§ Nice Art: Abigail Jill Harding is the artist on the Comixology Original Ask for Mercy (written by Richard Starkings) and damn, son.
I was reminded of how good she is when I saw this tweet from Leah Moore, which I 100% endorse.
Publishers! Please shower this woman in money until she agrees to adapt Gormenghast with me? Please? Her Steerpike would be broodingly *sublime*…Flay? His cheekbones and knobby knees! Fuchsia? Her petulance would kill me stone dead!! Its not too much to ask is it? Really? https://t.co/ITvcta7xW9
— BLACK LIVES MATTER. WEAR A MASK. Leah Moore (@leahmoore) August 10, 2019
Definitely a name to watch. You can follow Harding on Twitter and Instagram.
§ Here’s a great piece by Shing Yin Khor at The MNT looking at the work of the great Malaysian cartoonist Lat, and how his work has been translated in the US.
As a child growing up in Malaysia, I grew up seeing Lat’s Kampung Boy on coffee tables and bookshelves. It was not often a topic of conversation, as its presence had become so ordinary that it would probably be correct to assume that everyone had already read it. It was simply a given and consistent icon of Malaysia, a point of national pride of the same status as nasi lemak and an overabundance of Selangor Pewter outlets. Malaysia was not, as a whole, a particularly comics obsessed country. Everyone simply knew who Lat was, and everyone knew what Kampung Boy was. Kampung Boy was a wild success in Malaysia, selling out of its first printing of 60,000 in just a few months, a significant number for a small country. Since then, it has gained a readership of millions, been reprinted at least 16 times, is consistently in the front shelves of Malaysian bookstores, is a perennial favourite in airport newstands, and with little competition except perhaps for Lat’s other books, the most famous comic export from the country.
§ Joan Steacy made her debut as a cartoonist this year with the fine autobiographical graphic novel Aurora Borealice and she talks about it at TCJ.
This graphic novel is my life but the focus is on a certain part of my life. I didn’t really know much about comics until I met Ken [Ken Steacy, Joan’s husband] and even then I wasn’t really interested in mainstream comics, I could appreciate them, but I wasn’t the audience, until graphic novels came along. I could relate to them and I thought the drawing styles were really interesting and not formulaic. Those personal stories really spoke to me. I had my own story in mind, of getting my voice and meeting Marshall McLuhan after he had a stroke that left him unable to speak after his whole life was about communication. That sparked an idea. I needed a vehicle to tell my story and the graphic novel medium was it! Fortunately I had an amazing art director, comic artist and editor at my doorstep – so when I found myself stuck I could ask Ken for advice. He was an enormous resource, he also helped me remember things I thought I forgot.
§ Also at TCJ, a remembrance of Paul Krassner, who passed away a few weeks ago and whose The Realist was a huge influence on the underground scene.
Gwyneth Paltrow genuinely did not know she was in "Spider-Man: Homecoming" so this adorable interaction from "The Chef Show" is easily my favorite thing on the internet today pic.twitter.com/lc3VlSs1Hp
— Jarett Wieselman (@JarettSays) June 7, 2019
§ Some strong evidence has emerged suggesting that Gwyneth Paltrow has no memory of working with Tom Holland and Sebastian Stan in the MCU. The evidence consists of her saying, on a chat show, “Spider-man? We weren’t in Spider-Man.” And now, according to Kevin Feige, she didn’t know Samuel L. Jackson was in them, too. Granted, I don’t remember every little article I’ve written, so expecting Paltrow to recall every single movie she’s been in is quite a lot to ask. (It could also be a big in joke as well. After all, Paltrow is an “actor.”)
https://twitter.com/WWENetwork/status/1160702515198906368
§ At Summerslam last night Ricochet came out dressed as Nightwing. I’m sure this made some people at DC very angry. How do these wrestlers get away with this? Despite his style inspo, Ricochet lost.
§ I’ve been doing Kibbles ‘n’ Bits for quite a while, more than 15 years, and over that time, I’ve built up a web of Google alerts, and other notification services to help me find only the FRESHEST most VITAL and IMPACTFUL information to bring to YOU, The Beat readers. And it’s true I took a little break, but now that I’m getting back into it, I find it’s harder than ever. Because in keeping with a world that is being run on massive reams of disinformation and truth is more of an illusion than ever, even Google is letting me down. I find all the links choked with fake stories that aren’t even amusing. I mean, I’ve ginned up some headlines over the years, but just as a soupçon for the real stuff. Now, it’s all fake all the time. Take this “story” on Karl Urban‘s bad Cockney accent in The Boys.
In the show, there’s a chance to add another layer to the character, and this is where the bad accent (dubbed as Cockwi by many fans due to the actor’s natural New Zealand accent coming through) comes into play. It’s poking fun at the character, combining Urban’s natural accent and the supposed accent of the character. Getting the character of Billy Butcher just right was important for the show. During the panel at NYCC 2018, Eric Kripke and Evan Goldberg explained that the creator of the graphic novel, Garth Ennis, wanted to make sure the dialogue and accent was just right. He had a lot of criticism over some of the dialogue.
Well, I wish I had been at that panel, because I’m pretty sure Karl Urban is just bad at a Cockney accent. I mean, maybe I’m wrong, and Garth Ennis gave him extensive dialog coaching but…isn’t it even harder to do a bad on purpose accent than a bad accent by Amazon?
I’ll give this one the yellow light for “we just don’t know for now” but then there’s a link that I won’t even pass along, as it has the headline “Avengers v X-Men is coming for Marvel’s Phase 6” or something and it reads like entirely made up bullshit.
In fact, according to sources close to [redacted], an all-out Avengers vs. X-Men movie is indeed “on the cards.” You’ll remember that we reported on this several months back but we recently got another update on the project and we’ve been told that it’s still something that Marvel is hoping to get to. It just may not be until Phase 6 or later. From what we understand, the X-Men need to be introduced into the MCU first and the studio also wants to form the New Avengers team (Black Panther, Spider-Man, Blade, Shang-Chi, Jane Foster’s Thor, Scarlet Witch, etc.) before they arrive at a full-blown crossover movie like Avengers vs. X-Men. We’ve been told that there’ll be some minor crossovers ahead of the film though and that various post-credits scenes will plant the seeds for when the two teams finally meet.
As a reminder, we’re only at Phase 4 now, and by the time Phase 6 rolls around, I’ll probably be dead. Considering that the MCU poohbahs managed to keep their Phase 4 reveals under wraps until Hall H, I think it’s kind of unlikely that someone is in the planning meetings and then blabbing it all to this unknown website.
But it’s ALL like this now. Innuendos and offhand comments whipped up into clickbait. All creating an obfuscating cloud that allows the truth to often hide in plain sight.
It takes all the fun out of link blogging, I’ll tell ya.
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