Weekend Pattering for September 4th, 2015- Now With Real LInks

** The big news in this week's Weekend Pattering is that the links actually stand out.  You should see them as a bright red like this instead of the slightly darker-than-normal type that they've been in the past.  I'm sorry that ever since the site redesign in the spring that you've been reading these and haven't been able to tell where the links are.  After a very brief CSS crash course this week, I finally figured out how to do thing like change link colors.  Web design is a wonderful thing if you know what you're doing.  Unfortunately, I know just enough to be dangerous more to myself than anyone else.

And now onto the show...

** What a big week of pattering as our SPX Spotlight kicked into high gear.



** I really appreciated this breakdown on Image's website about the structure of their series 8House.  I think I knew that there were a lot of stories linked to this title but I for some reason I thought that they were all going to be separate comic series, not one title with multiple stories and creative teams running through it.  

In fact, the Image website is becoming a rather interesting place right now as it becomes something more than just promotional.  Part of me guesses that this is David Brothers' handiwork, getting to get back into some deeper thoughts of comics while still being part of the promotional machine of Image Comics.  Anyone, it's worth keeping an eye on.

** Last week, Guy. T. spotlighted Claire Connelly and this week on her Tumblr, Claire shared a comic that she finished a few months ago and is trying to figure out what to do with it.  Whatever she does, it looks lovely.  Go and check out what she posted to her Tumblr to see it.


** It's interesting to see how history gets rewritten just because Alan Moore wants it that way.  The site Go Into The Story showcases a scene from the V For Vendetta movie and credit it the way that the movie does.



Now that's the way it's credited in the movie and I don't think the speech that Go Into The Story is featuring is lifted directly from the original comic but it's still odd ten years later to see Alan Moore's name not associated with V For Vendetta.  

** And speaking of Alan Moore, J. Caleb Mozzocco notices the animated Teen Titans/Watchmen teamup that we've all been waiting to happen.  Or maybe it's just me who's been waiting for this to happen.  
Look who signed right below Bizarro, and to the right of the magic words Robin scribbled in. There appears to be a drawing of a butterfly or your parents fighting or a woman unfulfilled after having sex with you (or whatever you might see in the image),

I prefer to think of them as the Hiroshima Lovers.  What does that say about me?

** At The Comics Journal, R. Fiore takes a look at some mainstream comics which is just weird because if you know R. Fiore at all, he's not really a mainstream guy.  In fact, he's a self-professed snob in the piece and he takes particular aim at Matt Fraction.  But he's R. Fiore so that counts for something because he's a great writer.  Like this bit, talking about the rotating artists on Fraction's Hawkeye:
David Aja gets most of the attention – he is after all like Alex Toth with a good writer – the Hawkeyeartists are analogous to the revolving vocalists of The Band, particularly because their styles harmonize. Let’s say, David Aja is Levon Helm, Annie Wu is Richard Manuel, Javier Pulido is Rick Danko, and I guess Fracesco Francavilla has to be Robbie Robertson because that’s what’s left. Or more to the point, Aja supplies the flashy technique and impressionistic action; Francavilla supplies the trauma when it all goes dark for an issue; Pulido and Wu take over for the more character-oriented segments Welcome as it is when Aja picks up the mike again, I found myself missing Pulido and Wu’s human touch.
Now, I'm a Rick Danko guy so this all works pretty good for me.

But reading this, all I could wonder is what's the Venn Diagram of TCJ readers, Hawkeye readers and fans of The Band? I imagine it looks something like this:




 It's funny that Fiore wrote this article this week because Rob M., James K. and myself have been having a loose discussion about the merits of Fraction work.  James is a Hawkeye fan while I prefer Satellite Sam (too busy, Mr. Fiore?  But it's a Chaykin book too.) while Rob is still firmly in the Ody-C camp.  There's cross over here as well but I think the important thing to notice is that we all like different things of Fraction without loving everything that Fraction does.

As a writer, Fraction does a lot of different types of books and I don't think he gets enough credit for that.  Casanova is different than Sex Criminals is different than Ody-C is different than Satellite Sam (to name the current or recent Image books.)  If you don't like one book, that's o.k. because there's probably another Fraction book out there for you.  I wonder what that article would have looked like if Fiore had gone the full circle and already read Casanova and Ody-C.  Would one of those books appealed to him more than the ones he read?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  But I think it would have been more representative of Fraction if Fiore had dipped into those books.

And for the record, I agree with a lot of what he says about Hawkeye and Sex Criminals.

And Fiore left out Chris Eliopoulos from that list of artists.  Does that make him Garth Hudson?

** And here's the original Venn Diagram for TCJ readers, Fraction fans and The Band aficionados.