RIP Harvey Pekar

In These Times and the NYT cover the death of Harvey Pekar. I loved this film, American Splendor. My British husband "didn't get it." But that happens a lot with him and not just American stuff either.

Obama plus Spiderman - it makes sense

Marvel comics has come out with a "Spiderman saves Obama's inauguration" title.

Deborama's WWW Number 34 - Get Your War On, by David Rees

This week's WWW is a scathing political comic strip called "Get Your War On." If you don't know it, you should. If you don't like it, why not? Here is some background, if you want it.

Deborama's WWW Number 10 - The God Interviews

This week's Wednesday Website of the Week is a small book, available in printed form or as a download, in which God is interviewed by a cartoon character named Augustine. The Interviews with God started as a comic strip feature on the highly graphic blog Blaugustine, owned by Natalie D'Arbeloff, an artist living in London. I have had the pleasure of meeting Natalie in person, and she is delightful, warm and wise, just the sort of person whose conversations with God you would like to be privy to.

Enter Sandman

City Pages has a great article about and interview with Neil Gaiman. I love the headline : Why Neil Gaiman is about to become bigger than Death. If you're a Gaiman fan you will get that. But apparently our boy is not the nerdy comic book writer and story teller he once was (not that he was then, either, but he came off that way). There are a massive raft of movies coming out in the next few years that are either based on his novels or graphic novels or otherwise involve him in the production. One is a live-capture version of Beowulf and one is called Death and is based on the Sandman graphic novels. I am sort of a Neil Gaiman fan. I still have never read Good Omens, which he co-wrote with Terry Pratchett and a few of his books I was not able to get into. On the other hand, I did love the Sandman series and also his novel American Gods.

The timetable for withdrawal from Iraq

According to the inimitable Steve Bell. In another bygone era (the early 1970s) there was a joke about something that was not very funny. "What do you call 7500 GIs and 10000 US Marines dangling from the runner of a military helicopter?" "An orderly withdrawal from Southeast Asia." (Alternative answer : peace with honor. Honor. What a quaint word.) The same so-called joke can soon be applied to Iraq, but you might want to add "over the smoking wreckage of an overloaded British helicopter?" And they had the gall to say Iraq was no Vietnam.

Doonesbury today

Today's Doonesbury is one of those that will stand out as a classic, in my opinion. I found it powerful and affecting.
While we're on the subject, here is a good charity to help the innocent victims in Lebanon, if you're so inclined.
Blog's been quiet, I know. I am trying to get into a new exercise routine, but also saving my energy for the great leap across the pond to occur Tuesday, 29 August.

RIP Kate Worley

In an earlier post I mentioned a comic book/graphic novel that I used to enjoy called Omaha the Cat Dancer. This was written by Reed Waller and Kate Worley and illustrated by Reed, and in the post I linked to, it was mentioned that Kate had cancer, which had been in remission, but was at that time returned. Just a few days after I posted that, on June 6, 2004, Kate lost her life to the cancer. Kate was a really talented writer and a fixture in the comic book scene in the 1980s, when she and Reed lived and worked in Minneapolis. I was very grieved to hear of her passing. Here is a great tribute to her on the blog of one who is obviously a kindred spirit. And here is a long excerpt:
"There's actually a whole subgenre of funny-animal-porn comics, but Worley and Waller were the lions of it. By their example, they raised the bar not only for the quality of comics writing, but for the freedom of expression of the medium, and by extension our sexual freedom in society at large. Worley and Waller both came out as bisexual in the late 1980's, making them among the first publically openly queer creators in comics. (Other gay-identified creators before them had usually used pen-names.) Although both creators seem to be closer to the low end of hte Kinsey scale, Omaha included characters of assorted orientations, and the couple proudly contributed a 5-page story and the cover for the "funny animals" issue of Gay Comics. And above all, they celebrated sex as the potentially joyful, perfectly natural, part of everyday life it is.
"Omaha came to a rather abrupt end when Worley and Waller broke up, an acrimonious split that seemed completely irreconcilable. She later remarried, to cartoonist Jim Vance (best known for the excellent graphic novel Kings In Disguise) and had two children. Part of the sad irony of Worley's death at this particular time is the fact that the wounds between her and Waller had finally healed enough that they had recently begun work on new Omaha material, to finish a planned reprint of the series. Unfortunately, her cancer returned at the same time, and she only got a little bit written before she was overtaken by it. Waller has said that he and Vance intend to finish the project in her memory, based on her notes and what they both know of her plans for the story."