Neglected Masterpiece?
Last Saturday at APE I mercilessly grilled Dan Clowes on Don Martin, Curt Swan, Wally Wood, and other pressing topics. No summary can do justice to the gravity and seriousness of this discussion. Clowes was wily and wise and took the day. Evidence is here:
1. Our own Dan Nadel interviewed Dan Clowes at APE last weekend (armed with questions brainstormed by the CC staff), and from all reports, it went very well. During the conversation, Clowes handicapped the greats (Capp vs Fisher, Swan vs Boring, Cracked vs Mad, etc.), described meeting Al Jaffee and Steve Ditko, and analyzed advice once given to him by Robert Crumb. You can read about it all here, and if the a/v version is ever made available, we will let you know.
2. If you are following along with the CCCBC discussion of Neonomicon (and how could you not be?), a rare Alan Moore essay has come to light that may help illuminate some of the thematic material in that series. If you remember issue 2, when shopping at the Whispers in Darkness store, Agent Brears purchases a copy of The Magical Revival by Kenneth Grant, and later describes the author to her partner Lamper:
This Grant guy, he’s this serious magician who’s still alive in England. He knew Aleister Crowley. … Yeah, well, him, Grant, people like that, they’re serious about all the occult stuff. They treat it like it’s real, you know? Like it’s a science. And Grant, he believed Lovecraft’s whole mythology was genuine in some way. … I just want to see how anybody could actually believe in this stuff.
Anyway, in 2002, Moore used the occasion of a then-fairly-recent Kenneth Grant book to write a fairly lengthy essay on the man and his work, “Beyond our Ken”, which touches on such issues as Lovecraft’s influence, both on literature and “modern magic systems,” magic’s interchangeability with art (“the greater part of magical activity lies in simply writing about it”), and the dividing line between belief and reality. All of these topics obviously come to fruit in various ways within Neonomicon, so those readers not entirely turned off by this kind of arcane subject matter may want to download issue 14 of the occult magazine KAOS, which is available here, and read it.
[via, indirectly]
Best in Show
Frank Santoro here. My notes for last week’s APE show. I think this about sums it up. Fun festival. Sure has changed tho’ in 15 years. I’ll say one thing: Comic-Con running it seems like a good thing.
APE
San Francisco, Ca
2009
Dean Haspiel
Last Gasp mixer
Ben Catmull
Tim Goodyear
Dylan Williams
North Beach
Saturday
Dean Haspiel (told a great story about Howard Chaykin)
Tom Devlin is funny
Unclothed Man book looks good
Mike and Janice at Fantagraphics are good people
Jon V signing
John Pham mini-comics score!
Alvin, Lisa Hanawalt, Eric Haven
Marc Bell in a good mood
Steve Oliff is the secret history of color comics in one person
Personal Stories panel
Dean Haspiel: inject personal drive into work for hire
Dash And Phoebe Gloeckner steal show
Chicken dinner and Bob’s donuts
Sunday
Marathon crowd noise wake-up call
Jeff Smith and Dash conversation. Jeff’s APE thoughts.
1994 to now. Seemed genuinely excited at how things have changed.
Slow Sunday
Webcomics panel
(monetizing and formating same old shit. like conversations about the internet in the ’90s – all that familiar “it’s gonna be like this…” double talk)
Grant Reynolds
Zack Soto
Ryan Sands
girl with Tintin 24 hour comic (Angie Wang)
Brandon Graham is really good.
George Mensah (Ninja comics)
Keeping it real department: Ron Turner pushing dolly of boxes
El Toro burrito
Joe from Image / Shannon from Stumptown
Jesse Moynihan
Brett Warnock
Monday
North Beach hangout w Dash/ City Lights
Dan just somehow hacked into my computer and stole my planned post almost word for word, but that won’t stop me. Those of you who aren’t color blind should hie thee to Same Hat, like, now to see some of the incredible work that inspired Frank to “riff” on Steve Oliff. Color nerds united.
Then wish you were at APE so you could have bought some of these yourself. The picture of Frank that was going around kind of scared me, but now I think the trip would have been worth it.
UPDATE: Also, I feel bad for linking to this for some reason I can’t put my finger on, but I can’t help it: Frank Miller has been leaving appreciative comments on toga-crazed warmonger Victor Davis Hanson’s blog, a sampling of which can be found here. [via] I kind of don’t believe the ones at the end where he repeatedly decries anonymous commenters as cowards, but the others seem genuine.
And whether it’s Miller or not, I agree with him: “Use your real names, or I will call you cowards.”
Hey y’all! Ramblin’ Frank Santoro here with a Comics Comics news report of sorts. Mr. Dash Shaw and I recently traveled to San Franciskie for the Alternative Press Expo. The “Nose Gang” was in full effect. It was a pretty good show for the most part. No complaints, no drama. Some interesting panels; lots of interesting people. I’ll be posting a full report later in the week but just wanted to say hey.
Also, I haven’t seen this linked to so I thought I’d post it here. Mr. Sean T. Collins has conducted an interview with Brian Chippenedale. Pretty great.
P.S. Best portrait of Jon Vermilyea ever.
