The Collective review Bryan Talbot’s Alice in Sunderland [pictured]: Scratch any part of Sunderland’s surface, says Talbot, and you’ll uncover Wonderland, and much more besides. Taking the city’s Empire Theatre as his stage, he presents a variety show tour through Sunderland’s history and mythology, with guest turns from the Venerable Bede, fearsome dragons and the leering ghost of Sid James, who died mid-performance and still dressing rooms. Rachel Cooke, reviewing Alice in Sunderland in The Observer, finds it “one of the most exhilarating books I’ve read in years..a minor masterpiece”. And via Bugpowder, an interview with Talbot on Down the Tubes: “I’m still having a hard job describing it. I can’t really compare the whole of it to another graphic novel and say “It’s a little like that”. I’ve been using the term “dream documentary”, but that’s vague and more than a little vacuous.” * Wired review Adrian Tomine’s Optic Nerve, a comic book that will “make you want to slit your wrists and howl in frustration”, apparently. * Wired also celebrate 30 years of Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor. * War, huh. What is it good for? Comic books {via Largehearted Boy} * Arf talk to Fantagraphics’ Gary Groth about the lawsuit filed against them by Harlan Ellison. * Japan Times interview “rebel cartoonist” Rieko Saibara: “I’m not the one who started with this rebel thing, so I don’t know what they mean. I also don’t have that many experiences. All I do is write gags. I’m like a sushi chef and I can’t offer bad sushi to my clients. People say my life is wild, but I’m just writing about my life in an interesting way because it’s a cartoon. So if a reader gets shocked and says, “Gee, what a wild life she has!” then it’s my victory as a sushi chef.” {via Journalsita!} * The Daily Cross Hatch offer up ‘Cartooning’, the first in a series of excerpts from a pamphlet by Ivan Brunetti. * The Comics Book Bin ask Megan Kelso a few questions on her new strip for the NY Times magazine: “‘Watergate Sue’ is about a woman who is the mother of a small child who becomes obsessed with the Watergate scandal as it unfolds. It will run one page every Sunday for six months starting April 1…I’m incredibly nervous about it. It has a potentially huge audience given how many people read the Times—but of course all those people probably won’t actually read it. It’s a weird feeling. When someone buys a book, they usually read the whole thing, but not so with a newspaper.” {via Comics Reporter} * Tom Spurgeon (aka Comics Reporter) selects the Top 50 comics of 2006. * Arthur magazine have made Alan Moore’s article on pornography available in full. *The Daily Cross Hatch talk to Gilbert Hernandez: I was looking for a more reader-friendly book [in Palomar], because my stuff had gotten so dense, halfway down the run. I mean, yeah, sure, it was rewarding for the readers who were really following it, but if you just tried to jump on board in the middle, you’d have a hell of a time. And that’s not good for sales. You have to balance all that all at the same time, and even though I want to be true to myself, I have to be…you know. * A TV interview with Worry Doll creator Matt Coyle in which he discusses his interest in dark art and how Worry Doll found a publisher {via Comics Reporter} Also, check out Matt’s Top 5 right here on 3:AM. * Derik Badman reviews the work of Anders Nilsen as it appears in MOME: “I have a hot and cold relationship with the work of Anders Nilsen. His Big Questions series is fascinating and well-constructed (though I’m waiting for the collection since I can’t catch up with the out of print early issues), yet I found Monologues for the Coming Plague to be an utter disappointment which felt as if it had been tossed off in a minute or two. His work in the anthology Mome has given a similar reading experience for me, some good, some that feels unfinished and hasty.” Look out for a review of the sixth volume of MOME on 3:AM very, very soon.
