Ian Burns has his fortune told by Dame Darcy, July 10, 2010
Ian Burns is the second-most recent staff acquisition here at Fantagraphics (designer Tony Ong holds current "new guy" status) — you may know him as one of the voices who answers our phone and takes your orders, or as the friendly bearded fellow at our Emerald City Comicon booth this year, or perhaps you've read his "Diaflogue" interviews with Leslie Stein and Kim Deitch. If the latter, you know that Ian is a pretty thoughtful guy about comics, and I'm happy to learn that he's been contributing essays to Graphic Eye, the recently-launched comics reviews-and-interviews site headed up by our erstwhile intern, steadfast supporter and good pal Gavin Lees (which in itself is great news). Here's Ian's discussion of "Merlock Jones," the shape-shifting detective in E.C. Segar's Thimble Theatre (as seen in Popeye Vol. 3), and here's his analysis of Jim Blanchard's portrait of Osama bin Laden which appeared on the cover of The Stranger earlier this year. Not only that, Ian's also been contributing to The Comics Journal website, including this well-traveled recent interview with Brandon Graham. (And if you ever meet Ian in person, ask to see his theme sketchbook of Animal from The Muppet Show — it's giving my Yoda sketchbook a run for its money, I tell you what.)