The C-List: By Odin's Beard

Item! So I just saw the Thor movie. I knew it would be a bad movie (sorry, when you become an old man like me you get a sort of Odin-sense for these things) but I felt it was my journalistic duty to go. As well, I felt I owed it to 9-year-old me to check it out. Next week I will see Bridesmaids and make it up to all ages of myself. I suppose one of the chief observations about the movie I could make is that 50 years of science fiction and fantasy films have sort of stolen Thor’s thunder, in the sense that we’ve had all of these watered-down Kirby ideas in things like Star Wars and the Stargate spinoffs, not to mention Tolkien, Starman and a whole crop of superhero adaptations, so the whole idea of an ancient space god who comes to Earth and mixes it up with a hot nurse (or astrophysicist as the case may be) seems kind of old hat at this point and would likely only succeed artisitically if it really did something original or visually beautiful, an event the hideously bland fantasy sets and costumes, not to mention the clunky direction, seemed to guarantee wouldn’t transpire. Ironically, in some ways the film had more in common with Kirby’s New Gods comics, minus the earnest profundity and wonderful bizarre vision. Ultimately, the pints of Stonehammer I consumed before the film were no remedy for a case of Branagh-induced Odinsleep.
Onwards to the news, verily!
Item! A very nice photo essay from TCAF at Squidface & The Meddler. Wow, what a difference a professional photographer, in this case Sam Javanrough, makes to a project like this. (my fave photo is of cartoonist Box Brown wearing the Guelph Roller Derby t-shirt designed by Seth. I have that shirt too!)
Item(s)! Here’s a quick list of 16 other TCAF reports as well: A long one from Jason Turner. Sean Azzopardi from the UK has his here. Tom Humberstone here. Andreas Schuster here. Mister Phil posted lots here. Secret Acres News did so insightfully here. Sean T. Collins here. Dustin Harbin here and the TCJ is hosting his comics account of the Doug Wright Awards. Colleen MacIsaac did a comic about TCAF too. Tom Spurgeon has wrapped up his extensive TCAF reporting with a photo cavalcade of his own [can you find Bryan?]. Guys with pencils podcasted about it here, and Comic News Insiders did here [with Paul Pope!]. The Wrights blog has the Bob Sikoryak sketches here. And of course Twitter was a twitter with tweets.
Item! Speaking of photos (as I was before that big list of links in the previous item), Diana Tamblyn is one of the London, Ontario artists featured in a new blog. There are lots of cartoonists in London according to her list!
Item! Not sure, could this be the new Koyama Press Kick Ass Annie logo?
Item! Saw this first I think? on Comics Reporter but the Shuster Awards blog has the press release for a new line of graphic novels at Udon that basically puts the kibosh on their floppy comics publishing. Pamphlet comics get phased out.
Item! Last week was Chester Brown Week at The Comics Journal. Sean Rogers interviewed Brown and there were some reviews and other stuff. As well, Jeet Heer examined the political and personal aspects of Paying For It in The Globe and Mail.
Item! Quill and Quire has coverage of the seizure of comics by Canada Customs.
Item! Wildfire Chronicles is a comic book about the history of mining in Drumheller Alberta.
Item! Jamie Bradburn unearths the first appearance of the Peanuts comic strip in Canada.