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“‘Look at all that stuff Kirby came up with,’ [Dean Haspiel] says. ‘Kirby just INVENTED on paper, he didn’t bother to build any of it. He already thought of it. It was enough to just think of it — he was just blueprinting the future…’

“‘Sometimes I feel like all science is doing now is reverse-engeneering Jack Kirby. All the iPhone is is a retarted Mother Box,’ I declare.” -Paul Pope, on Jack Kirby

“At a time when most mainstream comics were a brutal embarrassment, garishly drawn and written at subliterates, all reacting to an explosion that was, at that point, half a decade old, there came this Jagger-mouthed and Ashcroft-cheeked madman from Ohio, wearing girl’s jeans and running his own photographs and drawing goofy inkbursts and loping left-hand comics from Mars.” -Matt Fraction, on Paul Pope

“It’s Independence Day, yes, when we here in Great Britain celebrate our Great Project — creating an entire country for comedy purposes in the guise of ceding America its independence. Thank you for giving us literally hundreds of years of laughter.” -Warren Ellis

“It is the business of the future to be dangerous.” –Alfred North Whitehead

“I’m for the individual, which definitely puts me at odds with this cultural tendency to give everyone a trophy just for showing up. I hate that, because I’m sorry, life doesn’t work that way. There are winners and losers, and losing can actually build character, and the nervousness about failure is a priceless thing that can stimulate you to do your best work.” -Brad Bird

“Women do not do any of the creative work in connection with preparing the cartoons for the screen, as that work is performed entirely by young men. For this reason girls are not considered for the training school.” -1938 Disney form rejection letter

“In the 41 sites Putnam studied in the U.S., he found that the more diverse the neighborhood, the less residents trust neighbors. This proved true in communities large and small, from big cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Boston to tiny Yakima, Washington, rural South Dakota, and the mountains of West Virginia. In diverse San Francisco and Los Angeles, about 30 percent of people say that they trust neighbors a lot. In ethnically homogeneous communities in the Dakotas, the figure is 70 percent to 80 percent.

“Diversity does not produce ‘bad race relations,’ Putnam says. Rather, people in diverse communities tend ‘to withdraw even from close friends, to expect the worst from their community and its leaders, to volunteer less, give less to charity and work on community projects less often, to register to vote less, to agitate for social reform more, but have less faith that they can actually make a difference, and to huddle unhappily in front of the television.’” -City Journal

“That’s how I feel about robots fighting. I know it’s juvenile. I know it’s going to be an awful movie. I just can’t help it.

“I’m gay for robots fighting. And I want those robots to fight inside of me.” -Joel Johnson

“At least once a week, I like to get a good hearty ‘fuck you’ from an editor – my work for this week is done!” -Elton Pruitt

“More than a decade after the Internet went mainstream, the world’s richest information source hasn’t necessarily made its users any more informed. A new study from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press shows that Americans, on average, are less able to correctly answer questions about current events than they were in 1989. Citizens who call the Internet their primary news source know slightly less than fans of TV and radio news. Hmmm…maybe a little less Perez Hilton and a little more Jim Lehrer.” -Patrick Di Justo

“[I don’t] want an iPhone, and you cannot fucking make me. -Warren Ellis

“Cambodian officials on Tuesday warned the public against home penis enlargement plans after a coroner found a man who had repeatedly self-injected his member with hair tonic had taken his own life to end the painful side effects.

“Coroner Vieng Vannarith concluded that a 35-year-old construction worker had hanged himself last week after the hair tonic remedy which advertised it gave thicker and more lustrous locks failed to have the same effect when injected into his penis.” -IOL News

“[I]f any of you happen to at some point find yourself on my team in a friendly game of The Family Feud, expect me to be highly fucking irritated with you when you respond to ‘Name a flightless bird’ with ‘Flamingo’. And yes, while 12 people agreed with you…you’re still a fucking idiot.” -Matthew Woodson

“After THE IRON GIANT, THE INCREDIBLES and now [RATATOUILLE], I feel it is safe to say that Brad Bird is the closest thing there is to the Miyazaki of America.” -Heidi MacDonald

“5 Red Bulls haven’t worked, and my new Sida Cordifolia tablets smell like cat piss. Today may be the day I die.” -Warren Ellis

“[Warren Ellis] is honestly amazed [that his fisrt novel reached #214 on Amazon] — while I suspect a legion of Goth/Burlesque part-time dommes in Spider Jerusalem glasses snapping the crop across bottoms all across the world, hissing ‘When it buys its thousandth Crooked Little Vein, it gets its treat.’” -John Rogers

“I know people hate on comics retailers all the time, but there’s a part of me that I know is going to miss the raggedy-ass aspects of the first three decades of Direct Market retail, a system for the delivery of an entire art form manned to a significant percentage by the merchant equivalent of the Island of Lost Toys.” -Tom Spurgeon

“The goodie two shoes, jocks, athletes, or other ‘good’ kids are now going to Facebook. These kids tend to come from families who emphasize education and going to college. They are part of what we’d call hegemonic society. They are primarily white, but not exclusively. They are in honors classes, looking forward to the prom, and live in a world dictated by after school activities.

MySpace is still home for Latino/Hispanic teens, immigrant teens, ‘burnouts,’ ‘alternative kids,’ ‘art fags,’ punks, emos, goths, gangstas, queer kids, and other kids who didn’t play into the dominant high school popularity paradigm. These are kids whose parents didn’t go to college, who are expected to get a job when they finish high school. Teens who are really into music or in a band are on MySpace. MySpace has most of the kids who are socially ostracized at school because they are geeks, freaks, or queers.” -Danah Boyd

“Yes, [Whiteout’s] really happening, yes, Kate Beckinsale really looks like that in real life, no, I’m not sure when it’s coming out but I think it’s Summer ‘08 and no, I can’t share pictures and stories from the set as yet or else I risk the ire of Warner Brothers and they will send a combined 87 tons of attorney after me, and let me tell you, brother, that’s a fuck of a lot of attorney right there.” -Greg Rucka

“One of these days someone will be watching when the neighbour’s motion-sensor light catches me smoking naked in the garden at 1am.” -Warren Ellis

“Selma Blair thinks I’m cute, Claire Danes thinks I’m funny, Doug Jones thinks I’m gorgeous, and Guillermo del Toro thinks I should eat more ice cream.” -Maddy Gaiman

“It feels like a big bag of jelly when you hold it in your hand and, I must say, it’s a very strong frog.

“We have been trying to get the frogs turned on.” -Kalyan Varma

“If I’d gotten on that [theme park] ride, my friends would have actually heard me scream. Like a little girl. Like a little girl who just woke up because somebody licked her foot. Like a little girl who just woke up because somebody licked her foot, and then when she turns on the light there’s an evil clown sitting in the middle of her bedroom, eating her pony.

“There’s no comebacks from the clown-pony scream.” -John Rogers

Finally I continue the reviews of my favorite books from SPX this (last!) year.

Next up is Skim, a one-shot by Mariko Tamaki (words) and Jillian Tamaki (drawings). It is a brief slice-of-life glimpse into the high school life of student Kim “Skim” Takota. The story pays wonderful attention to detail, creating a palpable mood and an uncomfortable sense of highschool playback: reminding me of every awkwardness in my friends and I at that age. It’s nostalgia, but with a dueling and immense sense of relief that those days are past.

But as strong as the writing is, the real treat for me in this book is Jillian Tamaki’s artwork, which I can’t get enough of. Her characters live and breathe on the page. Her expressionistic style makes a strong script into a great comic.

More please.

(UPDATE: There will, indeed, be “more please.” From Mariko’s website: “Well it’s official! Groundwood Books (an imprint of House of Anansi) has purchased SKIM! (Thanks Sam!) So an extended graphic novel of Skim is now in the works. Look for it 2008. More news on this as it happens…”)

Panacea Entertainment and Project 51 Productions have hired Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan, Planetary) to script a direct-to-DVD animated feature film based on the Castlevania video game produced by Konami. Panacea has also hired noted illustrator James Jean, whose work as a cover artist for DC Comics has earned him three consecutive Eisners and a Harvey, as the film’s art director.

Panacea’s CEO Eric Gardner is obviously looking at the success of Marvel’s direct-to-DVD animated features (such as their “Ultimate Avengers”) and attempting to distance the property from its Japanese anime-influenced video game roots, stating: “I think there will be anime elements of it, but it’s going to be more hints of anime as opposed to traditional, full-blown anime.”

Panacea and Project 51 are also producing a Castlevania animated TV series for younger viewers, but the direct-to-DVD feature (again mirroring the development of similar projects for both Marvel and DC, see “DC’s Direct-to-Video DVDs”) will be targeted at more mature viewers and will not be subject to the constraints on language and violence that apply to TV series intended for kids.

 (via popcultureshock)

Hey, those of you who read this blog know I’ve been threatening to do this for a while and now thanks to Gaston & Meltdown Comics, we’re doing it. Come join us this Saturday for the first ever Comic’s Critics Circle. Local artists, comics pros and enthusiasts will sit on a panel, each bringing a comic book they love, showing it to the group and debating the artistic merits of the work. Confirmed panelists include Dame Darcy (Meatcake) and Yuri Lowenthal (voice of Superman on Legion of Super Heroes), Meltdown’s own Matt Gagnon, myself and more! Come participate in the audience for Q & A. Pizza and beer provided! And we’re filming the whole thing for web outlets and a comics documentary I’m making. Bring a non-fan friend! The main idea is to give comics the respect it deserves as a serious art form for a whole new audience, while having fun doing it. It’ll be a good time, filled with great insight on great works, and good peoples. And with luck, you’ll be at ground zero of a new comics movement. Join us for the experiment! This Saturday, December 9th, at Meltdown Sunset, 5PM!Hope to see you there!