A SPOILERS ABOUND Supplement: Links & Updates

It was a busy January and I'm behind on pretty much everything, including posting some links to these three incredible sites, which I've been meaning to plug for awhile now. If you get a minute, stop by and pay them a visit; you won't be disappointed.


A TROUT IN THE MILK

A great new blog by Plok called A Trout in the Milk is home to a thrilling discussion of classic Fantastic Four. Plok begins by establishing four grades of FF comics (Real, VG, Caretaker, and Shitty); he then goes on, in two joyful, luminous posts, to theorize the relationship between Stan/Jack FF and Roy Thomas FF. The first of these posts, Crisis on Infinite Roys, Part 1, is a Borgesian garden of fascinating insights and forking paths; the second, clarifying post, Crisis on Infinite Roys, Part 2 is a superb sum-up of the previous argument. Plok’s most recent post on shitty FF is a riotious rant, and I agree with every word of it. Oh--and just to confirm his genius absolutely, Plok shares my love of that magical Englehart, Buscema/Pollard, and Sinnott run of the FF, late in the life of the original series. Huzzah!


PRETTY FAKES

Another blog that I can’t say enough good things about is Pretty Fakes, run by Professor Fury and Gorjus. This blog does an exceptionally good job of integrating personal reflections with insightful analysis and criticism of comics and popular fiction, all wrapped up in professionally polished prose. Prof. Fury has just put up a brilliant post on Southern Surveillance and Seaguy that will resonate with anyone who has followed the Roeg/Singer debate on politics and comic books here. His reflections on Complicity, History, and Captain America #292, which focus on “the potential–superhero comics have to foster critical thinking, to defamiliarize moral and ethical contradictions, debates, and hypocrisies that have become so ordinary as to be invisible” are inspiring, as is the essay by Gorjus on how Morrison’s Animal Man led him to become a vegetarian that inspired the Professor’s later post. Recently, Gorjus has also written eloquently about the redemptive power of trash. How else can I put it? Pretty Fakes is a blog after my own heart. A must-read.


BLOO MORFO

Finally, if you’ve enjoyed his creepy Making a Graphic Novel, please check out Ebu Gogol’s awesome new comic art at Bloo Morfo. Be sure to scroll down and read his 9-page comic, The Kill Fee. Beautiful work, as always.


As for me, I’m nearly finished a rather extensive set of musings on a comic that I first read when I was five years old and that was extremely meaningful to me throughout my youth, though I could never say exactly why or how. Turns out, I have some theories... Watch for it later this week.

Till then!