The Post-Moebius Upholders of a Proud French Comic Book Tradition (The Guardian)

In March, Jean "Moebius" Giraud died. This was a sad day for comic readers as Giraud was probably the finest artist ever to work in the medium. He could draw anything, in any style, and his work was always exquisite.

More than that, Giraud possessed a remarkably free imagination. In the 1970s he co-founded Métal Hurlant, an influential French comic magazine. Ostensibly SF, the strips mixed politics, assorted genre tropes, surrealism and stream of consciousness to create a deliriously trippy stew (man). Moebius' own Airtight Garage – which he improvised on a monthly basis – was a bizarre and beautiful tour de force.

China City Stories: an interview with Ra Page (The Dabbler)

Despite its rise China remains an enigma for many in the West. As fiction can provide a way to get under a culture’s skin – the short story doing so in immediate and concentrated fashion – we thought Shi Cheng: Short Stories from Urban China sounded intriguing.

Meet The Toughest Clerics Who Ever Lived (The Catholic Herald)

Daniel Kalder says that St Ignatius set a high standard when a cannonball tore open his leg

When Writers Censor Themselves (The Guardian)

The suppression of literature is an ancient tradition that probably started with the invention of writing and which thrives today all over the world. In the west we generally venerate those authors who stand up against acts of silencing by the authorities. But what are we to think when an author suppresses himself?

PP Appreciation: Ex-Marvel Man, Pariah, Blogger Jim Shooter (Publishing Perspectives)

Is the best blog in publishing written by a 60 year- old former editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics? I think so.

Red Plenty Book Review (Dallas Morning News)

While the “Russia” shelves of American bookstores groan under the weight of heavy tomes on the horrors of Stalin and the Gulag, the relatively liberal period that followed has attracted little interest from authors, scholars and publishers. This neglect is unsurprising as Khrushchev’s reign included much less slavery and killing, so the story is not all that dramatic.

One-Armed Gunslingers and Germans in Teepees: A Brief Guide to the Euro-Western (The Millions)

The Western is the quintessentially American genre. However played out it might seem at times, it offers an incredibly versatile context for near-mythic narratives about good and evil, tales of man against nature, man against man, man establishing civilization in the wild, and the sins man commits when establishing that civilization. From Zane Grey to Cormac McCarthy, even the pulpiest narratives articulate some aspect of America’s sense of self. Perhaps it’s surprising then that Europe also has strong traditions of the Western, including mega-bestsellers that are practically unknown on this side of the Atlantic. But what happens when you feed profoundly American tropes into the psyche of a German or a Frenchman? Do you get something wild and interesting, or derivative dullness? Does the reader receive startling new insights — or merely a glimpse of a distorted looking-glass America?