The Umbrella Academy strikes again!

[rosiespark]

I'm filled with RIDICULOUS levels of GLEE over the news that The Umbrella Academy won an Eisner Award for best limited series. That's pretty damn impressive! Go Gerard Way, comic book author!! I mean, I'm sitting here grinning like an idiot, so I can't even IMAGINE the glee-faces that Gerard is making... I am SOOOO happy for him! ::clasps hands to fangirly heart::

Today's crop of UA links, collected from all over the place and posted here for my own future reference as well as for fajrdrako's delectation:

- Full list of Eisner winners. Including James Jean for best cover artist and Dave Stewart for best colouring - go Umbrella Academy team!

- interview snippet with Gerard in a feature on Dark Horse comics - he looks both relieved and THRILLED when the interviewer calls TUA "amazingly assured" and "a really cool debut". Rolled up sleeves! Waistcoat and tie - obviously part of his comic book author costume! Though he looks strangely unlike himself - unshaven and underslept, perhaps, but I think something's off in the lighting or his make-up, because he looks fine in the next clip linked below, which was obviously filmed on the same day.

- another video of Gerard talking about the UA as "a postmodern superhero story". Looking hot this time, with bonus flaily hands of glee. ::dies some more::

- Series 2 is called The Scarecrow Blues and apparently reveals a lot more of Number Five's story - hurrah! I have a decided fondness for Number Five. I really like his slightly weird but actually quite healthy detachedness from the others due to avoiding the last twenty years of Hargreeves sibling fuck-ups, and then there's the fact that he's an adult, not to say an old man, who is trapped in the body of a ten-year-old. The latter is sometimes hilariously evident, like when he orders coffees from the rather hard-boiled waitress at a seedy diner in the middle of the night with a nonchalant "Two cups, black, my dear." And he wears shorts, school-uniform shorts, with argyll socks. Because he's ten. ::flails::

- awesome pics by limmenel from Gerard's ComicCon panel with Grant Morrison here. Looking good, Gee!

- And lastly, a link to a pic posted by nokomis305 of "rumpled absent-minded Professor" Gerard Way clutching his Eisner. GLEE FACES ALL ROUND!!
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Comments

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

This is all such fun. I was so glazed over, so excited about seeing Gerard Way's panel pictures, that I didn't even recognize Grant Morrison. Blush. Okay, admittedly I haven't seen Grant Morrison since I was last at SDCC myself, and that was... well, that was quite a while ago. (Which means I don't even remember how long. Twelve years? Can it be? More? Less?)

The Scarecrow Blues. Love the title.

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

You haven't come across a recording of the panel, I suppose? Quite apart from always being happy to hear Gerard geeking out, Grant Morrison has a seriously yummy Scottish accent.

All this comics-related brouhaha is making me want to get hold of stuff that I keep seeing mentioned: Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol, and Watchmen. I should propbably email Fabrizio and see if he can help!

Can't wait for November. More Number Five! And did I spot a chimpanzee driving the presidential limo in the poster? Because I really think I did!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

You haven't come across a recording of the panel, I suppose?

Not yet.

Grant Morrison has a seriously yummy Scottish accent.

I remember that from when I met him about a decade ago.

Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol

I have that. I don't usually collect DC, but that's something of a must-read. It's brilliant, and yes, I'm sure it's one of many series that inspired Gerard Way and influenced him on Umbrella Academy. There's so much good about that version of Doom Patrol... I particularly loved Danny the Street. A snipped about Danny from Wikipededia:

Danny is an actual street. A sentient stretch of roadway, he has long served as a home and haven for the strange and dispossessed. A super hero of sorts, Danny does possess several super powers, the most notable being teleportation. He is also able to integrate himself into a city's geography without causing any damage or disturbance; roads and buildings simply make room for him. He does this mostly at night, when no one is looking. Danny travels the globe, and sometimes beyond, happily looking for folks in need of shelter and friendship. Thus, it is possible to turn a corner on the way to work, and find yourself walking down Danny's pleasantly unfamiliar roadway.

Danny is an unusually flamboyant personality. In spite of the fact that most streets are genderless, Danny is male and a transvestite.

Watchmen was an incredible phenomenon when it came out - I don't think it was as groudbreaking as some say, since many of the things it did had already been done, but it put certain types of semiotics and graphic narrative usage together in ways that brought it to the attention of the mainstream. Not so much that the art or artistry was remarkably good as that art, language, sequentiality and communication were being put together in a new and exciting way. A glimpse of page 1 might give you a sense of this.... or maybe. The comic made Alan Moore's name as a genius and so it should; though I don't personally think it's his best story or his best writing. But. It was groundbreaking. At the time, everyone who was into comics was discussing it ad infinitum and constantly finding new and remarkable insights. With this comic, there was a sense of comic books 'coming of age'. Watch out: I could probably talk about Alan Moore for a long time without so much as pausing for breath.

did I spot a chimpanzee driving the presidential limo in the poster? Because I really think I did!

LOL! I rather hope so.

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

I love that description of Danny the Street. Especially this bit:

Danny travels the globe, and sometimes beyond, happily looking for folks in need of shelter and friendship. Thus, it is possible to turn a corner on the way to work, and find yourself walking down Danny's pleasantly unfamiliar roadway.

Who knows who one might bump into on Danny the Street? We could meet up for a coffee and a chat! And to exchange Christmas presents. :)

I'm afraid I'm not familiar enough with comics to appreciate the groundbreaking nature of that page of Watchmen. But I would like to read it.

I came across some speculation the other day on what the new UA series will focus on, and the person posting was making a bid deal of comparing the poster illustration to photos of the Kennedy limo and saying maybe there's a connection. I was like, well, duh! I mean, even I, with my extremely sketchy knowlege of recent US history, could recognise the significance of the limo and the year 1963. And that's quite apart from the fact that Number Five actually mentions Kennedy when talking to Dr Pogo about his past. Have these people not read The Apocalypse Suite? And Gerard gave us another clue by saying that the new series is going to focus on Number Five. Could it be any clearer? ::headesks::

Okay, /rant. Am I being cranky and intolerant? Probably. I think I've been spoilt by consorting with Dunnett readers.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'd love to meet you for coffee, if only Danny the Street would be sweet enough to link us up! Maybe if we bribed him? We'd have to find him first.

I really wonder what the Watchman movie will be like. I guess I won't know till I see it!

Maybe a connection? Well, yes! A theme is a theme is a theme, and some visual themes are more obvious than others - !

I think I've been spoilt by consorting with Dunnett readers.

Truly; fannishness with other Dunnett fans is an extra level of pleasure, whatever the subject at hand. I can recall reading and discussing Watchmen with other Dunnett fans when it came out - I was so thrilled to learn that there were Dunnett fans (like Tovah and Cheryl, for example) who also loved comics and applied the same sort of thinking to comics that warranted it.