THOUGHT BALLOONISTS

Yarrowstalks Reanimator

Alan Moore editor, Dodgem Logic #1 (2009). 2.50 pounds per issue.

Alan Moore specializes in retconning, in molding previously extant characters (Swamp Thing, Marvelman, Captain Nemo) to his own purposes. I'm not the first person to point this out, of course. In his review of Moore and Melinda Gebbie's Lost Girls, for instance, Douglas Wolk argues that Moore's detournment of Oz's Dorothy, Wonderland's Alice and Peter Pan's Wendy is the world's most elaborate example of slash fandom. Porn aside, I think we can still read most of Moore's projects as extremely well-written fan fictions, as mash notes to characters and storytellers that he wants to emulate and celebrate.

Now here's Dodgem Logic, an alt-culture magazine edited and financed by Moore out of his hometown (and geographic muse) of Northampton, UK. Dodgem deviates from Moore's retcon strategy a bit, in that it's a publishing genre, rather than a canonical character or story, that Moore is fiddling with this time.

Son of Steranko

An appreciation of JH Williams III

I recently had the pleasure of presenting an excerpt from my upcoming Kirby book at the University of Oregon conference Understanding Superheroes, a two-day event organized by UO professor of English Ben Saunders that went a long way toward persuading me that there is life, potential, and diversity in superhero studies. This fine event was joined at the hip to Faster than a Speeding Bullet: The Art of the Superhero, a decades-spanning comic art exhibition at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (up until January 3) curated by Saunders that in itself constitutes a capsule history of the genre. I and the other presenters were treated very well, and my presentation was well received, and I learned a lot. So I came away from UO with a gushing sense of gratitude for the whole affair, and to the many fine people I got to meet.

One of the pleasures of the conference was witnessing a keynote -- the last lecture at the conference -- by Dr. Henry Jenkins about David Mack's work on Marvel's Daredevil. In particular, Jenkins discussed the Echo: Vision Quest arc from 2003-04, a Daredevil run that partakes of the meditative, nonlinear, fragmentary, multimedia and painterly aesthetic of Mack's own Kabuki series (and that struck me as a revisiting of Elektra: Assassin territory, though without Miller & Sienkiewicz's gonzo sense of humor).

What interested me most about Dr. Jenkins' talk was not the story behind Echo: Vision Quest, nor even Mack's visual realization of same, but Jenkins' examination of genre.

"Re-reading Watchmen" (a guest gig)

 

Two respected comics retailers in my area, Carr D’Angelo and and Atom! Freeman, are collaborating on a series of columns for Comic Book Resources regarding Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons' classic Watchmen. Carr is the co-owner of Earth-2 in Sherman Oaks (the 2007 winner of the Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award), while Atom! is co-owner, with his wife Portlyn, of my local shop, Brave New World in Newhall (the 2008 winner of same, and one of my favorite hangouts). Their series, "Re-reading Watchmen," consists of  weekly conversations around each successive issue of Watchmen, timed to serve as a countdown to the expected (?) spring release of the much-hyped Watchmen film adaptation.

Carr and Atom! have been recruiting friends to join them in the conversation. Atom! asked me if I would like to take part, and, if so, which issue I'd most like to discuss. I happily said yes, and, oh, could you make it issue #4, please?



So, click here to read our dialogue about the classic "Watchmaker." (And, for the first three installments of the series, click here, and here, and here.)

My thanks to Atom! and Carr for inviting me to be part of this experiment. Rereading Watchmen was gratifying -- the book has held up very well, thanks -- and good preparation for teaching the book this term in my "Comics & Graphic Novels" course at CSU Northridge. (I've never taught Watchmen before.)

I was glad to be part of the mix. In fact they could hardly get me to shut up!

Our Eddie

Craig: It seems weirdly appropriate that on this most foolish and whimsical of days, Charles and I are launching a series of articles on Eddie Campbell's Alec/autobiographical comics and graphic novels, including The King Canute Crowd (1984-1990), Graffiti Kitchen (1993), The Dance of Lifey Death (1994), How to Be an Artist (2000), After the Snooter (2002) and The Fate of the Artist (2006). Our critical attention to Campbell is designed to get everyone up to speed for Campbell's next book, The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard, due from First Second in August. Our plan is to present one Campbell article per month until then.

Today, though, we begin with some introductory observations about Campbell and his work, and we're doing it dialogue-style, within a single post, as a back-and-forth between Charles and I. Charles sets the scene with a cogent overview of Eddie the artist...