I already posted some about Bone and Making Comics- I didn't have much time this week to go over Bone again, but I did go back and look at Making Comics some more. I really like the section on word/picture combinations- McCloud is brilliant at coming up with examples of how they can be used differently (as in the "intersecting" panel where the dialogue reads "My God, Walter, you have changed" and the picture is of 2 women talking). In fact, I think the execution of the book was almost more enjoyable than the theory, there were so many little jokes embedded in it (like when Dumbledore asks Gandalf for his autograph in the character section) and it really goes to show that critics and theorists who neglect to make their works enjoyable and readable in favor of dry pontificating are missing out.

Elsewhere in comics and related stuff:

All-star Batman and Robin has officially gotten old. Frank Miller's satirical take on the ultra hardass Batman he created was funny and fresh at first, but a year and a half and 7 issues later its still the same stupid joke. We get it. Batman is a dick. He's sadistic and he talks like a pissed off high school gym teacher with a fetish for the word "goddamn". Miller needs to stop falling back on the excuse that its satire and recognize that even a parody needs to be halfway inventive to be worth anyone's time.

Grant Morrison's Club of Heroes mystery ends quite satisfyingly, complete with red-herrings and actual detective work by Batman. Between this and Paul Dini's Detective, Batman is doing more actual mystery solving than he's done in years.

the Justice League movie is greenlit...with the Babe director at the helm, and Tom Wellin and Jessica Biel in talks to play Superman and Wonderwoman, plus someone besides Bale as Batman. Ugh. A good justice league movie would be a dream come true, but I suspect this will be anything but.

Heroes remains totally sweet.


As for my own comic, I was thinking of a Harry Potter style parody, only instead of a school for wizards, its a school for supervillains, with a young protagonist who really wants to be the most powerful dark lord in the world.