* This long interview with the great Charles Burns promoting his contribution to the animated horror-anthology film Fear(s) of the Dark is full of fascinating bits–Burns comparing the narrative economies of film and comics, discussing the difficulties of translating two-dimensional comics to the three-dimensional Dog Boy shorts, revealing that his next project “deals with William Burroughs,” and confirming that Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary are no longer the writers for David Fincher’s Black Hole adaptation. Gaiman gives his side of the story here.

* Here is a two-part (so far) interview with Hobbit director and co-writer Guillermo Del Toro. It’s no secret that I’ve been pretty underwhelmed with the Del Toro I’ve seen so far, but reading him describe his work process with Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens makes me excited about the possibilities for the Hobbit films for the first time in a long time. He also talks about the challenge of differentiating the 13 Dwarves without it being a “the fat one/the skinny one/the blonde one/the one with glasses/the stupid one”-type deal, and compares Smaug to Tony Montana. I guess I’ve got to start reading TheOneRing.net again, huh? Takin’ it back to 2000. (Via Heidi MacDonald.)

* The new Yale University Press-published Ivan Brunetti-edited An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories Vol. 2 comes out today, and the story selection is full of some real all-time greats. Here’s a video Yale put together in which Brunetti explains his process for assembling the collection.

Ivan Brunetti on An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Vol. 2 from Yale University Press on Vimeo.

* They’re making a movie out of Chuck Palahniuk’s uneven horror novel/short-story-collection hybrid Haunted. It sounds like they’re focusing on the framing device, which would have worked as its own short story a lot better than it did as ersatz and unrealistic glue for a bunch of unrelated scary stories. (Via every horror blog.)

* So I guess Daniel Craig turned down the starring role in Thor. Woulda been nice–the guy looks like a Nordic nightmare. Fun fact: The Missus just does not see the appeal in Mr. Craig. Meanwhile I’m practically attracted to him. (Via Splash Page.)

* Speaking of missed opportunities, J.G. Jones is officially off the final issue of Grant Morrison’s Final Crisis, replaced by Doug Mahnke, who I honestly think would have been better for the project overall. It’s a shame that this kind of meta-story is going to obscure the fact that Final Crisis is a much more compelling comic than Secret Invasion, but maybe quality will out in the long run, I dunno.

* The Dowdle Bros., co-directors of the first-person zombie film/[REC] remake Quarantine and the first-person serial-killer/torture porn film The Poughkeepsie Tapes (did that ever actually get released?) have signed on to be part of some sort of M. Night Shyamalan-produced thriller trilogy with the characteristically humble title of The Night Chronicles. I don’t know what to make of this at all.

* Quote of the day:

BAD BEHAVIOUR ISN’T EXCUSED BY ITS FREQUENCY: IT’S STILL BAD BEHAVIOUR.

—Chris Butcher

* A long, long, long time ago, on Matt Wiegle’s drawing table…

* I thought this line in Tom Spurgeon’s review of Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo’s Joker was particularly brutal, and not just (not even primarily) regarding that specific book:

I’m not sure there were themes available to anyone that hadn’t already bought in to the basic set-up of Batman comic books, the endless battle between this set of things over here that Batman represents and that list of things over there embodied in the Joker.

Ouch. I think there’s a tendency among superhero writers and fans to oversell the Meaning of each hero and villain at the expense of crafting compelling stories involving them. Obviously this was pointed out by many critics of The Dark Knight (wherein it actually didn’t bother me all that much), but imagine if the next time the Joker’s a big villain in a Batman storyline, neither character articulates his view of the meaning or meaninglessness of life in the process of trying to beat each other up, shoehorning complex ideas into pretty rough metaphorical frameworks (and I say that as someone who thinks Batman and the Joker are the two best characters in superhero comics). I think I might be more interested in that kind of Batman storyline, simply because I’ll feel like more of the work is being left for me to do. After all, people puzzled this stuff out regarding the characters based on literally decades of comics where that kind of thing didn’t happen at all.

* Finally, I have a new hero: this wild-man hedge fund manager who made a fortune betting against the economic collapse, quit, and published this in his farewell letter:

Lastly, while I still have an audience, I would like to bring attention to an alternative food and energy source. You won’t see it included in BP’s, “Feel good. We are working on sustainable solutions,” television commercials, nor is it mentioned in ADM’s similar commercials. But hemp has been used for at least 5,000 years for cloth and food, as well as just about everything that is produced from petroleum products. Hemp is not marijuana and vice versa. Hemp is the male plant and it grows like a weed, hence the slang term. The original American flag was made of hemp fiber and our Constitution was printed on paper made of hemp. It was used as recently as World War II by the U.S. Government, and then promptly made illegal after the war was won. At a time when rhetoric is flying about becoming more self-sufficient in terms of energy, why is it illegal to grow this plant in this country? Ah, the female.

The evil female plant – marijuana. It gets you high, it makes you laugh, it does not produce a hangover. Unlike alcohol, it does not result in bar fights or wife beating. So, why is this innocuous plant illegal? Is it a gateway drug? No, that would be alcohol, which is so heavily advertised in this country. My only conclusion as to why it is illegal, is that Corporate America, which owns Congress, would rather sell you Paxil, Zoloft, Xanax and other additive drugs, than allow you to grow a plant in your home without some of the profits going into their coffers. This policy is ludicrous. It has surely contributed to our dependency on foreign energy sources. Our policies have other countries literally laughing at our stupidity, most notably Canada, as well as several European nations (both Eastern and Western). You would not know this by paying attention to U.S. media sources though, as they tend not to elaborate on who is laughing at the United States this week.

It is simply insane that on my way home tonight I can legally buy a 24-pack of Schlitz but not a nickel bag of weed. Absolutely insane. My worst experience with booze was blacking out for a couple of hours and was eventually being found curled around a toilet on the floor of a dormitory bathroom by someone who’d waited in a five-person deep line to use it, then having to schelp to class the next day and leaving in the middle to shoot out both ends for half an hour. By contrast worst experience with pot was freaking out a bit while smoking half a J and watching an interview with Genesis P-Orridge and Robert Anton Wilson. Feeling good is very, very dangerous in a lot of people’s eyes, and for them, the ability to experience a consequence-free high of any kind–chemical, sexual, physical, mental, emotional, spiritual–must be stamped out at all costs. Fuck those people. Fuck Anti-Life. (Via every political blog.)

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