* It's the first day of the last month of the year, World AIDS Day, the fourth day of a four-day weekend, a Sunday, and it's likely no one is online at all, anywhere. So, hi.
* It's About Goddamned Time is the name of a post at The Comics Journal, and it's the confluence of a number of interesting factors. It is, to be sure, the most sarcastic and cutting thing ever written by either Abhay Khosla or Tucker Stone, two writers who have pretty much made "sarcastic and cutting" their trademarks. It's also the peak moment of the ongoing "Brian Wood is Much More of An Asshole Than Most Of Us Ever Expected: The Sexism Edition," by which I mean to say, that after Abhay and Tucker's piece, not only should there be nothing left to say about the issue, but any security guard of buildings with more than three floors should keep a very close eye on Mr. Wood and keep him away from the windows. Or maybe don't. The piece is also noteworthy for showing just how much value and insight can be contained in that particular style of writing. I've especially admired Abhay's facility with this technique for a long, long time, and despite frequent criticism from "the fans," Abhay has shown again and again that there's a place for what he does. He and Tucker should win some kind of an award for this piece, which I would marry if I could. "You Too Can Comic Book," indeed.
* TwoMorrows sent along Back Issue #69, the title's 10th anniversary edition, with a nice Dan Jurgens cover. Jurgens is one of those artists pretty much disregarded in the modern era but who generally does an above-average job on his assignments and who deserves better than the industry has generally given him (see also Jerry Ordway). Inside is a nicely packaged, full-colour series of articles reminiscing on notable anniversary issues of the '70s and '80s. I hadn't realized Marv Wolfman conceived the modern idea of the anniversary issue in the '80s, with the extra-length stories that celebrated milestone issues of Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man. Previously such longer tales were reserved for annuals only. I was interested in Wolfman's perspective on the industry standards of the day, as well as his thoughts on those two issues, both of which I bought new on the stands the day they came out. Many more such comics are looked at in the pages of Back Issue #69, and if you have any fondness at all for this era of superhero comics, you'll certainly find entertainment and insight galore inside. Congratulations to everyone at TwoMorrows on the big 1-0, and thanks for keeping the flame alive for a time when superhero comics were both cheaper and much, much better than they are today.
* Did you see Alan Moore's interview with The Guardian last week in which he said "I hate superheroes. I think they're abominations. They don't mean what they used to mean. They were originally in the hands of writers who would actively expand the imagination of their nine- to 13-year-old audience. That was completely what they were meant to do and they were doing it excellently. These days, superhero comics think the audience is certainly not nine to 13, it's nothing to do with them. It's an audience largely of 30-, 40-, 50-, 60-year old men, usually men. Someone came up with the term graphic novel. These readers latched on to it; they were simply interested in a way that could validate their continued love of Green Lantern or Spider-Man without appearing in some way emotionally subnormal." Predictably, this pissed off a bunch of emotionally subnormal people, primarily men in their 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s. Me, I'll be 48 in a couple of months and I recognize what Moore said as exactly right. Which doesn't mean there couldn't still be a whole lot of good superhero comics being published, it's just that there aren't, and haven't been for a long time, because that buffalo-herd of emotional subnormals votes with their dollars, and the corporations listen and act accordingly.
* Speaking of Alan Moore, if for some reason you're reading this but haven't been following Trouble With Comics, I recently did an interview with Moore biographer Lance Parkin, and also posted a list of my top 5 Moore works.
* Quote of the Day, from Christopher Butcher: "You aren't a badass, edgy artist who pushes boundaries if your women are naked but you're afraid to draw a dude's wang."
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