Pondering the deep meaning in Brightest Day?
Actually, so far, he’s been admirably forthcoming about all of the bad television he watches—often, it seems as if the participants in these things are suspiciously likely to have picked that particular week to “re-read” Proust. If you know what I mean.
Dan contributes an epic, must-read essay on Jack Kirby to Vice. You can read it by clicking “here.”
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]
View from my podium.
Attention citizens of our nation’s capital! I’ll be addressing you tomorrow, June 26th, on the subject of Art in Time, at Politics and Prose!
Politics and Prose
5015 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20008
Saturday. June 26: 6 pm
Slideshow and gab-fest.
Read a “hometown boy” interview here because you need more of me, me, me!
Buy this book already!
I’ve been reluctant to comment on Art in Time not just for the obvious reason (a glaring conflict-of-interest!) but also because like the best anthologies it is a book that I feel I have to live with for many months before I can properly appraise its value. I’ve talked before about the anthologies that have meant the most to me and one common trait they have is that I keep going back to them, keep learning from them, and have gained a deeper appreciation of the way they were put together from my 5th or 6th reading rather than my initial impression.
Having said that, I’m pretty confident that Art in Time belongs in the small pantheon of great comics anthologies. Art Out of Time was a distinguished book but the companion volume is an improvement in almost every way: the artists and the excerpts are more thoughtfully selected and hang together better, and Dan’s writing on them displays a new level of engagement and insight.
Our own Dan Nadel spoke with Chris Marshall over at
Collected Comics Library. Check it out, True Believers-
slack off at work early with this one. Why are you at work anyways? It’s summer!
Jaime Hernandez, Johnny Ryan, Sammy Harkham: Three men who know some shit about comics.
Barbara "Willy" Mendes, Sharon Rudahl and John Thompson bask in the adulation.
By now the legend of the Art in Time L.A. event at Cinefamily has probably not reached you. Basically, thanks to Cinefamily and Sammy Harkham, I gathered a pantheon of great cartoonists under one roof for an early evening gab fest and book signing. Johnny Ryan interviewed Lawrence (Real Deal) Hubbard; I interviewed John Thompson, Sharon Rudahl and Barbara “Willy” Mendes, and Jaime Hernandez screened the fabulous A Letter to Three Wives, after which Sammy briefly interviewed him. Books were signed, beer was consumed, and after all that I ate an enormous corned beef sandwich at Cantor’s. But! It was not without its moments, best of which was a fairly intense exchange between Hubbard and Mendes. Anyhow, lucky for you, dear readers, I recorded the whole thing the first two panels in a single take. There’s a brief dead zone between the Hubbard/Ryan panel and the Art in Time panel, but let it roll. It’s worth it. The recording picks up with Johnny introducing Lawrence. Enjoy.
Johnny Ryan interviews Lawrence "Real Deal" Hubbard.
Not in Art in Time: L.B. Cole. He was awesome. And! John Stanley's editor in the 1960s.
Now let's REALLY talk comics...
Here I am in Switzerland lecturing about Art in Time. Are you tired of hearing about Art in Time yet? I’m flogging it hard. Anyhow, listen below to hear me flail about as a I try to explain things to foreigners! Allow the intro music to vibe with you, man.
Also! Yet another book release event: Come join me at Desert Island in Brooklyn on Friday, May 21st, 7 – 9 pm.
Desert Island
540 Metropolitan ave
Brooklyn NY 11211
(718) 388-5087
I will be signing books and the esteemed critic Richard Gehr will be grilling me about all things Art In Time! All of this beginning at 7 pm.
