Long afternoons of people yelling = a short post.

*Last time I was asleep, I dreamed I was in a stage production of X-Men. I played Magneto, and I had a big concluding speech in which I'd pull books off of a bookshelf and comment upon the wisdom of Professor X's 'dream.' It was the big finale of the play; I don't think there was a lot of action. I was also aware that there were multiple endings to the play; one night Magneto would finish with his speech, another night Prof. X would shore up the wisdom of his own approach. I expect the rest of the play remained the same every night, and that the ending was chosen on the fly. Maybe in reaction to the energy on the stage, unique each time? I don't know. But now I'm wondering why my interior life is interested in a dramatic adaptation of superhero comics with philosophy largely replacing action. Of course, action of the X-Men mold would be tough to do on stage - gah. I'm even a realist in my dreams.

Anyone know of an stage productions of the sort? Kind of soft, noodly dialogue approaches to pop action stuff?

*I don’t do this for every press release that comes swinging through the inbox, but I thought (since it looks really neat) I should mention that RES Magazine, that bimonthly publication of film/music/design/culture (which is really an awfully wide focus, once you think about it), is doing a special Comics and Animation issue for July/August; it's Vol. 8, No.4. It’ll be on sale shortly, retail for $8.50 or so, and will feature art by animators Matthew Vescovo (who also provides the cover), Seonna Hong, and Paper Rad (also Kramer’s Ergot cartoonists, featuring Ben Jones of Horace fame). There’ll be feature articles on artists Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis), Dave Gibbons (Watchmen), Mark Newgarden (RAW, Garbage Pail Kids), Dave McKean (from comics like Cages and Mr. Punch to films like MirrorMask), and Alejandro Jodorowsky (from films like El Topo to comics like The Metabarons). Plus, a bunch of littler looks as the likes of Genndy Tartakovsky, Joe Sacco, and Hayao Miyazaki (speaking of which, anyone seen Howl's Moving Castle yet - I'm thinking of going this weekend, since it's in). Looks like a pretty wide range of talents. Oh, and if you happen to be a subscriber, you’ll get a dvd loaded with shorts and trailers, including animation from Vescovo and Paper Rad, but obviously you’d already know that if you were a subscriber and wouldn’t need me to tell you. Plenty of animation to enjoy at the links above anyway SO THERE.

Yeah, check it out when you see it on the stands, might be good. I've not read RES before...

*It’s late. It was too long a day. However, there’s still some nice conversation going on about the nature of the blog and why folks take different (or multiple!) paths in the presentation of their comics commentary. It’s happening over at Peiratikos now, and I’m really rambling on this time, and you might want to join in.