Carnival of souls

* Tom Spurgeon’s Harvey Pekar obituary is masterful. Neil Gaiman, Seth, Denis Kitchen, Alison Bechdel, Phoebe Gloeckner, Dean Haspiel, Diana Schutz, Frank Santoro, R. Fiore, Tim Hodler, Larry Marder, Gerry Shamray, and more all contribute.

* I also liked Eric Reynolds’s piece on Pekar’s importance to alternative comics and to his role in them personally.

* Busy day on Robot 6 today. AdHouse becomes a distribution house, adding Koyama Press and more;

* Jeff Parker’s Atlas is ending for good with issue #5;

* There’s another Grant Morrison Batman one-shot and a David Finch solo Batbook on the horizon;

* and the Black Lanterns are coming back.

* At the risk of once again summoning a grumpy Tim Hodler, Beetljuice-style, I will link to an Alan Moore interview, but only to say this: If you’re going to take the to-my-mind unimaginative and untenable standpoint that there’s something inherently ethically gross about superhero fiction, I actually think that Moore’s concept that they embody the American un-value of Peace Through Superior Firepower is a lot more convincing than the usual accusations of fascism. Moreover, if you ascribe to the viewpoint that Moore’s status as an artist should trump any concerns about whether his stabs at criticism in interviews are or aren’t cockamamie, then I also think it’s pretty easy to see how the way he describes superhero comics here dovetails both with his work in Lost Girls, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and even From Hell–all of them tales of the moral superiority of fucking to fighting–and how a pacifist artist would have experienced the past nine years of real life. So that’s nice. Actually, I think Moore comes off better here than he has in many an interview. The most groan-inducing bits, like a part where it’s argued that comics haven’t produced any work as sophisticated as Watchmen since that book’s release, fairly obviously stem from not necessarily thought-through in-the-moment word choices in the process of a conversation. You’d have to be a TCJ.com contributor (or, y’know, me circa 2003-2004) to wanna make mountains out of those molehills.

* Matt Seneca reviews several recent Big Two comics of note: Fraction & Ba’s Casanova #1, Morrison & Quitely’s Batman & Robin #13, Langridge & Samnee’s Thor: The Mighty Avenger #1, Claremont & Manara’s X-Women #1, and Sturges & McCarthy’s House of Mystery #27. Calling Chris Claremont “one of the more notably feminist writers of superhero comics” is, uh, one way of characterizing the author of the Hellfire Club saga, I guess. Elsewhere, Seneca applauds that show-stopping Frazer Irving Batmobile panel from Batman & Robin #13.

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* What happened when Glenn Danzig finally heard about Henry & Glenn Forever? This.

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* Ready to lose a couple hours? Complex has teamed up with DJ Cipha Sounds to present The 75 Greatest Tunnel Bangers, the hip-hop tracks that went over biggest at the hugely influential late-’90s NYC club night “Mecca” at the Tunnel. I’ve got a a very weird love-hate relationship with a lot of this music. The late ’90s were the period in my life when I listened to more hip-hop than any time before or since, but most of it was emphatically not from the Bad Boy/Ruff Ryders/Roc-a-Fella trifecta that ruled the Tunnel and my local hip-hop station Hot 97 via those outlets’ mutual mastermind Funkmaster Flex. But with the remove of time it’s much easier to appreciate this stuff, particularly the ear-pummeling hugeness and savagery of the beats constructed by Swizz Beatz, the Hitmen, and so on. It’s an entire subgenre based on BIGNESS–like if late-’90s alternative music consisted of dozens and dozens of awesome songs that sounded like “Army of Me.” The relentless lyrical focus on status, money, and (for lack of a better word) hardness can grate, but in the moment, this stuff’s a lot of fun. (Via Tom Breihan.)

7 Responses to Carnival of souls

  1. spbelcher says:

    I think my thing with Moore is that he’s not really saying anything new about the genre. I’ve heard this same argument, either from him or others, about superheroes before. It isn’t that I don’t see his point, mind you – there are dozens of ways to look at the genre and this is no more or less valid than any other – but rather that it all feels so stale from him in 2010.

  2. “Calling Chris Claremont “one of the more notably feminist writers of superhero comics” is, uh, one way of characterizing the author of the Hellfire Club saga, I guess.’

    I started to do a whole blogpost about this passage but decided I would ask for a little more meat on the bare bone of it:

    Is it your contention that Claremont’s standing as a “feminist writer” is either partially or wholly compromised because he wrote the Hellfire Club saga?

    If so, what’s the specific point at which he became compromised? Showing Kitty Pryde being attacked by gunmen? Having Jean Grey mind-controlled by Mastermind?

    Or could it be, maybe– oh, I don’t know–

    THE BUSTIERS OF SATAN???

  3. Matt Seneca says:

    Man, I should’ve just left that review at home… hopefully my second look at X-Women atones for it some?

    Anyway, my intent DEFINITELY wasn’t to say that Claremont hasn’t written some bafflingly misogynistic stuff in his time, and if I wasn’t sticking to Newsarama’s five-paragraphs-and-out structure I would’ve unpacked it a little more. Basically, Claremont gets the “feminist” tag by comparison; he’s not exactly Andrea Dworkin but he has made an explicit point of introducing more new female than male characters, focusing on the internal lives of said female characters to a pretty unprecedented degree (again, I mean unprecedented in hero comics), and giving them more “power” both in terms of super-abilities and carrying story weight. For what that’s worth — I mean I cringe every time I get out the Phoenix Saga too — but I think it does put him basically alone with Alan Moore as a superhero writer who’s pushed, however benightedly, toward expanded roles (I won’t go as far as “equality”) for women characters in mainstream comics.

    Not to turn into a long-winded self-apologist, that’s still a terrible line, but you know. Just trying to let folks know my head ain’t turned.

  4. Bryan says:

    Matt, I don’t read many contemporary superhero comics, but it’s my impression that writers like Gail Simone continue to do the same? And Marv Wolfman (and his collaborator George Perez) seem to have followed closely in Claremont’s footsteps with the Teen Titans, etc. If I squint a little, sure, it seems Moore has written some of the most complex, accomplished female characters in U.S. superhero comics, but sad to think his rep rests on a handful of characters and stories over a 30 year period. Like, there’s Promethea, maybe Silk Spectre in Watchmen? Tesla Strong? Evey in V? Abby in Swamp Thing? Some one-shots and fill-ins. In the history of superhero comics writing, though, I think its fair to say that there is not much separating Moore from the likes of Steve Gerber or even Roy Thomas in terms of feminist scripts. The Hernandez Brothers, Trina Robbins and others have a stronger feminist approach, non?

  5. Sean: I hear you, but still, this is a step in a better direction from Moore.

    Gene: I think you could probably go even further back than the bustiers and peg it to Storm flying around naked in her room all the time, for example.

    Matt: Ah, don’t sweat it too much. Now that you clarify it, I totally get what you’re saying. I don’t suppose it’s a coincidence that when I think of the best female Marvel superheroes, three of the four who come to mind are all basically Claremont characters (Storm, Jean Gray, and Kitty Pryde–the other’s Sue Storm).

    Bryan: I don’t think it’s a stretch to call Moore an actual honest-to-God feminist, but I also think his ideas about sexuality can lead his women characters into some weird places.

  6. Sean: Yes, but since you specified the Hellfire Club sequence I was gathering that the bustiers were foremost in your mind. After all, HC is pretty tame in the sex/violence departments compared to The Real Thing. It just looks daring next to Lee and Kirby.

    Matt: I think your comments were basically on target. FWIW I can think of a few ways in which I would consider Moore less “feminist” than Claremont, and one of those ways’ names is Silk Spectre.

    Bryan: I’d consider comparisons of the superhero guys to the independents apples ‘n’ oranges. The latter don’t have to go for the sensational as a requirement of their genre; the former do.

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