Just a baby haul from Camberwell last weekend. There were a few old Alfred Bester paperbacks I could have picked up but geez I already have half a dozen i haven't read so i had to use restraint. Picked up 3 of the 5 discs that come in the Alejandro Jodorowsky Box set for the bargain price of 12 bananas. I rarely ever buy DVDs but I had to check these out as they have a bunch of special features. I first encountered Jodorowsky's work when I was playing a gig in Wellington and they had The Holy Mountain playing on loop all night on the big screen. I think I still have a video of that night somewhere around here. Anyway I've read a bunch of his comics work over the years and they are amazing.
I've been wading through a pile of old comics journals and recently reading an interview with Barry Windsor Smith. Smith rails against the comic industry of the time and was a little way into publishing his Storyteller series through Darkhorse. He was moving about 50,000 copies per issue which are figures publishers would kill for now. I feel sorry for folk like Windsor Smith, he was around when comics work paid a pittance and were not really appreciated outside of fandom. If he came out now with his Storytellers series and didn't have his marvel/superhero baggage I think he would be greatly appreciated by graphic novel savvy audiences of today. For 10 coconuts I picked up 100 pages of early Windsor Smith on Conan. Love these huge old treasuries. I heard the same thing mentioned about Steve Ditko's recent work. Ditko's in his 80's and basically self publishing works of his personal vision these days and has completed over 300 pages in the last few years. He is cranking right now. Read Jog's great essay on latter day Ditko work here! Buy Ditko's books here!
Why would you put your dumb tag over Bill's face?
Saturday I popped down to the Monthly Melbourne comic meet. Chatted about comics with the fella's for a bit before heading home to do some serious drawing.
My dear friend Jason Franks bids me farewell as he is off to Japan to live for a while. Meanwhile, Big Tough Paul Bedford was recording an album of his romantic love poems.
Paul had them enthralled with his tender emoting. Franks was on the verge of tears.
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