Carnival of souls

* STC Elsewhere: I shined the Strange Tales Spotlight on the great Becky Cloonan and noted the demise of Wizard’s price guide and message board.

* Fantastic interview with Gary Groth and Kristi Valenti about the revamped print and web iterations of The Comics Journal by Kiel Phegley over at CBR. Five words, folks: Gary Groth’s Happy Hour podcast. Also, among other things, we learn that TCJ will be hosting blogs by Shaenon Garrity, Rob Clough, and R. Fiore, as well as importing Noah Berlatsky and Ng Suat Tong’s Hooded Utilitarian group blog.

* Jog analyzes the sizzle-to-steak ratio in Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III’s Detective Comics. If there’s enough sizzle, can it become a steak substitute?

* Wanna see Benjamin Marra draw Marilyn Chambers?

* Wanna see Johnny Ryan draw the poster for The Exorcist on a post-it note? And do a kids’ comic with Dave Cooper?

* Wanna see Frank Santoro draw a Cold Heat tribute to the poster for Mario Bava’s Black Sunday?

* Wanna see every page of Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan laid out on a wall?

* Wanna see a new comic written and drawn by Alan Moore? Also, he’s working with Gorillaz, he tells a cute story about Brian Eno, and the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen book he’s finishing now takes place in the present day!

* Oh yeah: While Moore’s thoroughgoing ignorance about many aspects of contemporary culture is lamentable (no matter how good a writer he is), it’s also increasingly clear that his expression of it in interviews is in no small part due to lousy questions from his interviewers.

* Well, this is odd: This interview with Sleigh Bells and this interview with Gary Numan (via) reveal that both owe their entire careers to a coincidence: Sleigh Bells’ Derek Miller and Alexis Krauss met when he waited on her at a restaurant and happened to ask if she sang, while Numan discovered his signature instrument, the Moog keyboard, because someone left one at the studio where his ersatz punk band was recording. I can relate: the only reason I bumped into the old high school and college classmate who got me my first job as a writer and remains my editor at Maxim is because I was wandering around Manhattan looking for a party that turned out to be in Brooklyn.

* Quoted on Pitchfork! Made it, Ma! Top o’ the world!

4 Responses to Carnival of souls

  1. Chris Ward says:

    “Comic” critic, Sean T. Collins.

    I want that quote on my tombstone.

  2. Chris Ward says:

    “Comic” critic, Sean T. Collins.

    I want that quote on my tombstone. Kudos!

  3. shags says:

    “Isn’t that something?” Indeed!

  4. Zom says:

    lousy questions from his interviewers.

    Christ that interviewer got on my nerves, and that exchange in particular. Had me ranting on the Mindless email list.

    It’s tricky because while I, of course, do not own Alan Moore and the chap doesn’t owe me anything, it’s deeply disappointing when one of your heroes is a) so ill served, and b) is prepared to buy into the kind of shit being talked in that interview.

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