§ Drew Friedman writes and draws about R. Crumb in Vanity Fair (glorious larger version in link.)
When I first began drawing comics, R. Crumb was editing his own comics magazine, Weirdo, and accepting submissions. Crumb had long been my favorite artist, so I was excited for the chance to send some of my work to him—although I assumed he wouldn’t care for it. On the contrary, he wrote me an effusive note, telling me he had been following my work and would love to run it in his magazine. I was in heaven.
§ Geek Dad reviews Jeffrey Brown’s Incredible Change-Bots 2: The Vengeful Return of the Broken!
§ Get Your War On’s David Rees is recapping America’s Next Great Restaurant for New York magazine.
§ After last week’s comics debacle, the Village Voice bounces back with a fairly awesome piece on The Ten Best Musician/Comic Artist Friendships with some that will surprise you.
With the rise in cultural prominence and respect for funny-book creators, liking comic books–or graphic novels, if you’re fancy–is no longer an activity that will blow your cultural cachet or get your lunch money stolen, and many musicians have quit being shy about waving their fanboy/fangirl flags. In honor of our recent Comics Issue, we present the ten best musician and graphic novel-type friendships. We even reached out to some of our favorite artists about their collaborations.
§ Oblivion will not die! The Radical Comics movie prospect may have gotten bounced by Disney, but now Universal is slavering away for it, according to all the trades:
Universal Pictures is in exclusive talks to finance and distribute Joseph Kosinski’s “Oblivion” with Tom Cruise in early talks to star. Other studios were vying for the sci-fi pic but Universal has now become the front-runner for it.
Wow, you’d think a lot was riding on this getting made for Radical or something.
§ Bradley Cooper as the Crow? Barf. Luckily, he’s only “in talks” which means his agent mentioned it to him over lunch at the Ivy.
§ Meanwhile Mark Verheiden is working with Akiva Goldsman on Stephen King’s Dark Tower adaptation for NBC. Verheiden is one of those comics-to-Tinsel Town guys who doesn’t get as much press as many others, BTW. He started out as a comics guy with many comics for Dark Horse and other places but works steadily in Hollywood — he’s been on everything from Battlestar Galactica to Heroes.
