* Comic Book Resources speaks to Grant Morrison at length about his upcoming miniseries Multiversity. As usual with Morrison interviews lately, it’s compelling reading both for the ideas he trots out and, in terms of ideas he says he had to abandon for reasons beyond his control, the implications regarding DC’s apparently, oh, let’s say “less than optimal internal cohesiveness” over the past few years.
* My pal Ben Morse proudly presents his debut comic as an editor for Marvel.com: War of Kings: Warriors #1, containing the origin of extravagantly Mohawked outer-space superguy Gladiator. Believe it or not, the origin of this Chris Claremont creation and the basics of his race were completely unexplored up until this point. I for one was particularly pleased to see an in-continuity explanation for his ridiculous haircut.
* Of all the responses to Tom Spurgeon’s recent essay on Diamond and the Direct Market, I like NeilAlien’s summary the best:
The Direct Market comics shop should be the jewel in the crown of multiple comics markets during a peak time of comics craft and mass-media attention; instead it eats its own arms off
Just about!
* Speaking of (in a way): PictureBox has announced a pledge drive to help support the upcoming release of C.F.’s Powr Mastrs 3 and Brian Chippendale’s If ‘n Oof. There’s really just no way to slice this story without drawing horrifying conclusions about the financial and aesthetic state of the North American comics market, I’m afraid. But do consider pledging: PictureBox is a great publisher, these sound like great books, and at any rate a pledge actually counts as a purchase of the books with some swag thrown in.
* I really like the look of the new facsimile edition of Adrian Tomine’s 32 Stories, not least because I’d never gotten to read this material before.
* Battlestar Galactica Season 4.5 arrives on DVD on July 28th, along with a Complete Series box set.
* Check out what some of my fellow horrorbloggers have been yapping about lately in the latest League of Tana Tea Drinkers roundup.
* Meet Victor Aleman Jr., recently arrested on drug and weapons charges with a Jeep full of cash and cocaine…and a cellphone sporting pictures of four severed heads lined up on a table. Florida police still have not identified or located the heads. (Hat tip: Matt Maxwell.)
* “Crazy sickness” is spreading in Nicaragua. The unexplained “grisl siknis,” which usually strikes young women of the country’s indigenous Miskito ethnic group en masse, basically turns people into something out of Shivers or 28 Days Later. Scientists and doctors are unable to determine whether it’s physical or mental in nature–perhaps caused by ergotism like various mass-hysteria outbreaks of yore, or perhaps just a societal safety valve blown wide open. (Via Yucky Tuna.)
An in continuity explanation for his haircut?
I love you, Christos Gage.