§ The Couscous Collective is a new group blog comprising Elizabeth Conley, Elena Diaz, Pancha Diaz, Andrew Farago, Shaenon Garrity, Konstantin Pogorelov, Jason Thompson, and Leia Weathington. Above is a collective self-portrait of most of them.
§ Tucker Stone talks canon and superheroes.
There aren’t a lot of very strong canons for super-hero comics out there. I’d hesitate to guess why—there’s clearly some bright enough people writing both in print and on the internet about super-hero titles that could do the work—but that doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t be something worth looking into.
§ A report on Libertarian candidate Chester Brown at a debate:
Just as often, Brown succinctly responded to audience questions with time to spare, starting off by explaining that he came to libertarianism after figuring that all sides of the establishment political spectrum were likely to find something wrong with the provocative elements of his successful illustrated work.
Researching for his book Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography left Brown feeling that government was basically good for one thing: property rights.
“Money is power,” he told the crowd in opening remarks. “And when the government takes money from you they also take the power from you.”
Chow, meanwhile, commended the audience for their bravery in coming out to a political debate in the face of reports of a wave of vandalism targeted at putative Liberal Party supporters across Toronto.
Asking why there is no modern comic book ‘canon’ is like asking why there is no Vatican for the internet. The literary world was already moving beyond the idea of the value of elite writers getting together to define a ‘canon’ according their tastes, and this was already happening long before comics started to be taken seriously as a work of art.
Escaping the era of the ‘canon’ unscathed is a good thing. Attempting to replicate a literary philosophy that fell out of favour decades ago would make the world of comics seem provincial and small.
I believe the word “canon” was bruited about as a possible use for the Journal’s best 100 English-language comcis, so I guess one exists, depending on how seriously you take that list.
Theres no canon is because the real question is can you sell it. I figure if that’s what you care for than that’s your canon. If it’s not then there’s no canon other than your own taste and effort.
Theres no canon because the real question is can you sell it. I figure if that’s what you care for than that’s your canon. If it’s not then there’s no canon other than your own taste and effort.