It’s not often that I get to make a simultaneous Richard Thompson/Timothy Truman reference, so I’ll take it this time.

This will be my last set of links for ComicMix. I’ve loved doing it, but it’s just too, too time-consuming. I will continue reviewing various things here, and ComicMix’s philosophy is all about the original content, so a huge bunch of outside links was an odd fit to begin with. Thanks for all the comments, and please stick around for the big ComicMix original-comics launch – I certainly will be!

Comics Links

David Lloyd will be at Orlandocon from Sept 21-23 at the Caribe Royale Convention Centre, and also signing at Coliseum of Comics on Friday the 21st from 2-5.

Mark Evanier has stitched together various YouTube postings to reform the complete Jonathan Ross documentary In Search of Steve Ditko.

The Columbia Tribune visits with artist Frank Stack.

Comic Book Resources interviews Marvel editor John Barber to learn exactly how the Marvel Zombies project came to be…and, just maybe, how Marvel will work it like a rented mule until we’re all sick of it.

CBR also chatted with Jim Shooter about his plans for Legion of Super-Heroes.

Comics Reporter interviews Steven Weissman.

Wizard talks with Mark Evanier.

The Hurting wonders what’s the deal with the X-Men and space opera.

Living Between Wednesdays interviews Scottt Chantler, author of Northwest Passage.

Comics Reviews

Forbidden Planet International reviews Image’s new series Fearless.

The Written Nerd reviews a pile of graphic novels, starting with the first volume of Flight, edited by Kazuo Kibuishi.

The Joplin Independent reviews The Blue Beetle Companion. (I was going to make a joke about obscurity here, but I thought better of it.)

The Los Angeles Times reviews Adrian Tomine’s Shortcomings.

Chris’s Invincible Super-Blog reviews the week’s comics, with an extra dose of face-kicking.

Greg Burgas of Comics Should Be Good reviews this week’s comics, starting with 30 Days of Night: Beyond Barrow #1.

Living Between Wednesday reviews this week’s comics, and declares them the “sexiest ever.”

From The Savage Critics:

• Jog reviews the new 30 Days of Night, and others
• Abhay finishes reviewing a graphic novel called Runoff, and interviewing its creator Tom Manning
• Diana Kingston-Gabai says two Hail Marys but still can’t take Penance: Relentless
• Jog checks out Gutsville #2
• and Graeme McMillan reviews a pile of comics, including the new Captain America. (And now I channel Mr. Middle-America: “Hey, isn’t he dead? How come his comics still coming out?”)

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Congratulations to Ted Rall on his election as incoming President of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists! Rall, shown here officiating at the recent wedding of fellow cartoonists Mikhaela Reid and Makesha Wood, states on his blog that "Never, in the history of the form, has the quality of political cartoons has been as high as it is today. Never have they been more widely read, or appreciated, by the public. Yet newspapers are firing their cartoonists and slashing their budgets to buy syndicated cartoons. There have never been so few cartoonists. There have never been so few editorial cartoons in print," and that his biggest challenge will be "trying to find a free market solution" to this disparity.

Rall has been a nationally syndicated cartoonist since 1991, and a vocal and sometimes controversial presence on the cartoonist scene.  He’s authored a number of prose and graphic novels, and has compiled three volumes so far of his Attitude series, a comprehensive listing of "subversive" political, alternative and online cartoonists.

Here’s the story – apocryphal, unsubstantiated, and questionable as it is.

Quentin Tarantino announces he’s going to make the ultimate exploitation flick – a quintessential slasher movie (i.e., with a gruesome death every seven minutes), only with cars instead of knives. Not only that, but he’s going to return Kurt Russell to the pantheon of screen badasses in the process.

However, somewhere along the way, someone supposedly turned down the vaunted director/writer’s advances with a statement along the lines of: “No way. I can see by your movies that you have no sensitivity towards, nor understand, women.”

Tarantino’s rumored reaction is the new, “improved” vision of his loving exploitation “homage” – Death Proof, which was his anchor of Grindhouse – the anthology film buoyed by Robert Rodriquez’s far more spirited contribution, Planet of Terror. But the woeful box office receipts necessitated a rethink, so only Death Proof came out this week as an “Extended and Unrated” DVD Special Edition.

Having been shocked and amazed by the original butt-numbing theatrical version, I approached this DVD with extreme caution – hoping that I would be pleasantly surprised, but fairly certain that my worst fears would be realized. For you see, Death Proof was, and, it turns out, still is, two films in one. A half hour kick-ass revenge thriller, and, in its original theatrical form, a one hour off-Broadway play which could’ve been called Four Chicks Sitting ‘Round Yakkin’ ‘Bout Nothin’.

Now, you’ll be relieved to note, the DVD is still two films in one – a half hour kick-ass revenge thriller, an integral, ten minute lap dance sequence inexplicably omitted from the original film, and, an off-Broadway play called Four Chicks Sitting ‘Round Yakkin’ ‘Bout Nothin’ for a Full 80 Minutes!

Yes, rather than be true to his pre-release publicity, Tarantino has added not more slasher car scenes, not more badass Russell sequences, but more talking … about nothing … that has no relation to the stated purposes of a film called Grindhouse other than showing the rumored rejector that boy, Tarantino sure understands and appreciates women in spades!

As author of the book For One Week Only: The World of Exploitation Films, I was a bit, shall we say, miffed by the writer/director’s cavalier treatment of the genre, although I certainly appreciated his half-hour of valid homage, despite the labored way he set up the situations. It was all the more annoying since he had the makings of a sweet stuntman vs. stuntman thriller in there, but it, like almost anything else legitimately entertaining, was swept away in his desire to show anyone who’d deny him that he adores every word he can put in any woman’s mouth.

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