(Image of Jason Lutes from D&Q bio)

Another in Brian Heater’s series of major interviews, this time with the author of Jar Of Fools and Berlin; Jason Lutes.

Daily Crosshatch interviews Jason Lutes: Part 1, Part 2.

Steve Bissette: The artist and publisher talks about the lifetime of work, the bad days at DC, Swamp Thing, publishing Taboo, his magnum opus Tyrant and what it was like at the end, when everything slipped away and the market disappeared practically overnight in a fascinating interview at the Onion AV Club:

“Tyrant was viable for two years. And then distribution fell apart. When the comic direct-sales market imploded, and we went from 14 distributors to one, I just went “My kids are teenagers. That’s a risk I can no longer take. I have to find a day job.”

“There was a kid who walked into the video store. He was one of the customers, this shaggy-haired teenager. And he looked at my nametag one day, and it kind of hit him. And he said “Are you the guy that used to draw Swamp Thing?” And I went “Yeah!” And he bolted out of the store. It’s like I’d hit him in the head with a board.”

Bryan Talbot: the creator behind Luther Arkwright, Tale Of One Bad Rat, Alice in Sunderland and the forthcoming Grandville talks over at the Daily Crosshatch in the first of a three part interview that concerns itself in this first part with Bryan’s superhero experiences (Part 1, Part 2):

“I’m not really into it now, I can’t really see a way to do it that hasn’t been done to death already, because I’m sure there are hundreds and hundreds of people who are spending every minute of the day thinking, ‘what can I do? How can I put a new spin on this?’ Every time I do pick up a superhero book, it always seems depressingly similar to the last one I saw.”

Seth: one of my favourites, Seth has been working in relative obscurity for so long in comics that it’s nice to see him getting some of the accolades he so richly deserves through his wonderful books; It’s A Good Life, Wimbledon Green and the new massive tome that is George Sprott. The Daily Crosshatch caught up with him at the recent San Diego Comic Con and so far has two of three parts of the interview up (Part 1, Part 2)

“Oh yes. I’m a collector, pure and simple. That’s one of the main things I do for fun. I look for old things. So in that sense, I like to come to conventions, but this doesn’t seem to be about that much anymore. The comics section of this convention seems to be getting smaller and smaller like a collapsing star.  A black hole.”