I had no idea Barry Allen was dead, either.

I’m two decades behind on my super secret crisis invasion wars, I guess?

I liked Eccleston, but I’m all “Ehhh, whatev” about Tennant. If they’d hired Jason Statham (see the end of this Grant Morrison interview), and wrote scripts appropriately, I doubt I’d ever miss an episode…!

Oh well.

...but it would have been funnier if they’d trusted us to get it.

This looks like a hoot.

Eliot Spitzer spent 80 grand on hookers!

OK.

But how much did he spend on COMICS?

I’ve run at the mouth a bit here, using a question Pete asked me as an excuse.

The Virgin Read is second to none. I completely agree with both of these reviews (though that’s not why The Virgin Read is second to none). Those were the best two comics that came out recently, at least among the ones I read.

Garth Ennis likes his nadshots. None from Preacher, though – there must have been nadshots in Preacher!?

Dave on inking:

3. Yes, the Gillott 290 pen nib. According to Tom Roberts’ new ALEX RAYMOND HIS LIFE AND ART book, Raymond used them as well. You can get them online at John Neal books somewhere in the Carolinas.

They are time-consuming to use because they don’t have the latitude on either side that the Hunt 102 does. Unless you have both flanges touching the page at the right angle, you aren’t going to get an ink line out of it. So it’s a self-disciplining tool: it makes you pay much closer attention and to be very specific in your touch. As a result when you do get a line out of the 290, it’s a perfect line. But it does mean you have to wash it off and dry it a lot of times without having gotten anything out of it. That’s where Neal calls it an instrument of the devil. You feel like screaming at it, “I do TOO have both flanges on the page!” Uhuhuh. Not EXACTLY both flanges. Not at the proper angle.

But when you get into a groove with it? Lookitme Ma, I’m Neal Adams, I’m Dick Giordano, I’m Al Williamson! Absolute heaven. I used it a lot more on Secret Project One than on glamourpuss because ofthe scheduling thing. If you’re just learning to use it, it’s best for repeating patterns—Berni Wrightson style vertical hatch-lines. Anything you do over and over and over and over because you do get into that groove

4. Pretty much the same with the exception of more thin brush inking. On CEREBUS I’d use the 102 like a brush—hold it a little further back on the penstock and almost level with the page and then pull it alternating the pressure. You can open the flanges up without breaking them or bending them permanently. Ger still maintains that isn’t possible.

Hmmm, interesting.

Brian! says:

Most people who work in comics are comics fans. It only makes sense. I mean, you don’t become a auto mechanic if you hate cars. And this is what’s wrong with most comics. They’re written and drawn by people who think comics are doin’ just fine. If Atomic Robo has any kind of advantage, it’s that its co-creators kind of hate comics.

Good thing, too – the only thing that will get comics out of the art ghetto is comics that don’t suck. Clear away the tired old shit that doesn’t work, and make something new and good in that now-empty space.

Read the whole thing.

(subject line reference)