Another (Audio) Blast from the Past...

Oh, dear.

At the movie theaters, it's the '70s all over again -- I mean, in the past couple of weeks, I've malingered in local theaters will various remakes and retreads prompting flashbacks: The Invasion (an honorably and mostly effective addition to the Jack Finney-novel-spawned Invasion of the Body Snatchers pantheon; has any single sf novel -- outside of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein -- become such a touchstone to each generation's reinterpretation?), Halloween (Rob Zombie remaking Texas Chains -- oh, I mean, John Carpenter's gem -- and Tobe Hooper/Kim Henkel's classic, a misbegotten fusion of '70s genre landmarks), Death Sentence (based on Brian Garfield's followup novel to Death Wish, and very much of a piece with that '70s vigilante blockbuster hit)... you get the idea. Incredibly, Jodi Foster is soon gracing screens in a pseudo-remake of Abel Ferrera's Ms. 45 which lifts its title from a forgotten-by-most 1950s boy-and-his-bull sleeper, The Brave One. At least that'll put us in the '80s.

And online, it's 1990 all over again.

The one and only Blake Bell is 'rebroadcasting' my interview with Scott McCloud and Gary Groth here,

while the download "Creators' Rights 20 Yrs Later? Classic mp3s of Groth, McCloud, Bissette" awaits you here. Same thing, either stop.

Where ever you choose to listen or download, it all brings back other memories -- good and bad -- for this old geezer and vividly reminds me how while some things have changed for the better, others are worse in terms of Creator Rights. The dirty little secret is that work-for-hire in the internet era is as prevalent and destructive as ever.

More on that another day, another post, when time permits a proper overview, update and rant... in the meantime, plug into the interview from 17 years ago, when the ire and passions were fresh and raging. Special thanks to

Blake Bell, Steve Ditko expert extraordinaire (with whom I share an introduction venue in the new Marvel hardcover collection of Amazing Adventures/Amazing Adult Fantasy; more on that later)

and Al Nickerson,

whose ongoing venue for further discussion and exploration of Creator Rights is as vital as ever. Why aren't more of you (especially you young creators) using this venue?

It's the complacency of many of my peers and the generations since 1990 that has led us down this 21st Century path, where work-for-hire and Vertigo contracts are still a sorry status quo.

Have a great Friday; the new semester at the Center for Cartoon Studies begins today! I'll be busy...

Monday, Bloody Monday...

Before launching into this week's procession of interviews, I reckon it's fair to provide a little Monday recap of my week in some matters:

* I completed a two-page piece for the upcoming Trees & Hills New England cartoonists collective's anthology comic. They'll be selling it at MoCCA, too, so keep an eye out for that. Ye Venerable Editors, Dan Barlow and Colin Tedford, were at CCS on Saturday for a Trees & Hills comics jamming session, and I left the completed pages for them, as I couldn't attend.

The two-pager has been accepted, but their comments were interesting: this is an all-ages anthology, and working carefully within those parameters, I cooked up the most subversive two-pager I could, aimed at anyone who has ever seen a school yearbook. Dan wrote, "Very powerful stuff. I was actually quite stunned when I read it." Colin wrote, "Kind of at the edge of 'all-ages' (for some folks, I guess? I mean, I read Ender's Game in elementary school), but no more so than a newspaper anyway. I'm starting the mini's layout right here in the CCS classroom - looks like 52 pages incl. bios..."

Heh heh. You can do a lot with just two pages, folks. And if you want to see what this is all about, you'll just have to buy the comic, won't you? Links to follow, once Colin and Dan give me the heads up.

* Also worked on some panels/pages with CCS graduate Sean Morgan for his MoCCA comic. I've been drawing aliens for Sean's new story, and we'll have more on that closer to MoCCA -- again, you'll have to buy the comic to see what we've cooked up!

* Still laboring over one more piece for another CCS-spawned venture for MoCCA, but I'll hold off saying anything more until it's done. Biggest damn page I ever worked on, though.

Well, I've got to dash -- I'm having breakfast with CCS grad Ross Wood Studlar, who is leaving VT and the CCS community for work in the grand outdoors of Oregon this summer.

As I pointed out to Ross via email, he's carrying on a proud tradition: after all, folk singer/cartoonist Michael Hurley has been shuttling between Oregon and Vermont since the '60s, making his way in the world while making his own distinctive music and comics. Sending Ross off with at least one good Crossroads Cafe breakfast in his belly, my treat, seems the right thing to do. We'll miss you, Ross!

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The conclusion of The Sopranos was a corker last night. I loved the ending -- I thought my fucking cable had gone out! It pissed me off and left me feeling the way Tony must have felt every moment of his adult life. Kudos to David Chase and all the creators; what a great series.

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Beating a Dead Horse into Pulp Dept.: Note the comment thread on yesterday's 'PS' post, if you're interested in revisiting or visiting for the first time why I ain't doing what many folks think I should be doing, based on not knowing -- ah, well, read it, if you're interested.

So it's all in one neat, tidy compact place, here's the back story links:

Final public exchange with Rick Veitch about these & related matters, which pretty much covers the basics;

Dave Sim's followup to that exchange, which led to a final airing on the subject

via this reply from me, which is pretty much my last word on the subject of my retirement and reasons for it,

which thankfully brought the discussion (of years!) to a close with this reply from Dave Sim, putting matters to rest (scroll down a ways in his post to reach the few relevant paragraphs),

to conclude with this followup thread at Al Nickeron's Creator Rights Forum discussion board -- Go to: Creators Rights Forum Index -> Creator's Rights Discussions on the discussion board -- And then: the thread entitled: "Post subject: Steve Bissette's letter: Dave Sim and 1963..." -- my letter, and Dave's reply, are there complete, followed by some conversation about the very points Jed raised in last night's comments on this blog.

Whew. That's that, I hope. If not, let's converse on the comment thread for last night's PS, please.

And that frees me up now for the week of wonders ahead -- more interviews here, more drawing at home, and a sweet week in June.

Have a great Monday, one and all --