Random Comics News Story Round-Up

* Tim Kreider writes about the state of cartooning in a way that mirrors that much-talked-about Village Voice piece. Kreider's piece is much better structured so there's a clear through-line as to the broader points he's making, plus he's a phrase-dropper to die for. Come on, the "P.G.C.C"? A "cranky allosaur"? There's like ten lines in there I would kill to have written at some point this year. And by kill, I mean actually kill Tim Kreider.

* I have the 2011 Eisner Awards nominations up and decorated and linked-to now -- the amount of time it took me to do it was hardly Eisner-worthy, but they're there now. The only thing I've heard back in terms of analysis/complaining is a bunch of folks noting that two comics frequently mentioned as folks' outright #1 comic of the year -- Jaime Hernandez's heartbreaking, make-you-gasp work in Love And Rockets: New Stories #3 and Adam Hines' rich, textured, ambitious debut Duncan The Wonder Dog -- didn't make the nominees list. That's not a criticism in the way those criticisms are usually lobbed, I swear -- I don't really think about any awards program that way anymore, nobody who wrote me wrote with anything more than curiosity about it, and I wouldn't dare say a critical word about an Eisners that has decided to honor the dear, late, and completely under-appreciated Jack Jackson even if all the jury nominated this time out was Bluewater biographies (if Archivist Prime Bill Blackbeard also gets into the Hall of Fame, we can safely declare 2011 the Best Eisners Ever). Lots of great choices on this year's nominees list, including a half-dozen with which I'm completely unfamiliar and now want to read. Still, I think it's an outcome worth noting because people keep sending me e-mails about it. It's a much more complicated comics world in terms of what people think is worth honoring than it was even five years ago.

* speaking of this year's Eisner nominations, Kate Dacey has extracted the manga and manhwa nominees from the rest of the pack. I love it when people do that because it always makes me look at the awards program in question a little bit differently.

* Darryl Ayo on wanting to read comics with more skill than he currently applies to the practice.

* that's a lot of FCBD comics.

* I don't think there's anything surprising about the fact that a cartoonist with Erik Larsen's general perspective on things and place in the comics world might think webcomics a place overrun by craft-antagonistic no-talents. But anyone in any part of comics going after another facet of comics for a too-low threshold does kind of read as bizarre.

* wasn't there a Glenn Miller song called Fantastic Four 5000?

* I make Glenn Miller jokes because I'm not old at all.

* not comics: it can be really fun when a favorite comic book artist draws beloved characters from someone's childhood, even when it's characters that were way past your time.

* I completely missed that the Lynd Ward Prize that went to Adam Hines' Duncan The Wonder Dog had a runner-up: Drew Weing's fine Set To Sea. Further, Weing agrees with me that more comics prizes should give out cash prizes.

* seeing early Fantastic Four comic book on the stands must have been quite the thrill. Those comics must have looked bugnuts compared to the staid slickness of that era's DC Comics product.

* finally, more on race and comics with your host, Jeet Heer.
 
posted 7:04 am PST | Permalink
 

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