This could have gone in Kibbles ‘n’ Bits, but it is so excellent it deserves it’s own item. Shaenon K. Garrity’s Ten Comics That Made Me Cry is a nice reminder, in the midst of character deaths planned by corporations, writers who tell the stories they’ve waited to tell all heir lives after an editorial retreat suggests it to them, and entire comics planned with all the care of an entry in the latest spec script sales listings, that comics are all about stories that last and last and last:

Anyway, the saddest sequence of Peanuts strips is that in which Patty tells Linus about finally meeting the little red-haired girl and crying because she realizes she’ll never be able to compete with someone so pretty. There is nothing in the world sadder than those strips. Charlie Brown thinks he’s suffered in love? You’re a solipsistic ass, Charlie Brown.

The second saddest Peanuts strip is Spike’s origin story. I can’t even talk about that one.

In perhaps the most unlikely sentence ever typed, I Love Rob Liefeld is giving away a copy of ALAN’S WAR, Emmanuel Guibert’s award-winning graphic novel about World War II as related by a veteran. Hit the link for details.

This 50 facts about Obama article has spurred considerable hopes that the incoming US president might, at last, be the one to truly represent a long-oppressed minority in the White House. Eight simple words that spell hope for the world:

He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics.

Note the use of the present tense. While it’s a well known fact that young Barack was an avid comic book reader, and certainly no stranger to superhero imagery on the campaign trail, this one verb would have us believe that he still keeps a long box, or perhaps some trendy graphic novels, in his reading pile. Something like, CONAN: BORN ON THE BATTLEFIELD by Kurt Busiek and Greg Ruth, maybe? Or maybe he’s more of a Bendis fan?

We’ll leave the parsing of this particular truth to others. What with administrative transitions, and global recession and nukes in Iran, he’s got a lot on his plate, and to expect him to weigh in on the Clone Saga is just a bit much. Frankly we found this factoid just as interesting.

He has read every Harry Potter book

Maybe the president-elect is just, you know, kind of a nerd.

Developing?

Or talks to God or whatever. IGN-UK has a big interview with him which has tons of pull quotes on everything and anything. We’ll quote the bit everyone else has, but you have to read the other parts, too:

I’ve been listening to people talk about ’saving’ the ‘industry’ for over 20 years while comics have continued to be published and have, in fact, become better, to the point where the only conclusion I’ve come to is that comics are best ’saved’ by sealing them in Mylar bags! Everything else is just messianic inflation. Just do good books and stop trying to be the savior of a whole medium that’s been doing okay without you and will continue long after you’re gone.

Yes, I think Kirkman’s right, in that I’d like to see more of our creative community unleashing their wild imaginations onto the page and less of the obvious ‘movie pitch on paper stuff’ that’s come about recently as a result of comic creators chasing the Hollywood dollar but I don’t have a problem with writers and artists working on Marvel and DC properties if they enjoy it. I’d rather read a good Green Lantern story by someone who cares than work my way through a ‘creator-owned’ project that’s been created solely to appeal to lowest-common-denominator movie executives.

Otherwise, he’s possibly being slightly disingenuous by issuing this ‘call to arms’ at a time when, to be honest, I can’t think of any significant comic book writer for Marvel or DC who doesn’t have creator work on the go. Apart from Geoff Johns, who’s told me he much prefers writing DC superhero books, everyone else - me, Warren Ellis, Mark Millar, JMS, Garth Ennis, Matt Fraction, Brian Bendis, Kurt Busiek, etc etc - seems to be hard at work creating new properties, so I’m not entirely sure where the problem lies.

Methinks this news has been out there before, but Dan Nadel makes it official: PictureBox is doing Ogden Whitney:

PictureBox is going to publish a collection of Ogden Whitney’s romance and sci-fi comics in late 2009 or early 2010. Co-edited by Frank Santoro, Bill Boichel and little ol’ me. We are scouring the earth for any and all Whitney material. We aim to solve a few mysteries with this one and should get down to work on it as soon as Mr. Santoro stops blogging for a minute and finished Cold Heat! Ha! Just kidding. Sort of. No, but seriously, Frank is very close to finishing and we will send the book to the printer in December in order to have the books in stores everywhere in April.

They are also seeking Whitney’s son…so get out your sleuthing caps.

A new comic by Larson/O’Malley! Bear Creek Apartments. And there was great rejoicing! And server crashing, apparently.

Following his surprise hit, genre-busting ALICE IN SUNDERLAND, Bryan Talbot is getting back to basics with his work in progress GRANDVILLE, which he calls “an anthropomorphic steampunk detective-thriller. This is the protagonist, Detective-Inspector LeBrock of Scotland Yard.”

We say…whoa! Comics still wonderful in spite of it all!

Bryan also writes to tell us that his THE NAKED ARTIST, tales of comic book cartoonists doing odd things, illustrated by Hunt Emerson, is now available to read for free at Wowio.

Item lifted wholesale from the Forbidden Planet blog.