(image) by Sandor Stern Dear Republican Friends, Regarding your stand on healthcare… This country spends more on health care than any other country in the world. One would expect that fact to translate into the best medical care. I know you believe it does, and you are correct when it comes to medical... more

by Sandor Stern

Dear Republican Friends,

Regarding your stand on healthcare…

This country spends more on health care than any other country in the world. One would expect that fact to translate into the best medical care. I know you believe it does, and you are correct when it comes to medical advances and facilities, but we are not even close to the best when it comes to the medical care of our population. According to statistics from the World Health Organization, we spend almost twice as much per capita than any other nation – $7290 in 2007 and it has increased since then. That amounts to 16% of our GDP. 18.5% of government revenue is spent on health care. And what do we get for that money? Our life expectancy is lower and our infant mortality rate is higher than every other industrial nation. Our system is ranked 37th in the world among 191 nations. And your reaction to those facts is a pledge to repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act – the most comprehensive health care reform in 45 years.

You brand it with an Obamacare label in your effort to denigrate it. That is laughable; firstly because it mirrors Romney's Massachusetts Health Care Plan of 2006 (framed by the Republican conservative think tank's Heritage Foundation) and secondly because it does not reflect the single payer plan that Obama would have liked. Though Democrats held a majority in the senate, they fell short of the sixty votes needed to pass a bill unpalatable to the Republican senators. The Affordable Care Act was obviously a compromise. Given its auspices it seemed a safe direction. It's basis is insurance coverage through private companies. Who would have guessed that the Republican party and its presidential nominee would disown a plan like that? In hindsight, considering the Republican about face on so many of your previous legislative bills, this should not have come as a surprise.

What baffles me is your disregard for Romney's turn around. He initially touted his plan (that included mandatory insurance for all) as a model for the nation. Then he waffled by saying his plan was good for his state but not for the nation. Now he avoids the subject. My question to you is: if the plan is good for the state why not for the nation? All this hue and cry goes on about the Romney plan, but nobody seems to ask the pertinent question – is it working for the people of Massachusetts? 98% of Massachusetts residence now have insurance, including 99.8% of children. Two out of three adults in the state support the law and 88% of doctors say it improved or did not affect the quality of care. It seems the proof is in the pudding.

To this date, the Affordable Care Act has improved health insurance coverage in many ways. Children can stay on their parents’ policies until the age of 26. Individuals with existing insurance policies no longer have to pay deductibles and other out-of-pocket expenses for certain preventive care services. Children under 19 cannot be denied insurance because of a pre-existing condition. Insurance companies cannot drop your coverage if you become sick, nor can they place lifetime limits or arbitrary annual limits on coverage. Insurance companies are required to spend more of the premium dollars they receive on health care services and quality. It becomes easier to file complaints about the quality of care in a nursing home. Better access to information on nursing home quality and resident rights is available. Seniors who reach the Medicare doughnut hole receive a 50 percent discount on brand-name prescription drugs and a 14 percent discount on generic prescription drugs. Medicare benefits have expanded to include free coverage for wellness and preventive care. Hospitals that improve the quality of care for people with Medicare can qualify for new payments.

But that’s not all. Yet to come in 2013: Those who reach the Medicare doughnut hole receive a 52.5 percent discount on brand-name prescription drugs and a 21 percent discount on generic prescription drugs. Increased funding will be available to help families and children get coverage through Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance program (CHIP). Hospitals and doctors can qualify to receive a new type of payment (called a "bundle") to coordinate with each other as they care for patients. Yet to come in 2014: Insurance companies cannot deny anyone health coverage because of a pre-existing condition. Those who reach the Medicare doughnut hole receive a 52.5 percent discount on brand-name prescription drugs and a 28 percent discount on generic prescription drugs. Subsidies are available for those with limited incomes who purchase health insurance through an exchange. Children, parents and adults without children who do not have Medicare and who have a limited income are able to apply for Medicaid. Spouses of people on Medicaid who receive care services at home get the same protections for income and other resources as spouses of those on Medicaid who live in nursing homes. Yet to come in 2020: after continuing yearly declines in doughnut hole costs, the Medicare Part D coverage gap or "doughnut hole" will be completely closed.

These are the present and future benefits of the Affordable Care Act that you want to repeal. Why? You claim multiple reasons. You rail against the mandatory coverage. You consider it socialism. Under your definition of socialism that would make mandatory withholding taxes for social security, Medicare, and Unemployment insurance socialism. It would make mandatory driver's licenses socialism. In fact, mandatory income tax would have to be listed under your definition. Yet, there are no socialist aspects to the Affordable Care Act. Individuals purchase their coverage in an open market from private insurance companies. The physicians who provide services work on a fee for service basis. Hospitals and laboratories remain in the hands of private enterprise. So where is the socialism you love to scream about?

You claim that the costs of insurance will go up. Without doubt if there is no mandatory coverage that will be true. That was true before the ACA and was one of the prime reasons to institute the act. When healthy young people are not buying insurance, the price goes up for those older and in poor health. Mandatory coverage keeps the costs down. And before grumbling over that, how many people paying into social security and Medicare die too young to ever collect a dime? How many people pay unemployment insurance and never need to collect a check in return? That's why it's called insurance. It's a necessary price one pays today just in case the day arrives when the need arises.

You seem to prefer remaining with the old "free enterprise" system – which has never been free or even enterprising. In that system, 40% of U.S. citizens did not have adequate health insurance, if any at all. The cost to these people has been that they’ve been avoiding medical care, sometimes until it was too late for a cure, often to the detriment of preventive steps, and for some a cost in dollars that led to bankruptcy. The cost to the nation has been a crush of patients inundating emergency rooms – paid for by the taxpayers. Is that the trade off you really want? Medical costs paid for others through your income tax rather than a small bite out of every citizen's pocket?

There is no doubt that the Affordable Care Act is flawed and that flaw is the same one that exists in the Massachusetts Plan. In Massachusetts, though 97% of taxpayers are complying with the law, the cost of premiums rose 12.2% between 2006 and 2008. One of the main reasons for cost increases is due to the administrative overhead, and that will apply to Affordable care. An apples to apples comparison of plan overheads is best seen in administrative costs for Medicare and Medicare Advantage. According to the Congressional Budget Office, expenses under the public Medicare plan are less than 2% compared with 11% expenditures under the private plans of Medicare Advantage. Meanwhile the General Accounting Office reported that in 2006, Medicare Advantage plans spent 83.3% of their revenue on medical expenses and 16.7% for non-medical expenses and profits. That makes sense. Private Insurance companies are in business for profit and they must spend money on sales and advertising to compete with each other. Why do we need them in the health care business? That is why a single payer system gets you the most bang for the buck. We only have to look to our northern neighbor, Canada, for comparison.

In the mid sixties Canada and the USA faced the same issue in health care. As citizens aged, private insurance companies either denied them insurance coverage or asked exorbitant rates. This was an overwhelming humanitarian problem. The USA decided to alleviate the problem through Medicare, a plan that insured citizens above the age of 65 years. Canada decided to institute a Medicare plan that covered every citizen from cradle to grave. This is a system similar to those in almost every industrial nation in the world. There are only two exceptions: the USA and Turkey. Good company, right?

Before you start shouting "socialism" look at the facts. The Canadian system is no more socialist than our own Medicare. Patients choose their own doctors and those doctors are paid on a fee for service basis. Though federally funded, each province and territory maintains and oversees its own separate plan. Spurred, I suspect, by profit seeking private insurance, pharmaceutical and medical supply companies, a mythology about the Canadian Health Plan has taken root in this country.

Myth: taxes in Canada are extremely high. Fact: the average after-tax income of Canadian workers is equal to about 82% of their gross pay. In the USA that average is 81.9%. Myth: Canada's health care system is a cumbersome bureaucracy. Fact: the provincial single-payer system in Canada operates with a 1% overhead. That's even better than our own Medicare operating costs. Myth: the Canadian system is significantly more expensive than the USA system. Fact: 10% of Canada's GDP is spent on health care for 100% of the population. The USA spends 17% of it's GDP but 15% of its population has no coverage, and millions of others have inadequate coverage.

Myth: Canada's government decides who gets health care and when they get it. Fact: the government has absolutely no say in who gets care and how they get it. Those decisions are left entirely to doctors. In the USA HMO's and private insurers make medical decisions all the time. If they decide they won't pay for a medical procedure like an MRI you won't get it no matter what your doctor thinks – unless you pay out of pocket for it.

Myth: there are long waits for care. Fact: there are no waits for urgent or primary care in Canada. There are reasonable waits for most specialists' care and longer waits for elective surgery. Despite the waits, Canada is ranked 7 points above the USA in patient care by the World Health Organization. Canada boast lower incident and mortality rates than the USA for all cancers. Life expectancy in Canada is 81.3 compared to 78.1 in the USA. The infant mortality rate in Canada is 4.5 and in the USA 6.9. Per capita expenditure in Canada is 3,895 dollars per year and in the USA it is 7,290 dollars per year. Fewer Canadians (11.3%) than Americans (14.4%) admit unmet health care needs.

Myth: Canadians are paying out of pocket to come to the USA for medical care. Fact: If a Canadian goes outside the country to get services deemed medically necessary, not experimental or are not available at home for whatever reason, the provincial government where they live fully funds their care. Those patients who do come to the USA for care and pay out of their own pocket are those who perceive their care to be more urgent than their Canadian doctors believe. In a Canadian National Population Health Survey of 17,276 Canadian residents it was reported that 0.5% sought medical care in the USA in the previous year. Of these, less than a quarter had traveled to the USA expressly to get care.

Perhaps the best example of furthering the myth is that of an Ontario resident, Shona Holmes, who traveled to the Mayo Clinic after deciding she could not wait for medical care at home. She characterized her condition as an emergency; she was losing her eyesight and portrayed her condition as a life-threatening brain cancer. Her Ontario insurance refused to reimburse her for medical expenses and she sued – and lost. In 2009, at the peak of the Republican fight against the Affordable Care Act, she appeared in ads on American TV warning of the dangers of the USA adopting a Canadian style health plan. After the ads appeared critics pointed out discrepancies in her story: the Rathke's cleft cyst for which she was treated was not a form of cancer and was not life-threatening. In fact, the mortality rate for patients with a Rathke's cleft cyst is zero percent.

The facts are available to anyone with the inclination to pursue them. In the face of those facts, how can you take a stand to repeal The Affordable Care Act? If anything, you should be working to improve it. I don't find evidence of that in the Republican Party Platform.

Just asking

Your friend

Sandy

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by A.J. Focht

This weekend is your last chance to see The Avengers in theaters. Disney is rereleasing the film for one weekend only. Avengers was playing on 142 screens last week. It is unknown how many more theaters will be picking the movie back up for the holiday weekend. Rumors of Disney releasing The Avengers with extra footage before the summer’s end surfaced months ago. It is unclear as of now if this weekend’s release will have that extra footage or not. Either way, it looks like Disney is determined to close the $40 million dollar gap to take the second highest grossing box-office record from Titanic.

ABC has officially ordered a S.H.I.E.L.D. pilot. Joss Whedon is co-writing it with his brother Jed Whedon, and Maurissa Tancharoen. All three are executive producers on the project. While Jed and Maurissa will be the show runners, Joss assures us that he will show up now and then to take credit for everything.

Rumors that Ben Affleck was being considered to direct the Justice League movie have been floating around for a while. He’s not alone on that list though as a handful of directors have been rumored for consideration. The list includes: The Watchowskis, Brett Ratner, Zack Snyder, Ruben Fleischer, and McG. There are also one or two more names in consideration that haven’t been released yet.

Sony has officially announced the Metal Gear Solid movie – again. The announcement was made at the Metal Gear Solid Anniversary event in Tokyo. Spider-Man producer Avi Arad is behind the project. Little more is known other than that the movie is currently in development.

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If Morgan Freeman wasn’t already the voice you heard in your head as you played God over your LEGOs, he probably will be now. LEGO: The Piece of Resistance is a LEGO film that will star Morgan Freman, Elizabeth Banks, and Chris Pratt. Freeman will be playing a character named ‘Vitruvius’ who is described as ‘Gandalf meets Mr. Magoo’.

A few weeks ago David Duchovny gave an interview saying he wanted to make a third X-Files film, and now a third movie might indeed be underway. Gillian Anderson answered questions about it at the Toronto Fan Expo and said that things were looking pretty good, after having met with series creator Chris Carter. It looks like FOX is the only holdout now.

Yes Jhonen Vasquez, Goth icon, people hater and purple people eater. As creator of the dark comics Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Squee one might expect him to be this dark brooding angry. Instead he's this hysterically funny dark brooding guy. I was lucky to be talking to him because the last interviewer... more

Yes Jhonen Vasquez, Goth icon, people hater and purple people eater. As creator of the dark comics Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Squee one might expect him to be this dark brooding angry. Instead he's this hysterically funny dark brooding guy. I was lucky to be talking to him because the last interviewer to talk with him was from Nickelodeon. Also he appears to hate me but that doesn't make me too unique.


Check out the website for Jhonen's publishers, SLG.


Daniel Robert Epstein: When we first talked about doing this interview. From some of your emails it seems like you feel your fans have been diluted. Maybe from having a hit cartoon?

Jhonen Vasquez: Well I wouldn't call it a hit cartoon. In certain ways it is incredibly damaging considering the stuff I did before certainly wasn't for kids. I was never thinking "I hope the kids love this," When I was ripping out a guy's intestines. But now I have a lot of little kids who watched Invader Zim whenever they could find it on television. I get emails from kids saying I'm 10 or 11 years old, I love Invader Zim. GIR is cute and I just picked up your Johnny book. They get online and do a search on my name and see my other work. They think my comics are more of whatever they're into. Then they buy my stuff, Johnny and I feel Sick. I'm not entirely comfortable with that.

On one hand it's kind of cool that some little kid is maybe being somewhat messed up by my older work and is being prepared for a future of zombie-like allegiance to my cause, whatever my cause may be in that future. But it changes the kind of response you get. I could go through a lot of my old emails from when I first started doing comics. Back then the lowest age of fans was like 15 or 16 up to people in their 20's and 30's. Now so much of my response is from kids 11, 12 who have gotten my e-mail address from my old books or from horrible fansites. Not only does it change the kind of person that sees my work but it also changes the IQ level.

DRE: They must spell your name all sorts of different ways.

JV: "Dear Joehononoonannim, I'm your biggest fan." If you're my biggest fan why can't you just fucking spell my name right. It gets me so angry sometimes I just have to stuff my ears with cud and throw myself down the stairs until I am so messed up I can focus only on my shattered bones and not the sanity crushing horror of how badly some of these people write. And it's not all kids, either. You get 16, 18, 20 year olds who "cant fome a sentince 2 save their lifes. LOL!!".

DRE: Any parents ever attack you because of your previous work before Zim?

JV: No. A lot of these parents are young themselves. Usually when I get a letter from a parent it's because they buy my stuff. I don't really get a whole lot of negative response in general. It sounds like I'm completely dumping on fans but...

DRE: No it sounds like you're dumping on little kids.

JV: There you go. I don't want little kids reading my comics. I just don't. I did a kid’s show. I was very well aware of who watches kid's shows. But I regret it to that extent. I don't think I will ever be comfortable with being someone that little kids can like too, unless those little kids are goblin babies and have the power to shoot flames from their eyes, because shit, who the hell doesn't want kids like that looking up to them?

DRE: Its almost silly to point out that you're big with the Goth crowd. That's just a fact. Do you consider yourself part of the Goth culture?

JV: I think I can't help it now [laughs].

DRE: A lot of Goths are probably very self aware like "I am Goth." But you're not like that.

JV: [laughs] It's very theatrical and I don't think I ever get that bad. I don't particularly dislike any kind of person that might be reading my stuff. They like it and that's cool, but I don't do the work for any kind of group in particular, except for hobos, who just plain kick ass and light up my life.

DRE: Did you go to things that could be considered Goth events?

JV: Yeah I go to concerts. I'm definitely incredibly attracted to the aesthetic of what is typically deemed goth stuff, but. A lot of my experience growing up was in being around that kind of thing, and it's just what sinks into a person's brain. I incorporate that into a lot of what I do. Not because I'm consciously doing it but because it's what I know and what I like to draw. I've always been more into the science fiction kind of thing though, future fuck sort of imagery.

Goth culture, as mired in the past as it is, even it goes through changes, so Goth when I was growing up is not what it is now. When I think of Goth culture as it is at the moment I think of mall culture.

Going back to the audience thing. When I first started, I loved doing comics and the response I got from a comic reading audience. As fucked up and as sad as some of these people might have been they were still into something. They had a focus on what they were into. They liked comics and they went to comic book shop to get their fix. It was just a part of their life. It wasn't always easy, especially with my books since a lot of stores didn't carry it, or would only order just a few of each issue. There was something literate about these loonies.

Now there are stores in the mall. Not so much comic shops but clothing stores and places where you can get your Goth outfit. Will I be a punk, a Goth or whatever band is dressing up like clowns today? Next to the hair dye and nail polish there are my comics. That’s cool for a lot of people who don't have easy access to comic shops, or whose comic shops simply suck ass, but it introduces my stuff to a whole new population of people who make me sad to be human. It's an entirely different attitude with these people, where the most common questions have nothing to do with the work but with what color my hair is, or where do I buy my clothes, and such.

DRE: It's interesting that you say that because most comic book creators would love their work to appear to any other venue besides comic book shops. You seem more comfortable in the niche you carved for yourself.

JV: I don't know if I've ever been comfortable [laughs].

DRE: Just from the nature of your work and your responses now you obviously "enjoy" being an outsider.

JV: I think there is something a little too self conscious about enjoying being an outsider. Certainly there is a whole culture built around being different and yet not showing any sign of individuality. I think it's just something I'm used to. Growing up I didn't have a shitload of friends but I wasn't thinking "I'm so alone". I was thinking "good I'm alone. I can do some work." Which I did. But even now, with the thing that I have done sort of well for myself in, comics, I'm not exactly held in the highest regard. It's not a conscious effort on my part either, it's just the way it is.

DRE: I did find that out in my research. It's not like The Comics Journal ever talked about you.

JV: No those people would never come near me. They'd come near me if I was unknown, doing terribly and writing a very matter of fact series about my true life experiences making a sandwich.

Because of the audience I get and the fact that these people aren't traditional comics buyers I don't think the comic industry looks at that and thinks that is a very respectable thing. I'm very used to it. I'm not the guy who wins awards and gets mentioned in magazines.

Put my name into any web search and you'll come up with fan sites full of photographs with captions saying "I like him better with the red hair" [laughs]. You're not going to see me in Comics Journal. Everyone hates me. I am so alone.

DRE: You mentioned your last interview was for Nickelodeon Magazine.

JV: That's when Zim was just starting up. They had me do a bunch of press stuff until they saw what kind of interviews I gave.

DRE: What kind of stuff did they ask you at Nickelodeon Magazine?

JV: A lot of the typical questions. Very boring stuff.

DRE: Almost press release type stuff?

JV: Yeah. I don't understand why they can't just use a press release. If I do an interview especially if I'm doing it with someone who is just being a question robot that doesn't seem to give a shit about who they are talking to. Every time they would ask me "What's it like working at Nickelodeon?" You just can't help but say "It's horrible. I'm in hell. HELL." Because it was hell. That doesn't make for good press, I guess.

It got to the point where some of the suits from the network flew in from New York in their invisible jet and had to implant an Intestinator™ in me to keep me quiet. But I didn't stay quiet, so my stomach blew up.

DRE: Did you have an office you had to go to when you were working for Nickelodeon?

JV: Everyday I would report to a neon green and orange building in Burbank, California with gigantic statues of The Rugrats and Hey Arnold on the top. The giant Chucky would spew molten lead at passers by and cackle insanely while Arnold would occasionally vomit out some half digested little brat who pissed off security.

DRE: Did the fury ever go away of seeing that stuff?

JV: The truth is everyday I would drive up, go up to the very top of the parking structure where there were no cars. Be very quiet for a few minutes to let whatever song I was listening to finish playing, take a deep breath, I'd walk down the stairs to take in the sweet horrible air of Burbank. There was a big glass door that you have to walk through with a cold glass handle covered in animator germs. Opening that door would give me horrible shudder down my spine each and every time. No joke.

DRE: So doing Invader Zim wasn't fun?

JV: Feces, man! It was the most golden time of my life! I'm kidding. I made all of that shit up about it being golden and me having a life. You are very gullible.

Making the show was increasingly difficult, mostly because I didn't want to make the sort of show that would have made it easier for everyone involved.
I think they didn't expect what they got which is incredibly stupid of them. Because I'm not just some person without a history of work. When they came to me they knew exactly what I did.

DRE: What did they want from you?

JV: I'm sure they would have been very happy if every episode was a sort of a pint sized Mork and Mindy. A very sitcom, dull predictable show. It probably would have flown if it had looked like the very UPA style [characterized by flattened perspective, abstract backgrounds, strong primary colors, and "limited" animation. Instead of using perspective to create the illusion of depth] everything thing seems to be nowadays. I like the shows like that, Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack. But good Christ I love seeing things that look different. Everything these days looks like something from the 1950's.

Retro looking stuff but a lot of these guys doing these shows are my age or younger. I was just disgusted. I hated being around that kind of thing. Not that it affected what I did because when it comes down to it I was doing my own show.

DRE: How many episodes did you do of Invader Zim?

JV: We did like one and half seasons really. We got up to 26 episodes including the Christmas episode. I got to draw monsters, robots and write funny stories. I loved doing that stuff and working with the actors. But it got to be less and less that stuff and more about trying to be everywhere and not being able to do one thing very enjoyably. It was hell and you had to argue over every little thing. Stupid little jokes. There would be sections huge portions of hour long meetings devoted to a joke. Some robot who never made me laugh didn't think was funny or didn't think the audience would understand. I guess that's television.

DRE: That's what they say. You have to keep fighting for what you want.

JV: But I can never shut my brain up with asking, why do we have to argue about this stuff. Why does this person who is sitting behind a desk and never watches cartoons is arguing about what cartoons should be like. Its so creepy realizing that this person is a lunatic. This person doesn't get this joke and you're talking about cartoons. Whether this little robot is going to blow up. That becomes other meetings where other people have to come in. Its like you're talking about heart surgery. Things get blown out of proportion and all you want to really do is make a silly, innocuous cartoon about a genocidal alien lunatic bent on annihilating all traces of human life.

DRE: It seems like that's what everyone wants to do is cartoons.

JV: I can't speak for everyone else. I would still love to do cartoons but there are so many factors that determine how the product ends up. Depending on who you surround yourself with it could be hell and I don't know about it ever being heaven. In the case of ZIM, it was my first time doing anything like that, and some people I knew, many I didn't. Some were the most talented people I had ever met, but not all of them really fit the show. Others were just outright horrible and had to be incinerated in the ovens I had installed in the stomach of one morbidly obese crew member.

DRE: Maybe if you're Klasky Csupo [creators of Rugrats, The Wild Thornberrys and many more].

JV: Yeah there are people who love what they do. But I look at what they do and I don't love it. All the power to them but I'm not interested in making yet another show that looks like some other show.

DRE: Like a variation on a theme.

JV: I don't feel at all slighted because the show was cancelled because I look at some of the shows that are doing incredibly well and I'm not jealous. I don't want to do that. I wouldn't give up having made my hideous little show to still be producing something that doesn't thrill me.

DRE: You obviously made some money from it.

JV: Yeah, but it's all gone. The last thing that I wanted was to be sitting around in this pile of cash, which is what I did for way too long before deciding it was bad. I had this Hefty bag filled with cash that I would get into and have one of my slaves seal twist tie closed. I'd roll around in it, giggling and laughing like a monster baby until I was tired. But it was dirty money, dirty children money printed on the skin of flayed children. I needed to find an evil way to it so that Nickelodeon would be contributing to something unholy in the world.

DRE: What'd you spend it on?

JV: Just whores. Whores over on Sunset Boulevard and Santa Monica. Whores and robots. Some of the whores were robots.

Money is not happiness. Being able to pay your rent is happiness but a third season of being in hell would not have been worth it. But I do have a lot to show for it. I love the show and a lot of what came out of it, like some of the people I met and got to work with, but those were truly some of the unhappiest days of my life.

DRE: Was it cool bringing on a few of your friends to work on it?

JV: God yeah. A lot of people just weren't being recognized and weren't able to live as well as they could have. They would come on to the show and not only were they doing something they enjoyed and they could pay their rent. All I asked was they worship me like some kind of pagan god, because I am a pagan god. And though they never did, I enjoyed having them along for the hellish adventure that was working on a television show.

DRE: I know you brought fellow cartoonist Roman Dirge [Lenore] to work on Invader Zim. You guys are friends I'm assuming. What was that like?

JV: It was great being able to bring some friends in for a project, but in the case of DIRGE-O-TRON (as we liked to call him after we found out he was a robot), it was sort of a pain in the ass, what with his drinking, and the children on studio tours.

DRE: What?

JV: Yeah, a lot of kids came into Nickelodeon on tours. Well they used to. See, Roman was seriously into drinking floor polish, and when he had too much he'd just start beating the children with children from previous tours that he would just pull out from...well...I don't know from where. He was uncontrollable sometimes. A monster.

DRE: Is he a big guy?

JV: I guess so, for a robot.

DRE: From what I've seen of your comics it didn't seem like sex and pornography made a big portion of your work?

JV: You obviously never read Porny the Pornocidal Porniac, a lesser known of my works, but one for which I still receive damp napkins of praise in the mail from fans. Other than that, sex and such just didn't seem to have the lady-getting appeal as the "dooky " and "stabbing jerks in face" kind of humor I opted for in the earlier work. My choice backfired however, as most of the women I met thought I would stab them while shitting at them, and when I refused they got surly.

DRE: Johnny [the Homicidal Maniac] never seemed to get laid.

JV: No that's a very conscious thing with him too. There are shades of a romantic inside of him but he's got this absolute disgust of intimacy.

DRE: You can see that within him [laughs].

JV: Stop laughing at me. But yeah, to him, the idea of inviting a romance to begin is inviting it to inevitably die. He's a coward and I think it manifests itself in many ways. One of them being the fact that's he's disgusted with sexuality. I don't think he has a sex drive and if he does it finds its way out through other means, mainly a knife through the flesh. Which isn't that far off from some romances, the kind that get deep under your skin and bones and twist up through you, letting spill out all the things you keep for yourself, and you struggle and struggle to pull your insides back in but they're too slippery and you slide on your own splashing mess and fall back on your head which cracks open. Then the demons gnaw on your groin or something.

DRE: I found that when I read your comics but I can't read more than 20 pages at a time.

JV: [laughs] It's dense.

DRE: Its dense stuff and it's like a spewing. Was it a spewing when you did the work?

JV: You're probably talking more about Johnny. Squee is much more lighthearted. There is no real intent there other than to just have fun. After doing Johnny I wanted to just do something, I wouldn't say innocent, but to not have any care in the world. Lots of setups and horrible happenings but its funny. Johnny was a mess. It was a mess and I don't think it would be the same if it weren't a mess. It is exactly that, a spew. As I got farther and farther along in the series I did less and less preparation. I didn't use outlines or sketches. I just had a vague idea of what I wanted to tell and then the dialogue just came to me as I was inking the page. I can't say that I had any plan for it to come out the way that it did. I'm happy with that effect of it seeming very spontaneous. A lot of the time I read and I can't fucking stand it. I wish I could have planned it out more because of some of the dialogue.

DRE: Well it's always tough to go back and look at your old book. That was one of the first things you did, right?

JV: Johnny was the very first book I did.

DRE: You shouldn't go back and read that stuff.

JV: I know. I look at it and I think it's so fucking pretentious. When I'm writing the book I'm laughing at just how overblown the characters seemed. How full of himself he seems. But I didn't get far enough in the series to really drive the joke of it home. It ends on issue seven and I still think it leaves off with a feeling of that's what I'm trying to say to the world as opposed to this character saying it then getting kicked in the nuts. I think that's unfortunate because a lot of people write to me saying "I believe in what you say." It's obvious that I didn't make it clear enough that most of that shit isn't me. It's really just a character and not my diary. I take little bits and pieces of ideas that I may or may not believe in but I give them to this character and he runs with them. I have fun with however he handles the situation.

DRE: It must have been fun killing who annoyed you in the book. Sometimes it seemed like you would be standing in a movie line, someone would piss you off then you would go home and kill them in the book.

JV: Yeah pretty much. That was like the spark of the character. That's a classic thing that is hardly the most original thing in the world. Just this avatar for murder. The people you wish you could murder. All the stuff that builds up inside of you from when you were a little kid wanting to murder all the clowns. Wait...did I say that out loud? Scratch that last thing, okay? I never killed that clown.

DRE: I was in a New York City coffeehouse recently and I had a small press comic book with me. There were two people reading comic books across from me. One was reading Johnny trade paperback. I tried talking to him and he just ignored me.

JV: Oh man you think that's bad. I was at a club for dancing a couple of years ago. Back then it wasn't uncommon for someone to wearing a t-shirt with one of my characters. In the crowd was someone with a Happy Noodle Boy shirt. I always get a little thrill "Hey that's my shirt", I never say anything. But in this case I turned to them and said I liked the shirt. I didn't say who I was or anything. The person just looked at me with a nasty look, pushed past me and walked away. I just laughed. I thought "you fucken asshole." Not that they should have known who I was or anything but they were such dicks.

DRE: It's that gothy snobby thing. Like they're thinking "Oh you probably don't know enough about it to really comment."

What's the weirdest thing a fan has ever sent you?

JV: A classic one is the dead squirrel.

DRE: Was there a note with it?

JV: I personally didn't open it. It got sent to where all my fan mail goes, to my publisher. They noticed one of the packages was bleeding because that thing was fairly fresh. They opened it up and there was this dead squirrel. They made a big deal out of it. It turned into a mess. Apparently the girl who sent it got into some trouble because of that.

A while back I asked Dan Vado, my publisher, what ever became of that girl and how they handled the whole thing. All Dan would ever say was "It's taken care of". A week after that call, the girl's head shows up in a box to on my doorstep. Dan is cool.

DRE: Have you seen the Adult Swim cartoons [on Cartoon Network]?

JV: Yeah I like Aqua Teen Hunger Force. I like the ones that you have to wonder whether it's some serious show and not just some sketch on an actual television show.

DRE: Like Sealab 2021.

JV: Yeah the ones that feel cheap. Because the cheaper the show the more free reign it feels like the people have. I was doing a show for an outright television network for kids. They still censor themselves though. Cartoon Network touts themselves as this adult television but apparently adults can't handle an uncensored version of Cowboy Bebop. That's just really weird to me. I've seen Japanese versions of Cowboy Bebop and there's nothing in there to make me go out and rape my father...again.

DRE: What are you working on right now?

JV: I'm just doing little bits and pieces for other magazines right now. At this very moment I'm behind on a compilation that Slave Labor is doing for Free Comic Book Day. Ever since I'm done with Zim everyone thinks that I'm going to go back to comics. I've been flooded with emails asking me if I'm working on the new Johnny over and over again. So now I want to work on the new stuff that just says "Fuck you. I'm not working on the new Johnny. Here's a book about a guy eating a cracker."

DRE: You love to undercut expectations.

JV: It can be a very unhealthy thing to play in to, to start working for the audience, to allow them to dictate what you should do. There is a great urge to do something solely to piss them off but then again you're doing something for them even if it is with the intention of undercutting expectations. It's sort of what the Johnny and Devi stories are about, the idea of always being a slave to something.

DRE: Did you check out Suicide Girls?

JV: I did, and I find it morally reprehensible. All that flesh, shooting out of my monitor into my eyeballs. After about the fifteenth hour, I stopped looking at the site and began being appalled. How do I order some of these ladies, by the way? You know...for research?

DRE: They would never call me back if I said that. "I want to order one of the girls in a box."

JV: Under each one of the girls there should put little boxes marked quantity. As though they are clones.

DRE: And gift wrapped.

JV: You are bad, and I hate you.


by Daniel Robert Epstein.

by Nahp Suicide A column which highlights Suicide Girls and their fave groups. (image) [Pia in Taste Me] This week, Pia Suicide tells us why she can get behind SG's Ass Appreciation Group. Members: 7,511 / Comments: 79,755 WHY DO YOU LOVE IT?: I love it because I think the most beautiful part... more

by Nahp Suicide

A column which highlights Suicide Girls and their fave groups.


[Pia in Taste Me]

This week, Pia Suicide tells us why she can get behind SG's Ass Appreciation Group.

Members: 7,511 / Comments: 79,755

WHY DO YOU LOVE IT?: I love it because I think the most beautiful part of a woman’s body is her ass, and also I love panties in cute colors, different designs, and soft fabrics

DISCUSSION TIP: Small ones, phat ones, man or lady ass, white, pink, chocolate, honey colored, covered in panties, covered by nothing, whipped cream, bite marks, or hand slaps.

MOST HEATED DISCUSSION THREAD: "I want assholes, dammit!" This is a really hot thread because there are really dirty pics and lots of different opinions.

BEST RANDOM QUOTE: “Panty Peeler!!! That's the one!!”

WHO’S WELCOME TO JOIN?: EVERYONE who thinks asses are the best thing in the world.


***
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by David Seaman Look, we all know it has become bad. Surveillance cameras everywhere, many of them funded by federal DHS grants. Cops pulling people over for no reason, asking to see your driver's license and quizzing you on where you're going. TSA agents conducting invasive patdowns, which... more

by David Seaman

Look, we all know it has become bad. Surveillance cameras everywhere, many of them funded by federal DHS grants. Cops pulling people over for no reason, asking to see your driver's license and quizzing you on where you're going. TSA agents conducting invasive patdowns, which include applying pressure to your genitalia, and obnoxious "chat-downs" asking you about your personal travel details. Police officers at peaceful protests wearing camo and combat-ready body armor. And now we know, based on The New York Times' recent reporting and NSA whistle-blower William Binney, that nearly all American citizens are being spied on by the government without a warrant.

It's heart warming stuff, isn't it? Luckily, only a handful of crypto-fascist morons are promoting this agenda of greater surveillance and more police on the streets. There are 314 million of us. Here's how we can take America back:

1. Remain non-violent and peaceful, at all times. Seriously – things like smashing surveillance cameras and protests turning violent or disorderly will only give those in power and the mainstream media an "excuse" they've been looking for to justify the existence of such programs in the first place. Oh, and the DHS grants won't stop – those surveillance cameras you smash, youthful angry one, will be replaced. Promptly replaced.

2. When you protest, go big. I don't want to see any more rag-tag teams of 10 or 15 chanting protesters with handwritten signs. Use the Internet to organize, do peaceful and fun "flash mobs," make sure attendance is always in the thousands or hundreds of thousands. Stun the rest of us with your silent power. And do it often. NDAA, TrapWire, and the warrantless surveillance programs we now know about threaten the very future of this republic. They threaten your safety, and the next generation's safety. You can't stop until these things are addressed by the masses, addressed by those in power, and fixed.

3. Shirt and tie. Suits. Shaving. Haircuts. The more credible you appear, the more undeniably mainstream – the sooner the rest of America will wake the fuck up.

4. Dominate social media. There are reportedly "sockpuppet accounts" on article comments sections, Twitter, and Reddit trying to normalize things like warrantless wiretapping. "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear – this is to protect us from terrorists only." Fight this propaganda battle tooth and nail. Call out those who don't know what they are talking about. Call out those intentionally distracting or lying.

5. Record it all. We may not all be at your protests, but with YouTube and Vimeo you can reach an audience 100-fold greater the next day.

6. Support good politicians. There aren't many, which is why they need your support – money and time – to remain in office.

7. Never stop. The stakes are too high. If warrantless wiretapping, gropedowns, guilty until innocent, and imprisonment without trial become the "new normal" to keep us safe, we have lost our own country. We have burned our own founding documents. We can't afford to let that happen.





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Caitlin R. Kiernan made a splash in 1998 when her novel “Silk” was released. Since then, Kiernan, who was trained as a vertebrate paleontologist, has written a number of novels including “Murder of Angels” and “The Red Tree” in addition to becoming a prolific short writer with more than half... more

Caitlin R. Kiernan made a splash in 1998 when her novel “Silk” was released. Since then, Kiernan, who was trained as a vertebrate paleontologist, has written a number of novels including “Murder of Angels” and “The Red Tree” in addition to becoming a prolific short writer with more than half a dozen collections. Besides the dozens of magazines and anthologies she contributed to, Kiernan also releases “Sirenia Digest,” a monthly collection of “weird erotica.” She also was the regular writer for “The Dreaming,” the comic series which spun off of Neil Gaiman’s “Sandman.”

Kiernan just released “The Drowning Girl: A Memoir,” a novel that is arguably her best to date. The book centers around a schizophrenic woman, the new woman in her life, a nineteenth century painting, myth, family history, memory and truth, leaving one pondering what is real and what is not. This month Dark Horse Comics released the first of five issues of a new comic series, “Alabaster,” which stars Dancy Flammarion, a character that Kiernan fans know from the novel “Threshold” and short story collection “Alabaster.” For the uninitiated, Dancy is a young albino woman who has been sent by an angel to hunt monsters in haunted corners of the deep South. We reached Kiernan at her home in Rhode Island.


ALEX DUEBEN: You’ve written in the past about where Dancy came from but just to start, could you talk a little about who she is and what about her has kept you so fascinated over so many years, across a novel (Threshold), short stories (Alabaster) and now comics?

CAITLIN R. KIERNAN: Sometimes I fall very deeply in love with a character I've created. Not always, but sometimes. And from the start, when I conceived her for Threshold–that was way back in 1998–I fell in love with her. To me, she was this beautiful and lost and broken star that shined so, so brightly. It didn't matter to me if she was actually hearing angels and actually killing monsters, whether she was insane or actually on a “holy” quest to rid the world of what she perceived as evil. That love has never waned. When I finished Threshold, well, there's this paragraph in the novel somewhere that gives you a peek at Dancy's misadventures before the book. I realized I want to wrote those stories, that I wasn't done with my crusading albino waif and her avenging butcher's knife, that I needed to tell more tales. Those were eventually collected in Alabaster in 2006.

AD: So how did you–and Dancy–end up at Dark Horse?

CRK: I was guest of honor at the 2010 H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland, Oregon, and while I was there I had a meeting with Rachel Edidin, an editor at Dark Horse. She was interested in my doing something with them, and we spent the next few months kicking around ideas, though we settled on a Dancy story fairly quickly. Her dynamic just seemed very right for Dark Horse. Now, originally, I was only supposed to do a short prose story. It was called “Bus Fair,” and it's basically issue one of the comic. But then Dark Horse asked if I wanted to expand it into a mini-series, which I did. So, yeah, issue one was written as a short story in April 2011, then expanded into a comic. I should say that I was willing to work with Dark Horse because they offered me a completely creator-owned project. I'd said for years, ever since I left DC/Vertigo, that I'd only ever return to comics if I was offered that opportunity, to do a creator-owned book, not work for hire.

AD: Your work in general, and Dancy’s stories specifically, are very internal, which doesn’t make them obvious choices to become comics. I know you’ve written comics before but I’m curious what was the challenge specific to this story.

CRK: In my prose, I tend to rely heavily on the thoughts of my characters, because, in the main, I am writing stories about people, not about events or things. But I've also been told, again and again and again over the years, how very visual my writing is, which I don't see as a contradiction at all. We look out at the world, and our mental interpretations of it create what we call plot and action. Still, I was a little intimidated by the process of translating Dancy into comics, but, surprise, it worked perfectly. I can't say precisely why. It just did. The internal became the external, almost effortlessly. Okay, no, not effortlessly. Writing never effortless, but it wasn't the trial I feared it would be. It helped tremendously that I was part of a great team, that I had Steve Lieber and Rachelle Rosenberg taking my words and making pictures out of them. Maybe the hardest part was learning to trust them, that I needed to say as little as possible, and allow them to do the rest. Oh, and our cover artist, Greg Ruth, he also nailed the images in my mind's eye.

AD: In the short story collection, Alabaster, Ted Naifeh drew a number of illustrations and I’m curious how that helped as far as visualizing Dancy and her angel and thinking about this world in a visual way that affected the comics and how you wrote them.

CRK: Working with Ted, that was a great honor. He's a brilliant artist. That was the first time I saw Dancy off the written page. We did a lot of conceptual stuff before he began the actual illustrations, getting her just the way I wanted her. So, his artwork is where the pictorial Dancy began, and for that I owe him a great debt. After Alabaster, when Penguin released a new edition of Threshold, the cover artist drew very heavily of Ted's interpretation of Dancy. Mostly, he did a decent job, though she inexplicably has yellow, instead of pink, eyes. I could get them to fix that. By the time I was shown the cover, it was too late. It was like, here's Dancy with hepatitis. Anyway, when I began working with Ted, I'd already decided this would be a sort of reboot. For that matter, I think a lot of people don't realize that the Dancy short stories were a mild reboot from the novel. A different worldline, you might say. Read carefully, and you'll see the two don't sync up. But Steve and I began by looking at what Ted had done. But I wanted an older and more world weary Dancy. Steve said, if you could have anyone you want to play her in a film, who would you choose. I'd just seen Super 8–brilliant film–and I immediately said, Elle Fanning. So, she became a template from which Steve began.

AD: Talk a little about the art team on the book, artist Steve Lieber and colorist Rachelle Rosenberg and how they were able to visualize this world?

CRK: I can't speak for them. I can't tell you how they went about doing what they've done. I haven't talked a lot about their process. Mostly, we've talked about how it ought to be, and they've gone away and made it that way. We all work in isolation, in the end, sending our little notes back and forth. So, here we've entered the realm of "You have to ask them." To me, it's like magic. Also, I have to emphasize the part that our cover artist, Greg Ruth, has played in all this. Every one of his covers, well, some of them have almost brought tears to my eyes. They're that good. And this is what people who may buy the comic will see first. They'll see his covers. In many cases, his covers will be the thing that sells the book.

AD: One of the things I love most about the Dancy stories is that the set-up seems very familiar in that it’s about a teenage girl fighting monsters, but she doesn’t have any superpowers. She has insight and secret knowledge, but she’s very much on her own. Having said that, one of the things I alternately like about the stories and which annoys me is that I want more insight into this world, how it operates and getting a bigger picture, which Dancy does not have. Do you have any interest in writing a story where things start to be explained or she starts piecing things together? Or will she–and by extension, us–always be fumbling in the dark?

CRK: Here's something I have very, very strong feelings about. Writing stories about Dancy Flammarion–as with most of my fiction–we've entered the realm of the inexplicable. And when you explain the inexplicable, you divest it of its power. A good mystery is worth a thousand answers, and I know I'm never going to waver from that. For example, is Dancy insane, or is the seraph real? Don't ever expect to get a concrete answer on that. I go and do that, the power of the story deflates. We lose a huge part of the tension that drives the stories forward, that, for me, make the tales compelling. Why is her world seemingly filled with monsters? Because it is, and that's the only answer you'll ever get, I suspect. I tell people, you want answers, read Agatha Christie. Dancy is a mystery without a solution, ultimately. This is what makes her beautiful, and makes her world so terrifying and beautiful. People ask me, all the time–and this annoys me–"What happened?" And I tell them that most of the time I don't know, not in the sense that I have this secret I'm holding back just to frustrate them. Few ever believe this, but most of the time I don't know what happened, or why a lot of things in my books and stories are how and why they are. If I did, why would I write the stories. It's not my job to hold the readers’ hands and lead them point by point through a story. I want them to be left with questions they'll chew over for a long, long time. For me, that's what weird fiction is, a presentation of enduring mysteries. Period.

AD: So for fans, give us some context. Where does miniseries pick up in relation to the epilogue of Threshold and the stories in Alabaster and where are we going?

CRK: In retrospect, I genuinely hate the epilogue of Threshold. It never should have been written. And to accept the stories in the Alabaster short story collection, I think readers have to forget it. I'd certainly like to forget it. Then we come to the comic, and, to a degree, I need readers to set aside the short-story collection. Like I said, here's a second reboot. I do refer to the short stories in the comics, to “Alabaster,” for example, most of which is recounted in #3. But, once again, I'm offering an alternate history. This Dancy has never gone to Birmingham and never will, and that was true in the short stories, too. It was never made explicit, but I knew it. Whether or not readers picked up on that, I don't think it detracted from the stories. Each story is meant to stand on its own. well, okay, except for “Bainbridge,” which was a mistake, trying to tie everything together. Writers make mistakes, and that was a big one for me. I'm going to rewrite that story someday, and take out the references to Murder of Angels, and, by extension, Silk. Having said that, you'll see, in the comic, a Dancy who finds herself more alone and more on her own than ever before.

AD: How has moving to Providence changed what you write? Or has it?

CRK: It has, and for the better. To date, I've written three Rhode Island novels – Daughter of Hounds (actually written while I still lived in Atlanta), The Red Tree, and The Drowning Girl: A Memoir. Those last two were genuinely breakthroughs for me, and, in my eyes, they're vastly better than any novel I wrote before. They're my first mature novels. I look back at the ones I wrote before them, and I know that. As to the part that moving to Providence has played in that, honestly, I don't know. It's one of those mysteries I can't answer. I don't much care why. Only that it did happen. I'm not going to say something hokey and clichéd like, “New England is such a haunted place.” If any place is “haunted,” all places are haunted. Everywhere people have ever lived and died. There's always the possibility that moving to Rhode Island had no casual role whatsoever in the shift, that it was something already in progress, that I was maturing as a writer, and it would have happened regardless. I suspect that's the truth, but I'll never know. I will say, I'll admit, anytime I have a new landscape, it inspires me. But that's been true of many places I've traveled to, lived in, spent time in. Los Angeles, coastal Oregon, Manhattan, Ireland, London, Alabama, Boston, and on and on.

AD: I did want to ask about your novel, The Drowning Girl, which came out last month, and which I think is possibly your best novel. Could you talk a little about the book and what you were trying to do?

CRK: You get me started, I could probably talk about The Drowning Girl endlessly. In fact, it's kind of hard to say just a little about the book. It took me two years to write, and I think I almost broke myself in the process. When it was all over, my partner and my psychiatrist both told me to back off from such intensely personal books, and that's not hyperbole. Like The Red Tree before it, The Drowning Girl is heavily autobiographical. Fictionalized autobiography, but autobiography, all the same. They're bookends, though that doesn't mean you should read one before the other. When I say they're bookends, I mean it in an abstract and in a psychological sense. To say that The Drowning Girl is intensely personal is an understatement. And it absolutely is my best novel to date. That's true to the point that I'm not sure I'll ever write another one that's better. I'm not sure I can. I worked through so much in the novel – insanity, art, loss, love, hauntings, survival. At its core, it's a novel about the relationship that often exists between mental illness and art, and some people might call it a ghost story, but I'd prefer to say it's a novel about the nature of hauntings, and that's not necessarily the same thing.

AD: You have a new short story collection coming out this summer, Confessions on a Five-Chambered Heart. What’s going to be in the collection and what is it that you love about writing short stories?

CRK: Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart is very much a follow-up to my last collection, The Ammonite Violin & Others. Most of the stories contain erotic elements, sometimes strongly so. Back in 2005, I decided to conduct an experiment. If I wrote erotica, what would it be like, and that led to two little volumes–they actually are, literally, small books that fit in the palm of my hand–Frog Toes and Tentacles and Tales from the Woeful Platypus. People ask, so what's your erotica like, and I'll say something like, well, imagine Angela Carter and Anaïs Nin and H. P. Lovecraft were to collaborate, and that's sort of what my erotica's like. I call it “weird erotica,” because I see it as a sort of sexual annex of the weird tradition. It's not for everyone, but the readers who like it, they seem to love it. After I did Frog Toes and Tentacles, I was left wanting to continue to explore these regions, these territories, so I conceived an experiment. I never thought it would work. I created something I called Sirenia Digest, and it works this way: readers subscribe, $10 a month, and each month they get a PDF with one or two new pieces of my "weird erotica," vignettes or short stories, or sometimes a novel in progress. The first issue went out in November 2005, and we've reached #76, so I think it's safe to say the experiment has exceeded far beyond what I dared to expect. By the way, anyone who's interested in subscribing, it's easy. Just go to my website, specifically to caitlinrkiernan.com, and it's all handled via PayPal. If you're tastes in the erotic aren't conventional, well, you might like what I'm offering. There are some samples up on the website, by the way. One of the most wonderful things about the digest is that a lot of the stories are being printed in anthologies. A couple have even made "year's best" anthologies. Both The Ammonite Violin & Others and Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart collect the earlier stories from the digest, and very glad to say that the former appeared on the cover of Publisher's Weekly and was nominated for the Shirley Jackson and World Fantasy awards, so maybe my unconventional tastes are a little bit less unconventional than I tend to think.

Sara Gran has been writing for many years, but it’s her most recent novel “Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead” that has taken her to a new level. The book, just out in paperback, is set in post-Katrina New Orleans and stars Claire DeWitt, a woman who is arguably the world’s greatest detective. more

Sara Gran has been writing for many years, but it’s her most recent novel “Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead” that has taken her to a new level. The book, just out in paperback, is set in post-Katrina New Orleans and stars Claire DeWitt, a woman who is arguably the world’s greatest detective. This isn’t quite the major accomplishment that many people might think; most people who know Claire tend to hate her or think she’s crazy. A devotee of Jacques Silette, a French detective who wrote about the nature of mysteries and their investigation, Claire’s story is as much about the nature of mysteries and why we’re captivated by them as it is about this particular crime.

In her previous novels, whether she was writing about being young and screwed up in New York City, a woman who finds a demon controlling her, or a recovering drug addict in fifties New York, Gran doesn’t shy away from dark corners or rough edges. In her books there’s violence and drugs, addiction and tragedy, but also possibility and change. The heroine of her latest novel is a brilliant creation. Like Gran herself, Claire, as a woman who marches to the beat of her own drum and isn’t afraid of walking into dark places, is the perfect epitome of a Suicide Girl. The book is original, hypnotizing and addictive. The second book in the series comes out next year.


ALEX DUEBEN: Where did this book start?

SARA GRAN: I had wanted to write a detective series for a long time. This is my fourth published novel and I had wanted to do one since I started writing, but it’s a huge undertaking. I was in New Orleans for the storm and moved to California afterwards. I started writing a book that took place there. It was a very different scenario. It was about a book dealer; I’m very into books and I used to be a book dealer. Then I thought, fuck it, I want this to be the detective series that I always dreamed of. (laughs) I made it the detective book and I’m just finishing up the second book now.

AD: I was wondering if the book was the first of a series or not. It feels like a possible first book, but it’s very satisfying on its own.

SG: Good. I have four books planned. I don’t know if I’m going to keep going past four or not, but there’s going to be at least four Claire DeWitt books if all goes well. If nobody stops me. And we’re going to solve all the mysteries that are raised in the first book of what happened to all the various missing girls and missing people.

AD: One element in the book that struck me was that she was a teen detective, or at least that’s when she becomes obsessed with idea of becoming a detective. We all love teen detectives but I don’t think any of them grow up well.

SG: Do any of them ever grow up? (laughs) Well or poorly? I didn’t read those books as a kid. I just got into that concept as an adult. I liked Harriet the Spy, but I never read Nancy Drew until very recently.

AD: Really, Claire is just an eighties punk kid who just happens to notice more than most people.

SG: Yeah. It’s basically my childhood if I was a teen detective; which sadly, I was not. (laughs)

AD: Where did the idea for Jacques Silette’s book Detection and these strange epigraphs throughout the book come from?

SG: The idea of a book that changes you when you read it is something that’s interesting to me. I think there are really books like that. I think if you look at some of the classic spiritual texts they’re like that. Some of the things in Detection are blatantly from the Bhagavad Gita or the Tao Te Ching and some of them are just fabricated by me. I think there are books like that; that when you read them, they do change you. They make you a different person and you can’t ever go back again. I like that idea so much.

Also I love that every field really does have its weird esoteric schools. I’m sure if you would go talk to a butcher, there’s different schools of how to cut meat. No matter what the job is, people have different ideas of how to do it. Of course if you’re a writer there’s all your different little clubs and schools and genres of people. I thought that would be fun to apply to detection as well.

AD: That idea of being changed and never being the same after is the theme running through book. Everyone gets changed, but not everyone changes their circumstances based on that.

SG: Not everyone changes their circumstances based on it. That’s a really good point. For example Kelly reads the book [Detection], but she stays in Brooklyn, where for Claire it sends her off on the odyssey of traveling around the country and finding a new home.

AD: There’s that great scene where Claire speaks with Terrell at the end where she says, you survived this, it changed you, now you can be someone else.

SG: That was the big thing about Katrina. I was also here in New York for 9/11. One thing that was so sort of horrifying to me after both incidents was people saying, when are things going to go back to normal? How do we go back to normal? Things don’t go back to normal after a big, traumatic incident. There is no normal again. That was really frustrating for me. You have to change. You have to let things affect you or you become this brittle, fake person, which people do become after disasters. I think it’s very widespread unfortunately.

AD: And the nature of people–and cities–is being in a constant state of flux.

SG: I think so and I think that’s another thing that was frustrating. In our philosophical point of view that we have in this country, we are not well-equipped for change. That was one reason why the Tao Te Ching was such a big inspiration for Detection. That book is all about change and all about being with change and experiencing change. In all the classic Eastern texts, that’s the fundamental point. Here, although there are so many wonderful things about our philosophy and our point of view, people want things to stay the same. Especially after these big disasters people just want things to go back to normal and there’s always this goal to not change and that’s a shitty goal. (laughs) Not changing is a stupid goal. It’s not a goal that’s going to get you very far or give you an interesting life. It will be constant disappointment.

AD: Where did the character of Andray come from?

SG: Andray is such an amalgam of so many people I’ve known. Growing up here in New York City and living in New Orleans I’ve known so many young people like him who just don’t have much of a chance in life, but you see what chances they could have. Since this is my fantasy, Andray will have many wonderful chances in life and good things will happen to him as the series progresses. He’s very much like Claire.

AD: There’s a great line where Andray asks Claire how you become a detective and she goes, you have to go to school and study hard and meet the right people. He’s like, really? She’s like no, that’s all bullshit. Is that your thinking about how one becomes a writer?

SG: Absolutely. And a lot of the stuff about being a detective, I think is stuff that applies to anything that you love to do or feel called to do in life. If you feel called to be a writer or anything. A butcher. (laughs) I don’t know why I keep going back to butchers. I’m a vegetarian. (laughs) A vegan butcher? Being a writer is a great example. I mean now writing is so fucking corporate. Everybody wants you to have an MFA and do this and do that. An MFA is a fucking Ponzi scheme. It’s bullshit. I know some people feel like it’s helped them a lot and that’s a good thing. It’s good for some people, but for most people it’s total bullshit. (laughs) There’s this corporate thing where you’re supposed to go from getting your MFA and go into publishing and that’s one reason why there’s so much mediocrity in American fiction these days, whether it’s genre fiction or literary fiction.

People will give you the worst advice about going to the right schools and publishing in the right places. What you should do if you want to be a writer is write a good fucking manuscript and have an interesting life so you have something to write about. I think the same would apply to being a detective. (laughs) Although we don’t know for sure, we will say that.

AD: Claire has a great line at one point about how the perfectly reasonable thing would be to go home and got o bed, but the detective’s job is not to be reasonable.

SG: Yeah. And you know I more and more I’m trying to think of a delicate way to put this if you’re recording this. (laughs) There is more and more of a drive as all media becomes more and more corporate–I also work in TV and film now–and there is more and more of a drive to turn the writer’s work mediocre and more and more of a drive to take out all the sharp edges and the scary parts. Those are the parts that make work lively and interesting. I myself would rather read a bad book that makes one hundred interesting mistakes than a very, very good book that is just down the line bland and mediocre but good enough. I don’t ever want the good enough thing. I want the thing that takes chances and fucks up and that’s what I want to write as well.

AD: It’s interesting that you always wanted to write a detective novel because Dope has that feel. Did you always have that ending in mind?

SG: Always. From the very beginning. I was always a big fan of Jim Thompson and he ends a lot of his books with a similar ending. Well at least two books that end like that. It’s something I always wanted to do.

AD: Dope and Come Closer both end in a way that feels inevitable but they’re brutal endings.

SG: It was a fun thing to inflict on your readers, but I don’t think I would do it again. (laughs) It’s fun to know you completely fucking ruined someone’s day and have that influence on them and really shock someone. There’s also something a little bit immature and childish about just wanting to stick it to people like that. I think I’ll do something like that again some day, but right now I end my books on a slightly more hopeful note.

AD: Claire has a hopeful ending, but in some ways I think it’s your darkest book as far the content.

SG: It’s going to go up and down as the series progresses. The second book is actually quite a bit darker, but then in the next two books things are going to turn up for her. I wanted her to have the experience of someone who is capable of going to these very, very dark places. Like I was saying, after the storm and after 9/11 and people going when are things going to go back normal, well, she is someone who is very okay with not normal. She’s very comfortable in dark places.

I don’t know if you know Greek mythology at all but do you know the myth of Persephone? That was a big model for Claire. Someone who is capable of going into the underworld and spending time there, but then coming back up as well, whereas most people tend to get stuck in one place or the other. She has this liminal quality, this almost shamanic quality of being able to be in all these different spaces and be comfortable there. Although in the second book, she’ll be much less comfortable.

AD: You referenced Persephone in the book. In one of the Silette epigraphs, he writes that Persephone the first detective.

SG: Exactly. That was the guiding metaphor for this universe and for Claire. There’s a wonderful, wonderful book which I would love to recommend called Persephone Returns by a Jungian therapist called Tanya Wilkinson. It is a wonderful Jungian take on trauma and the Persephone myth and it was a big influence.

AD: I’ve always thought of Persephone as a kind of punk story. She doesn’t chose this life, but she’s not destroyed or consumed by it.

SG: That’s interesting. Before she was Persephone her name was Cor and Cor just means maiden, so she didn’t even have her own name. She was just this nothing of a person. This nothing little girl and then she had this experience and she became Persephone, the Queen of the Dead, which sounds better than being nothing little Cor.

AD: And she’s not trapped in the underworld, or by the underworld, however you want to think of it. She can leave.

SG: She goes back and forth. That liminal quality of being able to do both things. And again it has to do with accepting change, saying now it’s time to be upstairs and now it’s time to be downstairs.

AD: I’m not sure anyone’s made that exact metaphor about a detective, but it’s a good one.

SG: I think detectives are our highest mythology in American secular culture. We create mythology, but like all mythology we don’t call it mythology, it’s just what’s floating around in our popular culture. I think detectives fulfill such an interesting role in our mythology and such an interesting role in our personal psyches as well as our national and cultural psyche. Are you a Raymond Chandler fan at all?

AD: Oh yeah.

SG: There’s this great thing in one of the essays he wrote for The Atlantic. It’s him taking about what the detective is and his conception is not quite my conception but he spoke about it in these mythological terms. A white knight who can go into these very corrupt places and not be corrupted by them. He had this great classical education which influenced his work and he had a strong sense that he was creating a mythological character with Marlowe. His unconscious motivations in creating Marlowe are almost more interesting than his conscious motivations because consciously he describes Marlowe as this great hero but when you read it, Marlowe is actually much more complicated than that. So despite all my highfalutin talk about mythology, your subconscious motivations as a writer are almost always more interesting than your highfalutin notions, I think. (laughs)

AD: That’s the difference, I think, between the stories we tell ourselves and how we think about mythology functioning for other people and cultures.

SG: That’s true. There’s always the overt thing and the hidden thing. I mean Marlowe is this sad, weird complicated character. Not so much as a hero as Chandler, I think intended for him to be.

AD: You would have to be somewhat damaged or in search of something that’s missing to do that.

SG: Yeah and with Claire’s that’s very explicit. She’s this really damaged character and that is her natural milieu. More than the upstairs world, she is at home in the downstairs world. I just made up this upstairs/downstairs metaphor right now but I think it’s working well. (laughs) With Chandler’s Marlowe you never find out. The Long Goodbye is my favorite book because it doesn’t make any sense.

AD: All Chandler’s books are like that, though. I couldn’t help but think of that when reading Claire and how if she had just followed up with this clue she gets at the beginning, the other 200 something pages would have been unnecessary.

SG: Yeah. That was just a plot device. (laughs) I struggled with that plot device but I decided, fuck it. She just forgot about it.

AD: But Silette makes clear that the mystery is everything around the events and it’s that which we get caught up in.

SG: Yeah. In the second book it’s more explicit. I will now come up in retrospect with a high falutin reason why I did that. In the second book it’s more clear that when you follow a mystery, you see what you want to see. You are bringing as much to it as you are taking from it. So maybe she didn’t want to see?

AD: In that sense, the detective is no different than anyone else. We all see clues but while the detective sees more, it doesn’t necessarily provide more answers or greater insight.

SG: That’s a really good point. The detective doesn’t necessarily see more clues, they just put it together differently. They recognize them as clues in a way that other people don’t.

AD: Claire’s teen detective moments are realizing many of the things that kids learn about adults as they grow up.

SG: Most of their experiences are normal childhood experiences but they’re put in this framework of being a detective.

AD: Can you talk a little about the next book?

SG: The next book takes place in the Bay Area. Each book is going to take place in a different place. The third book is going to take place in Las Vegas and Los Angeles and the fourth book is going to take place in New York. It’s going to see Claire going through a lot of changes. This will never be a normal detective series. It’s not going to be the same Claire shows up and she solves a different crime. She’s going to change. She’s going to go through really hard times and she’s not going to change in the sense of a steady uphill growth that many people like to see in a character these days. She’s going to go through a lot of hard times of her own and we’re going to stay with her as a character and every book is going to be very different. I’m just starting the third book so hopefully that will be three or four years from now.

AD: Will we learn about some of the stories behind why Claire’s been banned from various places?

SG: Claire has been banned from many places. She was institutionalized in the State of Utah because she was arrested and no one believed her when she said she was a very important detective working on a very important case. They thought she was delusional and locked her up. (laughs)

AD: She may not have expected to be thanked for being a detective, but I’m pretty sure she didn’t expect that.

SG: No. She never expects to be thanked, but that was a bit weird. It ties into you have to do what you love and you have to stay committed to your vision. You have to stay committed to your point of view. You have to stay committed to what you’re called to do, whether by your subconscious or some higher forces. Making other people happy is not your goal. Making other people think you’re not crazy can’t be the goal. I feel like so many writers and artists today are trying to fit into corporate media, but corporate media should be trying to accommodate us and all our craziness and eccentricities. I for one will hold the flag for that.

(image) by Steven Whitney As established by comparing statistics – what some might call bald-faced facts - last week, the present 112th Congress is categorically the worst in the history of our country. It’s scorned by reputable historians and the electorate, which gives it an all time low approval... more

by Steven Whitney

As established by comparing statistics – what some might call bald-faced facts - last week, the present 112th Congress is categorically the worst in the history of our country. It’s scorned by reputable historians and the electorate, which gives it an all time low approval rating of just 10%. The two most respected inside observers of the Washington scene – Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein – have made it inarguably clear that the Republican Party is responsible for the most pernicious and dysfunctional body ever to plague the halls of American government, one that does much more harm than any good.

Especially after the epic triumphs of “the American century,” how did our government fall to this lowest of points just twelve years into the new millennium – and what members of the current legislature are most responsible?

In 1964, as a forerunner to today’s “approval polls,” a nationwide sampling by the Gallup poll asked Americans if they expected their government “to do the right thing.” Despite the turbulence of the Cold War and the JFK assassination, an astounding 77% replied positively. And, generally speaking, we had done the right things from FDR through JFK: ended a Depression, won a “Good War,” offered our former enemies humane treaties that would allow them to peacefully rebuild, became home to the United Nations, and built an infrastructure that along with a progressive but fair tax structure created a prosperous and stable middle class. America was the envy of the entire world.

But then LBJ escalated the Vietnam War beyond any reason and Nixon’s White House embraced a criminality more damaging to our country than Al Capone’s, including illegal slush funds held by CREEP (the Committee for the Re-Election of the President) that started the disastrous landslide of Big Money into national campaign coffers. Coming back-to-back, along with Nixon’s bogus “Secret Plan to end the Vietnam War,” American morale crumbled and its confidence waned. By the end of 1974, the majority of Americans no longer trusted government. The 77% approval rating of 1964 belly-flopped to 36% just ten years later, and has spiraled downward ever since.

Beginning with Ronald Reagan’s 1st inaugural address, in which he proclaimed, “...government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem,” Republicans leapt upon this disenchantment to hammer home a virulent anti-government message while fueling the flames of the culture war that began in the 1960s. Today, voters must generally decide between a political party that believes government is an essential and beneficial tool to its citizens and a party that wants to “starve it, shrink it, and choke it to death” – the no-government government as reflected by today’s GOP Congress.

When we elect men and women to Congress – the governing body of the United States – shouldn’t we expect them to actually want to govern? And to govern efficiently and in our best interests? Isn’t that the most basic job description of any member of Congress? So why would anyone vote for someone fiercely dedicated, as the Republicans are, to not governing and even to destroying the very process of governance? Doesn't the GOP realize that if they are successful in destroying our government, they will also destroy our country?

Of those who still openly operate in today’s political arena, Reagan acolyte Grover Norquist was perhaps the first to put into motion a plan – the Taxpayer Protection Pledge – to intentionally dismantle our government. State and national office-holders signed the pledge as if in blood, promising that they would not vote to increase taxes, no matter what. Never. You want a war against al Qaida in Afghanistan – no taxes, just borrow the money. And let’s lower taxes so we bring in even less money. You want to illegally invade Iraq and wage a decade long war – no taxes, just borrow the cash from China. And let’s have some more tax cuts.

Eventually, of course, a dramatic surplus left over from a Democratic administration became debt, and the debt deepened as no new tax revenue was raised. So our country wound up essentially broke (and broken) and the pledge signers – numbering 95% of all Republicans in Congress – stuck their heads in the sand and proclaimed that the only way to save the country was to lower taxes on corporations and the upper 2% even more than they already had, and, of course, to drastically cut benefits they mistakenly call entitlements for the Middle Class and poor. And it all started with a premeditated and Machiavellian pledge intended from the start to destroy the balance of power in our democratic republic.

Ironically, the GOP sees itself as the party of business, so individual Republicans must know that most businesses fail when they are underfunded. Yet the party that prides itself on knowing how business works fails to see the connection. Or perhaps, ominously, they do recognize it as a perfect storm to blow away government and replace it with the Free Trade Market of their dreams and our nightmares – no oversight, no regulations, no taxes or levies, no unions, no living wages, and no big damages payoffs for oil spills, chemical spills, nuclear meltdowns, distribution of potentially lethal products, or any other fatal or disabling disaster that is the direct result of their immoral business practices. And this is the party that blathers endlessly about “personal responsibility?”

As Speaker of the House in 1995, Newt Gingrich became the standard-bearer for Norquist’s Pledge and accordingly shut down the government for 28 days in a wrangle with President Clinton over – you guessed it – spending on Medicare, education, the environment, and public health. Clinton vetoed a Republican budget bill that cut all of those and Gingrich rather testily threatened to not raise the debt ceiling – a maneuver the GOP tried again last year (and which contributed to the downgrade of our credit rating) – thus closing down our capital. The conflict was resolved in January of 1996 and the government once again opened for business. But Newt’s hypocrisy, unwillingness to compromise even to keep America open, and his contagious nastiness not only became the model for the new GOP, but also left an atmosphere sufficiently poisonous to asphyxiate our very democracy. While this revisionist scholar from Hell is happily long gone from Congress, his influence as a so-called intellectual is still so substantial that for a few jaw-dropping weeks he was the frontrunner in the Republican Primaries for President.

But four members of our present 112th Congress, which has reached record lows in lack of governance, stand above (or perhaps below) all others in the wretched wasteland they have made of this formerly august body.

As Jon Stewart has pointed out, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) actually looks like a turtle. But more damaging is the tortoise-like manner in which his head retreats into a hard-cased shell from which no interaction is possible whenever action is desperately needed – say, anytime in the last four years. Most despicable is his disdain for real democracy. If any law proposed by Democrats might pass – even by vast 59-41 margin – he engineers a filibuster or cloture requiring 60 votes for passage so the proposal dies before a floor vote can be taken, thus robbing the American public of the “majority rules” principle on which our nation stands. This 60 vote standard almost ensures that Congress cannot pass any bill more significant than the naming of a Post Office, and absolutely guarantees no passage of a bill opposed by 41 minority Senators – and our government winds up completely frozen.

But even though McConnell has frequently been dubbed “the worst Senator in history,” the worst legislators reside in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, led by Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and Michelle Bachmann, head of the Tea Party Caucus

This trio not only blocked the American Jobs Act, but has voted to repeal Obamacare 33 times. They’ve introduced myriad bills that are anti-environment / pro-pollution, anti-gay, anti-Muslim, anti-abortion, anti-contraception, anti-NPR/PBS, anti-sexual and gender variation, and extremely pro-gun. These bozos have continually attempted to defund Planned Parenthood and proposed hundreds of bills to lower taxes on corporations and the wealthiest 2% of Americans while severely slashing benefits to the Middle Class, unemployed, foreclosed upon, and poor. This was not what our founders had in mind when they envisioned a system of “checks and balances.”

To be fair, Boehner – whose eyes well with tears at the mere mention of Ronald Reagan – did reach a negotiated agreement with the President on the Debt Ceiling, but Cantor – a strange, smarmy know-it-all who appears to be running for student council on an austerity platform – killed it, heightening the debate while lowering our credit rating. Indeed, Cantor’s staff-written bio page on the House website has the gall to describe him as “a results-oriented leader” even though his House has delivered the worst results in the history of American government.

Over the last decade, it’s hard to imagine anyone who has spewed forth more insanity than Bachmann. Take your pick – warning parents that The Lion King was gay propaganda, claiming Glenn Beck could solve the debt crisis, assuring her constituents that Nobel Prize scientists supported Intelligent Design, likening her visit to Iraq in 2007 to shopping at her home state’s Mall of America, and many more that should have landed her in a loony bin (not coincidentally, her Tea Party cohorts just banned the word lunatic from the floors of Congress). But instead, she’s the leader and Poster Girl for the Tea Party. And, one must admit, she’s the right woman for the job, especially given her latter-day Joe McCarthy witch hunts, first to vet all citizens whose views she considers “anti-American,” and recently to investigate anyone she suspects might have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood (which includes a respected aide to our Secretary of State). Call it vilification by The Six Degrees of Michelle Bachmann. She also advocates abolishing the minimum wage to create jobs – and she might be right on this one, if you want to work for fifty cents a day.

At the height of Ancient Rome, its government was led by the First Triumvirate – a political alliance of Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great, and Marcus Crassus. Sadly, Western Civilization is now at least partly in the hands of a different kind of Triumvirate – one as pitiful as Rome's was great – the three House Republican leaders we’ll call Weepy, Creepy, and Crazy.

The tragic result is a vicious circle which is potentially fatal to our democracy - House Republicans pass odious laws that cannot get through a Senate vote, while Senate Democrats propose humane legislation that can’t even get to a floor vote, resulting in complete paralysis. Solely for political gain, Republicans would rather block and bloviate than help their fellow citizens recover from a massive crisis, especially one caused by an immoral GOP administration that in just eight years devastated America in every way possible.

The upcoming November election presents voters with a clear choice – to continue a cruel and abysmal charade pantomimed by a true confederacy of dunces or to sweep into office those who actually care about governance, about democracy, about human rights, about fairness, and about the 95% who need their Congress to restore dignity not only to government itself but to their own lives.

This time we better get it right.



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Fighting Back Part 4: The Big Liar, Intimidation And Revenge
Fighting Back Part 3: Fighting Fire With Fire
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Gotcha!

by Lee Camp (video) The RNC is trying to continue their convention in the face of a hurricane - a hurricane of poverty, a hurricane of greed, a hurricane of misogyny, and a REAL hurricane - and they somehow turn their backs on all of it. But luckily the Democratic Party is STANDING UP AGAINST IT! ...Oh... more

by Lee Camp



The RNC is trying to continue their convention in the face of a hurricane - a hurricane of poverty, a hurricane of greed, a hurricane of misogyny, and a REAL hurricane - and they somehow turn their backs on all of it. But luckily the Democratic Party is STANDING UP AGAINST IT! ...Oh wait, no, never mind. I was thinking of something else.



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Moment of Clarity: The Shadows Are Taking Over

John Shirley may not be a household name, but for three decades he’s been an incredibly influential and prolific writer. He was one of the most important early writers in the movement that would later be called cyberpunk, and William Gibson and others have paid tribute to his influence. Shirley’s... more

John Shirley may not be a household name, but for three decades he’s been an incredibly influential and prolific writer. He was one of the most important early writers in the movement that would later be called cyberpunk, and William Gibson and others have paid tribute to his influence. Shirley’s novel “City Come A-Walkin’” and his later trilogy “A Song Called Youth”–which has recently been re-released in a single volume omnibus edition–remain among two of the best cyberpunk works ever published. Shirley is also an award winning horror and fantasy writer perhaps best known for novels like “Demons,” “Bleak History,” and “Dracula in Love” and short story collections like “Heatseeker” and “In Extremis: The Most Extreme Short Stories of John Shirley.”

A singer and songwriter who’s fronted a number of bands and written lyrics for bands including the Blue Oyster Cult, Shirley is also a screenwriter who’s worked in film and television. He was the original writer on the movie “The Crow” and written episodes of different television shows including “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” “Profit,” “VR.5,” “Poltergeist: Legacy,” “Batman Beyond,” and “The Real Ghostbusters.”

Shirley’s newest project is “The Crow: Death and Rebirth,” a comic miniseries released by IDW, the second issue of which has just been released. Shirley spoke with SG over e-mail to talk about his return to the concept of “The Crow,” which is also his return to cyberpunk, and other topics.


ALEX DUEBEN: What are you working on today?

JOHN SHIRLEY: I'm writing a novella for "New Taboos" which is a book of fiction, mainly, and some non-fiction, part of a series of books from PM Press featuring outspoken authors--in fact it's the Outspoken Authors series--and in the past it's featured Ursula LeGuin, Michael Moorcock, and Terry Bisson. When that's done I'm going back to writing my new urban fantasy novel,"FOGG IN THE AFTERLIFE"...a strange tale set entirely in the Next World...

AD: When did you first encounter The Crow?

JS: I encountered it first when it was a black and white comic book. I wrote to the publisher, having seen some other work they'd done, with the idea of breaking into comic writing in an independent smaller press, and I suggested a story called Angry Angel. They said it seemed good but it was too much like The Crow, a new comic they were doing. I looked for The Crow in a comic book store, bought it, thought, "Yeah it's too similar" so I gave up on Angry Angel--and thought, "You know, The Crow would make a good movie. This comic is very cinematic. It's very archetypal." It had a lot of elements I related to, like the rock’n roll feel. So I took it to Jeff Most, and he optioned it and we took it to Pressman. I wrote the treatment and first four drafts of the script, then David Schow took it on, and Dave and I share credit.

AD: What was the experience of working on the movie like?

JS: Well, it was bittersweet. It was interesting and exciting. I had some story disagreements with someone on the production team who was from a family that was part of a major corporation. (I'm not saying who this was.) He objected when my version used villains from an imaginary major corporation. He didn't like vilifying corporations, as he put it. He wanted the villains to be purely street people. In my version the villains were the 1%,  as the expression goes now, who employed thugs, and in his they were rooted in the 99%. He got his way. But it created a rift; plus I was too confrontational in those days, and didn't know how to handle big egos (like the director–a very talented man, actually). So then Schow came on and he had better instincts for dealing with those people–more movie experience perhaps–and he did a very good job. Of course it was bitter for all of us when Brandon Lee was killed in a tragic accident.

AD: How did you end up getting involved with IDW and working on a new Crow series and what was appealing about the idea to you?

JS: Jeff Conner, an editor at IDW, had worked with me before, and he knew about my experience with The Crow film. He himself had developed novels about The Crow. It was appealing because this time I could interpret it my own way--and you will find the corporate villains in The Crow: Death and Rebirth. (Not that I think all corporations are inherently problematic. But some are socially irresponsible. There's a mentality that crops up in some that needs to be countered in a healthy society.)

AD: How much creative freedom did you have as far as the comic?

JS: Once I had the general idea and the rough story outline approved by the studio and at IDW--e.g., by Chris Ryall there--I had lots of freedom. Jeff Conner gave me some very useful input but the story is all mine except for elements that are drawn from James O'Barr's creation. It was my idea to set it in Tokyo and use Japanese mythology, and I used a science fiction idea with metaphysical implications that is also found in my fiction.

AD: Why did you decide to make the main character an American living in Japan?

JS: Well I wanted him American to have that basic connection for American readers, plus I'm more confident with a point of view character who's American, being American myself–but I set it in Japan because Japanese mythology interests me and the Japanese setting could be applied creatively to The Crow.

AD: Obviously, writing a film is different from writing a comic but how has your approach changed in working on the comic?

JS: The formatting of the script is somewhat similar, but then again it's different. In comics one works panel by panel instead of shot by shot, and while in many ways it flows like a movie story, it's a bit more static too. But the main difference apart from that is having to describe things for a graphic artist instead of a film maker. There are restraints, and considerations there, special to the graphic arts. It was a learning process. But I grew up reading comics, as well as prose novels, so it came fairly naturally.

AD: As far as writing the comic, I know that you’ve written for television, but was it a challenge thinking about issues and how to break down the story like that?

JS: Yes, planning for five issues, there is a lot of story to set up. I wanted to [get] into the action pretty soon, because there're so many story elements, with a few characters. We don't meet the ultimate bad guy till later–we meet mostly minions. We think it's this set of people with one agenda, then discover a real puppet master behind them with his own agenda. And getting all that in, yes, a challenge. Working with an artist as opposed to producers/director, it's different! But I did feel more like the real author of the tale than I would if it were for television. In television things are more committee oriented. There are showrunners and other writers to filter through. In comics there is a lot of input from the editors but one can be more of a creator true to one's vision in comics, at least more than one can in television.

AD: Telling a Crow story today, a lot of the people who are reading the book or are the potential audience have seen the movie, have read the original James O’Barr comic, and have probably seen comic or movie sequels, to what degree does that make the story easier to tell and what challenges are there?

JS: Certain aspects of The Crow are well established and I didn't have to spend too much time on them. I wanted it to resonate harmoniously with the movie without being simply derivative of it. It jumps into the action, the revenge tale, fairly quickly, like the movie--on purpose. That's just part of The Crow in whatever incarnation The Crow takes.  And I decided not to dwell on "the transformation" into The Crow in the graphic novel, because I didn't think the graphic novel should resemble the movie overmuch. In The Crow: Death and Rebirth, a different character becomes The Crow than in the O'Barr comic or the movie--it's been established by now that The Crow spirit can transform other people who need to use its powers, its “angry angel” abilities, to “make the wrong things right.”

I used the Yata Garasu spirit from ancient Japanese mythology, the crow spirit, to accomplish this; I used Japanese Buddhist Hell imagery and mythology to enhance the story. I mixed in ghosts, magic, and one cyberpunk element, trying to show how metaphysics and science might converge in a mythic drama. But the most essential, fundamental elements of James O'Barr's comic book creation and the film are there: two soul mates, in this case a young Japanese woman and a young American man, are split apart by unthinking brutality; revenge and justice must be made manifest through The Crow. The soul mates must be in some way reunited, even though death has driven them apart. So that framing tale of romance, revenge, and romance once more, is still there. It is simply part of The Crow.

AD: I really enjoyed how you incorporated Japanese mythology, the Kabuki influence on the look of The Crow into the book. Had you thought about these ideas earlier and just never got the chance to use them in the movie?

JS: James O'Barr actually had The Crow using a Samurai Sword in the comic books, sometimes. So it may stem from that. But also I'm simply interested in Japanese culture–and so was James O'Barr, he especially liked Japanese Samurai films. I'm a fan of Zatoichi myself.

AD: Some readers might not be aware that you’ve written a lot of cyberpunk - and were a key figure early on in the cyberpunk movement - but most of your work, especially in recent years, has been outside the genre. I guess I’m curious why you enjoy writing in so many different genres and why this was a good time to tell another cyberpunk story in The Crow?

JS: Partly it was market driven, getting into so many markets, partly I felt I was more a fantasist of some kind--writing urban fantasy before it was a genre, in books like City Come A-Walkin’ (which is still in print). But also I write noir, crime, adventure, and lately have experimented with a kind of classic "disaster movie" set up for my most recent novel, Everything is Broken. My novel Bleak History has cyberpunk elements. The Crow: Death and Rebirth is also a fusion of genres. So what I've often tried to do is combine the strengths of different genres into one creation. To me it's like using all the instruments in an orchestra. Or all the colors on the palette.

AD: Do you have a favorite novel of yours?

JS: The A Song Called Youth cyberpunk trilogy. It's now out in a one-book omnibus. Three books in one volume. Best thing I've written in science fiction; in horror, perhaps my new story collection, In Extremis: The Most Extreme Stories of John Shirley is my favorite.

AD: Now since I have you, I know that you briefly wrote for a show from the nineties that I was mildly obsessed with at the time, VR.5[/I}. I know it's been a while but I was just wondering what the show was like and what–if anything–you found interesting about the show and its concepts?

JS: The show was about a particular take on virtual reality, the VR in VR.5, where it was almost a kind of alternate universe; it was about a team of investigators and reality leakage and I liked those ideas. They're pregnant with stories. It had its good ideas and good episodes. It ended fairly soon. I was story editor for most of its run and a writer. I have mixed feelings about the show, but it was a cool idea and it's worth reviewing on DVD or in reruns. Perhaps they'll bring it out again on the SyFy channel. ( I haven't heard, but you never know.) I wasn't in a good place then in my life, and I hadn't worked on staff before except in animation, so I struggled with it all, but it was interesting! A learning experience. I had a lot of fun writing for Ira Behr over at Deep Space Nine too.

AD: So the second issue will have been released when this runs. Would you like to tease what happens in the future issues that readers can look forward to?

JS: Like I said, there's a secret bad guy with an agenda and there's a giant demon we'll meet at one point who's pretty interesting–the Lord of Cruelty. There is a witch who lives perpetually in a barrel shaped (traditional Japanese) coffin, looking out through eye holes. There is the Crow's own visit to Japanese Buddhist hell...

(image) by Nicole Powers (image) [SG Comic scribe Steve Niles, Syko Suicide, and W33K 1N G33K columnist A.J. Focht] (image) [Syko with Alan, one of the real life superheroes who came out to support the cause] (image) [Dexter, Matt Fraction, and Lacey] (image) [This donor was "Born BadAss"]... more

by Nicole Powers


[SG Comic scribe Steve Niles, Syko Suicide, and W33K 1N G33K columnist A.J. Focht]


[Syko with Alan, one of the real life superheroes who came out to support the cause]


[Dexter, Matt Fraction, and Lacey]


[This donor was "Born BadAss"]


[Lacey and Dexter with Wes, another of our awesome donors]


[Ladonna gets arty]


[Syko and the designer of the Aurora Rise ribbon logo Mark Rantal doing Blue Steel]


[Our ladies with Colorado's Zombie Emergency Response Operations team]


[Mike Mignola and Syko]


[Steven, another of our super generous donors, with Shyla, Lacey and Dexter]


[Cute couple alert! Syko with B Sarabia, another of our fab donors]


[Syko gets zombified by Stan Yan]


[Huge thanks to donor Jim Bean, pictured with Ladonna, Lacey, and Dexter]


[Syko and All C's allstar Chris]


[Our ladies with a few of the many artists who came out to support]


[Our ladies pictured with an entire family of comics fans]


[Dexter, Lacey and Ladonna, with Brian, another of our big-hearted donors]


[Dexter, Lacey, Ladonna and Shyla]


[iWant: One of the cool cars on display at the Aurora Rise Silent Auction]


[All C's volunteer A-Team dress up to help raise funds]


[Wil Wheaton donated signed Star Trek Manga books and a rare Guild:FAWKES comic]

[Our ladies with the All C's superheroes who organized the event]


It was a profound honor and a privilege to be able to help the Aurora community raise funds for the victims of the tragic mass shooting that occurred on July 20 at the midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises at the Century 16 multiplex in Aurora, Colorado.

W33K 1N G33K columnist A.J. Focht, who is a long time member of our community, was in the theater when the incident occurred, so the tragedy hit very close to home. Fortunately, A.J. made it out of the theater physically unscathed, but unfortunately one of his group didn’t.

When he’s not studying or writing for SG, A.J. works at All C’s Collectables, an Aurora based comic and gaming emporium which is not far from theater. Many of the store’s staff and customers were directly affected by the shooting, and, as a hub for the local comics community, All C’s therefore felt compelled to act, organizing a two day Aurora Rise benefit which took place this past weekend.

The response from the comics community had been so generous that All C’s had taken over a couple of extra adjacent retail spaces to accommodate everyone. Renowned comic writers Matt Fraction (The Invincible Iron Man), Mike Mignola (Hellboy), and Steve Niles (Batman: Gotham County Line and the SG Comic series) flew in to do signings, and many other local artists donated their services. Colorado Suicide Girls Dexter, Lacey, Ladonna, Shyla, and Syko donated their time over the weekend, and raised funds by taking pictures, doing signings, and selling special autographed SG comic and subscription packs. In addition, the state’s Zombie Emergency Response Operations team were on hand, providing their own unique kind of tactical support.

On the Saturday evening there was also a silent auction at a nearby Embassy Suites, where many of the higher value donated items were sold. Friends of SG Scott Ian of Anthrax and Wil Wheaton were kind enough to donate items, as were most of the major comics companies. Sale items included a signed Seth Green DVD and a very real looking Flux Capacitor – both of which were coveted by us. The event also featured some very special vehicles, reproductions of the Starsky & Hutch car, the Ghostbusters' van, and the Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated machine being our faves.

In the wake of such a tragic incident, it was heartening to see how the Aurora community had pulled together to help its own. Several of those who’d been shot and/or lost friends and family were in attendance. Though the event was primarily organized to raise funds for the victims, it also provided an opportunity for the worldwide comics community to show solidarity. It was very humbling to be in the presence of those that had experienced such profound trauma and loss, and yet were so open, generous, and loving in the welcome they gave us.

Steve Niles perhaps summed this up best in a series of tweets he posted after the event: “Sitting here thinking about ‪@AuroraRise and I'm struck by how strong all the people I met are after what they experienced. Inspirational,” he wrote. “Spoke with a man who lost his son. I still have chills. I don't think I've ever met a stronger human.”


SuicideGirls would like to extend our sincere thanks to A.J., Jason, and the All C's staff and volunteers for organizing such an awesome event and for making us feel so welcome, to all that came out and donated so generously, and to our Anonymous friends who went above and beyond with their support. Those that couldn’t make it out in person can donate to the Victim Relief Fund here.

Related Posts:
ComicBook.com: Aurora Rise Photo Gallery – Day One
ComicBook.com: Aurora Rise Photo Gallery – Day Two
Aurora Rise Benefit: August 25th And 26th
Aurora Rise Benefit Event
Back Row Perspective Part 1: An Aurora Theater Survivor’s Message To The Media
Back Row Perspective Part 2: An Aurora Theater Survivor’s Message To The Politicians
Back Row Perspective Part 3: An Aurora Theater Survivor’s Message To The Online Community

by Lee Camp (video) Following years of exhaustive research the results are in – and are undeniably conclusive: Experts have their heads up their asses! How do we fix the economy? How do we stop endless war? How do we slow climate change and come up with a sustainable model for the future? Whatever you... more

by Lee Camp




Following years of exhaustive research the results are in – and are undeniably conclusive: Experts have their heads up their asses! How do we fix the economy? How do we stop endless war? How do we slow climate change and come up with a sustainable model for the future? Whatever you do...DON'T ask the experts.



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Moment of Clarity: The Shadows Are Taking Over

The ‘90s were a vital decade for independent film. That’s when unique voices discovered at the Sundance Film Festival started finding their way into movie theaters nationwide. It was the decade of Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith and Ed Burns, filmmakers who emphasized the dialogue their characters... more

The ‘90s were a vital decade for independent film. That’s when unique voices discovered at the Sundance Film Festival started finding their way into movie theaters nationwide. It was the decade of Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith and Ed Burns, filmmakers who emphasized the dialogue their characters would speak. One of the most respected artists of that era was Whit Stillman.

His debut film Metropolitan was a comedy about wealthy New Yorkers discussing their lifestyle with a stranger. His follow-up Barcelona took that sensibility to Spain. But 1998’s The Last Days of Disco was the last we’ve seen of Whit Stillman. He calls the 10 subsequent years his “lost decade,” a more highbrow way of saying “development hell.”

Stillman is back with a new movie. Damsels in Distress still has the unique dialogue found in ‘90s independent cinema, so it may seem even more special in today’s world. The film stars Greta Gerwig as Violet, a college student who leads a suicide prevention center. She and her fellow gals are so committed to helping the student body, she creates a new dance called the Sambola. She thinks if people dance they’ll be too happy to kill themselves.

The film is full of whimsical tangents and concepts. Some of the Seven Oaks college boys practice the Cathar religion, and some of the traffic lights are blue. Stillman took as mellow an approach to discussing the film as his characters seem to have living it. He had some deep thoughts but only in the spirit of having fun, not taking oneself seriously.

SuicideGirls: Are you saying these types of girls are your ideal women?

Whit Sillman: No. No, I wouldn’t want to say that. We’re writing fictional comedy here so whatever works for fictional comedy.

SG: Are they admirable?

WS: Oh, I love the Violet character and I like them all.

SG: Is there something special about Violet’s acceptance of criticism when most of us have a knee jerk reaction ourselves?

WS: Yeah, that is definitely a fantasy, people who appreciate and realize criticism.

SG: Could it be something, maybe not that extreme, but we could all take a cue from her that there’s something worthwhile about criticism?

WS: Yes, I think it’s great. I think we actually can really enjoy and appreciate criticism and make it useful but almost no one could do it right in the moment. It’s something one can appreciate really in retrospect later on.

SG: Because emotions get in the way?

WS: Well, right away you just don’t like being criticized. You like to be perfect.

SG: How did you imagine the subject of suicide would be comedic?

WS: Well, it is, isn’t it? Isn’t the whole thing too ridiculous for words? I think the whole problem is people overdramatizing the situation. If they could just be encouraged to take a step back, just a tiny bit of perspective… Let time pass, let wounds heal, let hormones get back into the right order or shape. For me this is a hugely autobiographical film because I was a very crazy sick little kid when I was 11 and 12. There were no medicines back then. There was nothing of that kind. It was really encouraging just that I got over it. I got over it. From 12 you become 13. From 13 you become 14 and then it was all gone. I think so many of these things that people get out of shape about are developmental in a sense that you go through a bad phase but you get out of it naturally.

SG: Are you talking about the teen bullying suicides?

WS: Well, that was a horrifying thing. The incident was happening right as we were shooting and I was thinking if only he could have been encouraged to wait, to let time go on, to put things in perspective. It reminds me a little bit of how I often feel when I wake up in the middle of the night, I think Fitzgerald wrote about the dark 3 a.m. of the soul or something like that but it’s true. If you wake up in the middle of the night, everything seems like just a terrible, terrible problem. Then the morning comes and you have your breakfast and your cup of coffee and suddenly the world isn’t so bad. Those problems aren’t so bad. I think that’s a bit adolescence.

SG: I’m no psychiatrist but whenever I hear about teen suicides, I think isn’t someone telling them, “When you’re 20, this is all over?” It’s not even that much further away.

WS: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s a crazy period. It’s terrible.

SG: You’ve done some period films and this is modern. How do you approach the era when you make a movie?

WS: Well, we always sort of play around with period. I don’t really believe in a hermetically sealed kind of totally controlled period because I find usually there’s huge overreach and it turns into kind of wax museum period. So I like to say it’s a little bit open, a little bit informal. In this case it’s supposed to be sort of contemporary times. It’s not not contemporary. In the background there are scenes with a few cars and those are contemporary cars. On the other hand, the characters want to be living in the past so they try to create a retro old fashioned world. So what is the period of the film? It’s hard to say because yes, they’re more or less in the present but they’re trying to recreate this world of former times.

SG: But it’s not as specific as the ‘70s.

WS: Yeah, I mean, Disco we cheated that by saying the early ‘80s because I hated the way things looked in the ‘70s.

SG: Your first three movies spoke very much to a generation. What’s your sense of how this generation of audiences will respond to Damsels?

WS: Well, one thing I noticed is that if you make a film about an age group, that is not your target age group. So I think Damsels is probably for people older than college age or younger than college age. But the college journalists we’ve talked to have been pretty pro the film so I guess it’s playing well there. We’ve been to two college campuses already with the film and that’s gone well.

SG: How did the Cathar religion end up in your story?

WS: That comes from reality. A lot of things in the film are not invented. They really were referring to something.

SG: Have you had an interest in alternative religions like Cathar before?

WS: In a sense all religions are alternate religions to something else. I heard a story very similar to this one and two related stories very similar to this that did seem pretty absurd and kind of funny. Kind of funny after it stops being awful.

SG: What about absurd touches like a blue traffic light?

WS: Well, that actually was a longer scene explaining the whole thing about the blue lights which is okay, this is a character Thor who doesn’t know the colors too well. He sees a green traffic light and says it’s blue, but actually there’s a longer dialogue there that we cut out. Violet says, “You know, some traffic lights are blue.” And it’s true. If you really look at the color of some traffic lights, supposedly green lights are more blue. And Navy uniforms, another thing is Navy uniforms are not Navy blue. They’re black. What I heard was there was a mistake. The Navy ordered Navy blue fabric for their uniforms and a mistake was made and they were delivered black fabric. They were thinking of sending it back but there was much fabric it seemed like a waste. They found that with the gold braid on the black fabric, it looked like Navy blue because people’s eyes sort of adjust to the colors.

SG: So that’s not meant to be absurd?

WS: I like absurdity when it works. It’s interesting to me. If absurdity breaks the narrative tension then you’re in trouble but if it’s absurdity that’s just funny and entertaining but doesn’t break the thread of emotion, then it’s good.

SG: If your first three movies were about class differences - -

WS: Well, I don't think they were. I think there’s a lot of class stuff in Metropolitan just because of the nature of the locality. It’s set among debutante parties and there’s one character talking about it all the time. But I think that kind of wrong footed almost everyone about what our movies are about because I don't think it has anything to do with class.

SG: Some say “comedy of manners.” Is that more accurate?

WS: I don’t like comedy of manners either. I think these are comedies. If anything, a comedy of manners sounds like Henry James to me or Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest perhaps. It’s one of those phrases that’s used but I don’t quite see its relevance.

SG: Is Damsels more about philosophical differences?

WS: I think it is. I think it’s really about identity so I suppose there is a similarity to The Importance of Being Earnest because there’s a joke of identity there too. So it’s about youthful identities and how they’re formed and maintained.

SG: When do you think your identity fully formed?

WS: I would say sort of in this period, sort of from 16 to 22 there was a long march of identity.

SG: What exactly were you doing during the 10 years between making films? When did you realize it wasn’t working?

WS: Well, I was pretty much doing what I’m doing all the time which is writing screenplays, but the writing of screenplays was not interspersed with the 18 months of making a film. So essentially it was the in between parts. It was the same as the in between parts in the ‘90s. It’s just that none of the films I was working on got the go ahead.

SG: After the first or second development problem, 10 years is a long time to not make a movie. Did you have a sense you had to stop pursuing some of these avenues?

WS: You know, it’s a long time for a filmmaker not to make a movie. It’s not a long time for a screenwriter not to get an onscreen credit. A lot of my friends who are screenwriters, this is their life. Their life is getting paid to write scripts and ultimately not getting credits. They make a living, some of them make a good living. It’s really the screenwriter identity versus the filmmaker identity and that was the problem with me. If one project didn’t go ahead, I had other ideas I wanted to write so I’d just shift over and write the ideas. Finally I got something that had the right karma and the right people involved which was my friends at Castle Rock.

SG: So were you able to still make a living as a screenwriter?

WS: Barely but I survived on my writing. I survived on my writing and profits from Metropolitan and Barcelona.

SG: Well, that’s a great victory for indie film if 20 years later you can still live off them.

WS: No, it is. That’s the thing that really amazed me, that having made essentially profitable successful films, I couldn’t make a new film. In some ways I don’t think the business is a business. I think people’s decisions to make films don’t seem to have much to do with economics sometimes.

SG: What are the projects you miss the most that didn’t get going during that time?

WS: I can’t say that because I want them all to happen.

SG: We do too. Are there any other genres you’re interested in exploring besides comedy?

WS: No, that was really one of the problems I had that I was trying to work in dramatic areas that I don’t have a track record for. One of the things I wanted to make was very dramatic. It was set in a cultural revolution in China and was quite severe. Quite a severe drama. I don't think I would make that film in exactly that form because it’s based on a book and I don’t have the rights to the book. I’d have to make another story set in that period.

SG: But you’re not setting out to write action or sci-fi?

WS: Well, I did write a comedy sci-fi script because I wrote a script for Little Green Man that I kept under wraps because the producers wanted something closer to the book itself while I just mostly took the title. So I have written a comedy sci-fi script and I have written an adventure script but they all have a lot to do with comedy too.

SG: So there’ll always be a light touch to Whit Stillman?

WS: I think so, except for the Red Azalea project set in China, everything has a comic element.

Damsels in Distress is now playing in theaters.

(image) by A.J. Focht The Avengers will be coming out on DVD in just over a month on September 25. But with the first movie not even out on DVD yet, Disney has already confirmed the release date for Avengers 2. Marvel has several movies in line before Avengers 2 releases on May 1, 2015, including sequels... more

by A.J. Focht

The Avengers will be coming out on DVD in just over a month on September 25. But with the first movie not even out on DVD yet, Disney has already confirmed the release date for Avengers 2. Marvel has several movies in line before Avengers 2 releases on May 1, 2015, including sequels to Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man 2.

It's not just a load of sequels that Marvel is producing. Marvel's next original project The Guardians of the Galaxy movie is set to release in August 2014. Details of the plot have been revealed: We’re told it’s “about a U.S. pilot who ends up in space in the middle of a universal conflict and goes on the run with futuristic ex-cons who have something everyone wants.”

Before Guardians of the Galaxy will make it to theaters, Thor: The Dark World will be premiering November 8, 2013. With the movie just over a year away, casting reports from the Thor sequel keep rolling out. The latest cast member to be announced is Lost actor, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. He will be appearing as the villainous Dark Elf, Algrim.

Two more members have joined the cast of Arrow. Jessica De Gouw will appear as The Huntress, Helena Bertinelli, in multiple episodes of the series. Torchwood actor, John Barrowman, is also joining the cast. There is some speculation as to whom Barrowman will be playing and whether he will be a hero or villain. The current rumormill is leaning towards him playing Stanley Dover Sr., from Kevin Smith's Green Arrow run. There is also rumors that Green Arrow's sidekick, Speedy, will be in the show and may have already been cast as Oliver Queen's sister Thea Queen.

The new Walking Dead series premiers on October 14th. The first batch of official Season 3 photos have hit the internet. Most of the TV favorites plus some new characters like the Governor, all featured in portraits in Entertainment Weekly.

The price of seeing movies in theaters has risen to a ridiculous level lately. With the extra fees for seeing anything in 3D or IMAX, the average trip to the movies can easily run over $20 per person. That makes the news that The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will not have a price increase for the 48fps showings
so much sweeter. Everyone can save an extra few dollars this holiday season as the Hobbit will release on December 14.

The longstanding iconic relationship between Superman and Lois Lane has come to an end. Starting in Justice League #12, DC is making way for the ultimate super powered couple: Superman and Wonder Woman. This super couple is not just a one-shot publicity stunt either. The New 52 team has apparently been working toward this transition for a while and it looks to be a lasting relationship.

by SG's Team Agony feat. Sassie Let us answer life's questions - because great advice is even better when it comes from SuicideGirls. (image) [Sassie in Postern] Q: I have this problem with my boyfriend. We have been together for over a year now, but last time he was here (I’m from Norway,... more

by SG's Team Agony feat. Sassie

Let us answer life's questions - because great advice is even better when it comes from SuicideGirls.


[Sassie in Postern]

Q: I have this problem with my boyfriend. We have been together for over a year now, but last time he was here (I’m from Norway, he lives in the US), I was texting with one of my friends from his phone when a message popped up from one of his friends. I didn't think anything of it so I looked at it, but on that text, she told him how much she missed him, and if he was coming back from “the bitch” soon. That got me curious, so I read some of the others. It turns out they have been texting about intimate stuff between them and about what a bitch/how horrible I am for months.

I really don't know how to handle this because I really love him. And he doesn't seem any different around me. He is as he always has been. So I'm wondering if he is just manipulating her, or if he means it. Either way, it's unacceptable. Any idea how I can bring this up or what I should do?

A: I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that it is unacceptable. Regardless of his intentions, this is no way for anyone to behave. But I understand this must be very confusing for you. I will never understand why someone will put so much into a relationship, for example flying all the way from the US to Norway to see a person, just to talk shit about them behind their back. It really doesn't make any sense. Another thing that I'm perturbed about is that he let you use his phone knowing that those messages were on there? He's not even trying to cover his ass! Either he is just not very smart when it comes to cheating, or he wanted you to find out. Maybe he wasn't man enough to break it off himself. I really don't know.

If this other girl that was texting him truly was just a friend, he should be defending you when she called you a bitch. But you also said they were sharing intimate details, so do you think they are involved in a sexual relationship? I know long distance relationships can be hard, and cheating is probably more prevalent in them. I'm not saying this is an excuse for him, just saying it's common unfortunately. He doesn't seem any different around you because he is manipulating you. He wants the best of both worlds. He is probably manipulating this other girl in some way too, and is likely deliberately using his so-called “problems” with you to bond with her. She doesn't seem to have much respect for herself in the first place if she is knowingly the "other woman".

I know that you love him, but I only see a few options with this one. You could confront him, see what his side of the story is, and decide if that is acceptable enough for you to forgive him. But in my honest opinion, I really don't see how there could be any acceptable reason for any of his actions. You don't deserve to be treated that way. It's hard to believe, but there are actually good guys out there that don't cheat, and that will take care of you and worship the ground that you walk on. Why settle for this jerk? I say let him know that you found him out and end it. I wish you luck.

Sassie!

***

Got Problems? Let SuicideGirls’ team of Agony Aunts provide solutions. Email questions to: gotproblems@suicidegirls.com

Robert Rodriguez was always an independent self starter. He made his first movie, El Mariachi, for $7000 and kept doing things his own way. He started his own studio facility, Troublemaker Studios, where he’s shot Sin City, Machete, Predators and more. Now he has his own company. Quick Draw Productions... more

Robert Rodriguez was always an independent self starter. He made his first movie, El Mariachi, for $7000 and kept doing things his own way. He started his own studio facility, Troublemaker Studios, where he’s shot Sin City, Machete, Predators and more. Now he has his own company.

Quick Draw Productions is a step above the production facility Rodriguez already has in Austin, TX. As a production Company, Quick Draw will produce sequels to Machete and Sin City, as well as remakes of Heavy Metal and Fire and Ice. This year Quick Draw partnered with computer giant AMD to use their technology for Quick Draw Animation.

Today’s movie lovers are reaping the benefits of many of Rodriguez’ innovations. He actually made Spy Kids 3-D before the current wave of 3-D films, and the green screen movie (like 300) was largely innovated on Sin City. He was a pioneer in shooting digitally, he gave George Clooney his first leading role in From Dusk ‘Til Dawn and he introduced stars like Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek and Danny Trejo to English speaking audiences. During a trip to Rodriguez’ home base of Austin, I got to catch up with the busy Rodriguez. This was even before he announced Sin City: A Dame to Kill For was starting production, but we had plenty to talk about with his new production company, animation studio and even his own network. We also talked about the state of independence, since Rodriguez is now a major player in the industry.

SG: What is the latest on Quick Draw?

RR: A couple of new announcements. Quick Draw Animation we’ve been working on this the past year. We didn’t mention it at Comic-Con. We mentioned Quick Draw Productions which is where we come up with the ideas, we have a financing facility but at the same time I was building out Quick Draw Animation and AMD is helping to power that. We teamed up with another media company that has given us the development money to not just have artists there, a core group of artists to create animated features including Heavy Metal which I showed there, but this is exactly how we’re going to do it is with Quick Draw Animation which we just formed today. El Rey Network is something that we’re also going to be talking to AMD about because we really want to be able to blow that out and really democratize that way of working, get a lot of content providers to be able to provide stuff in a really cool way.

SG: Was this always in the works for Heavy Metal?

RR: I knew I was going to do Heavy Metal. I wasn’t sure where it was going to be. When I got this animation company together, I said, “Well, as long as we’re going to do this other family film, why don’t we also do this more adult animated?” and they were really into the idea. They loved Heavy Metal so that became part of it.

SG: Is the family film Fire and Ice?

RR: No, it’s another one. Fire and Ice isn’t all CG. These are just CG kind of like Pixar type animation movies which is a real 3D animation company which I never had before. I did effects in my movies but I didn’t have my own animation company. So Quick Draw Animation, that’s what that’s going to be.

SG: We haven’t seen the anthology style like Heavy Metal done with CG yet, have we?

RR: No.

SG: Why do you think it’s taken this long and now is the time?

RR: You really needed somebody who was a real fan of it. I think conventional wisdom says anthologies don’t really work that well, and I always believed in it. I made an anthology once that didn’t work that well. It was called Four Rooms and after making that I thought, “You know what, I bet if you do it a certain way, there’s a way you could do it.” I tried it again on Sin City and that worked really well so I’m going to use that format for Heavy Metal, three stories and a wraparound and there’s a common thread. Like Sin City is sort of a destination and a place that wraps that up, that’s what the idea of Heavy Metal will be as well.

SG: Are there some classic Heavy Metal stories you want to include?

RR: They’re new ones but if you write down what makes a classic Heavy Metal story, you can get all your pieces together and mix and match and go, “The ultimate Heavy Metal story would be this.” After seeing so much of the material, you can say what are the sort of themes that keep coming up? That’s pretty exciting is reverse engineering it like that.

SG: You were so instrumental in bringing so many Latin faces to the screen. What can you do with Quick Draw to further that?

RR: Well, Quick Draw as well as El Rey. Quick Draw Productions is a great example. When I first made El Mariachi I came to make movies and it wasn’t like I was trying to make Latin films. I was just doing something that reflected my own personality and person. So they were going to have Latin actors and there were no Latin actors working in Hollywood. So not only did I have to go and cast guys like Antonio and Salma, I had to make stars out of them so that I wouldn’t have that problem again. That’s why they’re shot so amazingly in those movies, so people would go, “Wow, those guys are stars.” When I put them in another movie there would be no problem of “Oh, you can’t use them.” Hollywood won’t do anything until someone does it first successfully. Then they’ll imitate. So once we did that then there was imitation. For Quick Draw, what’s great about having my own production company now is now not only producing films but we can finance them as well. We just announced last week Richard Kelly had this great script called Corpus Christi, it had a Latin lead, he wanted Edgar Ramirez in it. So we went, we got Edgar for him, I’m producing it. I’m financing it as well so we can make sure these things get done right from the get go instead of it going through a studio and they go, “Oh, well, change it. Don’t make it Latin, make it somebody else.” I can say, “No, let’s keep the integrity of what you wrote.” Richard isn’t even Latin but he just knew that was the character he wanted and he really loved Edgar Ramirez.

SG: I didn’t even mean that it was political, just that they could be the stars of the movie.

RR: Yeah, be the stars of the movie and that’s the key to the movies that I’ve done is you don’t go see Machete or Desperado or Spy Kids even or Dusk ‘Til Dawn because they’re Latin films. You go because they’re just cool films. So that’s always what’s got to be first. First is a great film and if you’re Latin, that means something more. By making it so specific it becomes more universal. Like you don’t have to be British to watch James Bond. But because he’s British that makes him so specific and makes that particularly cool. That’s what my goal always was in making films that spoke to a generation that I grew up in that didn’t see themselves reflected on the screen.

SG: You’re such an individual self starter, how do you work with big companies like AMD?

RR: It’s the kind of company you work for. Right there, how could you go work at a studio if you’re so independent? Well, I find an independent studio, someone independent minded like the Weinstein Brothers. That’s why Quentin [Tarantino] and I have always worked for them. We don’t go to Warner Brothers, nothing against those guys, they’re all great but you don’t want to get lost in some system. Then the same thing when it came to technology, I always just follow what George Lucas does. I ask what is George doing? He goes, “I’m shooting digital now.” It’s going to take 10 years for people to catch up, I’ll do that too. Who do you use as an alliance for your technology? “I hook up with AMD.” Well, I’m going to AMD because he’s very much like that too, he doesn’t want to get lost in some corporate structure. So you find those likeminded corporations that are also very renegade like that and know how to give you a lot for very little. That’s the right kind of partner so it’s the kind of partnerships that you want to foster. We’ve been doing this since 2002 so I don’t even think about it anymore.

They’re very proactive about bringing me new technology and new ideas. They’re constantly thinking of cutting edge things that can help me because they know already how I think. If it’s forward thinking they’re going to bring it to me to try out because it’s a great testing ground. They know I can put it through all the paces in my studio because we’re doing so much.

SG: Do they have technologies that just need artists to work out the kinks?

RR: That’s just how it is. You have creative people and you have technical people. Creative people couldn’t come up with these machines. They come up with the idea for them but they have these amazing technicians who can build it. Then they need the creatives to go just test it out and see what it’s capable of. You need to have relationships like that. They’re good for both companies.

SG: You brought up George Lucas. I know you were inspired by how he couldn’t make Princess of Mars so he did Star Wars. You created your own Spy Kids too. What do you think of the real John Carter coming out and not connecting with people?

RR: Oh, I don't know, I haven’t seen it. So I reserve judgment. I know Andrew Stanton, he’s a really cool guy. That’s a tough one. I almost worked on that for a while too. It was hard to crack because people have imitated it for so many years. Everything from Avatar to Star Wars, we’re all inspired by the books. Then when you see the material, when we wrote the script and we were visualizing, it’s like people have seen all this because people ripped it off already so they’re going to think we ripped them off and it was the other way around. So that was the hardest thing to crack but I haven’t seen the movie.

SG: We’re excited that Machete Kills is coming and the new poster. Is it possible to make Danny Trejo look any more angry?

RR: Probably not. You know what that was? We were taking his photo for that poster, the inspiration behind it will be a famous story but it’s true. You’re the first person to ask. We were shooting that picture, we shot that when we were doing some reshoots on Predators. We kept that picture because we thought this is a great photo. We can’t use it in the first Machete but let’s save it in case we do a part two. What we said was, “Give us the face that you would give your kids when they did something wrong.” Now look at the poster again. He just did that on his own. I don't know if that was the real face or he was screwing around but I wouldn’t want to be his kid.

SG: Is it amazing that people just love Danny?

RR: They’ve always loved him. When I met him, I saw him and just handed him a knife and said, “Here, go practice. You’ve got the role.” I didn’t even see if he could act. He didn’t need to. He had such amazing presence and it’s really the presence that makes someone a star. You can’t replicate that. You walk in the room and you either have presence or you don’t. Not that that’s bad if you don’t have presence. You’re just a background player and then some people are the front and center stars. When I went down to shoot Desperado no one knew who Antonio was because he was from Europe. Everyone in the streets thought Danny was the star. They were just all around him, signing autographs and he didn’t even have any lines. They just saw him and they go, “Well, he’s got to be the star.” People just connected with him on such a visceral primal level, that’s why people like him.

SG: Why didn’t you just do Machete Kills In Space as the second one?

RR: I ain’t givin’ anything away, but if you think I’m waiting ‘til part three to show space… I’m glad I’m reading my audience correctly.

SG: You’re all about the creativity of working within restrictions. Does having your own facility make it too easy?

RR: No, this is a lot of restrictions. There are still restrictions on budget, on crew, on time. It’s very scrappy but the best thing, and I used to be a cartoonist, the best thing about having a blank canvas is that when you have inspiration, you can just start working. You’re not being stopped. There’s nothing busting your groove. That’s what I love about AMD technology is it’s so high powered, I don’t have to wait ever. I can just move at the speed of thought. So I love that I had a blank piece of paper and I could just start drawing and I would know I would have something that didn’t exist before. You want it that immediate when you have filmmaking as well. I had the idea for Sin City, I didn’t have to go to the studio and try to convince them. All those steps, it would just kill the idea. So you want to be unlimited there, but then you still have to work within a set of resources. But to be able to go and put your idea to work, that’s the best gift you can give yourself. Imagine if I were a cartoonist and I had to keep constantly going and asking people for paper. You’re not going to get anywhere like that. You’ve got to have your own basic studio to be able to create as an artist. There’s certainly tons of limitations with that. I don’t just have an open checkbook where I can just do anything I want. You have to be very strategic in what you do and really go only for the best ideas because you’ve got one shot at it.

SG: How are you excited to bring Frank Frazetta images to life in Fire and Ice?

RR: Well, I loved those images since I was a kid. I used to have those paintings up on my wall, the prints from the print books. I used to cut them out and paste them on my wall. So I have the earliest memories of those. I had them when I was 10, 11, 12 years old. I grew up with them. So to get to work with Frank Frazetta on a Dusk ‘til Dawn poster, seeing him react to Salma, she looks just like that lady he’s been painting all those years. He was like, “Where’d you find her? This is the girl of my dreams. I would’ve been painting her.” I said, “You were painting her. I made her look like your painting. That’s why she has the headdress.” That was totally based on a Frazetta painting, that image of her. So when he passed away, the family knew that I knew him pretty well and they wanted me to help with the artwork and being an overseer of that and work in the IP. One of the first things I wanted to do was make a movie of his stuff. John Carter for instance, Andrew Stanton had to tell his crew, “Stop bringing me Frazettas.” That’s all everyone had in their head. They think Princess of Mars they think Frazetta. It had such a mark on them that people have to try not to imitate him. Well, no one’s done him head on. No one has done him head on where everyone has seen those images through their lifespan and it’s just ingrained in the fantasy culture and they’ve never seen anyone do it justice. So I want to make a movie, like Sin City immersed you in the graphic novel, I want you to feel like you walked into one of his paintings and see his world the way he saw it for real, as if he’s there codirecting with me. I knew him pretty well. I would know very well, just by seeing something, Frank would say, “Screw that. That’s not right. You’ve got to stand like this. You’ve got to suck in that gut and you’ve got to put out your chin and you’re going to need calves that are this big.” I would be very, very particular about that.

SG: You talk about Salma looking like a Frazetta painting. Are those good images to put back into the culture?

RR: That’s what Frank believed. And Frank is co-directing this with me. He would say, “That’s how I want it.” And I would have to agree. Salma would’ve been perfect as Teegra.

SG: Are you interested in performance capture?

RR: I think it still has a way to go but maybe eventually. I really love working with actors. I love the mix, doing the mix of it where you work with an actor and you create everything around them but then you have that reality that you can tap into. I think humans are just capable still of so much more emotion than computers can generate. That’s just what I like to do. I like that immediacy of working with them.

SG: Is Red Sonja still a possibility?

RR: No, because I didn’t own that. That’s why it took so long. When someone else owns a property, now I just abandon those kind of things because that’s what stalls. The only productions I never got off the ground were something where someone else controlled it because then they’re indecisive. They’re like, “Well, let’s see how Conan does first.” So Conan’s probably not going to make (it) so I’m just doing movies like Fire & Ice and Heavy Metal, things where I now own the rights so I can just go make them so I don’t have to ask someone’s permission. Again, that’s the thing. You don’t want to be asking permission. Look how that slows you down. That’s why having your own studio’s so important and having your own production place like Quick Draw where you can finance your own movies, or your own animation and you have technology partners. You don’t need anything else. That’s what’s so great. You can just go, go, go.

SG: You did get Predators done.

RR: Well, that one was only as a test. I had written the script for that. I wouldn’t have done that had I not written the script 15 years before because I don’t own it. So if they wanted to do another one, I’d probably pass because I’d rather produce stuff like Richard Kelly’s movie or my own movies, other people that I can control the content more and it benefits the whole studio. Why go make someone else rich? You really should just cultivate your own talent and your own pool of ideas and your own entity.