Comics A nice mix of mainstream, European and indy this year. Asterios Polyp – David Mazzuchelli Britten & Brulightly – Hannah Berry Chance in Hell – Gilbert Hernandez Doing Time – Hanawa Kazuichi Fun Home – Alison Bechdel Hellcity: The Whole Damned Thing – Macon Blair and Joe Flood [...]
Opened a graphic novel recently and got this on the first page: My name’s [JOHN SMITH]. I’m a man of few words. Have to be. Used to make my trade as a [DEBT COLLECTOR], forcing [DEBTORS] to pay for their [LOANS]. I guess it was a good life. [ABOUT] seven years ago that changed, when [...]
For me, making up stories is a little like building furniture, but with twelfth-century tools and only the vaguest idea what I’m trying to build. There’s a lot of grunting and banging, a lot of hammering on square pegs to get them to fit into round holes. It’s fun and I love it, but, usually, [...]
Screamin’ toward another deadline but here’s some recommended reading for the comics-leaning amongst you – anything by:
Here’s a refreshingly down-to-earth description of ‘breaking the story’: The location for a story is fine. Now all I want is some bad guys and a plot. Ah yes, a plot. Well, I’ve found that by reversing some simple element in the opening of an old story you can create something entirely diffeent in its [...]
Dear Mr McCloud I just finished reading your Zot – The Complete B&W Collection 1987-1991, and I wanted to say thank you. Yes, I’ve read – why, I proudly own a copy of – your excellent Understanding Comics. And yes, I’m a proud product of the years I read and collected and treasured Moore, Gaiman [...]
Comics The Arrival – Shaun Tan Ball Peen Hammer – Adam Rapp and George O’Connor Berlin Volume 2 – Jason Lutes The Education of Hopey Glass – Jaime Hernandez Ex Machina: Dirty Tricks; Ring Out the Old – Brian K Vaughan & Tony Harris I Kill Giants – Joe Kelly and JM Ken Niimura I [...]
I was reading 100 Bullets – Hang Up on the Hang Low recently when, a dozen or so pages in, I realised that the sense of familiarity I was experiencing was not just from the ‘old friends getting together and torturing each other’ noir vibe but that I’d actually read it all before. Twice, according [...]
That word has been bouncing ’round my head lately. Part of it has been Steve Hickey‘s posts about sticky ideas. Another part has been discussions I’ve had recently about film, television and theatre that have left enduring memories regardless of the passage of time. And there’s been a smidgen of shop talk about making the [...]
Been saving these up, oh yes I have. The last swords-and-sandals epic I saw was Gladiator. Since then, Troy, Alexander, Rome and 300 have come and gone with nary a flicker of interest on my part. But The Incomparable‘s review of Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi‘s Spartacus has sparked a guilty, pulpy, what-the-heck kind of [...]
