Journal

Saturday, October 25, 2003

No pigeons were actually harmed in the composition of this journal entry

For the curious, the only edition of Coraline that's been completely re-illustrated is the Japanese version. Coraline herself is obviously now Japanese, and the illustrations are amazingly sweet, if, possibly, more disturbing because they're so sweet.

http://images-jp.amazon.com/images/P/4047914452.09.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

The German cover is a bit odd -- they decided that the Dave McKean cover and illustrations were too scary, so came up with a subtle and sweet cover that looks like it belongs only on a book intended for girls between the ages of 12 and 15. I think I prefer the covers that stretch their reach a little wider. Still, I hope it works.

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Like many people, I find Google's admissions of the real technology that underlies its search engine domination to be more than slightly disturbing. I expect we'll be hearing from PETA on the subject very soon. Expect blistering exposes. In the meantime, read Google's attempts to whitewash the truth -- much as pigeons whitewash statuary... http://www.google.com/technology/pigeonrank.html

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When I was signing in San Jose, Jim Vadeboncoeur handed me the copies of his "Images" magazine, the contents of which consist of reproductions of out of copyright illustrations and covers. And it's jaw-dropping stuff. They're sitting by the bed now, and I'm starting to think that subscriptions and back issues for a number of artists of my acquaintance might make very decent gifts. Go to http://www.bpib.com/imagesmagfolder/imagesmag/ and flip around -- clicking on one the issues gives you a slide-show trip through the magazine.

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The most adventurous thing I did today was to read the Eddie Campbell EGOMANIA #2 that had arrived astonishingly late, with the Alan Moore interview in it. Great issue, great interview, which made me very nostalgic for those days when Eddie had a website and was a publisher. When I asked him about it in San Diego he fixed me with a dead steely look and said that he was now an artist, had burned out on the whole publishery thing and was glad it was over, which is a pity, because it means that a visit to eddiecampbellcomics.com just gives you an advert for fixing your credit or increasing your penis size or something. On the other hand, there's still the wayback machine, so you can see what a proper writer-artist-cum-publisher's website used to look like... I'd tell you you can get a copy of Egomania at Top Shelf's website, but you can't because they've sold out.

On the other hand you can get Alan Moore's Mirror of Love and his wonderful novel The Voice of the Fire (with an introduction by me), James Kochalka's Sketchbook Diaries, Craig Thompson's Blankets, and Scott Morse's Barefoot Serpent, and lots of other yummy things. So you may as well click on http://www.topshelfcomix.com/index.php and take a look around.