No matter what quotes I found this week, I just really cannot compete with the exchange of opinions/infinite monkey theorem experiment that began on Friday evening. So without further delay, the quotes that caught my interest.
“I ask to all those with their negative comments to try and exude some class and respect for a man that truly loved his family and worked so incredibly hard to create works of art for millions of people to enjoy. Lets not forget that no one, INCLUDING YOURSELVES, are perfect- we all try as best we can.”
- Katherine (Vince Colletta’s granddaughter), bringing a much-needed perspective from Eddie Campbell’s comments section, which Campbell in turn reposted to draw greater focus on her thoughts.
“Why would the Fantastic Four contact Iron Man for anything? I could see Mr. Fantastic calling up Tony Stark to bounce technical ideas and theories off him, but Iron Man…? The only things Iron Man brings to the table are repulsor rays and rocket skates. There’s absolutely no reason the FF would need Iron Man for anything.”
- Sean Kleefeld, defining his hate for Iron Man and working in an alliterative reference to Shellhead’s rocket skates.
“After next week, I won’t be doing a weekly comic for gURL.com anymore. It pains me to do it, but financial difficulties, especially those generated by my jaw and self-employment taxes, make it nigh on impossible to live my dream anymore.”
- Rachel Nabors, shining a little light on the challenges to successfully living one’s dream (Link first noted by Johanna).
“However, as comic books expand out into American culture, those of us who have been fans all along are going to have to tolerate the inevitable patronizing of newcomers. The story’s end is a great example of this as the narrator says, ‘It’s because of the diversity and passion of writers like Jodi Picoult, Percey Carey and Josh Whedon that elevates comic book writing to storytelling.’ Yes, because before these three showed up, it was complete shit. I suspect commentator John Ridley is about to learn a little bit about that famous fanboy ire. After a schmuck comment like that, he’s got it coming.”
- Matthew McLean, pulling no punches in reaction to a recent NPR essay by John Ridley
“I’ve heard other authors say that the hard part of writing isn’t starting a book, but finishing one. For me, the really hard part is sustaining my enthusiasm for a story I’ve written through many, many rounds of editorial notes, drawing, and copyediting. It takes around a year just to draw a graphic novel–I work at a rate of about one page per day–and when you break the story down into such small increments it’s hard to keep the big picture in mind. Even action-packed sequences are boring when they take so long to complete.”
-Hope Larson, drawing back the curtain on an aspect of her creative process
Five Years Ago
“By freeing writers and artists from many of the economic and content restrictions of traditional comic publishing, EPIC hopes to provide a forum for a new generation of comic creators to reach the next generation of readers.”
- Part of the promotional text from Marvel’s short-lived relaunch of the EPIC line, back in March 2003 (as quoted by CBR).
March 30th, 2008 at 3:48 am
…man, I knew so many people who were working on EPIC submissions when the whole thing got killed…
March 31st, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Vince Colletta did very good work (Thor) and very bad work (on FF). Unfortunately by the 1980s many artists refused to allow Colletta to ink their work if they had any say about it. John Romita Sr. in particular considered this to be a perk of being art director at Marvel–he could keep Colletta off his art. He was so unpopular with artists at Marvel in the 1980s that only his friendship with Jim Shooter kept him getting work. Colletta was pretty much forgotten after he died until JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR began printing uninked Kirby pencils and then showed how the pages looked after Colletta inked them, showing that Vince had erased characters and backgrounds from Kirby’s art. This cannot be defended no matter how much you think Colletta was a fine artist and a great guy.
June 11th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Mr. Van Hise is a typical Kirby-phile who has toed the party line regarding Colletta. Anyone who says that Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta’s Thor books weren’t the best of the best comics have ever had to offer is partially blind. If you showed Mr. Van Hise a nice Kirby-Colletta page he would say Yuk just as Republicans still feel that GW Bush has been a competent president. Ignorance can not be repaired or removed, unfortunately.