Politics

Once they teamed up to fight dull comics and superhero tropes with the twin pillars of 80s dark and edgy -- THE DARK KNIGHT and WATCHMEN -- but now they find themselves on opposite sides of a political battle! Okay it's not really a fight, it's middle-aged comics creators speaking their minds, but Alan Moore has rebutted Frank Miller's disparaging comments on the Occupy Wall Street movement. While Moore's work has actually become something of a symbol for the various protest movements springing up around the world as the V for Vendetta mask has become an icon at the rallies, Miller called the protesters losers who needed to go home to their momma's basement. And as usual, Moore just has no time for it:

Matt Bors writes to alert us to a news Occupy Comics sketchbook -- Sarah Glidden on Occupy Miami. Glidden was in town for the Miami Book Fair, but found time to visit the OWS site. She explains more here, including the view from Europe where she's currently working:

While Frank Miller's outburst against the OWS protesters might not have been the smartest PR move for him, he was right on the money about one thing: as a cartoonist, he was well qualified to comment. Graphic novels and comics have inspired a lot of the OWS protesters' iconography.

While comics pundits continue to debate (well, really beat down) Frank Miller over his ornery comments about the Occupy Wall Street movement, Occupy Comics continues to ramp up, with the addition of contributions from Darick Robertson, Dan Goldman, and musician Amanda Palmer , just three new high profile contributors with, we're told, more to come. The project has a Kickstarter page , and is already $1000 away from their goal of funding comics coverage of the protest movement. Susan Cagle, Charlie Adlard, Molly Crabapple, Joseph Michael Lisner, Steve Niles, Tim Seeley, Ben Templesmith, and others are already on board.

With this week's release of the biggest GN of the year, the 500K print run WIMPY KID IN CABIN FEVER, Ward Sutton has combined two huge news topics for "Diary of a Wimpy President" which is available at the BostonGlobe.com , but only if you are a member of the site. Which will cost you 99¢, which all things considered, is pretty cheap for an online newspaper. Let's not be cheapskates here, people. But for those without access, here's a peek.

In case you were not on Twitter orFacebook in comics circles this weekend, Frank Miller, evidently tired of being asked when Sin City 2 would go into productions, decided to set up a diversion by airing his feelings on the Occupy Wall Street movement in a calm, reasoned editorial that did not contain ad hominem attacks:

Cartoonist/journalist Susie Cagle has a full report on the events on the night of her arrest along with 100 other Occupy Oakland protesters, from the fires at the barricades to jailhouse indignities.

Cartoonist Susie Cagle -- who was previously teargassed during another confrontation -- was arrested as part of the Occupy Oakland protest on Wednesday night. Cagle was not there as a protester, but as a reporter, covering the scene for Spot.us. According to Cagle's father, Cagle was arrested despite having a prominent press pass and the arresting officer actually knowing her and her work. After being held overnight at Santa Rita Jail, Cagle was released, and charged with the misdemeanor of "present at raid." On her twitter stream she mentions she's currently trying to retrieve her wallet and housekeys from the Oakland police.

Snowtober didn't drive them away, and now that the weather has warmed up again, Occupy Wall Street is going strrong -- and now with added superheroes. but not just any superheroes, but the characters from THE ADVENTURES OF UNEMPLOYED MAN, a GN anthology that came out last year. Written by Gan Golan and Erich Origen, the book was way ahead of all this 1% vs 99% rhetoric with the story of an unemployed man who gathers a team of misfit superheroes to fight the self-interested villains from the Hall of Just Us. (And why not be way ahead of it since income inequality has been a looming issue for years?)

From reading her comments here and elsewhere, we knew that cartoonist Susie Cagle was tough as nails, but interviewed about her experiences at Occupy Oakland on Tuesday night when police teargassed and shot beanbags and rubber bullets at Cagle and hundreds of other protesters in Oakland, you'll see how tough.

Reported worldwide today, Syrian political cartoonist Ali Ferzat was abducted early Thursday morning by pro-Assad forces. Beaten near the airport, his hands were broken "as a warning", and then abandoned on the highway.

In a change of policy, the New York Times' venerable Week in Review section will go from running a round-up of editorial cartoons on the topics of the week to specially commissioned work. Among those tapped, Brian McFadden, creator of Big Fat Whale. McFadden is 27 and lives in Massachusetts, giving the section a younger perspective, to say the least.