hangingfire at tumblr

Feb 6

“Being an autodidact has a lot of the same advantages and hazards for intellectual development that being free of any editorial control does for artistic development: it allows you to pursue original, heterodox, potentially interesting new directions without being hobbled by conventional wisdom. But there’s also no one to correct you when you’re headed down a blind alley, straying far from your area of competence, or just talking out of your ass.”

Tim Krieder, “Irredeemable: Dave Sim’s Cerebus”, in The Comics Journal #301

I actually bought this issue of TCJ just for Krieder’s essay on Cerebus, a book I really loved until I just couldn’t tolerate it any more. And I gotta say, I highly recommend this essay to anyone else in my position.

Jan 1

Saw this and thought of heatherpattern.

Sep 27

Apropos this.

Jun 22

Sometimes the Finder of Lost Things fails.

The internet will not yield up a drawing by Michael Zulli, Dave Sim, and Gerhard that depicts Cerebus sitting in Sweeney Todd’s barber chair.

It did, however, inform me that the drawing is called “Two Bits” and is in Cerebus #154. I should be able to do the heavy lifting, dig that out, and scan it. I don’t think I dumped all my Cerebi after Sim went off the rails; at the very least I know I have everything up until the point when Astoria exited the series (and to my mind, took a significant portion of the air out along with her), and I think #154 falls within that subset.

Stay tuned.

From the Sweeney Todd “Penny Dreadful” that came with Taboo #6. (Any other 1990s oldsters remember Taboo? Aka Steve Bissette’s irregularly-published comics magazine where the first bits of From Hell saw the light of day.) Art by Michael Zulli, text by Neil Gaiman. A taster for the Zulli/Gaiman Sweeney Todd comic adaptation that never was (except on some back shelf in Dream’s library). Via Forbidden Planet International blog.

Click through for a scan of the whole thing at Padraig O Mealoid’s premorpheus LJ.

May 22

“Gender isn’t simply a biological trait; it’s a societal one. The female experience is different from that of the male, and if, as a male writer, you cannot accept that basic premise, then you will never, ever, be able to write women well. A man walking alone through Midtown Manhattan at three in the morning may have concerns for his safety, but I promise you, it’s a very different experience for a woman taking the same walk, and it’s different again for a man wearing a dress. Think about it. That’s a societal factor, and it’s a gendered one, and this is not and can not be subject to debate. If you’re looking to argue that sexism is a thing of the past, that the world is gender-blind, you’re not only wrong, you’re lying to yourself.

An ignorant writer is a poor liar, and a poor liar makes for a bad crafter of fiction. If we accept that a story, no matter how grounded, is ultimately a tapestry of falsehoods, then it must follow that the author is required to tell his or her lies with as much skill as possible. As every politician and con artist will attest, nothing sells a falsehood better than a kernel of truth at its heart. Honesty at the correct moment, presented in the correct way, can buy the author an awful lot of rope with which to make the absurd seem plausible.

The way writers achieve this is through research.”

Greg Rucka, “Why I Write ‘Strong Female Characters’”

The entire essay is pretty damn kickass. Go read.

ETA: …and give the comments a miss, bearing ever in mind Fry’s Law of Comments and Ewing’s Equation.

Mar 10

snuh:

Moebius Starwatcher II

RIP Jean Giraud. One of the greatest of the great comics artists of the West. Thank you, sir.

Jan 30

mckelvie:

Emma Frost | The White Queen.

A quick design, but the thinking behind it was: if she’s called The White Queen, why shouldn’t her costume be connected to that? With that in mind, I looked up a couple of Elizabethan outfits and went from there, while trying to keep it true to her origins as a member of the Hellfire Club.

The costume is beautiful and oh so classy (bound to be confusing to everyone used to Emma’s barely-there costumes), but I think my favorite thing about this is the expression on her face.

Dec 17

Cover and artwork from Get Jiro, upcoming graphic novel written by Anthony Bourdain with Joel Rose, and illustrated by Langdon Foss. It’s out next summer, and here’s the plot summary posted at eater.com:

In a not-too-distant future L.A. where master chefs rule the town like crime lords and people literally kill for a seat at the best restaurants, a bloody culinary war is raging.

On one side, the Internationalists, who blend foods from all over the world into exotic delights. On the other, the “Vertical Farm,” who prepare nothing but organic, vegetarian, macrobiotic dishes. Into this maelstrom steps Jiro, a renegade and ruthless sushi chef, known to decapitate patrons who dare request a California Roll, or who stir wasabi into their soy sauce. Both sides want Jiro to join their factions. Jiro, however has bigger ideas, and in the end, no chef may be left alive!

Needless to say, I can’t wait.

Dec 15

Scenes From a Multiverse is on a roll this week.