First up is Alan David Doane’s interview with the comicsblogger, Dirk Deppey. Dirk’s thoughts on the comics artform, the comics industry, and the blogging phenomenon are invaulable. Here’s a sample:

If you follow comics as compulsively as I do, weblogs have become essential reading, a fact due in large part to the democratic, almost Darwinian opportunity they provide. Anyone can start a weblog, after all, but nobody’s forcing people to read them. It’s only by having something significant, informative and entertaining to say that one can attract a readership these days; those that do it well earn their success accordingly — write well and write often, and other weblogs (and their readers) will notice, which in turn will get others to notice, and so on. Because of this, there’s an enormous range of opinions and perspective available out there, and the conversations produced in the blogosphere have often been quite valuable.

Sharp stuff, and part of Alan’s terrific series of five-question interviews. I hope he keeps them coming.

Next up is David Fiore‘s second installment of Watchmen analysis. Obviously Watchmen has been a hot topic around the comicsphere for the last couple of weeks, but here Dave comes up with some of the sharpest insights into Moore’s characters I’ve ever read. Here’s a couple:

[The Comedian] blows up every single time he appears–and this is very good characterization, as far as I’m concerned: like every person I’ve ever met who poses as a nihilist–the Comedian can’t take a joke…

and

Now, [Dr.] Manhattan is a nihilist through most of this story, in that he places no more value on one thing than another…. [but] One thing is certain–every once in a while, he remembers how miraculous it can be for someone else to buy you a beer. “Someone” can buy themselves a beer, but it’s nothing without that “else”. And you’d better believe in that–or else.

Gorgeous, and he’s promising more. I’m looking forward to it.

I’m watching a commercial for OrthoTriCyclen and wondering: If you’re making an ad for a birth control pill, isn’t it bad to use women who are too thin to menstruate?

…to everyone who donated or linked to my Pledge Drive. Your generosity meant a great deal to me, and was very helpful to me during this little bad-luck streak.

As a reward, one more bit of blog beautification!

—–

Drive boy dog boy

Dirty numb angel boy

In the doorway boy

She was a lipstick boy

She was a beautiful boy

And tears boy

And all in your innerspace boy

You had

hands girl boy

and steel boy

You had chemicals boy

I’ve grown so close to you

Boy and you just groan boy

She said comeover comeover

She smiled at you boy.

Drive boy dog boy

Dirty numb angel boy

In the doorway boy

She was a lipstick boy

She was a beautiful boy

And tears boy

And all in your innerspace boy

You had

hands girl boy

and steel boy

You had chemicals boy

I’ve grown so close to you

Boy and you just groan boy

She said comeover comeover

She smiled at you boy.

Let your feelings slip boy

But never your mask boy

Random blonde bio high density rhythm

Blonde boy blonde country blonde high density

You are my drug boy

You’re real boy

Speak to me and boy dog

Dirty numb cracking boy

You get wet boy

Big big time boy

Acid bear boy

Babes and babes and babes and babes and babes

And remembering nothing boy

You like my tin horn boy and get

Wet like an angel

Derail

You got a velvet mouth

You’re so succulent and beautiful

Shimmering and dirty

Wonderful and hot times

On your telephone line

And god and everything

On your telephone

And in walk an angel

And look at me your mom

Squatting pissed in a tube-

hole at Tottenham Court Road

I just come out of the ship

Talking to the most

Blonde I ever met

Shouting

Lager lager lager lager

Shouting

Lager lager lager lager

Shouting…

Lager lager lager

Shouting

Mega mega white thing

Mega mega white thing

Mega mega white thing

Mega mega

Shouting lager lager lager lager

Mega mega white thing

Mega mega white thing

So many things to see and do

In the tube hole true

Blonde going back to Romford

Mega mega mega going back to Romford

Hi mom are you having fun

And now are you on your way

To a new tension

headache

–Underworld, “Born Slippy.NUXX”

I spent part of Super Bowl Sunday reading Micah Harris & Michael Gaydos’ excellent graphic novel Heaven’s War, from the increasingly indie-feeling Image Comics. The book concerns the race between legendary occultist Aleister Crowley and legendary fantasy authors the Inklings (Charles Williams, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien) to unravel the secrets of the Priory of Sion as encrypted in the church at Rennes-Le-Chateau.

At this point you probably fall into one of two camps: You are either saying “Holy Moses, I’ve got to get that!” or “Huh?” And if there’s a problem with this fascinating little book, it’s that it doesn’t go far enough to draw members of the latter group into the former. I’ve spent the last decade drenching myself in fantasy and occult esoterica, to the point where simply enumerating the names of the real-life figures who are characters in the book and the places and groups involved in the story is enough to tell me exactly what’s involved and what’s at stake. According to the notes offered by Harris at the back of the book, the published version of the graphic novel is much shorter than what he’d originally planned to produce. I can’t help but wonder if additional pages build-up, place-setting, and character development wouldn’t have been helpful to those readers who weren’t already familiar with the players and their milieux. In other words, to crib a criticism Tolkien levvied at his own novel, “the book is too short.”

That being said, I think the book still holds up: for its charming and involving depiction of the personalities of its four eccentric protagonists; for its deft and appropriately mystical exploration of conspiracy-theory metaphysics; for its gorgeous black-and-white art by Alias cartoonist Michael Gaydos, whose sensibilities in both action and portraiture are subtle yet perfectly clear; and for its ambition, tackling in relatively short order the type of mysteries of faith and history that were previously the exclusive comics territory of Moore & Campbell’s From Hell. If you enjoyed, for example, William Gull’s guided tour of London in that book, this will rivet you to your seat.

If the work of any of its characters appeals to you, please do pick up Heaven’s War. I continue to find myself thinking over the issues it tackles, and the images it offers.

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….

Those new anti-pot ads are even stupider than I thought.

Please stop saying how good the new Britney Spears song is. Just… stop.

Also, has last night’s Super Bowl Half-Time Titty Fiesta finally proven to everyone’s satisfaction that the MTV Pseudo-Controversy Machine has well and truly jumped the shark?