Clickable

Quick culling of stuff I've been reading, writing about, etc. I pull together these roundups from time to time under the Clickable category. So...have a look!

COMICS, GRAPHIC NOVELS

My piece on a 1990s-era Paul Pope comic went up at Hyperallergic in July. It's a pleasure to write for them, and I'm grateful to be contributing over there.

I wrote about a big new book called Comics: A Global History, 1968 to the Present.

PopMatters on Shigeru Mizuki's 'Showa' series from Drawn & Quarterly.

At Slate Books, Dan Kois discusses the new comic from Sam Alden, who illustrates the new issue.

The New York Review of Books on a "delicately drawn, thoroughly researched, thoroughly grim" Jacques Tardi graphic novel.

Longtime comics critic Justin Giampaoli is doing less writing-about-comics these days, but he's at least posting during the week at his site and occasionally at Comics Bulletin.

There is a new Image series on the way from Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, and colorist Elizabeth Breitweiser. It looks intriguing — I'm buying less physical single issues lately (a space/time issue!), but I did get the first two Outcast issues, both with bleak, moody colors from Breitweiser. Paul Azaceta is one of the forces behind Outcast, and I dug his work on Potter's Field.

Chris Ware gave a candid, funny interview with Dazed Magazine.

Love the photos and conversation here -- a feature on Williamsburg's amazing Desert Island.

Comics creator Michael DeForge hits the road. My Chicago Reader piece on Ant Colony.

"I paid for my pizza and beer in college building really ugly websites" — Nieman Journalism Lab's Joshua Benton talks to The Comics Grid.

Check out a comic from artist Cat O'Neil about exploring identity "culture, heritage, upbringing."

Via Comics Reporter, a gallery of illustration from Dan Adkins, who worked on Creepy, Eerie, more.

FILM, TELEVISION

On clever sound editing in Jaws. I love this piece, and I generally love what The Dissolve is doing. We watched Jaws in HD a couple of weeks ago -- it was the first time I'd seen it like that, it's still a gripping thriller, buzzing with wit and energy. Richard Dreyfuss's kids disagree.

My buddy Judy Berman wrote for Flavorwire about the new Pulp documentary.

"The Strain" made The New Yorker's Emily Nussbaum "jump and giggle and the lead actor is very charming—in July, maybe that’s enough." It's based on a series of books, and I read the first six or so issues of the comic that's also based on that series. Ghoulish, sometimes really gross-out horror. Fun, though.

REPORTING

The story in Ferguson, Missouri is becoming one that is frequently being told (or worse, not told) in the United States, and it's just horrid all around. From the NYT: "You took my son away from me. Do you know how hard it was for me to get him to stay in school and graduate?"

Matt Pearce is reporting from Ferguson for the Los Angeles Times.

For my money, The New Yorker's Amy Davidson manages to write poignantly and succinctly about every issue that crosses her desk — not only that, the turnaround on the harrowing subjects that she covers is rapid-fire, too. "Michael Brown didn’t die in the dark," she writes.

GQ on "Louis Scarcella, a star detective now accused of putting away innocent people."

Image © Dan Adkins.