When I haven't been asserting my authority over freshmen today I've been calling campsites and trying to figure out how to get two people and and all their survival items to the wilderness without a car. So far, it's been a lesson in why one might want to own a vehicle in NYC. Since one of us was a boy scout (not me), hopefully this expedition won't end in total disaster.

Anyway. I found two interesting cool interviews today, one with Chester Brown and kind of double-your-money interview/conversation between Joey Comeau and Ryan North the writers of, respectively, A Softer World and Dinosaur Comics. Chester Brown I enjoy hearing from since he's a strange and interesting kind of guy with a very unique viewpoint and artistic process, and the other one with Comeau and North is kind of silly and inspiring, especially since I'm working on getting into that line of business myself.

I'm in a bad mood today, due to a couple foul-ups involving my gas company, my landlord, and the Perfect Storm of stupidity and incompetence. Suffice to say that hours of my time have been wasted, along with potentially many of my hard-earned dollars. Sometimes being an adult is not all its cracked up to be.

On a lighter note, along with favorite geek crush obsessions Gaius Baltar and Michael Cera I should now add Robert Downey Jr. I've always been a big fan of his, and considered him more then enough reason for me to see Iron Man even before it started looking like it might not suck. I saw Charlie Bartlett a couple weeks ago and it made me realize that I've finally reached that critical stage of development when my object of affection in a teen movie is no longer the young protagonist but the love interest's fucked-up alcoholic father.

In any case, CBR has some really funny and engaging interviews with Robert Downey Jr. and co-star Terrence Howard. Robert Downey Jr. is articulate, funny and manic. He sometimes gets a little... incomprehensible, like at the end of the interview where he's asked about Tony Stark's alcoholism in the comics and its effect upon his own acting choices:

"So my thing is, what else is attractive is, yeah, Tony Stark has been known to go bonkers and be so irresponsible that he's like too hammered to put on the suit. And I was like, "Really?" And they're like, "Yeah, yeah." And I thought, "All these times when it seemed like in the atmosphere that maybe it was another one of these," because, you know, it's like, you're a superhero of the week thing, and there's so many. And I was like, "Green Hornet? No." But the fact that Tony is so conflicted at certain points in the later years. There's so much stuff going on in this movie as it is, that we decided not to do like the Pirandello thing. too. But I get it, I mean, that's why, in a way, [the character's] ideally suited for me, and I'm ideally suited for him."

Wow. He may be on the straight and level now but those drugs have definitely affected some portion of his brain. I also like the part where he talks about how awesome it was to be able to urinate in his Iron Man suit.

Also from CBR, some shots of Ex Machina and Starman artist Tony Harris' studio. He collects gas masks! I'm totally jealous.

Also, lego superheroes! I think my favorites are Beast, Gambit and the Juggernaut but it would be a tough call.

I shit thee not. Author of 100 Bullets, Loveless and all-around tough guy use to restore antique furniture. That's like Hulk Hogan collecting American Dolls. Anyway, you can read all about it in the first portion of the this two-part interview. For those of you not up on the series there are a couple spoilers, so be warned.

Also in the realm of interviews there's a great video interview with Clumsy writer/artist Jefferey Brown on Sextv that's perfectly work appropriate except for the video is located under a huge Sextv logo that looks kind of suspicious. He's pretty much exactly what you'd expect him to be like from his autobiographical comics--stubbly and slightly effeminate. Apparently he's now in a stable relationship and has a baby. I guess that means his career is over.

Finally, to complete the interview trifecta here's one with La Perdida writer/artist Jessica Abel. It includes some tidbits on her early career and influences. I'd say she's pretty rad in my book.

No apocalypse news today, only happiness. In random tidbits of awesome:

Subway Animals!

and

The Gotham Times!

Happy Friday everyone. Have a charming weekend.