It Sparkles!

DREAM ON

2012-02-18T17:59:00.000-08:00

Another great video from Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds:

RESPECTABLE STREET

2012-02-18T12:29:00.000-08:00

A WEEK AWAY

2012-02-17T12:40:00.000-08:00

I think this has already made the rounds on Twitter today, but it's still cool to finally have one of these in my mits. (Those freaky teeth are from the cover of Jonathan Hickman and Ryan Bodenheim's Secret, by the way. You have no idea how much you are going to love that comic book right now, but trust me, you will.)

I'm really curious how this whole thing will work, because it's unlike anything we've ever attempted before. I did a couple of interviews about the show yesterday, that I guess will be making their way into the local press over the next few days, but the one thing I've tried to stress is how thankful I am for the opportunity to do something not just for the Bay Area comics community, but for the local community in general.

When I visited Oakland for the first time, back in the '90s, it was a very different place. The way Downtown Oakland has transformed itself over the last couple years is really inspiring. That sort of undertaking is something I have a lot of affinity for, and I have a lot of admiration for all the people who made that happen. Being able to get involved with an event that takes place within that community feels really good.

And – gak! – it's next weekend.

If you don't have tickets yet, you can get them here.

DEATHLY

2012-02-16T13:05:00.000-08:00

Here's a question I was asked more than a few times at ComicsPRO this past weekend:

"Is there something from Image you think should be doing better, that we might not be paying enough attention to?"

At least once, I answered that question by saying I felt Invincible was a criminally overlooked book. But the more various retailers complimented us on the success of Fatale and Thief of Thieves, I realized the actual answer was Jay Faerber's quietly remarkable crime series, Near Death.

Jay's been at Image for around 11 years at this point. You may know his name from Noble Causes, or maybe Dynamo 5. They're both superhero books with a lot of fine qualities, but you know what? Jay's first love has always been crime fiction.

And Near Death is a crime comic.

People always do their best work when they're doing something they truly love, but Jay wasn't always planning to do this as a comic. Another publisher had talked to him about doing something with it a while back, but since he's been making inroads into writing for television, he decided it might work better as a television pitch.

But then Brian K. Vaughan – and I like to think, myself – talked him out of it.

Because it's a great idea, and y'know, why waste a great idea on TV, when you you can turn it into a comic book?

Scratch that: a great comic book.

In brief, Near Death is the story of Markham, a hired gun who glimpse eternal hell during a near death experience. Determined to avoid that fate, Markham dedicates his life to balancing the scales: He will save a life for every life he's taken. And as Jay notes, "He's taken a lot of lives..."

It's excellent, inspired work, and easily the best thing Jay has done in comics to date. And if you like Fatale? If you like Thief of Thieves? It's right up your alley.

The trade paperback collecting the first five issues is out next week, and even better yet, it's only $9.99. And if you haven't had a chance to check out Near Death yet, here's a preview of issue six. It's out a month later, on March 21, so you've got plenty of time to grab a copy of the trade and get caught up.

You'll be glad you did.

WEDNESDAY GIRL

2012-02-15T07:12:00.000-08:00

Grace Park

INCREDIBLE

2012-02-14T14:07:00.000-08:00

Comics legend John Severin died today. He was 90, and while it's sad when anyone dies, 90 years is a damn good run.

Even better when you're an artist as insanely awesome as the esteemed Mr. Severin.

A few weeks ago, I was at a comic book store out in Concord, Flying Colors, and they had an amazing copy of this comic on the wall:

When I was younger, this was one of my favorite Incredible Hulk covers, but when I found it under the Christmas tree amongst a stack of other comics one cold Christmas morning almost 40 years ago, it looked like this:

Reprint books like Marvel Super-Heroes, Marvel Tales and Marvel's Greatest Comics were how I discovered a lot of comics, and more importantly, how I discovered a lot of comic book artists. With Marvel's Greatest Comics, it was Jack Kirby. Even though I bought the current issues of Fantastic Four, I liked Kirby's F.F. more.

With Marvel Super-Heroes, it was Herb Trimpe and John Severin. And I like Happy Herb's Hulk just fine, but to this day, the Hulk I see in my mind's eye, is penciled by Trimpe and inked by John Severin. And while Severin is known for a wide variety of other comics, it's his work on Incredible Hulk that made him one of my favorites.

It's a testament, too, that even though the cover layout and artwork was altered for Marvel Super-Heroes #63, it's still an instantly memorable cover. They just don't make 'em like that anymore.

And the same could be said about John Severin as well.

LOVE'S YOUNG DREAM

2012-02-14T11:33:00.000-08:00

And here's a more traditional Valentine's Day message, courtesy of the L'il Depressed Boy, Kid Omni-Man and Sina Grace...

LOVESTRUCK

2012-02-14T08:41:00.000-08:00

I suspect this is a more honest love song than most you'll hear today...

RACHEL

2012-02-13T16:34:00.000-08:00

I was at the ComicsPRO retailer meeting in Dallas, Texas this past weekend, and at one point, writer/artist Terry Moore got up to talk about his wonderful new series, Rachel Rising. I've been following Terry's work since Strangers In Paradise back in the '90s, but as much as I liked that (and Echo, which came after), Rachel Rising is probably my favorite thing he's done so far. There are five issues out to date, and I highly recommend you buy all of them when you go to your local comic book shop this week.

They look like this:

WEDNESDAY GIRL

2012-02-08T08:03:00.000-08:00

Summer Glau

GET IT WHILE YOU CAN

2012-02-07T16:24:00.000-08:00

You've probably heard about Image Expo, happening this February 24-25 at the Oakland Convention Center in Downtown Oakland. We're barreling towards that blessed event at what seems like light speed. I'm both looking forward to it and looking forward to looking back on it.

A lot of cool people are coming: Brian K. Vaughan, Jonathan Hickman, Todd McFarlane, Joe Casey, Fiona Staples, Ed Brubaker and Robert Kirkman, just to name a few. But also cool? There are going to be some insanely awesome Image Expo exclusives. A full announcement is coming later this week, but here's a sneak peak at the cover for The Walking Dead #94 we're GIVING AWAY to the first 5,000 attendees. We're giving away something else, too, but you'll have to get one of the Image Expo TWD variants to find out what that is...

You can get tickets for Image Expo here.

We're also going to be giving away a limited number of these as well:

LONG TIME GONE

2012-02-07T12:18:00.000-08:00

Richey Edwards was last seen today, 17 years ago.

He was beautiful. He was gifted. He was doomed.

In the wake of his disappearance, his band, Manic Street Preachers, scaled previously unimagined heights, but Richey remains sadly missed.

Some of Richey's best...

...and the promo video for a song about Richey by the latter-day Manics, which for some reason always manages raises the hair on the back of my neck when the stages merge at the end...

BAD COVER VERSION

2012-02-06T10:21:00.001-08:00

This seemed relevant...

NO FUN

2012-02-02T08:44:00.000-08:00

I'm still kind of gnashing my teeth over the "Before Watchmen" news, mainly because of how dismissive people are of Alan Moore's rights as a creator.

Historically, the comics community has been on the side of the creator in most creator vs. corporation battles. Much has been written and said about Jack Kirby's battles with Marvel Comics, for instance, and most of us tend to agree that Kirby was not treated as he should have been, when the big picture is considered.

But something else most of us can agree on when discussing Kirby vs. Marvel, is that Jack knew he was creating characters that would be owned by Marvel Comics. Did he want more credit and compensation for his part in those characters' creation than he ultimately received? Yes. Did he deserve it? A thousand times, yes: characters Fantastic Four, Thor, the Hulk, Iron Man, the X-Men, S.H.I.E.L.D., the Silver Surfer, Captain America, and the Avengers would not exist without Jack Kirby. But did he know he was creating characters that Marvel would ultimately own? Again, the answer is yes.

Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, meanwhile, created Watchmen under the impression that the rights would be returned them eventually. Within a year after it was concluded, in fact. That's not my opinion. That's a fact. It's public knowledge. Due to the nature of the deal that had been agreed upon by Moore, Gibbons and DC Comics, it was widely discussed. It was a genuine victory for creators' rights.

But then the book was kept in print forever, and the rights to Watchmen never reverted back to Moore and Gibbons.

And people wonder why Alan Moore felt betrayed.

It was a dirty deal, and the fact that there are people who want to rationalize it by saying, "Well, Alan Moore wrote League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Lost Girls, and those books used other writers's characters, so how is this any different?" just shows that truth is a sadly devalued currency. It's different because Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons negotiated, in good faith, a deal that would have allowed them to retain the rights to Watchmen.

And yes, the characters in Watchmen were inspired by characters like Peacemaker, Thunderbolt and The Question. We know that, because Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons told us as much. Had they kept that inspiration quiet – would anyone anywhere have mistaken Watchmen for something published by Charlton Comics? Dr. Manhattan is no more the same character as Captain Atom as Captain Marvel is Superman or Blue Beetle is Spider-Man.

All in all, it's a strange double standard, arbitrarily applied to an amazing writer who has done more than almost anyone else to draw serious attention to this medium. And it's one that anyone who supports creator's rights should find fairly troubling, if not outright maddening.

LADDER'S BOTTOM RUNG

2012-02-01T09:38:00.000-08:00

Everyone has known this was coming for a while, but that doesn't make the news of DC's "Before Watchmen" comics any less disgusting.

There are some really talented people involved in these books: Darwyn Cooke is one of my all-time favorite storytellers; Amanda Conner, Adam Hughes and J.G. Jones are artists whose work I've admired for years; Brian Azzarello's a wonderful writer and his 100 Bullets is a genuine classic. Len Wein? He co-created Swamp Thing and a good chunk of the X-Men most people know and love. (Namely Wolverine, Storm, Colossus and Nightcrawler.)

I would rather see any of them do something new than engage in the kind of hard graft DC has conscripted them for with these books. Or as Alan Moore's daughter Leah put it on Twitter:

"Why not do NEW ogn's (sic) from the Before Watchmen creators, or better yet fresh talent. Use the budget to find the *next* watchmen instead?"

Alan Moore gets a lot of stick from various quarters for having principals. Certain people like to couch that in different, less flattering terms – he's crazy, he's lost it, he's an asshole – but at the end of the day, he's making a stand based on what he thinks is fair and right. Whether you agree with his position or not, I have to think you'd be able to admire his tenacity. It would have been far easier for him, at any point, to simply accept the DC/Warner Bros. agenda and just pocket the cash.

In the final estimation, it's really just more of the same. This is what they do. I'm sure it will be perfectly serviceable fan fiction.

WEDNESDAY GIRL

2012-02-01T07:50:00.000-08:00

Karen Gillian

WE HATE IT WHEN OUR FRIENDS BECOME SUCCESSFUL

2012-01-31T11:38:00.000-08:00

We hate it when our friends become successful

Oh, look at those clothes

Now look at that face, it's so old

And such a video !

Well, it's really laughable

Ha, ha, ha ...

We hate it when our friends become successful

And if they're Northern, that makes it even worse

And if we can destroy them

You bet your life we will

Destroy them

If we can hurt them

Well, we may as well ...

It's really laughable

Ha, ha, ha ...

You see, it should've been me

It could've been me

Everybody knows

Everybody says so

They say :

"Ah, you have loads of songs

So many songs

More songs than they'd stand

Verse

Chorus

Middle eight

Break, fade

Just listen ..."

EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY

2012-01-30T07:46:00.000-08:00

As January slips out of view, I thought it would be nice to collect the first four ads from the "Experience Creativity" campaign we're running over the course of 2012, in one place. We're spotlighting one a week in various Image titles, but they're also on the Image blog, and there are plans for some of them to appear in other places as well.

They're incredibly straightforward, and I'm very proud of the work Image's Jonathan Chan did on the design. They were created from photos taken by the creators' spouses or friends (or in the case of Shaky's, a professional photographer, Steven Cook), so it was important to have a clean look that would allow a variety of different images to look uniform yet distinctive. Jon kept things simple, and as is often the case with design, that's the shortest path to brilliance.

I think the idea speaks for itself, but we wanted to focus on what makes Image Comics great. In an industry populated by some of the most imaginative minds ever, we sometimes lose sight of the fact that they are – without a doubt – our single greatest resource. We wanted to celebrate, not just the comics we publish, but the amazing people who create them. Above all else, we wanted to tell their story – because their story is our story.

GREATEST HITS

2012-01-29T17:39:00.000-08:00

Musing on vinyl again today, because listening to The Gift last night got me thinking about The Jam's fantastic "best of" collection, the two-record Snap! I played the hell out of that when I was younger, probably more than any other album by The Jam, and so much so that I had to buy a second copy when the original wore out. I bought it again when it came on CD – renamed Compact Snap! and featuring fewer songs – and yet again when it was re-released in 2004 in a deluxe format that restored the original track listing, added the bonus live EP that came with the original vinyl issue and dressed it all up in a landscape format book featuring the original liner notes and all the lyrics.

The 29 songs on Snap! expertly chronicle the evolution of a band whose final single sounded almost unrecognizable from the first, and a songwriter who even today, refuses to stand still, but it was those liner notes and lyrics that got me thinking this morning, as I put the album on to accompany my morning coffee.

Beautifully designed by long-time Weller collaborator, Simon Halfon, Snap! was a gatefold album that opened to reveal 10 photos of The Jam taken between 1977 and 1982, along with excepts from Paolo Hewitt's then-new authorized biography of the band, The Jam: A Beat Concerto. The excerpts provided kind of a Cliff Notes overview of the band's career, and since I had come in at the end instead of the beginning, I was deeply fascinated by what I read.

Each side of the sleeves for the two records offered further facts to pour over, these an almost stream of consciousness beat poem telling the story of one of England's best loved bands:

"Hair by Schumi, vigorous shows, backstage fights, mum ironing and drying white shirts, leaps in the air, sweat, Paul and Bruce back to back, fanzines, Rick Bucker's shades, Familiar Faces in the crowd, pogoing, 'revolution,' a contract just an ink dot away and yes! You can change your world if you want to."

On The Jam's first single, Weller proclaimed, "In the city, there's a thousand things I want to say to you," and regardless of whether he actually said that much or not, I read the sleeve notes to Snap! at least that many times. Even when I'd actually tracked down a copy of A Beat Concerto, I remained transfixed by the more stylized and condensed version of The Jam's story that could only be found in that album.

And that's not an experience that can be replicated listening to the album on your iPod or by streaming it on Spotify. I'm not against either of those things – I think they're both great, in fact – but they don't offer the same kind of immersive experience listening to records and pouring over the details on the sleeves does. And even more to the point, the entire digital format makes greatest albums almost obsolete. Anyone can create their "best of" playlists, for any artist.

This old heart of mine is weak for greatest hits albums, though. When I'm out shopping for vinyl, I'll buy greatest hits albums by almost any band I like. I have every Otis Redding album on vinyl – but I also have two different greatest hits albums by him, not to mention a four-disc CD box set. The Beatles, The Byrds, Dylan, Love, Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, the Stones... I have something like a dozen different Motown hits compilations and a seven-album, 14-record Atlantic Records collection. I'll argue long and hard in favor of the album as an artistic statement, but I also like being able to just kick my bits to the hits at times, too.

There are a few greatest hits albums, too, that are practically the definitive statement about a band. When I was growing up, one of those albums was Al Green's Greatest Hits. To this day, that is still my go-to Al Green record, even though I have heard all those songs more times than I can count, and even though I have most of his albums and love of many of the album tracks more than the singles. The albums definitely give you a much fuller understanding of an amazing artist, but Greatest Hits – it sums Al Green up even more perfectly than Snap! does The Jam.

In addition to greatest hits albums, I love making top 10 lists, so here's a quick rundown of my all-time favorite best of collections, all best listened to on vinyl and played LOUD.

1. Al Green - Greatest Hits (1975)
2. The Zombies - Time of The Zombies (1974)
3. The Jam - Snap! (1983)
4. Sly & The Family Stone - Greatest Hits (1970)
5. The Beatles - 1967-1970 (1973)
6. Shack - Time Machine: The Best of Shack (2007)
7. Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady (1979)
8. The Rolling Stones - Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass) (1966)
9. Neil Young - Decade (1977)
10. David Bowie - ChangesOneBowie (1976)

THE GIFT

2012-01-28T22:07:00.000-08:00

"I believe in life and I believe in love
But the world in which I live in keeps trying to prove me wrong."

For me, staying in and listening to records has always been one of life's great pleasures, but it's an experience that has only gotten better with age.

Case in point: For the second time this week, I'm listening to my 30-year-old copy of The Jam's final studio LP, The Gift. There's a 180gram vinyl reissue available now, that I briefly considered buying, but thinking about that resulted in listening to my original copy for the first time in years.

Don't get me wrong: I've listened to the album, or least songs from it, numerous times, but on my iPod, on my computer, on CD. Pulling the record out of the lavender and white "gift bag" it was originally issued in back in 1982, it dawned on me a needle hadn't troubled its grooves since at least 1989.

Hearing it again in this format was somewhat of a revelation: I must have really handled my records with care when I was a kid, because it sounds almost as though it's never been played. Having grown used to buying clean vinyl that inevitably has the odd crackle or pop, I was a little shocked at how little surface noise there was on this one. It's almost like hearing it for the first time.

The songs also sound incredibly fresh, considering how long ago they were written and recorded. There are numerous Paul Weller fans who dismiss this particular album, but hearing it now, I find it difficult to understand. "Ghosts," "Carnation," "Running on the Spot," "Town Called Malice," "Precious," "Just Who Is the 5 O'Clock Hero?" – there are bands that would kill for songs that good. The wisdom and awareness in Weller's lyrics greatly bely his age, and listening to them three decades later, it's actually a bit unnerving to consider how little things have changed since they were written.

"We're running on the spot – always have – always will?
We're just the next generation of the emotionally crippled."

If you don't have a copy of the album handy – or worse, if you've never heard it – here are The Jam playing a few of the best tracks live at Bingley Hall back in 1982...

And the big hit from The Gift was obviously the almost annoyingly well-known "Town Called Malice," but it's still one of my favorite Jam singles and an all-around top song.

Here's the original promo video for it:

BLOOD MAKES NOISE

2012-01-28T14:24:00.000-08:00

"Feel the blood."

"Rub the blood."

That's how we sold Bloodstrike to the world, back in 1993. The initial ads for Extreme's undead government super-team said, "Feel the blood!" Then, when Rob Liefeld came up with the idea to splatter the cover of the first issue with thermal ink that would "disappear" on touch, we decided telling people that wasn't enough. "Feel" sounded too passive – we needed to let everyone know that it required a bit more effort.

I still remember sitting on the floor in the Extreme bullpen and saying, almost absent-mindedly, what if it just says, "Rub the blood"?

Rob loved that.

Something else he loved was my suggestion, last year, that Hack/Slash creator Tim Seeley write the new Bloodstrike series we were planning to launch.

Tim had actually contacted Rob about doing something with Bloodstrike even earlier than that, but nothing was going on with the book at that point. Rob liked his ideas, though, and when I told Rob that Tim was my first choice, his response was both immediate and wholly enthusiastic. In fact, Tim was the first piece chunk of talent we enlisted as we began putting building the awesome Frankenstein monster that would become the new Extreme.

For anyone unfamiliar with Tim, his Hack/Slash comic follows the adventures of Cassie Hack as she hunts down serial killers – all of whom will seem more than a little familiar to fans of the slasher movies Tim himself loves so much. It's a great series that is full of action, humor and gore, whilst simultaneously broadcasting Tim's heartfelt affection for a genre that likely falls into the "guilty pleasure" category for most.

Bloodstrike is about super-powered government agents resurrected to continue fighting the good fight. Or at continue fighting. Whether the minds behind Project: Born Again actually have noble intentions is something else altogether, but either way, Tim's affinity not only for the darker side of life, but the lighter side of death, made him seem like a perfect fit as we revived Bloodstrike's long-dead corpse.

And as with Brandon Graham and Joe Keatinge, Tim brought an incredibly talented artist along with him: Franchesco Gaston.

The artists on Prophet and Glory share almost no common ground with their predecessors on those titles, but Franchesco manages to incorporate some of the series' original energy into a style what is considerably different that that of any other Bloodstrike artist. There is outrageous weaponry and there is gore galore, but Franchesco goes all Sinatra on us and does it his way. You're going to love it.

Here's a taste:

I'm also a big fan of Tim's covers for the book, the latest of which actually prompted this post. Tim doesn't draw enough, in my opinion, but I'm happy we've got him on covers for Bloodstrike. Here's one you probably haven't seen yet:

THIS IS HOW WE DO IT

2012-01-27T11:23:00.000-08:00

Prophet #22 is barreling to finer comic book shops everywhere in a few short weeks, and it's actually better than Brandon Graham and Simon Roy's first issue.

I could rattle off a list of reasons why, but since Simon decided to do a new cover for this issue that no one's seen yet, I figured I'd let that and a few of the pages speak for themselves.

DESPERATE BUT NOT SERIOUS

2012-01-25T11:31:00.000-08:00

I got an email from a prominent comic book retailer a few days back. He wanted to let me know that more and more of his customers are checking out Image's 2012 books, and how excited he was for the year to come. He predicted Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples' Saga would be likely be one of, if not the, biggest selling books of the year in his store.

It was an inspirational and uplifting message, but his kind words about Image's ongoing commitment to creating good comics – good new comics – only barely masked a seething disappointment with Marvel and DC. And not just on his part, but his customers' as well. He said readers were tired of being force-fed the same stories, as though nobody recognized they were regurgitating the same ideas – recent ones, even – again and again. He praised Image's commitment to maintaining a fair cover price on so many of our books, whilst Marvel and DC paid lip service to "holding the line" at $2.99. Worse, he bemoaned the increased frequency of Marvel's books, noting that readers might be excited by that if the quality was there, but concluding it simply wasn't.

That last part really made a dent in my thinking, because it's not the first time I've heard or read comments like that from a retailer. I think everyone has noticed that Marvel has started publishing a number of their books more than once a month. They've been ramping up on this for a while, and it's something I've kind of shook my head at, because it's a desperate ploy to gain marketshare that doesn't promote sustainability on any level. It's a cash grab, pure and simple, and when you couple that with the fact so many of their books are creeping up on $3.99, I shudder to think of the long-term effects.

And I can hear you shaking your own head now. Okay, maybe I can't hear you doing that, but I can imagine the chuckling: "Desperate? Marvel is the number one publisher in comics!" – but I'll stand by my words. When DC launched their new 52 last September, Marvel didn't fight back with awesome. They fought back with the only real tool in their shed: more. They're not increasing the frequency of their books out of generosity, they're doing it to dominate the market. And in the absence of anything even resembling new, all we get is more.

I mean, they keep doing these events that are based around the same mix and match concepts: Other characters get the Hulk's powers. Other characters get Spider-Man's powers. Other characters get hammers like Thor. Now, if that recent Iron Fist image from an upcoming issue of New Avengers is any indication, a bunch of characters will be imbued with the Phoenix Force. I know DC went green by using recycled paper, but maybe Marvel's trying to recycle in other ways.

Also central to these "ideas:" Everyone vs. everyone! I poked fun at this last week, when that hilarious Avengers vs. X-Men cover image was released online, but it's the truth. Civil War, House of M, World War Hulk, Secret Invasion, Shadowland, Ultimatum, Fear Itself, Spider-Island, X-Men: Schism, and now, Avengers Vs. X-Men. It's all-out hero on hero action in the mighty Marvel manner, again and again and again.

These are not serious creative statements. It's more like a bored child reaching into the toy box trying to find new ways to wring some meager enjoyment out of faded old playthings. The fun lasts for a little while, but you can only tell yourself something's all-new and all-different so many times before those words ring hollow. Avengers vs. X-Men wasn't a new idea when Marvel did it in 1987, and it's not a new idea now.

Ultimately, though, it doesn't matter if it's new, or even if it's good. All that matters is that it sells, which it will. But it won't sell as well as the last big "event," and I'm willing to bet the one after that (and oh, don't you just know there will be one after that...) will sell even less.

That's why I use words like "desperate" and "sustainability." These "event" books – whether they're from Marvel or from DC, and whether it's Avengers vs. X-Men or Watchmen 2 – whatever – they're just short-term fixes. They spike sales, but they don't sustain interest. And instead of seriously looking for ways to engage new or lapsed readers over the long haul, it's just more of the same – an approach as worn out and tired as the phrase "wash, rinse, repeat."

That's worrisome to a growing number of retailers, like the one referenced above, but truthfully, it should be to anyone with an interest in this industry's future. We're at juncture where we can either embrace creativity and move forward...or we can just sit where we are and chew our own tails, month-in and month-out.

Me? I've kind of lost the taste for it.

WEDNESDAY GIRL

2012-01-25T07:26:00.000-08:00

Mélanie Laurent

COMEDY

2012-01-23T22:49:00.000-08:00

I was chatting with a friend over email the other day, about British comedy shows that ran here in the States during the early '80s. This was years before BBC America was developed, so these shows were running on PBS, and they ran them in a block that included The Benny Hill Show, Doctor In the House, The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perin, and a show I haven't thought about probably since I last saw in 1982 or so, Dave Allen At Large. These shows came on either before or after Doctor Who back then, and along with Monty Python's Flying Circus (which was aired separately for some reason; memory suggests in was only on weekends), formed my introduction to British humor.

I actually had to do a Google search for comedians missing a finger to finally recall Dave Allen's name. And then it was off to YouTube, wonderful YouTube, the repository for virtually everything knocking about the backseat of our minds, to be reminded of why I was so transfixed by his show to begin with. Comedy is different now – a bit more brusque, I think – but Dave Allen registers laughs with me. I think it's because so much of what he says is grounded in truth. What's more, itt's odd to see this stuff now, some 30 years on from my original point of contact (and even later, in terms of its original air date), and realize how much of my own sense of humor is owed to this wonderfully irreverent Irishman from the 20th century...

SUNDAY'S PRETTY ICONS

2012-01-22T20:58:00.000-08:00

Nostalgia strikes at strange times, for strange things, in strange ways: I woke up this morning longing for the comfort of my old blueberry iMac.

I actually still have it, sitting atop a bookshelf in my office at Image, but the notion of actually setting it up and using it again somehow invaded my idle thoughts again and again over the course of the day. Also, it got me thinking about just how simple and beautiful so many of Apple's computers have been.

How many of these have you had?

THE QUEEN IS DEAD

2012-01-20T09:58:00.000-08:00

There's always bad news to go with the good, and today's allotment comes as the announcement of Etta James' death at the age of 73. Somehow Aretha Franklin was crowned the queen of soul, but while I love her, too, for me, that title has always belonged to Etta James. Honestly, I really don't know how you can listen to "At Last" or "A Sunday Kind of Love" or "I'd Rather Go Blind" and think any differently. What a voice. And have you heard "Seven Day Fool," or her team-ups with Sugar Pie DeSanto, like "Do I Make Myself Clear?" She just had an amazing voice – powerful as all get out, but still capable of projecting incredible warmth and vulnerability. "Soul" just doesn't begin to describe it.

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN

2012-01-20T07:47:00.000-08:00

I didn't notice until recently, but Manic Street Preachers' Nicky Wire and my father share the same birthdate. That date being today. The Wire is 43; my old man is somewhat older. I wish them both the best.

If you're not familiar with Nicky, he's the Manics' bassist and has written virtually all their lyrics since the disappearance of Richey Edwards in 1995. He's prone to saying whatever the fuck is on his mind – a trait I greatly admire – and he also fancies a dress every now and again.

Nicky isn't everyone's cup of tea – his lyrics, his persona, or his singing voice – but I'm a fan, and here are the top 10 reasons why, including the frequently-maligned "Miss Europa Disco Dancer." It doesn't feature a lead vocal from Nicky, but does include the refrain "brain dead motherfuckers" at the three-minute mark and is thereby okay by me...

1. Manic Street Preachers - "William's Last Words," (Journal for Plauge Lovers, 2009)
2. Manic Street Preachers - "Some Kind of Nothingness" (demo), (Postcards from a Young Man Deluxe Edition, 2010)
3. Nicky Wire - "Casual/Glam," (single b-side, "Break My Heart Slowly," 2006)
4. Nicky Wire - "Daydreamer Eyes," (free download, 2006)
5. Manic Street Preachers - "Ballad of the Bangkok Novotel," (single b-side, "Found That Soul," 2001)
6. Manic Street Preachers - "Lady Lazarus," (single b-side, "Indian Summer," 2007)
7. Nicky Wire - "Break My Heart Slowly," (I Killed the Zeitgeist, 2006)
8. Manic Street Preachers - "The Future Has Been Here 4 Ever," (Postcards from a Young Man, 2010)
9. Manic Street Preachers - "Miss Europa Disco Dancer," (Know Your Enemy, 2001)
10. Manic Street Preachers - "Failure Bound," (single b-side, "Empty Souls," 2005)

OFFEND IN EVERY WAY

2012-01-19T09:25:00.000-08:00

Honestly, I don't know which is worse, that they're claiming this was "the top performing concept across all consumer segments," or that Warner Bros. laid out a ridiculous sum of money for these abysmally dopey things.

And the Watchmen variation really should serve as notice to the entire creative community in this business.

WEDNESDAY GIRL

2012-01-18T11:06:00.000-08:00

Marion Cotillard

FALLING AND LAUGHING

2012-01-18T08:43:00.000-08:00

Often, logos are redesigned when there's really no need.

Really wretched examples that come to mind include Denny's, Burger King and Baskin Robbins.

DC Comics isn't a skeevy chain restaurant, but boy, does this abortion of a logo ever take the cake. Or, as Image Production Manager Tyler Shainline quipped on Twitter yesterday:

"If I keep peeling, do I find a good logo underneath?"

There are a lot of things DC Comics could improve upon. Their logo should really be amongst the least of their concerns.

SWEET CATATONIA

2012-01-17T22:37:00.000-08:00

Ah, Cerys Matthews.

I'll take her over 10 Katy Perrys or Adeles any day.

Were the late '90s really over 10 years ago?

MEANWHILE

2012-01-17T16:49:00.000-08:00

SCREAM THY LAST SCREAM

2012-01-17T15:44:00.000-08:00

Everyone seems very upset here, but this image really just leaves me speechless...

AROUND THE DIAL

2012-01-15T17:48:00.000-08:00

I haven't listened to the radio regularly since the early '90s, and I often found doing so back then to be a frustrating experience, but these days, it's downright mind-numbing.

When I was visiting my family in Kentucky over the holidays, we spent a lot of time going places in the car, and that invariably meant listening to the radio. Some of my favorite childhood memories involve riding in the car with my family, hearing great song after great song. A particularly vivid image comes to mind of driving cross country from Washington to Kentucky with my Dad, watching the moonlit landscape of Middle America glide past as I heard songs like Bowie's "Space Oddity" or ELO's "Can't Get It Out of My Head" for the first time. My Dad has satellite radio these days – Sirius XM, I believe – in his car, and I figured that would be great.

Wow, was I ever wrong.

Even though the stations my Dad favored – "Classic Vinyl" and "Deep Cuts" got the most air time – seemed geared toward my abiding love of all things '60s, they were just unbelievably bland. And not because I didn't like the music – Deep Cuts focuses on "deep classic rock" by the likes of The Beatles, Dylan, the Stones, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Kinks and The Who, and Classic Vinyl is rather more of the same – but generally speaking, it was so rigidly the same bloody songs you hear by the same bloody bands, over and over, it almost defied belief.

I mean, I think "A Day In the Life" is a wonderful song. But it's not the only Beatles song. And The Beatles aren't the only band.

That's an exaggeration, obviously, but listening to these stations over the course of several days, it did occur to me that a blinkered view of the '60s has developed over the last little while. And it's nothing new. The British music magazine Mojo has been cycling through the same acts on its cover for years now, in the exact same way. If you were to go off their cover features and the bands played on various classic rock stations, you'd think there were fewer a dozen bands in the '60s. It's all Beatles/Stones/Dylan/Who/Floyd/Zeppelin, all the time.

Maybe there's some Credence. Maybe some Neil Young or Bowie. But if it's Neil Young, it's "Old Man" or "Heart of Gold." If it's Bowie, it's more likely to be "Changes" than "Oh! You Pretty Things" or "Life on Mars?" – and those aren't exactly what I'd call hidden gems. It's "Won't Get Fooled Again," "Bad Moon Rising," "Money," "Riders on the Storm," "When the Levee Breaks" and "Sympathy for the Devil" on a never-ending loop, and regardless of the relative merit of any of those songs, I just think it's an unfortunate misrepresentation of the way things were and the actual scope of the music that was being made back then.

Some of that music still sounds as inventive and fresh as it did when it was first released in the '60s and '70s – it seems like a real shame to reduce it all to just the superstars and the hits. So, here's a couple hours worth of great music that strays a bit further off the beaten path when it comes to "classic rock." Not everything here is what the programmers at Sirius XM would you refer to as a "deep cut," but whether they're hits or misses, any one of these tracks would liven up playlists on any number of classic rock stations...

1. Humble Pie - "Bang!," (As Safe as Yesterday Is, 1969)

2. Love - "Singing Cowboy," (Four Sail, 1969)

3. Jim Ford - "Spoonfull," (Harlan County, 1969)

4. The Merry-Go-Round - "You're a Very Lovely Woman," (single a-side, 1967)

5. Big Star - "September Gurls," (Radio City, 1972)

6. Neil Young - "I've Been Waiting for You," (Neil Young, 1969)

7. Nick Drake - "Hazey Jane II," (Bryter Layter, 1970)

8. Gene Clark - "So You Say You've Lost Your Baby," (Gene Clark and the Gosdin Brothers, 1967)

9. Donovan - "Superlungs My Supergirl," (Barabajagal, 1969)

10. Scott Walker - "The Old Man's Back Again," (Scott 4, 1969)

11. The Action - "Brain," (Rolled Gold, 1998 - recorded 1968)

12. Bee Gees - "Red Chair, Fade Away," (Bee Gees' First, 1967)

13. The Rolling Stones - "Monkey Man," (Let It Bleed, 1969)

14. David Bowie - "Conversation Piece," (Space Oddity, 1969)

15. The Pretty Things - "Baron Saturday," (S.F. Sorrow, 1968)

16. The Creation - "How Does It Feel to Feel," (single a-side, 1967)

17. Simon & Garfunkel - "Richard Cory," (Sounds of Silence, 1968)

18. Tintern Abbey - "Vacuum Cleaner," (single b-side, "Beeside," 1967)

19. Brian Auger & The Trinity with Julie Driscoll - "Season of the Witch," (Open, 1968)

20. David Crosby - "Laughing," (If I Could Only Remember My Name, 1971)

21. Steeleye Span - "Copshawholme Fair," (Hark! The Village Wait, 1970)

22. The Zombies - "She Loves the Way They Love Her," (Time of the Zombies, 1974 - recorded 1968)

23. Small Faces - "Song of a Baker," (Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake, 1968)

24. The Move - "Message from the Country," (Message from the Country, 1971)

25. Emitt Rhodes - "You Should Be Ashamed," (Emitt Rhodes, 1970)

26. Fairport Convention - "Meet on the Ledge," (What We Did on Our Holidays, 1969)

27. Rod Stewart - "Man of Constant Sorrow," (An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down, 1969)

28. Faces - "Debris," (A Nod Is as Good as a Wink, to a Blind Horse, 1971)

29. The Who - "Sunrise," (Sell Out, 1967)

30. The Velvet Underground - "Who Loves the Sun," (Loaded, 1970)

31. The Kinks - "Big Sky," (The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, 1968)

32. The Moody Blues - "It's Up to You," (A Question of Balance, 1970)

33. Paul & Linda McCartney - "The Back Seat of My Car," (Ram, 1971)

34. Rodriguez - "Sugar Man," (Cold Fact, 1970)

35. Fleetwood Mac - "Dust," (Bare Trees, 1972)

36. The Beach Boys - "'Til I Die," (Surf's Up, 1971)

ABRAHAM, MARTIN AND JOHN

2012-01-15T14:08:00.000-08:00

Written in response to the death of Robert Kennedy in 1968 and originally recorded by Dion, "Abraham, Martin and John" is one of my favorite songs by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles. It's lyrics are formed around such a simple sentiment, but at the same time, it's so beautiful and powerful that it still manages to affect me on an emotional level, even after being familiar with it since my teens. One particular line – "Didn't you love the things they stood for?" – gets me each and every time.

And today seems like a good day to post this wonderful video of Smokey Robinson performing the song at the White House...

Has anybody here seen my old friend Abraham?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed a lot of people
But it seems the good, they die young
You know, I just looked around and he's gone.

Anybody here seen my old friend John?

Can you tell me where he's gone?

He freed a lot of people

But it seems the good, they die young

I just looked around and he's gone.

Anybody here seen my old friend Martin?

Can you tell me where he's gone?

He freed a lot of people

But it seems the good, they die young

I just looked around and he's gone.

Didn't you love the things they stood for?

Didn't they try to find some good for you and me?

And we'll be free some day soon

And it's a-gonna be one day...

Has anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?

Can you tell me where he's gone?

I thought I saw him walking up over the hill

With Abraham, Martin and John.

GOD'S FOOTBALLER

2012-01-14T22:20:00.000-08:00

New England Patriots - 45.

Denver Broncos - 10.

Curious how prayer works, innit?

WEDNESDAY GIRL

2012-01-11T07:58:00.000-08:00

Léa Seydoux

BLACK TREACLE

2012-01-10T22:51:00.000-08:00

Who wants more Arctic Monkeys?

Well, good, because here's the video for their latest single, "Black Treacle," from their awesome 2011 LP, Suck It and See.

HIT PARADE

2012-01-08T17:35:00.000-08:00

1. Future of the Left - "Polymers Are Forever," (Polymers Are Forever EP, 2011)
2. Manic Street Preachers - "The Endless Plain of Fortune," (National Treasures - The Selected Singles, 2011)
3. Lush - "De-Luxe," (Mad Love EP, 1990)
4. Paul Weller - "Around the Lake," (Sonik Kicks, 2012)
5. Bob Dylan - "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?," (single a-side, 1965)
6. Fleetwood Mac - "Sunny Side of Heaven," (Bare Trees, 1972)
7. The The - "Flesh and Bones," (single b-side, "Heartland," 1986)
8. The Who - "Joker James," (Quadraphonenia: The Director's Cut, 2011)
9. Tears For Fears - "Call Me Mellow," (Everybody Loves a Happy Ending, 2004)
10. Echobelly - "Everyone Knows Better," (Lustra, 1997)

JEALOUS OF YOUTH

2012-01-08T08:00:00.000-08:00

It's funny how, as we grow old

We cling to the past as we cling to the air

And feel nostalgia for things that were maybe never there

The town where innocence was bullied and flared
The house where desire's first fluids bled

But now the autumn leaves are turning to the color of rust
I'm getting jealous for youth's first yearnings for lust
I wanna live
I wanna live
But I ain't a big enough man to anything other than think

There's a girl I used to know
Who I think still lives 'round here
Up there, on top of that council tower
I was once her man
At the midnight hour
When I was as lusty as a dog
Come moonshine or fog
When our tongues would entwine
Long and slow
When we thought
We'd never let each other go
Oh no?

But now the autumn leaves are turning to the color of rust
I'm getting jealous for youth's first yearnings for lust
I wanna live
I wanna live
But I ain't a big enough man to anything other than think

Yet it's funny how as we grow old
We curse and point our finger at those
Those, those, those
Who made us scared and made us old
Who touched our bodies and bruised our souls
Who have made us scared and made us old
It was those, God
It was those
Who made us scared
And made us old

The autumn leaves are turning to the color of rust
I'm getting jealous for youth's first yearnings for lust
I wanna live
I wanna live
I wanna live
I wanna live
But I ain't a big enough man to anything other than think

I wanna live
I wanna live
I wanna live
I wanna live
I wanna live
I wanna live
I wanna live
I wanna live
But I ain't a big enough man to anything other than think

FLOURESCENT ADOLESCENT

2012-01-06T12:46:00.000-08:00

Alex Turner is 26 today.

I was working in comics when I was 26 and had been for a couple years, but I certainly wasn't enjoying the kind of success Turner has had in his early 20s. It's been a bumpy road from Arctic Monkeys's debut in 2006, but the quality of the music speaks for itself. That Turner has crafted four excellent albums with his main band, plus another gem with Last Shadow Puppets and a rather brilliant soundtrack EP last year – all before crossing the threshold from 25 to 26 today, is actually kind of amazing, if you ask me.

The videos are damn fine, too:

WEDNESDAY GIRL

2012-01-04T07:32:00.000-08:00

Emily Blunt

TOUGHER THAN THE REST

2012-01-03T14:50:00.000-08:00

Glory #23 is all ready to go to the printer, and I have to say: It's excellent.

Writer Joe Keatinge and artist Ross Campbell have done a masterful job, not just in taking over a moribund character from the '90s and making her work, but in drawing me in right from the get go. Considering it's my job to shepherd Glory along through the creative process – just as it was when I worked at Extreme Studios way back when – that's no mean feat, really, but here I am, excited to see how things unfold in the next issue. And more to the point, as excited as I would be if I had no involvement in this book whatsoever. It's a good comic book, and I can't wait for the rest of the world to see it.

There's been some talk about how women are portrayed in superhero comics over the past few months. Well, that's putting it lightly, actually: It's an ongoing discussion in a genre where scantily clad little runway model types are meant to be viewed as super-powered warrior women. There are numerous comics where female superheroes preen and pose and both dress and act in ways counterintuitive to superheroing, no matter how imaginary that particularly endeavor may be.

But Glory is different.

If you're at all familiar with Ross Campbell's work – on Wet Moon, on Shadoweyes – you probably know already that he's not interested in just going along to get along. He draws people, and women in particular, his own way, celebrating their differences instead of making them all conform to a single standard. Glory's meant to be a warrior princess. She looks the part, and thanks to Joe's script, she behaves the part, too. Best of all, three of the main characters in Glory are women, and they're completely unique. It's going to be fun getting to know them and seeing where this story takes them.

Here's a small taste:

THIS IS THE ROCK

2012-01-02T16:15:00.000-08:00

From Edmund Bagwell:

SOON

2012-01-01T16:39:00.000-08:00

Stephen Duffy had a tendency to post some really nice photos on his blog, so thelilactime.com is always worth checking out, but I was particularly excited by this:

SOWING THE SEEDS OF LOVE

2012-01-01T06:40:00.000-08:00

Happy 2012.

High time we made a stand and shook up the views of the common man

And the love train rides from coast to coast

DJ's the man we love the most

Could you be, could you be squeaky clean

And smash every hope of democracy

As the headline says you're free to choose

There's egg on your face and mud on your shoes

One of these days they're gonna call it the blues, yeah, yeah

Sowing the seeds of love

Anything is possible when you're sowing the seeds of love

Sowing the seeds of love

Anything is possible sowing the seeds of love

I spy tears in their eyes as they look to the skies for some kind of divine intervention

Food goes to waste

So nice to eat, so nice to taste

Politician granny with your high ideals

Have you no idea who the majority feels

So without love and a promised land

We're fools the rules of a government plan

Kick out the Style, bring back the Jam

Sowing the seeds of love, seeds of love, sowing the seeds

Sowing the seeds

The birds and the bees

My girlfriend and me

In love

Feel the pain, talk about it

If you're a worried man, then shout about it

Open hearts, feel about it

Open minds, think about it

Everyone, read about it

Everyone, scream about it

Everyone, everyone

Read about it, read about it

Read it in the books

In the crannies and the nooks

There are books to read.

Sowing the seeds of love, we're sowing the seeds

Sowing the seeds of love, sowing the seeds

Sowing the seeds of love, sowing the seeds of love

(Mr. England sowing the seeds of love)

Time to eat all your words, swallow your pride, open your eyes

High time we made a stand and shook up the view of the common man

The love train rides from coast to coast

Every minute of every hour

"I Love a Sunflower"

And I believe

In love power

Love power

Sowing the seeds of love, the seeds of love, sowing the seeds

Sowing the seeds

An end to need

And the politics of greed

With love

LUSH LIFE

2011-12-30T07:18:00.000-08:00

Eight Lush videos.

Because I love you.

KEEP ON SHINING

2011-12-29T18:34:00.000-08:00

Some neon signs from Louisville, KY...

Krispy Kreme

Bunton's Seed

Louisville & National Building

Mark's Feed Store Bar-B-Q

The Doo Wop Shop

Old Town Wine & Spirits

Twig and Leaf

WORK TO DO

2011-12-29T12:13:00.000-08:00

WEDNESDAY GIRL

2011-12-28T08:21:00.000-08:00

Gina Gershon

CHRISTMAS

2011-12-25T07:35:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to one and all – courtesy of The Who, Ann Margret, the recently departed Ken Russell and the greatly admired (and sadly missed) Oliver Reed...

ALMOST BLUE

2011-12-23T07:43:00.000-08:00

There are few stories in jazz sadder than that of Chet Baker. Incredibly talented, both as a player (he's best known for his work on the trumpet, but he played the flugelhorn and piano, too) and a singer, and ruggedly handsome, his career was ultimately hobbled by addiction. People joke about heroin these days, but from his early 20s until the day he died, Baker could not resist its lure.

He was in fights. He was in and out of jail. He lost his looks. He lost his teeth.

It fucked him up.

He would have been 82 were he alive today, but as it stands, it's somewhat amazing he lived to be 58. And even more amazing that right up until his death, he still played beautifully.

Like so much jazz, I was first introduced to Chet Baker's music by British Pop. Elvis Costello featured him on a track from his 1983 album Punch the Clock called "Shipbuilding," and his trumpet solo on that song just haunted me whenever I heard it. Later on, Baker sang Costello's "Almost Blue" in one of the most heartbreaking documentaries I've ever seen, the story of Baker's life, Let's Get Lost. I bought the soundtrack and then worked backwards from there.

So this here is from that documentary. It makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up even still...

And here he is again, performing "You Don't Know What Love Is" with Elvis Costello around the same time...

GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS

2011-12-22T07:59:00.000-08:00

Posting that photo of Elastica's Justine Frischmann yesterday got me thinking how many great bands were fronted by women during the Britpop boom of the 1990s. Typically, when people think of the Britpop era, it's all about Blur, Oasis, Pulp and Suede, but as much as I liked all of them, I wore out many a CD by Elastica, Sleeper, Echobelly and Lush. Here's a list of my 10 favorites...

1. Echobelly - "Dark Therapy," (ON, 1995)

2. Saint Etienne - "Hobart Paving," (So Tough, 1993)

3. Lush - "Ciao!," (Lovelife, 1995)

4. Elastica - "Waking Up," (Elastica, 1995)

5. Echobelly - "Everyone Knows Better," (Lustra, 1997)

6. Sleeper - "Bedhead," (Smart, 1994)

7. Lush - "Hypocrite," (Split, 1994)

8. Elastica - "Connection," (Elastica, 1995)

9. Powder - "Afrodisiac," (MCMXCV, 1996)

10. Catatonia - "Dead from the Waist Down," (Equally Cursed and Blessed, 1999)

And I think I've posted just about all of Elastica's videos in the past, as well as a few by Sleeper, but here's a trio of promos some of the other bands, starting off with the Sonya Aurora Madan and Echobelly...

WEDNESDAY GIRL

2011-12-21T08:00:00.000-08:00

Justine Frischmann

SO HERE WE ARE

2011-12-19T10:46:00.000-08:00

Another interview about Image, this time about the year that was and the year to come. You can read it over at Multiversity Comics.

And here's an advance look at the cover to Prophet #23 by Giannis Milonogiannis:

DESERT RAVEN

2011-12-19T08:51:00.000-08:00

Since posting my top 10 albums of 2011 a couple weeks back, several people have asked me about Jonathan Wilson. This is the video for my favorite track from his Gentle Spirit album, "Desert Raven"...

THE LONG GOODBYE

2011-12-18T11:10:00.000-08:00

The Manic Street Preachers are taking a break, but before disappearing for a couple years, they held a mighty going away party at London's O2 Arena last night and played all 38 of the tracks on their recent greatest hits collection, National Treasures - The Complete Singles. As recorded music, that's over two and a half hours of music. Live? Well, it was apparently more like three hours and included guest appearances by Nina Persson from the Cardigans (on "Your Love Alone is Not Enough") and Super Furry Animals' Gruff Rhys (handling vocals on "Let Robeson Sing").

There's been some bitching here and there, about both the National Treasures hits collection and the concert, that it's not really all the singles. This is true: There's no "Suicide Alley," no "UK Channel Boredom," no, erm, "Umbrella." I think there's an actually argument to be made for not including everything, though, especially since it's clear the very early singles aren't something the Manics are particularly proud of. There is, I think, something to be said for a little revision. That being said, though, the thing that bugs me is that revisionism didn't include finding a place for even a single song off their 2009 masterpiece, Journal for Plague Lovers.

Journal for Plague Lovers was created from lyrics left behind by missing Manic Richey Edwards and was released to near unanimous praise, but with no singles. It is very much the centerpiece of the Manics' powerful creative resurgence over the last five years, but amid all the celebration of their glorious history – it didn't even get a look in at last night's O2 gig. So no "Peeled Apples" no and no "Jackie Collins Existential Question Time," despite the fact both could have and should have been singles. Far beyond omitting the songs that comprised their sputtering start, overlooking one of their finest albums altogether creates a bloody great gap.

But all the same, I would have loved to be there last night.

Here are a couple clips from the show, plus my own top 10 favorite MSP singles:

1. "Faster," (The Holy Bible, 1994)

2. "The Masses Against the Classes," (single a-side, 2000)

3. "Your Love Alone Is Not Enough," (Send Away the Tigers, 2008)

4. "Motown Junk," (single a-side, 1991)

5. "A Design for Life," (Everything Must Go, 1996)

6. "Some Kind of Nothingness," (Postcards from a Young Man, 2010)

7. "Motorcycle Emptiness," (Generation Terrorists, 1992)

8. "If You Tolerate This, Your Children Will Be Next," (This Is Our Truth Tell Me Yours, 1998)

9. "Everything Must Go," (Everything Must Go, 1996)

10. "Empty Souls," (Lifeblood, 2004)

ME AND BOBBY D

2011-12-17T07:32:00.000-08:00

When I was younger and digging through my Dad's records, I remember pulling out his Bob Dylan records and being really taken with the album covers. He didn't have that many of them, but I specifically recall listening to Blonde on Blonde and Nashville Skyline a lot. The latter has always been a favorite of mine, and that probably has something to do with knowing it's the record my Dad listened to when my sister was first born. Today's her birthday, so I'm going to let sentimentality connect the dots and run down my top 10 favorite Bob Dylan tracks...

1. "I Threw It All Away," (Nashville Skyline, 1969)

2. "Positively 4h Street," (single a-side, 1967)

3. "Ballad of a Thin Man," (Highway 61 Revisited, 1965)

4. "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)," (Another Side of Bob Dylan, 1964)

5. "Simple Twist of Fate," (Blood on the Tracks, 1974)

6. "Lay Lady Lay," (Nashville Skyline, 1969)

7. "It Ain't Me Babe," (Another Side of Bob Dylan, 1964)

8. "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again," (Blonde on Blonde, 1966)

9. "If Not for You," (New Morning, 1970)

10. "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go," (Blood on the Tracks, 1974)

CHRISTMAS TIME IS HERE AGAIN

2011-12-16T14:36:00.000-08:00

...and Chris Giarrusso (of G-Man and Mini-Marvels fame) did this awesome holiday card for Image:

BLUES FOR JOE

2011-12-15T10:21:00.000-08:00

Just heard that Joe Simon has passed away, aged 98.

During the late '90s, when I worked for Rob Liefeld, Rob obtained the license for Fighting American and I was fortunate enough to talk to Joe a few times while we were publishing that book. Rob just noted that Joe was in his 80s back then, but the guy was really sharp and a pleasure to work with.

Working with Jack Kirby from the late '30s and into the '50s, Joe Simon created a whole slew of characters and comics including Captain America, Fighting American, Boys Ranch, The Boy Commandos, The Strange World of Your Dreams, Young Romance... That last one was the first romance comic. Because they created whole genres back in those days, at the dawn of comics. What a great time that must have been...

WEDNESDAY GIRL

2011-12-14T07:54:00.000-08:00

Gretchen Mol

INFECTED

2011-12-13T13:04:00.000-08:00

Sometimes things just come up on your iPod and worm their way into your consciousness. Happened to me last night when a track by The The randomly came up. Around the time the album Infected came out, I was completely in the thrall of Matt Johnson's lyrics – they were like entering a whole other world, especially on songs like "Twilight of a Champion" and "Angels of Deception." It's predecessor, Soul Mining, was another brilliant piece of work, and listening to the whole catalogue at work this morning, there's a lot to be loved on Dusk, too. If you're not familiar with Matt Johnson and The The, make with the clicky on the videos below...

FLY WITH THE WIND

2011-12-12T08:17:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was jazz pianist McCoy Tyner's birthday, and I meant to post this then, but you know what? It sounds just as good today. It's called "Fly with the Wind," and it's an absolute classic from one of the true jazz legends left among us:

And here he is from much, much earlier in his career, supporting John Coltrane:

SUNDAY'S PRETTY ICONS

2011-12-11T17:10:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton

STANDARDS

2011-12-11T12:29:00.000-08:00

This is old news, and I'm not sure why it still bothers me, but around Thanksgiving there was something of a media firestorm over the fact a pornstar named Sasha Grey visited a Compton elementary school and read to children. Parents were outraged: "How dare you allow a pornstar to interact with our children!"

Except she wasn't described as a pornstar, just as an actress. And she was introduced by her real name, not as Sasha Grey.

But somehow, someone, somewhere realized that Marina Hantzis was pornstar Sasha Grey. I didn't know that was her real name, so I'm willing to bet the first and third graders she read to didn't have much of a clue that the pretty lady reading to them was named anything other than "Marina." So one of the parents either understood the connection based on the name alone, or Googled "Marina Hantzis" and discovered who she really was.

It wasn't information that was presented to the children, and Ms. Grey's (former, apparently) profession was in no way relevant to her visit to the school, but parents were outraged nonetheless. "A young woman who used to to be filmed performing sex read to my children!"

Some have pointed out the unlikelihood of the kids even knowing what porn is, only to be lectured that young children know much more than we give them credit for. Maybe that's true, but if they do, that's the parents' fault. When I was in third grade, I didn't know what sex was, let alone porn. It was not something I came in contact with in any way. It wasn't something my parents talked about at home, and it wasn't something kids talked about at school. It certainly wasn't something I saw on television.

I know – that was a long time ago. In the 1970s, our culture had not yet transformed into its current state. While sex appeal was definitely used in advertising, out and out sex was not used as often or as shamelessly as it is now. Sex was not the primary focus of sitcoms. Lingerie lines were not premiered on national television. There was no Internet and there were no cell phones, so the sordid details of actors', sports stars' and politicians' sex lives were not on public display 24/7. And while the casting couch has long been a part of Hollywood lore, there weren't many celebrities crassly fucking their way to fame.

But Keeping Up with the Kardashians is a popular reality show today, and while she hasn't been in the news a lot lately, Paris Hilton is famous. She has no real talent, save that for self-promotion, and neither does Kim Kardashian, and yet I know who both of them are. Everyone knows who they are. They were filmed performing sex, and now they are famous. They are regularly invited into homes all across America, via television, via the Internet, via newspapers and magazines. They are fabulously wealthy – on our dime, because the money they're paid is directly related to the amount of attention we afford them – and it's all because they were filmed performing sex. When actor Rob Lowe was involved in a sex tape scandal in the mid-'80s, it nearly ruined his career. Clearly, times have changed.

So I wonder: If Kim Kardashian was reading to children in Compton, would that be okay?

Would it be okay if Paris Hilton read to school kids?

And what about Lindsey Lohan? Or Snooki or JWoww, from The Jersey Shore?

Or some Victoria's Secret models – I don't know how many of them have been filmed having sex, but they're most definitely selling sex. Would it be okay for a Victoria's Secret model to read to school children? Would parents have breathed a collective sigh of relief if their kids came home that day and said, "Mommy, a Victoria's Secret model read to my class today."?

From what I've read about Sasha Grey, she's done with porn and is focusing on mainstream acting now. She was on HBO's Entourage. She was in a Steven Soderbergh film called The Girlfriend Experience. From what I've read online, she's perceived as actually having talent, is a nice person, and is eager to move forward with her life. She made a name for herself by having sex on camera, and now she wants to do something else.

If I had children, I'd prefer Sasha Grey read to them over Kim Kardashian or Paris Hilton any day.

TIME WILL SHOW THE WISER

2011-12-09T10:57:00.000-08:00

I'd almost forgotten about these.

Back in the 1990s, there was a brief-lived magazine called Overstreet FAN. Designed to compete with the then-hugely popular Wizard magazine, the best part of Overstreet FAN was that it featured a monthly column by Frank Miller. This was the Frank Miller that famously tore up a copy of Wizard during a speech, compared Jim Shooter to Triplicate Girl from the Legion of Super-Heroes and told us comics didn't need Hollywood. He was full of fire, and his column reflected that.

Sometimes Frank formulated his thoughts in drawings, and when I was looking for some other old thing last night, I came across two I'd clipped out to save:

GREAT FIRE

2011-12-08T07:26:00.000-08:00

Today is Erik Larsen's birthday: He's 49.

I've been fortunate enough to know Erik for a whole 20 of those years. We first met at a Southern California comic book convention in 1991, where my ex-wife's nephew asked Erik to make sure he signed the cover of Amazing Spider-Man #347 in Spider-Man's eyeball, and I related to Erik that I was interested in writing comics. He asked me what my favorite comic book of all time was, and I told him it was Fantastic Four. He then assured me that if I ever wound up writing Fantastic Four, he wouldn't be drawing it. He was done with writers. In 2001, he and I worked together on a 12-issue miniseries at Marvel called Fantastic Four: The World's Greatest Comics Magazine.

I'd just started reading comics again after a few years and Erik's work on Amazing Spider-Man and then Spider-Man really stood out for me. I liked his art on the latter more, primarily because he was inking himself, and I enjoyed the stories he wrote more, too. I saw elements of a variety of different artists in his work: Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Gil Kane, Frank Miller, John Byrne, Walter Simonson. Nearly everyone I liked, basically. I had no idea he'd only been working professionally for just a few years, only that he was full of creative energy that seemed burn brighter than any number of his contemporaries.

Back then – as is always the case I suppose – there were a handful of monthly comic book artists who "mattered." Erik was one of them, along with Dale Keown, Sam Kieth, Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, Whilce Portacio and Marc Silvestri. Within months of first meeting Erik, I learned that almost all of them were involved with a new comic book company, Image Comics. And the ones who weren't there at the beginning came along later. Rob Liefeld was going to write and draw a comic book called Youngblood. Todd McFarlane was doing Spawn. Jim Lee had a book called WildC.A.T.s. Erik's contribution was Savage Dragon.

As much as I liked Erik's work, I have to confess, Savage Dragon was not the Image title I had the most enthusiasm for. I think, based mainly on Rob's interviews, I was looking forward to Youngblood the most. In the intervening months, though, I wound up working for Rob, and one day, some artwork started coming over the fax machine. It was from Erik, and it was Savage Dragon #1.

I don't know what I was expecting Savage Dragon to be – it was a book about a green cop with a fin on his head, for cryin' out loud – but reading the first issue made me a believer. It was fun, uncompromising superhero comics that folded everything I liked about Erik's Marvel work into something bold and new. It was violent, it was edgy, it had a sense of humor. The issues piled up and it became one of my favorite comics. Characters were killed off almost as regularly as characters were introduced. There was sex, there was danger, there was this feeling that anything could happen. One issue, God fought the Devil and after kicking the shit out of him, he proclaimed on a full-page spread, "Don't FUCK with God!" Better yet? Erik made a poster of that and offered it for sale.

The better I got to know Erik, the more I realized what a genuinely amazing talent he was, guided almost entirely by purely creative impulses. He would experiment with different styles, do riffs on enduring comic book archetypes, sometimes insert long-running inside jokes, all because his main goal was to do what he wanted to do. There was no editor telling him to put a certain character on the cover to up sales, no one to prevent him from killing off what appeared to be the series' main villain – not once, but over and over again, nobody to tell him that he couldn't age his character in real-time or do over two years worth of stories largely inspired by his unwavering affection for Jack Kirby's Kamandi. For the 125th issue of Savage Dragon, he did a story that featured the hospitalized title character, wrapped in a full-body cast, tormented by a villain trapped in the body of a fly.

If his personal theme song isn't "My Way," then he should strongly consider it.

Erik became Image's Publisher in 2004, and Savage Dragon suffered for it. I think he only put out two issues one year, because he was so driven in his aim to make Image the best it could be. I shared an office with him for much of that time – I'd become Image's Executive Director by then – and working alongside him was an incredible experience. Ideas poured out of him on a daily basis, and his love of comics – and creating comics – was truly a wonder to behold. If he wanted to do something, he acted on it. He spoke his mind and pissed a lot of people off, sometimes even his friends – sometimes even me. It was awesome.

Savage Dragon knocked George W. Bush – or at least an alien impostor posing as the former President – out. He endorsed President Obama, and later on, for a cover gag, Obama showed up to duke it out with Osama Bin Laden. In a couple weeks, Bin Laden is making his first actual appearance in the pages of Savage Dragon, as a giant zombie brought back to life by radiation.

Erik brought Savage Dragon back to life recently, too. He's killed that poor guy over and over the last couple years – he even had his brains sucked out and eaten by a villain named Virus in one issue – and who knows if he's actually back for good this time. He's off in space, trying to help his people find a new home, while his son Malcolm, who is also green-skinned and fin-headed, holds down the fort on Earth. It's all wonderfully bizarre, and I love that 20 years after the first issue, I still don't know what to expect from this comic, or from the guy who writes and draws it.

I do know that Savage Dragon is nothing like any other comic book on the stands, though.

I've heard people say Dragon is "just a Hulk rip-off," and I've always found that confusing. The Hulk is a scientist transformed into a monster after being subjected to gamma rays. The Dragon is an alien emperor left on Earth with his memory wiped after his people determine he was a danger to the rest of them. Along the way, he becomes a cop, a superhero, a government operative, a father, a husband and a celebrity, before regaining his memory and becoming so unspeakably evil, he's willing to kill his children and every other person on Earth. The only actual similarity with the Hulk is that he's green.

Savage Dragon #177 – the one with Bin Laden in – is the next issue out, and it's something of a testament to Erik's sheer bloodymindedness that book keeps on keeping on. Look around: There aren't a lot of comic book creators who stick with anything for any length of time these days. And in a time when comics are routinely re-booted, re-launched and re-numbered, Savage Dragon is one of a handful of independently published titles reach so high an issue. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I think there's only Cerebus and Spawn ahead of him.

And fittingly enough, Erik's the sole Image founder still writing and drawing the book he began with in 1992, the keeper of the flame.

Long may it burn.

A FUTURE APART

2011-12-07T11:26:00.000-08:00

Marvel has announced that the next big thing from the House of Ideas is a new version of this:

Meanwhile, DC is, by most accounts, gearing up to do multiple new versions of this:

Image Comics is on a supersonic rocket ship to the future, however, and so next year, we're going to be doing this:

And this:

Next year is Image's 20th anniversary and instead of polishing the bumper on someone else's old car, the best writers and artists in comics are going to be creating some of the best comics we've ever published. You'll recognize some them – Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, Robert Kirkman, Nick Spencer, Shawn Martinbrough, Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples, Jonathan Hickman, Nick Pitarra – while others will be new to you, but whether it's an old favorite or somebody doing their first ever work in comics, the one thing they all have in common is new ideas.

And the best part is that's just in the first three months, and there's so much more than what I'm showing you here.

WEDNESDAY GIRL

2011-12-07T08:48:00.000-08:00

Claire Forlani

HELL YEAH

2011-12-06T17:52:00.000-08:00

Joe Keatinge used to work at Image Comics as our PR & Marketing Coordinator, but after a while, it was apparent that what he really wanted to do was create and write his own comics. He flogged our comics with gusto and he edited our Eisner and Harvey Award winning Popgun anthologies, but marketing other people's comics and editing other people's stories is not quite the same as doing your own thing. Both are rewarding jobs, but nothing beats actually creating something of your own.

So it's kind of awesome to know that come March 2012, Joe will have not one, but two comics to his credit. The first is a revival of the old Extreme title, Glory, that he and Ross Campbell are in the process of making their own, but the second falls very much under the classification of "doing your own thing." Drawn by an amazing young artist named Andre Szymanowicz, it's called Hell Yeah, and if oh boy, are you ever going to want this when it finally hits the stands next year.

Hell Yeah is an idea that's been knocking around in the backseat of Joe's mind for quite a while now, something he used to tell me about back when we'd sit around and discuss the various projects we each wanted to do at some point in the future, discussions that usually resulted in me saying, "Well, what's stopping you? Do it."

I don't know how soon Joe would've gotten around to Hell Yeah if he stayed at Image. No matter how fun it is, working in comics is still work, and I don't think it's breaking news that day jobs can often sap one's creativity. Sometimes it's simply hard to muster the enthusiasm after a full day's work. I mean, there's drinking to do, right? Digressions aside, though, it now seems that everything worked out as it should have, and that Joe's right where he's supposed to be, doing exactly what he wanted to do.

Every single day, I look at the comics we publish here at Image, the writers and artists we work with, and I find their almost single-minded pursuit of their dreams nothing short of inspirational. Too many people fritter their lives away wishing they could do something and then grow old wondering "what if..?" but the Joe Keatinges of the world, the Justin Jordans, the Nick Spencers, the Jonathan Hickmans, the Robert Kirkmans... they're actually doing it.

So Hell Yeah.

March.

2012.

Hell yeah.

NICE TO BE

2011-12-06T15:08:00.000-08:00

This is flattering:

2011 in Review: Best Publisher

LET'S UNITE THE WHOLE WORLD AT CHRISTMAS

2011-12-06T10:57:00.000-08:00

If you haven't heard of Ulises Farinas yet, well, he's one of the most amazing new artists in comics. He sent this image out to his friends and supporters – it's called "Batman inspects a gift" – and it instantly conjured a smile...

THE BEAUTIFUL THINGS

2011-12-05T07:54:00.000-08:00

I have yet to see this, but the poster and trailer on their own make me tingle with anticipation.

If you're not immediately familiar with Charles and Ray Eames, they made this:

And this:

And This:

And this:

HIT PARADE

2011-12-04T17:09:00.000-08:00

It's suddenly December and the end of the year is creeping up on us again, so it's time for everyone to begin compiling various top 10 lists. For me, that usually entails a quick tally of my top 10 favorite albums and films, but as of now, I don't think I've managed to see half a dozen new movies this year, let alone a full 10. I bought albums by the armload, though, and these were the ones I found myself listening to the most...

Ryan Adams - Ashes & Fire

"I feel like somebody I don't know..."

Ryan Adams is so prolific that even after announcing he was putting his music career on hiatus for a while, he still managed to release two albums during 2010. Clearing out the vaults must have done him good, though, because Ashes & Fire is his single strongest set of songs since 2001's Gold. Expertly produced by the legendary Glyn Johns, virtually every track finds Adams in top form vocally, musically and lyrically, with the overall result being a melancholy slow burner of an album that is likely to be viewed as something of a classic in years to come.

Favorite Track: "Lucky Now"

Art Brut - Brilliant! Tragic!

"Second guessing is doing your head in..."

Eddie Argos is one of modern rock's great treasures: a mesmerizing frontman, a witty and insightful lyricist, and perhaps best of all, a supremely unconventional vocalist. After proclaiming, "Yes, this is my singing voice!" on the band's 2005 debut, Art Brut's fourth album finds Argos toning down his antics somewhat, but without compromising one iota of his eccentric charm. Whilst probably not the dinner music he aspires to in "Sexy Sometimes," it's definitely one of the most instantly enjoyable albums of the year – and with an ace cover by Jamie McKelvie, to boot!

Favorite Track: "I Am the Psychic"

The Duke Spirit - Bruiser

"I want to follow you into your sleep..."

Possessed of one of the most radiantly sexy front women on the scene today, The Duke Spirit have chiseled out something of a niche for themselves as the purveyors of raw, soulful rock that is at turns both sweetly sensitive and menacingly dark. They returned this year with their third album, and not at all surprisingly, it's their best yet. From the thundering riffology of "Everyone's Under Your Spell" to the breathless melody of piano ballad "Villain," this is an electrifying band at the peak of their considerable powers. That more attention is paid to the likes of Coldplay is absurd.

Favorite Track: "Villain"

Future of the Left - Polymers Are Forever EP

"I had no idea evil had such small ambition..."

Not an album proper, but a six-track EP in advance of 2012's eagerly-awaited The Plot Against Common Sense, Polymers Are Forever is a welcome blast of undiluted rage and discontent during a season when many are more concerned with Christmas carols. Easily the angriest band out of Wales since Manic Street Preachers, Future of the Left create a mighty racket here, with singer/songwriter/guitarist Andy Falkous once again managing to crank out line after line of marvelously quotable lyrics. Play it loud and make your neighbors fearful.

Favorite Track: "destroywhitchurch.com"

Stevie Jackson - (I Can't Get No) Stevie Jackson

"I wish it was 1964, I'm still stuck in '63, maybe next year..."

If George Harrison is my favorite Beatle, then Stevie Jackson is my favorite member of Belle and Sebastian. Though ostensibly Stuart Murdoch's group, many of my favorite Belle and Sebastian tracks are actually penned and sung by the esteemed Mr. Jackson and, as on Murdoch's own God Help the Girl project, Jackson takes full advantage of his independence to create a freewheeling collection of songs that succeeds on its own terms whilst still remaining immediately recognizable to the B&S faithful. One of the year's true delights.

Favorite Track: "Try Me"

Noel Gallagher - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

"My eyes have always followed you around the room..."

Forget Blur vs. Oasis, these days it's all about Liam vs. Noel. On of the basis of the first round, the senior Gallagher emerges victorious, his long-awaited solo debut proving to be a masterclass in songwriting. From the Kinks-inspired "The Death of You and Me" and "Dream On," to the bluesy shuffle of "(Stranded On) The Wrong Beach," to the majestic balladry of "If I Had a Gun...," Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds effortlessly reminds everyone that while Liam may be a magnetic frontman, Noel was Oasis' true talent. Gig of the year, as well.

Favorite Track: "If I Had a Gun..."

Kaiser Chiefs - The Future Is Medieval

"It must be nice to be oblivious..."

Following a pair of lackluster follow-ups to their world-beating debut, Kaiser Chiefs bounced back this year with both an ingenious marketing plan and a surprisingly good album. Fans were invited to create their own versions of The Future Is Medieval, and could choose up to 10 tracks via a list of clips on the band's Website, but the real triumph is that all 20 songs were better than most everything on the previous two albums. That said, the 13 songs that made their way onto the official CD release somehow don't have the same impact as the complete set.

Favorite Track: "Problem Solved"

Miles Kane - Colour of the Trap

"I wanna make your smoke and kisses black and white..."

Best known as Alex Turner's mate, or perhaps, more flatteringly as one half of The Last Shadow Puppets, Miles Kane made his solo debut this year after shrugging off The Rascals. This first record on his own more than proves he didn't made the wrong decision. Happier still, Colour of the Trap finds Kane exploring sounds beyond the garage rock of The Rascals and the '60s-inspired balladry of The Last Shadow Puppets to create an album so accomplished that it's difficult not to speculate what the next one will be like...

Favorite Track: "Rearrange"

Alex Turner - Submarine

"You look like you've been for breakfast at the heartbreak hotel..."

Alex Turner had two records out this year: this six-song EP compiling his song for Richard Ayoade's winsome indie film Submarine and the fourth Arctic Monkeys long player, Suck It and See. This one wins. Indeed, the songs here seem to have more in common with Turner's work with The Last of the Shadow Puppets than his Arctic Monkeys, and though there's certainly a lot to like about the Arctics' latest, more often than not, I found myself wanting to hear Turner's version of "Piledriver Waltz" much more than his band's. More like this, please.

Favorite Track: "Piledriver Waltz"

Jonathan Wilson - Gentle Spirit

"The raven that flies through the desert sky is wiser than you and me..."

First introduced to me back in October, at my friend Paul's going away party, this album has been an almost permanent fixture on my turntable for several weeks now. Sounding at times like a hidden treasure unearthed from the golden era of Laurel Canyon singer/songwriter rock, Gentle Spirit seems to soothe my soul in much the same way as MGMT's Congratulations, gracefully dropping in references to a variety of different artists and sounds whilst still maintaining a beguiling charm that is all its own.

Favorite Track: "Desert Raven"

And bubbling under: Arctic Monkeys - Suck It and See, The Decemberists - The King Is Dead, Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues, Shirley Lee - Winter Autumn Summer Spring, Radiohead - The King of Limbs, and Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - Soul Time!

STAR

2011-12-03T16:57:00.000-08:00

Star Grocery, 1922

WEDNESDAY GIRL

2011-11-30T07:38:00.000-08:00

Ann Margret

GORGEOUS GEORGE

2011-11-29T08:12:00.000-08:00

One of the things I've learned as I've grown older is that time really does pass more quickly. Case in point: It's been 10 years since George Harrison died at the age of 58. I'm not going to claim it seems like yesterday, but the moment is still fresh in my mind. It feels like a couple years ago.

It was one of those surprises that shouldn't have been a surprise, especially for anyone who kept up with Beatles news. Everyone was aware of Harrison's struggles with cancer, but still it was a shock. There'd been a rumor he was nearing the end earlier that year, and of course he promptly denied it, but it had also been widely reported that his health never quite returned after he was attacked in his home by a crazed intruder in 1999. Still, hearing the news for the first time, it was a shock.

Harrison's contributions to The Beatles are well-documented, so I'm not going to bore you by re-stating all the reasons he was such a great guitarist or why he was an under-appreciated songwriter in the world's greatest band. What was always coolest about George to me was that after The Beatles disbanded, he put out not just his first solo album, but a 23-track triple album that would ultimately be viewed both as his masterpiece and arguably the finest solo work released by any of The Beatles.

When I first sat down to put together my top 10 favorite George Harrison solo songs, I thought it would be easy to just run through my 10 favorite tracks from that album, but happily, George left a wealth of great music behind...

1. "Beware of Darkness," (All Things Must Pass, 1970)

2. "What Is Life," (All Things Must Pass, 1970)

3. "Stuck Inside a Cloud," (Brainwashed, 2002)

4. "All Things Must Pass," (All Things Must Pass, 1970)

5. "Blow Away," (George Harrison, 1979)

6. "All Those Years Ago," (Somewhere In England, 1981)

7. "Cheer Down," (single a-side, 1989)

8. "Try Some Buy Some," (Living In the Material World, 1973)

9. "I Live for You," (All Things Must Pass, 1970)

10. "Crackerbox Palace," (33 1/3, 1977)

And finally, Martin Scorcese has put together a documentary about George called Living In the Material World. Here's the trailer, along with a couple videos:

PASTIME PARADISE

2011-11-26T11:28:00.000-08:00

There's one of those huge hardcover books out collecting the first chunk of John Byrne's magnificent run on Fantastic Four, and it's nice to see such an incredible getting its due in that manner. I'm kind of over the whole oversized omnibus thing myself – they make great shelf furniture, but they're impractical for actually sitting in bed and reading – but I have such enduring affection for Byrne's FF work that I went back and forth over purchasing it as I paged through it at the store recently. Ultimately, I chose to pass and just went home and pulled out a stack of the original comics.

Fantastic Four hit issue #600 recently, and I flipped through that at the store, too. I'm a big fan of Jonathan Hickman's work, but as much as I love the FF, the first thing that struck me about that particular issue was how uninteresting the cover was. Or rather, covers. Images of the FF running... where? Doing... what? Looking purposefully staged, mainly.

And that took me back to John Byrne.

Byrne did some fantastic covers way back in the 20th century when I was first discovering comics. Prior to his run on Fantastic Four, there were a lot of comics he drew that he didn't do the covers for – Avengers #181 stands out as something I always remember as having a Byrne cover, when in fact it was drawn by George Perez, echoing one of Byrne's pages from the interior - but the covers he did draw, particularly on books like Avengers and Uncanny X-Men, were almost always phenomenal.

I could spend a week posting about my favorite Byrne Fantastic Four covers, but instead, here's a small mix of favorites covering his work that affected me the most back then. More and more often, I encounter comics fans or professionals who tells they're not familiar with some of these comics. Considering the earliest of them were published over 30 years, I suppose that's only natural, but all the same, I enthusiastically recommend seeking them out if you're not familiar with them...

THANKFUL 'N' THOUGHTFUL

2011-11-24T13:18:00.001-08:00

There aren't terribly many songs about Thanksgiving, but thankfully, there are loads of songs with the word "thank" in the title, so lucky you, here's a top 10 list of those...

1. Small Faces - "Wham Bam Thank You Ma'am," (The Autumn Stone, 1969)

2. The Lodger - "Many Thanks for Your Honest Opinion," (Grown-Ups, 2007)

3. The Pale Fountains - "Thank You," (Pacific Street, 1984)

4. Sam & Dave - "I Thank You," (I Thank You, 1968)

5. Dexys Midnight Runners - "Thankfully Not Living In Yorkshire It Doesn't Apply," (Searching for the Young Soul Rebels, 1980)

6. Talking Heads - "Thank You for Sending Me an Angel," (More Songs About Buildings and Food, 1978)

7. Charlotte Hatherley - "Be Thankful," (The Deep Blue, 2007)

8. Led Zeppelin - "Thank You," (Led Zeppelin II, 1969)

9. Big Star - "Thank You Friends," (3rd, 1978)

10. Sly & The Family Stone - "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)," (single a-side, 1970)

COVER

2011-11-23T12:59:00.001-08:00

I'm not sure how I feel about this. It's the Manic Street Preachers' most recent single, taken from their recent greatest hits album, and it's a cover of The The's brilliant "This Is the Day."

So here's the Manics' version...

...and here is The The...

If you don't have The The's Soul Mining (1983) or Infected (1986), you should correct that problem immediately.

WEDNESDAY GIRL

2011-11-23T08:33:00.000-08:00

Catherine Deneuve

AROUND THE LAKE

2011-11-22T10:15:00.000-08:00

Paul Weller's 11th solo album is out next year, but here's a quick teaser today:

THE EVERLASTING FIRST

2011-11-21T07:49:00.000-08:00

My first issue of Fantastic Four was not #1. That comic came out in 1961, a little over seven years before I was born. I didn't even start reading comics until 1975.

When I did, I started with Incredible Hulk #192, not Incredible Hulk #1.

Incredible Hulk #192 wasn't particularly noteworthy in any respect, but it was interesting enough that it made me want to read more comics. And the next comics I got were not first issues, either. They were Captain America #193 and Marvel Team-Up #43.

I'm pretty sure the significance of first issues didn't even occur to me until I was exposed to reprints. Comics like Marvel Tales, Marvel's Greatest Comics and Marvel Triple Action used to feature a small note on the first page that said "Originally presented in..." and then listed an issue number for Amazing Spider-Man or Fantastic Four or The Avengers. And then, of course, there were actual books that reprinted the first issues of all my favorites, things like Origins of Marvel Comics and Son of Origins of Marvel Comics. I seem to recall talking about finding the actual comics and it was then my Dad told me the older issues of the comics I loved so much, and especially the first issues, cost more than new comics. They were collectible – valuable.

I don't think I bought the first issue of anything new until 1979. I remember buying ROM #1,Amazing Adventures #1, Fantasy Masterpieces #1 and Tales to Astonish #1 all at the same time. A month or so later, I bought She-Hulk #1. Three of those books – Amazing Adventures,Fantasy Masterpieces and Tales to Astonish – were reprint titles, re-presenting the first issues of X-Men, Silver Surfer and Sub-Mariner. I think I eventually bought two issues of ROM and two issues of Tales to Astonish. I followed Amazing Adventures for a little while, because I was really into the X-Men in general, but I didn't buy a second issue of She-Hulk orFantasy Masterpieces.

See, by that time – a mere four years after I'd first fallen in love with comics – I'd developed what I suppose you might call a more sophisticated palate. I knew I preferred the work of certain writers and artists over others, and I knew a little about the history of my favorite characters and titles. I'd read a lot of truly great Fantastic Four stories by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in Marvel's Greatest Comics, so the current issues suffered by comparison. I'd discovered, both through reprints and current issues, Daredevil just wasn't very interesting, period. And the X-Men? Well, no offense to Stan & Jack, but the X-Men were clearly at their best, thanks to John Byrne. I had no desire to own X-Men #1, or even the first appearance of the new X-Men in Giant-Size X-Men #1; I was only interested in the X-Men as drawn by John Byrne.

The first issue of Daredevil I really paid attention to was #183. I'd bought scattered issues over the years, but after not paying attention to comics at all for almost two years, that was one of the first comics to catch my eye. The cover depicted Daredevil being shot point blank in the gut by The Punisher, after all.

I didn't know much about The Punisher. I'd seen him in a couple issues of Amazing Spider-Manand he had a cool costume. Reading Daredevil #183, though, I realized he wasn't just another villain, and I realize Daredevil wasn't just another superhero comic. It was really good, and the guy writing and drawing it – Frank Miller – was amazing. So I looked around and foundDaredevil #182, and that was the one that really did it. Matt Murdock was mourning the death of his lost love, Elektra. Who was Elektra? She'd apparently died in a recent issue. I needed to know more, so I started buying other issues. I found #180 here, #178 there. I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that I acquired #174 when a kid left it behind after class one day.

Back then, there were double-page ads in the middle of many Marvel Comics that advertised back issues, sold by Mile High Comics. Daredevil #158 was listed as the first Miller issue. #168 was the first Elektra. Suddenly, I knew exactly which issues I was looking for, and none of them were Daredevil #1.

Now, as I said, I'd lost touch with comics for a couple years. Sometime in late '79, my interest just dried up. Some of that was down to the fact I was moving – from elementary school to junior high, from Washington to North Carolina – but also, I just didn't like what was going on in a many of my favorite comics.

But then I found Fantastic Four #242 on a family trip.

Written and drawn by John Byrne, that comic single-handedly pulled me back into comics. I loved the art, I loved the story – it had the same flavor as the old FF stories by Stan & Jack, but with a contemporary edge. I wasted no time tracking down earlier issues until I reached Byrne's starting point – Fantastic Four #232. It seemed that with very little fanfare, Byrne had simply come onto the book, assessed its the problems and then just started telling better stories. With that one issue, the comic I loved was immediately transformed from this thing I'd drifted away from to a book I couldn't wait to read. And it wasn't a first issue, it was #232.

Roger Stern, Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin jump-started Doctor Strange with #48. The artwork of Paul Smith reinvigorated a faltering Uncanny X-Men with #165. Walt Simonson made Thor a must-read title with #337. Amazing Spider-Man suddenly became interesting again when Roger Stern and John Romita, Jr. did a story called "Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut!" in issue #229 and then followed it up a few issues later with the introduction of the Hobgoblin in #238. A little over year later, things got even more interesting when Spider-Man got a new black costume, not in a new #1, but in issue #252.

Fantastic Four #1? I've read it. I have it reprinted in several books. I've even owned an original copy. As a piece of Marvel Comics history and the starting point for the Marvel Universe, it's pretty neat. As far as good issues of Fantastic Four go, however, it's right down near the bottom. If it were a Beatles song, it'd be "Love Me Do" – things only got better from there.

With almost great comic, the really good stuff came after the first issue. Finding that good stuff is part of what made reading and collecting comics fun. Learning more about the characters and the worlds they lived in was part of what set comics apart from virtually everything else.

Now everything starts over with a new number one.

New writer? New number one.

New direction? New number one.

Nothing new whatsoever, but in need of a sales boost? New number one.

Presently, it's conventional wisdom that current readers like number ones because they like having a beginning, a clear starting point. It has even been argued that even if a later issue is marketed as a clear starting point, that's still not good enough. X-Men #94, Thor #337, The Saga of the Swamp Thing #21, Fantastic Four #232, Daredevil #158 – none of those comics would stand a chance today, because today's readership is considered so stupid they can't tell what a clear starting point is unless there's a #1 on the front cover.

I personally think readers are more savvy than that, whether they're long-time readers or someone completely new to the medium. I think long-time readers know enough to realize that when a book is re-booted with a new number one, by the time an important anniversary rolls around – #300, for instance, or maybe #600 or #1000 – that book will return to its original numbering. I think they realize that, ultimately, starting over at number one is a marketing gimmick, a ploy designed to grab their attention and, most importantly, their money.

Making sure a long-running comic is both entertaining and accessible takes work, but we are living with the results of the alternative. It's easy to say times have changed or tastes have changed, but the reality of the situation is that, sadly, standards have changed.

A wise man once said that every issue is someone's first issue. Comics, written as episodic fiction, once managed to move a story forward on a monthly basis whilst simultaneously providing all the information necessary for potential new readers. Even if the issue in question was part of a larger storyline, a new reader could pick up a comic book and understand what was happening and who everyone was by the end of that issue.

One can argue that today's comics are more complex, that the level of writing is more sophisticated, but in the past, even the worst comics were capable of doing this on a monthly basis. The best did it so well, many of them are still viewed as high water marks for the medium today.

As it turns out, my first of Fantastic Four was #172. It was the second part of what a five-part story involving Galactus, the High Evolutionary and a golden gorilla named Gorr. I read it so many times the cover came off and I drew my own version of the cover to replace it. It wasn't the most remarkable issue of the series, but it was as powerful a revelation as my first kiss.

I've read better issues of Fantastic Four since then, and better comics in general, but for me, Fantastic Four #172 is still number one.

FLYIN' HIGH (IN THE FRIENDLY SKIES)

2011-11-20T14:54:00.000-08:00

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds played in San Francisco last night. I love the album, but it actually took a bit of prodding to get me out to this, mainly because I associate the venue with musicals like Wicked and not full-on rock shows. I'm glad I went, though, because even as a longtime fan of Gallagher and his former band, Oasis, I was kind of blown away.

The set was dominated by songs from the new album – in fact they played all but one track ("Stop the Clocks") from it. And apart from salting in the odd new song (the excellent "Freaky Teeth," from next year's collaboration with Amorphous Androgynous), b-side ("The Good Rebel") and a smattering of Oasis tracks (opener "It's Good to Be Free," "Mucky Fingers," "Half a World Away," "Wonderwall," "Supersonic," "Talk Tonight," "Little by Little," "The Importance of Being Idle" and triumphant closer "Don't Look Back In Anger"), they played it in order.

I saw Oasis a couple times, the last at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, when they were touring Dig Out Your Soul, and it occurred to me then that Liam Gallagher's voice was thoroughly shot. 17 years on from Definitely Maybe, however, Noel sounds better than ever. His songwriting was always Oasis' strength, but he is really coming into his own as a singer – and a frontman. He joked with the audience throughout the show (lots of "Occupy" jokes – "They're fucking occupying that balcony tonight, aren't they?") and seemed incredibly relaxed playing a more intimate space. And while he certainly didn't need to play "Wonderwall" and "Supersonic," the fact that he did so by stripping them down to new bare bones arrangements was a welcome surprise.

All in all, a very impressive outing for the clear winner in the Oasis split. If you have the opportunity to see them, do it.

A STONE'S THROW AWAY

2011-11-20T09:20:00.000-08:00

I've written before that the protest song was in much better help during the 1980s, but this morning I woke up with some of the lyrics from this song by Paul Weller's Style Council in my head. I was first reminded of it Friday night after a friend who'd participated in the Occupy Oakland protests recently recounted how the news helicopters disappeared just before the police unleashed their full force on the protesters. I was reminded again when I read various reports yesterday, of passive protestors at UC Davis being subjected to pepper spray by campus security.

The song, from 1985's Our Favourite Shop, is called "A Stone's Throw Away," and though it was written against the backdrop of the 1984 miner's strike in Thatcherite England, I don't think it's too hard to see the connection...

For liberty there is a cost

It's broken skulls and leather cosh

From the boys in uniform

Now you know whose side they're on

With backing, with blessing

From earthly gods, not heaven

A stone's throw away from it all.

Whatever pleasures those who get

From stripping skin with rhino whip

Are the kind that must be stopped

Before their kind take all we've got

With loving, with caring

They take great pride in working

The stone's throw away from it all.

Wherever honesty persists

You'll hear the snap of broken ribs

Of anyone who'll take no more

Of the lying basards' roar

In Chile, in Poland, Johannesburg, South Yorkshire

A stone's throw away, now we're there.

The Style Council played the song live on their 1985 Internationalists tour, and this is from a show toward the end of the tour, at Wembley Arena that December:

I was living in (then, West) Germany at the time, and was fortunate to catch the Council live is Ludwigshafen that October. It was the first time I'd seen The Style Council and overall, an incredible night out, but the performance of "A Stone's Throw Away" was particularly striking: Weller solo, forsaking the elegance of the string quartet that accompanied him on record to simply blast through the song on electric guitar. Somehow it created a heightened sense of urgency and drove the point even further home.

So here's a clip of Weller playing the song on his own during the Australian leg of the tour, earlier that year:

HANGING ON TO A MEMORY

2011-11-18T08:38:00.000-08:00

Here's something cool from 28 years ago: The Style Council performing "My Ever Changing Moods," "Headstart for Happiness" and "Hanging on to a Memory" on The Tube. What's particularly interesting about this performance is that it took place well before "My Ever Changing Moods" was released (or even announced) as a single, and while their fourth single, "A Solid Bond in Your Heart" was in the charts...

A LITTLE PIECE OF ADVICE

2011-11-16T15:36:00.000-08:00

One of the best parts of my job is seeing cool new comics before they go on sale.

Case in point: Haunt #19.

This is the first issue by the new creative team of Joe Casey and Nathan Fox. They're taking over the book after an 18-issue run by Robert Kirkman, Greg Capullo, Ryan Ottley and Todd McFarlane, and the character itself is the result of a creative collaboration between Robert and Todd. In other words, not an easy act to follow.

But damn. They do it.

And they do it really, really, really well.

Obviously, not everyone was introduced to comics when I was, but reading Haunt #19, for me, even as the guy publishing the book, is like picking up my first Frank Miller Daredevil, or the first issue of Walt Simonson's Thor. It's a complete about-face, in the absolute best way possible.

Even if you don't think you're looking forward to this, well, you are.

It's out November 30. Make sure your shop has a copy reserved for you.

WEDNESDAY GIRL

2011-11-16T07:13:00.000-08:00

Soledad Miranda

SUNDAY'S PRETTY ICONS

2011-11-13T20:25:00.000-08:00

Donna Matthews & Justine Frischmann

OH WELL

2011-11-12T10:07:00.000-08:00

A friend texted me this morning and said, "So... Frank Miller."

My body grew cold with fear: Was Frank Miller dead?

I did a quick search online. Nothing. Then I went to a couple comics book news sites.

And thankfully, Frank Miller is not dead. But I found this.

Needless to say, I do not agree with Frank. Nor do I think knows what the hell he's talking about. Are some of these protestors, as he describes them, "an unruly mob?" Definitely. But a great many of them are actually ordinary working Americans tired of getting the shit end of the stick thanks to the overwhelming influence of corporations on our government. I've seen these people. I know some of these people. They have jobs. They don't live in the parents' basements. Some of them are seniors. Some of them are veterans.

Are they all upstanding citizens? Well, obviously not – there have been some ridiculous acts carried out in the name of these protests, and they're not excusable. But most of the people involved? They're just sick of being told the middle and working classes should shoulder the burden of pain whilst the wealthy get tax breaks and bailouts. And the truth of the matter is, everybody should be sick of that.

Some of the comments on Frank's blog post are a little over the top. People saying he's "dead" to them, or that they're ashamed of him, that he's tarnished their assessment of his work or whatever. That's bullshit, frankly.

For a little while longer, anyway, we live in a country where everyone is free to express his/her opinion, and while I think Frank's views are a little bonkers, that doesn't change the fact that I think he's one of the greatest American comic book creators to ever walk this earth.

I will always have a tremendous amount of respect for Frank Miller's work.

His politics?

Not so much.

TRAGEDY

2011-11-11T12:36:00.000-08:00

Someone sent me this article about comics writer Bill Mantlo today, and I don't know that there's any better way to describe it than sad.

Bill was the victim of a senseless hit and run accident almost 20 years ago, and since then, he's been the victim of the insurance industry. Some of the comics Mantlo wrote – Marvel Team-Up, Micronauts, Cloak & Dagger – are part of my most cherished comic book memories from my youth (indeed, Marvel Team-Up is one of my very first comics), but even if he wasn't, this is no way to treat anyone.

The full article is here. I highly recommend reading it, whether you have fond memories of Bill Mantlo's comics or not.

And you can find out more about The Hero Initiative here.

OUR MUTUAL FRIEND

2011-11-11T11:47:00.000-08:00

This is kind of apropos of nothing, but I was just listening to this and marveling at what a fantastic piece of songwriting it is. So, here's The Divine Comedy doing "Our Mutual Friend," the studio version of which can be found on their 2004 album, Absent Friends. Your life wold be richer for owning it.

I WANT YOU TO KNOW

2011-11-10T10:59:00.000-08:00

This seems like a stupid thing to post, but I'm not on Google+.

I am also not on Facebook, and I am not on LinkedIn.

Or Twitter.

I am also most definitely not on Myspace.

I bring this up because I get a ridiculous amount of email from people wanting to add me on these things, and that's nice and all, but no thanks. I understand that a great many people love social networking. I do not. I was on Facebook at one point, and Myspace before that. I was even on Friendster, way back when. I even had a Last.fm account at one point.

But I don't now, and nothing against you, but I'm not going to any point in the future, neither near nor distant. You can think that's silly or stupid or whatever, and you're certainly entitled to your own views, but I'm just not interested in that stuff.

WHAT THE WORLD IS WAITING FOR

2011-11-09T12:30:00.000-08:00

WEDNESDAY GIRL

2011-11-09T09:44:00.000-08:00

Sonya Aurora Madan

THE BOXER

2011-11-08T09:13:00.000-08:00

Joe Frazier passed away last night at the age of 67.

It's weird the things you learn about yourself as you grow older. I somehow care much more about sports now than I did when I was a kid, and for me, legendary figures like Smokin' Joe Frazier are iconic in a way current sports simply aren't. I couldn't tell you a damn thing about modern boxing – couldn't name a single boxer – but guys like Frazier, Muhammad Ali and George Foreman were heroes of the ring when I was a very young boy in the 1970s.

I wasn't old enough to watch Frazier beat Ali in '71, but I remember the Thrilla in Manila in '75. Frazier lost that fight, but he bested Ali in '71 and at a non-title match at Madison Square Garden in 1974. Ali was a great boxer and an amazing showman, but Frazier was an Olympic class athlete and just incredibly cool.

Like all heroes, he'll be missed.

YOU CAN'T DO THAT

2011-11-07T00:03:00.000-08:00

You're not going to be able to see these images as they were intended in the December issue of Diamond's Previews, because images that include swastikas can't be shown in Germany. With the Glory image, it's just a case of removing the offending iconography, but with the Pigs cover, it's virtually impossible to do that, so the entire image had to be blurred...

This is nothing new. Swastika-laden images have been prohibited from appearing in publications sold in Germany for decades at this point. I'm not sure I understand what the point is, though. World War II did happen, and Nazis did exist. I understand not wanting to encourage modern day Neo-Nazi groups, but censorship isn't a particularly effective weapon against hate groups of any kind. Plus outlawing specific Nazi iconography seems strangely revisionist, as though it's best to just not acknowledge the impact that symbol had, or the evil associated with it.

Once upon a time, a well-known comic book writer told me that he was sick of Nazis being used at default bad guys in movies and comics all the time. Personally, I don't think they can be depicted as villains often enough, and I found it a little offensive that virtually all references to Hitler and the Third Reich were removed from Marvel's Captain America film earlier this year. When Jack Kirby and Joe Simon created Captain America, it was in direct response to current events, to World War II and the villainy of Hitler and the Nazis. The Red Skull was a nazi, not some member of some obscure science cult. The whole point was that the Nazis were the bad guys.

Ignoring the unspeakable acts in our past that make us uncomfortable doesn't accomplish anything but obscuring the hateful truth behind those acts.

HIT PARADE

2011-11-06T10:27:00.000-08:00

1. David Crosby - "Laughing," (If I Could Only Remember My Name, 1971)
2. Neil Young - "I've Been Waiting for You," (Neil Young, 1969)
3. Noel Gallagher - "Dream On," (Noel Gallgher's High Flying Birds, 2011)
4. Simon Townshend - "I'm the Answer," (Sweet Sound, 1983)
5. Stevie Jackson - "Man of God," ((I Can't Get No) Stevie Jackson, 2011)
6. Pulp - "This Is Hardcore," (This Is Hardcore, 1998)
7. Lindsey Buckingham - "Trouble," (Law and Order, 1981)
8. The Beach Boys - "Good Vibrations," (The Smile Sessions, 2011)
9. Pink Floyd - "Wish You Were Here," (Wish You Were Here, 1974)
10. Fleetwood Mac - "She's Changing Me," (Heres Are Hard to Find, 1974)

MORE THAN YOU EVER HAD

2011-11-04T11:14:00.000-07:00

MTV.com's MTV Geek interviewed Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane and myself about Image Comics a few weeks back when we were at New York Comic-Con. If you feel like watching it, you're in luck, because I'm pretty sure that's all six segments right down there.

(And it's silly, I know, but I'm kind of amused that we sat down in alphabetical order by last name completely by chance...)

MTV Shows

Geek: Event Coverage - Full Episodes

MTV Shows