A selection of some of the funniest, most interesting and strangest quotes from the past week:

“I was available, had the right basic look, and didn’t ask any pesky questions about why this guy wanted me to dress in WWII fatigues and have my picture taken.”

– artist Zander Cannon, on serving as the model for Steve “Jetlad” Traynor in Top 10: The Forty-Niners

“I had issues with the time that Peter David ‘borrowed’ Mary Marvel for a Supergirl crossover, and immediately wanted to have her sexually molested in his story. Then Keith Giffen wanted her to lose her virginity in Formerly Known as the Justice League! Now it looks like the movement to gritty Mary up are finally getting their way in Countdown.”

– Jerry Ordway, writer and artist of The Power of Shazam, on the “darkening” of Mary Marvel

“I myself have a chess set of comics industry people I pull out from time to time to play games with the ghost of Malcolm Wheeler Nicholson.”

– blogger Tom Spurgeon, in his review of DC’s Countdown #51

“If the Nymphet controversy didn’t provide sufficient evidence of cultural differences in terms of age-appropriateness of material between Japan and the U.S., the fact that this book was originally published in a kids’ comic (it was in a shônen magazine, according to the author’s notes) should bolster the argument. Nipples! Dismemberments! Fetish gear!”

– blogger David Welsh, on the just-released American version of the manga MPD-Psycho

“Marvel has given me this kind of trust but you still have to earn it. They trust you and you have to deliver on it. These characters aren’t my characters. They’re the world’s characters. There is a shared audience that has a belief in these characters and it’s your obligation to kick (butt) on them.”

– writer Brian Michael Bendis, on working in the comics industry

“I just had a really consuming desire, a passion to draw and paint. I wanted to do comic books and illustrations for magazines. When I was breaking in at 15, there were probably — in just the pulps, which I used to call cowboys and cleavage — 200 publications every month.”

– painter and former comic illustrator Everett Raymond Kinstler, on the “golden age” of comic book artists

A selection of some of the funniest, most interesting and strangest quotes from the past week:

“I was told during my job interview that my seven years of teaching arts & crafts at a summer camp would actually be very useful in my editorial position, and that has proved to be absolutely true. Dealing with artists and the creative process, where there’s a combination of the carrot and the stick to push talent in a positive direction, feels very much like being a teacher (my editorial failing is that I still hate using the stick).”

– Tokyopop editor Lillian Diaz-Przybyl, on working with artists

“I have basic expectations about what’s appropriate for a character with the ‘S’ on her chest. I don’t think that’s a limitation — it points the way toward the proper area in which to search for fresh material. She’s not a dark avenger or Goth punk. She’s a strange visitor from another planet who should embody all that’s best in humanity and in America. That’s right, America. The land of immigrants who make good.”

– writer Tony Bedard, on his take on Supergirl

“What are you doing DC?! Where is the absurdly long torso?! The supershort skirt? The rib cage? The globe-like breasts? The impossibly long legs? Are you trying to betray the fanboy community?

“SHORTS?! I mean, how are readers supposed to anxiously wait for random shots of Supergirl’s ‘super bits’ when they will be covered by shorts?! And Tony Bedard, the new writer wants her to ‘eat something’ and cover up a bit more?! That’s it, DC, no more writers who have daughters! They get crazy ideas about how to write female characters.”

– blogger Thom Wade, on Supergirl’s new direction

“Granted, I have no idea if these books are any good (the online reviews for all three series are overwhelmingly positive, but raves like ‘Negima is my favorite. I am the biggest fan. I love it so much. It is funny and has action and romance at the sane time. It the cooliest of the coolio cows’ make me question the reviewer’s objectivity), but I’m tempted to buy them all just for the sheer novelty of having such thick manga books on my bookcase.”

– blogger John Jakala, who is himself “the cooliest of the coolio cows,” on the Del Rey three-volumes-in-one omnibuses

There is one thing that truly worries me from all the recent net outrages, including the Nymphet ordeal: the rise of websites and bloggers from both sides of an issue whose sole raison detre appear to be inciting acrimony between different sectors of fandom and the belittlement of opposing dissidents, and the willingness of many to lend credence to them. That general attitude is troubling, as it portends a shift in strategy by such grass-roots causes from advocacy, to the smear-and-ridicule tactics more befitting of political or religious extremists. Rather than taking a step up, the call has increasingly become for everyone else to take a step down. That is not empowerment. These spontaneous umbrella causes do not truly concern themselves with promoting the interests of individual people whom they count amongst their members and place on their banners, but the advancement of singular ideology and the desire for everyone to march in lock-step with it.

– Simon Jones of Icarus Publishing, in his post mortem of this week’s Nymphet controversy

A selection of some of the funniest, most interesting and strangest quotes from the past week:

“I don’t know that I want it to be discussed, but I remember I read [Alan Moore's] Swamp Thing and I thought ‘I don’t know half of these words and what the hell is this about menstruation rituals?’ I felt like my brain was being pushed into uncomfortable places. I want that internal kind of sense.”

– writer Steven T. Seagle, on spurring a wider discussion of the issues in American Virgin

“Just dump the superhero comics already. While I understand that many female readers wish to continue reading superhero stories, only without the offensive depictions of women, perhaps it’s time to look at the overwhelming evidence on record and cut one’s losses. Why support publishers who seem to go out of their way to aggravate and alienate female readers? What incentive do those publishers have to change if you’re still buying their books? And you know, there are several manga series out there that could probably satisfy your jones for superpowered action once you left the Big Two behind. So why not just give up on superhero comics? (I did, and I’ve been much happier with comics as a result.) They’re not going to change, so why stay in an unhealthy relationship with the unfounded hopes that someday they’ll start treating you right?”

– blogger John Jakala, on women and superhero comics

“Some women have even thrown in the towel, basically saying that superhero comics aren’t for women. We just shouldn’t bother because there are enough good non-superhero comics out there and the superhero comic book industry doesn’t care if we like what they make or not and frankly, doesn’t make it for women anyway. How sad is that? Give up on action? Give up on adventures? Give up on escaping to a world where people can fly and lift cars?”

– retailer and blogger Lisa Lopacinski, on women and superhero comics

“Recently, I entered a bookstore in the Tokyo area with a fellow Japanese student, an avid fan of seinen manga. Instead of making a beeline for her favorite series, she flipped disinterestedly through a few magazines and then promptly asked to leave. Upon my inquiry as to why she wouldn’t simply go over into the aisle she was interested in, she confessed that the aisle was exclusively seinen, meaning the only people to be found in it were twentysomething males, and that for her to stand alongside them reading would be ‘chotto hen’ — a little weird. Because there’s such an enormous mass of manga available, series are grouped into aisles based upon target demographic. Meaning, males would need to brave an aisle full of young girls to get their hands on a copy of, say, Ouran High School Host Club while girls face rows of businessmen and male college students to grab the next volume of xxxHolic. Coupled with the cultural desire not to draw attention to oneself or stand out too much, some fans can only stare wistfully down aisles or skirt closing times in hopes of an empty store. Next time you feel compelled to grumble about the lack of titles at your local B&N, remember that at least you get to skim your copy of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service without elbowing through crowds of questioning salarymen.”

– blogger Chloe of Shuchaku East, on the shelving of manga in Japan

A selection of some of the funniest, most interesting and strangest quotes from the past week:

“Kids love axes!”

– blogger Rachelle Goguen, in her page-by-page commentary on All-Star Batman and Robin #5

“People call it a call back to Silver Age comics, but I just call it the place where the characters were at their greatest — where we saw their greatest strengths. It’s really building upon what people remember and know the characters to be, and what people most liked about those characters.

“We never want to create a situation where the concept behind a character has nothing to do with people’s perceptions of that character. That’s something I’m very specific about and the goal is to build a much more contemporary world around a character but stay true to the things that make them great.”

– Dan DiDio, executive editor of DC Comics, on recent shifts in the DC Universe

“I have to sell a lot of comic books to be able to afford to be out here, doing this. I make lots of money in comics so I can afford to farm.”

– Chuck Rozanski, farmer and owner of Mile High Comics, selling produce at Colorado’s Boulder Farmers’ Market

“The small, makeshift booth is only about two square metres, but it feels like I’ve got enough technology in here to run a small country.”

– the BBC’s Richard Kimber, checking out a media immersion pod in Tokyo

“If the new Captain America proves to have as good a measure of the national pulse as the old one, the world should brace for a US foreign policy that will be low profile and limited, but still quite lethal.”

– Pramit Pal Chaudhuri, foreign editor of The Hindustan Times, on Captain America as political barometer

“It’s not really a black and white issue. Way more than nine out of 10 new books fail and new characters or revamped characters generally don’t make it. The only difference is a black character is less likely to get a second or third chance. DC used the tools they had to draw attention to the book and it was extremely well done for most of its run. People just didn’t buy it.”

– writer Dwayne McDuffie, on the cancellation of DC’s latest Firestorm series

A selection of some of the funniest, most interesting and strangest quotes from the past week:

“Okay, I’m biased ’cause I work at Marvel, but the Marvel heroes to me are, at their core, more honest. Superman has to put on a façade in order for the rest of humanity to relate to him, he has to become this bumbling guy Clark Kent. So at his core, Superman is a liar … he is! Whereas Peter Parker is Peter Parker, and like all of us when we put on masks we become that other person. So at his core Peter Parker is a much more honest character in the way he relates to the real world.”

– Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada, on the difference between Marvel and DC characters

“Whatever it is, it’s going to involve one of the DC Universe’s most powerful supervillains — and you know it’ll be humongous, because he’s breaking out his superhero chess set!”

– GalleyCat’s Ron Hogan, on DC’s plans for Countdown

“It’s certainly refreshing to be able to write characters who speak the way I do, and who inhabit my world—although admittedly with slightly more supernatural nasties running around the place. Like the saying goes, ‘Write what you know.’ The first issue of Hellblazer describes Constantine as speaking with a ‘naff 1970s South London accent tinged with scouse,’ i.e. Liverpool. I was born and raised in South London in the ’70s, and my dad hailed from Liverpool, so for me it feels very much like coming home.

“I think the character, tone and style of Hellblazer all lend themselves well to writers from Britain, where the horror genre is probably more culturally resonant than the uniquely American superhero genre. Hellblazer’s cultural roots lie more in M.R. James and Clive Barker than Batman and Superman. And of course we’re a gloomy, sarcastic, pessimistic bunch, which fits Constantine to a T.”

– Hellblazer writer Andy Diggle, on the accessibility of John Constantine to British writers

“I did do quite a lot of research actually. Not that the story is historically correct in any sense. I learned as much as I could about the history, and then tried my best not to let the details overwhelm the story I had in mind. I was watching the commentary with the writer of the Deadwood television series and he said he pretty much did the same thing. Learned everything he could then tried his best for to forget it.”

– Nightmares and Fairy Tales writer Serena Valentino, on researching the “1140 Rue Royale” storyline

“It seems that people are getting really silly. It seems like politics and religion are mingling a little too much right now, and to each his own, but when you start telling other people how to live their lives, that’s a problem. I guess this is my punk rock moment.”

– cartoonist Eric Powell, on creating the Satan’s Sodomy Baby one-shot

A selection of some of the funniest, most interesting and strangest quotes from the past week:

“One thing’s for sure, though – you won’t see Sentry crying on every other cover like Superman is. I’ve never seen such a man weep before. He’s like a Frenchman! Sentry will be a real man.”

– Mighty Avengers artist Frank Cho, on The Sentry

“For years, western comics have been associated with the image of geeky teenage boys in smelly comic shops. But our style is specifically aimed at women and girls. It’s very beautiful and pretty to look at.”

– manga artist Sonia Leong, a member of the Sweatdrop collective

“They got the drawings, I got the money — deal closed. It’s straightforward commerce. I give you something. You give me something. There are no strings attached after that.”

– artist Herb Trimpe, on co-creating Wolverine, a character that would go on to earn millions for Marvel Comics

“If you only have 24 pages to get your story done, you have to get to the point quickly. Graphic novelists like Seth, however, will spend several pages on the changes of the season; Chris Ware will devote an entire page to quiet, meditative shots of urban sprawl or moisture condensing on a window sill. And, it’s in portraying these small moments in life that comics more fully represent the times we live in, and it helps raise the medium to a higher art form.”

– cartoonist and author Scott McCloud, on the creative benefits of the graphic novel

“I was over at AmericanRhetoric this morning, listening to the top 100 speeches of all time and I listened to Barbara Jordan’s statement to the House Judiciary Committee’s panel to impeach Richard Nixon. That woman was larger than life. She was intelligent, articulate and tough as nails. I wonder if she was any inspiration for the DC Comics character Amanda Waller.”

– Kyle Pominville of OpEdNews.com, adding to my collection of offbeat mainstream references to comic books

“It’s hard to believe Lenore has been bopping around, destroying stuff for fifteen years now. I really wasted my life, man.”

– cartoonist Roman Dirge, on the 15th anniversary of Lenore

“Note that those ‘surprising’ new releases are all shoujo. In fact, look back at that top ten list and you’ll see that every title on it is at least girl-friendly. Bleach, Naruto, and Fullmetal Alchemist may technically be shonen, but they all have a lot of female readers. And two of the top ten, Vampire Knight and Absolute Boyfriend, are Shojo Beat titles, as is The Gentlemen’s Alliance+.”

– blogger Brigid Alverson, analyzing ICv2.com’s list of Top 10 manga properties

“I like comics because they can look as high-budget as you want and it only costs you ink! It’s a fun medium to experiment with ideas, visuals and storytelling.”

– actor/author/comics writer Bruce Campbell, on the appeal of comics

“Crime fiction in particular is a genre about losers, characters (even smart ones) who for whatever reasons make very bad decisions and have to deal with the consequences of them. Other types of stories, superheroes for instance, are about winners. But losers are much more interesting to write about than winners. In crime, as it’s written today, you don’t have to worry about who the hero and who the villain is; those roles are fluid and mutable. Its main downside is that it requires discipline, you’re restricted as a writer to real world considerations. Paradoxically, that also makes it a lot freer that many genres where you can just let your imagination run amok. In crime stories, you really have to focus on the story.”

– Two Guns writer Steven Grant, on the appeal of the crime genre

“I met Damon at the super-geek-happy-clubhouse (first rule of the super-geek-happy-clubhouse — there is no super-geek-happy-clubhouse). Damon is one of the kindest, nicest people around, so I just begged and cried and held tight to his ankle until he said yes.”

– writer Brad Meltzer, on asking Lost executive producer Damon Lindelof to write the introduction to Justice League of America, Vol. 1

A selection of some of the funniest, most interesting and strangest quotes from the past week:

“2 million in sales, and only breaking even… and that’s why the Japanese publishing system isn’t a short term answer for American comics.”

– Simon Jones of Icarus Publishing (NSFW), on news that the circulation of Weekly Shonen Magazine has dropped below 2 million

“Look at the women in British ensembles like Random Dance or the Henri Oguike Dance Company. Look at Sylvie Guillem with her ripped physique and steely limbs. They’re amazing. Like comic-book heroines, like Promethea or Lady Deathstrike. What dance has achieved, and fashion hasn’t, is a change in its core aesthetic. Strength is a democratic ideal, because anyone can be strong – anyone can be a super-version of themselves.”

– London Observer dance critic Luke Jennings, dropping one of the stranger comic-book references I’ve seen in a while

“It was like one of those dream phone calls where you think, ‘wouldn’t it be cool if you got a phone call like that?’ And then I did.”

– novelist Cecil Castellucci, on being asked to write a graphic novel for DC’s Minx line

“We borrow some of the visual motifs from manga, but I don’t consider it American-style manga and I certainly don’t think I’m an American writer of manga. My stories have more in common with Looney Tunes than Japanese comic books.”

– Mail Order Ninja writer Joshua Elder, avoiding the “manga” label for his Tokyopop title

“One friend of mine at work is always, like, ‘Yeah, Pfeifer’s got those Spider-Man checks coming in!’ I’ve never written Spider-Man but he always says that. ‘He’s got Spider-Man checks coming in! He can afford anything!’”

– writer Will Pfeifer, who keeps his newspaper job while juggling more and more comics work

A selection of some of the funniest, most interesting and strangest quotes from the past week:

“People ask me why I enjoy being a manga editor so much, and I usually say something serious about manga being an important art form or some other splendid lie. But really, there’s one reason: I do it for the toys.”

– Tricia Narwani, Del Rey editorial associate, in the latest Del Rey Manga Newsletter

“The cat master is a serious dude that is trained in the dark arts of cat, trained to use a cat as the ultimate tool or weapon for any situation. With the right injection the cat can become anything: cat periscope, cat-apult anything. And on top of that, the cat’s a genius that can solve any problem or perform any kind of brain surgery or rocket science that Joe might need. It really puts a utility belt to shame.

“The first book just follows Joe and his cat but the idea was that there’s cat masters all over the world, each one with his own adventures going on. …

“I’m putting together book 2 right now where a bunch of cat masters show up and it’s been a fun time. I’ve got a guy that wears like 50 black cats as a fur coat and another guy that has a Manx: a cat of none tails.”

– King City creator Brandon Graham, explaining one of the best concepts ever

“He lived in a different universe. He had his own little corner of Creation where tigers talked and worms were super-villains and a grown man could have the sensibility of a child. That sort of thing just didn’t happen in Superman’s universe. It would seem a mistake, for example, to try to pair the two of them in the same story — at least without suspending the protocols of reality for at least one of them.”

– writer Elliot S! Maggin, on what separates Captain Marvel from Superman

“It’s a street fight. Both Fantagraphics and Ellison have contributed a lot to comic literature and science fiction and speculative fiction. Everyone admires the work that both do and regrets the fact that they’re in this very public, unpleasant fight.”

– ICv2 Publisher Milton Griepp, on Harlan Ellison vs. Fantagraphics

“The discussion turned to the overseas market and transplanting foreign talent. I asked whether the success of titles in the States and Europe are making them cater to different audiences. The answer was, quite frankly, no. Japan is such a big local market, they are the first readers they aim to please. In the end, foreign volumes don’t actually make them much money anyway after rights and costs, etc. so it’s considered a small bonus on top of regular J-sales.”

– artist Takeshi Miyazawa, after talking about the manga industry with editors of Japan’s Comic GUM

“Comics readers sometimes aren’t so much appreciators of an art form, but more like sports fans. You know, the guys who will never be baseball managers and sit in the stands or on their living room couches and chew out baseball managers from afar for their failure to use the hit-and-run. Sports fans do this, I think, because they have a personal investment in ‘their’ team. They speak about their favorite team in the first person plural; their emotions often depend on the success or failure of their team. Fans often carry a sense of entitlement, too. An ‘I’m the fan; therefore you must do all you can to please me’ attitude. Comics fans feel this way about the companies who publish their superhero books.”

– Jennifer de Guzman, editor-in-chief of SLG Publishing, on fan entitlement

(more…)

“He’s that guy with the cigarette smoke, standing under the sign that’s flashing neon, reflection in the water on the street as the yellow checker cab drives by to pick him up. I’m usually disappointed when I meet a professional artist, because they’re usually nothing like their work. Darwyn is the complete opposite. He is his work.”

– writer-inker Jimmy Palmiotti, on cartoonist Darwyn Cooke

“Fortunately I was able to get Duncan Fregedo, who is spectacular — there are so many things he can do that I can’t do. I think people will see that immediately when they see the arc in this book because his attention to detail is just more than I would’ve put into a book. Had I drawn Hellboy fighting an army of skeletons it would’ve been Hellboy and sixteen black lumps — two of which would’ve had a little detail on them — whereas when Duncan draws Hellboy fighting an army of skeletons; Duncan draws an army of skeletons. As a writer, I’d much rather work with an artist like Guy Davis or Duncan Fregedo than Mike Mignola.”

– writer Mike Mignola, on artist Mike Mignola

“I’ve been working on an OGN for Tokyopop and a monthly book for Vertigo. The monthly book, though it’s a lot of work is much more satisfying and less strenuous overall. My second East Coast Rising will probably come out later this year, about a year and a half from when the first one came out. Kind of crappy for me, but if it were solicited in smaller chunks in a bi monthly ‘Shonen Jump-esque’ anthology then there would be less time between installments and I might not feel like I’m working with no short-term payoff besides a paycheck.”

– writer-artist Becky Cloonan, considering the monthly format

“I think part of it is that idea of being separated from the other mainstream characters, but I think he’s also suffered from people trying to revitalize him every dozen or so issues. The hook, the beard and long hair, the water-hand, Arthur Joseph (new Aquaman) etc., are all interesting ideas, but taken as a whole I think they’ve given the readership the idea that no one’s quite sure what Aquaman IS.

“When a new writer takes over a Superman or Batman title, he or she doesn’t usually change something major right off the bat, they try to find cool new ways to work with the existing paradigm. Aquaman’s paradigm has gotten a little fuzzy around the edges.”

– author and new Aquaman writer Tad Williams, on why the character has had such a difficult time

A selection of some of the funniest, most interesting and strangest quotes from the past week:

“I take this responsibility very seriously, and I promise to use this shield only to fight for justice … and to impress girls.”

– The Colbert Report host Stephen Colbert, who was bequeathed Captain America’s shield

“When I’m new to a project, I tend to labor over the pages longer than usual. Sometimes even scrapping whole pages (which I’ve done twice so far this issue). Nothing’s worse than spending a whole day drawing a page and realizing you don’t like it for whatever reason. There’s also a deadline chomping at your butt so you can’t dwell too long. But occassionally you have to bite the bullet and either do over and move on to the next page. To be honest, if I had time to be more of a perfectionist than I already am, I wouldn’t be able release more than three books a year. If that.”

– artist Tony Daniel, on nearing the completion of his first issue of The Flash

“I’d be the first to admit that a ‘revolving door’ attitude to characters’ deaths has bedeviled the industry for the past two decades — and the law of diminishing returns has kicked in with a vengeance. What’s depressing is when the resurrection isn’t even done with any kind of style or conviction and doesn’t carry any weight. Donne said ‘every man’s death diminishes me.’ He could have added ‘especially if there’s some lame-ass deus ex machina twist and he comes back again a year later.’”

– writer Mike Carey, on the emotional impact of death in comic books

“What if the second floor of the store caves in? I’m up here like 50 hours a week. We just put up two more bookcases of manga here at The Beguiling. 80cm Billy bookcases, making for another 40 linear feet of manga. ***Slurp*** The manga ate that up like it was there all along. They’re releasing like 2 and a half feet of manga a week. A week. This place is solidly built, but how are we supposed to deal with that? Start ‘not carrying’ certain series? Poppycock! But … It is worrying. As is every creak in the floor.

“Also, I counted? I think there are now 225 different Yaoi titles in print. YEAH. So much for that ‘niche.’ All your shelf space are belong to boys humping boys. Be afraid.”

– retailer and blogger Christopher Butcher, confronting his fears

A selection of some of the funniest, most interesting and strangest quotes from the past week:

“Both signings were crowded, and I think everyone at DC was surprised by the amount of kids that showed up.”

– Jeff Smith, in his report from New York Comic-Con

“Make comics for girls as well as boys, and you double your market share. In fact, graphic novel sales have quadrupled since 2001, which indicates a pent-up demand that wasn’t being met. No marketer can ignore that. If only there were a third gender to reach out to!”

– Brigid Alverson of MangaBlog, on the changing market landscape

“You do not want these books only in the Graphic Novel section of any big bookstore. They will be lost — I guarantee it. Have you see these sections? They are usually three or four shelves (maybe) of very skinny books lined up in alphabetical order by title or author (depending on what the employee was thinking the day they were shelved.) There is often a display shelf up top but it has either all manga or all superhero — again, depending on the employee who deals with the section. A small narrow book is going to be lost. Plus, the only people who go to the GN section are already GN fans — they are looking for something specific, like a new title in their favorite manga series. What DC really needs to get is YA readers who don’t know about graphic novels — you want these books in the YA section, I promise. Odds are the manga fans are already surfing comics’ sites anyway to keep up on new releases; they already know that The PLAIN Janes is coming.”

– Colleen Mondor of Chasing Ray, offering advice to DC about the placement of the Minx titles in bookstores

“Why are so many female teachers preying on their male students these days? Might it have anything to do with the increasing popularity of Yaoi and Boys Love Manga? Are these stories — with their focus on sexualizing under-age boys — contributing to the incidence of women abusing their position of power over their male students to get into their pants?”

– Ray Randell of Super Underwear Perverts, trying to make a connection that I’m not sure exists

“The comics market, sadly, is dying because the Playstation has taken over and comics can’t compete. Most comics I have come across haven’t realised that they have lost the battle. They haven’t changed their format. They need to tell stories. They are not producing great literary works and I don’t see why they shouldn’t try. The Playstation will never tell stories.”

– 2000AD artist Ian Gibson, pointing an accusing finger at video games

“Uh … huh. No offense, but when you don’t develop a character anywhere past a catchphrase like, ‘I am the law!’, people might grow just a wee bit tired of him after a few decades.”

– GayGamer, responding to Gibson’s comments

“You have your power battery with you?”

“I’ve trained it to come when I call. You know, like you did Robin.”

– Batman and Green Lantern, in The Brave and the Bold #1

A selection of some of the funniest, most interesting and strangest quotes from the past week:

“[Gerard] grew frustrated at how insular [comics are] and hard to break into, so he went off and became this big rock star, which apparently is an easier gig to get.”

– Dark Horse editor Scott Allie, on Gerard Way’s winding road from DC Comics intern to My Chemical Romance frontman to comic-book writer

“His notes to me in this case were less intensive because obviously there was so much more script. In many cases, he said, ‘Have John come up with something cool here.’ [Laughs] Which is great as an artist because you get to do something fun. You’re not hamstringed by trying to follow some restrictive description.”

– artist John Van Fleet, on his picture-book collaboration with Grant Morrison and Todd Klein in Batman #663

“Being ‘comic book famous’ is not like being famous. There are few comic book creators whom anyone would recognize on the street. At comic conventions, Neil Gaiman gets mobbed if he ventures out of the safety of a booth, yes. However, when Neil was visiting San Jose State University a few months ago, I walked a few blocks through downtown San Jose and then stopped at a Starbucks with him, and I didn’t notice anyone giving the tousle-haired man in a leather jacket a second glance.

“And you, aspiring comic book creator, will probably never be as famous as Neil Gaiman.”

– Slave Labor Graphics Editor-in-Chief Jennifer de Guzman, offering wise words to aspiring creators

(more…)

A selection of some of the funniest, most interesting and strangest quotes from the past week:

“So the question remains, is the film as unwelcomingly funky as Nicolas Cage’s hair-plugs?”

– Moviehole’s Clint Morris, in his review of Ghost Rider

“Because it’s not really Stilt Man that died–although, I mean, yeah, he died– but rather, a way of life. Stilt Man is symbolic of the passing of an era, and it rattles a lot of the C and D list to its core. If there’s no place for Stilt Man, post Civil War, post Registration, etc., then where the hell is there room for The Gibbon? Hasn’t the climate of the Marvel Universe changed profoundly? It was the perfect opportunity to watch the two ideas collide together. And it’s kind of funny. I mean, there’s a guy that dresses like a Gibbon to rob banks and stuff. If nothing else, it’s our opportunity, as a reader, to say goodbye to the spirit of those days.

“Also, as it turns out, Stilt Man had a really, really hot wife, and that’s the reason turnout is so high.”

– writer Matt Fraction, on why the funeral of Marvel’s Stilt Man was so well-attended

“It seems to me that instead of chasing after the next super-hero hit (and just when, exactly, was the last time a new super-hero comic, not counting team books or ‘events,’ was anything like a hit?), it would make more financial sense to create a second tier of titles that were steady, stable sellers that might have a better chance at selling in collections outside the direct sales market.”

– retailer Steve Bennett, wanting Marvel and DC to publish “an anthology dabbling in different genres”

“To me, being in the entertainment field and knowing that the work that I’m involved in with so many others actually helps to make people happier — to bring them pleasure and excitement and make them forget their everyday problems — I think that’s a good thing. I’m very grateful that I have an opportunity to do that sort of work.”

– Stan Lee, on his six-decade career

A selection of some of the funniest, most interesting and strangest quotes from the past week:

“This is why I never joined The Avengers.”

– Stephen Strange, in Doctor Strange: The Oath #4*, apparently unaware of what Brian Michael Bendis has in store for him

“She’s a fish out of water. It’s basically Splash. I just took the script from Splash and changed some of the names. Not all the names; I like some of the names.”

– writer/director Joss Whedon, jokingly discussing his take on Wonder Woman

“Ultimately with comics, they don’t come out every week but every month. Whereas in show where every week it was something that would happen to you, a mystical version thereof, the comic book is going to be a little more sprawling with a lot of storylines going on and so you have to sort of fudge the numbers a little bit. You know, when will the rest of Reed Richards’ hair go gray? We don’t know. In fact, when I was talking to Marvel, I asked, ‘How long has Colossus been dead?’ and they’re like, ‘Never say, because time doesn’t exist.’ You could spend ten issues on something that happens in one night.”

– Joss Whedon, again, on “comic-book time”

“Um, you know I was never officially on the project so … it’s just something that most of the fan boys have felt like there’s a strong similarity between Ryan Reynolds and Wally West. So, I certainly know of Wally and have read all the comic books and I’d love to jump in there and play him. I don’t know where the direction of the Flash is going to go from here though. Shawn Levy is taking it over and they may decide that Barry Allen is the one that they want in there, an older version of the Flash, and that is something that I wouldn’t be interested in playing. But if it was Wally I would definitely be curious.”

– actor Ryan Reynolds, when asked what David S. Goyer’s departure from The Flash means to his involvement

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A selection of some of the funniest, most interesting and strangest quotes from the past week:

“Comic books don’t have any words. It’s called a speech bubble.”

– 7-year-old Wonder Woman fan Remington Smith, explaining the mechanics of comic books

“… [A]s I looked back and read a lot of the Golden Age Captain Marvel stories and Steranko’s History of Comics, it became very clear to me that the Marvel Family was the first family of comics.

“With Captain Marvel, Jr. and Mary Marvel, they had Hoppy the Bunny, Uncle Dudley Marvel; they were all very silly and very fun. But that was all long before Superman had his extended family and it was actually from the Marvel Family that this idea of Krypto, Supergirl, and Superboy came from. Supergirl and Superboy are very much copies of Mary and Captain Marvel, Jr.

“… [C]reating the Marvel family is very much part of Captain Marvel’s mythos. You have Billy, who starts off very alone, a homeless, helpless kid on the street, but by the end he has a family. A crazy family that has talking tigers and wizards, but it is still a family.”

– cartoonist Jeff Smith, on the role of family in the Captain Marvel mythos

“Now, let’s be clear about one thing: this comic is nowhere near as bad as people are saying. It seems to be gathering a reputation as one of the worst comics of the last few years, and really, that just shows what short memories people have. It’s not that long ago that I was reviewing Chuck Austen stories about disintegrator communion wafers, which were in a whole different league of awfulness from anything to be found here. This is merely mediocre.”

– critic Paul O’Brien, on Civil War: The Return

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A selection of some of the funniest, most interesting and strangest quotes from the past week:

“Being a successful artist is 10% talent and 90% staying the hell away from the web.”

– artist Tony Moore, on “the succubus known as the Internet”

“When I first began drawing sequentials it was right-to-left so I don’t think I’ll have much trouble with that but I’ll see how it goes once I start thumbnailing. Composing for a spread is something I failed to consider, though. How dumb is that, eh? I’m used to having Chevy ads on every second page.”

– artist Takeshi Miyazawa, on adapting his approach for Japanese storytelling

“The reason Marvel and DC is on top is because their books are of high production value and on schedule. We have been working towards self-publishing for a while and we are way ahead on our books. I want people to feel confident that our titles will be released when they were solicited.”

– BlueWater Productions President Darren Davis, promoting the company’s move from production studio to publisher, and pushing its new “mantra,” “solid comics that are on time”

“… Why does manga always bring out the trolls? I find superhero comics utterly unreadable, but I don’t drop in on Newsarama and tell them so; I just figure other people have different tastes. But manga seems to stir up some sort of deep-seated hostility in mainstream comics forums. Weird.”

– Brigid Alverson of MangaBlog, asking one of life’s unanswerable questions

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A selection of some of the funniest, most interesting and strangest quotes from the past week:

“It’s normally MODOK, with the final letter standing for Killing. They said, ‘You can’t have him kill because it’s all-ages.’ So what I did was go with the spelling that originally substituted a C, for Mental Organism Designed Only for Computing. Of course, that didn’t seem scary enough, so we’re not using Computing, but Conquest.”

“Well, one thing I noticed when I looked at what had been done with the character recently was that it seemed like they tried to draw Captain Marvel into the DC universe and make him conform to the rules of modern comics. He started to look, to me, like a bad imitation of Superman. You know, he’s kind of got the same powers and everything. But when you make him a serious superhero, and you make him — I guess they like to say Billy’s like 12 or 15 or something — and then he says, ‘Shazam!’ and he’s a 25-year-old man, and yet he’s supposed to have a brain of a 12- or 15-year-old boy, you just kind of end up with a mildly retarded Superman.”

“Why fight super-villains when you can watch attractive ladies take their clothes off in the privacy of their own homes? Our little Irredeemable Ant-Man has got it made! That is–until he realizes that the current subject of his perverted voyeurism is none other than CAROL DANVERS …”

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