The News Blog of Comics Culture
Is the world ready for a new graphic novel from outsider musician/artist Daniel Johnston?
Probably.
Johnston, whose long career as a very eccentric musician was the subject of the 2006 documentary THE DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON, is also an avid comics reader, and this is his first GN. It comes complete with added soundtrack and app for the 360º experience. For those not familiar, Johnston is somewhere north of Wild Man Fischer and south of They Might be Giants and early Beck.
Much loved indie band Wilco is back with a new video—their first in 12 years—which doubles as a new Popeye cartoon. Directed by Darren Romanelli and art directed by Frank Caruso, the video recalls the classic Fleischer Bros. animation.
Tom Neely’s HENRY AND GLENN FOREVER comic is a classic mini that envisions two punk icons — Black Flag’s Henry Rollins (once of Black Flag) and Glenn Danzig (once in the Misfits) — as a gay couple with sitcom problems — dealing with jealousy, having Hall and Oates over for dinner. Imagine a punk METALOCALYPSE you can put in your pocket.
Danzig — a notoriously feisty scrapper who’s been known to pop people in the snoot and once was a credible choice to play Wolverine — is no stranger to comics. He once ran his own Verotik line and was a pioneer of the comics Nerdlebrity. However, his reaction to the comic has been crabby ranting.
Now Rollins, who is also a published poet and photographer, has gone on the record with his own response, in a video interview with Narduwar the Serviette. The bit begins at about 6:18.
Piskor has a new strip up at Boing Boing that examines the similarities between these two American artforms.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers are still around! And to prove they are still in touch with the kids they have hopped on the hot graphic novel trend for their latest video — because graphic novels aren’t just for kids any more. Under the bridge downtown, is where I drew some mini comics.
Actually, the video for “Monarchy of Roses” is more an homage to Raymond Pettibon than comic books. Amazingly, Anthony is still rocking the shirt-off look as he nears the half century mark…clean living, I guess.
If you like nerdcore music, you’ll enjoy Rock Comic Con, on Friday, 10/14, a concert featuring genre mainstays Paul and Storm, Kirby Krackle and H2Awesome!. Tickets are $12, and the show throws down at Tobacco Road, 355 W. 41st street, not too far from the Javits Center.
Benjamin Ahr Harrison directed this swell animated video that references Winsor McCay’s great Little Nemo comic strip. Check out Hoffman’s website for more musical stylings.
Could the Boston-based musical duo Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling be any bigger Prisoner fans? The band name is the name of a Prisoner episode, and they recently released a video for a song called Episode 1: Arrival, the name of the first Prisoner episode. And now the video for the song is a SHOT FOR SHOT remake of the Prisoner opening credits, only starring lead singer Sophia Cacciola, and shot all over Boston and England.
The video took years to plan and make, with a replica of the famous Lotus car, and locales the resembles the ’60s vista of London and Wales where the original was shot.
Musician Larry “Wild Man” Fischer died on June 16th at age 66. Challenged by severe mental illness his whole life, he was one of the earliest known examples of Outsider Music with his tuneless, shouted ditties that somehow still tapped into the joy of music and performance.
Can comics and extreme metal coexist in the same magazine? We’ll soon find out! The August issue (on sale in July) of DECIBEL has several features of interest to the comics crowd.
Last night’s American Idol finale — we were RIGHT on the money — included such spectacles as Lady Gaga and 71 year old Tom Jones, but also Reeve Carney, who plays Spider-Man in the cursed Spider-Man musical, singing the song’s big ballad alongside composers Bono and the Edge.
Or that’s what SCOTT PILGRIM director Edgar Wright just tweeted:
This is so not comics, but the Final Three go at it tonight and we’d been saving up some notes. We started watching American Idol a few years ago because we felt the need to pay attention to a least one thing that wasn’t nerdy but instead reflected the more mundane and/or inane side of culture — something universal, just so when we had to hang out with normal people we wouldn’t be entirely defenseless. Plus former judges Simon and Kara talked about music a little and it was interesting. But that was then. This season’s judges, Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez excel at nothing but praise, blather and administering something called the “amazing” scale:
NY Magazine recently commissioned a bunch of designers to reimagine the mistress of all the surveys, Lady Gaga, just in time for her new album’s release. While it’s hard to out-weird someone who wears a meat dress and goes to a Mets game in her underwear, several cartoonists gave it a shot, including Ariel Shrag, David Reese, Tim Hensley and Mike Keefe.
…What happened to John Stewart?
Cartoonist Peter Bagge has long had a thriving side career as a member of various garage bands. Now his outift Can You Imagine? has just released a new video for the song “Drive,” directed by Mott Todd. Bonus: Artwork by Peter Bagge!
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