Archive for category comics
Greg Rucka on The Last Run
Posted by admin in comics, episodic TV, Literature on January 26, 2011
The Last Run: A Queen & Country Novel
Greg Rucka is a person who I have wanted to interview for a very long time. And thanks to some help from folks (you know who you are!) it finally came to pass. Last year saw the release of Rucka’s latest installment in his Queen & Country universe–the prose novel, The Last Run. Rucka is an intelligent, as well as fun, fellow (who else would offer both a media-focused bio and a fan-focused bio) and, of course, a talented as hell writer. In addition to delving into The Last Run (partially described as “For nearly a decade Tara Chace has been Britain’s top covert agent. But Chace is past her expiration date. Her body hurts. Her nerves are scrambled. She’s ready for a desk job, the quiet role of mentor to a new generation of special operations officers. But before her replacement can be chosen, there’s one last job for Queen and country . . . and it may be the last thing she does. Ever.”), Rucka was kind enough to discuss his new three-book deal with Mulholland Books (he is currently doing research for the deal’s first book, Alpha). Given Rucka’s busy schedule, I appreciated his willingness to break his normal policy and grant me an email interview.
Tim O’Shea: Your fiction is imbued with a strong world view/grasp of current geopolitics. What are some of the non-mainstream/unique news sources you consult on a regular basis?
Greg Rucka: Yeesh, that’s not the easiest thing to answer, actually. I don’t really have RSS feeds set up or anything like that. A lot of what gets me going tends to be mainstream news, honestly, in particular NPR, and then I tend to chase things down from there. But there are some more…esoteric sites I tend to visit. Stratfor (www.stratfor.com) is one. I visit the Janes Resource Group relatively frequently, and I have a subscription to Highbeam Research, which I’ve found invaluable over the years.
End of Year Lists: The Casual Optimist
Posted by admin in comics, criticism, Literature, nonfiction on December 30, 2010
Once again I am indebted to The Second Pass for informing me of multiple “best of” literary lists that I need to reference in the next few weeks.
First up in the lists that caught my eye was The Casual Optimist‘s A Year in Reading 2010. Consider the following nitro (to a sampling of books that included items that may have not been published in 2010 :
“2010 was a year of losing battles and one of the first casualties was time for personal reading. The moments I did have were snatched on the subway and, if I could keep my eyes open, last thing at night. I often found myself unwittingly rereading chapters I had read the previous day, or worse, that very morning. The difficulty this week of compiling a list of my favourite books of the year — and the predictability of that list (to be posted soon) — made it very clear that not only did I read less than previous years, I rarely strayed off the beaten path.”
Anybody that exhibits such a great level of candor is someone I want to pay attention to more in the future.
Site to Visit: Bully Says Comics Oughta Be Fun!
Bully the Stuffed Bull
I cover comics infrequently here at Talking with Tim, due to my work at Robot 6. In 2011, I may be boosting coverage of comics up a smidge, as it is something I am considering. I still aim to cover all aspects of pop culture, don’t worry.
But today, I want to pay tribute to Bully Says Comics Oughta Be Fun!, a comics blog run by a stuffed bull, named Bully (and his friend John). Bully and John track down panels that strike their fancy, tickle their funny bone or otherwise catch their attention.
Every year, Bully pays tribute to a comic character by finding panels of a certain character, in a series called “365 Days with …”. Last year, it was Ben Grimm. This year, the focus is on Hank McCoy. What always impresses me about the site is the level of attention that the Bully team pays to each and every graphic. There’s the graphic itself, then the caption (typically with spectacular detail), and my favorite part, Bully always has written hilarious content for the alternate text he builds into the graphic code (the text that pops up when you hover your mouse cursor over the graphic).
Hank: Day 321
Consider for example, the Hank McCoy post from Day 321, sporting a graphic of Hank looking out the window to find an unconscious giant-sized fellow Avenger, Yellowjacket. In his shock, Hank exclaims absurdly (as has been his character’s tendency over the years): “Holy Hannibal, Missouri!” In this instance, the alternate graphic text provided is: “…No, that’s still not right. Let’s see…HOLY DUBUQUE IOWA! Hmmm. Not quite there. OH MY STARS AND EGGNOG! Hmmm, close. I’ll keep working on it. Oh, hey, Yellowjacket’s outside.’”
From my perspective, Bully’s entertainment value has the potential to click with folks, even if you are not a comic book fan. Do yourself a favor and check out the site.
Happy Birthday, Tom Spurgeon!
Posted by admin in art, comics, sequential art on December 16, 2010
The Comics Reporter
Lilli Carré on Eyeworks Festival
A few weeks back, Lilli Carré dropped me a note about Eyeworks, the experimental animation festival that she’s co-directing with Alexander Stewart on this Saturday, November 6 at Chicago’s DePaul CDM Theater. As detailed at the festival’s website: “Eyeworks is a new film festival featuring abstract animation and unconventional character animation. Festival programs showcase outstanding experimental animation of all sorts: classic films, new works, overlooked masterpieces, and quirky footnotes of history.
Regan Jaye Fishman on KingCon II
Posted by admin in comics, episodic TV, pop culture, sequential art, webcomics on October 28, 2010
KingCon II
Coming up November 6 and 7 (plus special events the evenings of November 4 & 5), the Brooklyn Lyceum (located at 227 4th Ave at President) will host the KingCon II, an independent comic, animation and illustration convention. The cost will be $7 day/$10 weekend (kids: $3 day/$5 weekend). To get the scoop on the con, I recently email interviewed the con’s co-director Regan Jay Fishman. Also the Lyceum’s program director Eric Richmond was kind enough to chime in with in-depth details about the special panels on Thursday (November 4). My thanks to Fishman and Richmond for their time.
Tim O’Shea: This is the second year of King Con, expanded from two to four days. As noted in the comments section of the Beat’s coverage of the announcement, the venue will be warmer this year. What other improvements or changes (adding an Artist Alley, for example) have you made based on feedback from last year’s attendees?
Regan Jaye Fishman: We have added an Artist Alley! We have also removed some risers to make for more room downstairs, Made the panels fifty minutes instead of a full hour to allow for changeover time, signings will be in the mezzanine instead of upstairs and the con has been extended by 30 minutes each day so that panels aren’t STARTING the SECOND people walk in the door.
Also, I will not be sporting a constant expression of abject terror.
Biscuits and Bellyrubs: October 10 Edition
Here’s the latest installment of Anna Trodglen‘s Biscuits and Bellyrubs (for October 10).
Biscuits & Bellyrubs #11 (October 10)
Biscuits and Bellyrubs: October 3 Edition
Here’s the latest installment of Anna Trodglen‘s Biscuits and Bellyrubs (for October 3).
Biscuits & Bellyrubs #10 (October 3)
Biscuits and Bellyrubs: September 19 and 26 Editions
I apologize for not posting last week’s installment of Biscuits and Bellyrubs on time. But here’s the September 19 edition, along with the latest installment of Anna Trodglen‘s Biscuits and Bellyrubs (for September 26).
Biscuits & Bellyrubs #8 (September 19)
Biscuits & Bellyrubs #9 (September 26)
Dean Haspiel on Cuba: My Revolution, Post-Disaster Adventure Chronicles & More
Posted by admin in comics, episodic TV, Literature, Music on September 22, 2010
Dean Haspiel
Writer/artist/storyteller of many mediums Dean Haspiel is easily the busiest creator I know. I relish any chance I get to interview him. As always, we had multiple projects to discuss, some of which are allowing him to flex his writing muscles increasingly more (with work like his first prose novel, Post-Disaster Adventure Chronicles), much to his delight. Haspiel is welcome to share his great level of candor any time he can spare a moment, as he always is an easy (and enjoyable) interview subject for me. Just to create a level of suspense, I chose not to ask who the nude centerfold is the upcoming DEAN HASPIEL: The Early Years.
Tim O’Shea: Would you agree that to a certain extent, in addition to being a collaborator with long-time family friend and CUBA: MY Revolution author Inverna Lockpez, that you were almost a pseudo-therapist for her. What I mean is, this is clearly a painful story for her to tell and by sharing it with you and getting in on paper/published, there’s some level of catharsis.
Dean Haspiel: Besides the possibility of providing entertainment value, art is therapy with the hope that the brave act of artistic expression yields emotional catharsis. I think CUBA: MY REVOLUTION was a major purge for Inverna Lockpez; a way for her to scrutinize and understand what happened to her years ago. And, in fictionalizing and sharing her story, I think it can allow for her to let go of some of her real pain. Whenever I artistically scrutinize the horrors and beauty of the truth, my goal is to entertain yet disperse the results upon others so that the many can share the burden of the one. Some things are just too difficult to handle on your own.
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