* Artist Frank Santoro writes about drawing, for The Comics Journal. I love the way he thinks about comics, about how we see art. And I love Chimera, one of his comics that he talks about in this post.
* Since there's virtually nothing else of note to talk about at the moment, here's an edited message board post I wrote about Ed Brubaker's Marvel tenure, prompted by the news that he is leaving The Winter Soldier (and all corporate-owned comics, for the time being, anyway):
* Books of Doom was okay, just. Iron Fist I liked at the start, but it lost direction somewhere between the second and third trade collection. Uncanny X-Men was gawdawful, but it has been since Paul Smith stopped drawing it, so I assume that's how Marvel prefers it to be. You can hardly blame Brubaker for that, anymore than you can blame even the best creators on the New 52 stuff for how disappointing the entire line is. Editor-driven comics are just like that. When the backseat driver has the actual steering wheel and pedals, you can't blame the guy in the front seat for the bad driving, other than recognizing he was a fool to get into the front seat knowing he was never going to be in control anyway.
Despite being coloured largely with mud, I think story-wise Captain America was very strong most of the way through, running completely off the rails at Road to Reborn, although I didn't hate Reborn itself as much as some. It did what it was supposed to do, pay homage to the various eras of Cap and bring him back to the present day yet again. But it's hardly a must-read, either. When Marvel split Cap off into two titles I lost all interest or ability to follow what was going on. I popped in on some Alan Davis issues, was not convinced to stay.
Winter Soldier reminds me more than anything of Brubaker's work on Sleeper, and as such I'd have read it forever. While I am pleased Brubaker's at a place where he can go strictly creator-owned if he wants, I admit I am a bit sad that such a fun book has to end. But that's the never-ending frustration of corporate-owned comics: Quality is only one small factor among the many that go into how long a book continues, almost never the main concern. If it was, Ditko would still be doing Amazing Spider-Man, Barry Windsor-Smith would still be doing Storyteller, and Waid and Garney would still be doing Captain America.
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