From RISD student Tim Beckhardt in 2008.

A nice balance of focus between plot and moments. I hate it when there’s never any question about what’s happening, and the only thing to learn is what will happen. That’s a sitcom. This has a plot, per se, but the plot isn’t the point, and it’s chopped up and spread around.

Also, I know I recently mentioned him, but continue to cf. my man Brandon Graham, plot-wise and other-wise, who writes my favorite blog these days. His book King City is one of my favorites in the mold of Tekkon Kinkreet: well-balanced — between detail and suggestion, personal and epic, serious and silly — all through mastery of the evocative. It’s all about choosing the details to suggest a super-deep, rich world, which happens to be populated by casual bad-asses who have their priorities straight, which is a world in which I aspire to live.

Also it reminds me of the Pacific Northwest, which I miss. And he does graffiti properly. There’s nothing lamer than obviously-fake graffiti in comics.

Also it is funny and nice. I love you Brandon Graham.

[Via Cartoon Brew.]

In this clip from The Dragon Lives Again (1976), Bruce Lee goes to the underworld and meets Popeye. It all makes perfect sense in the movie.

The actor playing Bruce Lee (Bruce Leung, one of many Bruce Lee clones in the Brucesploitation subgenre) went on to play The Beast in Stephen Chow‘s Kung Fu Hustle.

[Via Cartoon Brew.]

This is the trailer for a documentary on the life of Jean “Möbius” Giraud, with commentary by Mike “Hellboy” Mignola and Enki “Nikopol” Bilal.

Jean-Pierre Dionnet is an interesting character.

As seen above introducing “Brides of Dracula,” he’s acted as a kind of tongue-in-cheek Robert Osbourne for Cinema de Quartier, a 1980′s Canal+ production.

Originally a comic book writer, in the 70′s he co-founded, with Mœbius, “Metal Hurlant,” better known in the states as “Heavy Metal.”

Here’s a google translation of a one-question interview in which Dionnet spins out on comics, film, film history, dragons, etc., and reveals that he’s working on a film with Marc Caro, co-director of City of Lost Children.

Dionnet’s also been a producer for a number of films, including some in Hong Kong — he’s got a DVD label, Asian Star, which releases remasters of classic HK movies, and he recently announced a collaboration with Tsui Hark, producer of The Killer and director of the entire Once Upon a Time in China series.

Recently (and this is how I came across his name) he was mentioned in connection with the revitalization of Tekkon Kinkreet, though he’s not listed in the credits.

Aside: the Google French translation has made online translation palatable for me — Babelfish was never any better than a worst-case scenario, but once again Google has given me hope.