* Chris Arrant has a pretty great interview with cartoonist Hope Larson up at Robot 6. It’s split pretty evenly between her adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, her upcoming magical-girl collaboration with Tintin Pantoja Whois AC, and general process questions. That’s where the meatiest stuff lies:
Arrant: Becky Cloonan has stated that after doing an OGN, she liked doing serialized stories more because she gets more feedback and can talk about things longer. Have you thought about doing any serialized work?
Larson: I haven’t seriously considered it, no. I’m not too interested in anyone’s feedback except for my editor’s; I’m not doing comics by committee. When I was involved with the Flight anthology that was very much the atmosphere, and it didn’t much appeal to me. I tend to think that the more sources you solicit feedback from, the blander your end product will be.
I also don’t think there’s an acceptable vehicle to serialize the kind of work I do. The Internet’s great if you’re willing to hustle, but I’m not. And floppies…Well, what publisher would be willing to publish a YA girl story in a monthly or bi-monthly format? On top of that, the editorial relationship I want isn’t possible if I’m not working on large chunks of story at a time. For me, short-form serialization — anything under 100 pages or so — seems like a lose-lose situation.
That’s a refreshing lack of fell-goody prevaricating right there.
* Ron Rege Jr. says the first eight issues of his series Yeast Hoist are all going up on What Things Do. That’s wonderful news–I’ve never seen this stuff before.
* Via everyone: You can download all four issues of Daniel Raeburn’s seminal monograph series The Imp for free. One issue each on Daniel Clowes, Jack Chick, Chris Ware, and Mexican pulp comics. I’m looking forward to kicking around with these when I have a little more time.
* Tough to top this photo from an interview with retailer/blogger Chris Butcher of the Beguiling in the National Post. (Via Peggy Burns.)
* I think maybe my single greatest achievement as a comics collector is owning every issue of Acme Novelty Library, especially since I came late to the game (1999 or so) and the early issues are so hard to find and I had no idea just how worth owning they all were when I started getting them. Point is that even if you own Jimmy Corrigan, you wanna get one of the 20 copies of the out-of-print Acme Novelty Library #12 that Fantagraphics just found, if you can.
* Matthew Perpetua explains the methodology behind Pitchfork’s Top 200 Tracks of the 1990s list. Very interesting, especially the fact that the decision to limit every artist to one song apiece came after the voting. I imagine I’d have voted a lot differently if that parameter were in place from the jump, or at least from after the compilation of the shortlist from which participants could select their songs.
* Even though I haven’t seen the movie, this is just a lovely look at Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Chinese Roulette by Jason Adams.
* Ta-Nehisi Coates on bread pudding, Wolverine, and the perils of TMI.
* Johnny Ryan does a Pushead pastiche for a new t-shirt. Metaliban is pretty great.
* Real Life Horror: I assure you that you want to read the demands of the gunman who stormed the Discovery Channel’s offices today:
Saving the environment and the remaning species diversity of the planet is now your mindset. Nothing is more important than saving them. The Lions, Tigers, Giraffes, Elephants, Froggies, Turtles, Apes, Raccoons, Beetles, Ants, Sharks, Bears, and, of course, the Squirrels.
The humans? The planet does not need humans.
* Truly they were the Masters of the Universe. Man, there’s nothing I love more than “third way” villains fighting the main villains.
* Finally, fuck it, I’m posting this John Romita Sr. drawing again. My Lord.
