Out of Time
Out of Time
Read our appreciation of Michael Jackson’s work around the time of Thriller
Den bedste af alle mulige verdener
Den bedste af alle mulige verdener
Om Ivar Gjørups Egoland på den sidste dag
Redacted
Yale University Press’ decision to publish Jytte Klausen’s upcoming book on the Danish Cartoon Crisis, The Cartoons that Shook the World, without reproductions of the cartoons themselves is distressing news. In its press release, the Press expresses concern that including them would risk triggering new episodes of violence and they cite consultation with a number of experts to back up their decision.
Apparently, however, the opinion of these experts was not as unanimous as the press suggests and although such events as the 2008 bombing of the Danish embassy in Islamabad was carried out with reference to the cartoons, there has not been much reaction traceable to subsequent publications of the cartoons since the initial flareup. The Press’ decision appears first and foremost one of apprehension rather than the rational, responsible one they want to pass it along as. As the American Association of University Professors express it: “We do not negotiate with terrorists. We just accede to their anticipated demands.”
It’s a Great, Big, Wide World Out There, Gentlemen…
(OBS! Thorhauge her!) På websitet serieland.dk har Kristian Bang Larsen skrevet en kronik om vigtigheden af gode forfattere i tegneserieproduktion. KBL angriber ikke mindst den danske tegneseriebranche, som i hans optik i særdeleshed lider under manglen på gode forfattere. KBLs kronik er et velkomment indlæg i debatten, og har nogle gode pointer : ikke desto mindre tillader undertegnede sig hermed at gå i rette med kronikken, særligt med KBLs tegneseriesyn.
Continental Drift: Angoulême 2009
Just a quick note of hype. The latest issue of The Comics Journal, #299, includes my report from January’s festival in Angoulême. For various reasons, it took till now for it to see print, but since it isn’t particularly topical, I don’t think it’s a problem for its readability.
Get the new Journal for my thoughts on the art of Dupuy and Berberian, my assessment of L’Association’s relaunch of their anthology Lapin in its classic format, but almost exclusively with young up-and-comers (with comments by editor/publisher JC Menu), my reviews of some of the prize winners: Winshluss’ Pinocchio, Bastien Vivès’ Le Gout du chlôre, Blanchin and Perissin’s Martha Jane Cannary, Étienne Davodeau’s Lulu — Femme nue and Émile Bravo’s Spirou revival Journal d’un ingénue, and an attempt to gauge what the popularity of these comics tells us about Francophone comics. Last, but certainly not least, read the thoughs of Jessica Abel, Alex Holden, Frederik Peeters and Craig Thompson on the year’s Grand Prix winner Blutch. The latter even provides an example of how his work directly inspired sequences in Blankets.
But most of all, get the mafazine for Bob Levin’s fantastic article about Michel Choquette’s incredible, if inevitably unrealized 70s comics project Someday Funnies — a comics anthology that would have included work by people such as Harvey Kurtzman, Federico Fellini, Will Eisner, William Borroughs, Kim Deitch, Tom Wolfe, Art Spiegelman, Ronald Blechman, CC Beck, Harlan Ellison, Jean Giraud, Ralph Steadman, Goscinny & Uderzo, Arnold Roth, Topor, Frank Zappa, Jack Kirby, and many more…
Hype: Interview med Torben Hansen
Johan Krarup har interviewet Free Comics-redaktør og Forlæns/Brun Blomst-forlægger Torben Hansen i anledning af lukningen af førnævnte. Læs det, læs det!
Husk også at læse Rackhams interview med Hansen fra 2006.
Breaking News: Free Comics stopper
Det er netop kommet Bunkeren for øre, at Torben Hansen har besluttet sig for at indstille produktionen af gratistegneseriebladet Free Comics. Sidste nummer bliver således det netop udkomne sommernummer, nummer 53.
Torben skriver:
Hej Alle!
Jeg har besluttet at stoppe Free Comics. Det er blevet for meget bøvl for mig at lave; det er ikke sjovt mere. Desuden har den såkaldte krise også en effekt på selv et produkt der ligger så langt uden for normal markedsøkonomisk tænkning som Free Comics. Mange budgetter har været indskrænkede, og nogle af de firmaer der har hjulpet med distributionen er enten gået rabundus eller omstrukturerede, med den følge, at jeg skulle til at bygge distributionsnetværket op igen. Det nåede at blive til 53 numre, og godt et par tusind sider med nye danske serier. Det’ sgudda også meget godt.
Jeg vil fortsat udgive tegneserier, nu skal de bare ikke foræres væk. Nu hvor folk ingen penge har, vil jeg sælge dem istedet. Så smart er jeg nemlig.
En kæmpe tak til alle jer, der har været med til at lave Free Comics, for jeres engagement og bidrag.
Bedste hilsener,
Torben
Vi her i Bunkeren ønsker hermed at udtrykke vore kondolencer — projektet Free Comics voksede fra at være en god græsrodsidé til en veritabel institution i det danske tegneseriemiljø — et sted hvor flere markante yngre talenter, fx. Johan Krarup, Anders Brønserud, Jacob Rask Nielsen, Christian Skovgaard og nu, med nummer 53, Mikkel Sommer, har slået nogle af deres første offentlige tegneseriestreger. Et skidt og kanel-projekt drevet af idealisme og knofedt til oplag i området 20.000 eks., samt et lille dobbelt–forlag med smag for skæve tegneserier.
Hatten af! Og held og lykke til Torben — og projektets andre involverede — med fremtidens projekter!
Billede fra Mikkel Sommers korte bidrag til det seneste nummer af Free Comics. Her kan du læse Rackhams noget uimponerede anmeldelse af bladet fra 2004, da det trådte sine barnesko, og her kan du læse vores interview med Torben fra 2006, just som han havde startet forlaget Brun Blomst.
Hype: From Wonderland with Love Available Now!
I’ve talked about the new Danish comics anthology From Wonderland with Love before, and I’ve even interviewed editor/publisher Steffen P. Maarup about it, but at the risk of it all becoming rather trite, I’d like to call attention to it here once again, because it is now out and should be available at your bookstore (brick&mortar as well as the internets), and it’s a damn fine collection of comics.
If you need further recommendation, check out the starred review it has just received at Publishers Weekly, or look at the generous samples provided by Maarup here. From Wonderland with Love is published jointly by Fantagraphics Books and Aben Maler.
Oh, and if you happen to be in Copenhagen on Friday the 14th, do consider dropping by the release party at Karriere Bar, Flæsketorvet 57-67, Kbh V, from 5PM!
Picks of the Week
The picks of the week from around the web.
IZ the WIZ RIP
Jeez, talk about sleeping on the blog — I just found out, from Alex Holden, that original New York graffiti legend Iz the Wiz died two weeks ago. It’s a bit late, but I just wanted to pay my respects to one of the great early stylists of subway art and one of the most ferocious bombers of all time.
Check out Holden’s site for a few classic flix and one of the two or three most resonant segments from Silver and Chalfant’s classic documentary Style Wars, where a young Iz speaks for a generation of writers. Alan Ket and Greg Lamarche have more, here’s an interview with the man and here’s another and here’s Iz’ website. Photo by Matt Isles from the Phun Factory aka. 5 Pointz — the legal writers’ playground in Queens, helped into the world by IZ. It was taken in 2001 and copped from here.