* Comics Comics gets a lovely makeover and Fantagraphics co-honcho Eric Reynolds writes an essay for The Comics Reporter on pretty much the same day that long-time Comics Journal writers Noah Berlatsky, Ng Suat Tong, and Robert Boyd beat TCJ.com to within an inch of its life? Ouch. I imagine the temptation when receiving criticism from Noah is to grab an issue of The ACME Novelty Library off the shelf and congratulate yourself on the good company you keep, but at this point I sure hope that the people in a position to listen and act are listening and preparing to act. Because here’s the thing: The Comics Journal introduced me to the very idea of comics criticism. I’ll be eternally grateful Dirk, Michael, Gary, and everyone involved for giving me the chance to write for the magazine, and Gary Groth is probably my all-time comics hero. But the relaunch has been so slapdash, and Gary’s attitude about it as evinced in that hideous self-congratulatory “welcome” letter so off-putting, that it’s become tough to root for them. I know the Journal is a smaller part of Fantagraphics than ever before, but its web presence really could be contributing something beyond various people proclaiming how much they don’t like New Yorker short stories and attempting to metaphorically reenact the video for “Beat It” with Comics Comics in the role of the sunglasses dude, and I’d love to see that happen.
* Yikes. It sure looks like something’s gone very wrong with the kinds of comics that drive the Direct Market. The great recession, event fatigue, what? Marc-Oliver Frisch has more. Personally, my guess is that had “Dark Reign” lasted until early autumn ’09 instead into late winter ’10, we’d be looking at a different chart.
* Today on Robot 6: Mint JRJR cover for Avengers #1 and the Covered blog is doing an art show.
* Dan Nadel sure makes it sound like Ben Jones is doing an Adult Swim pilot…
* George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead sounds pretty bad.
* How many of these killer little comics does Frank Santoro have socked away?
* Curt Purcell makes The Wolfman sound worth a matinee viewing.
* Jog takes a look at two recent Viz titles of note, Biomega and All My Darling Daughters.
* Dick Cheney loves torture so very much he just can’t shut up about what a war-crime perpetrator he is. I’m not even really exaggerating.
* Goldfrapp have the attitude every artist should have, both generally and about Van Halen specifically.
* Great job!
“George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead sounds pretty bad.”
It’s worse. And this is coming from someone who liked Diary of the Dead.
I always thought the paper rad cartoons would work for adult swim. Whatever the network is, I’m excited!
“I imagine the temptation when receiving criticism from Noah is to grab an issue of The ACME Novelty Library off the shelf and congratulate yourself on the good company you keep”
Of course, Ware’s series is at D&Q these days, not Fantagraphics…
I always thought the paper rad cartoons would work for adult swim. Whatever the network is, I’m excited!
Steven: Oh God.
David: Agreed.
Greg: Oh my! But I wanna be clear that I think Fanta’s a tremendous operation and my favorite publisher.
Sean, Steven:
Worse than DIARY? Is that possible?