Glen Weldon

Graphic-Novel Gumshoe Rounds Up Unusual Suspects

Glen Weldon — Wed, 08 May 2013 11:03:00 +0000

Matt Kindt is a storyteller so fully in control of his gifts that his graphic novels — 3 Story, Revolver and others — read like quietly compelling arguments for the comics medium's narrative potential.

With his latest, the multilayered and slyly existential Red Handed, he assembles a mystery story that only comics could capture, filled with puzzles and set pieces that depend entirely on the interplay of word and image.

Niffenegger Lets Fly With An Adult Fairy Tale In 'Raven Girl'

Glen Weldon — Thu, 02 May 2013 11:03:00 +0000

In The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger married her gently wry sensibility to a classic science-fiction conceit, and the result became a literary sensation — as much a tried-and-true staple of book-club culture as cheap malbec.

Now, with Raven Girl, Niffenegger sets out to create a new fairy tale bearing the form's alchemical mix of light with dark, wish fulfillment with foreboding, bright fantasy with flat-out creepiness.

Which Comics Should I Get? Your Free Comic Book Day Cheat Sheet

Glen Weldon — Wed, 01 May 2013 14:59:00 +0000

This Saturday, May 4^th, is Free Comic Book Day, the comics industry's annual attempt to sail out past the shallow, overfished shoals where Nerds Like Me lazily and inexpertly spawn, to instead cast their line into the colder, deeper waters where Normals Like You swim free, blissfully unconcerned about the myriad nettlesome continuity issues surrounding Supergirl's underpants.

Yes, Free Comic Book Day is about you, O person who hasn't set foot in a comics shop in years, or ever.

Stars In His Eyes, Sending Smoke Signals To Mars

Glen Weldon — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 11:03:00 +0000

In his slim but beguiling novel Equilateral, Ken Kalfus places us inside the heads of his characters with such deftness that the line between what is true and what they believe to be true fades to obscurity. It's no coincidence that the heads in question belong to scientists who pride themselves on their evidence-based worldview; Kalfus delights in having readers continually gauge and recalibrate the distance between the world and his characters' seemingly objective observations of it.

The Mundane World Illuminated In 'Hand-Drying In America'

Glen Weldon — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 11:03:00 +0000

Ben Katchor's syndicated comic strips vary in subject — his Julius Knipl: Real Estate Photographer, for example, explores the surreal underside of our urban environment by documenting the inner lives of the spaces and storefronts we walk past every day, while The Cardboard Valise reads like a Fodor's guide to a country that exists only in Franz Kafka's dream journal.

What unites them, and vivifies them, is Katchor's singular voice, guiding us through his busy panels like a meticulous, dispassionate and slightly bemused Virgil.

Beyond Visible: LGBT Characters In Graphic Novels

Glen Weldon — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:03:00 +0000

OK, yes: To gay comics fans like me, DC Comics' decision to hire an anti-gay activist like Orson Scott Card to write Superman — an iconic character who exists to represent humanity's noblest ideals of justice and compassion — is deeply dispiriting.

But it doesn't change the fact that today's mainstream superhero comics contain more LGBT characters t

Man Of Tomorrow: Superman, Orson Scott Card And Me

Glen Weldon — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 18:33:00 +0000

Let's make this perfectly clear at the outset: I don't work for NPR, and what I'm about to say doesn't represent NPR. I'm but a lowly freelancer they're dumb enough to publish a bunch, and what I say now I say as me, which is to say:

1. An inveterate Superman nerd, and

2. A gay dude.

DC Comics has hired Orson Scott Card to write the first two issues of a new digital-first Superman comic.

Man Of Tomorrow: Superman, Orson Scott Card And Me

Glen Weldon — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 17:45:00 +0000

Glen Weldon is a freelance writer and regular contributor to Monkey See.

1. An inveterate Superman nerd, and

2. A gay dude.

DC Comics has hired Orson Scott Card to write the first two issues of a new digital-first Superman comic.

They Call Me ... Bruce? When Characters Outlive Their Names

Glen Weldon — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 18:39:00 +0000

Look, don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with the name "Bruce."

There are plenty of Bruces about, and good and strong and admirable Bruces they are, contributing to society in myriad ways.

You got your Springsteen, of course. Your Campbell. Your Vilanch. Your Dern. Your ... um, Boxleitner. Your Jenner and your ... Baumgartner, was it? Baumgartner.

Bruce: A perfectly fine name. Just not as common in the U.S. as it once was, is my point.

Like any name, it cycles in and out of fashion over the decades. Consider: Of the notable Bruces I picked at random, above?

New 'Tune,' Same Key From Cartoonist Derek Kirk Kim

Glen Weldon — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 14:57:00 +0000

By the time cartoonist Derek Kirk Kim was 30 years old, his prodigious talents had already won him an Eisner award, an Ignatz award and a Harvey award, the top three honors of the comics field.

Graphic Novels That Flew Under The Radar In 2012

Glen Weldon — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:31:00 +0000

In 2012, several high-profile comics creators added landmark works to their already impressive legacies. With Building Stories, Chris Ware offered 14 volumes of comics, each with its own meticulous, anagrammatic take on despair, and stuffed them into a box.

Spooky Puppets, Slow Pacing In 'Catechism'

Glen Weldon — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 11:23:00 +0000

Mike Mignola's occult adventure comics B.P.R.D. (that's short for Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense) and Hellboy (about a demon who fights for the side of Good) combine furious action set pieces on a literally biblical scale with a wry and nuanced understanding of very human emotions. The novelist Christopher Golden has written many popular works of dark fantasy.

Collaboration Leaves Couple 'Drawn Together'

Glen Weldon — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 11:03:00 +0000

What happens to underground artists after they step, blinking, into the harsh, flat light of the upper world? If they are Robert and Aline Crumb, not a whole hell of a lot — at least, not in their approach to their art.

Bits Of Beauty Amidst The Gloom In 'Building Stories'

Glen Weldon — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 14:56:00 +0000

For the characters of Chris Ware's astonishingly ambitious comics project Building Stories, leading lives of quiet desperation is surprisingly noisy business.

A Supersized Slice Of Life In 'Telegraph Avenue'

Glen Weldon — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 11:03:00 +0000

Michael Chabon's Telegraph Avenue is an agreeable if ultimately frustrating shaggy-dog tale of a novel that slips its leash and lopes its discursive and distinctly unhurried way through the unkempt backyards of its characters' lives.