Culture

Wow, shit gets very, very personal in this installment.

If you were following our live tweets of the Harveys last night, (and those from ComixMix and JahFurry) you saw portions of Mark Waid's keynote speech transcribed. While claiming it was a "vodka-fueled rant," Waid delivered a heartfelt, if off-the-cuff, talk on the importance of the idea and the supremacy of comics as a medium of ideas. He started off with remarks on the history of copyright, stating it was a means to allow ideas to go into the public domain where they could remain powerful. "No one would say we'd be better off if Shakespeare plays weren't allowed to be read and performed in high schools," he used as an example. While not advocating piracy, his main argument seemed to be that it's already done, the genie is out of the bottle, and struggling to keep ideas protected isn't as important as finding a way to profit from those ideas.

We're at the Harvey Awards banquet with Ramona Fradon, Michael Golden, and many other stars. We're live tweeting the winners at www.twitter.com/comixace. Please follow...

Although the bus sped off before we could get a good picture, this ad for HSBC Bank had a pretty snappy blurb that went something like "Japanese adults buy more comic books than American children do" with a picture of a Sumo wrestler reading a manga. VERY TRUE.

Apparently some politician in Baltimore is using kids reading comic books as the result of a lack of teachers and money for education. Perhaps...

One more Baltimore link before we hit the road -- AdHouse (#1904) will make Paul Pope fans happy by bringing the limited edition THB...

Via Hairy Green Eyeball II:

These memes are strong today

Season 3/Episode 10:  I Smell a Rat Episode nine ended with some bloody messes to clean up. Franklin’s entrails were all over the Merlotte’s parking...

This week: Kieron Gillen on the prospects of more PHONOGRAM; Axel Alonso on that X-Men crossover with the vampires; and the conclusion of EX MACHINA.

You cannot say that indicted former Illinois governor Rod Bagojevich is not a smart and pragmatic man. Although recently convicted on a single count of federal corruption, Blago, as he is known to fans, had a mistrial on 23 others, so he's still out and about. And what does a pol do while out on bail to feed the family? He takes it to the people, and makes a little spending money by signing autographs at Wizard World Chicago/Chicago Comic-Con. Blago is well aware that cashing in on celebrity is the best follow up to a political fall, and while thwarted in his attempt to appear on 'm a Celebrity... Get Me out of Here!, has been a contestant on The Apprentice. So he's gone where all reality stars go.

Cartoonists Ted Rall, Mat Bors and photographer Steven Cloud are in Afghanistan to tell "the people's story" and send back cartoons. They've been uploading them as often as possible using satellite phones.