For a limited time only Top Shelf are selling their wares for $3, including, Regards from Serbia and Lone Racer, reviewed here and there on 3:AM + The Forbidden Planet blog on Peter De Poortere’s Boerke [above]: “If timing is the key to successful comedy, De Poortere has mastered the art of sculpting his stories in such a way that he needs exactly one page, no more, no less. Every story takes exactly one page, and every page takes exactly twelve frames, with the first frame functioning as a title, and only the last one delivering the visual punchline. Visual indeed, as De Poortere rarely uses any dialogue or even text in general, making it pretty accessible to any reader regardless of language. + An interview with Ojingogo creator Matt Forsythe: ”I went through my crazy superhero phase like everyone does, and became alienated from that by high school, which is probably very healthy. Then a friend handed me an Adrian Tomine comic a few years later, and I was interested again—oh, this can be relevant, there’s interesting stuff out there. But what was really the touchstone was, when I went to Korea, the cartoon and comics culture there. There’s this sense of fun. In the West, there’s so much weight that we put on these poor characters. Jack Kirby and Stan Lee came up with 15 characters 40 years ago, and we’ve put 40 years of emotional baggage on them, they’re just buckling under that weight. In Korea, there are comics about golf! Just let go! They’re having fun with these things. I felt like I could breathe again.” More Matt Forsythe here + The Wall Street Journal profiles Aya authors Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie [via Journalista!] + A podcast on the state of gay comics.
Newsarama interview David Heatley: ”I just won a NYFA grant for fiction for my graphic novella-in-progress Overpeck. It’s a fictional portrait of the neighborhood I grew up with in between Kindergarten and Third grade. All the characters came to me in my dreams. It deals with childhood sexuality, abuse, redemption, spiritual awakening and has more magical elements and much more playful compositions. It’ll be my next book from Pantheon – hopefully out by 2010. In the mean time, I’m in the studio right now recording an EP to go along with my book. I’m recording with my friend and brilliant, Grammy-winning producer Peter Wade. We recorded a cover of the Ramones song my book is titled after, and we’re doing four or five other original tracks. It should be on iTunes around the time of the book’s release. I’m also working on an animated music video to go with the EP (and help promote the book). It’s been an action packed summer and I’m really excited for the fall.” + Heatley has a 10 page comic in the new issue of Granta, plus there’s an on-line interview with him here: ”In terms of the importance of writing in comics, I’d say it’s absolutely essential. Writing is the foundation of comics, or maybe the armature. A comic is only worth reading if the story is well-planned and powerful. Otherwise it’s a series of loosely connected pictures, regardless of how well they’re inked or colored. Writing is easily seventy-five percent of my process and it takes the longest. I prefer artwork that isn’t too laboured over, that shows some spontaneity and improvisation. But the story has to be really well-constructed if it’s going to reach me.” + Steve Jobs isn’t dead, he’s just moved to the Calvin & Hobbes universe + Scott McCloud and Google + PW interview Posy Simmonds + A Peter Murphy interview with Alan Moore from 2002 + Kim Deitch: A Retrospective [via Daily Cross Hatch] + A profile of the Tori Amos-related graphic novel [via Comics Reporter].
First posted: Sunday, September 7th, 2008.
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