Kibbles ‘n’ Bits, 9/25

Do you go to any great lengths to reflect the realities of international intelligence, or do you sort of give yourself the liberty to look at the Queen & Country universe as largely fictional?

GR: I think the Q&C universe is tied very closely to this one, and for that reason I work very hard on the verisimilitude, I want it to feel as authentic as possible. I know just enough to make me potentially dangerous. But I think I’m very good at what I refer to as logical extrapolation—if A is true and B is true, then it is logical to me that C would also be the case. It’s the logic that I think carries forward. That’s always been how I’ve approached it. Just trying to take what I’ve been able to find in research and in talking to people, and I do a lot of reading—I read those big 800-page Metrokin archives, things that really only people with a sadistic streak would take the time to read. Either that or need a good book for self-defense.

The graphic novel “American Widow,” written by Alissa Torres and illustrated by Sungyoon Choi, is a memoir about the author; her husband, Luis Eduardo Torres; and his death on Sept. 11, 2001. That day is fraught with so many emotional and political landmines for countless people that a critic might hesitate to review such an account, especially if the work is less than stellar. Fortunately, “American Widow” is very good — largely because of the author’s willingness to address difficult issues, including her anger at her husband and her frustration in dealing with relief agencies that at times alternated between being overeager and counterproductive.

Again, don’t get me wrong. Work-for-hire is a vile concoction that has, as Joe Quesada so kindly (if unintentionally) pointed out, poisoned virtually every entertainment medium in existence. It’s an extension of the 19th century workhouse mentality, which holds that all benefits of labor and all ownership should accrue to the overseer, not the worker, as a condition of employment, and it’s basically the worker’s own damn fault if he lives in misery and squalor. That the man on top would be incapable of producing on his own what the laborer beneath him provides for him never enters the equation. (Which is not to suggest that, say, Joe Quesada, who’s an excellent artist and not bad writer couldn’t produce his own comic book, but he certainly couldn’t produce the entire Marvel line. I suspect most of his bosses are far less capable of carrying on were they suddenly in the position of having to produce the books themselves.)

But if work-for-hire were to vanish this afternoon, it wouldn’t visibly change the complexion of American comics.

The Harvey Awards will be presented this weekend at the Baltimore Comic Convention. As a long introduction would bring a column already long enough past the breaking point, here’s where This Ship Is Totally Sinking gives you some predictions, as well as some hopes and fears on the upcoming ceremony. If you attend the awards, you’ll be able to watch the look of smug superiority appear on my face when I’m right, as well as witness my crushing disappointment for the moments when I’m proven wrong. You’ll also be a real freak, because staring at people you don’t know is just weird. But hey! That’s why you’re dressed like a gigantic plush doll!

According to the report from IESB — albeit from an unnamed source, so take all this with a grain of saltwater — “Fathom” is indeed still on at 20th Century Fox, however, the studio has decided to move the project to their genre film division, Fox Atomic. While the rumors of the film proceeding after many believed it to be canned is enough to get the internet humming, it’s trumped by the additional rumor that up-and-coming Hollywood super-hottie, Megan Fox, has agreed to sign on as the film’s lead role, Aspen Matthews.