The Bum’s Rush #62

WARNING! None of the news or rumors you see here in The Bum’s Rush should be considered FACT until it actually happens. It might never happen. How do you know I’m not just making all this crap up? I could, you know. You’ve been warned!


I’m keeping it short and sweet this week. See, as I’m putting together this week’s content for the site, I am dead tired. On Sunday night my sister gave birth to her second child (and my second nephew), Daniel Jonah Bullock. The kid wasn’t actually due for another week but these things tend to happen on their own schedule and as soon as I got the word I was out the door and on my way to the hospital, where I’ve spent a majority of my time since. Anyway, sis and baby are doing just fine, if not a little bit tuckered out (as are the rest of us) from the whole affair.

So yes, this week’s column may be a bit short, but I promise you it’s a treat. You know why? Cause it’s time for everyone’s favorite monthly feature, starring one of my favorite writers! Without further ado, it’s…


Talk To the Bum with Benito Cereno (warning - some saucy language ahead!)

Benito Cereno, like me, loves comics. Benito Cereno, also like me, writes comics. However, unlike me, you may have actually heard of Benito Cereno because his comics have been published by Image. His work includes Tales From The Bully Pulpit and the recently released Hector Plasm: De Mortuis, as well as back-ups in multiple issues of the hit series Invincible and stories in the horror anthology, Western Tales of Terror.

Benito graciously agreed to take some time from his busy schedule to Talk To The Bum and I discovered that we have a great deal more in common than just loving comics and writing them. In fact I’m starting to believe that he may actually be my Earth-2 counterpart. On with the show!

Paul Milligan: What comics are currently at the top of your must read list?

Benito Cereno: Hmm. I read a lot of stuff, but books that are consistently exciting to me are Jack Staff, Invincible, All-Star Superman, Fear Agent, NextWave. Soon volume two (technically three, I guess) of Linda Medley's Castle Waiting will be up there. Mouse Guard.

Paul: Do you read any comics that you think more people should be buying?

Benito: I think any comic out there could stand a few more people reading it, but yeah, I think there are lots of books I read that don't have enough readers. Even the Marvel books I read tend to be lower sellers:
She-Hulk, Runaways, Marvel Team-Up. But yeah, I really wish more people would read Jack Staff, Savage Dragon, Polly and the Pirates, Shuck, Castle Waiting. I wish books that are fun were selling better.

Paul: Looking at the current trends in comics, which ones are you excited about and which ones turn your stomach?

Benito: I'm excited for the rising trend of young writers who view comics as a medium and not a genre; who realize that comics shouldn't be used as a substitute for movies or TV, but a valid form of art or entertainment on its own; who realize that sometimes entertainment is just as valid as art; who realize that to appeal to adult readers, comics should be made more intelligent, not more melodramatic. I'm excited for rises and revolutions in genre mashups: for underwater noir, for Elizabethan space opera, for monster romance, for giant robot buddy comedy yaoi.
The trend that makes me throw up violently over everything I own is the one wherein writers seem to think Superman is less interesting when he's punching lasers than when he's softly weeping over the dead and anally sodomized body of Lana Lang, or whatever. People who instead of creating their own superheroes to tell horribly Law and Order SVU stories, use decades-old icons of juvenile literature to dismember villains, rape, get raped, fret over existential angst, brood and have kinky ex-sex, and then wonder why there aren't more kids reading comics. But the worst is when writers do horrible things to characters they view as "D-list" just because they don't think they're suitably "badass" or whatever their criterion is. That stuff gets me so mad, it makes me piss shit. Can I say that? I hope so.

Paul: What made you a fan of comics and what keeps you reading them today?

Benito: That for better or worse, the nature of comics lets you do things you can't do with any other medium: you can, sequentially, month in, month out, create your own world and your own mythology. Complete worlds as large or as small as you would like. You can do any genre, any combination of genres. And no one's watching. You can get away with murder. Write a love letter to anarchy and be hailed as a genius--as we've seen, you can't do that in Hollywood. And, you know, it's comics, am I right? I can't describe why I love comics any more than I can describe why a particular melody gets caught in my head. Invisible, ineffable hooks in the brain and the heart.

Paul: You can pick any creative team you want for any book you choose. Who would you pick and what book would you put them on?

Benito: See, the appropriate answer for this question is for me to say that a creator should be working on their own personal work. That I'd rather see someone working on their creation than doing work for hire. This is true. That is my actual answer. But I will actually follow the pattern of questioning and put a team on a wfh book. Hmm, I dunno... Grant Morrison and Cameron Stewart on Fantastic Four? I'd read that.

Paul: What is your favorite thing to do outside of comics?

Benito: The almost over-talented Becky Cloonan once said, "Life ain't nothing but comics and money." And for me, that's pretty true. When I'm not reading or writing comics, I'm talking to other comics people, or trying to convince non-comics people to read comics. I do, however, enjoy studying languages and pedantically critiquing people on their grammar and mechanics. These two things make me very popular.

Paul: Many thanks, Benito, for taking the time to answer my questions so thoroughly. You are a gentlemen and a scholar. Just like me.

The Only Comics That Matter

Last Week -
Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #1 by Paul DeMeo, Danny Bilson and Ken Lashley

Eternals #1 by Neil Gaiman and John Romita Jr.

Casanova #1 by Matt Fraction and Gabriel Ba

This Week -
DCU: Brave New World by lots of people

Young Avengers #12 by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung

Next Week -
Battler Britton #1 by Garth Ennis and Colin Wilson

Detective Comics #821 and J.H. Williams III

Soon -
Emily Edison by David Hopkins and Brock Rizy




If you know of any interesting news, rumors, lies, etc. about comics and think I should know about it too just email me at thesuperleezard@yahoo.com.

Read more dumb crap written by me at www.livejournal.com/users/superleezard.

My semi-daily webcomic, Der Wundervolle Bean, will be coming to an end soon. But you can still check it out here www.livejournal.com/users/der_magic_bean.



End of Line