Links!

Tom Spurgeon at The Comics Reporter has started posting a series of lengthy interviews with comics creators. (The first one is with Joe Casey, the second with Karl Stevens, and the third with Matt Seneca.) This is apparently a yearly tradition around the holidays. I've only had time to read the first interview, but if the others are as good as that one was, then I've got a lot of great reading ahead of me. And so do you! Here's Joe Casey on Wildstorm:

The loss of Wildstorm and what it meant within the overall DC brand could -- and probably should -- be seen as a cautionary tale. When Wildstorm was making some cutting edge comics, they were vital. They were important. They were alive. They helped make DC a lot cooler than they would be without them. But, as they say... when you snooze, you lose. When Wildstorm stopped being cutting edge, they were instantly a millstone around DC's neck. They brought nothing to the table, creatively. The fact that their videogame tie-in comic was reportedly DC's biggest seller didn't even register, because what does that have to do with Wildstorm as a brand? Now go even wider and consider Warners in general. They just had that shake-up at the highest levels of management. A big-time studio head is basically pushed out, and it's been suggested that it was possibly in part because he couldn't get his shit together when it came to exploiting DC properties in the wider mediaspace, where billions of dollars in profits are at stake. When you don't know what to do with the assets you've got, when it comes across like you're too paralyzed to take action (for whatever reason), it's time to step aside and let the adults take the wheel. Or, in the case of Wildstorm, it's time to be taken back behind the barn and be put out of your misery.

Brutal!

Meanwhile, at Comics Alliance, Laura Hudson interviews Mark Waid, and he's got some things to say about digital comics.

Kelly Thompson at She Has No Head! writes about her 20 favourite female creators of 2010 (part one, part two). And speaking of Kelly Thompson, you should really be listening to her podcast 3 Chicks Review Comics, in which the other two chicks are Sue from DC Women Kicking Ass and Maddy from When Fangirls Attack. These are three of the smartest comics bloggers I read and it's always fun to hear them each bring their own unique perspective on the comics they discuss in the podcast. There are four episodes so far and the podcast is on hiatus until after the holidays, so that should give you enough time to catch up.

Finally, my pal Mike Muller shares his five favourite Eightball covers over at his blog, It's a Bit of a Shame. Check it out.