The old blogroll has changed substantially over the last couple weeks or so. Peruse and surf!
One prominent addition to said blogroll is Heidi MacDonald, former Beat columnist and current Beat blogger. You may remember that I was touting the potential of Heidi to do a great blog in the Gawker/Kicker/Wonkette mode waaaay back when. Lo and behold, that’s what she’s done, and she’s already breaking stories left and right. My favorite so far: Dark Horse will be rereleasing its Sin City volumes in time for the film version’s release, in manga-digest format. Could it be that my old “it’s the format, stupid” mantra (blog-initiated, retail-tested) is a belief that’s shared by the movers and the shakers?
Here’s an announcement that took me by surprise: Veteran-scribe-turned-hot-new-thing Bruce Jones is leaving Marvel. Huh. I can see how people might think that his conspiracy-laden Incredible Hulk saga bears diminishing returns, but I flipped through my trade-paperback copies of the series the other day and was amazed at how readable and enjoyable they remain. This is in no small part due to the editorial latitude afforded him by top-notch ed. Axel Alonso, as well as Jones’s own ability to coax career-best work out of artists ranging from John Romita Jr. to Lee Weeks to Mike Deodato (and who’d’a thunk that one?). Jones was also a reliable go-to guy for a variety of Hulk- and Wolverine-related miniseries, the most recent of which, a Hulk vs. Thing thing, was only recently announced. It’s a big surprise to see him defect to DC, and it makes one wonder who’ll be the next in line to chafe under the more rigorous editorial demands that fellow ship-jumper Chuck Austen described.
Lots of people are saying lots of interesting things about Spider-Man 2, a film about which I couldn’t come up with something interesting to say if you paid me. (Well, yeah, I could: Can we have a moratorium on films that include a scene in which a character, pushed to the brink of despair by the horror of his own actions, clenches his fists, closes his eyes, raises his face to the heavens and screams “NOOOOOOOOO!” to no one in particular? There, that will be $150, please.) With Dave Fiore’s encouragement I’m going to let my thousand-word summary of the film stand: It’s clear to me that I’m on so different a wavelength regarding this film than are my usual interlocutors that discussing it would be futile for all concerned. I’ll say simply that it’s my belief that the fascinating insights into both the superhero genre and larger points of aesthetics and ethics being generated by the film speak more directly to the high quality of the pundits involved than to the film itself. (For what it’s worth, I think Johnny Bacardi‘s positive but measured assessment is much more in line with the intellectual and filmic weight the film can actually bear in and of itself. Ditto John Jakala‘s pan.)
The blockbuster interview of the moment is at PopImage: Jonathan Ellis speaks with Grant Morrison, and the amazing and inspiring quotes ensue as you knew they would, and as they do with the regularity of Old Faithful whenever Morrison speaks. I found his points about the too-easily-forsaken Wild-West potential of even “mainstream” comics particularly well-taken, as well as his refreshing lack of equivalency about Magneto’s terror campaign (the fitting end to which has already been retconned out of creation by the House of Ideas). (His argument that manga is where the hip-now-pop energy of comics is these days is certainly borne out by my sojourn in retail, that’s for damn sure.)
Also worth a read is Chris Butcher’s intro to the interview, in which he recounts the life-changing impact Morrison’s Invisibles had on him. The Invisibles is by far my least favorite work of Morrison’s; I found it difficult to follow in an annoying, poorly executed way, not a challenging way. Moreover, any impact it may have had on me was diluted by the fact that I read The Illuminatus! Trilogy long before; that book had the “Life-Changing Conspiracy Mindfuck” spot in my mental bookshelf well and truly filled. Still, the fact that a comic book can change someone’s life speaks well both of the form and of the practitioner in question. (And I like the Chris Butcher we have as a result.)
As part of his ongoing crusade against wasting time discussing superhero comics, Tim O’Neil has posted two of the longest, most considered analyses of supercomic continuity I’ve ever seen. (I dunno, maybe he’s going for some of that Morrisonesque Filth-style innoculation? Or maybe (seriously this time) he just really likes supercomics and gets frustrated when they don’t live up to his very specific expectations. I’m going with the latter.) Now, I’m an unapologetic admirer of (good) supercomics, and yet not even I can imagine not reading a particular book because of its inconsistent portrayal of the freaking Absorbing Man. Still, Tim’s main point–that writers, in choosing to either ignore continuity or dredge up its longest-forgotten elements, should always consider how this would effect the tone of the story and thereby its success in evoking the desired response from the readers–is an insightful and necessary corrective to a debate about such issues that too often devolves into blanket pro-and-anti camps.
Finally:
The late-night slots of Comedy Central and Cartoon Network have become a graveyard where failed cartoon sitcoms endlessly cycle through their six episode initial commitments. The least lamented is the odious right-wing Simpsons knock-off, Family Guy.
–R. Fiore, “The Glory That Was The Simpsons,” The Comics Journal, Special Edition Volume Four, Winter 2004.
Well, Mr. Fiore, I could challenge your definitions of both “least lamented” and “right-wing” (???), but I think I’ll go the more succinct route: As Nelson would say, “Ha ha!”
(Link courtesy of Kevin Melrose. That’s something we in the blogosphere should just tattoo on our foreheads, isn’t it?)