Stuff That Has Been Done

Hey, all, I know it SEEMS like it's been pretty quiet lately, but 1) I've been out of town enjoying a bit of hooky before the quarter begins and I have to return to the classroom and, 2) I haven't been completely slacking.

I am now a semi-regular contributor to Alan David Doane's resurrected Trouble With Comics group blog. Although I don't manage to answer every week's discussion question, I am trying to be more consistent about it. (I'm very inconsistent about it.) This week's question was the intentionally ambiguous "Do comics matter?" to which I provided a long and rambling answer that probably ranges a bit further afield than Alan was expecting. Oh well! (I will hopefully remember to put CBG in the blogroll at some point in the near future . . . ) You can also read the rest of the replies by scanning down this page - a good Murderers' Row of old-school comics blogging talent, and a stimulating half-hour-or-so of reading.

Also, in case you forgot, I'm still doing my part over at the AV Club's Comics Panel. Some week's are more eventful than others, but the most fun weeks (for me at least) are the weeks were I get to savage something crappy (which really should come as no surprise to anyone who has been reading this blog for longer than five minutes). Most of the reviews on the site are fairly positive - the people involved, by and large, use the format to shine a light on good books that deserve a wider audience or serious attention. Me being me, however, I still try to sneak in the occasional brutal takedown. Which is to say - take a look at this week's edition, where I go hard on the motherfucking paint against two unspeakably awful books of celebrity "cartooning." Seriously, when you see these books in your local big-box bookseller store this Christmas shopping season, take a moment to sit down and flip through them. You need to see for yourself. I don't know if words can do justice to just how . . . not good these books are, and it was a true pleasure and an honor to rip them to shreds.