Bookslut talk to Ulrich Merkl, author and publisher of The Complete Dream of the Rarebit Fiend by Winsor McCay: “Anyone who has worked with vintage newspaper comics is confronted with the problem of obtaining good quality copies of the illustrations. Since most of these strips have never been reprinted since their original publication a century ago, only two kinds of picture sources are available: original newspaper tearsheets and microfilm. Hardly any of the original printed newspapers are still in existence. The bound volumes kept by the public libraries were disposed of as they took up too much space and the poor quality paper had become brittle. I was lucky enough to win a large collection of original DREAM OF THE RAREBIT FIEND newspaper clippings on eBay.” + Paul Gravett on Winsor McCay: ” Right from the opening panel, McCay would always place us inside the dreamworld, though at first this was to all appearances quite normal. But over successive uniform panels he would escalate the nightmare scenario almost to a shocking climax, before abruptly switching in the final panel to the dreamer startled awake, traumatised and perhaps in some appropriate situation related to the dream. Unlike junior serial dreamer Nemo, here McCay’s victims were mostly adults and different every time. All of them blamed their bad night’s sleep or troubled nap on their bedtime snack of a Welsh Rarebit, traditionally grated cheese mixed with beer or some milk and butter and poured onto hot toast and grilled, and swore never to scoff them late at night again.” + Michel Faber on Dan Whitehead’s reworkings of Edgar Allan Poe: “Edgar Allan Poe’s cupboard of nightmares has been raided by comics artists many times, partly due to its addictive mixture of high lit and pulp, and partly due to the perennial cult status of Roger Corman’s movie versions. Nevermore, the debut publication in the Eye Classics series, has a foreword by Corman admiring how this graphic anthology “recast[s] the tales for a modern audience, applying Poe’s themes to contemporary conflicts and moral ambiguities”. Jeff Willis’s punchy cover corroborates this notion of a new Poe for a new era: a raven spattered by explosive bloodstains, as though Tarantino mobsters have blasted their way into Poe’s fusty sanctum.”
Dan Clowes on appearing in the Simpsons [above], alongside Alan Moore and Art Spiegelman: “I thought it would be a good way to impress my son’s friends when he got a bit older. Turns out all the other stuff I’ve done — including being nominated for the Oscar — is nothing compared to something like this. When people hear I’m going to be on the show, jaws drop and then, all of a sudden, people are fascinated by my career.” [via Journalista!] + Due to “some French law on the books from the ’90s, and updated in the last year, which forbids the representation of pornography involving minors,” Delcourt are not publishing Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie’s Lost Girls. Tom Spurgeon gets the rundown from the US publisher of LG, Top Shelf’s Chris Staros: “Well, we are disappointed, of course, because Delcourt was a good fit for the project. But we respect [Publisher] Guy [Delcourt]’s decision, as we have been friends for a long time, and understand that publishing involves a myriad of difficult business decisions. I do know that Guy is a huge fan of the work, so this wasn’t an easy decision for him to make. [Delcourt] had already put a lot of effort into getting the book ready for publication — the translation, lettering, and packaging design were complete.” + Mark, aka Badlibrarianship has some exclusive Tank Girl news. + Ryan Gilbey on how films and comic books are transforming each other.
Five comic book movies that must be stopped [via David Thompson] + Ned Beauman on comics blogs: “Avoid the forums, where the anonymous pedants make Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons look like Edmund Wilson. And avoid the big sites like Newsarama, who do little more than annotate press releases. If you want to see why the internet is great for comics, stick to those blogs which just revel in the fun of the medium.” + Slate on the genius behind Peanuts [via Flog!] + Periodic table of comic book elements. + Marvel digital comics. + Spiked publish the Spanish cartoon that’s been twisting knickers. + Not comics: Ralph Steadman has been given the Lifetime Achievement Award from Cartoon Art Trust: “I’ve got a speech but f*** the speech. I’m going to sing a song instead.”
First posted: Friday, November 23rd, 2007.
