I’ve got a review of the new Bond film up on the Creative Loafing website. (Update: also now up on the Chicago Reader, which has a better headline and a comment or two.) Money quote, as they say:

Finally, though, the powers behind the franchise have figured out how to make Bond relevant again–by giving him a tragic backstory. In Casino Royale (2006), which introduced Daniel Craig in the role, Bond falls in love with Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), a British treasury agent who’s helping him investigate a shadowy terror organization. So smitten is Bond that he even decides to give up espionage for Lynd — only to discover that she’s double-crossed him and swindled the British government out of millions. Shortly after her betrayal, a guilt-stricken Lynd dies horribly in front of Bond’s eyes, and he learns she was forced into her treachery through blackmail. The betrayal and tragedy transform Bond from a vicious, sexy hunk into a vicious, sexy hunk with a revenge motive.

Dirk starts off his post today with several links about the Chip Kidd/Bat-Manga controversy. Basically, Kidd didn’t give Jiro Kuwata, the manga-ka who created the Bat-Manga comics, a cover credit. Kidd attempts to explain himself thusly:

First, Bat-Manga is not just about the work of [Jiro] Kuwata, although that of course makes up the bulk of the book. Rather, it is about chronicling the phenomenon — however short-lived — of Batman in Japan in 1966. To that end, the book itself as an act of pop-culture reconnaissance is entirely the product of Saul Ferris, Geoff Spear, and myself. Mr. Kuwata is prominently mentioned on the front flap (as is translator Anne Ishii) and on the back cover, so it’s not like we’re trying to deny him any credit. I would not have made the considerable effort to track him down, interview, and photograph him if that were the case. It is worth noting that before we took it upon ourselves to do this, NO ONE had any interested in collecting this material for reprinting, least of Shonen King (and they still don’t — Bat-manga has amazingly failed to find a Japanese publisher).

In other words: “Hey, do you know who I am? I’m Chip-fucking-Kidd! It’s my book! Mine, mine, mine! You can tell because my name’s on the cover, right? You think anybody would buy a book by Kuwhatever-the-hell-his-name-is? Not bloody likely; hell, they don’t even know who he is in Japan, all right? I found him, and he’s part of my collection, and I value everything in my collection, be it a mug or a indigenous artist. So just back off, okay?”

I cordially loathed Kidd’s busy, narcissistic, grossly fetishistic Peanuts collection, as well as his busy, narcissistic, grossly fetishistic Jack Cole collection, so it’s very pleasant indeed to see him publicly squirming. Not everyone agrees with me, of course. Here’s Chris Butcher with the contrary view (again via Dirk)

I call bullshit on all of this, all of this fake fanboy outrage. I’m sorry, honestly, if this is an affront to your sensibilities? But. BULL. SHIT. You know who the legal author of those comics is? DC FUCKING COMICS. Kuwata owns or is owed nothing, because That’s The Way Comics Works. Kidd went out of his way to see Kuwata credited and compensated above and beyond the call of duty. If you can’t see that, then your naivete is like a fucking cyst in your eye.

Ooookay. So because DC has mistreated creators in the past, we should all just keep mistreating creators as much as possible? In fact, creators should be grateful for any crumb of acknowledgment or compensation they get, and anyone who can’t see that is a naive fanboy? I won’t attempt to deconstruct this line of thinking further except to note that cynicism and naivete are not in fact opposite stances; instead, they are, taken to extremes, indistinguishable, inasmuch as they both preclude the ability either to make moral judgments or to engage in logical thought.

It’s also possible, I guess, that Butcher is not cynical at all, but simply admires Kidd’s work a lot, and doesn’t like to see him criticized. A possibility which, if true, makes the “fake fanboy outrage” quip especially ballsy….

And, indeed, Google reveals, Butcher recently interviewed Kidd in person. Not definitive evidence or anything, but it does tip the scales slightly towards “fanboy” and away from “cynic”. (Which isn’t a dis necessarily; I think the “I like Chip Kidd, leave him alone!” defense is a lot less icky than the “Comics creators never get anything anyway, so screw them” defense.)

Update: Here’s Butcher’s entire response, which I somehow missed before. Reading the whole thing, his argument is basically that there are a lot worse things perpetrated by the work-for-hire system and nobody gets upset about them, so criticism of Chip Kidd is off-base and stupid.

I don’t know. It seems like special pleading to me. For one thing, lots of people do dislike the work-for-hire system — and this is especially true for the alt comics folks who are Chip Kidd’s audience, and who are likely the ones who think this kind of sucks (just for instance — Dirk Deppey never speaks out against work-for-hire practices? Really and truly?) For another, there’s a cross-cultural thing going on here which adds an element of grossness; there’s a long history of Westerners appropriating various aspects of Asian cultures — especially Japanese art — and not giving credit. Would Kidd have done this if Kuwata was American? I mean, Jack Cole doesn’t own Plastic Man — why credit him?

I think Butcher also maybe missed the point that no one is accusing Kidd of being an evil-hearted bastard or a blight on the cultural landscape (okay, maybe I am, but no one else.) All folks are saying is that he should have credited the guy.

Butcher also points out that no one would have known about what’s-his-name if it weren’t for Kidd, and that therefore we should all be grateful to Kidd and shut up. Well, it’s true, I wouldn’t have known about what’s-his-name if it weren’t for Kidd. And you know what? I wouldn’t have known about Texas Gladden if it weren’t for Alan Lomax. Nonetheless, when a CD of Lomax recordings of Gladden songs was released, Gladden’s name was on the fucking cover.

Update 2: I keep reading more about this and getting more irritated. Such is blogging.

Chip Kidd says:

First of all, I’d like to say to all the relevant reviewers/bloggers/whomever: I am heartened that you all have such concern for Mr. Kuwata’s welfare. So here’s a question: where were YOU for the last thirty years, while he was languishing in obscurity both here and in his own country? I won’t bother waiting for an answer.

Thanks, Chip. You rescued him from obscurity, and all you got out of it was fame, fortune, and your name on a book composed of his work. Your generosity astounds.

Look, Kidd has a right to be proud of having helped out an artist he admires. It’s something reviewers get to do on a smaller scale, and it’s kind of my favorite part of the job. However, when you try to give an artist publicity, it’s useful to remember that (A) just because you like the artist doesn’t mean that you are as cool as they are, and (B) that you are getting something out of the transaction — money, fame, a byline, whatever. It’s also useful to keep in mind that no matter how much work and genius you put into a project like that, it’s not about you. That’s the beauty of it; that’s what makes it an act of love. The reason I tend to mistrust Kidd’s books is that he doesn’t seem to get that.

I have a column on comixology about Arthur Rackham’s awesome silhouette work.

In other links: Shannon Gaerrity has a fun column up about the lack of sexy men in American comics.

And Nina Stone with an innocent’s take on the mystery that is Chris Ware.

I have a review of Lilli Carre’s new comic The Lagoon in this week’s Chicago Reader. It should please those who prefer my friendlier, cuddlier writing (hi Miriam!) Here’s a sample:

The frontispiece captures both Carré’s affection for goth and her distance from it. In a circular frame, Zoey, the tween protagonist, sits beside a lake passing flowers to a black, leaf-plastered, faceless humanoid thing. Flowers and tendrils frame the image, suggesting the overripe opulence of art nouveau. But Carré’s linework is spare and even crude—it looks like something Aubrey Beardsley might have drawn when he was six. The creature is cute, creepy, and mysterious, but the scene also has a modernist edge that takes it out of the realm of Victorian melodrama. Beauty is sketched out rather than embroidered; the space between Zoey’s hands and those of the creature is the distance between desire and reticence, the coming contact or its absence.

Whole thing is here.

Also, a brief review of Tom Raworth’s poetry in the same issue.

Yay! Barack Obama is our next President, and a new millenium of peace and prosperity have arrived! To celebrate this moment of transcendent bliss, I thought I would turn away from the dark side, and write about things I actually liked about the newest issue of TCJ (that’s issue 293, by the by.)

First, HU’s own Tom Crippen has an interview with Alex Robinson. I didn’t read the whole thing, and probably won’t…and I don’t know that Robinson’s twenty/thirtysomething storytelling ensemble dramas necessarily sound all that engaging. But holy crap can the guy draw. He’s got the kind of linework that I associate with classic illustration, or with someone like Hank Ketcham. Dramatic use of solid blacks, detailed cross-hatching, elegant panel variations, vivid character designs; it’s really a joy to look at. I’m especially partial to one panel showing a lap dog in close-up, defined with quick, short curvy strokes, while behind him rises a lightly rendered but vivid classical arch, and over to the side a fence and silhouettes of trees, made up of both solid blacks and vituoso cross-hatching. I’m not used to seeing that kind of craftsmanship and thought in alternative comics; it makes me all giddy.

I also very much liked Steven Grant’s review of Joe Kubert’s Tor. Even if he has trouble spelling my name, Grant is always a thoughtful and knowledgeable writer, and for those (like me) who are largely unfamiliar with Kubert’s work, he provides a fascinating sketch and evaluation of the man’s career. I wish Grant wrote more often for TCJ. He does have his own column over at Comic Book Resources, though, which is worth checking out.

I was also very taken with Rob Vollmar’s short review of Doctor Thirteen, which was smart and cleverly written, and made me want to pick up the title. I especially liked the line “Doctor Thirteen’s one-note-samba of disbelieving every incredible thing occurring around him turns out to be pretty catchy.” I wish I’d written that.

Tim O’Neil’s review of the latest Jamie Hernandez volume is also nicely done. I haven’t really liked the stuff of Jaime’s I’ve read, but O’Neil makes me want to give it another try.

The comics reprint in this issue is a portfolio of work by the graduating class of the Center for Cartoon Studies. None of these exactly thrilled me…but it’s great to see TCJ supporting young cartoonists. I often enjoy the reprints of out-of-copyright strips, but taking a chance on something more recent on occasion seems like an excellent move.

I have, incidentally, finally put two and two together, and figured out that the Chris Mautner who writes for TCJ is the same Chris Mautner who writes for Newsarama. A little slow on the uptake, me. Anyway, I do quite like Chris’ writing whatever the forum; an acid review of a comics edition of Proust in this TCJ issue is especially entertaining.

Also, I’ve bitched in the past about TCJs spotty manga coverage. I should therefore acknowledge that I think they’re doing better. This issue, in particular, has a number of manga reviews. There’s my (of course, brilliant) review of Hideko Azuma’s “Disappearance Diary”, but there’s also a very smart review by Rob Vollmar of classic manga-ka Keiko Takemiya’s fantasy manga “Andromeda Stories”. (One caveat: Vollmar says that Takemiya’s “Kaze to Ki no Uta” probably won’t be translated because it’s “length and frank exploration of homoeroitc themes make it an unlikely candidate for translation in an American manga market still dominated by teenage readers.” Length may be an issue…but there’s a lively and expanding market for gay-themed manga (especially yaoi) in the U.S. And, yes, I think a significant portion of that market includes teen girls.)

Best of all, though, and maybe the highpoint of the issue, are some beautiful reproductions of pages from Yuicki Yokoyama’s Travel, with an intro by HU’s own Bill Randall [Update: the intro in question is to the section in TCJ, not to the book itself. Sorry for any confusion!] I’m a sucker for intricate patterning, and…well, see for yourself:

I especially like that waterfall image, which connects Yokoyama’s almost-abstractions to the slice-of-life landscape tradition of Japanese prints. The book is over 200 pages of images like this(!) I think I’m going to have to drop my $20 on it…..

Oh, yes, and finally…Ken Smith, TCJ’s resident philosopher-crank, seems to be back in his usual place at the end of the issue after a brief hiatus. As always, he sneers at the growing barbarism of our culture while he fractures the English language with philistine obliviousness. It’s kind of comforting to folks like me to know that, even in our new golden age, there will still be a space for crotchety cultural critics, no matter how self-parodic. Cheers, Ken. Keep the flame burning for all of us.

Update: In keeping with the New Era of Snarklessness, I’ve also got a positive review of Lilli Carrés Lagoon here.