“I like to tell the history of Judaism through comics…When I was growing up, I never thought comics were connected to religion and culture”: That’s comics creator J.T. Waldman talking Judaism and comics in this profile in the religion section of the Pennsylvania Patriot News. The focus of the story is Waldman’s presentation on the subject with the clever title of “People of The Comic Book.” I wasn’t overly surprised to see the article spell Spider-Man’s name wrong (as “Spiderman”…come on, let’s get this in the AP Style Guide, already!). I was sort of intrigued when the article mentioned that “Waldman called Spiderman ‘a veiled story of Moses’” (they did mean Superman, with the infant in the rocket ship an analogy to the baby in the basket, right? Or are there parallels to Exodus I never noticed in the Spidey story? Is the radioactive spider analogous to the burning bush, and Uncle Ben is God and the Green Goblin Pharaoh…?). And I was pretty appalled when I saw that they got Waldman’s name wrong, calling him J.P. Waldman. It’s obviously too late to fix the print edition, but I don’t see any reason why the online version of an article has to have a pretty basic, embarrassing mistake like that up a few days after publication.
“I guess it’s truly time for me to forgive South Carolinians for firing on Fort Sumter. I hope, in 100 years or so, South Carolinians will forgive me for my own cheap shot”: Political cartoonist David Horsey talks at some length about the reaction to his cartoon mocking South Carolina.
“Early Buzz: Is Kick-Ass The Best Superhero Movie Ever Made?”: Yes, I’d definitely say that buzz qualifies as “early,” since the first trailer isn’t even due out until mid-month. I’m intensely curious about how they managed to make a whole Kick-Ass movie in the time it’s taken Marvel to publish just seven issues of the series. It’s not like artist John Romita Jr. is known for deadline blowing or drawing slow or anything, and yet Kick-Ass has been coming at about as regularly as Mark Millar’s Ultimates used to.
“Dropping a supernatural enemy into an environment that’s already so alien and strange is overkill, like setting a vampire movie on the moon”: Here’s the New York Times on Matt Phelan’s excellent The Storm in the Barn, which is covered as part of a round-up of various children’s books dealing with the Dust Bowl. Writer Jessica Bruder isn’t overly impressed, but then Bruder doesn’t think a vampire movie on the moon would be totally awesome, so I’m not sure whether I’d trust her opinion on anything else.
November 9th, 2009 at 9:37 am
John Romita Jr. took time out from drawing duties on Kick-Ass to direct an animated sequence featured in the upcoming movie.
November 9th, 2009 at 10:28 am
Hasn’t there already BEEN a “vampire on the moon” story? Like, wasn’t there a run on Blade were we discovered Dracula lived on the moon? Or am I confusing that with Eclipso?
November 9th, 2009 at 11:22 am
RE: JRJR
Plus, Marvel keeps putting him on other books for an issue or two, like one of the Fallen Hero: Captain America issues, and the Dark Reign: The List: Punisher one-shot.
November 9th, 2009 at 11:34 am
Please… JRJR can draw 2 books a month. I seriously doubt he’s the hold up…
November 9th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Wesley - Dracula was living on the moon pretty recently, in the late, lamented Captain Britain and MI:13 (which co-starred Blade, so maybe that’s what you’re thinking about).
As far as Kickass goes, I suspect the hold up is Millar. Has there been a project he’s been involved with in the past five years that hasn’t been delayed?
Maybe 1985, although that I think they waited till the art was in to solicit that book.
November 9th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
I’m calling it right now:
Millar is waiting until the final edit of the film to make sure that the remaining issues of the comic book match the film as much as possible, to avoid another WANTED-style embarrassment of having a film that had as little to do with the book it was based on as Less Than Zero.
November 16th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Greast topic
November 20th, 2009 at 10:52 am
This is JT Waldman here, thanks for the plug. The woman who interviewed me for the Patriot News article was probably in her 70s. Maybe her hearing wasn’t so good?!
I had said that Superman was indeed a veiled story of Moses, yet somehow she mangled my words and changed my name to boot! (I do like your Jewish spin on Spidey though)
I’ve gotten use to my words being misrepresented by journalists and was just as annoyed as you were by the mistakes. But as the saying goes, all press is good!
Either way, thanks for the coverage:)
Live Lively,
JTW