* In a few days I will be interviewing Brian K. Vaughan, writer of Lost, Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, Runaways, Pride of Baghdad, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Doctor Strange: The Oath, The Escapists, and so on, for a cover story in The Comics Journal. Is there anything you’d like me to ask him? Please post your questions in the comments to this post.
* Bad people ruining comics for the rest of us part one: Chris Butcher calls out the owner of the San Diego Hyatt for donating $125K to support an anti-gay ballot initiative. He suggests that you don’t patronize their facilities any more than you can help it during Comic Con.
* Bad people ruining comics for the rest of us part two: Tom Spurgeon examines the catastrophic (pending) failure of Platinum Studios, a “comics” “publisher” run by obvious grifters. He suggests that we as an industry and art form should be able to agree that this is a morally bad way to run a business.
* Good people making comics better for the rest of us: Christ Jesus look at Fantagraphics’ SDCC signing schedule.
* Not Coming to a Theater Near You’s Katherine Follet takes a look at Alex Proyas’s The Crow, “the quintessential Goth Movie.”
Dear Mr. K. Vaughan:
Why didn’t it matter how all the men died in Y: the Last Man?
P.S. I don’t agree with what that Hyatt guy is doing, but does “anti-gay marriage” really equal “anti-gay”?
Yes it does, unless you can think of a reason gays shouldn’t be legally allowed to marry that doesn’t come down to gay people being icky.
Mr. Vaughan, why are you anti-gay?
“gay people being icky.”
You said it, not me!
My official, wide stance on the matter is: Who gives a crap? Marry somebody of the same sex if you want. Marry a dog. Marry a tuna salad sandwich. Who cares?
Over in England they’ve already got their first celebrity gay divorce, one of the Little Britain guys. Take your average acrimonious divorce and add that extra layer of gay bitchiness. Hilarious!
It’s one of those facts of life that hundreds of privileges, big and small, are tied up in marriage, and many can’t be simply negotiated in a private contract as an adjunct to a civil ceremony. For instance, if you and your partner are traveling in a state other than your own and get into a serious accident, if you’re married, your right to make quality-of-life decisions is taken for granted, while if you’re not, it isn’t, and you may or may not even have access to hurdles to jump through to establish it. Or, for that matter, if you marry someone who has children already, as a step-parent you have a certain amount of say in matters of child health, but as an unmarried partner, you have much weaker rights and can often be simply disregarded. It goes on and on like that.
In theory one could be anti-gay marriage and not anti-gay, but in practice it amounts to saying “You’re okay, it’s just that I want to make sure you’re stuck as a second-class citizen.” There are things that private contract simply can’t cover because a whole edifice of law is set up with marriage as the magic access. Changing all that law is worthwhile, but takes time; marriage is what makes it possible for people to lead first-class citizens’ lives right now.
Treacher: because Vaughan’s probably not sure how it happened himself.
I say everybody CROWDS the Hyatt, but instead of buying drinks at the bar, bring your own. They can’t catch you all.
Also, here’s a tip if you MUST buy beer at the Hyatt: the gift shop across the hallway from the bar has beers in its refrigerated cooler (with the sodas and stuff) and they’re about 4 dollars cheaper than beers from the bar. And you can drink them IN the bar cause you bought them from the hotel. But there are only about 8 at a time because the stock girls are a little slow at restocking. So get them while you can!
1 – Sean, I brough the first BKV comic (a What If? issue spinning out of Mark Waid’s Kazar run) back to NY with me. If you’d like to look at it as a conversation piece, let me know and we can get lunch this week.
2 – Anyone who takes Rickey’s advice about the beers be warry of young prostitutes who prowl the Hyatt looking for sips of Bud Light and feeling you out on other types of transactions.
Kiel: Vaughan’s first comic was Ka-Zar Annual ’97, published a year before that What If?
Kiel:
Prostitute? No…really: I thought she was there with her family and just really REALLY into us…
Wow…thanks, Dan!
I think I had that annual as well, but neglected to dig it out while home. Oh well, I’m sure Sean will be fine with or without.
I’ll triple what Gary’s paying you if all you do is ask questions about Ka-Zar for three hours.
“Prostitute? No…really: I thought she was there with her family and just really REALLY into us…”
Very shiny, very sparkly.
I’ll triple what Tom’s tripling if you just ask him about plot holes on Lost.