§ The NY Times reviewed that Art Spiegelman/Pilobolus dance collaboration and it sounds pretty damned amazing:
It’s obviously a departure. Neither at Pilobolus nor anywhere else have I seen this kind of dizzying overlap of cartoon, film, silhouette theater, and live dance. And yet it also picks up on, and refreshes, aspects of Pilobolus that have been there since the beginning: the dream logic, the clowning, the sense of physical liberation that’s only at times highly sexual, and the defiance of categorization. Pilobolus survives in such a piece and evolves.
Wish this could be given a longer run.
Earlier this month, Image Comics published The Bulletproof Coffin by David Hine and Shakey Kane, a much-heralded return to comics for the latter, with acclaim and an instant sell out.
§ Augie DeBlieck weighs in on many current issues:The Direct Market doesn’t have any competition when it comes to the distribution of monthly comics. If Diamond suddenly has to compete with Comixology, that can only favor readers who’ll see a fight for customers. The closest thing we have to this is the mail order services, but they’re still in the Direct Market, subject to the whims of Diamond. Even then, there’s a scarcity of supply and a need to pre-order and many of the other pain points that the brick and mortar stores lay on a comics reader. The bookstore and library market have been very good to comics – mostly in manga – but that’s really only true for collected editions or thicker books, as opposed to periodicals. The digital store front looks to be replacing the long-lost newsstands that everyone but Archie abandoned in the 90s.
§ Robert Kirkman talks about THE WALKING DEAD and Hollywood and so on to USA Today:
“That’s the main thing I enjoy about the series is writing the soap-opera kind of stuff,” he says. “The ‘Oh, I really like this boy!’ or ‘I hope this girl goes out with me!’ emotional scenes, that’s the most fun for me — to do the character interaction stuff. All the zombie action and the harrowing events and the crazy things that happen, and the battles and the fights — that stuff’s fun, too. But when it gets down to it, I’m kind of a sap.”
§ Matt Senecaanalyzes Josh Cotter’s DRIVEN BY LEMONS, and makes a pretty good case for it to be recognized as a classic:
This is the best comic of last year, a graphically stunning, emotionally raw descent into the harrows of depression, creation, and the daily struggles of the human mind. A profound work of true high art dealing in brutal picture-blasts and rich, fully-developed symbolism, Driven By Lemons aims at a target few cartoonists have dared, and hits it right in the bullseye.
That said, it’s a very subjective and personal comic with no easy answers and more than a few attempts to openly defy any “sense” it might make. Tough reading, the kind of book that you need to go through multiple times to even form opinions on.
§ Brandon Graham digs into the matter of the day:
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I think creators have a lot more power than waiting for DC/Marvel to call. I always joke that if I needed them to cosign my career I’d still be waiting.
§ Are you more excited for Scott Pilgrim 6, Scott Pilgrim the Movie or Scott Pilgrim the VIDEO GAME? This fellow likes the video game but along the way reveals that that world can be just as self-reflexive as comics, aka “by gamers, for gamers”:
This year, at the Sony press conference, Kevin Butler made a speech about how gaming is for the gamers, and how we all as one big gaming family make the industry great. I don’t think there is any game that conceptualizes this more than Scott Pilgrim VS. The World. This game is a 2-D beat ‘em up, a now obscure game genre, about an obscure comic book series, with graphics by an obscure sprite artist, and music by an obscure band. Of course, I say obscure in relation to the general public, because just about every gamer out there knows Canadian comic book artist Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life, the genius sprite work of Paul Robertson and his masterpieces Kings of Power 4Billion% and Pirate Baby’s Cabana Battle Street Fight, and the awesome sounds of Anamanaguchi’s chip-tunes punk band.
§ Via Comics Alliance Louise Mundo “Little Warrior” does the Smurf-atar mashup right.
§ Via Comics Reporter, a much-needed blog called Fuck Yeah Daniel Clowes.
§ Finally, Rick Marshall of Splash Page is guest blogging for Whitney Matheson at USA Today and rounds up a list of comics folks to follow on Twitter, which inexplicably includes us. Mucho thanks, Rick!
“Via Comics Alliance Louise Mundo “Little Warrior” does the Smurf-atar mashup right.”
I’ve gotta admit, that’s Smurfin’ cool!
There’s an article in new Wired with an interview between Edgar Wright and Michael Cera.
Interesting tidbit is that they screened the movie for Nintendo, because they wanted to use a Nintendo theme (either Mario or Zelda) in the movie.