This was the week where the number of people debating the flaws and merits of a fellow dead since 1981 (Frederic Wertham) outpaced the seemingly countless supply of folks wishing to share why they were not reading Mark Waid/George Perez’s Brave and Bold series (or weighing in with displeasure about a cartoon of the same name that no one has yet to see). On the positive side, at least we weren’t taking to the webpages of Slate to debate the size or scope of Power Girl’s cleavage-centric costume hole.
“Art Spiegelman’s Maus is of course a modern classic with a very striking cover, appropriately reminiscent of a World War II poster. But I had a student once who said a man on the subway gave her the evil eye for reading it, possibly motivated by the swastika on the cover. (Or could it be that the man was an anti-Semite?)”
- Jeet Heer, charting the ways and means of Eyebrow Raising Book Covers
“In his EW review, Douglas Wolk described Perez’s art as ‘fluid [and] hyperdense,’ which made me scratch my head: How can hyperdense art be fluid? I can understand how hyperdense art could have its own aesthetic appeal (the joy of finding hidden details in the art; the satisfaction of feeling like you’ve gotten a lot of bang for your buck, art-wise), but I’m at a loss to understand how it would be viewed as fluid. Am I just being (hyper)dense? Does anyone else get what Wolk is saying?”
- John Jakala, measuring levels and perceptions of hyperdensity
“Now I have to go scrub out my soul.”
- Colleen Doran, regretting (in the comments section) the Internet search she did for names like “Annabel Chong”, “Ron Jeremy” and “Jenna Jameson” (the latter person being a fellow panelist, along with Doran, Louise Simonson and Amanda Conner, at the upcoming New York Comic Con). Doran, always the epitome of tact, tried to put a positive spin on what is (as she put it) a “no-win” situation.
“Reading Millennium is not something I would recommend anyone do, because it’s pretty terrible (It’s not the worst DC crossover though, as I was able to read and reread it. I couldn’t take eight issues of Countdown, and I’ve tried rereading Genesis a few times, but haven’t been able to get through #1 of that again since the week it came out. I still think they should republish it in trade format, maybe as a black and white Showcase Presents along most of it’s tie-ins to hit that magic 500-page mark, for no reason other than to rub Marvel’s face in the fact that Secret Invasion sounds an awful lot like Millennium. As bad as it is, it would be well worth $16.99 for the snapshot it provides for the DC Universe/DC’s publishing line in 1988).”
- J. Caleb Mozzocco, reading Millennium again so we don’t have to.
“It’s funny—part of the reason I was planning on self-publishing in the first place is that I considered myself incompetent at pitching projects. I took it for granted that I wouldn’t be able to sell anyone else on Stagger Lee, as much as I believed in it.”
- Derek McCulloch, revealing a previous lack of confidence in his project pitching skills.
“What has evolved over time is not so much my view on war as my view on warriors.”
- Garry Trudeau, delineating the line between his war policy criticism and his support/advocacy for the troops.
“From the numbers I see posted on the Beat and elsewhere and from my own info from fellow pros and people in the trenches the numbers today suck sliced donkey meat!”
- Mike Manley, invoking a unique luncheon meat to make me almost forget his previous sweeping generalization of “90-95% of retailers are the worst kind of dumb businessman you can imagine” (a line that made it impossible for me to agree with his overall general plea for certain armchair pundits to [in essence] rent a clue…)
“No one should have to pay for an autograph. And as is always the case, the people doing these things make good coin and don’t need to make more off the backs of the fans. Some might say this is the only way they can have contact with the fans and keep things on an even keel, yadda yadda yadda. I watched Jeff Smith sit at his plain old booth and sign stuff for a few hundred folks last year. They didn’t have to dig out the wallet. If the stratification of fans is an outcome of the new comics age, give me the old hotel shows any day. Bad enough you have to deal with lines, now you have to deal with exclusive signings at events where those without $200 get stiffed. Who the hell made these folks popular? The fans. So, let’s pay them back by setting up events that benefit retailers who will recoup their costs by selling the giveaways on e-bay. Sheesh. Sheesh, I say.”
- Evan Dorkin, bemoaning the need by some folks to charge for quality time at a con (thanks to John Parkin for this item)
April 14th, 2008 at 8:38 am
Actually, I think the “scrub out my soul” came after someone brought up Annabelle Chong
April 14th, 2008 at 8:58 am
Sean, you are correct. I thought her comment applied to all three names that had been mentioned in terms of porn work, but rather than list all three names I went with “names like”. That being said, in the interest of greater clarity, I have now included Chong’s name. Thanks for commenting.