more spring cleaning: parking some comics quotes

The following is largely taken from a .txt file I found on a pre-millennial data CD. I mixed in some more recent quotes that amused me for your amusement. Any editorial comment implied by the sequencing of these comments is impurely unintentional:

"Seclusion may be better for the scientist & philosopher, b/the cartoonist needs to rub elbows w/his fellows & observe humanity intimately."-- Winsor McCay, 1924

"And, yes, I know my 'information' on the content of the [COMICS] JOURNAL and many alternative comics is suspect, but I consider it valid. Again, one need not read everything written about, say, arsenic to know it is bad for you -- a general understanding of the nature of the substance is sufficient."-- Pat O'Neill

"There's so little good writing about comics. The JOURNAL used to be, but now it's like the saddest thing in the world. It's like the uncle who's, like, his wife's left him, his job's gone, you take him in from the cold ... and he pukes on the Thanksgiving turkey. That's THE COMICS JOURNAL, you know? It's sad. It used to mean something." -- Sammy Harkham

"[Comics is] one of the last havens for honesty when it comes to a reader's genuine response to art. Most of us, if we don't find any sympathy or pleasure, for example, in a modern painting, are likely to blame our own ignorance of the history and theory of painting. But nobody pretends to like a bad comic strip. Such harshness is necessary for any real truth to surface, I think, and for art to really contribute anything to life. Though I don't know. I could be wrong."- Chris Ware

"Krazy Kat, however, is something I have always found extremely repugnant. It's vile misogynistic tripe. An abused female constantly getting beaten by her male love interest and comes back for more. When I was a kid, that thing creeped me out. It still does. The art is nothing special. A cat that looks like some kind of mutant dog, a stuck figure mouse my cat could draw (and I don't have a cat). The background were cool. So?
....
[the strip] does deal with a cat in love with a mouse who talks down to her and constantly throws bricks at her head. Does it not? It ain't funny to me. I think it's twisted. And the art does nothing for me. All the art critics in the world can disagree with me all they want. I will admit I have not read a lot of the strips. For reasons I have already stated.
...
I know Krazy Kat cannot be debated with you because "every critic in the galaxy says it's genius", and I'll freely admit I haven't read a lot of them. Maybe ten or 20 strips total. So maybe I missed out on something brilliant. I doubt it though. And I am not being literal minded. There's a thing called subtext that's very relevant in any creative endeavor. Throwing bricks is not what I was talking about as abuse. The whole feel and relational dynamics of the thing makes me ill.
....
I am not saying Krazy Kat is bad. Just that I don't rate it so high and I find it questionable in many respects. Saying it's undisputed is laughable. I just got done disputing it. So have others.
....
I don't need to read the entire run to form an opinion on the art, or his style of storytelling, or his characterizations."- James Hudnall, probably from the bad old days of Comicon.com

"I've got to tell you I'm thrilled right down to my web-slinging toes this morning to take a day off from fighting the bad guys in New York and web my way down to Washington, D.C. ... The fact is that most kids, most young people, don't use drugs. But there are signals out there that drugs are a normal part of growing up. And that's just not the truth. ... I really want to salute the young journalists from the Straight Scoop road tour, who are doing a great job in generating very positive dialogue and encouraging others to get involved."- An out-of-work actor wearing a Spider-Man costume, August 31, 1999

"Man, I'm telling you. That magazine [COMIC BOOK ARTIST] is kick ass! They ask all the right questions. It's about fuckin' time. I mean, THE COMICS JOURNAL is cool and stuff, but they were always so fuckin' hip up the ass. Y'know, always bite their own fuckin' head off -- THE COMICS JOURNAL. They're too smart for their own good. COMIC BOOK ARTIST -- the guy just comes out very straightly and says, "I love old comic books and I wanna find out more about 'em." And he asks the right questions.

Can you imagine just doin' .... I was always a big fan of like just fuckin' things up. Like, pay Robert Crumb 12 million dollars to do 12 issues of Superman. Y'know, fuck it up. Fuck it up! I mean I wanna see Robert Crumb do Superman. I wanna see Mike Mignola do the Fantastic Four. Just totally fuck it up, everyone mutated -- "RAAAAUGH!" And like take some chances, like do it up. There's no reason to remain traditional if you have the quality guy to fuck it up. It's when they leave it to amateurs to fuck it up is when it's insulting. Y'know?"- Dave Wyndorf of Monster Magnet

"Berke Breathed has plenty of style; all of it [Garry] Trudeau's. The drawing, the cadence and timing, the types of gags; even the lettering is lifted without so much as a howd'ye do. To say that it's a pretty good strip much of the time (which it is) is like complimenting a shoplifter on being a snappy dresser."- R. Fiore, TCJ #92, August 1984

"Now [publishers] seem to have given up the struggle to produce comic books for children, and are aiming their magazines at the least intelligent adults they can find."- C.C. Beck, TCJ #113, December 1986

"As for jokes, I don't think it's necessarily that what I write is funny."- Peter David

"A dead body won't bruise; neither will a dead conscience."-- John Broome in MY LIFE IN LITTLE PIECES

"I feel that I am doing the minimum amount of damage to other possibilities that may take place in a reader's head."- Edward Gorey

"If milk is good for superheroes like Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk, then kids will know that drinking milk is a cool thing for them, too."- Eric Ellenbogen, Marvel Enterprises

"It's always surprised me that DC and Warner Bros. seem to be able to sell anything with Superman on it but the comic."- Keith Giffen

"Comic-book collecting, which started as a nice nostalgic hobby is in some danger of becoming an overpriced, overcommercialized transaction."-- Fredric Wertham in THE WORLD OF FANZINES

"DC and Marvel are not the place to learn. You come to us when you're at the top of your game."- Chuck Dixon

"It's a story unlike any other comic ever done before." Rob Liefeld on an Alex Ross & Jim Kreuger three-issue SUPREME miniseries

"In parts of Africa, Marvel's ebony superhero, the Black Panther, is looked on as a significant mythical figure, in the way Spaniards revere El Cid."-- Harlan Ellison, 1988

"INSTANT PIANO was an obscure B&W collection from Dark Horse that hardly anyone had read. But that story of the Eltingville Comic Book, Science-Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Role-playing Club really struck a chord with those who read it, and it became cult favorite. That's why it won an Eisner. [It] also reflects a disquieting tendency on the part of those "adult" comics fans to mock and denigrate the very people they once were. It is attitudes of that nature that have made Independent comics publishing the home of panderers of smut and violence, mixed in with a significant percentage of elitist snots."- Chuck Rozanski, prior to recommending a collection of S. Clay Wilson's "Checkered Demon" comics

"It totally sucked. I'd give it 0 stars if I could. ... The story was so terrible that it was the same even if I read it backwards. The art was so bad, I didn't even know whether it was comic book art or a collection of picassos(no offense to expressionist art). I expected more from this creative team. but now I will never read any Batman story again. Frankly, I would rather watch an infomercial."- Amazon reader review of BATMAN: YEAR ONE

"Joe Sacco can draw, but he writes like an adolescent poet. Mack White is funny but his drawings belong in Dan Pussey's sketchbook. David Collier is OK at both, but if Robert Crumb had had head trauma and cerebral palsy he could still do a much better job. Bob Fingerman sucks and Kim Deitch is an evil boob."-- Gavin McInnes, VICE magazine

"What I really want is an ASTRO CITY story where the normal citizens of Astro City, like those in our world's besieged cities, beat their spouses in frustration over being in a war zone and not being able to do anything about it."-- Tom Spurgeon, Oct. 10, 1997

"You're emotionally bankrupt ... Scott Fitzgerald was emotionally bankrupt ... we're all emotionally bankrupt ..."- Snoopy, PEANUTS 26 June 1995

"[Before the Spirit] I had been producing comic books for 15-year-old cretins from Kansas... [I wanted to aim for] a 55-year-old who had his wallet stolen on the subway. You can't talk about heartbreak to a kid." -- Will Eisner

"No one complained about the 'Death of Superman' or 'World Without a Superman' or 'Return of Superman,' probably because they were well done. In any comic, if the material is well done, if it adds something to the character, I think it's viable in a larger story context. But if it's just a gimmick, and nothing more, it's terribly shallow because it means nothing to the main characters. Again, a bad story is a bad story. A good story is a good story. That's the real issue ... The 'net, where it's become trendy for every reader to become a critic, is contributing mightily to the decline and death of this industry. .... You can't get too fresh. That takes you away from the character."-- Dan Jurgens, 1997