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Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Dec 12: Animezing!: Cowboy Bebop - The Movie
The Post on SpongeBob SquarePants' creator
'SpongeBob SquarePants' creator Stephen Hillenburg dies at 57 [in print as Stephen Hillenburg, 57: His 'SpongeBob' soaked up worldwide adulation]
Washington Post 2018, p. B5
Requiem for SpongeBob SquarePants creator: A hilarious education interview with SpongeBob himself
Comic Riffs on ‘SpongeBob’ creator Stephen Hillenburg
'SpongeBob' creator Stephen Hillenburg raised our spirits — and ocean awareness
Tuesday, November 27, 2018
Library of Congress blog glances at American Indians in comic books
Native American and Indigenous News and Comics
The Post on the death of animator Stephen Hillenburg
'SpongeBob SquarePants' creator Stephen Hillenburg has died after a battle with ALS
Washington Post
Comic Riffs asks, what is animation?
'The Lion King' remake's trailer confuses the Internet: Just what is 'live action' anymore? ['Lion King' sparks uproar about definition of 'live action']
Jamie Noguchi and Super Art Fight profiled by The Post Magazine
The Art Gladiators
Who needs comic books? Meet the gonzo performers of Super Art Fight, who draw characters and creatures as they battle each other in a live competition.
Story by Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson
November 26, 2018
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/magazine/wp/2018/11/26/feature/in-super-art-fight-artists-battle-against-each-other-in-a-live-competition/
Jamie's webcomic Yellow Peril is at https://www.ypcomic.com/ and it's great fun. I look forward to buying the compilation every year at SPX because I'm old school and like my comics on paper.
Jamie's webcomic Yellow Peril is at https://www.ypcomic.com/ and it's great fun. I look forward to buying the compilation every year at SPX because I'm old school and like my comics on paper.
Monday, November 26, 2018
The Post reviews Gorey biography
A peek inside Edward Gorey's modern Gothic world [in print as A gift for making sinister not quite safe].
By Ernest Hilbert
Washington Post November 25 2018, p. E13
Friday, November 23, 2018
Exhibit Review: The Very Best Of Slovenian Comics
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| Tomaž Lavrič |
The Very Best Of Slovenian Comics. Izar Lunaček (with translation assistance by Nejc Juren). Washington, DC: Embassy of Slovenia. November 2, 2018 – February 8, 2019. Open Monday-Friday 9 am-5 pm, by appointment via sloembassy.washington(at)gov.si or 202-386-6601. http://www.washington.embassy.si/
This no-frills exhibit of reproduction of pages mounted on foam core may not be the most beautiful and certainly not monetarily valuable exhibit on display in Washington now, but it does provide an overview of a largely-invisible European comics scene. Lunaček, who visited DC recently to promote the Animal Noir comic that he did with Juren, opened the exhibit with a short lecture on the history of Slovenian cartooning both before and after the breakup of Yugoslavia. The exhibit itself is rather minimalistic in regards to explanatory text, which is only provided via Lunaček's cartoon history that runs along one wall. The exhibit would have definitely benefitted from additional panels explaining the transitions from funny animals to punk / alternative to the current wide variety of styles and stories. Having heard his lecture, I am able to put the images into context with the changing world including big issues such as the fall of Communism and the dissolution of Yugoslavia, to the small but vital anthology and cooperative Stripburger, which published many of the modern-era cartoonists in the show.
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| Miki Muster |
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| Kostja Gatnik |
In the 1970s, Muster's style was challenged by Kostja Gatnik, whom Lunaček referred to as a hippy and their "Robert Crumb." Three pages of material that was clearly from the 1970s showed Gatnik's range of styles, but to make a living he switched to illustrating children's books. In the 1980s, comics were tame in Slovenia with only Marijan Amalietti's erotic comics worthy of notice. The Slovenian scene was jolted out of its classical period by a journalist who died young in the war, but before that he wrote widely on European comics. The most famous cartoonist to come out of the new wave/punk music and comics scene was Tomaž Lavrič with his stories Red Alert (1993) and Bosnian Fables (1994). Fables was one of Bosnia's biggest international success, translated into European languages, and "is little tales of the Bosnian war, but from all sides." Two pages showed Zoran Smiljanić's historical comics about the (fictional) last Yugoslavian soldier abandoned in Slovenia. The next panel was of Dušan Kastelic's short strip from 2000 about conformism and literally knocking down the one person sticking up in a crowd which he turned into The Box, an award-winning computer-animated cartoon in 2017. The exhibit then turned to alternative cartoonists who worked in their fanzine Stripburger in the 2000s. The magazine became the training home of many young cartoonists. Lunaček who also started there, put a couple of his newspaper comic strips in the exhibit, as well as some pages from Animal Noir. The exhibit ended with work from the last decade by Kaja Avberšek and her diagrammatic comics, Stripburger's current editor David Krančan and his Drunken Rabbit, and Miha Hančič.
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| Miha Hančič |
Lunaček and Juren's translations of the comics are very good, as one might expect after finding out that they wrote Animal Noir in English first and had to back-translate it into Slovenian. The main problem for a viewer of an exhibit with a wide range of art like this is the unfortunate realization that very little of this material will ever be translated in full and released in English.
(This
review was written for the International Journal of Comic Art 20:2, but this
version appears on both the IJOCA and ComicsDC websites on November 23, 2018,
while the exhibit is still open for viewing.)
The Post reviews the new Ralph cartoon
'Ralph Breaks the Internet' looks amazing. But its touching story of friendship is even better. [in print as Animated sequel one-ups the original]
Exhibit review: Superheroes at the National Museum of American History
Superheroes. Washington, DC: National Museum of American History. November 20, 2018 to September 2, 2019. http://americanhistory.si.edu/exhibitions/super-heroes
The Smithsonian museum has mounted a small, but choice, exhibit made up of some extremely surprising pieces. The terse description on their website only hints at it:
This showcase presents artifacts from the museum's collections that relate to Superheroes, including comic books, original comic art, movie and television costumes and props, and memorabilia. The display includes George Reeves's Superman costume from the Adventures of Superman TV program, which ran from 1951-1958, as well as Halle Berry's Storm costume from the 2014 film X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Of the five exhibit cases, two concentrate on comic books and original art, while the other three contain props from movies and pop culture ephemera. Surprisingly, the Black Panther costume from the Marvel movies which the African-American History museum collected this summer is not included, but as noted above they have displayed George Reeve's Superman costume (since it is in color rather than grey shades, it came from the later seasons of the television show), Halle Berry's Storm uniform, along with Captain America's shield, Wolverine's claws and Batman's cowl and a batarang. Those three cases are rounded out with the first issue of Ms. Magazine which had a Wonder Woman cover, two lunchboxes (Wonder Woman and Marvel heroes), and a Superman telephone.
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| courtesy of Grand Comics Database |
The small exhibit lines two sides of a hallway off the busy Constitution Avenue entrance of the Museum, but the location has the advantage of being around the corner from a Batmobile from the 1989 Batman movie that was installed earlier this year. The car may be tied into the nearby installation and branding of a Warner Bros. theater showing the latest Harry Potter spin-off movie which seems like a true waste of space in the perennially over-crowded and under –exhibited (i.e. they have literally hundreds of thousands of items worthy of display in storage), but one assumes that besides the Batmobile, the theater came with a cash donation or promise of shared revenues.
Bruce Guthrie has an extensive series of photographs including the individual comic books at http://www.bguthriephotos.com/graphlib.nsf/keys/2018_11_22D2_SIAH_Superheroes
(This review was written for the International Journal of Comic Art 20:2, but this version appears on both the IJOCA and ComicsDC websites on November 23, 2018, while the exhibit is still open for viewing.)
Superheroes at American History Museum in Bruce Guthrie's photos
I went the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History on Thanksgiving to check out the Superheroes exhibit that opened this week.
Pics are up on
It's not a big exhibit. Basically five cases:
(1) Superman's outfit from the TV show;
(2) Captain America's shield from the 2014 movie, Wolverine's claws from the 2014 movie, Batman's cowl and batarang from the 1997 movie, lunchbox, MS magazine, and Superman phone;
(3) Storm costume from the 2014 movie;
(4) Original cover art from "Captain Midnight" (1940s), original Batman newspaper strip (1945), several comic books;
(5) Original Sensation Comics (Wonder Woman) cover art from 1943, original Superman newspaper strip (1943) signed by Siegel and Shuster, more comic books.
The cases are on the same floor as the Batmobile.
Up in the Dibner Library display, they mention the William Marston collection and include an alternative sketch for Wonder Woman's costume.
Wednesday, November 21, 2018
Comic Riffs on self-mocking Disney princesses
How 'Ralph Breaks the Internet' spoofs the Disney Princess industrial complex
Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Animator Pablo Ferro's obituary in The Post
Pablo Ferro, evocative title designer of 'Dr. Strangelove' and 'Bullitt,' dies at 83 [in print as Pablo Ferro, 83; Animator and evocative title designer of 'Dr. Strangelove' and 'Bullitt']
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