Crumb Bums

 

I'm about three-quarters of the way through Crumb: A Cartoonist's Life by Dan Nadel.  It's really good, highly recommended.

Reading it doesn't make me feel like I missed out on "the sixties" so much, but it does make it seem like it was a great time to be involved in comics fandom. As kids Crumb and his brother collect Carl Barks and Walt Kelly comics obsessively and contribute to comics fanzines.  Terry Zwigoff teaches classes on Barks comics before managing a comic shop, which he then quits to join a bluegrass band with Crumb and Robert Armstrong, creator of Mickey Rat.  The other Zap guys are all Barks-heads too; as idiosyncratic and unique as they are, the influence of the Good Duck Artist is clear as day.

 Neat to think that the hip, cutting-edge transgressive artistes of yore were all big Donald Duck and Little Lulu fans.

 

Parody Will Get You Nowhere

 

Good news, The Sincerest Form of Parody is back in print from Fantagraphics!

I borrowed the heck out of this from the library when it first came out.  If you were a fan of the Russ Cochrane Mad and Panic collections back in the day then you should love this.

Steal This Documentary

 

Stolen Kingdom Review

Hack the planet.

 

How hackers ruined a Disney employee's life.

 Happy Public Domain Day!

On an unrelated note, I would like to take this opportunity to announce my new creator-owned comic book "Horace Horsecollar Fights Popeye and Tintin."

Oz Squad

 

I've written before about my life-long fascination with L. Frank Baum's Oz books and their many multimedia spinoffs.

Like most people, I saw the Wicked movie opening weekend and loved it, just like I loved the musical and the books it's based on.

But for my money, the best revisionist Dark Oz of all is the Caliber Comics version. Yes Caliber, home of goth vigilante The Crow and zombie apocalypse road trip DeadWorld, did a take on Dorothy and her pals, and it's grimngritty as all hell.

Image from Romance In Rags, the one where Scraps, The Patchwork Girl Of Oz, tries to win The Scarecrow, currently suffering from a mind control spell by the witch Mombi and working for the evil Nome King, back to the side of the Emerald City freedom fighters.  

The series was recently released as a series of trade paperbacks, essential reading for all you My Chemical Romance fans.

The Quack Parade

 

I finally got my hands on Donald Duck: Vacation Parade , and it was worth the wait.

 Fréderic Brémaud and Federico Bertolucci have created a charming graphic novel that reads like a lost cartoon from the 1950s.

There aren't any words in this comic, but you can hear the sputtering and squawking.

The colors are gorgeous.

The story doesn't need words to flow from panel to panel, like storyboards for a lost classic short cartoon.  Your favorite character and mine, Humphrey Bear makes a triumphant return.

Chip and Dale are here also.

Vacation Parade is a truly all-ages comic.  Little kids who have trouble reading will have no problem following the story and laughing at the gags.  Mature sophisticates like us will enjoy the beautiful art and retro style.  Highly recommended, Disney Weirdness-approved.