Maybe it’s the fact that Free Comic Book Day is Saturday, but this week’s shipping list has me in a fog of mixed emotions.
I’m happy to see another issue of Fallen Angel, but I’m sad that it’s the last DC will publish.
I’m happy to see another title written by Gail Simone (Villains United), but it means I’ll have to buy one of those Countdown/Crisis tie-ins.
I’m happy that Marvel has released Essential Defenders Vol. 1, but I have all the issues it collects, so I don’t need to buy it.
It’s not all ambivalence, though. I’m looking forward to Del Rey’s Nodame Cantabile, particularly after reading James Schee’s positive review. (I can’t remember if I pre-ordered it or not. I think I did, but that was a long time ago.) And the second issue of Seven Soldiers Shining Knight is due, so I get to gaze at more pretty, pretty art from Simone Bianchi.
Speaking of Free Comic Book Day, Johanna has some reviews up at Cognitive Dissonance. Oh, Owly. I love you so.
Shortly after posting a review of a Highwater Books title, I found Tom Spurgeon’s piece on the publisher’s decision to shut down its web site. Unfortunate as the turn of events is, it’s nice to hear that Matt Madden (Odds Off) and Jessica Abel are collaborating on a textbook on graphic novels. Another fine piece of comics reportage from Spurgeon.
And there’s another fine piece on comics reportage from Ed at The Low Road. Ed looks at the state of the interview, and he raises some excellent points. I think a lot of them extend beyond on-line comics creator interviews, too. The state of all kinds of celebrity journalism seems so shaky at the moment, driven as much by publicists and hype cycles as anything specifically interesting about the subject, that just about every medium could use a Terry Gross. (And I know “celebrity” is probably a bad choice of words, but it’s all-encompassing enough to suit my purposes.)