--due to circumstances beyond our control,
we will be on break until January 18th.--

START:
IN HEAVEN, EVERYTHING IS FINE
BY MATT FRACTION

---

Did you know that this is Heaven? It is. HOORAY. In ten years, when the insanity and inanities of that cackling menagerie of jackasses known as fandom have risen up again after all of our hard Work to choke the life back out of the medium, we'll look back on Right Now-- Right Goddamn Now!-- and pine like the biggest bunch of sad motherfuckers you ever-done-seen. We will be, as Hibbs said, All Chagrinned and Shit when the Stinkhordes descend like vultures to buy ten Pristine Mint Copies of The Deathiest Death Spider-Man Ever Died or whatever. We'll all look back on the millennial roll-over as being the last time that Things Were Good, and when Comics were spoken of as Art Objects and not Puppy Chow for the Crap Hounds.

Just like we looked, not two years ago, back to 1986. This is '86 for Comics all over again. Your calendars and clocks are liars.

We're not quite at the zenith of things yet-that'll come in about a year, year-and-a-half, and then there'll be a decline lasting twice as long, give or take. The last half of '99 through the last half of '00, though... these are golden days on the short bus. These are the good old days. Look around. Look. Look! We've got two or three years of Love, right now!

It is exciting to be excited!

This is some easy-ass activism for even the laziest of you out there.

This is how You can start to Save Comics.

Yeah, you!

The Media-at-large are helping us out. They have been for the last few months. They've been doing it without irony, without derision, without scorn or mockery. They look at us and say... Hey! Let's help them out!

And we sit, drooling like morons, complaining like the saddest bastards in the Sad Bastard Club. Salvation is on the web, and yet we seem to be thinking that People will just start showing up. No. There will be no showing up. And I blame You. That is stupid. Why are you so stupid? I am stupid too, because until I sat down to write this, the idea hadn't occurred to me.

Now: Let's stop being stupid.

The last twelve months have seen some of the most Profound works ever produced in the medium. Is that a coincidence? Certainly this must be a coincidence. The Media-at-large are ALWAYS writing about comics, aren't they? All these good, solid, profound, moving, astonishing, beautiful, remarkable, unique, and medium-defining works, and the Media-at-large talking about it positively?

Holy Fucking Shit, Batman!

The Comics medium... gets Good Media Coverage... when Comics are Good! When they are not solely the realm of unshaven rape-porn aficionados! When they are not about tights-wearing powerfantasies and improbable breasts! When they are not Old and Shitty! When they are Beautiful and Profound!

To recap: Profound Work = Profound Media coverage = Profound Acceptance.

Your mission, SAVANTS, is to go to the following websites, print out the articles contained therein, and give them to each and every retailer you can. Those of you kissasses looking for extra credit may also send copies to your local Newspaper with links to The Master List and SAVANT at the bottom. The market may be weak right now, but there are glistening moments of brilliance being produced. Share this information with your Local Comics Shop, so that they may share with their customers.

This isn't about selling more Batman. This is about selling Art and Making Comics Better in the process.

***

http://www.time.com/time/sampler/
article/0,8599,91291,00.html.

This is from Time magazine. I don't believe it was in the print version, but that doesn't matter. It's the end of the year, and Media Authorities must make declarative statements as to the Best Of said year. These are the Year's Best Comics, according to Time. The list is surprisingly varied and complicated, and surprisingly receptive to challenging work. The ubiquitous Jimmy Corrigan and David Boring are here, as well as Jon Lewis' True Swamp and Gilbert Hernandez's Luba, amongst others. The most mainstream books on the list are Alan Moore's ABC line, in its entirety.

The argument has been made that Comics will not be Saved by something like Jimmy Corrigan or David Boring, but that's not the point. There is no catchall solution to Save Comics. We may only start by bringing in new readers and grow the market.

***

http://www.cnn.com/2000/books/news/12/19/
arts.us.little.lit.ap/

It is fitting that the World's News Source has this story on Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly's Little Lit, a coffeetable collection of odd fairy tale remixes by some of the most notable artists in the field. Fifteen years ago, it was Spiegleman's Maus that led the last charge that most of the industry refused, either through ignorance or inability, to follow. This remarkable book, fit for all ages, is eye-popping and wonderful. Walt Kelly, Chris Ware, J. Otto Seibold and others have work therein.

It's a perfect book to foist upon jackasses that cannot see the middle ground between kids comics and art objects-you know, those goateed hipsters sipping crapolattes and giving with the smug, sarcastic bullshit about "GrAPHic NOVELS" because, god forbid they ever appear less-than-cool. Motherfuckers.

Every kid in the world needs a copy of Little Lit. Especially if that kid runs a comic store.

***

http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/11/26/reviews/001126.26
eggerst.html

Dave Eggers wrote this. Dave Eggers is the guy behind McSweeney's and the literary sensation- what a dumb way to describe a book-A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. He is a Smart Cookie, glazed with Talent and sprinkled with the sprinkles of Media-Darlingship. And to write for the New York Times Book Review, that is a Serious Thing. To write about Comics there... and to postulate that there are more Good Comics being made now than ever before... well, that is completely Remarkable.

On top of Boring and Corrigan, Eggers covers Lynda Barry and Ben Katchor's works. My favorite line, and one that anyone Fighting the Good Fight may wish to stamp on the foreheads of their enemies is this:

"...finally, those who choose to combine drafting and writing are no longer being punished for having and using two skills and not only one."

What more do Comics need? This is as Important as media coverage can get, barring the all-Comics episode of Friends. This is as close to a celebrity endorsement as we've ever seen. The pedigree cannot be beat.

***

http://www.publishersweekly.com/articles/
20001016_91770.asp

This is from Publisher's Weekly, and signals the start of their now-regular Comics Coverage. Well-rounded and thorough, this Best-of-the-Industry article deals with everything from Clowes and Ware to Ellis and Giardino, Kevin Smith and Batton Lash and back again. A sprawling primer and an ideal piece for an LCS that knows not its ass from a hole in the ground, or a local bookstore that has no idea how to dive into the Comics Ocean.

And what an authority-Publisher's Weekly!! Come on!! We no longer need to sound like hopeless nerds while talking to the Manager of bookstores about a more robust Comics section. We have no less an authority than this!

If major inroads to alternative distribution routes will be made, it will be made with this precise gun. You may fire when ready.

***

This one is my favorite: this is Rock Star Comics, chapter and verse.

http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2000/12/13/wonder_woman/
index.html

It's about Wonder Woman, ostensibly; but really, it's about Phil Jimenez. This is the article's lead:

"Wonder Woman has a new artist -- a gay kid who grew up in the projects."

It's about Phil, his life and his career to date. It's barely about comics at all. It is major web-media coverage about a creator. Say that out loud and see if you can do it without laughing. It's tough to believe. Like saying "Walking on Mars," isn't it?

This article is a one-upping of the annual "Hot Comics Writer" piece in Rolling Stone in its breadth and compassion. It's creator-as-rock-star; it's one of the founding tenets of SAVANT. How cool is that? It is very, very cool. Salon has also featured several articles on Comics as of late. Troll the archives as you see fit.

***

There. There is a START for you. Don't worry about printing out SAVANT this week. Don't worry about anything else than printing all of the articles above out, and giving them to EACH AND EVERY comic shop and bookstore that surrounds you. It's easy. It's maybe twenty sheets of paper, all told. The Revolution is back. The Media (of all people!) have given us the ammunition, the air strikes. The War is back on. Why has it started without you?