* I’m back!
* I’d like to thank the crack Closed Caption Comics squad–especially Conor, Zach, Chris, Molly, Noel, and Ryan–for filling in so admirably in my absence. I got precisely the combination of inspired comics and oddness I was hoping for, and I hope you did too. Posting from me is gonna be light for a bit longer as I play catch-up, so with any luck there’s a little more CCC on its way to you, but I certainly encourage you to check out their website and–and this is the key part–buy their comics if you like what you see!
* Congratulations to this year’s Ignatz Award nominees, especially my friend and collaborator Matt “Best New Talent” Wiegle. The nomination panel included genuine altcomix top dawgs Josh Cotter and Anders Nilsen, so that’s pretty swell.
* So maybe there’s another Hellraiser movie called Hellraiser: Revelations on the verge of being made? And it’s probably not the Weinstein-approved reboot of the franchise that’s been kicked around for a couple of years now? And it probably doesn’t involve Clive Barker? And it’s probably based on a script by a guy who did some point-missing Pinhead make-up redesigns a while back? Personally I’d prefer Rickey Purdin’s Slashpendables.
* Pitchfork says the words I long to hear: The Orb featuring David Gilmour!
* Three interviews about projects I’m looking forward to: Paul Cornell talks to CBR’s Jeffrey Renaud about Knight and Squire, Megan Kelso talks to Robot 6’s Tim O’Shea about Artichoke Tales, and Hercules & Love Affair’s Andy Butler talks to Mike Barthel in the Portland Mercury about Blue Songs. You definitely want to read what Cornell says about his fictional Britain and what Kelso says about the notion of place as a character, and you definitely want to cry over what Butler had to do to make his second album.
* Ana Matronic from the Scissor Sisters is writing a comic!
* Matthew Perpetua defends the honor of “Drunk Girls.” As time goes by I find this to be the best song on LCD Soundsystem’s third and third-best album This Is Happening by what would be a pretty comfortable margin but for “Dance Yrself Clean.” I think the overall record feels too organic–both the harshness and the cold beauty of some of their best previous stuff is gone–but organic works for a shout-along rock song like this.
* Keep doing you, Jim Woodring.
* Bedbugs at the AMC Empire 25 in Times Square? Disaster! I see a lot of movies there. (Via Ryan Penagos.)
* Brandon Graham draws Twin Peaks! Well, maybe the exclamation point is not quite merited–he drew Audrey without black hair. (Also via Agent M.)
* Very much digging this Jaime Hernandez Strange Tales II cover.
* Monomanaical shelf porn is often the best shelf porn.
* White Lantern Batman? Sure, I’ll eat it.
* Robyn as Robin: Shaggy is right.
I think we both knew deep in our heart of hearts that the theoretical dark fantasy Hellraiser remake made with Clive Barker’s participation would never really come to pass no matter how much we wanted it.
Another flimsy sequel probably just means that the people holding the franchise decided that it would be easier and cheaper to continue down the schlock slasher route than try to reboot a franchise that, let’s face it, would have presented a massive amount of problems for any filmmaker who wanted to do it “right.” The fact that Doug Bradley declined to appear is just . . . well, the idea of Hellraiser without our favorite head Cenobite hierophant is really sad. But that is probably indicative of the quality here – if Bradley did *Hellworld* but refused to sign on for *this*, it’s probably going to be awful.