* One quick programming note: My review of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World went out over RSS earlier today with a paragraph missing–a whole shpiel about Ramona vs. the Manic Pixie Dream Girl and Scott as Knives’s Manic Pixie Dream Boy–so if you’re interested, please click again to make sure you got the whole thing.
* Recently on Robot 6: A first look at Hope Larson’s A Wrinkle in Time.
* Wait–a new THB issue from Paul Pope and AdHouse? Whaaaat? (Via Tom Spurgeon.)
* Returning to it a couple days later–like flying over a still-gushing oil spill–I find it hard to overstate what a trollish, narcissistic, pointless disgrace the Comics Journal’s roundtable on Ben Schwartz’s Best American Comics Criticism became.
* Speaking of! The programming slate for SPX has been announced. I can’t go this year, and even though this is because of entirely pleasant personal reasons, I’m still bummed out because I’d give my eye teeth to be able to participate in the Critics’ Panel again this year, or even just attend it: Johanna Draper Carlson, Gary Groth, Tim Hodler, Bill Kartalopoulos, Chris Mautner, Joe McCulloch, Ken Parille, and Caroline Small. Sparks really could fly at this thing, and ought to. At the very least, allow me to beg someone to record it! (Via Tom Spurgeon.)
* Here’s a fine David Bordwell essay (is there any other kind?) on coincidence in film narrative. Read the whole thing, just for the pleasure of having done so.
* A lot of people got really excited to see Kevin Huizenga’s story “Time Travelling” go up on Jordan Crane’s webcomics site What Things Do, and I don’t blame them, but mostly it makes me think of how many people I’d kneecap to get Huizenga’s “A Sunset” online. It’s from Or Else #2 and I’m reasonably sure it’s the best short comic story of century so far.
* Jason draws Darth Maul, Batman, and a Teletubby WHOOPS a Moebius character (LOL! thanks Jog), Jason-style.
* Wow, “Always Loved a Film,” the most straightforwardly fun Underworld song ever, now has the most straightforwardly fun Underworld video ever!
* There’s no way to say this without coming across like a complete tool, but since it’s not like it’d be the first time, here goes. Tomorrow is apparently Read Comics in Public Day. I know that everyone’s heart is in the right place, but every day is read comics in public day for me because I’m a grown-up who owns his life choices. It’s no big deal.
I do believe the Teletubby is Moebius’ Arzach…
Yeah, sweetheart! Maybe you should read some Moebius in public tomorrow instead of ‘best american wankery’! j/k, you know i love you and would love to lend you some moebius.
FUCK YOU BOTH THAT’S TINKY-WINKY
How in the world did Hooded Utilitarian get relocated to TCJ anyway? Unless I’m misremembering, Gary Groth seemed not to like or respect anyone in that crew from the get-go, and Noah’s and Ng Suat Tong’s first posts there were rants about how bad the site sucked.
You’re right, though–that was a straight-up flame-war.
It’s a bit of a mystery to me as well. Noah’s written for the Journal for a long time, for whatever that’s worth, but that was probably the decision of Dirk Deppey and/or Michael Dean, just like me writing for the Journal was. I don’t know how involved Gary is/was in selecting writers for the print magazine–he’s always been super-friendly to me but I can’t imagine he was thrilled that I was writing for the Journal while working for Wizard, you know? Anyway, point is I’m not sure who picked the writers for the site, but I really do wonder how long the TCJ/HU relationship will last anymore, since Gary seems not just to be not a fan, but to be actively contemptuous of the sub-site and its approach. Like I said, a panel with Gary and Caro on it oughta be interesting! To say nothing of Caro and Comics Comics representatives Tim Hodler and Jog, or Caro and Blog Flume’s Ken Parille…then again, from what I understand, Noah was pretty conciliatory when he did the journo panel at C2E2 (on-panel at least; afterwards he was pretty Noah-ish about it online), so perhaps no one will bring the ruckus after all.