Woodshed: Come On Irene

(Apologies for the disappearance it was unexpected and unwanted, channel resumes broadcast.)

Over at the Comics Journal, Tucker churned out the short dose praise for Winterworld (a Dixon/Zaffino joint) and SF (Ryan Cecil Smith's adventure in being very good, you could also check out Weird Schmeird #2, which is as good as good gets.)

Over at comiXology, the first in what will ultimately become three unfortunate choices is live, although various server problems have contributed to make it a bit of a pain to find. (Immediately after these articles were finished, I realized that writing about the first issues in DC's relaunch wasn't anywhere near as interesting as it would have been to imagine what the 27th issue of all 52 of these titles might be like, but don't let that stand in your way: there's jokes to be had.)

The Hooded Utiltarian's months-in-the-making best of list went up over the last few weeks, and they kindly asked me to join a pretty hell-on-wheels list of comics critics for the purposes of writing about Calvin and Hobbes, which Tim O'Neil doesn't care for. (Tim O'Neil jostles with Abhay Khosla for the best writer about super-hero comics you're going to find, I think, but I disagree with him on this one: I doubt America will collapse in response.) The Hooded's list has irritated all the people it's supposed to irritate, but its value will hopefully become apparent as the years go by. Comics history is basically written by specific individuals with specific goals--Art Speigelman's interpretation seems to be the current in-vogue one, although people like Jeet Heer or that book designer with the toy fetish and of course a litany of Paul Levitz-types are certainly working up their own narrative as we speak. An aggregate list is merely a brick in the longview, and considering that so many contemporary creators seem hell bent on chucking out every piece of history they find culturally complicated or historically obnoxious, there's definitely a benefit to be had in listing where the heads are at right now, especially as the pillars of super-heroes and the widespread comics communities continue toward their inexorable collapse.

Over at Dredd Reckoning, I teamed up with Douglas Wolk to look at Judge Dredd's Apocalypse War, which is currently sitting pretty as my all-time-fav Dredd story. (I'm working through a lot of the classics right now, so who knows how long that will last.) Wolk's set up over there is pretty fantastic--he's already moved onto the next Complete Case Files after the one we did together, and I'd recommend checking it out if you haven't already. 

Thanks to Shit Comics, I found out about and then read Chris Onstad's Chapbook 10, which is totally excellent stuff. It's interesting re-reading Onstad's "explanation" letter right alongside what's being promoted as the first Dave Chappelle interview in five years, for what I'd bet are obvious reasons. (Shit also caught this chunk of DeForge before most, praise due for that. This period of DeForge worship is definitely going to be the best part--there's no real focused hate directed towards the guy's work, we're all surrounded by people going "whoa" and "gnarly", and everything he drops seems like a next evolutionary step.) Here's a picture of a guy who looks like a serious person.

This response to that Grant Morrison sizzle reel from David Brothers is pretty fantastic.

Here's some Friday Night Lights stuff. That show was a juggernaut of sentimentality in the greatest way possible, it's pretty much The Shield of Feelings and Dads. My favorite part of this article is how the writer acknowledge that Tim Riggins (a fictional character) has almost superhuman control over all who witness his glory. It's totally true!

Ryan Hill reminded me of the weird, perfect lunacy that is Tim Cappello. Wasn't aware that Saturday Night Live remembered it as well. For some reason, that led to reading this--remember this article? This article was such a huge deal when it came out. Remember when magazine articles could be huge deals? I think the last time I heard about a magazine article being a huge deal was when Rolling Stone convinced Obama to fire a general, and even that seemed to blow over in about a week.

It's weird that This Long Century hasn't blown up yet, but it isn't like the site isn't perfectly set up as an excellent archive already. Lovely.

Your most recent installment in great Louis CK interviews, this time from GQ. Although the Papa-Demas bailed the land of GQ, here he is at Grantland ripping apart that television show David Simon made that isn't The Wire.

While my heart will probably always belong to Witzke (living) and Farber (dead), Ignatiy Vishnevetsky is definitely number two on the awesome film-writings tip. Here, he riffs on Raul Ruiz.

My two favorite negative reviews on the new Simon Reynolds book I'm going to read anyway: Martin Brown. Noel Murray. Here's the interview with Simon Reynolds that got me to pay attention in the first place.

Rupert Murdoch stuff, although we seem to have moved on from him as a news story.

Tim Hamilton comics, because I like them.

Best living cartoonist? He's my favorite.

This "How Did This Get Made" podcast is so good that it (plus WTF) has me listening to podcasts for the first time ever. Here they are on Green Lantern. It'll make you wish they could get some of that funny out of the podcast and into that San Diego SUV show.

This is the only interview/article I've ever finished reading about screenwriting, which strikes me as being the most unsatisfying job one could have that doesn't involve the food service industry or comics. Very funny stuff.

Here's a disappointing closer to this random series of links. "Suicided, like so many others."

Comments

[Cole Moore Odell]

Tim wants to argue why Calvin and Hobbes shouldn't be ranked among the best, but the list explicitly allowed for, and you give an excellent explanation for why it would be among someone's *favorite* comics. It's the joy in it, the affection readers brought to it, where and what you were when you first discovered it. Calvin and Hobbes doesn't do some of the things that comics on my own "best" list do, but it did make me genuinely happy by its existence, which is impressive, and enough. Plus the guy could draw like a maniac.

[Mike Walker]

http://www.timmycappello.com/

Yep.

And Ganges #4 is right around the corner!

[Abhay]

NTSF's not great-- it definitely hurts that it follows Childrens Hospital which for me has been especially killing this year. (Multiple Rob Schrab episodes, among other things).

But that said-- I think they've had a couple episodes where there've been signs that there's a show there. The one with Rich Fulcher from the Mighty Boosh-- that one definitely had moments, for me; every second of Rob Riggle's performance there, I was into...

But they just really haven't figured out that cast. I'm frustrated every time I see Martin Starr; Rebecca Romaignej(?) is... in it? I don't know why; Kate Mulgrew varies, depending on what they give her-- "you were good but I was better" was great, but other weeks, dead-zone...

The problem is without the superlfuous characters, Peter Serafinowicz as the robot or whoever, then it's just Eagleheart again, but parodying a different kind of show, and... (a) I like the cast on Eagleheart more, and (b) I wasn't THAT into Eagleheart anyways. Childrens Hospital passes the ball around more; plus: less plot. I really want NTSF to get to that point, but it needs to get past Scheer before it can do that and... It's his show, so... Childrens Hospital's Cordry's show but he didn't make it about him the same way so...

Also: I have a billion more opinions on this show even though it's only like 10 minutes long and you only barely mentioned it for a sentence. Here's another 500 pages. On NTSF something something. I don't even know the name of the show.

[Chris Jones]

You don't seem to be a huge fan of Jeet Heer, and I'm curious about that.

[AComment]

"Pale, overwhelmingly male, and raised on comic books, the main writers are very short on experience in the world beyond pop culture."

SNL in 1995 or