FLOG! Entries tagged 'Terry Zwigoff'

Daily OCD 12/11/12

TheJenVaughn

The first* glass of spiked eggnog of Online Commentaries & Diversions:

• Review: Metroland's Simcoe reviews Walt Disney's Donald Duck: A Christmas for Shacktown by Carl Barks and The Complete Peanuts: 1985 to 1986 by Charles M. Schulz. Glenn Perrett states, "Reading Carl Bark's "Donald Duck" stories from 60 years ago was entertaining. The animation and colours are excellent and sections such as "Story Notes" [etc.] . . . complement the wonderful comics making this book a nice addition to any library." And "The Complete Peanuts: 1985 to 1986 are sure to make the holidays more entertaining and makes a nice gift and keepsake."

• Review: Noel Murray of The AV Club continues the Christmas coverage with Schulz's Charlie Brown's Christmas Stocking which "is mainly meant to serve as a nice little accessory to holiday decorations, to be brought out every December with the ornaments and Andy Williams records. For that reason, it’s hard to humbug it…" With Walt Disney's Donald Duck: "A Christmas for Shacktown" by Carl Barks, Murray notes "These stories—nearly all published in the early ’50s—are mostly non-Christmas-y, but the title tale is a sweet one. . . For those who do want a surefire present for the comics buff in their lives."

• Review: School Library Journal goes over some of the favorite holiday graphic novels of 2012 like Charlie Brown's Christmas Stocking by Charles Schulz. J. Caleb Mozzocco states "It’s beautifully designed, a breezy, five-minute read, and about the size of a Christmas card, making it a pretty great gift. And, this being Schulz’s Peanuts, it’s the sort of gift you’ll never grow out of." As for Carl Barks' holiday and title story in Walt Disney's Donald Duck: "A Christmas for Shacktown", "It’s one of about 20 of the top-notch comics in the book, which range from one-page gags to the sort of sprawling adventures Barks was best-known for."

• Review: Noel Murray of The AV Club takes a peak at Heads or Tails by Lilli Carré. "Carré loves to constrict her characters, because she knows that limiting their options won’t necessarily limit their imaginations. . . her comics work often has the feel of avant-garde cinema, as she weds surreal images to everyday situations to enchant audiences and spark ideas. . . "

• Review: Christopher Borrelli of The Chicago Tribune writes a loooong article on Lilli Carré and her new book Heads or Tails "that best captures the range, humor and vague sense of ennui she's made her name on. . . "

• Review: Noel Murray of The AV Club enjoys Tom Kacynski's Beta Testing the Apocalypse. "Kaczynski’s comics are frequently nightmarish, starting from a slightly askew place and then tipping further into darkness. . . But while his stories have characters and plots—often with haunting endings—they’re more like essays than conventional narratives."

• Review: Noel Murray of The AV Club finished the You'll Never Know series with Book 3: A Soldier's Heart by Carol Tyler. "This is Tyler’s magnum opus: her thoughts on art, work, relationships, music, war, and anything else that came to her mind while she was piecing together her dad’s story."

• Plug: About.com fills in the blanks of their Christmas Sex Book List by adding our most recent titles. On No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics edited by Justin Hall, Cory Silverberg slyly states "given the diversity of artists working today it's not a definitive collection, but it's sexy and joyful and difficult in parts, and definitely one to own." Meanwhile, Naked Cartoonists (edited by Gary Groth) contains "a number of stand outs among this overwhelmingly white, male collection of artists. And I imagine this could be a perfect gift for the right kind of comic nerd."

• Interview (audio): Dean Haspiel of Welcome to Trip City interviews Josh Simmons about The Furry Trap, Jessica Farm, living the life and accidental erections.

• Review: Danel Olson of the Weird Fiction Volume 3 writes on Richard Sala and The Hidden . "Sala has become one of my favorite American sequential artists because of his subtle tributes and expansions to four of the most memorable twentieth century American cartoonists - Charles Addams, Edward Gorey, Gahan Wilson, and Basil Wolverton. . . Forbidding and weird seem like weak adjectives for Sala's The Hidden, and I urge you to open it. . . Give a standing order to Fantagraphics for any noirishly weird fictions forthcoming from Sala."

• Review: Chris Estey of KEXP reviews the Bill Griffith collection called Bill Griffith: Lost and Found - Comics 1969-2003. Chris Estey writes that it is "a luxurious and generous Fantagraphics big book collection of his non-Zippy work, is required reading for those who may have missed his parodies and punk rock operas in the past, or want them all bound together. It’s also for those like me who were never really that much into Zippy in the first place."

• Plug: Dave Segal recants the events immediately following his Stranger article on Listen, Whitey! by Pat Thomas on the Stranger Slog. White supremacists got all sorts of angry at this history book and the white dude who wrote it.

• Plug: One step forward, two steps back. The Adele Blanc-Sec movie is inching along towards distribution in America. Johanna Draper Carlson gets the scoop on DVDs Worth Reading on Jacques Tardi's graphic novel adaptation.

• Plug: Negromancer reviews the film adaptation of Art School Confidential directed by Terry Zwigoff based on the comics of Daniel Clowes. "While Art School Confidential comes across as a satire of art schools, the faculty, and students, it is also a love story and youth relationship drama. It works well as all three."

*let's be real, it's like our tenth glass of that local dairy's eggnog

Terry Zwigoff's Packed Santa Sack (of a theater)

TheJenVaughn

Last night, director Terry Zwigoff appeared at Central Cinema's sold-out showing of Bad Santa, produced/toured/small printed by The A.V. Club's Cult Canon Tour. The 2003 hit resonated with the parents, malcontents and former elves in the audience (thank you, Dallas Northpark Mall, for that hellish winter month). A charmingly nasal and articulate Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club moderated the Q&A while Zwigoff opened with a slide show of amazing parodies, criminal copy cats and a slew of Santa photos through the ages, too amazing to not share at least one.

Zwigoff went into detail about looking for the perfect people for this movie (especially since he choose the script over Elf with Will Ferrell already attached). De Niro, Penn graced the top of a list but Billy Bob Thorton was the name he knew could pull it off. In the search for the perfect kid to win the Bad Santa's heart, Zwigoff rejected the "Disney-face-proportioned" in an effort to capture a new Joe Cobb: a fat, scary kid. Which he eventually did find in new actor, Brett Kelly (right).

In addition to Bad Santa, Zwigoff directed such hits as the documentary Crumb, Ghost World and Art School Confidential (guess who sells books the movies were based on by Crumb and Dan Clowes?). We earnestly look forward to his next film adventure.

Terry Zwigoff will also be attending the showing in Portland, OR on December 13th and The A.V. Club's Cult Canon has showings of Bad Santa and Black Christmas all over the country. A good time to be sure, especially with free drink tickets! Associate Publisher Eric Reynolds, Zwigoff, me and intern Nomi Kane hang loose at Central Cinema.

Terry Zwigoff at Central Cinema in Seattle Tonight!

janice

Do I even need to say who's who in this pic?

As we mentioned earlier this week with the release of Larry's 1995 interview with him, Terry Zwigoff is making a rare Seattle appearance tonight, Thursday, November 29th at Central Cinema!

He'll be screening his 2003 film Bad Santa, but he'll also be doing a Q&A afterwards where you can ask him about his work on Ghost World or Crumb. Fantagraphics will be on site with copies of his screenplay for you to get signed!

Central Cinema is located at 1411 21 Avenue, in Seattle's Central District neighborhood at 21st Avenue and E. Union street. Look for the Neon Marquee!

Terry Zwigoff's Candid Camera: an unpublished 1995 interview

LarryR

The following interview was conducted by Fantagraphics Bookstore curator Larry Reid in 1995 prior to the release of Terry Zwigoff's phenomenal documentary Crumb. Small fragments of this discussion were included in a review of the film published in The Rocket magazine. [A complete, unedited transcript of this conversation can be read here. Thanks to The Comics Journal editorial intern Janice Lee for scanning and proofreading the original typewritten manuscript. – Ed.] At the time of the interview Zwigoff was still six years from directing his breakthrough feature Ghost World, but his passion for independent film, alternative comix, and anachronistic pop culture is fully evident.

Terry Zwigoff appears in person at Central Cinema in Seattle on Thursday, November 29 for an 8PM screening of his film Bad Santa followed by a Q&A session (more info & tickets).

LARRY REID: What were the circumstances surrounding your association with Crumb? How did you meet?

TERRY ZWIGOFF: The short answer is I met him through our mutual interest in music, much like the stuff you see in the film — late ’20s jazz, blues, ragtime music. We both collect old 78s of that type of music and we both play in this band he founded in 1972 called the Cheap Suit Serenaders.

LR: Were you familiar with his work prior to meeting him?

TZ: Yes. I actually approached him because I wanted him to draw something for this project I had in mind.

LR: How did you get involved in the Cheap Suit Serenaders?

TZ: I was friends with Crumb and also Bob Armstrong and Al Dodge. We used to hang out together a lot back in those days and they had started this band a year before. This was in 1973 and they kept after me to learn an instrument and join. Bob and Al lived together back then in this farm house in Dixon, California and somebody had come through town and left a cello there. In these old time string bands they used to play the bass parts on a cello with a bow. I was interested in this music and it wasn’t hard to do, so I quickly learned how to play it and joined up.

LR: I noticed you didn’t use any of this Cheap Suit Serenaders in the film.

TZ: We filmed the Cheap Suit Serenaders just before Crumb moved to France, one last concert that was sort of a spur of the moment thing. I didn’t think it was too exciting, but I figured I wasn’t being too objective about it so I let my producer and the editor and a lot of other people decide. A lot of people looked at it in the rough cut version and they all thought it was pretty dull. It was basically the four of us looking down at our instruments playing. It wasn’t real exciting.

LR: Crumb is notoriously bashful. He doesn’t like to be in the limelight. I wonder how you convinced him to cooperate with the movie.

TZ: I’m sure he thinks it was a mistake now. I don’t know. I just kept after him to do it. I was mainly interested in doing a film that involved his brothers and him. I told him repeatedly that this wasn’t just a career biography of R. Crumb, which I think had some appeal to him, but I think he also thought that even if the film got done it wouldn’t be seen by very many people, that it would be shown at a few film festivals and be put to bed. I think he’s rather dismayed that this thing has been successful.

LR: Did he actively encourage his family to cooperate in the making of the film?

TZ: No. He was pretty neutral about it. Before we even got started I told him, “Look, I really don’t even want to go out and buy any film stock until you call your mother and your brother and see if they’ll be in the film.” I’d met them. I spent a night at their house in the early ’70s. I really liked his brother Charles. I found him an endlessly fascinating guy. I liked his mother, too. I thought they were both very eccentric but very brilliant in their own way. I really enjoyed being around them and I had a memorable night at their house and I thought I hit it off with them really well. I asked him to call them and maybe this would put an end to this project right now. They’ll probably say no. They’re pretty reclusive. He called his mother from my house and he was on the phone for like 10 minutes and nobody’s answering. I said, “Hang up already. Nobody’s home.” And he said, “No. My mother usually takes about 40 or 50 rings to pick up the phone.” Sure enough, she finally picks up the phone. He says, “Remember my friend Terry? He spent the night at your house 14 or 15 years ago.” She says, “Oh yeah, yeah.” “Well, he wants to do this documentary on me and he wants you and Charles to be in the film.” She says, “Oh sure.” Just like that. Of course it wasn’t quite so easy when we went to film. But at that point he sort of had to go along with it because she’d already agreed to do it. Like I said, at that time I don’t think he thought the film would get done or that I’d get the money raised to do it. I was having a hard time. It took me 9 years to do the damn thing. Nobody was too interested in it as a commercial project, but I always had this strange idea that it was going to be a commercial film.

LR: What about Crumb’s sisters? They don’t appear in the film. I understand one of his sisters lives in Seattle.

TZ: I hear she’s a radical lesbian separatist. I don’t know. I only met her once and I didn’t get a chance to talk to her much. She and Robert were in a big fight. I called her to try to let her tell her side of things in this film, but as soon as I told her what I was up to she just said, “Forget it. I’m not going to be in any film, and if you so much as mention my name I’ll sue you,” and hung up on me. She just seemed immediately angry that there was a film happening about Robert.

LR: Do you suppose that’s a reaction to the misogynist content of some of Robert’s work?

TZ: According to him she had asked him years back for $400 a month reparations for the damage his comics had done to women. That’s one of the things I wanted to ask her on camera. You never know. Robert makes a big show of being very frank and honest and open in his work, but it’s not always quite so straightforward. He has his own motives like anybody else, and he’s comfortable with presenting his own story in a certain way that isn’t necessarily 100%, shall we say, accurate. And that’s not to say my film is either. It’s my interpretation of many facts as well. He finally saw this film and didn’t seem very happy with it. I sent him a video tape of it. I was trying to get him to hold out to see it on film in the theaters, but he kept bugging me to see it. My distributor, Sony, wanted him to see it because he was absolutely refusing to do any press on the film, saying “If he really loves the film maybe he’ll do some press.” And I said, “I wouldn’t hold your breath.” Anyway he seemed very disgruntled about the whole film. He didn’t seem to like it.

LR: Was there anything specific that …?

TZ: What he told me was that after watching the film he had to go for a walk in the woods to clear his head. And he took his hat off that he’d owned for like 20 years, his favorite hat and threw it off a cliff, and said, “I don’t want to be R. Crumb anymore.” And I said, “Well what does that mean? Did I misrepresent who R. Crumb is, or did I represent him so accurately that you don’t want to be him?” He said, “I don’t know. Here, Aline wants to talk to you.” And Aline got on the phone and she was pissed off about the way I presented her. So, you know, you can’t win. I did a film on this old blues musician, Louie Bluie, and he never spoke to me again once I made this film, and I thought it was a very flattering portrait of him. I knew enough about making this film that people would know I was Crumb’s friend, that I didn’t want to just churn out some celebratory puff piece on the guy. I wanted to be a little bit critical of him, and show some of his pros and cons, warts and all. Apparently he’s not too comfortable with anybody else doing that but himself, I guess.

LR: Crumb has another sister back East. She doesn’t appear in the film. Is there a story behind that?

TZ: I called her as well. He gave me her phone number. I’d never met her. I asked him what she was like and his take on her was that she wouldn’t be that interesting on camera, that she was rather shy and wouldn’t have much to say. But I wanted to film her anyway. Give her a chance to speak for herself instead of taking his word for it, because he misled me in a number of areas in this film actually.

LR: In reference to his family?

TZ: No, maybe misled is the wrong term but there was definitely a number of instances where, to put it simply, he could have been much more helpful than he was. He sort of dragged his feet. He was very strange about many things. Very uncooperative at times and very cooperative at other times.

LR: You mentioned your earlier project Louie Bluie. Could you talk a little about that?

TZ: He was a blues musician. He made 2 records in his whole life. Two 78s, one tune on each side back in those days. This was 1934. He recorded for Blue Bird, which was a subsidiary of RCA Victor. He made this record called “State Street Rag” which I found a copy of. It was a virtuoso mandolin performance with a guitar backing this guy up, and the only name on the record was Louie Bluie, which was obviously a pseudonym. I found a copy of this record, and I knew a lot of other serious record collectors around the world, and I was very impressed with this record. So I asked them about this and the word was out that there was only one other copy known of the record. So this record had a mystique to me and I was very intrigued by the guy’s mandolin playing. At the time I was writing articles and liner notes about music, old time music in particular and always in the back of my mind I wanted to find out what happened to this guy. Who was this guy who had made this record years ago? I spent a couple of years doing some detective work and wound up finding this guy still alive. He was living in Detroit, and the guy who played guitar on the record was living in Chicago, and they were still friends, were still playing music together. I flew out to meet the guy and he was such an incredible character, not only a musician, but he also kept these secret, hidden pornographic diaries, that were very similar to Crumb’s artwork. Very cartoony and very old fashioned in style. I was determined to have somebody make a film on this guy. I didn’t really consider myself a filmmaker at the time. I tried to convince a few other filmmakers I knew to make a film on him, but nobody seemed too interested and eventually I got started on it and I got in too deep and had to finish it. It led to this.

LR: That’s what got you into documentary filmmaking?

TZ: Yeah. I sort of stumbled into it backwards.

LR: What was Robert’s response to the film? I saw the poster he did for it.

TZ: He liked it a lot. It’s probably one of the reasons he agreed to do this film.

LR: I was curious to get your reaction to some of Crumb’s more politically incorrect comics. Do you think his work is meant to be satirical?

TZ: I don’t know. You’d have to ask him. I could tell you my reaction when I first saw his work when I was a kid in college. I remember seeing that comic that was in the film, “Angelfood McSpade,” where they take her out of Africa and wind up stuffing her head in a toilet. My reaction was not only was it funny, but it was very politically correct in a broad sense, not in a knee jerk liberal sort of way, but I thought it was very much an indictment of America — an indictment of racism more than anything else. That seemed to be what it was about to me and I tried very hard in the film to present it in such a way that you could read the entire comic and have appropriate music. I was still shocked to find people who see the film find that strip racist.

LR: What’s been the reaction from your peers in the film community?

TZ: I’m really pleased that David Lynch liked it so much, because I’m a really huge fan of his stuff.

LR: David Lynch is actually credited with presenting the film on the promotional material.

TZ: Well, I originally approached him for money presuming he was a big fan of Crumb’s, which somebody had told me. Somebody told me that he had a poster in his office of Louie Bluie, and the only thing on the wall of his office was supposedly this poster. But the guy who told me was sort of a drunk in a bar I had met. He said, “Yeah, I work for him and we’re good friends.” And I thought, “Yeah, right, buddy.” But I always remembered that and years later, when we were desperate for people to hit up for money I said, “I’m gonna be in L.A., maybe I can meet with David Lynch. Maybe this story was right and if he had this poster on his wall he’s either a fan of the film, which I made, or he’s a fan of Crumb’s, who did the poster art.” So I met with David and I asked him, “So, you’re a big fan of Crumb’s?” And he said, “No. I know who he is but I’m not a big fan. I like his stuff all right.” I said, “So you like this film Louie Bluie then?” He said, “No, I can’t say I’ve heard of that.” Very strange guy. Anyway, I showed him this film, and he really liked it. That eventually led to him putting his name on the film as sort of an endorsement, which was a thrill to me.

LR: Do you expect the film will be a commercial success at this point?

TZ: Well, it doesn’t have to make much money to be a commercial success since it cost so little to make. But, yeah, I think it’s going to do really well.

The Greatest Comic Book Movie of All-Time?

Eric

Okay, you've already heard about our contest for this, and been informed about the Onion's recent interview with its director, but I just wanna testify and tell anyone who might be curious that they should go buy the new Criterion release of Terry Zwigoff's Crumb film already. I bought the Blu-Ray edition yesterday even though I think it's now the third iteration of the film that I've purchased; well worth it, though, because Criterion is the first to get it right. It's a handsome and thoughtful package, which includes a fascimile reproduction of Charles Crumb's (In)Famous Artists Test booklet, as well another booklet of 'liner notes'. And the DVD extras look fantastic: almost an hour of previously-unseen footage shot for the film, two Zwigoff commentaries (one new one conducted for this edition as well as the 2006 commentary he did with Roger Ebert for previous DVD editions), a new digital transfer of the film, etc. I'm already looking forward to picking up the Criterion edition of Zwigoff's first film, Louie Bluie, next.

Now if Criterion would just bring us Ghost World and Art School Confidential, we'd be in business...

Daily OCD: 8/10/10

mike

Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "Originally serialized in the late ‘90s, this cartwheeling shaggy-dog story begins, like a lot of metafiction, with the semblance of reality... But by the time a frog demon reanimates a 19th-century French peasant whose brains it has eaten, it’s fairly clear that Deitch is making stuff up. The fun of [The Search for Smilin' Ed] is the way it constantly darts back and forth across the line between genuine show-business lore (a favorite Deitch theme) and delirious whole-cloth invention. ... Deitch’s artwork... is... utterly confident, building on the stylistic gestures of both the underground-comics scene that launched his career and the classic animation that inspired his talking-animal characters." – Publishers Weekly

• Review: "Some of the best comics of the last couple of decades are Jim Woodring’s wordless Frank stories. Dreamlike, idyllic and mind bendingly horrific visions are rendered with immaculate penwork and pacing. This tidy, near 200 page collection of black and white stories [The Portable Frank] is sufficient to put a permanent dent in your brain pan." – M. Ace, Irregular Orbit

• Review: "Fantagraphics cycles back to the first three years of Herriman’s Sunday Krazy Kat strips [in Krazy & Ignatz 1916-1918]. I do enjoy these early years of the kat kronikles — a bit more lyrical, a bit more varied, a bit less centered on the kat/mouse/cop routine. Yes, you need it. Of course." – M. Ace, Irregular Orbit

• Interview: In virtue of the Criterion Collection release of Crumb on DVD and Blu-ray, The A.V. Club talks to director Terry Zwigoff: "And I said, 'What did you think of it?' And he said, 'It was mortifying.' I said, 'Is it a bad film?' And he said, 'No, but I’m looking at myself in a mirror, so what am I supposed to say? Is it good? Is it bad? I just don’t want to look at it.' Something like that."

• Interview: Kliph Nesteroff's conversation with Drew Friedman (previously transcribed at WFMU's Beware of the Blog) is now available as an audio download from the Inkstuds podcast

• Panel: The Comics Journal presents video of the "International Comics and Graphic Novels" panel at Comic-Con International last month, with Moto Hagio, Émile Bravo and others — part 1 is embedded above, with 4 additional parts at TCJ.com

• Commentary: Noah Berlatsky takes his whack at Popeye in the critical roundtable at The Hooded Utilitarian

Crumb Contest & Coupons with our pals at Scarecrow Video

mike

We're teaming up with our pals at Seattle's venerable Scarecrow Video to give away Terry Zwigoff's classic documentary Crumb, new on DVD and Blu-Ray from the Criterion Collection, plus Zwigoff's debut film Louie Bluie, also new on Criterion DVD with cover artwork by Crumb! All you have to do is "like" this post on our Facebook page, or if you're not on Facebook, send an email to the friendly folks at Scarecrow; click here for all the details.

Plus! Stop by Scarecrow to pick up a coupon good for 20% off any purchase at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery that includes at least one Robert Crumb book, and at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery you can pick up a coupon for $2 off the Criterion Crumb DVD or Blu-Ray at Scarecrow. Feel the love!

Daily OCD: 3/1/10

mike

In like a lion with Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "Thank God then for Almost Silent, a new collection repackaging some of Fanta’s older Jason books — some of which are no longer in print in their original format — as an anthology the same size, shape and design as Low Moon. ... Buy it to read the stories, keep it to restore order and balance to your bookshelf." – J. Caleb Mozzocco, Newsarama

• Review: Avoid the Future collects and expands on their first 10 Twitter micro-reviews of Newave! The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s: "More than just a collection of mini-comics, the book features interviews and insightful commentary from some of the creators as well as the lovingly-reproduced source material."

• Opinion: Comic Book Galaxy's Marc Sobel makes a case for reading Love and Rockets in the original comic-book format

• Contest: "Beaucoup" Kevin Church is giving away a copy of Joe Sacco's Palestine: The Special Edition to one randomly-selected winner

• Award: Congratulations to Crumb, Ghost World and Art School Confidential director Terry Zwigoff for being awarded the Maverick Spirit Award at Cinequest 20 (why it's reported by an automotive news website I have no idea; via Bleeding Cool)

Daily OCD: 12/9/09

mike

Chock full o' Online Commentary & Diversions:

• List: The Village Voice 's R.C. Baker names 2009's Best Comics and Graphic Novels. Among the choices: "A lucid nightmare, Al Columbia's dazzlingly well-drawn Pim & Francie features vignettes of its young protagonists menaced by creepy relatives or starring in exceedingly grim fairy tales. These inky visions seem unearthed from the deepest vaults of Uncle Walt's id. ... Anything but Victorian, Nell Brinkley (1886–1944) celebrated the Roaring '20s with sinuous lines and colors as lurid as William Randolph Hearst's presses could muster. Author Trina Robbins notes, in the lavishly oversize The Brinkley Girls, that the illustrator 'closely resembled the girls she drew.' But Brinkley, with her thrilling fantasias of pirate abductions and aviatrix romances, remains an inspiration beyond flapper flamboyance to any young lady seeking to break into the boys' club of high-end illustration."

• List: Greek site Comicdom is halfway through counting down the top 100 comics of the '00s. On the list so far: Tales Designed to Thrizzle Vol. 1 by Michael Kupperman at #99 ("Following at a discreet distance from the legacy of Monty Python, Michael Kupperman should be considered a genius by any man who has laughed with the group of Britons"), Billy Hazelnuts by Tony Millionaire at #67 ("In the surrealist vein of Krazy Kat and the otherworldly, oneiric atmosphere of Little Nemo... misanthropy and almond sweetness"), Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco at #60 ("The shock was, however, not an end in itself, since what actually manages to come across is the sense of pain and loss that each of the interviewees had experienced"), and Fred the Clown by Roger Langridge at #53 ("Ingenious comics by an equally intelligent designer who not only knows the history of the instrument and understand what makes it work"). [Quotes cobbled from autotranslation.]

• Review: "There have been a lot of great comic book releases this year, but none has the beauty and melancholy resonance of Fantagraphics' Prince Valiant: Volume 1-1937-1938. ... As for Hal Foster, Fantagraphics has given this artist his due and helped place him in his proper context as a great American artist and master of the comics form." – Mark Rhodes, Omnicomic

• Review: "Employing a storytelling dynamic not unlike that of Serling’s science fiction classic, Thomas Ott’s The Number 73304-23-4153-6-96-8 is itself a visit... to a dimension not of sound, but of sight and mind that at once both rewards and confuses. ... Ott’s hyper-meticulous attention to how detail relates to used space and negative space is at once both unsettling and captivating, utilizing a form of technical, pen-like cross-hatching for essentially every line that can only be described as Robert Crumb on Adderall. ... The Number is a universally literate work of fiction that is a quick first read with potential for longer lasting examination." – C.R. Stemple, Pads & Panels

• Review: "The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century A.D. is a fascinating first animated work [third, actually — ed.] from one of today's most original and unusual artists. Shaw adapts well from the comics page to the cinematic form. ... Almost as well as his comics, this film expresses Shaw's ongoing desire to look at the world from a slightly askew perspective, to express his fascination with the complexity of people's inner universes. ...[T]he film... [is] a probing, emotional examination of what it means to make art and to forge meaningful human interactions..." – Ed Howard, Only the Cinema

• Plugs: More Segar birthday/Popeye Google fallout: Mark Evanier,

• Plug: In an interview with IFC found by our own Janice Headley, musician Chuck Prophet names Ghost World as a favorite movie: "A coming-of-age teen flick movie that pivots around Skip James’ 'Devil Got My Woman' can do no wrong with me. And shouldn’t with anyone else."

• Interview: At Comics Comics, Dan Nadel presents audio of the panel with Gary Panter & Peter Saul at the Brooklyn Comics & Graphics Festival last weekend

• Interview: New in the TCJ.com audio archives: Gary Groth's 1997 interview with Charles M. Schulz

• Things to see in the future: The Daily Cartoonist reports that the "Schulz’s Beethoven, Schroeder’s Muse" exhibit which ran at the Charles M. Schulz Museum & Research Center last year is moving to an online home a week from today — we'll try to bring you a link when it launches

• Things to see: A potpourri of Amazing Facts... and Beyond! with Leon Beyond by Kevin Huizenga (BTW we tend only to link to Kevin's AFAB...WLB strips since he's on our roster, but that's not to give short shrift to Dan Zettwoch, who routinely knocks these out of the park too)

• Things to see: An interesting oldie from Bob Fingerman

• Things to see: Progress on Tim Lane's Temptations cut-outs diorama

• Things to see: Richard Sala's "Psycho Santa Movies," in color! (from 2003)

Ghost World On Demand

Eric

I'm told that Terry Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes' GHOST WORLD film premiered on your local Movies On Demand channel over Halloween weekend. I don't have a local Movies On Demand channel myself, so I'm not really sure how this works but hopefully you can figure it out yourself. If you've never seen it, you owe it to yourself to, and if you have seen it, you know you're probably due for a repeat viewing.

Clowes draws Zwigoff

mike

From Chris Diaz, who went to Dan & Terry's signing at the 14th Annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival this past weekend.