Friday Links

Anybody else notice how thick Marvel comics were this week? Dave at Yet Another Comics Blog sure did, and he breaks down his annoyance, page by page.

Interesting question: How many drafts should one take to craft a graphic novel? Stuart Immonen weighs in, explaining that he doesn’t want to be like Adrian Tomine and take 10 years, but he also doesn’t want to rush.

Wow. Kevin Church goes postal on CBGB. He has some good points, even if I find it not very surprising that most of the books reviewed are given average scores (since average by definition is going to be most common). I should note, one of the CBGB reviewers is the owner of a comics shop I used to go to in Little Rock. I usually hated everything he liked, and vice versa.

2 Guys Buying Comics has a whole lotta hope for next week’s release of Wonder Woman #14, marking the debut of Gail Simone as writer. I’ll have a preview of that issue here next week, so remember to swing by.

Here’s news that’ll make everyone’s favorite red-headed comics-loving librarian rejoice: The Buffalo NY library system is spending nearly $100,000 to update its graphic novel collection. More and more libraries are adding comics material. I wrote a story about that a couple years ago for the Democrat-Gazette and found a mix of librarians either excited about comics or ones who thought Art Spiegelman was that guy who played with Paul Simon.

Here’s a pretty cool story of a woman who decided to tell the story of her grandfather, a Chinese Vaudevillian, into a graphic novel. The book is The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam, published by Riverhead.

Casper and Ghost Rider? It’s not as crazy as Archie and Punisher, and this bizarre teamup almost came about, according to CBR’s urban legends revealed.

Dave Campbell has way too much free time. That, and an obsession with Deathstroke, is bad news for us all.

Canadian currency is gaining ground on the drooping dollar, and now Marvel has lowered comics prices up north, while DC hasn’t. Again, I remain amazed that comics are more expensive in Canada, since that’s where they’re printed. (via TCJ)
I’m still reeling from NBC’s “Green Week” onslaught from last night (here’s a thought: Solving global warming is going to take major lifestyle changes, not just unplugging the microwave), and now there’s green sex toys. Yikes. (via Occasional Superheroine)

The Seattle PI got a chance to interview the artists of each of the four special Heroes TV Guide covers. One was done by Michael Turner, who said drawing comics usually means “you take the most extreme part of the face and exaggerate it.” That, and breasts.