I Can Finally Start Tossing Out My Back Issues of TCJ

I have easily avoided reading TCJ.Com for many years now but I was intrigued as to why Peggy Burns of D&Q posted a photo of Kevin Eastman on Facebook. Now I know it was in celebration of the digitalization of one of TCJ's juiciest and craziest interviews. From The Comics Journal #202 (March 1998)


The former co-creator of Ninja Turtles turned rich and extravagant publisher of failed vanity projects and current publisher of Heavy Metal (which somehow carries on with Ero-sex comics despite the endless availability of prurient things online).  READ HERE

And for all the buffoonery of days past, Eastman is still a very generous soul. 

Jonathan Lethem's Top-Five Depressed Superheroes

Taken from Lethem's hilarious and brilliant collection of essays The Ecstasy of Influence (Doubleday) and appearing in full on his own website

1) Black Bolt: Isn't allowed to speak. "His wings resemble accordions, the most harmless and charming of instruments (apart from the kazoo). He never learned sign language and it can be infuriating waiting for him to scribble a note. In restaurants it takes Black Bolt hours to decide on the simplest order. His dog is ugly."

2)The Vision: "obsessed with his traumatic past: An evil android created him for dark purposes. This sort of hurt can be difficult to overcome and other superheroes have steered a respectful birth around The Vision." His former wife Scarlet Witch has recently been linked in British tabloids with Liam Gallagher of Oasis.

3) Deadman. "Deadman's problem is worn on the sleeve of his name: he's dead. He handles it pretty gracefully, having been a circus acrobat in his former life. Deadman rarely bothers to dress as a civilian, since his secret identity is a corpse. In earlier days Deadman regarded himself as The Spectre's protégé. However, The Spectre never proposed Deadman for membership in the Justice League of America. Deadman doesn't know how to raise the subject with the Spectre, so he never calls him anymore.


4)Ragman: "Ragman is the poverty superhero, unable to afford a costume other than a big pile of rags. He never fights villains who can afford costumes at all. Instead he rescues starving kittens and breaks up three-card monte games. Ragman keeps himself in White Castle hamburgers by buying cartons of cigarettes and selling singles for a nickel apiece."


5)Omega's priorities were very unclear, and so he had the power to depress others, as well as himself. Omega's comic book was so punishingly dull that Marvel began to put The Hulk and Spiderman on the cover, and once, in a measure of striking desperation, Scrooge McDuck made a guest appearance.After ten issues the title was cancelled anyway. After cancellation, Marvel was contacted by attorneys from Omega's home planet, which turned out not to be destroyed at all. This resulted in the first recall of the entire run of a published comic book in the industry's history."

Nacho Picasso--Marvel"

The man goes deep deep...he references Beta Ray Bill for godsakes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IUiv4Q3LRc

NPR Goes MetaMaus with Spiegelman

Art Spiegelman talks about his new book about "the book" MetaMaus"on NPR's Talk of The Nation with the always excellent Neal Conan.

If HEROES hadn't sucked it would be MISFITS (watch)

Dash Shaw le Bottomless Bellybutton en francais & en portuguesa

Dash Shaw in France

Dash Shaw in Brazil

Grant Morrison: "Chris Ware's attitude stinks..."

I can't say I disagree with Morrison on this. Although he needn't be defensive or self-conscious when comparing his comics criticism to that of the 'college boys" at The Comics Journal, because TCJ really hasn't been relevant or even readable in print in some 15 years at least. I always thought the magazine would catch its second (third?) wind eventually under some fiery new editor but that certainly never happened and it lapsed into toothless dotage; finally little more than the Fantagraphics promotional arm so many people had accused it of being even when it wasn't.

 ADDITIONAL ONLINE INTERVIEW WITH MORRISON AT ROLLING STONE

There have been histories of comic books, but your book Supergods is all superheroes. It's a counter-narrative to the idea that comics need to outgrow this superhero stuff.
I can appreciate someone like Chris Ware for his artistry, which I think is beautiful, but I think his attitude stinks, it just seems to be the attitude of somebody really privileged, and honestly, try living here, try living on an Indian reservation and shut up, and really seeing all that nihilistic stuff, it really makes me angry, it's unhelpful to all of us, and it's coming from people who have money and success to talk  like that and bring those aspects of the way we live in favor of all the  others, and it's indefensible.

So I never liked that stuff, I  always thought that I had a real Scottish working class thing against  the fact that these were done by privileged American college kids, and  they were telling me the world was flat. "You're telling me the world is  flat, pal?" And it's not helpful, it doesn't get us anywhere. OK, so it  is, then what? What are you going to do about it, college kid? My book wasn't academic. I can't take on those Comics Journal guys, they flattened me, as they did, it's just defensive, smartass kids.

This is what I'm into, and here's how, through my eyes, it's exalted. You may look at the same thing and just see trash, toilet paper, I'm  looking at this and seeing William Blake angels. This is how it looks  through these eyes, this is all I've got, I can't talk about it in half  degrees, but I can talk about it in the sense of a practitioner of it,  someone who has thought about it intensely for an awful long time, and  again, I thought, "What can I make, a book that reads the way Nick Kent talks about music," those guys, it at least gives you a personal  connection to someone who takes this very seriously.

Grant Morrison in Rolling Stone: The Toilet Paper of Angels

I picked up a copy of Grant Morrison's new book Supergods last week and my first thoughts at a glance were that it is surprisingly coherent. In fact in many ways Grant Morrison the critic/comics historian/biographer reads a bit like Douglas Wolk (who virtually worships the druggy incoherence of Morrison's The Invisibles). So anyway, I haven't read Supergods yet but was pleasantly surprised to see an interview ith Morrison in the brand new Rolling Stone. Here are the best revelations (which may be old hat of diehard Morrison-heads).:
Grant's comic book scripting and occasional screenplays have now afforded him FOUR homes. He tours the RS writer Brian Hiatt through his 130-year-old town house situated in a "wealthy enclave known as 'Millionaire's Row.'"
Morrison is pals with Deepak Chopra, which explains why Chopra gave him a blurb for Supergods.
Morrison is pals with My Chemical Romance's singer Gerard Way (who seemingly idolizes Morrison).
Morrison was in a band that once opened for The Jesus & Mary Chain (which is pretty solid rock & roll cred, especially for a comic book scribe).

Morrison with Nine Inch Nails' superhero Trent Reznor (center) and Morrison's wife Kristan

People say kids can't understand the difference between fact and fiction but that's bullshit. Kids understand that real crabs don't sing like the ones in The Little Mermaid. But you give an adult fiction and the adult starts asking fucking dumb questions like "Why can Superman fly?" How do those eyebeams work? Who pumps the Batmobile's tires? It's a fucking made-up story, you idiot! Nobody pumps the tires!"
There is also a clear reason why Morrison and Frank Quitely's All-Star Superman books were among the best mainstream comics in recent memory, while his grim ugly and tedious All-Star Batman is decidedly not. "When I write Superman it was like contemplating the Buddha. I really felt elevated. Everything seemed more beautiful, more precious. Batman is different.  I try not to go into Batman that much because he's nutty, and I don't really want to feel like Bruce Wayne. "

The joy in his Superman story is as evident as the gloomy distance he maintains from Batman.
 

On the popularity of the superhero narrative in general: "How do we fight against the idea that we are doomed? We are fighting against it with the superhuman story. You may look at superheroes and see trash, toilet paper. I'm looking at them and seeing William  Blake angels."

“Good comics are as good as your favorite movie, as good as your favorite record, as good as your favorite TV show and are well worth [entering] the pop culture diet of any smart adult who’s living in the 21st century."

HANS RICKHEIT digitized not sanitized

Hans Rickheit, the brilliant subversive just keeps getting better, and now anyone in the world can read his comics for free (donations most appreciated however) thanks to the ever-insidious interweb. So treat yourself. And by the way if I ever had a real job I'd be buying up his lovely original art, but I don't so for the time being the window is wide open for all you capitalistic scum out there. BUY BUY!

COCHLEA & EUSTACHIA BEGINS TODAY
www.chromefetus.com

In response to clamoring public demands, I've decided to redouble my cartooning output and release a 2nd ongoing webcomic that veers in an entirely contrary tangent to that of the critically-acclaimed ECTOPIARY,

Cochlea & Eustachia have previously appeared in numerous. well-publicized venues, including POOD, PROPER GANDER, TYPHON. LEGAL ACTION COMICS, REGLAR WIGLAR, THE STRANGER and the original run of CHROME FETUS COMICS.

It is my intention to post a new installment every Wednesday for your edification and delight. You can help this effort by visiting the Merchandise Page and purchasing my wares! Original Art is now being offered for sale from both COCHLEA & EUSTACHIA and the ongoing ECTOPIARY website. Also, pages from my other reputable graphic novels CHLOE and THE SQUIRREL MACHINE are on sale.

At the very least, you are encouraged to DONATE whatever you feel is appropriate. Even the smallest amount is gratefully appreciated!

Friends, as always, I thank you for your attention and generosity!

Catastrophe in JAPAN

Don't be overwhelmed by the choices or how to help japan. Just pick one and send something.

There are many ways to help Japan but one easy way is if you simply have a Paypal account. Paypal has several $25 options ranging from The Red Cross to Tokyo Helping Hands but also allows you to choose any donation you wish, so if you only have a dollar to spare or a fiver (in which I can totally relate to you) donate that because surely every penny will help someone. The damage appears to be absolutely catastrophic and now is the time to do whatever we can to help our friends in Japan recover in this time of incredibly dire need.

Also Globalgiving.org 
Salvation Army has had a presence in Japan since 1895
Facebook's Disaster Relief Page

が、日本を助けるためには、単にPaypalアカウントを持っている場合つの簡単な方法は多くの方法があります。ペイパルは東京援助の手赤十字に至るまで、いくつかの25ドルのオプションを持っており、また、あなたは余裕がドルやドル紙幣（私は完全にあなたに関連付けることができるが）を寄付していても、あなたは任意の寄付を選択できることが確実にすべてのペニーは、誰かを助ける。損傷は、絶対に壊滅的と思われる今までの時間は何でも我々は非常に切実なのこの時期に回復、日本の友人
たちを助けるためにすることができます。

Korean Comics Thrive in Japan

This story from Korea JoonGang Daily

REUTERS STUMBLES ACROSS DAVID CHOE IN VEGAS

In a rather strange story about how Asian tourists are keeping Vegas afloat by playing baccarat, it seems Reuters  reporter Timothy Pratt came across a face familiar to street art and comics fans: David Choe!
 To Pratt, Choe was obviously just another Asian face in the crowd and the reporter was seemingly surprised that the artist is actually American. He also didn't realize Choe was a famous artist, nor did Choe identify himself as such. But based on the age (34) and the fact that Choe has even filmed his excursions to Vegas for Vice...this is almost certainly David "Slow Jams" Choe. here's the link but I excerpted the pertinent part featuring DC.

http://wtaq.com/news/articles/2011/feb/19/james-bonds-game-helps-keep-vegas-casinos-afloat/

Afterward, one of the baccarat players, David Choe, sat slurping noodles in a Chinese restaurant no more than 20 steps away. Choe said he had heard from his casino host that the Russian had lost $1 million the night before.
Choe, 34, has been gambling since he was a teenager, starting, he said, with fake ID.
Dressed in jeans and a t-shirt with the words "New York," he is the rare U.S. native at the baccarat tables, though of Korean background. He comes from Los Angeles several times a month to play. This time, he was up around $100,000.
"I haven't counted it yet," he said.
Choe said he has seen some unusual sights at the baccarat table, including an "ossified drunk" betting $40,000 a hand.
Although he called the game "the easiest thing in the world," he allowed that many players have superstitions, ranging from not allowing anyone to touch you while playing to following the highest bettor's chips to putting money down on any streak that appears to emerge.
What is the attraction of baccarat?
"You have your own room, your own world. You can eat there, you can bet or not, you can curse if you lose, or tear up the cards. You can do whatever you want."

Gothic Monsters from Tatsuya Morino

Artist Tatsuya Morino puts a unique twist on the great monsters of Gothic literature in a series of illustrations featured in the book Kaibutsu Gensō Gashū. You can definitely see similarities to great (and strange) American comics artists like Basil Wolverton and many of the underground artists from the 60's. See all the images here at Pink Tentacle.

JAPANESE ARTISTS FACING INDIFFERENCE AT HOME

  From the Wall Street Journal:

Last year, leading Japanese auctioneer Shinwa Art Auction Co. decided to sell contemporary art, so it set up shop—in Hong Kong. With demand very weak in Japan, Shinwa's Yoichiro Kurata says, "It's really hard for young Japanese artists to survive."

Read the full article

"Extreme Sex" Manga Under Scrutiny in Tokyo

From The Sydney Morning Herald


TOKYO - Japan's capital city is to restrict the sale of manga comics and anime films with extreme depictions of rape, incest and other sex crimes, a plan that has brought cries of censorship.

The bill before the Tokyo assembly would require publishers and shops to sell only to readers aged over 18 any material that depicts "virtual sex crimes" if the images are "unjustifiably glorified and exaggerated".
 ______ 

Note that the comics are not being "banned" but merely subjected to age restrictions.

JUNOT & JAIME: Together at last

Synchronicity: My favorite comic book artist Jaime Hernandez does an accompanying illustration for a short story ("The Pura Principle") by my favorite new fiction writer, Junot Diaz. In the latest issue of The New Yorker. It just hit the stands; but, ever-generous,  The NY is happy to post it online for you to read for free RIGHT HERE. I haven't read it just yet myself (busily working on my own stuff...or avoiding working on my own stuff, one in the same).

Mmmm...Olivia

Olivia Munn may be the best combination of incredibly sexy and incredibly funny to occur in a single bipedal humanoid in recent memory...but I think she could use a better book design (Chipp Kidd wasn't available?). Love the title, though.

GIANT ROBOT Needs Some Cash Money!

This really surprised me. It's pretty obvious that print newspapers and magazines are on a steady decline to obsolescence, and yet I LOVE them so much...and Giant Robot is one of the best and most diverse mags in print. These guys (Eric & Martin) own retail stores, and even a vegan restaurant, so I assumed the magazine was on very solid ground. But apparently not.
Having briefly published a magazine myself I know how excruciatingly hard it is to get advertising; how distribution and rising shipping costs can be utterly dispiriting; and how everything in print is losing ground to the immediacy (and illiteracy) of the web. So anyway, watch the video and throw a few bucks to GR, if only to keep them around for your (and my) own edification.

Ink Mountain

I don't surf around the web to keep up with all the amazing art and illustration stuff out there now but here's a most excellent comics & art blog by people I don't know. Take it from Kanye~
INK MOUNTAIN

THE LIST OF DELICIOUS THINGS

This TOMER HANUKA cover for IDN magazine's special "Colour Issue",
originally done as a book illustration for Marquis de Sade’s Philosophy in the Boudoir. Of course Tomer and brother Asaf did their first ever print interviews way back in TCI #5 Vol. ; and Tomer was so generous that he offered to do an original cover as well.

James Jean rockin' the "skin conch"

Skin conch, eh? 1) JJ's hair has gotten long 2) Dave Choe is back as a bleached blonde 3) That looks like Goh Nakamura in the background of the first segment? 4) Harry Kim mackin' on a babe in the background of the 2nd segment?
5) That Korg vocoder groove was awesome...he should be doing the music for Verizon's Droid.

R. CRUMB on Talk of The Nation

R. Crumb talked with NPR's excellent Neal Conan on Talk of The Nation.

Crumb spoke about the challenges of adapting the 50 chapters of Genesis in panels and drawings. Crumb found his way into all of the sex and violence of the story, and The Book of Genesis Illustrated features a warning on the cover, recommending adult supervision for minors.

Paul Theroux: "Comics spell the end...perhaps of writing itself."

Paul Theroux is an excellent writer and I very much enjoyed his collection of short pieces in the recent Atlantic Monthly Fiction Issue, but...the man really truly genuinely doesn't understand or respect the comics medium in the same egregiously stupid way that so many authors, intellectuals and numbskull "critics" have trashed the medium in the past. The following is an excerpt from Theroux's latest non-fiction book, that is as seething an indictment of comics and its readers (and Japanese culture) as you're likely to find.



GHOST TRAIN TO THE EASTERN STAR

Chapter 28
Night Train To Hokkaido


I had seen Japanese comics books on my Railway Bazaar trip and was mildly shocked by them, especially in their images of crepitation and vomiting and preposterous sex acts. The singular depictions of farting and puking set them apart in my reading experience. I was reflecting on this in an internet café when I saw a man across the aisle wearily turning the pages of a thick magazine that was mainly comics, not one strip but a whole cartoon novel.

These comics were a greater elaboration of Japanese life than I had seen before, not going deeper but sprawling, producing a glut of superficiality. By contrast, the bookstores were not well stocked. Manga and the graphic novel seemed to represent a dumb, defiant anti-intellectualism, though there were plenty of people who argued that they were art on a par with ukiyo-e. But however well drawn, modern manga were banal or silly or sheer fantasy, hastily and crudely drawn compared with the work of the great printmakers. I found Hokusai’s erotic prints much more powerful, indeed sexier, than these ludicrous comics.

[At the internet café] many of the users were merely sitting in a plump cushioned armchair reading one of the fat comics books. But “comics books” did not do them justice. They appeared in multi-issue sequences, like Victorian magazines Household Worlds or All The Year Round, which printed David Copperfield in installments over many months. Nana was one of these--not the Zola novel but thirty-five issues of a Japanese cartoon character and her picaresque and often sexual adventures. Other narratives concerned tough guys, schoolkids, gang-bangers, mobsters, adventurers, sports, fashion, motor racing, and of course hard-core porno--rape, strangulation, abduction. Even with declining sales, from a peak of $5 billion a year, graphic novels in some form are probably the future of popular literature. --increasingly they are being downloaded to cell phones. Purely pictorial pleasure, undemanding, without an idea or a challenge, yet obviously stimulating, a sugar high like junk food, another softener of the brain; they spell the end of the traditional novel, perhaps the end of writing itself.

In a fascinating sidenote Theroux's older brother Alexander Theroux published his 2007 novel Laura Warholic through American comic book publisher Fantagraphics.
At the time Fantagraphics Publisher Gary Groth (forever desperate to get some respect outside of his microscopic corner of an oft-disrespected medium) said getting a novelist of Theroux's stature was his dream come true. "Literary fiction inspired the kind of comics we publish here and I've wanted to publish literary fiction myself for the last 15 years or so. It's been a kind of quixotic goal to find the prose equivalent of our comics." Also worth pointing out that much of what Paul Theroux disdains in manga--farting, puking, crepitation--are the very lifeblood of Fantagraphics stalwarts like Johnny Ryan.

Billy K. In PRINT

Congrats to Bill Kartalopoulos (I probably misspelled that, but it looks kinda right) formerly of the loved-but-short-lived Egon and I think Indy mag online as well. Anyway, I just happened to notice a little blurb in the fine design rag PRINT magazine that Bill K. had been named a Contributing Editor (which sounds pretty fancy). Print does include a fair amount of comics coverage with short pieces y the likes of Douglas Wolk; and perhaps Bill will only enhance that trend?

Rachel Maddow Sacco Fallon Kubert Sarajevo

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow (I think it's two "d's" but who cares) was on Jimmy Fallon (sure it's two "L's") Monday Night (that would be Sept. 1st) and when asked what she did over her vacation she said she had been reading comic books about Palestine and Sarajevo. Fallon looked taken aback (how could these possibly be topics for comic books?) and unfortunately Maddow didn't give Joe Sacco props (unlikely she was also reading Joe Kubert's version, but you never know).