roflcoptr.

So, here’s the New Thing! An idea so simple, so elegantly obvious and offensive and eventual yet nonetheless surprising and fresh (and awesomely alliterative): Hipster Hitler, a webcomic by JC and APK, whoever they are.

Not sure if this is targeted at hipsters, or hipster haters, likely both though, because that’s a complicated venn diagram isn’t it? Heck, there’s a good chance that JC and APK are actually themselves hipsters, but one shouldn’t overthink this just yet. It’s only three strips deep, let’s just LOL for now. Goebbels has already made an appearance, and I frankly can’t wait to meet Leni Riefenstahl. An angry hipster yelling at a confused filmmaker in Hipster Hitler style is something I can get behind.

These are two things that have helped make my week (and both serve as a nice segueway into this weekend’s Fan Expo) — first up, from the Flickr page of Penguin art director Paul Buckley comes some very great comics-inspired Penguin Classics cover designs (The Communist Manifesto, above):

It doesn’t get much better than this, except that it kind of does, thanks to the other dope-comics-related-thing-that-made-my-week, this time from Tales to Suffice creator Kenny Keil. Keil recently updated his “Superhero Remix” project with more classic hip-hop album covers mashed up with comic characters:

They’re all hilarious and amazing. Check his Flickr for the full set, and thanks to The Beat and Robot 6 for the finds. I’m off to change every single one of my profile pics.

From "Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour", sixth and final volume of the Scott Pilgrim graphic novel series.

Simon: Did you like it?

Jef: I didn’t dislike it!

Simon: I feel the same way, haha.

I’m settling for this ending!

Jef: Was there something specific missing for you?

Simon: I think there were a few things.

For one, I’m not a huge comic guy

but the art seems…. off to me?

I looked over all the books

and I realized my issue is, the art is TOO GOOD.

Is that crazy?

They drew it too nicely I thought.

Jef: That sounds like definite crazy talk to me.

Simon: hahaha

I think the whole “I made this book in my bedroom and will sell it to you on Etsy” aesthetic was part of its appeal for me.

Jef: HAhahahahah

Simon: But, although you see his art evolve through the series

book six is too clean

too perfect.

It’s GOOD.

It’s just not the same.

Jef: Yeah see, that’s what I was thinking when I was finished, but opposite — that his art has evolved so much and it’s been great to see him grow.

But I guess I can see what you’re saying.

Simon: It’s like, hearing a demo tape

and falling in love with it

and then hearing the produced album.

The songs are still awesome

but there’s something different.

Jef: That’s the thing: taking 6 years to work on a giant project about the indie scene, and millions of books sold later and by the end you’re not really indie anymore.

He can’t NOT grow in 6 years. But it does affect the series, yeah.

Simon: Yeah, I don’t want to pull a Weezer and hate his success. I enjoyed seeing him grow. It just definitely doesn’t look indie.

Jef: Okay yeah, I gotcha on the art front.

What did you think storywise?

Simon: Enh

I didn’t hate it

Jef: Hahahahha that sound! Enh.

Simon: I think my expectations were high.

It was a pretty good ending.

It felt a little forced.

Jef: The extreme video-gameness of the ending was kind of a nice callback to the earlier volumes, but still, after easing up on all that to concentrate on characters in vol 5. … it felt a bit weird here.

Simon: It was a giant fight scene, no?

Jef: It was.

Which if you told me was going to be the ending after reading Vol 1, I would have been like AWESOME SHIT.

But after where the series has gone where it’s gone, I’m not sure I dug it that much.

Simon: Yes.

I enjoyed that they kill Gideon with a Chrono Trigger reference.

Jef: lool

Simon: But my favourite book was probably 4, which didn’t have that much fighting.

Jef: Yeah same with me and 5.

Simon: Are we just emo?

Jef: HA.

They did happen to sneak some nice character moments in 6 though.

Simon: Do tell!

Jef: I think Scott vs. Scott was kind of an obvious development, but Scott facing his own league of exes was kind of a nice, mature realization for him.

Scott’s problem as a protagonist has always been that he’s so passive and self-centered and un-self-aware. He made some ground on that in the 6th volume and that is something I needed in order to give a shit where he ends up.

Simon: That was almost lost in the shuffle

but a great point.

Plus Gideon having his own league of exes on ice gives us context for how people actually all have the same general issues.

Although, that was random as shit.

Jef: Hahaha it was random yeah, but kind of cool how it re-organized the way we thought of the Scott Pilgrim universe.

It’s not totally obsessed with Ramona and her past — everyone has their own baggage they carry around.

Simon: Yes, and the little bit of character development that did happen is kind of a bittersweet but appropriate ending I thought.

I mean, I enjoy the book because it’s fun.

Scott lives this carefree life –

everyone wants to punch it in the face because he has it so easy.

But in the end, do you really want to be him anymore?

Having to own up to your own flaws?

He’s too much like a real person. Which, as you said, is necessary. But also stings a bit.

Jef: It’s been crazy how our generation has latched on to him.

Simon: Toronto particularly, for obvs reasons.

Jef: He’s on, like, Harry Potter levels here, as much as that can be for us and comics.

But that might even be why Vol 6 missed a bit for me…

I think by this time yeah I’ve stopped relating to Scott.

And to have the book revert to that “kewl video games!” vibe for the finale felt almost false.

But maybe that’s just me wanting too much out of the book.

Simon: Yes.

No, I agree.

Like I said, they snuck the character development in there.

But, god. Too much trying to go on at once.

There aren’t any panels where you really appreciate and dwell on the moment in this book.

Jef: The pace for the finale was summed up nicely by the new band’s name, “Shatterband.”

Simon: I didn’t totally understand why they were even fighting Gideon at some points.

Jef: You mean because Scott wasn’t even with Ramona anymore?

Simon: Gideon wasn’t with her either!

She was at her dad’s.

Jef: Oh right: Gideon tries to recruit Scott as one of Ramona’s evil exes; Scott refuses, and Gideon stabs the shit out of him.

Or are you talking about something else altogether?

Simon: Ah yes, no that’s it hahaha.

Jef: Scott dies and he meets Ramona but then he remembers he has a 1-up saved.

Simon: It’s true.

I think my problem is I really enjoy this book when NOTHING is going on.

When there’s actual shit going down, I kind of tune out.

I like the parts where people are just talking, or hanging out.

Jef: Yeah, the awkward conversations and shit.

Simon: Because they’re at PIZZA PIZZA

Jef: Hahaha yeah.

Simon: and, of course, Second Cup.

Do you know if he had the ending in mind all along, or he was just making it up as he went?

Jef: It FEELS like he had an ending planned. That would explain all the callbacks in tone in this volume.

Simon: The Stephen Stills being gay thing was definitely a great reveal.

Better than Dumbeldore

or the Sixth Sense.

Jef: Haha both great outings, yes.

Oh man imagine that was the ending of the 6th Sense?

Simon: That’s he’s gay, or that he’s a gay ghost?

Jef: I guess it would have to be both.

Simon: Spoiler alert!

Jef: Lol

Did you like the makeout session with Knives?

“But it was horrible for everyone, and that includes you.”

Simon: She matured so fast.

Like, right away she’s a different person in this book

Jef: Yeah I agree, not all the side characters had a smooth ride.

Some of them straight up disappear and then reappear out of nowhere to be in the conclusion.

Simon: cough *Julie* cough

Jef: Haha yeah.

And so I guess Knives had to logically grow up, but yeah, we didn’t see it happen really.

Simon: I thought the Knives thing was funny in that, I actually didn’t even realize she wasn’t legal.

Jef: Haha forreal?

Simon: That didn’t even occur to me until they made a point of it.

Jef: Keep Simon away from your daughters.

Simon: Hahahaha

I was like…. oh yea!

Light bulb.

Jef: Scott really is a scumbag when you think about it.

Simon: But because he plays ignorant

you can’t hate him.

Jef: Yeah, I totally don’t hate him.

Which I guess is the same for me with some of my friends.

Simon: His naivety is really his appeal.

He’s like, the anti-Holden Caulfield.

Jef: Right, and we’re all sick of that Holden asshole.

Simon: Yet they’re both assholes, haha.

Jef: Haha yeah. Hey I know you saw the movie — without going in to spoilers, was there an ending you preferred?

Simon: No.

I didn’t mind either

but I didn’t really enjoy either… either.

Jef: Hmm.

Simon: I think the movie was kind of in a tough spot.

There’s just too much to squeeze into two hours.

Especially when, as we said, the strong point of the series is the characters.

Jef: Yeah I wonder why they didn’t try to split it up into at least two flicks.

Simon: Where do you put the series as a whole now that’s done?

Any lasting impressions?

Jef: I think it’s definitely one of the most important comics of the decade. The ending doesn’t really change that for me. But how much of that is for the actual work or how much it accomplished, I’m not sure yet.

Simon: In what way?

I’m curious because you’re really a comic guy

So your opinion is interesting to me, who, essentially just likes cool things to look at.

Jef: Any way you slice it, this is GOOD comics.

Simon: What was it about this book that made it so popular?

Jef: I think anything this good catches on on some level, eventually, in the internet age. What pushed it skyhigh like it’s gone though?

It was so fucking zeitgeisty — the manga + the video games + the indie bands + the manic pixie chick…

Simon: Yes.

That’s exactly the word I had in my head.

It captured the spirit of the times. In Toronto. For our generation. Like nothing I’ve ever seen.

Jef: Definitely. And it did it in a way that wasn’t annoying or cloying or pretentious.

The series could have easily been hipper-than-thou, but it wasn’t.

Simon: Not taking itself too seriously almost made the ending kind of unsatisfying, ironically.

But yes, the last book doesn’t take away from the first 5.

Jef: I think what saves the series is its manga influence — if O’Malley was just influenced by Daniel Clowes or whatever, this would be suckfest.

But like you said, the crazy manga influence also kinda constrained how I engaged with the ending.

Simon: I take for granted I am familiar with manga at all.

I assume everyone is, but then I remember I’m Asian.

Jef: Haha well, I think if Scott was drawn in another style he would look like such a douche.

Simon: Yes.

He would look like Shaggy from Scoobydoo.

Jef: All the hipster beards would be unbearable.

Simon: How does he get all these girls anyways?!

Maybe I can get all these girls.

I just need to be able to fight giant robots.

Which I’ve been training my whole life for anyways.

Jef: Simon Yau’s Finest Hour!

Simon: This is nitpicky:

I didn’t like his haircut in this book

Jef: Hahaha was it different?

I didn’t even notice?

Simon: I know, I’m nuts, hahaha.

He used to have flattened-down hair.

It was all Dragonball Z and shit in this.

Jef: Simon Yau’s Nitpickiest Hour.

Simon: I don’t know how to end this, haha.

Jef: Haha neither do I.

Let’s just strike a pose with these swords.

Simon: Comic book analysis +5.

Jef: Haha there, it’s over.

Deadpool, that churlish, craggy-faced Marvel anti-hero will be hitting the big screen some time in 2012—played by dreamboat Ryan Reynolds, no less—so like me, if you didn’t know, you’ll be hearing the name and bandwagoning very soon. His gender bender counterpart, Lady Deadpool—girly-churl, blonde and babely—demanded a writer who knows that this is funny, hyper-meta shit and ‘Pool-ies always spit real talk. Enter Mary HK Choi, via phone from Comic-Con in San Diego.

It’s no secret that we heart the TheAwl.com writer and Complex contributing editor around these parts, so when the opportunity to interview Choi for the National Post’s Arts blog, The Ampersand, came up, I belly-flopped to it like an overeager drunk at a fancy pool party. You can read the shorter, more newbie-friendly conversation over there, but the full text is here for the comics and writer geeks out there.

You’ve said your foray into comics happened after childhood. What was the first comic book you read?

I remember reading Arkham Asylum when I was really small, only because my brother had it. It was a really, really beautiful book; creepy and enigmatic and the cover was very beguiling. I remember being young enough to be completely spooked out by the whole thing. But then, as far as sort of a real entree, I sat down and read Preacher. That whole series had a good and substantial long run, so I sat with that and ate its brains out. I think at that point I was good and hooked.

Were you a Marvel fan before you began working with them?

Yeah, I guess that’s the irony. That I’m like “DC, and then Vertigo” and then I was like “and then MARVEL!” But I would say that my familiarity of the comics universe at this point, Marvel’s been pretty much more of what I’ve learned about. And I’m not trying to give you a very diplomatic answer, and my admiration for the “other camp” is not at all compromised. It’s just what I got into and what was around me at the time.

So given the fact that you were old enough to form opinions about these things, did you care about the portrayal of female characters in comics?

I did care. One of my favourite, favourite, favourite, favourite comic books to date is Zero Girl by Sam Kieth. To me, that was a very realistic, poignant, but not precious, depiction of a chick’s coming of age story. And after that, I read this series called Alias by Brian Michael Bendis to which a lot of people are like “J-GAR!” and I’m like, “No, it’s something else!” The character’s name is Jessica Jones—I love how pedestrian that is—an alcoholic private investigator who has a huge backsliding, fall-from-grace because she was previously a super heroine and had these great, altruistic motives and now she’s just cobbling and cajoling a living together and is a mess, and unceremoniously prancing into booty calls and stuff. It’s incredibly dark and her psyche is sort of wounded, but it wasn’t stereotypical or flat. It was very nuanced and studied. A lot of people just assume that it’s all these bulbous-glanded chicks with 18-inch waists, but I came into it so late that, blessedly, other more realistic avenues had already been explored and more complex aspects had been available to me.

And that approach is clearly something you applied to Lady Deadpool.
Totally. And these are two women I’ve mentioned who are not unorthodox in their appearance, in the sense that they’re not laced up or buttoned up. They’re just sort of figuring things out and in transition. But, if you look at it, there are other very statuesque, more ubiquitous-physique ladies who are totally badass and totally developed in their characters, too. Take someone like an Emma Frost—that’s a pretty actualized character, AND she’s a freaking bombshell. She looks amazing, and in white no less.

What does Lady Deadpool have that we haven’t seen before?
It’s just so weird because I can sit here and tout all these things that I’ve done that are (sarcasm) wholly original and never been done before! I think that’s kind of a slipper slope in the sense that I don’t know 100 per cent what’s out there. I will readily admit that I’ve skimmed merely the surface: it’s like small triangle versus iceberg. But the thing I enjoyed about writing Deadpool is that he is completely out of his tree. He’s a complete lunatic, he’ll say whatever and it will be totally linear vis-a-vis his own mania. So there’s that huge disconnect, and a disjointedness to his response to actual stimuli that the reader sees or that anyone who is interacting with him sees. Lady Deadpool is hot, badass, has a bodacious body, but I actually really like the fact that, the way I wrote her, she comes off like a total meathead. She’s very open and crass. I didn’t want the translation of Deadpool’s temperament to the female gender to be like, “Oh, you know, she’s dry!” and “Rapier wit!” I didn’t want it to be meta and ironic because she’s a chick and therefore more graceful in her humour. I wanted her to be exactly like Deadpool, but with female wants—when she sees a guy, or has an opportunity to binge eat, she would just be really into instant gratification. I like that she kind of talks like a dude which, if anyone meets me, they’ll see the parallels in how lazy I was in writing her dialogue because it’s the shit I would say.

Is she for guys or girls?
I think she’s for both. I can definitely see detractors in both genders; guys being like, “Who talks like this?” and girls being like, “Oh god, who talks like this?!” And then both genders thinking this is so déclassé, there’s no real goal here, what’s actually happening? I can totally see people saying that, and they would not be remiss.

So how did you hook up with Marvel in the first place?
They approached me. It’s no secret that my brother, Mike Choi, is a comic book artist and he’s been very well received and has been doing it for quite some time. They do have these boiler plate roles as to who they’ll let submit for them. There were definitely parameters that I massaged myself into because I am previously published and have written little fiction-based, almost fanfic, type things in the front of a magazine that I had launched several years ago. And I have done preorting and actual magazine stories, features and cover stories. I did fall within the scope of being previously published and I understand that it’s completely typical that I do have the background that I do.

But it’s like, you want things right? I launched my own magazine that died, and I was at a bunch of other magazines and those died, and I’ve launched several other magazines beyond that. I did a couple of vanity projects for different corporate clients like PepsiCo and Samsung and Nike. So I was doing a bunch of things, and figuring out what puzzles I wanted to get into. I got into blogging because I was like, “What is this WordPress, HTML thing that I need to know about?” and I was writing for The Awl for a while and I got to do a bunch of food reviews and movie reviews. And just because The Awl was so new, and because they’re so amazing, we had a lot of rapt eyeballs on us. So I know that a couple of reviews I had written were well-received—like I did something for V and 2012 and Avatar. It was weird because I had known the primaries at Marvel for a while, like CB Cebulski, who was like talent scout, writer, editor, and he just got a crazy VP promotion this week. I’d known him socially because he lives in New York too, and my brother lives in California, so we’d gone out for drinks and I’d seen him at events. But I don’t think it occurred to anyone that I’d write for them, and to this day I haven’t gotten everyone in a room and been like “Listen, how did this cross your mind?” But I think there was talk of a meeting where an editor I’d never even met mentioned my writing, as far as they had read it on The Awl blog, so my name started circulating. And when I found out I was ecstatic and being uncouth—spazzing out basically. So the ball started rolling from there.

What was the character development process like?
That’s the thing that’s so rad. I’m writing the first Lady Deadpool one-shot. So while Victor Gischler had explored that this person exists, there wasn’t a lot in terms of what her personality should be. I’m incredibly lucky and blessed that I surreptitiously waltzed into that nexus. It was totally footloose and fancy-free. All I knew was that it had to happen in the future in terms of continuity for other things that were going on. But in the nature of all these Deadpool offshoots existing is that there are also all these other simultaneous strands of parallel-running, and not-parallel-running universes. So I could have ostensibly put her not only in any timeline or timeframe, flux capacitor, or whatever, I could also put her geographically anywhere. So with that much of a loosey-goosey XY, I chose the setting as New York in a one-room apartment with the major crux of the incident being that she can’t get her TV to switch on. Because that’s just hilarious: to take it so myopic that they’re like, “You can do ANYTHING!” and you’re like “Alright, I’m going to do this.” With that in your crosshair though, you can really talk about her.

What was the biggest writing challenge when it comes to going from media to fiction?
Figuring out how much you can get away with saying in 22 pages. There wasn’t a set beginning and an end, so I got to do whatever I wanted. It was kind of like an out-of-body experience. I have no muscle memory or cerebral memory for what curtailing my story into 22 pages feels like. So you overshoot: you cast this impossibly wide net, with holes and tears and dredge up so much crap like toilet seat, old boot, all this crap you can’t use. The first thing I did was sit and write every personality quirk I would need for all the characters, and then I cobbled their interactions. With magazine writing, you sit there and put the LEGO pieces together as a house, and you have your green swatch so you know how many little divets you get and that’s your word count. I can do an interview and think, “that’s my pull quote, my intro.” With this, I couldn’t identify any of the markers, and not only that, there weren’t markers given to me. They were markers that I could conjure, which is just batshit. You can drive yourself crazy being like, “Is that good? Am I brilliant? Am I retarded?” It’s kind of like a Choose Your Own Adventure, except it’s got a bajillion pages and you’re constantly flipping and you don’t know where you’re at.

What was the timing of the process?
It was sort of leisurely in the beginning, where I was able to wool-gather and be all precious and pretty about it. And then when something was due it was due. So I got my beats in, I got my script in, I did the edits and the edits beyond that, smoothing a couple things out, location captions. Due-date to due-date, those things were really fast.

What are you going to take away from this experience?
I want to do more fiction. I’m in a very lucky position where during Lady Deadpool I did another 11-page digital with Marvel for another property called Shanna the She-Devil. And that was only 11 pages, and after agonizing over 22, 11 went really quickly. So hopefully I’m getting faster at it. But I definitely want to write a feature-length script for a movie. I’ve tooled around with writing a sitcom pilot with a friend, and that took fucking forever—I couldn’t believe it. So hopefully I’ll just do this, while I do the other thing.

What’s been the most interesting thing about entering the comics world?
I, like, descended upon this whole industry, plucked from the sky—and I say ‘descend’ not like there’s a hierarchy, where I’m waving from an ivory tower but I just came out of nowhere. And with my brother being who he is, it’s like, I don’t know how dubious people are of my merits on a one-to-one basis because I am blessedly ignorant of all of that. But, I think the really nice thing is that—and I know I’m really new—but I don’t feel totally unwelcome. I think that that is surprising. Not that I was like “I thought these guys were assholes! They’re not assholes!” It’s not that, it’s just, you know, people are genuinely inquisitive about where I came from, and curious about my brain and my process because my brain used to do different stuff. And I think I’m really lucky that I know it’s a huge, huge leap from what I do to what I’m doing now. If writing a book for Marvel was the only thing I wanted in my whole life, from when I was a kid until whenever, and I thought about it every day, and there was a patron saint of sequential art that I prayed to and I had a medallion and an amulet…..I would probably, not be disappointed, I’d just have so much invested. Every negative word or disappointment, or every edit I’d have to do would feel like this huge concession, or disappointment or some huge chink in my armor. I’m just doing this from a vantage point that it’s the coolest freaking opportunity I’ve had in a long time, and that’s rad, and I’m really curious what becomes of it. And I really, really hope I get to do it again. And if I don’t I understand—(laughs) it’s not you, it’s me, and that’s fine. I’m glad I have a tougher skin and I’m not so new to the ways of the internet that I stalk message boards like, “No you’re wrong! My intention was this!” I’m in a bubble about that stuff, which is nice.

What has the reception been like?
It feels different. When I went in I started waving like the Queen and there’s a huge flotilla that I got to stand on—No! I’m kidding. Nothing’s changed at all. It’s exactly the same. In fact, I went to buy my comic and I was like, “I’ll have FIVE of those, please!” And he looked SO dubious. He was all eyebrows, and the intonation was like, “This piece of shit?” And my bottom lip was quivering, like, “Yes, I’ll take five,” gesturing with my hand. I’m here as a creator amongst a grip of real creators, so it’s much more of a fanfare at home where all my journalist friends and media people-friends are TwitPic-ing their comic book. And everybody’s like, “Hey nerd, I haven’t been to the comic book store in 20 years!” So that’s been really entertaining, they’ve been really supportive.

And the biggie question: why would you say comics are important?
That made my heart lurch. They’re important. I’m gonna go in here. Thinking about where we’re at with technology, how much has changed in our lifetime, how quickly information is processed and eaten, and how we’re all these great big minnow-eating whales that float with our mouths open and all this fucking shit comes rushing in and that’s how we get our sustenance…Everything is so ephemera. News happens really fast and we know every angle of it as soon as it happens. We read stories really fast and the story-writers are going even faster, and everyone is just disgustingly prolific and engorged with information, addicted to getting the information and addicted to putting the information out there. And then think about your RSS feed. Now think about someone having to sit there and draw that for you. The thing that blows me away about comics is that some person sits down, and hunches—they may or may not have lumbar support, I don’t know—and with their hands and brain, they draw an entire piece of art for every snippet of words you’ve committed. That’s, like, kind of beautiful, and it’s heroic and it’s romantic. We’re talking about paywalls, and how we’re gonna monetize news, and this seems like an unfathomably incongruent input-to-ouput to sales to supply and demand-analogy. At the end of it, it’s like opera dude. It’s important. It’s broke if you think about it in terms of money, but someone sits down and makes you a piece of art work, and does it over and over again for each page. And then does that over and over again to tell you a story—and that’s just sick to me. And the fact that it’s print, you know? I’m sure if I had a film background you could talk about it in terms of visual fodder or mis en scene, but I’m from a print background. I will try to make a magazine til the day I die, to cantankerous mocking and derision from all bean-counting people. But I fucking love that. Give me something I can hold—and that’s no detraction away from the comic book apps and the iPad. That’s beautiful. That’s really cool, it’s the future. It feels great. But this is an art form and it’s so noble and it’s important and it’s a wonderful unifier, and it’s a great way to get a story. Everything that you find engrossing on a page, someone has put there for you.

Cleveland Heights Police Capt. Michael Cannon says Pekar had been suffering from prostate cancer, asthma, high blood pressure and depression. The cause of death is not yet known.

Like, damn.

In his work, Pekar captured all of those ailments with a level of detail and openness hard to fathom in this day of online over-sharing. His work has only seemed more prescient with time, even as his method of comic-strip-diary storytelling has become more commonplace. American Splendor was adapted to film in 2003 with a larynx-shredded Paul Giamatti in the title lead role, with Pekar himself serving as narrator and commentator. It was typically meta for that period in film, appropriately navel-gazing given its source material, and, luckily for us, wonderfully executed.

Famously, Pekar spent 35 years as a lowly file clerk who never once asked for a promotion. (“You’ve never planned anything in your life,” Dave Letterman once jabbed him with. “What did you plan, your wardrobe?”) Though his work was highly renowned, financial success eluded him, and his struggles to get by remained one of his favourite topics to bitch about even in his less erratic later days.

It’s the early days though that most will remember. Pekar was a notorious repeat guest on early Letterman, and the two often sparred until Letterman eventually banned him from the program for listing grievances about General Electric — then owner of NBC. Check out the clips below — they are incredibly hilarious but painfully awkward, and watching Pekar bristle at good ol’ sardonic Letterman only hints at how much Pekar must have struggled with daily interactions. Put someone that confounded by social situations in an arena of that much artifice, and it’s no wonder it went down as it famously did.

It’s easy to call Pekar an asshole, but even easier to call him a lovable one. (And over time, we’ve come to realize Letterman was kind of the prick Pekar always said he was.) (Or maybe everyone knew this all along. Before my time.) (I love them both.) Anyway, if there is an upstairs, I hope Pekar’s there, giving ‘em hell.

Because she’s too bourgie to type herself, her colleague Michale Hurlbut helped write down her thoughts. Which makes this our first ghost-written post ever! Except for all that stuff I plagiarize on the reg, of course. -Jef)  

The main floor of the Toronto Reference Library

In 2003 The Beguiling became the ever-gracious, ever-accommodating host to Canada’s first ever Toronto Comic Arts Festival–wrangling a few hundred independent authors, artists and publishers. The humble modus-operandi of this free(!) event is to promote and celebrate the comic medium’s breadth, diversity and aesthetic vivacity as an art form. Needless to say, TCAF isn’t your average toy-shilling, corporation-spooning, masquerade-ball-of-the-damned style comic-con (Editor: Not that there’s anything wrong with that! *Smooths out cape*). It is, dare we say, a literary event. And this years event, held within the austere walls of the Toronto Reference Library, marked our second successful collaboration with the Toronto Public Library, corralling marquee names (and stratospheric talents) like Dan Clowes and Paul Pope, to rattle off a few.

My guests of note were: Charles Vess, Eric Kim (first on my dance card, if second on my guests-of-note list), Eric Wight and Kagan Mcleod. I was busy selling books, which fans could then get signed. Beside our bustling table was where Charles Vess held court. I had known Mr. Vess for Stardust (which was turned into a Major Motion Picture starring Michelle Pfieffer and a surpassingly oddball Robert De Niro), as well as his excellent work with Neil Gaiman. Besides being a terrific artist he is also a lovely man, and if he knew I called him Mr. Vess he’d likely emit a kind of half snort followed by, “Please… just Charles.” 

A fellow Beguiling staffer and myself. I designed, ordered and picked up this years t-shirts prior to the event, so I had time to modify mine a few days before.

Since my job brings me in contact with an array of neato kids books, I am also on a first name basis with Frankie Pickle. Thus, I was pickled tink to meet artist and author Eric Wight at the Official TCAF Saturday Night Party–which I organized or impresario’d, if you will–through a common friend (author of graphic memoir on dyslexia, Mirror Mind, Tory Woollcott) and, rest assured, I fan-girled a little. Frankie Pickle is about this kid with a wild imagination that gets into some hilarious and crazy adventures. Very cute.

The highlight of my weekend, naturally, was the Official TCAF Saturday Night Party, which was my pet project. The Martial Artistik DJ crew featuring DJ Dough Low and Cuzn Joe was spinning while Infinite Kung-Fu’s Kagan McLeod did ace drawing demos.  The place was packed. Fans got to rub elbows (among other things…) with their favourite artists and even Peter, my inscrutably po-faced boss and co-owner of The Beguiling said, “The music isn’t bad,” which is a big deal because he has very discerning tastes. 

Kagan Mcleod is known for his National Post illustrations, but also especially for his hip-hop work and the History of Rap Poster. It features portraits of every single hip-hop artist who ever performed (save one or two), from James Brown to Blondie to Inspectah Deck. The portraits are all incredible, but the back of the poster is a marvel: every artist is broken down into their respective crews with a blurb about their style.

What more can I say? It was a whirlwind few days. I can’t wait to do it all again… after a very long nap. 

Krystle Tabujara is a milliner, Beguiling staffer, international muse and artist model.
Michael Hurlbut is best known for his work as a writer, director and film artiste.

(Pics via and also)

Because Jughead — dude’s gay, right? Look how sad he is that Archie is getting married.

"Noooooo!"

I’m calling it: Kevin + Jughead will be the next headline grabbing storyline from the folks at Archie.

Just look at the body language in that second panel! I see what you’re doing there Archie, with your fancy page compositions. Hot.

(via)

For some reason I’ve always had this hate on for Dave Eggers. Well, I guess there is a reason, just as much as their is a reason to hate Bono’s face – it’s everywhere, or at least was for the most part of the aughts (for the record, that is the first time I have used that word, as well as the last). But unlike my hate for Bono, which is based on a combination of him and his music being annoying, I have read, listened to and watched very little of Egger’s vast multitude of projects – and the few that I have, I’ve liked. The San Francisco Panorama, the 300-some odd page one time newspaper put out by Egger’s publishing factory, McSweeney’s, is one of those.

Released in December with a limited initial run of 20,000 copies (which was also limited to the San Fran area), people are still writing things about Panorama for a few reasons: It’s taken them this long to find it, and it’s taken them this long to read it. I found mine about a month ago and have yet to crack the inner sections.

Generally I liked the newspaper but really didn’t see how it was reflecting the unused potential of the medium, except for the fact that the lay out was closer to a magazine’s. The content was really good (good enough that they had to print another 20,000 copies to meet demand), but they also had a few months to put this together; comparing it to a daily or weekly seems hardly fair. But then I got the comics section and all of Egger’s ubiquitous pretensions just disappeared. Here was 14 full-colour broadsheet pages of ink, speech bubbles and words like SPUK! spelled out in funny bubble letters. I don’t know a lot about comics, but even I recognized some of the artists: Seth, Chris Ware (who does the monthly cartoon in Maissonueve mag, which I subscribe to but can never spell the first time), and none other than the pulitzer prize winning New Yorker cartoonist Art Spiegelman.

I wish I wasn’t so lazy because I would gladly scan some of these great comics, like Adrian Tomine‘s Optic Nerve, which is hilarious and mature and sort of like the Watchmen if it didn’t take itself so seriously. But like I said, lazy. That is probably for the best though because Panorama isn’t online for a reason – you actually have to buy it and read it like an old school newspaper. At $20 in most independent bookstores, it’s some expensive newsprint too, but the well worth it for those interested (no I did not get reimbursed my $20 for saying that either). The first thing that struck me about the comics is that they were original, although that might be the wrong word. Ziggy, that depressed, introverted little weenie, was original, but he’s been syndicated so far and wide that the only face more annoying than his is, well, Bono’s (as mentioned before). Actually, if Bono, in between his philanthroping, counting to four in Spanish and singing cheese ball rock songs, started ruminating out loud on the funny little things in life, he could possibly be the most annoying individual in the history of Earth. Oh wait, he does do that too.

Anyways, enough about Ziggy and Bono, and more about good comics. The only actual real newspaper I have seen attempt to do this has been the National Post, and that was very short lived. A full page of original comics was in every weekend edition, and it seemed to last for a couple of months before being cutback significantly and spread out. Actually, the only regular comic from the short lived section seems to be Steve Murray’s Posties. Alongside his equally as funny Extremely Bad Advice weekly column, he could be the only Canadian cartoonist who is actually publishing fresh, original comics on a weekly basis. Kudos to the Post for doing this, as well as to the Panorama for trying to point out that if newspapers would just allow the space, there are a lot of talented local cartoonists out there whose characters haven’t been telling the same jokes for the last 40 years.

photo of Panorama via

UPDATE: In terms of working cartoonists, I somehow forgot about Gary Clement, also at the Post. I’m sure I’m missing more though.

In keeping with the atmosphere of progress following Kathryn Bigelow’s two big wins at the Academy Awards and the spotlight of  International Women’s Day, let’s take a look at two prescient Marvel comic books that came out last week: the first issue of the 3-part anthology series, Girl Comics and Valerie D’Orazio’s one-shot Punisher MAX: Butterfly, both of which show the scope of what can be achieved when we have more female voices in the creative industry.

Girl Comics collects a bunch of short stories by female writers and artists that range in tone and style. The intro pages by Colleen Coover are incredibly charming (no really, that’s the word to use, I’m not just trying to sound cultured!), featuring a bunch of different heroines in different poses with different facial expressions. It does a good job showing that although they are all collected here under a title that some might see as reductive, Marvel’s female characters exist across a wide spectrum — or at least they should. “It’s not because we are different…Yet we are all unique,” goes the dialogue.

This line of thinking follows throughout the anthology, where stories range from cutesy to gritty, whimsical to sad.

Not all of them work as well as others, but I’m a big fan of D’Orazio’s Punisher short, as well as Devin Grayson’s take on the Cyclops/Jean Grey/Wolverine love triangle, which usually concentrates on Wolverine’s tragic longing but here offers up something more nuanced from Jean’s perspective. The story will ring true with anyone who has battled stray thoughts or felt the sting of jealousy while in a committed relationship.

In all, Girl Comics is a good read and I’m looking forward to the next two installments. The question remains though whether Marvel treats it as a quirky side-project, or if the series signals a genuine movement towards more female representation both behind the scenes and on the page. We’re seeing strides here and there. Grayson can now count herself as the first woman ever to hold down a regular writing duties on a monthly Batman book, but considering Ms. Marvel just got her series axed, I’m a little skeptical overall. Dollars do the talking, of course, so go out and buy the book.

Girl Comics for me just drives home the importance of diversity of voices. More voices = more and different stories and that’s something that’s always good for us as culture consumers, no matter what medium we’re talking about. To go back to the movie analogy, some have already started to backlash against Bigelow and The Hurt Locker saying that she won by directing a “guy’s” movie. I think the stupidity of that speaks for itself, but even if that statement is correct, the solution is STILL to start giving more opportunities to more women directors.

I mention Bigelow because of the next book, Punisher MAX: Butterfly, which in some ways is very much a “guy’s” comic book. The art is dark and moody, and the story centers around a woman who was sexually abused — something which a lot of people are tired of seeing in comic books. The difference is that while abused females are all too often used as narrative devices by male writers to make the lives of male characters seem more interesting, D’Orazio makes Butterfly strictly about the woman in question. This isn’t a story that abuses its female character. It’s a story about a female character that has been abused. The difference might be splitting hairs to some, but all I have to say is to read the book.

‘Nuff said.

It might not be a stretch to call Bill Watterson my favourite artist of all time. If pictures are worth a thousand words, Watterson’s Calvin & Hobbes were tiny microcosmic epics — each three panel strip having the wit, imagination, verve and poignancy of any an English lit curriculum novel.

With Calvin & Hobbes commemorative stamps about to be launched by the U.S. Postal Service, Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter John Campanelli took a total shot in the dark, emailing the reclusive cartoonist a series of questions with no expectations of a reply. Incredibly, Watterson did in fact send back answers, the first “interview” the local artist had done since roughly 1989. It isn’t without cause that Watterson was jokingly called “The J.D. Salinger of cartoonists,” but coincidentally this interview took place before Salinger’s recent death.

The transcription isn’t particularly insightful, but reveals a lot about Watterson’s artistic sensibilities about his work and his own (clearly private) personal life.

Read the full article here.