Columns

§ Indie icon Adrian Tomine is interviewed at The Comics Reporter. His new art book NEW YORK DRAWINGS is shockingly good: TOMINE: I feel like...

§ Ms Magazine marks its 40th anniversary with the return of its original cover girl: Wonder Woman as portrayed by Mike Allred. Over...

Two pin-ups pieces of art, a cat with a fart, and more information which you must take to heart.

§ Okay, okay: Joe Casey clears up that whole Butcher Baker controversy we told you about last week. It seems there WILL be a collection, and the series really was meant to stop at issue 8 (which just appeared after a long gap.) It was Casey's plan to give readers a jolt by leading them to believe this was going to go on a while and then KA-BLAM!

Yeah, it was always meant to be eight issues and done.  It's one story. Actually, I kinda felt like readers might've been keying into the fact that it might not be an ongoing, infinite series simply because, even at issue #5 or #6, I still wasn't giving them any kind of temporary closure moments, as you tend to do on a monthly book. You'll build in those minor end points every two, three or four issues. It's part of the accepted macro-structure of a series that's meant to deliver "continuing adventures" or however you might want to frame it. "Butcher Baker," in its execution from month to month, was much more novelistic in its shape. But it all comes down to the way stories are delivered. When you've got an audience that's as savvy as most audiences have become, it's tough to shake them out of their complacency and really take them on a ride. Even movie audiences are now "trained" to have an inherent sense of a movie's shape.  They know it's going to be roughly two hours long, a lot of them even have a sense of the Hollywood three act structure, so most of the fun of being told a story is already significantly affected by all of that "pre-knowledge." Well, I wanted to see if I could mitigate some of that. Shit, I hope it worked...

An extra heaping helping of kibble for everyone who's been good!

News and notes from all over.

§ This interview with former Marvel Talent Coordinator and color overseer Bon Alimagno may just be one of the smartest things I've ever read on comics coloring. Critique of color rarely goes beyond "I liked it!" since a study of advanced color theory isn't exactly on everyone's CV, and most people aren't trained to go beyond "orange and green don't go together." This this study of why and how Marvel's color schemes worked is incredibly illuminating:

Fabio Moon, Julia Wertz, Paolo Rivera.

§ The perfect comic: Love and Rockets # 28

Considering that I spent decades trying to pop my collar like Terry Downe, I would have to agree.

Simple tips to give to your friends who want to get into comics and the secret life of Abraham Lincoln.

In which we mention Hedy Lamarr and Homestuck.

§ So Holly Gilliam has been going through her father Terry's archives and is posting what she finds on Discovering Dad. I guess this internet thingie is okay after all.