Material.
*The hooks are in again: every time I pick up a bunch of cheap comics, I wind up starting some series that I'll need to finish at higher prices. This time, it was P. Craig Russell's "Elric: Stormbringer" mini, which was released as a co-production of Dark Horse and Topps Comics. I really only wanted to pick up the special issue #0, which is actually a comics adaptation of Neil Gaiman's "One Life Furnished in Early Moorcock", one of Gaiman's better prose stories, a piece on how the Elric stories touched the life of a young boy not entirely unlike Gaiman himself; I'd heard that this comics version existed, but I hadn't been able to find a copy until now. And since it was only a dollar, I also picked up issue #1 of the proper series, a straight adaptation of Moorcock's climactic Elric story. Now I want to find issues #2-7, since the trade seems to be long out-of-print...
*Also found a copy of the 1991 Canadian benefit book "True North II", which has a whole buch of creators teaming up to raise money for the Comic Legends Legal Defense Fund. The two most fascinating pieces? Dave Sim and Gerhard provide the cover, depicting Cerebus boldly slaying a vile monster representing Censorship, its scales emblazoned with terms like 'Cops', 'Overly-Protective Parents', (*gasp*) 'Religion', and (naturally) 'Knee Jerk Feminists'. But it's a fold-out cover. Once you fold it out, you glimpse the fair maid Cerebus has fought to rescue: an overweight, unattractive woman, covered with tattoos like 'Aircel' and 'Faust', the joke being that for all the high-minded rhetoric surrounding the fight against censorship (and there's no doubt that Sim and Gerhard are totally devoted to that fight), the books that are actually protected tend to be... less than exemplary works of comics art. But that's the trade-off; that's the battle. It's a telling infusion of knowing doubt into the proceedings, though, interesting to see. The other telling bit derives its impact from history: it's a 'Potato-Man' pin-up by Todd McFarlane, having not yet begun "Spawn", brutally lambasting Marvel Comics for their cross-overs and variant covers and spin-offs. The very next year, there would be a new company out as a result of McFarlane and others' concerns...
*Today is going to be way too much. It's gonna start snowing soon, around the exact time I have to go out for some meetings, which are going to last well into the evening, then when I get home I really have to finish up this project for These People. And then next week is going to be the most hectic thing in a good long while. At least I got sick last week. I'm not seeing all that much delay in blogging though, I've managed to factor that much in, thanks to an unusual blast of foresight on my part. So stay tuned, good stuff coming up, etc etc etc...
*Also found a copy of the 1991 Canadian benefit book "True North II", which has a whole buch of creators teaming up to raise money for the Comic Legends Legal Defense Fund. The two most fascinating pieces? Dave Sim and Gerhard provide the cover, depicting Cerebus boldly slaying a vile monster representing Censorship, its scales emblazoned with terms like 'Cops', 'Overly-Protective Parents', (*gasp*) 'Religion', and (naturally) 'Knee Jerk Feminists'. But it's a fold-out cover. Once you fold it out, you glimpse the fair maid Cerebus has fought to rescue: an overweight, unattractive woman, covered with tattoos like 'Aircel' and 'Faust', the joke being that for all the high-minded rhetoric surrounding the fight against censorship (and there's no doubt that Sim and Gerhard are totally devoted to that fight), the books that are actually protected tend to be... less than exemplary works of comics art. But that's the trade-off; that's the battle. It's a telling infusion of knowing doubt into the proceedings, though, interesting to see. The other telling bit derives its impact from history: it's a 'Potato-Man' pin-up by Todd McFarlane, having not yet begun "Spawn", brutally lambasting Marvel Comics for their cross-overs and variant covers and spin-offs. The very next year, there would be a new company out as a result of McFarlane and others' concerns...
*Today is going to be way too much. It's gonna start snowing soon, around the exact time I have to go out for some meetings, which are going to last well into the evening, then when I get home I really have to finish up this project for These People. And then next week is going to be the most hectic thing in a good long while. At least I got sick last week. I'm not seeing all that much delay in blogging though, I've managed to factor that much in, thanks to an unusual blast of foresight on my part. So stay tuned, good stuff coming up, etc etc etc...
posted by Jog at 2:01 PM
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