Weldon on floppies vs. trades

Weldon, Glen. 2010.
How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Wait For The Trade Collection.
National Public Radio's Monkey See blog (January 20).

Like Glen, I'm of two minds about this. I usually buy the individual issues to make sure the series survives and then buy the collection if I think I want to read it again.

Weldon on Langridge's Muppets

Nice review here. I bought the individual issues and the collection because 1. Roger's a buddy of mine, and 2. he's good. I also buy original art from him whenever he's in the States.

Weldon, Glen. 2010.
How Good Is The New 'Muppet Show' Comic, On a Scale of Swit to Moreno?
National Public Radio's Monkey See blog (January 13): http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2010/01/how_good_is_the_new_muppet_sho.html

NPR's Weldon's graphic novel year in review

Glen goes back to the well ...

2009: The Graphic Novels That, Um ... Grabbed?
by Glen Weldon
National Public Radio's Monkey See blog January 6, 2010

Pow! Wham! Zap! Glen Weldon hates this attitude

Read him going on about 'geekiness' and 'comic books' being linked together at Geeks, Genre, And Why Fantasy Football Is Just D&D Without Elves, By Glen Weldon, National Public Radio's Monkey See blog December 2, 2009.

(I really don't get fantasy football)

Weldon on Gaiman's Sandman

As I continue to catch up...

The Inevitable Post About Neil Gaiman's 'The Sandman' by Glen Weldon, National Public Radio's Monkey See blog November 18, 2009

Weldon on crime comics

Crime Comics Make A Comeback With 'Noir'
by Glen Weldon
National Public Radio's Books We Like (October 27 2009)

You know, for a small city, we bloggers don't run into each other. I've never met Weldon, or Mark Ruffin, or Zadzooks... They may all be fictional. I know I'm real.

Weldon on Stitches

The Curious Case of David Small's 'Stitches'

By Glen Weldon

National Public Radio's Monkey See blog (October 21, 2009)

Glen also goes into one makes a graphic novel vs a memoir. I think this is largely a false dichotomy - as a marketing term, Graphic Novel should just be accepted, just like Movie is.

NPR's Weldon on Stitches

Weldon, Glen. 2009.
'Stitches' Draws On An Artist's Painful Childhood.
National Public Radio's Books We Like (September 15)

I read this over the weekend for part of my cancer research. It's a strong, moving work. It's not my favorite of either autobiographical comics, or cancer comics, but it's well worth reading.

NPR's Weldon on Alan Moore's Superman story

In "Sleep Well, Superman: A Classic Reissued," by Glen Weldon, National Public Radio's Books We Like (July 28, 2009), he reviews Alan Moore and Curt Swan's Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? which was one of the best Superman stories ever written, largely because Moore and Swan obviously loved and respected the previous 50 years of stories and Superman's iconic status. As Weldon notes, "Moore penned a sweeping, surprisingly tender elegy to Superman's rich, primary-colored history, superdog and all. The character had died previously (and since, famously, in 1992), but the superhero comic is a land of dream sequences, clones and regeneration where death is not so much an ending as a plot point. Moore's story, in contrast, is a culmination; even 23 years later, it stands as a moving farewell to the Superman most of us grew up with."

Moore's throw-away story of Superman meeting Swamp Thing from DC Comics Presents is included, and along with the Mongul story, present three excellent interpretations of the Superman mythos.

It took another 22 years, and another writer from Great Britain, Grant (All-Star Superman) Morrison, to even come close to the tenor of Moore's work.

Weldon on webcomics

For Glen Weldon's take, see "Webcomics: An Annotated Guide for the Understandably Perplexed," National Public Radio's Monkey See blog (July 21 2009). For myself, I love the idea, but tend to buy the paper compilations.

Weldon on the original Captain Marvel

"So Why Isn't This Once-Mighty Super-Guy More Famous?" by Glen Weldon, National Public Radio's Monkey See blog (June 2 2009). My educated guess would be that 1.) DC Comics sued him into oblivion and then 2.) Marvel Comics trademarked his name. But that's just a guess.

NPR's Weldon asks, "Who's the Longest-Running Fictional Character Ever?"

See "Question: Who's the Longest-Running Fictional Character Ever?" by Glen Weldon, National Public Radio's Monkey See blog (May 20 2009) for his answer - it's a comic book hero. I don't think I quite agree, but I'm not sure why. There's 51 comments so other people may feel the same.

Weldon asks, 'what is that 24 page story-filled paper thing one buys each Wednesday anyway?'

See "What To Call the Comic Book?" by Glen Weldon, National Public Radio's Monkey See blog (May 13 2009).

Oddly enough, the US Department of State examines some of the same issues in "Asian-American Authors Explore Identity, Cultural Roots," By Lauren Monsen, NewsBlaze May 12,2009, where she talks to "Adrian Tomine (a fourth-generation Japanese American), Gene Luen Yang (a Chinese American) and Derek Kirk Kim (a Korean American who immigrated to the United States at age 8)."

Weldon on Yoe on Shuster on porn

Glen Weldon's got a new piece on Joe Shuster's sweat mag art at "Faster Than a Speeding Bullwhip: Superman Creator's Kinktastic Art," National Public Radio's Monkey See blog (April 15 2009). Remember Craig Yoe will be speaking about and signing the book at Politics and Prose and Big Planet Comics

Washington City Paper Best of DC 2009 comic stores

I missed this the first time I skimmed the issue desparately looking for my name to be a best of again, but in "Best Way to Come Out to Yourself as a Geek," Glen Weldon first recommends the Freer's anime marathon which has passed, but then suggests a comic book store crawl beginning with Big Planet Georgetown, moving to Fantom Comics in Tenleytown and wrapping up with Big Monkey Comics on 14th St.

I didn't realize or remember Weldon was local - he writes regularly for NPR's Monkey See blog which I'll start throwing links up to.

Washington writer on superheroes for NPR.org

See "Holy Bookworms! Superheroes Take To The Page," by Glen Weldon, NPR.org, July 3, 2008 for a look at fiction and non-fiction prose about superheroes.