Charles Burns does Tintin
Dean Haspiel’s Next-Door Neighbor: “Everybody has one. And, no matter how close or how far, we all live next to someone, and we all have a Next-Door Neighbor story. With this in mind, I asked some of my favorite storytellers and cartoonists to create their favorite NDN stories so that we at SMITH Magazine could share them with you over the next year.” It’s going to be a hell of a series. First up, Next Door Neighborless, written by Jonathan Ames and drawn by Nick Bertozzi + Among the other goodies in the The Comics Journal #289, an interview with Shaun Tan: “I think what works most effectively is the repetition of certain design and pattern styles, in a similar way that occurs in real cultures. I had a folder of templates I prepared early on — designs and language forms that I would re-use throughout The Arrival. A kind of sunburst pattern was a starting point, as something that reappears in architecture, plants and animals, as well as a free-floating energy source of some kind. A lot of other design elements drew inspiration from protozoa and other very small things scaled up, as well a the natural consistency of my drawing style — certain loops, ticks, signature lines and shapes. So, a fairly contained aesthetic.” + Tori Amos‘ Comic Book Tattoo, an anthology based on ‘her girls’ (songs): ““One thing to make very clear — this isn’t just a bunch of comic creators making a book and then slapping Tori’s name on it. She’s been very involved in the editorial process. Unlike a lot of anthologies, there have been multiple deadlines along the production path; plot, scripts, layouts, all of these had to be submitted so that Tori could look them over. Not in the manner of wanting to tell people what to do, or to make the book all ‘the same,’ but more to make sure that we had all of the bases covered in terms of really pushing the creators to work with us to make the best book possible.” We’ll see… [via Daily Cross Hatch] + The Comics Reporter reviews The Complete Peanuts: 1967-1968: “These are indeed the glory years, when the strip was still working through what seemed like an infinite number of rich storylines and well-grounded gags starring the main characters while at the same continuing to introduce memorable minor ones.” + Mike Mignola visits the Hellboy 2 set + Superman will always suck [via Journalista!] + The Forbidden Planet Blog on the Mark Twain Graphic Classic: “The greatest thing I can say..is that in the end it’s a glorious and valiant failure. But they shouldn’t feel bad about this at all. Anthologies invariably are. Especially anthologies that try hard to do something a little different and put as much variety in between the covers as this one does.” + The New York Daily News talk to Jeffrey Brown: “As the title would suggest, it’s about the everyday moments that we tend to overlook and how those are actually such meaningful parts of our lives. Little Things tries to champion the everyday normal life as something worthwhile and meaningful. Structurally, it’s a bunch of short stories that go back and forth in time, it’s more about atmosphere and mood than chronological narrative.” [via Journalista!]
The Comics Reporter interviews the brilliant Leah Hayes: “I’m as far from a writer as possible. I had barely ever written a story before Funeral. I’m not sure how to describe the process; they are all exact truths about how I feel about the subject at hand. The ducks aren’t even metaphors, really. It’s all true.” + Sans Everything on why Francoise Mouly is underappreciated and essential: “Part of the problem is that she’s done some of her most important work alongside her husband Art Spiegelman. Mouly is very much her own woman and not one to hide in the shadow of her famous mate; nor is her husband the type to keep his wife away from the limelight; still, it is all too easy for journalists, a habitually lazy lot, to do quick profiles of Spiegelman’s life, touch on his editorship of Raw, and ignore Mouly’s contribution.” [via Design Observer] + Panels and Pixels interview Mouly: “We as an industry of creators of graphic novels have been taking care of ourselves. They are plundering our fields. It takes time to do good work. Especially in comics. Maus took 13 years. And by the time we showed Bone to Scholastic Jeff and his wife had been publishing themselves for 10 years. It’s not overnight. I don’t know how long Alison Bechdel spent..and Persepolis was four books in France. Black Hole was 10 years in the making. Jimmy Corrigan was six or seven years. Those publishers, as you said, are “Oh, I’ll just hire some writer and get some cartoonist to churn the stuff out.” [via Comics Reporter] + Marjane Satrapoi interviewed in The Guardian : “I don’t understand when people say it is so natural to make children… I want to devote my life to my art. And I know if I’m a man and I say that I would be this great artist who sacrifices life for his talent, but since I am a woman I become this ambitious bitch who doesn’t want to have kids. Some people think like that, but I don’t care.” + This year’s London Book Fair celebrated Arabic publishing. The Guardian asked authors and critics for good reads, and Magdi al-Shafei’s Metro, seized by Egyptian police in January & pictured above, is mentioned + Not only has Renee French started her own blog, but has been guest-stripping for the Daily Cross Hatch + Journalist and critic Jon Evans on translating his prose into pictures + How to store your comic collection.
First posted: Sunday, April 20th, 2008.
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