were white!
“FORMER comics legend John Byrne”?
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Yes, Brea Grant from Heroes is a big ol’ nerd! (And she’s awesome!) She reads comics. Lots of comics! We chatted with her back in November in Ep. 165 of Comic News Insider. http://is.gd/eZIX
Brian Wood based the look of one of his characters in The New York Four on her as well.