Just as most worthwhile writers have a good ear for dialogue, the writer of a column like this one should have a good ear/eye for quotes. If you go back and look over the quotes that Kevin Melrose and JK Parkin culled in the period when they wrote this column, it is quite evident that both of them have a knack for finding effective quotes. My ears and eyes for quotes is vastly different than theirs. In fact, some weeks I come at this gig from an extremely strange mindset.
For example, this week, I toyed with the idea of trying to find quotes from comic book folks connected to suicide, in the wake of novelist David Foster Wallace’s suicide on Friday. I rejected this idea quickly for a number of reasons. It’s exploitative in a sense (”Hey, this man not connected to comics in the slightest took his own life! That got me a thinkin’…”) and in terms of topic relevancy, it’s nonsensical. Also, to the best of my knowledge, for the all the online abuse (amidst the fair criticism [I concede] as well) comic book creators have taken over the years, we are fortunate enough not to have any suicides in our industry (my knowledge is limited, but I am hoping no one proves me wrong in the comments section [this is a hope on many levels]).
I’m sure everyone realizes a column of this nature (like most any) is subjective as hell. My eyes and ears for quotes are not to everyone’s liking. It can’t be. That’s why I periodically ask for folks to submit their own nods for quotes they thought worth noting in the week. I’m genuinely curious to understand what might catch your eye or ear that clearly eludes mine. And with that inquiry made, I leap into the quotes.
“Yes, he’s a dick. But he’s got an exotic David Bowie quality that captures our hearts.”
- Rachelle Goguen admiring Prince Namor, the Savage Sub-Mariner
“I will do something yet that is purely for me but will create for someone in the future that passion that Blake and Keats did in me.”
- Maurice Sendak on his hopes for his future work, as well as its intended impact (in a piece where he talks of his heroes, such as “Mozart, Keats, Blake, Melville and Dickinson”, and quickly disabuses anyone of the notion he’s likening his work to theirs)
“The notion that not even Geoff Johns’ commercial Midas touch can reignite interest in The Flash, for that matter, suggests that what the franchise needs right now, above all, is some rest.”
- Marc-Oliver Frisch crunching the numbers on DC’s July 2008 sales and in particular looking at the numbers for Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge
“Dude, do whatever you want.”
- Mike Mignola’s hypothetical response if director Guillermo del Toro were to have Hellboy sing in a film again
“Gorillas with briefcases. And their contents.”
- Scipio listing just one of the many things that made him happy in his comics for the week.
“Of course, this is the man who really wanted to do Daredevil: Target and couldn’t manage to get past the first issue, so there’s every possibility that the movie will never get made.”
- Graeme McMillan taking a well-deserved (and legally mandated in the contiguous 48 states) shot at director Kevin Smith. Be sure to read the comments section on this one for people giving Graeme more crap than any Millarworld faithful could muster.
“After awhile, being an intern there was exactly like being a zombie, in that you had to leave your ego and opinions at home, you had to be a bit mindless and rely on your hunger for comics to keep coming back to that tenth floor of 387 Park Avenue.”
- George Khoury reflecting upon his gig as an intern at Marvel, back in 1995
“But the persistence of superheroes is a puzzle, an oddity, a standing invitation to huff-and-puff semi-intellectual speculation, and as long as I get my 5 cents a word I shall provide such speculation.”
-Tom Crippen on the appeal to writing about superheroes for The Comics Journal
“I’ll be damned.”
- An unidentified juror in the Michael George trial, reacting to the news that “Judge James Biernat of Macomb County Circuit Court threw out the jury’s March 17 conviction of George“
September 15th, 2008 at 12:22 am
It wasn’t due to online abuse, but Jack Cole took his own life.
David Foster Wallace was a tragic loss as well.
September 15th, 2008 at 12:51 am
The great artist Wally Wood, who suffered from alcoholism and other health problems, also committed suicide. He’s best known for his work on EC Comics and the space adventure Spirit strips.
Man, I feel downright ghoulish adding to this comment thread.
September 15th, 2008 at 2:22 am
Also Malcolm Jones III, best known as inker on Sandman and The Question. Jack Jackson, one of the first underground cartoonists. And perhaps the most shocking case, George Caragonne, writer for Marvel, Valiant, and Penthouse Comix.
This is not about being ghoulish, but these guys all existed…and their lives and work as well as their end should be remembered.
September 15th, 2008 at 5:34 am
Ham Fisher, George Carragone, the great Jack Jackson and this year Starlen Baxter are all comics folks that took their own lives. I don’t think it’s ghoulish at all to know this information.
September 15th, 2008 at 7:49 am
Having once interviewed Jackson, I should of at the very least remembered him. And RAB, I agree, these folks lives and works should be remembered. Having now remembered almost everyone listed here, it was not my knowledge that was limited–only my lousy memory. Thanks for correcting me, all. I just wish I had been right (only in the sense meaning that no suicides had occurred).
September 15th, 2008 at 9:23 am
I often thought Infinite Jest would have made a great comic, but it would have made Cerebus’ 300 issues seem like a 3 issue miniseries.