We Are Going to Eat You

Steve Bissette has just announced that he's inked a deal for a fully updated version of his history of cannibal movies, WE ARE GOING TO EAT YOU, to be published in 2007, to be profusely illustrated with both archival movie promo material and original Bissette illustrations, including the cover. Despite not having seen most of the movies involved, except for the most "mainstream" (the Romero LIVING DEAD movies, TEXAS CHAINSAW and the like), I was fascinated by the topic when I heard Bissette had written it, and took advantage of his opportunity to get a copy of his original 1990 manuscript a few years ago (cover shown at right). It proved to be a fascinating history of both cinematic and cultural history of the 20th century, with aspects of cultural taboo, racial stereotyping, business dealings and more. Plus lots of great historical material and a half-dozen pages of Bissette art at his most grotesque. Lots of fun, and I'm sure it will be a lot better with access to the wealth of material made newly available in the ensuing years, plus more Bissette artwork.

This has been the offical sickly ironic American Thanksgiving post for the day.

That's how rumours get started...

I'll try to get back to posting more substantial stuff than amusing Archie covers soon. Until then, enjoy.

Jimmy Olsen reprints!

Latest DC solicitations are up. More on the handful of interesting things when I have information on the other publishers, but here was a pleasant surprise I almost missed, assuming at first it was a collection of modern stuff, thanks to the very good but very modern Nowlan cover.

SUPERMAN: THE DAILY PLANET TP
Written and illustrated by various
Cover by Kevin Nowlan
This 192-page Superman collection revolves around the Daily Planet newspaper and its staff. Featuring classic stories with reporters Clark Kent and Lois Lane, photographer Jimmy Olsen, Editor-in-chief Perry White, and many more - showing how far they will go to get a great story!
This volume reprints select stories from ACTION COMICS #211, 429, 436, and 461, SUPERMAN (first series) #280, SUPERMAN'S GIRLFRIEND, LOIS LANE #17, 24, 45, and 56, SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN #42, 63, 75, and 124.
Advance-solicited; on sale March 1 - 192 pg, FC, $19.99 US

Woo Hoo, crazy-ass JIMMY OLSEN and LOIS LANE reprints from the 1960s? I don't know what specific stories these are, but they should be fun.

Dennizzle the Menizzle

Who knew Dennis the Menace was a hip-hop slang pioneer?

While this punchline was probably a bit less funny back when first published in 1957, the Fred Toole / Al Wiseman DENNIS comics are a lot of fun, much moreso I think than the original newspaper strip. Hopefully we'll see a decent reprint of them at some point.

Wrong on...

... so many levels. Oh Archie, will you never learn?

Thanks, as they so often do, go out to the Grand Comics Database.

Patty Cake by Scott Roberts

While sorting through some stuff I came across this piece I'd forgotten about. If you ordered the full original 9-issue Permanent Press run of PATTY CAKE by Scott Roberts back in the late 1990s, it came with a backing board featuring an original sketch by Roberts, making it quite a bargain even without the great comics. This was the one with my set:

Read my previous post about a more recent issue of the book here. Visit the offical site, read some stories, order some issues (warning, music on site, make sure your speakers aren't too loud). Check out current publisher Slave Labor. The Pulse interviewed Roberts a while back, as did the 'Nuff Said radio show, so read and/or listen to those. And Amazon has many of the books listed (including, hey, it looks like a new collection early next year), with the "search inside" feature, so you can look at a lot of pages there.

The real reason...

People like to blame publishers like EC for the crackdown on comics in the mid-1950s that led to the Comics Code, but I think this circa 1954 issue of ARCHIE shows that publisher wasn't so innocent.

"Read how Archie treats his women rough!"? Clearly that in-house "Archie Approved Reading" labeling system was pretty lax. Also, "The Mirth of a Nation", a reference to a famously racist epic motion picture?