A selection of some of the funniest, most interesting and strangest quotes from the past week:
“Being a successful artist is 10% talent and 90% staying the hell away from the web.”
– artist Tony Moore, on “the succubus known as the Internet”
“When I first began drawing sequentials it was right-to-left so I don’t think I’ll have much trouble with that but I’ll see how it goes once I start thumbnailing. Composing for a spread is something I failed to consider, though. How dumb is that, eh? I’m used to having Chevy ads on every second page.”
– artist Takeshi Miyazawa, on adapting his approach for Japanese storytelling
“The reason Marvel and DC is on top is because their books are of high production value and on schedule. We have been working towards self-publishing for a while and we are way ahead on our books. I want people to feel confident that our titles will be released when they were solicited.”
– BlueWater Productions President Darren Davis, promoting the company’s move from production studio to publisher, and pushing its new “mantra,” “solid comics that are on time”
“… Why does manga always bring out the trolls? I find superhero comics utterly unreadable, but I don’t drop in on Newsarama and tell them so; I just figure other people have different tastes. But manga seems to stir up some sort of deep-seated hostility in mainstream comics forums. Weird.”
– Brigid Alverson of MangaBlog, asking one of life’s unanswerable questions
“I’m a playwright who writes comic books to support my playwriting. I hope to have ‘Playwright’ chiseled on my tombstone.”
– playwright and comics writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, on his dual life
“… Strictly speaking, SiP trades and pocket books are not graphic novels, they are comic book collections. Maus and Jimmy Corrigan are graphic novels. The Complete Bone is a graphic novel. Cerebus and SiP books are comic book collections containing a wandering, serialized story where the plot is often sublimated in order to explore the character. Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home is a graphic novel, and won Time’s Book of the Year Award. Danger Girl trade paperback #1 is a comic book collection. Gene Yang’s American Born Chinese is a graphic novel, and won the ALA Prinze Award for Book of they Year based on its literary merit. Lost Girls is a graphic novel, The Ultimate Spider-Man Collection is not. This is all just my opinion, of course, but these are the definitions I see rising from the gene pool that is fashioning a new literary genre. However, if you go to a library you will still find all drawn stories under one Dewey number, 741.5… Scrooge McDuck and Maus on the same shelf. It will take time to sort out the details. Also, note that the award winning graphic novels are not coming from the comic book industry, but from publishers like First Second who are assembling a stable of wonderful authors working in more than one medium. These are not creators you will find mentioned in Wizard or Diamond’s Top 100. Which is bothersome, because even at the beginning of this early stage of the Great American Graphic Novel era, the division between comics and the book industry is present. There remains a generation gap between fan boys and the general public that is not bridged, not even by movies or graphic novels. I understand why, but it will be a real pisser if we finally find ourselves in the age of the Great American Graphic Novel and comics are seen as the primordal ocean of out which they crawled. I mean, look, I have to go to conventions in 3 different industries (comics, books, libraries) to promote my work. That fact alone should illustrate the complexity of navigating the future as a graphic novelist. Makes my head hurt.”
– writer/artist Terry Moore, discussing what he learned at this weekend’s American Library Association’s Midwinter Meeting in Seattle
