Giant Green Shirt!

No, that's not a forced perspective shot or an illusion, it's an actual giant green shirt, which was being raised in the lobby of the Duderstadt Center when I came in to work this morning.

Here's another shot:



What does this have to do with comics? Not much, excepting that some days coming into work is like entering a comic written by Grant Morrison...

BTW, I'm working on a plan that should make our library the coolest academic library ever. Can't say anything right now, but hopefully I'll have something to announce in a month or so...

Regarding Judd Winick

There's a common attitude towards his work that you seem often from online commentators; Valerie D'Orazio's recent comment is typical:

Judd Winick is still the guy nobody understands why he is still writing these books but somehow he is.

Most likely Winick continues to get work due to some combination of:
a) he turns his scripts in on time
b) he writes what the editors ask him to
c) his page rate is reasonable

Doing what the editor wants and turning it in on time for a good price will no doubt keep a career going, even if it doesn't result in great comics.

Recall that Winick's early career as a cartoonist was much different. After struggling in syndicated newspaper strip purgatory with the funny but overlooked Frumpy the Clown (based on a character he created for his student strip Nuts & Bolts at the Michigan Daily), Winick created the multi-award-winning Pedro & Me OGN, did the Eisner-winning "Road Trip," and did several hilarious mini-series of his Barry Ween character for Oni. It was only when he started writing multiple super-hero scripts for DC that he gained the reputation of being a hack--and even then, his early work on Green Lantern and Marvel's Exiles was, while not universally praised, at least well regarded.

(Winick also created the kids cartoon The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, which was better than 90% of the cartoons these days and also better than most of his recent super-hero writing.)

I'd like to see Winick go back to drawing his own stuff at some point, to see if he can recapture the magic. But sadly I expect that cranking out scripts for DC pays better.

Weekend Reading

It was downright frigid outside this weekend, so I stayed indoors and got caught up on some comics:

I finished "The Good Prince" arc in Fables, and was pleasantly surprised at the relatively happy ending (though there are plenty of dark undercurrents and foreshadowing).

Read the first volume of Mike Carey & Jim Fern's Crossing Midnight. Thankfully Carey's writing was much more like his Lucifer work than his X-Men, and Jim Fern has stepped up his art to a whole new level. I'll be looking for future volumes.

I finally got around to reading Fantastic Four/Iron Man: Big in Japan. I had been resisting due to not normally caring much for Zeb Wells' writing in the past, but this was fantastic. I don't know if it was Seth Fisher's art bringing up Wells' game or what, but it worked. And speaking of Fisher, the art was astounding, with nearly every page tripping out into the fantastical.

Finally, I re-read some Yotsuba&!, because it still makes me laugh even on multiple readings.

(I also read Richard Matheson's I Am Legend for book club on Tuesday, and watched two movies: Waitress, which was every bit as good as I'd heard; and Sunshine, which was almost great but never quite gelled and might have better on the big screen where's its visuals would have impressed more.)

(Just realized that with Big in Japan's Seth Fisher and Waitress's Adrienne Shelly that makes two creative types who left us too early, but their last works were creative high points.)