Friday's links

"The nervousness wore off. Now I feel sheer terror."
Mercury's own Matthew Clark talks to the Pulse


"The reputation of comics has improved so much in recent decades that Maryland is planning a program that would use the books in public schools to help engage reluctant readers."
The Washington Post on comics in the classroom. Bonus: the article cites Dignifying Science.

"When you realize that

Lots of local links

"(Parker) vividly contrasts the desolate and bleak facility with the spirited yet clearly frustrated scientists within."
Comic Book Galaxy reviews FALLOUT published by G.T. Labs


"There's no longer an infrastructure to support more than a tiny number of up-and-coming cartoonists, which is unfortunate, because the talent base out there is enormous."
The Washington Post talks to Portland's Barry "

No, really.

Reason magazine has the story of Disney, Dan O'Neil and the Air Pirates

Max Collins interviewed about his Road to Perdition sequels for a Columbus-area newspaper.


"Holy stocking stuffer! These are perfect!" Via Kevin Melrose, the Boston Herald tells you what to buy. The list, credited to Mark A. Perigard, recommends vital works like The Complete Peanuts, cool stuff like the DC Archives, and,

"I'd probably spent four or five months doing nothing, because I didn't know what to do. And every month I waited, the book would get more props, and more and more people started talking about it." The Porland Mercury covers the soundtrack composed by Tracker for Craig Thompson's Blankets. Thompson and Tracker will be performing live together Friday, Dec 10 at Nocturnal on 1800 E Burnside, here

Art makes a fine gift.

Gotta share this. Drew Johnson was recently celebrating his birthday with an animator friend and received the sketch linked below. (Click on the thumbnail.) It's kind of scary how easy it is to hear the voice...

Tuesdays with Mercury

Drew Johnson, fresh off his very first Spiderman story, is ebaying again. You can see his auctions Here, here,and here.

At Ninth Art, Paul O'Brien has an interesting essay on how the mainstream audience reacts to "real" writers - writers who come to comics from other media. I'd like to see a critic follow up on this. Maybe a look at their comics as part of a larger body of work, or something

In the Woods

We've been wanting to talk about this for a while, and finally, it's out: Pete Woods is the new artist on Catwoman Follow the link for an interview with new writer Will Pfeifer and some spectacular pencils from Pete.

Pete, alas, doesn't get much ink in the interview above. So, why not go to Pete's own blog and read a general-purpose interview he posted there.

And you know, Rebecca Woods has