1/25/2010

MONDAY LINKS TEAM-UP

A new feature! We'll see how this goes. A bunch of links to stuff you may or may not have read, heard, seen...

-More than Slave Leia and Sexy Storm Troopers, Star Wars Burlesque has sexy C3PO and um...Jabba the Hutt?

-Benjamin Marra's Night Business left everyone talking after SPX last year and Night Business #3 just came out, you can get all of them over on his blog so DO IT.

-Few remember Sega's direct Nintendo Entertainment System competitor, the Sega Master System, it's games weren't really as good, and like most Sega hardware, it was ahead of it's time. The covers to these old games, however, are worth a second look. Grid based minimalism with hand drawn pictures that give no indication of what the game is might have been the reason it wasn't more popular. Check out the Robocop and Rocky ones, hell, look at all of them.

-Some jerk writes the worst review ever of Joe the Barbarian over at Comics Should Be Good. This same guy was all aggro over here a few weeks ago when he decided to misread something Sammy said and call him on it. The world sucks dude, but find a place other than the internets to vent like this. Doubly sad because Joe the Barbarian is just a perfect comic, really. A few things though...An "establishing shot" is not any or all shots of exteriors from a medium to wide angle. Sorry. As commenters over there pointed out, it seems clear that environment will be important later, so maybe that's why we're getting all this visual information now, but it's also just mood-setting in the sense that, when you're a sad-ass kid around Joe's age, every little detail of your shit-walk home become vividly real. There's pathos in Sean Murphy's beautiful artwork. Expect an appreciation of Joe the Barbarian from us later this week.

--Original Ross Campbell art is being auctioned off to aid the incredibly fucked the fuck up situation down in Haiti. Also, check out Jay Smooth's video on Haiti.


-Most of y'all don't care, but there's a new mixtape from the great Fabo! He raps about space and 3-D a lot. That's comics-related, no? Check it out over here.

-In other non-comics news, Joseph, a frequent commenter over here, released his band No Gang Colors' EP. It's called This Is Your God and it destroys. Check it out here.

- I'm not a big fan of cutesy, quirky comics, but Scott Pilgrim does an incredible job of being funny, sad, memorable and sorta beautiful while not talking down to itself or its fans. It's nostalgia-heavy, full of video game and nerd references, but also about the true life shit we all have to go through--most importantly how it both sucks and rules to be 24 and unmotivated. I was originally a hater of the upcoming movie, Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, but after the casting and the above screen shot, I think I'm ready.

-Jack Kirby's Visual Interpretations of God. These images are especially interesting because they are three of the, "very few pieces of his own work that Jack Kirby displayed in his home" and therefore in some way closest to his heart. Part of the reason why Kirby always managed to be interesting was because he managed to slip his ideas about the world and religion into his comics. There's a look and a power to Kirby's God here and he could easily be substituted for Galactus in these images. He looks onto an insane Boschian world with cold but power filled eyes doing nothing. Without the humanity of Crumb's version, this old testament God feels more like an alien than anything close to humanity.


-Hey, you see that? The new Elephantmen trade features a quote from this blog! Funny that it's a quote from the very first post on the site. Elephantmen remains one of the best monthlies out there. Every issue starts out kinda weird and nearly rote, like you've seen this all before, and then slowly page-by-page, Starkings builds up the ideas and smaller details until it just sorta leaves you blown away by the final page.

1 comment:

Vee (Scratch) said...

Those Sega covers brings back many memories.

When I first saw Scott Pilgrim I totally dismissed it. Then I decided to give it a try. I hang out at the bookstore on my lunch breaks, so I decided to give it a try. I became a fan. There's a lot of cool subtle things going on with the drawing and story. Personally I think it is cool he decided to simply end the story with the upcoming 6th book instead trying to milk the cow. Michael Cera as Scott Pilgrim was just too easy when it comes to casting.