Det er svært at karakterisere Under Byen som et rockband i ordets traditionelle forstand. Deres musik, tekster, instrumentering, ja hele deres opstilling på scenen, er vel nærmere at betragte som en helhed der, når det fungerer, vitterlig slår gulvet væk under publikum.

Right, back from Denmark and Odense, where I participated in the opening of the exhibition on comics and contemporary art at Brandts klædefabrik, Comix. It was a good time. A nice show and plenty of nice people, some familiar others not. The Bunker will hopefully be running a review as well as a photo reportage […]

This is the last installment of our interview with cartoonist Anders Nilsen; 1, 2, 3.
Moving on to the much more traditionally narrative Big Questions. It’s evident that you had been leading up to Algernon’s descent into Hades for a while before it became obvious that that’s what you were doing. What made you decide to […]

Mig bekendt var Jakob Martin Strid den første tegneserietegner, der sidste år kunne modtage Statens Kunstfonds eftertragtede 3-årige arbejdslegat. Ganske vist lagde Kunstfondets litteraturudvalg i sin motivation mest vægt på Strids børnebøger, og vist var legatets første afkast til offentligheden da også færdiggørelsen af sidste års hit-børnebog Min mormors gebis. Men forleden dumpede så et […]

Continuing our interview with cartoonist Anders Nilsen; 1, 2, 4.
CAMBRIDGE-CHICAGO 2007
A lot has happened since we last spoke – back in the Fall of 2004, I believe it was – but I think I would like to pick up more or less where we left off, which will also maintain the chronology somewhat. We ended […]

Predictably, the Swedish cartoon affair incited by Lars Vilks’ drawings of the Prophet Muhammed as a ’roundabout dog’ and other things, has gotten to the ridiculous point where a bounty has been placed on his and his editor’s heads by purported Al-Qaeda affiliates, he has received numerous death threats and others warnings (most of them […]

Continuing our interview with cartoonist Anders Nilsen; 1, 3, 4.
Another reason I asked is that I just read your new book [Dogs and Water], which seemed a little bit more constructed than your previous work. I mean, it doesn’t come off as tightly constructed or anything, but there seems to have been some guiding thought […]

In the wake of Jonathan Ross’ documentary on Steve Ditko, which aired on BBC 4 last night and again today (no, I didn’t see it. A valiant effort at finding a set that provided access availed me nought, alas), a good deal of Ditko-related material has surfaced on the web. Go to the site and […]

Anders Nilsen (b. 1973) is coming into his own as one of his generation’s simultaneously most intellectually inquisitive and intuitively astute comics artists. Since the debut of his ongoing, “core” series Big Questions (9 issues published so far, 1999-2007), he has been unswerving in his exploration of, well, some of the big questions of life, […]

Noah Berlatsky has ignited an interesting discussion on the state of contemporary ‘alternative’ American comics with a typically harsh blanket assessment of the state of the art form in America. Tim Hodler responds, Berlatsky answers and clarifies, while Eric Reynolds and others make interesting points in his comments section. Oh, and Hodler re-responds. I don’t […]

Bobby Byrd, potent soul singer, patron of the young James Brown, co-founder of the Flames, and hard-working plug 2 to the Godfather of Soul, passed away yesterday in his Loganville, Georgia home. He was 73. His passing, and that of his long-time musical collaborator last year, are landmarks towards the end of an era of […]

Coming up at Brandts Klædefabrik in Odense, Denmark, is ‘Comix,’ an exhibition dealing with the intersection of comics and fine arts that is increasingly rewriting the rules for the former and stimulating the latter these years. The exhibition incorporates works by fine artists working with comics and cartoon vocabularies or deriving inspiration from the ethos […]

The latest chapter in the event-rap sideshow currently running full bore to dropping sales is Kanye West’s meltdown backstage at the MTV Video Awards, after he, despite having been nominated in five categories, won nothing, and was denied the opening spot in favour of Britney Spears. Non-event as that may be, it is nevertheless fascinating […]

Danish journalist Thomas Berger was in Venice for the screening of Blade Runner - The Final Cut. In response to my speculation on the film (here, and here), he writes:
I was there and saw the film…
The changes aren’t major…
Yes, a few spinners have been added and the lighting has been adjusted in many of the […]

Today, top American commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus will appear on Capitol Hill along with the American ambassador to Iraq, Ryan C. Crocker. They are expected to argue the case that the troop increase there has been sufficiently effective to warrant a continuation next year. The administration has lately increasingly been relying on […]