Yes I can reveal, I'm an editor at BOOM! now. I'll still blog here occasionally but the fact is this job keeps me really busy. Look through previews and see how many Warhammer books we put out. Imagine presiding over all of that.
Of course now I think about comics more than ever. I have to be a bit careful about what I say here. Thankfully I was never someone who shot his mouth off on-line.
I have developed a whole new appreciation for the writing and illustrating that goes into comics. Next time you go into a comic book store look at the new releases racks and imagine how many people it took to write, layouts, pencil, ink, color and letter the interiors. Then factor in the cover, the whole process for that (including dressing it with the title, various logos and sales information). Then realize that all those people were led by one person who wants to make sure all these people work together and that the book came out at least somewhat on-schedule. Everyone has Diamond's Sword of Damocles over their head. It's a feat that one comic book comes out a month, let alone the hundreds and hundreds that are able to each month.
When I lived in San Francisco I would occasionally treat myself to a trip to Berkley where I would never fail to visit Comic Relief. I always enjoyed walking up Shattuck Avenue and seeing Rory Root on his stool outside of his store. He couldn't be inside his store. The man lived on a diet of cigarettes and coffee and in California you can't smoke inside any public space. When I'd get near enough he would recognize me (it took him a few times to remember my name but once he did he always made sure to say "hi Ian!") and we'd talk. Well, not quite. He would talk and I would just absorb.
Rory knew me from my journalism days. I interviewed him for a few stories and covered the ComicsPRO meeting at the Cartoon Art Museum, where Rory was a huge presence. Either talking to him professionally or just as friends I was always knocked out by this endless stream of wisdom that came from him.
The last WonderCon was this February. I remember seeing Rory at the Comic Relief booth and figuring that I'd say hello while there's a few minutes left that night of the con. Those few minutes turned into roughly an hour and a half as Rory went from one end of the history of comics to the other, explaining how things had been and where they were going. The guy knew everyone and could put everything in perspective. One moment it would be your usual con floor gossip and the next it would be an expert observation on Marvel and DC's move to more graphic novels and trade paperback collections. Rory would start talking and you just wouldn't want to walk away.
Someone with all this knowledge of the industry had every right to be bitter. But that's the last word I would use to describe Rory. He still knew the power and joy of reading comics. He still loved putting good comics in people's hands. That vast knowledge combined with the far more vast love of the medium is why Comic Relief is this massive, wonderful store.
I think a person's living and professional spaces are reflections of what's inside their head. For examples, my room is a cluttered mess of papers and books, perfectly corresponding to the fact that organization is not my strong suit. I feel that similarly, Comic Relief reflected how great Rory was. Every aspect of comics was covered. You could walk out with the latest TokyoPop book, a Moebius Blueberry album in the original French, the McSweeney's anthology of at comix and all of the Sandman with one just purchase. Rory appreciated every aspect of comics. He communicated that appreciation tremendously.
Gene Colan isn't doing well. That really bums me out. Colan's work on Tomb of the Dracula and Howard the Duck is the kind of comic book awesomeness that I just love. Whenever I've seen him on a discussion panel he seems like a nice chap. I wish him the best. Clifford Meth is starting a charity auction and Blake Bell created a Facebook group. Me, I'm going to find some time to read some HTD and appreciate the man's work yet again. Permanent Link: 7:30 PM |
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Let's send some well wishes to Mark Masterson of the comic Dorothy. He suffered some heart palpitations a few days ago. He seems to be doing okay now, thank goodness! Permanent Link: 7:35 AM |
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Thursday, May 08, 2008
Happy Birthday Don Rickles!
Man, I wish I could live my life like Don Rickles's act. To just insult people in a rat-a-tat style and get loved for it would be Heaven.
You know, maybe tomorrow isn't the best time for the special two-disc version of Twister to come out. Of course, that film doesn't a deserve a two-disc DVD at all (it hardly deserves a one-disc DVD). But man, timing can be a bitch. Permanent Link: 3:55 PM |
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Sunday, May 04, 2008
Plastic Fasciantion
I remember listening to a recent episode of the movie podcast Battleship Pretension where they mentioned how odd some '80s movies can look. You can see a natural progression form the '60s to the '70s but aesthetics take this 180 degree turn around 1983 or so (the year of my birth actually).
It was an interesting thought. I brought it up to some of my co-workers recently. The '80s was high school for them. It was explained to me that everything was a reaction against the '60s and '70s. One guy actually told me about how some people tucked their pant legs into their shoes becuase flared jeans were seen as contraband.
That's when it clicked for me. Growing up my Dad kept the '60s alive, filling the house with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix. By the time I was into pop music that era was heralded as the greatest of all time. I remember buying an issue of Guitar World magazine devoted to all the major albums released in 1969 (Led Zeppelin I, Abbey Road, three CCR albums). But when the man who wanted to bomb Berkeley was president no one wanted to hear about the Age of Aquarius (God, imagine what Lennon would say if he was alive during the Reagan years!).
Now I see why films of the '80s referenced the '50s so much (Back to the Future, The Buddy Holly Story, La Bamba). I also understand what Chuck Klosterman was writing about in Fargo Rock City when he reveals that in the '80s it was actually cool to be conservative (in particular he is referencing Alex P. Keaton from Family Ties).
I worry that calling myself a pop culture anthropologist makes me sound like a pretentious dilettante. But this is what I'm interested in, learning about human culture starting with what's pop. It's not a perfect science and people take it too far (I join Sean T. Collins in bemoaning the wave of recent articles that looked to horror films to get a sense of America's foreign policy). But sometimes you stumble on something like this and human behavior is put into something of a perspective.
Was the '80s a backlash that went too far? When I see a film like Michael Mann's Manhunter I see a cool story ruined by certain artistic choices that only could have made sense at the time (that synth score is so overblown). The pendulum swung too far in the other direction. Artifice was worshiped. Is something similar happening today, when the digital world of smart phones and viral videos demand so much attention. Is there anything less organic than the sounds of New Romantic pop music coming from a box on your computer screen only a few inches tall?
Ah don't worry about it. That out-of-tune riff in "(Keep Feeling) Fascination" is pretty damn cool. Permanent Link: 11:25 AM |
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Thursday, May 01, 2008
Your shudder moment of the day
There are people inside this country right now who don't take Barack Obama seriously because of the Jeremiah Wright kerfuffle and the fact that they think he's Muslim. You can only be delusional about one thing, people! Permanent Link: 7:04 PM |
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