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§ Nice Art: Hyperallergic looks at that Weegee comic by Max de Radiguès and Wauter Mannaert and it does look pretty sweet.

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§ Now it’s Vice’s turn to talk to Olivia Jaimes about Nancy, and while everyone agrees it’s sharp AF, still no one has figured out who Olivia Jaimes is. And she aims to keep it that way.

Besides the new look and nouns used, the takeaway here is that Nancy is funny again. Jaimes has succeeded in returning the original minimalist spirit to the comic, but surpasses it with far greater talent and sensibility. Jaimes cites Mitch Hedberg and Parks and Recreation as inspirations for her minimalist jokes, as well as memes because, in a way, what are memes but minimalist comic strips that anyone can make? “Memes have brought me a lot of joy,” Jaimes said. One of the great joys of Nancy, like the best comedy characters, is she’s all id. She’s immature and impulsive, seeking only immediate gratification and unfettered comfort at all times. In comic strips, this is common with little boy characters, like Dennis the Menace or Calvin, but it’s hard to name another comedic female comic protagonist who is wholly defined by her negative traits and doesn’t feel ashamed of them.

§ More praise for Nick Drnaso’s Sabrina, a perfect tale for the post truth world:

Sandy Hook parents are suing Alex Jones for his false-flag rumormongering. The family of Seth Rich is suing Fox News for an article Sean Hannity flogged relentlessly, even after it was retracted. And as these lawsuits chug along on the road to eventual settlements, the first piece of art to truly demystify how an average citizen might get swept up in a conspiracy’s tornado pull, Nick Drnaso’s sobering graphic novel Sabrina, has just arrived in bookstores. Considering how of-the-moment Sabrina is, it might be surprising that it was conceived over three years ago.

§ Well well well, the “big website talks to an editor” feature is back with X-Position which quizzes X-men editor Jordan D. White via fan questions about the x-verse

CBR: There’s only one way to kick off X-Position’s return, and it’s with the most-asked question in the history of the column. The Dying Detective asks, “Will there ever be a New X-Men: Academy X revival?”

Jordan D. White: I cannot answer that, as “ever” is a long, long time. I know that book certainly has loyal fans, I would imagine it is only a matter of time until someone who loves that book as much as you do is writing the X-Men and makes it happen.

§ MEANWHILE AT LAST, the profile of the hugely popular Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-men podcast, which has been downloaded more than seven million times.

Jay & Miles X-Plain The X-Men isn’t just a romp for obsessive nerds. With its 200th episode hitting podcast platforms on Sunday, it’s become a community for those who identify with the mutant metaphor – and who enjoy dissecting what it is and isn’t – and stand against the backlash politics that stretch from comics fandom to the White House. The mutant resistance starts with Jay Edidin and Miles Stokes, whose four-year-long journey through yellowing back issues has transformed their own highly complex personal relationship in manners reminiscent of what they call comics’ greatest superhero soap opera.

§ Apparently there was a shooting threat at CalArts the other day which may have been inspired by the art style on the new Thundercats, because the world is absolute shit right now.

The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) temporarily closed on Monday to investigate a potential threat on social media. The threat, which led to a school-wide shutdown, is thought among students to be linked with a campaign against “CalArts style,” an aesthetic trend in animated shows like Adventure Time and Thundercats. The university wasn’t in session at the time of the threat, but administrators decided to err on the side of caution, and the campus was closed while law enforcement investigated. CalArts posted an update at 6:30pm PST on Monday to say there was no “credible” danger. The tweet thought to have triggered the investigation features a cartoon face with bullet holes and the caption, “Some of You Guys are Alright, Don’t go to CalArts Tomorrow.”

§ This new Crayola crayon in the new blue is pretty exciting! How on earth do you invent a color? However you do it, I want shoes in this hue.

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§ Some brave souls at Multiversity put together a Hellboy Universe Reading Order and it’s quite long. The above is just a teensy, weensy excerpt for journalistic purposes.

§ Cartoonist Elsa Charretier talks about the eating disorders she has struggled with: 

Even today, I still feel uncomfortable using the word “anorexic” to describe my younger self. I keep saying that I had “trouble eating.” I survived an incredibly risky open heart surgery when I was two months old, and grew up with the idea that I was lucky to be alive when other children didn’t have that same luck—that it could have been worse. Eighteen years later, fresh out of high school, I applied that same rationalization to my food and weight issues. I was still able to run, when some really ill girls were hooked up on machines in hospitals. How could I dare say that I was sick?

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§ Everyone was pretty excited for that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse trailer yesterday, and Cartoon Brew proclaims it A Radical Shift For U.S. Feature Animation:
It’s not that Spider-Man is an adult film either – this film will likely be as family-friendly as many of its studio counterparts. But it has a markedly different drama-first, action-first tone. The filmmakers seem to be aiming to win over a specific audience – a slightly hipper, more urban, and teen-oriented crowd. Of course, this happens everyday in live action. Studios innately understand that not every film has to be designed for viewing by every possible filmgoer. If that were the case, there would be an excruciating sameness to the live-action industry’s output. The American feature animation industry has been slower to pick up on the concept – almost a full century slower in fact, thanks to the paralyzing legacy of Disney animation – but Into the Spider-Verse shows that it may be finally coming around to the same realization as live action: films are most exciting when filmmakers speak sincerely to a specific audience.

§ Yet more Watchmen set photos are emerging, and it seems that the set has been dressed with many companies and signs from the comics because…it’s Watchmen? None of the many stories about these photos can actually show the photos, because a small cottage industry has sprung up suing websites for using these kind of paparazzi photos so, in addition to it not being very nice to steal photos, it can be very very costly.

§ FINALLY, Todd McFarlane promises that in the new Spawn movie the title character will “Be A Badass”, which is a huge relief because I was expected some kind of softass Spawn.

“I believe that if Stan Lee was still writing Spider-Man, he wouldn’t be the same character,” McFarlane said. “Because I don’t think there’s any creative person that can just regurgitate the same 10 issues over and over and over without eventually going insane. So, the reason that I’ve had to change and modify Spawn and done all these things is because a) I’m getting older; b) I’m acknowledging that they’ve been 27 years. And in those 27 years, I’ve been along for the ride the whole time. And I can’t fathom that the audience has been along with me and myself going … What I need to do after 27 years is to go all the way back to the beginning and do those same issues that everybody else would do if I gave it to anybody else.

3 COMMENTS

  1. “Now it’s Vice’s turn to talk to Olivia Jaimes about Nancy, and while everyone agrees it’s sharp AF”

    I think it stinks. The art is amateurish, and it’s not even slightly funny.

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