Egon reports that volume 2 of David B.’s excellent Epileptic will not be individually published, as was volume 1; instead, the two will be released as a complete one-volume hardcover, by Pantheon Books. Good news for David B., this–being published in this format by this publisher may mean that the book will at long last get the recognition it deserves. I’m not wild about hardcovers, myself, and hope a one-volume softcover will eventually be produced, but overall I’m more happy for David B. (and the general movement of people who want to see good comics get widedpread recognition) than I am upset that I won’t be able to simply buy Volume 2 by itself.
Garth Ennis discusses the darker tone his series Punisher has taken on now that it’s moved to the adult-audiences MAX imprint, over at Newsarama. Personally, I’m quite happy about this. I always thought Ennis’s Road-Runner schtick bore rapidly diminishing returns, and the garish goofiness he employed on his old Punisher series (parapalegics, bear attacks, dwarf gangs, giant transsexual Russian cyborgs, etc.) was incredibly stupid and off-putting. It was always the serious moments–Vietnam flashbacks, the silent issue, the one-shot about Frank Castle hunting down and killing an old buddy from the Marines who’d gone insane, the Born miniseries–that stuck with me, and it’s great to see that that’s what Ennis is aiming for with the revamped series.
Also at Newsarama, Mike San Giacomo gives a rave review to Craig Thompson’s Blankets. Insert “I thought cartoony art was bad” joke here.
More Thompsony goodness can be found at Suicide Girls, where Daniel Robert Epstein interviews the Blankets author. Included is some upsetting information about how Thompson’s fundamentalist parents reacted to the book. (Link courtesy of the comment thread at the Newsarama article linked above.)
David Fiore gets on the Watchmen beat, arguing that by applying realistic psychological disorders to his super-characters, Alan Moore unwittingly undid the liberatory mechanisms of the superhero genre. I definitely see David’s point–after two decades of gloomy, unimaginative “realistic” takes on superheroes, how could you not?–but all things considered I’d prefer the genre remain open to multiple approaches, with both David’s prefered Silver Age personal-mythmaking and Moore’s psychopolitical metaphors available to creators and readers.
Bruce Baugh pines for the anything-goes superhero genre of yesterday–you know, the one that wasn’t too preoccupied with its own minutiae and therefore could exploit the gonzo energy of other genres and the pop-culture zeitgeist.
Dave Intermittent argues that baiting fanboys merely reinforces their self-aggrandizing sense of aggreivement, and also points out that to a specialist, minor variants and experiments really are majorly rewarding.
Mike Mignola, creator of Hellboy, is interviewed at Comic Book Resources. I’m not sure what’s more refreshing: His lack of pretension about his creation, or his excellent taste in other comics. (I know I saw this someplace else first, but since I don’t remember where, link courtesy of Tegan Gjovaag.)
Finally, expect a big Craig Thompson-related development on this very blog (hopefully) by the end of the week….