Culture

In a piece called The Ten Best and Worst Movie Posters of the Year Vulture lays out some analysis of the year's movie posters—why yes, that BRIDESMAIDS poster was pretty cool. They also single out two comics movie campaigns for some brickbats, including Worst: X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, describing it thusly:

Interview call outs galore, plus the Bay Area scene. More.

As part of a tribute to the late, great* Jerry Robinson, Mike Lynch has scanned in some of his old National Cartoonist Society programs -- comic strips in the Madmen era! BTW, he's pretty hard to even recognize Robinson in these photos, but that's him on the left with the glasses.

He says they suck. PSYCH -- he did not. As part of a Canadian panel on getting kids reading, Smith joined educator Larry Swartz and author Mahtab Narsimhan to discuss comics and literacy.

The Secret Headquarters comics shop in LA has been posting some gift suggestions from staffers, and Malachi's are excellent, but so are Part Two and Part 1. Some great ideas there. Go down to Secret Headquarters in you're near or your favorite comics shop or indie bookstore if you're not and support a small business! I did a lot of my holiday shopping as a craft show this weekend and not only got a) unique items you won't see at old Navy at a similar price and b) supported artists and craftspeople. Your giftees will appreciate it!

Only a few innocent weeks ago, we were kidding around about these Superman socks with calf capes, suggesting they were a suitable gift for a male geek, even though they only come in girls sizes. And then Robert Griffin III, this year's Heisman Award winner, picked up his award while wearing these very socks. (The Heisman Triophy is presented each year to the #1 college football player and it is quite an honor.) Maybe the self-professed comics nut Griffin is a Beat reader? At the very least he has shattered the nerd/jock divide to atoms:

An ultra violent blend of Paul Blart, the Village People, Robocop and Axe Cop (although it came first), Joe Casey and Chris Burnham's Officer Downe wishes us happy holidays in preparation for this week's debut of the Officer Downe: Bigger Better Bastard Edition. Artist Burnham has since gained fame as a Batman artist, so there's that, too.

STUCK IN THE MIDDLE, the Ariel Schrag-edited look at middle school comedy and shame, isn't a G-rated romp through age 13, but given its subject matter, how could it be? Instead it's an awful painful look at the most painful ages of all, told by 17 cartoonists including Schrag, Daniel Clowes, Joe Matt and more. It is potentially a little too rough for the Buckfield Junior-Senior High School Library in Dixfield, ME where one parent objected to the book being available, prompting a review by the school board:

Not too long ago, we presented for your amusement several videos recapping the rather appalling events of AVENGERS #200, in which Ms. Marvel was kidnapped, drugged and forcibly impregnated, and after giving birth to a reincarnation of her rapist, went off with him in a happy daze. The writers on the story are listed as Jim Shooter, David Michelinie, Bob Layton and George Pérez but it's been noted that in the years since, no one has actually taken credit for coming up with the story. It's like that one round of blanks in the firing squad -- every man can believe he is the innocent one. Now over on his blog, Jim Shooter has come out and confirmed that he's wiped the entire incident from his memory:

If you're wondering why Twitter and Facebook suddenly blew up with the name of artist Jason Pearson, he was having a low moment and the comics community has rallied on a Friday afternoon with helping words and deeds.

The creator of BODY BAGS, Pearson has done work on tons of comics over the years. His stylish art has an especial soft spot for drawing the ladies, as the Catwomen art shows.

And in case you are wondering, the comics community has a big, big heart. No matter how silly or stupid things get, I am always grateful to be a part of this world.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

If you've seen cartoonist Alec Longstreth in recent years, you are probably wondering what religion he joined that prevented him from cutting his hair or shaving his beard for three years. It was the religion of comics: as explained in this interview, Longstreth vowed not to shave until his comic BASEWOOD was finished -- which took three years. During this time, Longstreth cut quite a figure -- his beard was not just an earnest but under-achieving sprouting, but a full on man-garden at the height of summer. And in about an hour, with the release party for his minicomic PHASE 7, Longstreth is finally about to go under the razor.

Some people just talk about the dream -- Dean Haspiel is living it. Not only is he a cartoonist with a following, the fashion-forward originator of a whole shirtless artist look and an Emmy-winner: now he's managed to get rid of all his old junk donate his "massive hoard" of minicomics to the Library of Congress. A few months ago it was announced that the Library of Congress is now starting an SPX collection which will assemble comics from SPX exhibitors but also items they donate. The LoC is wary of having tons of other people's weird old crap dumped on them; however, the minicomics collection is just the kind of essential folk art that the LoC was created to preserve. We were totally joking about this collection being a lot of junk above, BTW. Dean is a fanatical collector (like a lot of us) but he keeps his stuff NEAT. Ignatz coordinator Eden Miller writes more about the collection: