funnybook babylon broohaha

In New York on my way to Europe. Yesterday feasted son Joseph for his birthday, and as we happened to be uptown where he and his mother signed in at the French consulate to vote in the parliamentary elections next weekend (looks more and more like a sweep of the right in the wake of Sarkosy’s presidential win), we lunched at Orsay, an excellent, very pleasant looking and not too expensive (at least at midday) restaurant (very good steak tartare). Down in Bay Ridge later on, Joe, who works as a free-lance film-editor, showed me what he and buddies are up to on weekends. Now, I was never a major comics reader, except via the brief Crumb window during the late sixties, and, I confess, I do harbor a low-calorie, back-burner secret passion for that cosmo-ontological nomad, the Silver Surfer, picked up during those same years. I am, however, not certain I will enjoy the forthcoming Silver Surfer flick embedded in another “Fantastic Four” vehicle, though no doubt younger son Miles will convince me to check it out. Well, I will buy those Silver Surfer stamps, once I used up all my triangular Jamestown 41 cents stamps.

Over the years Joe has tried to get me to read all those comics, from the most classic Marvel to the most sophisticated Euro/Nippon stuff. I’m having a hard time with most of it — but I keep trying, and will now get a meta-commentary help via what Joe and friends are up to: weekly podcasts and a website re the comics they are reading. Check it out here. I am listening to the latest edition of the podcast right now and it is a fascinating look into the comics blogosphere and publishing industry, fascinating discussions of censorship problems between Japanese Manga and US of A “moral standards,” with funny dramatized readings from hand-picked comics or inside broohaha.