Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "[Dan Nadel:] Reading Pim & Francie is an apocalyptic experience — as if Columbia is demolishing both his own work and the idea of 'cartooning' in general. I found it exhilarating and terrifying. ... [Tim Hodler:] ...The fact that so many of these grotesque stories and vignettes don't really resolve contributes to the reader's growing sense of unease. ... Al Columbia's comics... really bring out the surreal terror already buried within cartoon imagery. ... [Frank Santoro:] Pim and Francie's adventure struck a chord in me that's been dormant for a long time. A haunting wonder, perhaps? A curiosity of the unknown that, when found, rattles one to the core?" – Comics Comics critics' roundtable

• Plug: "...Peter Bagge's recent collection of libertarian cartoons from Fantagraphics, Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me and Other Astute Observations is much funnier than libertarian cartoons have any right to be." – Paul Constant, The Stranger

• Video: Visa denial (for shame!) forced Gene Deitch to deliver his keynote address to China's Xiamen International Animation Festival by video; Cartoon Brew shares the clip along with the text of the speech Gene would have given in person

• Hooray for (the French equivalent of) Hollywood: Comix 411 takes a look at Luc Besson's in-production film adaptation of Jacques Tardi's Adèle Blanc-Sec (which Kim flogged about a few weeks ago); for the Francophones among you, TF1 has some behind-the-scenes video footage

• Things to see: Jim Blanchard's commissioned portrait of Roky Erickson

Fifty years ago today Gene Deitch arrived in Prague for a "temporary" gig that stretched into five decades (thanks to the intervention of true love). The English-language weekly The Prague Post caught up with Gene this week to get the story as the anniversary approached. (Photo: Walter Novak/The Prague Post)

I've run out of time again! Hopefully we'll finally be caught up with our Online Commentary & Diversions tomorrow. For now, here's a few links that were sent to me:

• Review: "...Low Moon is the best work I’ve seen from [Jason] yet... I don’t care that 'Emily Says Hello' is illustrated fiction, because it deserves to be on any year-end list of 2009’s finest crime stories, no matter what the format... One and all, these are excellently told tales from a unique talent." - Rod Lott, Bookgasm

• Review: "[Nell] Brinkley was praised for her writing (it’s easy to see why: overblown, yet so satisfying; maybe the only word to describe it is 'delicious') but her drawings made her famous. Each one is an orgiastic, atmospheric feast for the eye... The Brinkley Girls is a tantalizing primer, and a perfect summer read." - Macy Halford, The New Yorker

• Oddity: Dull Tool Dim Bulb has the story of the Gene Deitch-John Lee Hooker connection -- although they misidentify Gene as Czech (he merely lives in Prague) and as the creator of Krazy Kat (he animated George Herriman's creation) so perhaps some of the other details of the story are suspect as well...

Your Online Commentary & Diversions for the first day of June '09:

• Review: "Holy cats!... Wolverton's illustrations [in The Wolverton Bible], done in the same unmistakable, stippled style that characterized his grotesqueries, show off the grim, the violent, and the destructive in the Old Testament, putting the blood and guts in the spotlight. The result is like no illustrated Bible you've ever seen... This is a side of Wolverton I never suspected, but it is perfectly him, humorous, grisly, mad and wonderful." - Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing

• Review/Profile: "...Unlovable by Esther Pearl Watson... was for me like discovering a nugget of gold in a sieve! ...really original and fun." - Lezinfo (translated from French)

• Review: "With great candor and wit, [Peter] Bagge tackles [the] issues... in Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me, a collection of his strips from Reason Magazine. As in his previous works like Hate and The Bradleys, Bagge deftly manages to simultaneously anger and amuse the reader with his intensely personal stories about larger topical issues." - Rick Klaw, The SF Site: Nexus Graphica

• Review: "The Bradleys have more vices than virtues and Bagge explores them with a violent and insolent humor." - Intergalacticrobot (translated from Portuguese)

• Review: "...[T]he comics in this collection [of Blazing Combat] are astounding... The art is reproduced from 'the original printer’s films,' so the work is clear and detailed, with the washes and shading providing depth and a feeling of realism... The stories are still timely." - Johanna Draper Carlson, Comics Worth Reading

• Review: "ISB Best of the Week: Tales Designed to Thrizzle #5... Michael Kupperman is hands-down one of the funniest guys in comics." - Chris Sims, Chris's Invincible Super-Blog

• Reviewer: For The Wall Street Journal, Alexander Theroux reviews The Complete Letters of Henry James Vol. 1

• Plug: Jason Permenter spotlights "Twain and Einstein, from the new issue of [Tales Designed to] Thrizzle, which is 'out any day now.' Makes me laugh, audibly."

• Interview: The Comics Reporter's Tom Spurgeon talks to Bob Fingerman about his latest projects, including Connective Tissue. Sample quote: "I think if I did nothing but comics, I would end up hating comics. For a while there I was actually beginning to hate comics."

• Interview: Robot 6's Tim O'Shea talks to Supermen! editor Greg Sadowski about the collection of Golden Age hero stories. Sample quote: "I never liked those 'Archive' editions where they bleach out the old colors and replace them with modern coloring methods printed on glossy paper. That whitewashes all the distinction out of those vintage books and transforms them into a cloyingly slick and artificial product."

• Event: On the MTV Splash Page blog, Rick Marshall talks about meeting Dash Shaw at our booth at BEA

• Video: From Paul Hornschemeier's blog: "Via Tuono Pettinato on Facebook: A Peanuts documentary (broken into 5 parts on YouTube) where Charles Schulz discusses the making of the animated Peanuts and the role of music. It's great footage, and makes me miss Schulz's genius all the more."

• Things to see: On the Covered blog, Johnny Ryan takes on Real Deal #3

• Things to see: Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine presents a vintage Gene Deitch-created rarity, "Clint Clobber"

• Contest: Dorian Wright is giving away "a copy of Boody, the collection of amazingly bizarre and eccentric Boody Rogers comics," to whomever guesses his most-hated comic character

Between being a father myself and having a preternatural predilection for nostalgia, I can relate to this short piece in the New Yorker all too well, although unlike that writer, it's no surprise to me that the great Gene Deitch is the missing link uniting it all.

By the way, that Spike Jones trailer for the Where The Wild Things Are really is pretty cool. Thank goodness Zack Snyder wasn't a Maurice Sendak fan...

Go listen here for a Ralph Bakshi podcast reminiscing about his days with Gene Deitch at Terrytoons.  

There'll be a little more catch-up tomorrow:

• Etch-A-Peanuts

• Fantagraphics art director Jacob Covey talks to United Arab Emirates newspaper The National about Garfield Minus Garfield - wait, what?

• Flog commenter "Faraquet" points out this 2001 Dutch TV interview with Daniel Clowes (via this blog) and says "It's very weird" (having watched the first few minutes we're going to say it's the background music that gives that impression)

• For Publishers Weekly, Frank Santoro looks at the new volume of E.C. Segar's Popeye

• Ellen Forney announces on her blog that she'll be collaborating with Sherman Alexie again on his next book - congrats, Ellen!

• Chris Diaz shares a photo of Gene Deitch from Gene's recent visit to San Francisco

• Comics Bulletin looks at The Portable Frank by Jim Woodring

• I'm pretty sure I've seen this circulate on the blogosphere before, but: Tim Hensley presents The World's Weirdest Comics Jam

A very special event for you lucky Northern Californians: 

An evening with Gene Deitch

Thursday, November 20, 8 PM
San Francisco State University, Fine Arts Building's Coppola Theater (room 101), free, public invited

Gene Deitch will be visiting from Prague as the San Francisco International Animation Festival has invited him to the States for this retrospective program.

Gene says, “I will play a few films in two versions, with my original soundtrack and then substitute tracks imposed by the producers for weird and illogical reasons... As an example of what we who are paid to make films often have to put up with. It should be very revealing, with the stories behind the changes. These examples have never been shown publicly before!”

This program is presented by SF State's Animation Society and ASIFA-SF, a chapter of ASIFA, the International Animation Association.

Hey, how about a new content feature here on the ol' Fanta web homestead? We're pleased to present you proud papa Gene Deitch's introduction to Deitch's Pictorama by His Three Sons, reprinted in its entirety from the book. (And if you've missed it, here's an earlier, exclusive Gene Deitch article, with music!)