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Review: I Saw You… edited by Julia Wertz

  • Uncategorized
  • April 20, 2009

i-saw-you-5395288I Saw You…: Comics Inspired by Real-Life Missed Connections
Edited by Julia Wertz
Random House/Three Rivers Press; February 2009; $12.95

Everyone’s looking for something: money, fame, recognition, wonder, love. For most of those things, you’re on your own. But, for the last one, there’s always the personal ads. Blatantly advertising for love can feel very needy and desperate, though – but what if the love is already there (or, at least, you hope it is) and just needs to be coaxed out? That’s the place for the missed connection – I saw you, you winked at me, the subway doors closed, and so on and on. A missed connection, if you’re inclined to think that way, if someone you should have really met and clicked with, but didn’t, quite, because of external circumstances.

Julia Wertz, the cartoonist of the webcomic [[[The Fart Party]]], is one of many people obsessed with missed connections, either checking incessantly to see if someone “missed” them, or just amazed at what some people think a “connection” is. She found herself checking Craigslist several times a day, and then decided to make a minicomic out of missed connection ads. She got many more submissions than she’d expected, and that minicomic anthology eventually blossomed into this book – a collection of comics by nearly a hundred contributors, all illustrating actual missed connections ad, imagining their own missed connections, or just inspired by the idea.

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JG Ballard, 1930-2009

  • News
  • April 19, 2009

From the BBC: Cult author JG Ballard dies at 78

The author J.G. Ballard, famed for novels such as Crash and Empire of the Sun, has died aged 78 after a long illness.

His agent Margaret Hanbury said the author had been ill "for several years" and had died on Sunday morning.

Despite being referred to as a science fiction writer, Jim Ballard said his books were instead "picturing the psychology of the future".

His most acclaimed novel was Empire of the Sun, based on his childhood in a Japanese prison camp in China.

The author of 15 novels and scores of short stories, Ballard grew up amongst the expatriate community in Shanghai.

During World War II, at the age of 12, he was interned for three years in a camp run by the Japanese.

He later moved to Britain and in the early 1960s became a full-time writer.

Ballard built up a passionate readership, particularly after Empire of The Sun, a fictionalised account of his childhood, was made into a film by Steven Spielberg.

He said of his experiences: "I have – I won’t say happy – not unpleasant memories of the camp. I remember a lot of the casual brutality and beatings-up that went on, but at the same time we children were playing a hundred and one games all the time!"

Director David Cronenberg brought Ballard’s infamous book about the sexual desires stimulated by car crashes to the screen in the film Crash.

The film caused a media stir, adding to Ballard’s reputation for courting controversy.

In later years he wrote other acclaimed novels such as Super-Cannes and Millennium People.

I don’t know about you, but I think I’m going to watch Empire of the Sun tonight and be amazed at the story, at Christian Bale, and at an extraordinary life.

Hat tip: Boing Boing.

Will Amber Benson macarena? If her next film is any indication…

  • News
  • April 19, 2009

We mentioned on Wednesday that Amber Benson would macarena on YouTube if enough people commented on her book at Amazon. But would she actually do it?

After seeing this trailer for her next film, which will be out on DVD on the 28th, I’m convinced she’ll do anything.

(REALLY Not Safe For Work. You’ll probably laugh hard enough that your coworkers will come over and take a look, and then the jig will be up.)

(Hat tip: John Rogers. Hey look, even more innuendo!)

Let’s Rebuild Len Wein’s Comic Book Collection!

  • News
  • April 19, 2009

From Mark Evanier:

Earlier this month, my friends Len Wein and Chris Valada lost a pretty good sized chunk of their house and belongings in a fire. They’re moving (today, I think) into a rental home for what might be a year while their regular dwelling is rebuilt. Insurance is paying for most of the reconstruction but there are things that just plain weren’t covered. One was Len’s book collection, most notably his shelves of comic books he’s written over the years.

The loss in that category is not primarily financial. Some of Len’s comics — like the ones in which he co-created Swamp Thing or Wolverine or Human Target — go these days for hefty bucks but many do not. They’re sitting in the bargain boxes at comic shops or in collectors’ piles of duplicates. The big problem here is the time it would take to track down all the issues of everything. Len has enough other things to do, just to rearrange his life these days. So some of his friends decided to take that chore off his shoulders.

In that spirit was born The "Let’s Rebuild Len Wein’s Comic Book Collection" Project. The goal is to…well, you can probably figure out the goal. Go to that page. Read about it. See what you can send. And please spread the word.

Just a quick note: the list that’s currently up at the site is only of books that Len wrote, none that he edited. We expect there will be a modified master list shortly, even if we have to compile it ourselves.

The Freelancer’s Survival Guide

  • News
  • April 18, 2009

That’s it. I’m burned out. I’m frazzled. I’m toast. It’s all getting to me. I close my eyes, but the browser tabs stare at me.

What to do?

Luckily, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, autor of Star Trek, Star Wars, and Roswell novels, as well as many of her own, has started writing The Freelancer’s Survival Guide. I’m going to immerse myself in that for a while, and see what I can see when I get back.

Manga Friday: Schoolgirls in Trouble

  • News
  • April 17, 2009

Well, I’m back, he said.

(A shiny dime to the first person to identify that line.)

“Manga Friday” has been on hiatus for a while, but it roars back into the arena, all mixed-metaphorical engines racing, with four new books set in that most hallowed of all Japanese story settings: the all-girls high school. Oh, sure – one of these books is set in a school that just recently let a small number of boys in, and another features a school that probably has some boys – but all of these books know that it’s the girls, with their little sailor outfits and ridiculously short skirts, that draws in the readers. (Apparently both boys and girls, as far as I can tell.) So, without further ado…

Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei: The Power of Negative Thinking, Vol. 1
By Koji Kumeta
Del Rey Manga, February 2009, $10.99

We begin with a parody, to ease ourselves into the goofy insanity of the real thing. Nozomu Itoshiki is an influential teacher at an all-girls school (told you!) – unfortunately, he’s not exactly influential in a good way, since he’s deeply suicidal. The requisite super-positive girl, Kafuka Fura, finds him hanging (the by-a-noose kind of hanging) in a cherry-blossom grove, and breaks his rope by grabbing onto his legs. That leads to the first iteration of Itoshiki’s catchprase – “What if I had died?!” – which is an incredibly awesome thing to say to someone who just saved your life, and which Itoshiki gets to say several times in the course of this book.

But, since he isn’t dead, Itoshiki has to go to school, where he spreads depression and sadness to his students – or he would, if they weren’t all each completely nuts in their own ways. Besides the super-positive girl, there’s one who never wants to leave her room (a Hikikomori – it’s common enough in Japan to have its own name), a stalker, one girl who always comes to school with new bruises and injuries, the requisite super-sexy girl who’s just returned from living overseas, a compulsive trash-texter, and so on. (more…)

The Point – April 17th, 2009

  • News
  • April 17, 2009

Comics creators come from all sorts of places and today you meet a lady who goes from the burlesque stage to the drawing board. Molly Crabapple has a story to tell and she does it in a new graphic novel, plus that GI JOE series you’ve been waiting for hits the web today, and you know you want a “Gleek” action figure. We can tell you the only place you can get one!
 
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Happy 20th Anniversary, Dilbert!

  • Uncategorized
  • April 17, 2009

dilbert041789-9091031

And speaking of dating oneself… believe it or not, that was the first Dilbert. Today marks the twentieth anniversary of the comic strip by Scott Adams, featuring the office cubicle misadventures of engineering geek Dilbert, his wacky co-workers and bizarre furry friends. The occasion has been marked by the release of  Dilbert 2.0: 20 Years of Dilbert, a new commemorative hardcover collection. The 600-page slipcased book includes thousands of strips from every era of Adams’ career.  Adams also provides original commentary and the book also comes with a special disc that archives every Dilbert strip so far, and that can be updated with new releases.

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A little something for Peter David and Bob Greenberger

  • News
  • April 17, 2009

Due to wackiness at Google, the websites for Peter David and Bob Greenberger seem to have been delisted. We’re working on fixing it, and one of the best things we can do is to provide links to their sites so that Google knows they exist. So we’re doing our part.

If you have a web site, or a blog, or anything else like that, you can help by creating links yourself. The main link for Peter is http://www.peterdavid.net, and Bob’s is http://www.bobgreenberger.com. Even better, if you go deeper into their site and come up with a link to a particular article you like, that will help even more.

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