“Comic book artists invented some of pop culture’s most indestructible heroes. But when it comes to protecting themselves, these writers and illustrators turned out to be as vulnerable to personal setbacks…as Superman is to Kryptonite”: Saturday’s Los Angeles Times had a nice profile of The Hero Initiative and the important work they do. President Jim McLaughlin is quoted, as are creators William Messner-Loebs, Gene Colan and Ralph Reese. If the article moves you to donate, here’s the Hero Initiative’s site.

I never stopped to consider the theological implications of Johnny Hart’s B.C. before: The late Hart’s strip was about stone age cave men, right? And it was entitled B.C., which stands for “Before Christ.” Yet the cavemen were Christian, and crosses would fairly regularly appear in the strip. How could there be Christians before Christ?! This is blowing my mind—why have I never thought about this before? It blows my mind that this has not blown my mind before now! Anyway, here’s a nice little feature story on Hart and I Did It His Way, a collection of the more religious-themed strips of the popular and occasionally controversial strip.

“Generally, when you talk about a comic auteur’s ‘issues,’ you’re talking page count, not whether he has his head screwed on straight”: Burl Burlingame discusses the work of Fletcher Hanks, whose entire body of work has now been published thanks to Fantagraphics’ You Shall Die by Your Own Evil Creation!, in this piece for the Honolulu Star Bulletin.  By the way, Fantagraphics now has You Shall Die in stock, and if you order it from them directly, you can get a neat-o looking mini-comic. More info here.

Do you find yourself sleeping too well at night?: Why not check out some of the disturbing images at Thomas Ott’s new website? That oughta give you some bad dreams.

“At least I know after another few days, this hunger will go away and the pre-death euphoria will set in”: Kevin Cannon was interviewed by KFAI radio about his new graphic novel, Far Arden (which I reviewed here this weekend), and you can hear the results here. Additionally, the station apparently “performs” a couple of panels of the book, and Cannon gives the very good news that he’s already planning a sequel. Huzzah! (Via Top Shelf’s Hey Bartender! blog)

“I’m a man- man- man- man- man- maneater/ Still you’re surprised –prised –prised when I eat ya!”: Artist Julie Morstad, whose work was featured in Drawn and Quarterly’s Milk Teeth, did a video for Caleb-approved musician Neko Case, and you can see the beautiful, beautiful results here.  (Via Drawn and Quarterly)

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