Lots of strong stuff today from all over the comicsphere. It’s pretty neat.
To paraphrase James Hetfield for no apparent reason: For whom the bell tolls, Watchmen marches on. The ongoing multiblog examination of Alan Moore’s epochal graphic novel continues, with Ampersand, Four Color Hell’s Todd Murray, and (of course) Jim Henley and Jim Henley again adding to the discourse. (FCH and & links courtesy of Dirk Deppey.) Judaism, “the big shock at the end,” the bloody roots of leftwing utopianism, and 80s-reference specificity are tackled this go-round.
(Particularly interesting to me is the leftwing-cautionary angle explored by Ampersand. To me, the troubling aspect of Moore’s V for Vendetta is that I’m not convinced it’s a cautionary tale; Moore is distressingly ambivalent on the morality of V’s terrorist acts, and most importantly V’s actions toward Evey. I think Moore showed signs of outgrowing this in Watchmen, but it’s worth noting that only when he sets up a right-wing agent of social-good-through-violence, in the form of Jack the Ripper in From Hell, can Moore bring himself to condemn the terrorist enterprise entirely.)
At David Fiore’s place, guest-writer Jamie sings the praises of Charles Burns’s Black Hole, also known as “the comic I would write and draw if I could write and draw comics.” David, you owe it to yourself to put aside that lettercolumn from 1972 for a moment and pick up an issue of this book!
Shawn Hoke talks up autobio heavy-hitter Julie Doucet, an excellent cartoonist whose “busy” aesthetic is an interesting antecedent to that of the Fort Thunder folks I discussed yesterday. (Shawn, can you talk to the Broken Frontier people about getting permalinks set up? Please?)
Also on the altcomix beat is Tegan Gjovaag, who finds the voyeuristic undertones of Gilbert Hernandez’s Palomar off-putting. It’s an intelligent criticism, moreso because it’s derived from observing how the comic actually works, and not from drawing conclusions based merely on the physique of the characters.
Tim O’Neil reviews French cartoonist David B.’s Epileptic Vol. 1. He goes more than a little over-the-top in praising it (as has translator and Fantagraphics honcho Kim Thompson, who ranks it alongside Maus and Jimmy Corrigan!), but it is a fantastic comic (much better than the similar Persepolis, for example), and I’m surprised it got so little attention in the year-end best-of roundups everyone was doing. (Hey, you noticed it!–ed. Yeah, well, maybe mother was right, and I am special! And oh yeah, link courtesy of Dirk Deppey.)
Steven Berg has a couple of new installments in his fascinating series of posts on Grant Morrison’s New X-Men. This one tries to figure out what, exacly, the New X-Men are fighting against, and comments the role of such antagonists in superhero comics generally. In another post, inspired by David Fiore, he compares Morrison’s recent storylines to the “Death of Gwen Stacy” arc from The Amazing Spider-Man. I think you could argue that they fulfill similar, not inverse, functions: They both pare down the B.S. to get to the emotional heart of various inter-character relationships. (Note to Steven: The Scott-Jean-Emma triangle is indeed a new invention, though obviously you’re right to point out that the sexual rivalry in the Jean-Emma relationship goes waaaaay back.)
Speaking of Morrison, Steven Grant has the Quote of the Day in his recent column about the never-ending battle between editors and freelancers for clout with the publishers:
Let’s face it, there aren’t many comics talents any company considers “indispensable” (otherwise Grant Morrison would still be writing JLA or NEW X-MEN, wouldn’t he?)
Not to get all Glenn Reynolds on you, but heh, indeed, and read the whole thing.
Over at Newsarama, Joe Quesada talks about his upcoming Daredevil miniseries. I know this usually gets lost in the shuffle of his salesmanship, but his thinking about comics is pretty astute, and he swings a mean brush to boot.
Dave Intermittent asserts, correctly, that metonymizing “decompressed storytelling” to “talky boring comics” is a big mistake. As a public service, he also reprints a conversation he overheard in a comics shop, one that will make you want to act like Denethor in the film version of The Return of the King and start shouting “Abandon your posts! Flee! Flee for your lives!” (I’m not sure that quoting Tolkien helps prove your point–ed. Shut up.)
Gentleman and scholar Steve Wintle offers some thoroughly unnecessary apologies for his response to my thoughts on comics interviews.
And finally: “Not today, but maybe tomorrow,” eh, Jim? I’ll hold you to that, pal….