Showing posts with label Washington Post. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Washington Post. Show all posts

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Turkish illustrator Selcuk Demirel's return to Post

Back in the good old days of the '90s, Selcuk Demirel's cartoon illustrations appeared regularly in the Post's Book World. He's got a lovely cartoon in today's Real Estate section. It's not online of course.

Saturday, April 03, 2010

Up pastiche wins Washington Post Peeps contest

The story's in tomorrow's Magazine, or online:

For their winning diorama based on the Pixar flick "Up," Michael Chirlin and Veronica Ettle of Arlington constructed a miniature Victorian house from plywood and Popsicle sticks, and placed it atop salvaged mattress springs to give it an airborne quality."

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Washington Post's TR Reid on manga

I just finished reading Confucius Lives Next Door: What Living in the East Teaches Us About Living in the West by T. R. Reid (Random House, 2009), and while I love Reid when he is writing for the Post, I've got a few issues with his conclusions in this book. Or maybe even his starting premises.

But that's not the subject of this blog. Reid has 2 paragraphs on his favorite manga, coming after a discussion of Japan's view of America as crime-ridden:

While in Japan, I became a huge fan of mahnga, the ubiquitous comic-book magazines that sell tens of millions of copies every week. It seems to be conventional wisdom in the United States that Japan's "adult comic books" are routinely "adult" in the sense of being filthy, but this is not accurate. There are some filthy mahnga - so bad that stores won't carry them, and you have to buy them at vending machines. But the vast majority of Japanese comics are family fare. Some are funny, and some are serious novels - serial novels, really, like the one-chapter-per-month novels that Dickens and Thackeray used to write for Victorian magazines. I was particularly taken with the enormously popular weekly comic Section Chief Shima, about a junior executive named Shima Kosaku, who works for a giant electronics firm and fights a never-ending battle for truth, profits and the Japanese way.

In one extended episode, Section Chief Shima is dispatched to America to oversee his company's acquisition of a giant Hollywood movie studio (just like the acquisitions Sony and Matsushita had made in real life). One thing that deeply concerns the young executive is the possibility of a U.S. backlash if an Asian company buys a famous American firm (just like the reaction to the Sony and Matsushita purchases in real life). But an American-based executive tells Shima he need not worry: "The government won't be a problem, because we've already put a half-dozen ex-congressmen on the payroll, and they are lobbying for us." This exchange didn't bother me excessively, because it's probably what big companies actually do when they plan an acquisition. But it was disturbing to see what happened to Section Chief Shima personally during his stay in Los Angeles. When he sets out to see the beach, his rented Ford breaks down. When he tries to negotiate his business deal, an employee of the U.S. branch of his company sells corporate secrets to a competitor. When he walks outside his hotel, he's mugged on the sidewalk. Just your typical American business trip.

Our family grew increasingly angry at this depiction of a dirty, dangerous, dishonest America, partly because we found it hard to avoid, anywhere in Asia.
(p. 208-209)

So 11 years later, I have no idea if this remains a common occurrence in manga, or views of Japanese, or even if Shima was ever translated. Reid is a good writer and a keen observer though, so I'm sorry the Post lost him as a foreign correspondent. He heads their Rocky Mountain Bureau now.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Arlen Schumer covers Post's local living section

There's a nice comic book style drawing of a woman committing to a diet.  Well, it's a nice drawing at least. Schumer also did the interior illos for the story.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Marvel's Civil War plays out on Post blog

The rationale behind Marvel's Civil War storylines plays out on Ezra Klein's Post blog where he wrote a paragraph concluding "Iron Man was right" in favor of superhero registration - and then the comments begin...

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Bravo to the Washington Post

I think the Post's delivery people deserve a special thanks, although I'm sure none of them are reading this blog. We haven't gotten the paper everyday, but it's been delivered when the roads are passable. I was very surprised to look out this morning and see a bag poking out of the snow.

And the same thanks holds true for the production people and the reporters. I don't even have my car shoveled out again yet, but my wife is reading the Post and sipping coffee in comfort while the wind howls outside.

So to any Postie (you don't really use that term, do you?) reading this, thank you.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Telnaes' year in review

I'm a little slow to get to this, largely because I still believe newspapers are for reading, not viewing, but here's Ann Telnaes' excellent year in review animation. All the cartoons she's done for the Post since 2007 are available which I think is damn nice of the Post.

Now with a corrected link!

Sunday, January 03, 2010

Post shoehorns Sudoku puzzle into Sunday comics section

Note to Comics readers: Post debuts Sudoku Monster puzzles by David Bodycombe
Washington Post Sunday, January 3, 2010

Make of it what you will - And while all your favorites are still in the section, you'll notice some have swapped places for greater readability. Among others, "Mutts," with its Zenlike simplicity, cedes its front-page space to the wordier "Sherman's Lagoon."

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Toles through the decade feature on Post website

A Tom Toles through the decade feature is on the Post website. "Washington Post political cartoonist Tom Toles talks about highs and lows of "the Aughts" and the inspiration behind some of his most memorable cartoons from the past 10 years."

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Ann Hornaday's best and worst films of the decade were both animated

The article is not specifically about animation, but Ann Hornaday's best and worst films of the decade were both animated.

Best: Finding Nemo
Worst: Star Wars: Clone Wars

As much as I like animation, I find those two choices to be mindboggling. You can decide for yourself whether to read the article.

Steve Brodner illos in Post's Outlook section

The excellent caricaturist Steve Brodner did illos of some of the most famous women politicians in today's Post's Outlook section. The images don't appear to be online.

That darn Lio!

Free for All roundup of short critiques of The Post
Washington Post Saturday, December 26, 2009

Christmas spirits

What a heartwarming Christmas message the "Lio" comic strip put forth Dec. 23. I only hope that when my 5-year-old is waiting in front of a liquor store to score some booze, he remembers that I prefer single-malt Scotch!

Mitch Katz, Falls Church

Joe Ciardiello illustrates Dave Barry's year in review


Joe Ciardiello illustrated Dave Barry's year in review for the Washington Post Magazine.

The Year According to Toles

The Year According to Toles appears in print in today's Washington Post. It appeared online a couple of days ago.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Greek graphic biography Logicomix reviewed in Post

Big ideas, bright colors
Dan Kois
Washington Post Sunday, November 15, 2009

LOGICOMIX
An Epic Search for Truth
By Apostolos Doxiadis, Christos H. Papadimitriou, Alecos Papadatos and Annie Di Donna
Bloomsbury. 347 pp. Paperback, $22.95

I've got it, but haven't read it yet.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Wash Post Style Invitational contest to combine two comic strips results

None of them did much for me, even though one of my neighbors is a winner, but see

The Style Invitational
Washington Post October 31 2009


Report from Week 837
in which we asked you to combine two comic strips and tell about the result: