diary of a guttersnipe 09/16/2013: back in a civic

by Shawn Starr

I’ve decided to be proactive in treating this random cough i have had for the past few months, and i’ve begun taking cold pills and switching from whiskey + cokes to screwdrivers. Should be cleared up in a few days.


Mini-Reviews

Thor: God of Thunder #12 (Marvel)
by Jason Aaron, Nic Klein

It’s difficult not to see the departure of Esad Ribic from 'Thor: God of Thunder' at the conclusion of the Grodd The Godslayer “mega-arc” (11-issues) as anything but a death nail for that title. Esad brought a heaviness to the title, his artwork carries with it a sense of weight and density that few other artists in comics can achieve - making the fight scenes (featuring overly muscular men wielding hammers punching and smashing their way across the cosmos) feel real in a sense, the hammer blows have a weight behind them and the damage they caused is felt. The other aspect of Ribic’s heaviness is his artwork's clear association with 'Heavy Metal' (both the magazine and musical genre); his artwork begs to depict these genres tropes, it needs to depict outer space and celestial bodies and Conan stand-in’s beating each other up while giving speeches on the state of the cosmos.

With Ribic’s departure, Aaron brings Thor back to earth after a little over a year (publication time) in space, promptly reinserting the god of thunder back into the Marvel Universe and leaving behind much of Ribic’s trademark imagery. This is first achieved by a series of pastiches (showing Thor with the citizenry of the 616, a pub owner noticing the once absent thunder returning and pulls out a barrel or two of mead for the returning hero, Thor meets with an inmate about to be put to death - the inmate in these last moments now realizes that if only he had met Thor earlier he could have avoided his life of crime, etc.) which are all built around the idea of humanizing and bringing him up to speed with the 616 universe. Now this is a god whom we have just watched smash his way through the universe riding on a viking ship with three time displaced versions of himself while on a quest to kill a rogue “god” (see the godslayer had turned himself into a god in his battle against the gods, ironies a bitch, huh?). The deflation is needed in the absence of Ribic, but it’s one that stops the book in it’s tracks, gone are the epic speeches and in their stead is melodrama and YouTube jokes.

Nic Klien’s artwork at times has flourishes of a cosmic scale, there are a few instances, in particular two splash pages both off world where his charcoal texturing adds a depth to the landscapes that looks promising, but his artwork for the majority of the issue is rooted in an amalgamation of house styles that he doesn’t seem completely grown out of yet, and which Aaron seems to only wish to reinforce in his search to bring Thor back “home”.

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links

Mother News, a free newspaper out of Providence, has recently achieved their past editions. The paper itself is quite good, but the main draw here is that this archive contains monthly strips from CF, Mickey Z, Charles Forsman and Michael DeForge (along with others). With so many free alternative newspapers shutting down lately (the long standing Boston Phoenix shut down publication last year after a nearly fifty year run), it’s nice to see one still running, along with publishing strips from some of the best new creators in comics. I’m doubtful this will be possible by the end of the decade.

Speaking of Esad Ribic, he will be taking over art duties on Hickman's 'Avengers' starting in December which actually sounds pretty cool.

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A Newsarama interview with Ben Marra. What Newsarama is doing interviewing Ben Marra and why they are doing a “countdown to SPX” is beyond me, but i guess it will get more eyes on Marra’s work, so it’s ultimately a good thing. This interview reminded me of a semi-recent interview with Howard Chaykin on CBR about a new-ish release of his (something about Westerns and TV) where towards the end of the interview, when the inevitable “what else are you working on?” question is asked, the answer is something twenty times more interesting than anything else being talked about in the interview. The crazy thing is the interviewer doesn’t just stop the whole process and latch onto that cool project he just mentioned, they kind of bury the lead instead (In the case of the Chaykin interview it was the mention of a 'Black Kiss Christmas Special' along with 'Black Kiss 3'). Here's the one from the Marra interview:

Newsarama: What's next for you? More blades, more lazers, what?

Marra: I'm currently hard at work on a few projects. I'm working with Josh Bayer and his brother Sam on a new line of superhero comics called All Time Comics. Be on the lookout for those soon. Recently, I wrote a comic that Michael DeForge is drawing and Dash Shaw will be coloring. It's a sequel to Michael and my story that appeared in an issue of 'Smoke Signal', a cyber/bio-punk tale called Faunamancer. Desert Island Comics is going to put that out.

It would be difficult to imagine a stronger lineup for a collaboration in comics right now, alt or mainstream. (An Aside: the interviewer's jokey and slightly pandering tone throughout the interview was really annoying to me.)

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CF does “Batman”; signed Paul Pope.

Autopic reports from Secret Acres, and the Autopic organizers.

Peter Milligan and Brendan McCarthy talking 'The Best of Milligan & McCarthy' over at Robot 6.

Frank Santoro on Tell Me Something I Don’t Know.

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“Whether Grace left Dogville, or on the contrary Dogville had left her - and the world in general - is a question of a more artful nature that few would benefit from by asking, and even fewer by providing an answer. And nor indeed will it be answered here."

I finished "Dogville" this week, or was it last, i’m so infrequent with these columns my understanding of time is really beginning to get fucked up. Anyways an interval of time ago, I completed a viewing of Lars Von Trier's film "Dogville", a story of a town who takes in a stranger running away from the mob and how they deal with having complete power over one individual. Their dealings leaves something to be desired over the film's near three hour run time but the ending is something i don’t think i’m going to forget. The narrator, who is so intent on explaining the feelings of each individual and their thoughts, chooses to ignore giving a grand point to the film's violent and possibly deserved ending. It leaves it up to the viewers to decide if the characters who sanctioned each of these acts was right, and if they deserved the consequences put upon them. It’s a film whose ending i will change my opinion on as time progresses, but right now i read too many Josh Simmons comics and i smiled at that shit.

“It was as if the light, previously so merciful and faint, finally refused to cover up for the town any longer. Suddenly you could no longer imagine a berry that would appear one day on a Gusberry bush, but only see the thorn that was there right now. The light now penetrated every unevenness and floor in the buildings and... in the people. "

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Lack of context seems to be a big deal in comics this month.

iFanboy is dead. Fuck iFanboy.

I really liked this Jonny Negron piece.

Michael DeForge released what i am assuming to be the entirety of the fourth issue of 'Kid Mafia' online. I’m holding off on reading it until the print version comes out, but since most of the 'Kid Mafia' issues are only available from him at a con this might be your only chance to read it.

Youth In Decline had a big week in pre-orders news, they opened with a new issue of 'Frontier' which highlights the artists Hellen Jo, and then followed it up with their first T-Shirt which consists of the company logo (designed by Michael DeForge).

train kept a-rollin' 005: thanos rising #5

by Chad Nevett

Thanos Rising #5 (Marvel)

by Jason Aaron, Simone Bianchi, Riccardo Pieruccini, Ive Svorcina

1. Growing up, I would go to family gatherings, especially Thanksgiving and Christmas, and be faced with the fact that I would have to eat the stuffing. Because I was known as the 'One Who Loves Stuffing'. And I did – I do. Well mixed and prepared stuffing is one of my favorite foods and one that I only get to eat once or twice a year. Except, my love for well mixed and prepared stuffing meant that I abhorred poorly mixed and prepared stuffing, which is what I got more often than not. I would choke it down and playact that, yes, I am the 'One Who Loves Stuffing' including the dry, wretched pap that I was struggling to force down my throat.

2. Recently, my friend and former boss-of-sorts, Brian Cronin posted another entry in a series of blog posts titled “The Abandoned An’ Forsaked” focusing on Thanos. In it, he spotlights a scene from the 'Infinity Abyss' mini-series where Jim Starlin, creator of Thanos, dismisses the stories featuring Thanos not penned by him as featuring imperfect clones of the Mad Titan. Other creators have done similar things (John Byrne and Walt Simonson with Dr. Doom, Alan Davis with the cast of ClanDestine) and I always seem to dig it. I like the arrogance of dismissing the work of others, especially when it comes to a character like Thanos and a man like Jim Starlin. It doesn't hurt that no one can fucking write Thanos well except for Jim Starlin...

3. My dad bought comics by groups of titles. He bought all of the X-books, all of the Wildstorm books, all of the Jim Starlin cosmic books... No matter what, the same slate of books, sometimes adding new groups of titles, very rarely subtracting some. That was comics in the Nevett house. 

4. When 'Thanos Rising' was announced, I wrote: “I will buy it. Partly because I’m curious, partly because I like Jason Aaron’s writing, partly because it seems like the sort of thing that would break my internet silence after less than three months. But, let’s not kid ourselves: this is clearly the broken memories of one of the defective clones of Thanos. Sorry. That doesn’t mean it can’t be good. It just means that if you’re not Starlin, you’re writing about a clone.” I stand by that today.

5. I wonder what Joe Keatinge and Richard Elson's Thanos origin comic would have been like. It couldn't have been worse than this piece of shit series.

6. Tim O’Neil was right.

7. Probably the biggest clue that Marvel does not understand Thanos is that, post-Infinity Gauntlet, every non-Starlin use of the character portrayed him as a villain, while every Starlin use of the character did not. From that point on, he was... not a hero, nor an anti-hero, but he wasn't a villain. He was someone who had made some mistakes in the pursuit of love and was on his way to finding a place in the universe that doesn't revolve around gaining enough power to kill enough people to make the object of his affection speak to him. When Jim Starlin wrote Thanos, the character grew and changed. Of course Marvel did not notice or understand.

8. Death pursues and seduces Thanos in 'Thanos Rising'. She begs him to love her. She begs him to love her. This is now the biggest clue that Marvel doesn't understand Thanos.

9. Death was the object of Thanos’s affections and he never considered himself worthy. That was the tragedy of Thanos. He pined after Death like it was a woman to be wooed and courted while never believing that he was actually good enough to succeed. He failed three times trying to gain enough power to please Death and put himself on her level. The most notable was an odd double-whammy of a failure: he obtains the Infinity Gauntlet in the hopes that, now, Death will speak to him directly and, instead, he is told through an intermediary that, now, he is as above Death as she previously was above him and it would be improper to address him directly. Then, he loses the Infinity Gauntlet, because he doesn't truly believe he deserves that level of power. He had already failed at his true goal; he was unworthy.

10. In 'Thanos Rising' #5, it’s also put forth as a theory that “Death” is simply all in Thanos’s head. There is no personification that appears before Thanos, commanding him to kill and to give her his love. I genuinely don’t know if that’s better or worse than Death existing and appearing before Thanos and speaking to him, seducing him, and begging for his love. Either way, it’s a complete contradiction of every Jim Starlin Thanos comic I have ever read.

11. Just because it takes place in space doesn't make it cosmic.

12. Read this series and tell me that Jim Starlin is wrong to dismiss Thanos stories not written by him.

13. From something I wrote about 'Marvel Universe: The End' five years back: “And then Death shows up with Adam telling Thanos something Thanos should have heard years ago: ‘Sometimes trying too hard is the problem. / Sometimes surrendering is the only path to victory.’ Death removes her cloak and actually speaks to Thanos, thanking him, kisses him and then leaves. Thanos realises his ultimate goal, the one thing he’s been pursuing since his first appearance, really. Of course, he seemingly stopped pursuing Death for a while, but this shows he never really got over her. Having gotten the one thing he’s always wanted, Thanos rebuilds the universe, but, in the process, makes it impossible for anyone to return from the dead, including himself who is seemingly dead. No one (save Warlock) remembers what happened and how Thanos saved the universe.” Few moments in comics do as much for me as the moment when Death thanks Thanos.

14. Something that I have never been able to move past was an interview Matt Fraction did about 'Fear Itself' where someone questioned a piece of dialogue he wrote for Thor, arguing that it’s not something Thor would say. Fraction’s response was that it is something Thor would say, because Marvel published a comic where Thor said it. He was right, of course. Doesn't mean it wasn't a dumb-as-fuck thing to say and any grown man should know better. Anyone with something invested in stupid little cartoon characters (like he obviously is) should know better. It was a cheap answer to a question that warrants a lot of thought and something better than a glib remark that dismisses the entire idea that these characters are more than what the current editorial board says they are. 

15. I don’t go to many family gatherings anymore. There are a lot of reasons for that, but having to choke down stuffing that made me want to literally choke didn't help.

diary of a guttersnipe 06/17/2013: transcend r. crumbz.

by Shawn Starr

Mini-Reviews

Pixar's Cars Comics
by Patrick Kyle, Michael DeForge, and Mickey Zacchilli 

Patrick Kyle killed it on this issue.

Vaders Little Princess (Chronicle Books)
by Jeffery Brown

This is a book that your aunt or uncle, who vaguely remember you like "Star Wars", would purchase you for Christmas in addition to a package or two of socks. Existing as a sixty page collection of "Star Wars" references mixed with “dad’s just don’t understand teenage girls!” interactions between Darth Vader and a young Princess Leia (and her companions).

The books stronger material is found when Brown drops the single page illustrations and produces short sequential stories; these “extended” narratives force Brown to work past the one note nature of many of his illustrations.

This was my favorite strip.

The Manhattan Projects #12 (Image)
by Jonathan Hickman, Nick Pitarra, Jordie Bellaire

Another issue of 'The Manhattan Projects' and another issue where one of the characters turns out to be someone else than who we had thought they were. By the end of the next arc, I presume the entire cast will turn out to actually be secret Muslims from Africa bent on something....something....punchline.

Thor: God of Thunder #9 (Marvel)
Jason Aaron, Esad Ribic, Ive Svorcina

The only problem I can find in Aaron/Ribic’s run on Thor (besides the kinda too on the nose dialogue about “gods” and shit) is that i kind of hate present heroic Thor. Young brash Thor? Amazing. Old cranky Thor? More please! But with this story-line coming to a close soon, I’m pretty sure that Aaron’s not going to spin the series off into a buddy cop story about Young and Old Thor beating the shit out of people and fucking bar wenches with a band of bumbling vikings chasing after them.

But alas, life is filled with disappointment.

Red Team #3 (Dynamite)
by Garth Ennis, Craig Cermak, Adriano Lucas

I started watching "The Shield" this week, this seems like the kind of comic Garth Ennis does after watching "The Shield".  Also, art and coloring are pretty solid which is a nice step up from the recent string of Ennis non-Marvel work.

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so many links

for you

to read

or ignore

“It’s only led me to complete awesomeness at all times. It’s only led me to awesome truth and awesomeness. Beauty, truth, awesomeness. That’s all it is.” The Kanye West New Yorker interview is a thing of beauty.

Trailer for a possible Alex Schubert a.k.a. 'The Blobby Boys' a.k.a. 'Zine Police' a.k.a. 'Cyber Gang' animated thing for Fox’s ADHD block, which is art directed by Ben Jones of Paper Rad fame, leading me to be actually interested in a FOX animated lineup after ten years of not giving a shit ("Bobs Burgers" excluded). Additionally, here's a trailer for the new 'The Blobby Boys' book which is being published by Koyama Press later this year.

Simon Hanselmann was interviewed by Sean T Collins for The Comics Journal. It’s a strong interview on one of alt-comics rising stars, but it’s the last segment of the interview where Hanselmann discusses his cross-dressing and it’s impact on his life that this interview crosses over into definitive. Hanselmann is having a breakout year between his 'Megg and Mogg' Tumblr serial and his criticism/gag/whatever he feels like strip 'Truth Zone' for Frank Santoro’s Comic Book Workshop Tumblr. If half the things he has in the works for this year and next see daylight i can’t see him not becoming a big[ger] fucking deal in alt-comics. You can read most of his comics here.

Johnny Negron has a bunch of cheap art prints for sale on the PictureBox site.

"Girls" Season 38

An essay on Suehiro Maruo’s 'The Laughing Vampire' by Sarah Horrocks, who seems to be popping up all over my twitter feed lately.

Interview by some site i have never heard of with Johnny Ryan and Peter Bagge. The choice exchange is:

    Do you have some wisdom for young comic artists?

Draw more dicks.

Vice talks to Gary Panter about art and stuff. Panter shows some originals to 'Dal-Tokyo' and 'Jimbo in Purgatory' which look amazing. Panter always comes off as the nicest guy in comics, he drew me a dinosaur the one time i meet him. Anyways, here's a recent auto-bio comic Panter did.

Louis C.K. interview, which is kind of old but i just got around to reading it. The parts about Woody Allen are really interesting, i need to sit down for a week and watch all of that mans films.

Oily Comics started taking 3 and 6 month subscriptions again. They are also debuting their first large form work at CAKE this weekend 'Habit' #1 a 52 page comic by Josh Simmons which you should buy. Josh Simmons is the bees knees.

A video tour through the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum. That original art is bonkers to look at in video, i can’t even comprehend seeing it in person.

diary of a guttersnipe 01/14/2013: water bird-ing works

by Shawn Starr

Read two comics this week, and have an overwhelming stack of books "to read". Here are some notes on them...

Mini-Reviews

Basketball Comics #1
by Michael DeForge, Patrick Kyle, Mickey Zacchilli

From the people who brought you 'Cop Comics', a comic about life, religion and dunkin'. Mostly dunkin' it though.

Also this. 

This is enough for me to buy anything.

Thor: God Of Thunder #4 (Marvel)
by Jason Aaron, Esad Ribic, Ive Svorcina

I re-read the run so far this week, and in light of the rest of Marvel's output since their NOW! Initiative, it's easy to see this series as the line's highlight. 'Avengers' is only going to make sense after 40 issues and Opena will be long gone before that point ('Uncanny X-Force' redux), but 'Thor: God Of Thunder' is only going to last as long as it's drunk, yelling, breaking shit Thor is drawn by Ribic, and once Ribic is gone this train ride is over.

The God Killer is Ribic's mighty pen, son.

READING PILE

some notes on them

Baron Bean: The Complete First Year (IDW) – I like the idea that The Library of American Comics are putting out a series of lesser known (and according to them "essential") strips at a reasonable price, unlike IDW's normal policy of printing overpriced collections no one would ever touch unless they have a lot of disposable income or have some forty year old affection for the series.

Young Lions (Self-published) – I've read this three or four times, i like the pencil line work, but the narrative never came together for me. Maybe it will this time, or maybe it's not supposed to.

Anyways, did Larmee retire or something? I haven't heard shit from him after this book.

Raw (v.2) #1-2 (Penguin Books) – Solid Lineups.

Art in Time: Unknown Comic Book Adventures, 1940-1980 (Abrams) - Dan Nadel's anthology of comics that some people MIGHT have heard of, in contrast to his other book 'Art Out of Time', which is an anthology of comics NO ONE has heard of. Anyways, i like the idea of shooting the books from the originals and leaving all the blemishes of print and time on them, especial in a book devoted to time and cartoonists perceived place in it.

Deeper into Movies (Marion Boyairs) - Pauline Kael dropping science.

2001: A Space Odyssey (Marvel) – Jack Kirby delivers cover work that no one can match.

DAN QUAYLE and mindless covers

$####$#LINX$####$

The Comic Reporters Holiday interview series ended. Here's the master list.

Charles Forsman did an interview at the Comics Journal. I like that Forsman, in his position as both a cartoonist and active publisher, forces interviewers to place a greater emphasis on the publishing side of comics. In a medium where most of the alt-scene, outside of the Picture Box stable, self publish, he's the only one who is really talked to about it. I guess one conversation is good enough.

"I feel like I got hit by a truck... Which I did."

New Splash Page Podcast!

Last days of the Oily Comics subscription.

Fantagraphics 'Mickey Mouse' reprints makes a short appearance in Alec Berry's "Buckwild".

episode 019: ghosts

in this episode joey and alec discuss rob liefeld's spectacular exit from dc comics, take a look back at daniel clowes' ghost world (eightball #11-18) + lament the loss of the one-man anthology, batman incorporated #3 by grant morrison and chris burnham, the sky in stereo by mardou, scalped #60 by jason aaron and rm guera, and more.

music by rival schools

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episode 013: best of 2011

in this episode we do our big year end wrap-up and look back at the last year in comics and talk about some of our favorite works including lovestruck by dennis hopeless and kevin mellon, secret avengers by warren ellis and others, our love is real by sam humphries and steven sanders, li'l depressed boy by s. steven struble and sina grace, loose ends by jason latour and chris brunner, batman: knight of vengeance by brian azzarello and eduardo risso, new york five by brian wood and ryan kelly, casanova: avaritia by matt fraction and gabriel ba, punishermax by jason aaron and steve dillon, uncanny x-force by rick remender and jerome opena, holy terror by frank miller, prison pit: book three by johnny ryan, batman incorporated by grant morrison and chris burnham, scalped by jason aaron and rm guera, butcher baker, the righteous maker by joe casey and mike huddleston, love & rockets: new stories #4 by jaime hernandez, ganges #4 by kevin huizenga, lose #3 by michael deforge, criminal: the last of the innocent by ed brubaker and sean phillips, optic nerve #12 by adrian tomine, moon knight by brian michael bendis and alex maleev, spaceman by brian azzarello and eduardo risso, zegas #1 by michel fiffe, daredevil by mark waid, paolo rivera and marcos martin, vengeance by joe casey and nick dragotta, blast furnace funnies by frank santoro, and savage dragon by erik larsen. we also discuss what we are looking forward to in 2012, the holiday season, and more random stuff.

music by jay-z & kanye west

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episode 012: still the same

in this episode joey and alec discuss the phenomenon that is dubstep, uncanny x-force #18 by rick remender and jerome opena, our long absence from the comics podcasting scene, wolverine and the x-men #1-2 by jason aaron and chris bachalo, secret avengers #19 by warren ellis and michael lark, moon knight by brian michael bendis and alex maleev, mudman #1 by paul grist, new avengers #19 by brian michael bendis and mike deodato, and much more.

music by kavinsky

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episode 010: double digits

in this episode joey and alec discuss supergods by grant morrison, batman incorporated #7 by grant morrison and chris burnham, the wolverine's revenge storyline (wolverine #10-12) by jason aaron and renato guedes, the mindless ones website, brandon graham's comics journal interview, hate annual #9 by peter bagge, the similarities of approach between peter bagge and erik larsen, and we answer some emails, among other things.

music by †††

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episode 004: what's wrong with picnics?

in this week's episode we discuss pull lists, the splash page podcast, joe casey, invincible #75, avengers #1-6, new avengers #1-7, the next age in comics, batman and robin #16, batman inc. #1, batman: the return, batwoman #0, t.h.u.n.d.e.r. agents #1, wolverine: the best there is #1, strange tales 2 #1, generation hope #1, uncanny x-force #1, nemesis #3, batman: odyssey #3-4, scalped #43, thor #615-617, and secret avengers.

music by drive like jehu

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