Chemtoons

My friend Warren, a collector of fine cartoon books, just wrote in, "Now, the New Yorker has put out cartoon compendiums on dogs, cats, lawyers, technology, baseball and art, amongst others. But how in the world could they have overlooked chemists? Back in 1955, someone beat them to the punch! Attached are scans of possibly the only book of cartoons dedicated to chemistry. George Lichty, Don Flowers, Alan Dunn and a plethora of cartoonists from the magazines of the day like Collier's all have their say about our under appreciated Mixers of Molecules."





Personally, I think Bob Mankoff will cover ever topic possible, but in the meantime, enjoy this sample of one more example from Warren's secret history of comic art.

Today's new acquisition - Jo Fischer's From Nine to Five

While attempting to find something else entirely, I ran across this piece of original comic art - so I bought it.



The strips is From Nine to Five by Jo Fischer from December 4, 1950. According to Allan Holtz's Stripper's Guide it ran from June 17, 1946 until sometime in 1971. For our younger readers, as the bookstore's note on the back helpfully read, "The applied toning film is usually called Zipatone." Also the gag might not be obvious anymore. Once upon a time, before sexual harassment training, there was a whole genre of gag cartoons about bosses seducing (or preying on, depending on your viewpoint) one's (definitely female) secretary. One can see the New Yorker's Cartoon Bank for more examples, I'm sure. (Oh, yeah, that works.) So, getting back to this cartoon, the secretary is turning tables by implying that she'd like to be hit on by the boss. Ahhh, the good old days.

And speaking of John Lent and the International Journal of Comic Art

John Lent in his room devoted to world cartooning especially that of Asia.

This is the complete text of a book review that I have in the current issue, 9:1, Spring 2007.

John Lent’s Comic Art Bibliographies – An Appreciation

Comic Art of Europe Through 2000: An International Bibliography. Praeger Publishers, 2003, 1089 pages in two volumes. ISBN-10: 0275982203.

Comic Art in Africa, Asia, Australia, and Latin America through 2000: An International Bibliography. Praeger Publishers, 2004, 722 pages. ISBN-10: 0313312109.

Comic Art of the United States through 2000, Animation and Cartoons: An International Bibliography. Praeger Publishers, 2005, 624 pages. ISBN-10: 0313312133.

Comic Books and Comic Strips in the United States through 2005: An International Bibliography. Praeger Publishers, 2006, 356 pages. ISBN-10: 0313338833.

Cartoonists, Works, and Characters in the United States through 2005: An International Bibliography. Praeger Publishers, 2006, 568 pages. ISBN-10: 0313312125.

I can’t write a disinterested review of John’s bibliographic achievement – in my small way, I’ve attempted to create a bibliography on comics as well, and have cooperated with John on both his and my projects, as well as in the pages of this Journal, and he’s mentioned me in the introductions to these volumes. If I had paid more attention at the Georgetown Manga Conference (now claimed as the first International Comic Arts Forum nee Festival) when John announced his project, my co-author John Bullough and I would never have started our online Comics Research Bibliography. In the 1990s, John published four volumes of citations. From 2004-2006, he added six more volumes, bringing the 10-volume total to 85,106 citations, arranged in by continent, country, media and subject order. This work is even more astonishing when you consider that he began it before computers were widely available, especially in libraries, and to this day he neither types nor uses a computer directly himself.

Lent’s work may be comparable to that of John Shaw Billings and the creation of the Index Catalogue of the Surgeon General’s Library in the nineteenth century. Like Billings did with medicine, Lent has attempted to capture every citation relevant to his subject. Billings’ work set the standard for what became the National Library of Medicine and its collections; perhaps an ambitious librarian may attempt the task of getting all the articles cited by John gathered in one place. It would be a marvel of a research library. John has also included ephemera in these pages – the fugitive material like conference papers and Convention booklets and exhibit brochures that may be helpful, but can be very hard to find, let alone know they exist.

John’s bibliographies may eventually be eclipsed by online bibliographies – he predicts as much in the introductions to the last volumes -- but there was no internet when he started. John’s tireless work in the field has led to amazing statistics like these:

All told, the ten volumes include 85,106 citations covering 144 countries. The United States accounted for 42,232 entries, broken down by comic books and comic strips, 25,416; and animation, gag, magazine, and political cartoons, 16,816. There were 26,172 sources on comic art of 41 European countries, 12,002 on 28 Asian countries, 2,306 on Central and South America’s 17 countries; 1,118 on Canada; 790 on Africa (28 countries), 688 on Australia and Oceania (six islands); 409 on Middle East (11 countries), and 466 on 11 Caribbean territories. In the first four bibliographies, 29,105 citations appeared; the number increased to 56,001 in the most recent six books. (Comic Books and Comic Strips, p. vii-viii)

These numbers may be equaled eventually, but the groundbreaking nature of John’s achievement obviously cannot. In addition to the numbers, John provided intellectual organization to the subject. His project is carefully broken down into discrete projects to manage the data. For example, in the 2006 Comic Books and Comic Strips through 2005 volume, one can drill down to a subject like “Sidekicks” this way – Comic Books – Content, Form – Genres and Types – Sidekicks to find “Shining a Spotlight on Sidekicks” from the Comics Buyer’s Guide in 2000.

As with any project of this size, errors creep in and John would have benefited from another pair of eyes reading the manuscript. A small section in Comic Books and Comic Strips in the United States through 2005, under Comic Books - Media, Popular Culture Connections – Radio (p. 267) has seven entries in it. Two of these have nothing to do with radio. An article on Archie Comics' 1960s imprint Radio Comics is misfiled here, as is an article on DC's Sandman Mystery Theatre comic book. Surprisingly enough, the other five entries are actually on radio which has not had a major cross-influence with comic books for four decades. The citation on Radio: An Illustrated Guide could also, and perhaps more appropriately, have been filed under 'Jessica Abel' since she did the comic book. These three entries also point to Lent’s relative lack of knowledge about American comic books as opposed to comic art in the rest of the world. I do not believe that he has indexed Wizard, the American superhero-loving magazine at all either.

A pair of extra eyes such as myself, or Gene Kannenberg, Jr. (Comics Scholarship Annotated Bibliographies at ComicsResearch.org) or Randy Scott (The Reading Room Index : an Index to the Holdings of the Michigan State University Libraries Comic Art Collection) would have caught Green Lantern’s alter-ego Hal Jordan being cited as a cartoonist, or misspelling Alison Bechdel’s name as Becktel and putting her under Comic Book Creators, which until the publication of 2006's Fun Home, she was not, having instead done the Dykes to Watch Out For comic strip for over a decade. I could probably continue to find mistakes like this, but what’s the point? The real point is that John was doing these bibliographies when no one else was, with the possible exception of the late Jerry Bails' Who’s Who of American Comic Books database which dates back to the 1960s as well. John still maintains a wider scope than any other similar project, including those of institutions devoted to comic art. As Gene Kannenberg, Jr. recently wrote to me, “these books point out to us stupid monolingual Americans that there's a whole world out there - and, hell, look at all the comics they have, and all that's been written about them! Granted, that might have been more of a boon to his first editions than to the newest bunch (given how the growth of the Internet has shrunk the globe a bit), but it's still a monumental specific achievement: a concrete manifestation of John's evangelical zeal in learning about the whole world and sharing that world with his country's scholars.”

As John turned seventy this past year he has maintained a busy schedule that would break a lesser man, including teaching at Temple University and two Chinese universities, editing Asian Cinema and this Journal. As a result, some lack of proper indexing and cross-referencing resulted. Any comics scholar who buys his own copy of a relevant volume (and those of us serious about studying the art form should) might be advised to take a pencil and annotate the volumes with cross-referencing linking, for example, cartoonist Harvey Pekar to his publications American Splendor and Our Cancer Year. However, I firmly believe that no single individual (and not Google or its like either) will ever compile as wide-ranging and comprehensive set of bibliographies, in spite of easier access due to the internet. Perhaps we’ll see a large project, run as a cooperative like the Grand Comic Book Database – Pete Coogan at least has proposed one for indexing of articles on comics – but if so, we’ll be standing on the shoulders of John Lent.

Michael Rhode

International Journal of Comic Art's biggest issue ever available now

Here's 4 scans of the table of contents of the new Spring vol 9, #1, 755-page, $30/2 issues academic journal. This issue concentrates on Kibyoshi manga and Australian cartooning, but also has articles on Eisner, Africa, Ghost in the Shell anime, Belgian comics, Indonesian Comics, Lalo Alcaraz's La Cucaracha, a queer reading of the X-Men and a really excellent exhibit reviews section. Click on the images for a readable version.





How can you go wrong? Order today.

An individual subscription for one year (two issues) is US$30; institutions, $40.
Back Issues are available at same rates.

Payment must be made by check or international money order in U.S. dollars
payable to John A. Lent/IJOCA.

Subscriptions should be sent to

John A. Lent,
669 Ferne Blvd.,
Drexel Hill, PA 19026
USA.

Paul Levitz interview on Kirby on Express website

Scott Rosenberg keeps cranking out the articles - see Mister Miracle: Jack Kirby's Fourth World.

July 4th Big Planet 21st anniversary sale

"We're legal!" - gotta love that. I don't want to even imagine how much I've spent in 21 years. I'm the original box 45 subscriber.

obligatory Richard Thompson mention

Well, Richard wasn't in yesterday's Post Health section so I guess his plan for taking over the Post is going a little more slowly than I expected. However, he did have a caricature in the July 2nd New Yorker, the one with the nice Staake Statue of Liberty cover.

Fred Van Lente in DC

Chris Shields, of the cIndy.com interview podcast site (linked on the right), reports, "I had lunch with Fred Van Lente at Zola earlier today. The attached picture is in front of the National Portrait Gallery where he is doing some research for his upcoming "Action Presidents" title. He was heading over to the "Hall of Presidents"...

Van Lente does the excellent Action Philosophers comic book filled with hard-hitting Kantian action. Visit his blog where he reports that he was in town for the ALA convention and mentions the new title.

"Bush Leaguers: Cartoonists Take on the White House" exhibit opens soon

Dave Astor reports 'AAEC Editorial Cartoon Show Opens This Saturday in D.C E&P Online, June 26, 2007.

The exhibit of political cartoons sponsored by the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists is at American University's Katzen Arts Center. It should be good.

Postcards from Zito, Bill Crouch and Percy Crosby

I hit a local antique show this weekend and picked up some prints of Opper, Nast and the Puck gang including Keppler. They're big - too big to scan easily - but these postcards I also picked up weren't.

I don't know anything about Zito. At first judging from the above cartoon, I thought he was a girly cartoonist.

Then as I found a couple more, it became obvious that he was a dog cartoonist. The third seems to be a World War II cartoon, but it's hard to tell. The top two are credited to the Novel Art Picture Co of New York while the "Victim" doesn't say anything.



This one is signed by Bill Crouch - anyone know if it's the comics historian? This is from the Mayrose Co. Publishers, Linden, NJ.

Finally, I think this is an early Percy Crosby. The postmark is Nova, OH, January 20 1912 and Pa asks his children to try to buy some clover seed when they're downtown and notes Mrs. Amos Woolfe died suddenly of a stroke of paralysis. Percy Crosby did the excellent "Skippy" comic strip for many years and it's overdue for a reprint.

Yang and Siegel signed books at Politics and Prose

I stopped in Politics and Prose on Nebraska Ave, NW to pick up a novel today and noticed in the children's section that they had signed copies of Gene Yang's award-winning American Born Chinese and Mark and Siena Cherson Siegel's To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel. They didn't have an instore event but just stopped by to sign some books probably before the ALA meeting previously posted on. I already had ABC, but bought both anyway as I like a signed book.

Part two of Jeff Smith interview in Saturday's Washington Times

Bone creator sees skies sunny ahead for industry by Joseph Szadkowski, Washington Times June 23, 2007.

ICv2 on ALA in DC

How's that for acronyms? The web-based comics publication ICv2 is reporting on the American Library Association's new love for graphic novels today as they meet in Washington. Here's the story.

June 25: Author Appearance - Alison Bechdel, award-winning author of Fun Home

Dirk at Journalista noted that Alison Bechdel will be in town tomorrow at Lambda Rising on Dupont Circle (why do I have to read blogs based out of Seattle to find this out?). This was one of my favorite books of last year - I strongly recommend it. I already have a signed copy, but if anyone wants to go, let me know and I might drive back in.

Author Appearance - Alison Bechdel, award-winning author of Fun Home

Lambda Rising Time: Monday, June 25, 2007 7:00 PM
Location: Washington DC
Alison Bechdel, author of the popular comic series "Dykes to Watch Out For", will be returning to Lambda Rising to sign her graphic memoir Fun Home. Having won multiple awards, including the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Memoir/Biography and Time Magazine's Book of the Year, this title has been newly released to paperback.

Come and meet Alison and get a copy of this masterpiece signed!

the Thompsons go to the beach

Actually, that's really the Rhodes go to the beach. We're sponging off some neighbors at Rehobeth, DE, and laughed out loud at Richard Thompson's Richard's Poor Alamanack on last minute beach house rentals. Unfortunately, it's not online yet, but you can make a Fred Thompson finger puppet instead.

Star Wars exhibit opens at Geppi's Entertainment Museum

A few days ago I was lucky enough to attend the opening of a Star Wars toys exhibit at Geppi's museum in Baltimore. I'm not a Star Wars aficianado although I'm the right age to be one, but it was fun to see Thomas Atkinson's collection and hear about how he turned his whole house into a museum. I was hoping to get a few pics up, but my friend who accompanied me still has them. You can see some pics and get some details at the Scoop site here and here.

Geppi's museum is awesome. There's a fantastic selection of material on display. Original comic strips, movie posters, a whole room devoted to comics and Big Little Books, a ton of historic comic memorabilia from the Yellow Kid, Buster Brown and others... it's well worth seeing.

new ImageText available

The UFL has announced that "ImageTexT Volume 3, Issue 3 is now available:
http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v3_3/"

I'm mentioning this because it's co-edited by my buddy, Charles Hatfield, infrequent house guest and International Comics Arts Festival board member.

Volume 3, Issue 3, a special issue devoted to Comics and Childhood," is edited by Cathlena Martin and Charles Hatfield. It seeks to examine the intersection of comics and childhood from several vantages, including comics and children's literature, comics and education, comics and publishing, and comics and revisions of literature.

This issue features essays from Gorg Mallia, Daniel Yezbick, James Bucky Carter, Philip Sandifer, Veronique Bragard, Cari Keebaugh, Kathy Merlock Jackson and Mark D. Arnold, as well as original art by Sam Hester. This special issue includes several ImageTexT firsts. The journal's first roundtable links scholars Meredith Collins, Tof Eklund, Charles Hatfield and Kenneth Kidd in conversation about Lost Girls. And we have included Jesse Cohn’s translation of and commentary on Benoît Peeters's "Four
Conceptions of the Page," we hope the first of many such new translations of important comics theory and criticism previously unavailable in English.


Table of Contents:

Articles:

“Learning from the Sequence: The Use of Comics in Instruction,” Gorg Mallia

http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v3_3/mallia/

“Riddles of Engagement: Narrative Play in the Children’s Media and Comic Art of George Carlson,” Daniel Yezbick

http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v3_3/yezbick/

“The Many Sides of Hank: Modifications, Adjustments, and Adaptations of Mark Twain's /A //Connecticut// Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” /Cari Keebaugh

http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v3_3/keebaugh/

“Crossovers and Changeovers: Reading Lynn Johnston through Margaret Mahy,” Sam Hester

http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v3_3/hester/

“When Real Things Happen to Imaginary Tigers,” Philip Sandifer

http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v3_3/sandifer/

“Imagetext in /The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time,” /James Bucky Carter

http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v3_3/carter/

“Opening-Up Aesop's Fables: Heteroglossia in Slade & Toni Morrison and Pascal Lemaître's 'The Ant or the Grasshopper?',” Veronique Bragard

http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v3_3/bragard/

“Baby-Boom Children and Harvey Comics After the Code: A Neighborhood of Little Girls and Boys,” Kathy Merlock Jackson and Mark D. Arnold

http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v3_3/jackson/

Roundtable:

A roundtable on /Lost Girls /includes articles by Kenneth Kidd, Tof Eklund, Meredith Collins, and Charles Hatfield.

Translation:

Also included in the issue is Jesse Cohn's translation of and commentary on Benoît Peeters's "Four Conceptions of the Page."

Future issues include one celebrating the comics work of Neil Gaiman, another on the Picture Book, and a general issue.

George Coffin, Washington Post editorial cartoonist

I just got a copy of the new Washington History journal as I've got an article in it and found this. He was a Post cartoonist back in the day.

Slovick, Lyle. 2007.
George Y. Coffin: A Schoolboy's Life in 19th-Century Washington
[editorial cartoonist].
Washington History 18 (1&2): 98-119

There's something online about him too - perhaps from George Washington University. I'll try to poke around and find it unless someone beats me to it.

Paul Hornscheimer article in Express

Scott Rosenberg's got another article in today's Express (June 21, 2007): E7 - "Intelligent Designer: Memory intertwines with philosophy in 'Three
Paradoxes'" an interview with Paul Hornscheimer whom he met up with at HeroesCon in Charlottesville. Anyone go to the signing in Baltimore tonight?

cIndy Podcast update - Comic book writer Marc Bernardin

Chris writes in to say (I'll make the links hot later, sorry):

This week on the cIndyCenter.com Podcast: We have the very very talented Entertainment Weekly Senior Editor, & Comic book writer Marc Bernardin.

Marc is promoting his new book The Highwaymen, a five-issue miniseries from Wildstorm/DC, also written with Adam Freeman, is being drawn by Lee Garbett. The first issue will be on stands on June 20, 2007.... Listen to hear why Bill Clinton is in the series....

http://www.cindycenter.com/MarcBFinal.mp3

http://www.cindycenter.com


Thanks,
Chris

P.S. Big stuff is going on with cIndyCenter.com this Summer:
1. Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen artist, Scott Chantler is visiting with us on Wednesday evening. So if you have a question for him: post it to: http://cindycenter.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=355

2. Batgirl friend, Dean Trippe is going to be a guest reporter for cIndyCenter.com at MOCCA this weekend.... he'll do a report when he returns from his trip.

3. Published by Random House [Postcards] and Harry Potter book is shipping the same day. cIndyCenter.com friend Jason Rodriguez's [Postcards] and a number of the postcard gang did a group interview... his site is: http://www.eximiouspress.com/postcards/

Richard Thompson attempts to fill all Post pages by himself

In addition to his Saturday panel, Richard's Poor Almanack in Style, and his Sunday (and soon to be daily and syndicated) strip Cul de Sac in the magazine, RT is now doing spot illos for a column in the Health section on Tuesday. Yesterday's punch line was "Delusional Mesh Shirt Purchase."

At this rate, it'll only be about another year before he's filling every page of every section.

Michigan State U's Comic Art Collection librarian blows into town on collecting trip

Michigan State U's Comic Art Collection librarian Randy Scott, the man who built their collection from 6,000 comics to 200,000 with another 40K of related material, stopped in this Sunday. I was handing off 2 boxes of clippings and ephemera, 22 boxes of manga, and 3 boxes of miscellaneous comics publications. Randy had already stopped in State College, Pennsylvania and loaded up with 3 boxes of half-price obscure graphic novels and collections. I'd never heard of a bunch of it. Whilst here, we ran out to Big Planet Vienna and bought another 2 boxes of European, non-English language comics. On Monday, he had a brief meeting with Library of Congress staff about the future of comics collecting before riding off into the heat. In about six months, all of this material should be catalogued and available for use.

Anyone who reads this blog should consider donating comic stuff to him. I must say I had a hard time passing on the self-published 1984 book of computer-drawn cartoons* but I did.

Randy's on the right above, btw. As is the link to the Library.

*Hansen, Janet V. 1984.
So You Want to Start your Own Business? [computer-created gag cartoons; copy at MSU].
Mt. Prospect, IL: Janet V. Hansen

June 21: Paul Hornschemeier in Baltimore

He's skipping DC, and was in Richmond today, but on Thursday, Paul Hornschemeier will be in Baltimore signing The Three Paradoxes which came out a couple of weeks ago -

WHEN: Thursday, June 21, 7:00 - 9:00PM
WHERE: Atomic POP (w/Tao Lin)
3620 Falls Rd.
Baltimore, MD
410-366-1004
http://atomicpop.blogspot.com/

Jason Rodriguez interviewed by PW Comics Week

DC area writer and anthologist Jason is interviewed in "Rodriguez Sends His Best Regards via Postcards" by Ian Brill, PW Comics Week -- Publishers Weekly, 6/19/2007

July 12: comic book writer Mike Carey signing

Randy T alerts us to the fact that Mike Carey will be in town signing his new novel, and presumably his comic books as well. He's got a busy day:

WASHINGTON, DC
July 12th

1:00pm – 2:00pm Big Planet Comics, Vienna
4:00pm – 5:30pm Big Monkey Comics
7:00pm Olsson’s, Court House

I'll probably go to the Olsson's which is close to my house.

Ok, I need help here. His website says he's writing Ultimate Fantastic Four and some X-Men title, but didn't he make his name writing for Vertigo? Which trades should I pick up at Big Planet?

June 23: David Macaulay at Building Museum

Macaulay, the architectural children's book author will be at the National Building Museum on Saturday for '"The Big Draw with David Macauley," a family-friendly hands-on event' from 10 -4:30. An exhibit based on his drawings will be up through January 21st.

Anime director Satoshi Kon interview in Sunday's Post

Pressley, Nelson. 2007.
Satoshi Kon, Anime's Dream Weaver
The Japanese Filmmaker Goes Inside His Characters' Heads to Get Inside Moviegoers' Hearts.
Washington Post Sunday, June 17, 2007; N03

July 3: Cartoonapalooza, surprisingly, features DC-based cartoonists

Dave Astor has the story at "Toles, Telnaes, Luckovich, Others to Speak At Pre-AAEC Confab Event," E and P Online (June 18, 2007).

You can buy tickets here and I don't think the AAEC will mind if I reproduce their blurb:

Cartoonapalooza: Fireworks in Pen and Ink!

Cartoonapalooza! Meet prize-winning political cartoonists from across the country as they discuss their most controversial cartoons.
Date: Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007
Time: 6:30 PM
Location: Renaissance Mayflower Hotel
1127 Connecticut Avenue NW
Washington DC 20036
Phone: 202-232-5300
Ticket Price: $25 in advance/$35 at door

Why did Tom Toles of The Washington Post get dressed down by the Joint Chiefs of Staff? How did Ted Rall invoke the wrath of a legion of 9/11 widows? Why did a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Atlanta take out a half-page ad to apologize for a Mike Luckovich cartoon? Meet ten of the nation's best political cartoonists as they discuss their most controversial cartoons. Cartoonapalooza, the kick-off event for the 50th anniversary convention of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC), is a rare opportunity for the public to meet prize-winning political cartoonists from across the country as they discuss their most controversial cartoons. Join Tom Toles, Ted Rall, Mike Peters, Mike Luckovich, Rob Rogers and five other brilliant, ground-breaking editorial artists as they talk politics, the election, Bush and beyond. The public is invited to a cocktail reception before the panel discussion to meet the artists. Door prizes at the reception will include signed original cartoons and books. The proceeds from this event will go to support Newspapers In Education's "Cartoons for the Classroom" program, a non-profit program that provides editorial cartoon-related lesson plans for teachers. Cartoonapalooza is the must-attend event of the year for all political buffs and cartoon aficionados!
Featured Cartoonists:

* Ted Rall, Universal Press Syndicate
* Tom Toles, Washington Post
* Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal Constitution
* Mike Peters, Dayton Daily News
* Rob Rogers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
* Jack Ohman, The Oregonian
* Ruben Bolling, Tom the Dancing Bug
* Ann Telnaes, Cartoonists and Writers Syndicate
* Keith Knight, The K-Chronicles
* Mark Fiore, Animated Political Cartoonist

This should be a lot of fun. I've heard 2/3 of the speakers and they've all been interesting. Keith Knight and Ted Rall are particularly... what's that word... articulate? Nah, I think it was opinionated. But I would imagine all the speakers are since you probably can't be an editorial cartoonist otherwise.

The whole conference schedule and registration info can be found here.

Zadzooks interviews Jeff Smith of Bone

Jeff Smith, Bone cartoonist was interviewed in "Mix of tradition, fantasy comics pays off for artist" by Joseph Szadkowski in the WASHINGTON TIMES (June 16, 2007). Szadkowski writes the Zadzooks column every Saturday in the Times and it usually has a comics bit. This Bone interview continues into next week.

Rosenberg on King Cat Comix

Scott Rosenberg has an article in today's Express June 18, 2007, "King Cat Comix: Brandon Graham." It's an interesting sounding American manga.

A little bit of Crumb in the city

Apparently a couple of Crumb prints are on display in town, but the reviewer likes the rest of the exhibit better. "Pulp Fiction" To Saturday, July 14, at Adamson Gallery
By Jeffry Cudlin, Washington City Paper June 15, 2007

June 28 anime - Tekkonkinkreet DC premiere

Tekkonkinkreet
A film by Michael Arias (The Animatrix)
Thursday·June 28, 2007 ·6:30pm
The JICC Auditorium

Takara Machi. A claustrophobic maze of gambling, corruption and violence, controlled by the Yakuza. This is the place two young boys, Kuro and Shiro call home. Equal parts superhero, hardened street urchin, and innocent child, the boys do battle with those who threaten Takara Machi. Until one day a strange new presence comes into town with plans to destroy the old city and make way for a new one. Now the boys must battle not only for their town, but for their very lives. TEKKONKINKREET combines the imaginative fantasy and action elements of the best Japanimation
with a dark and modern children’s story. A hybrid of cutting-edge 3D CGI technology and traditional Japanese anime, TEKKONKINKREET is unlike anything ever seen before, combining dynamic action, virtuoso visual treats, and heart-rending tragedy Director Michael Arias and Screenwriter Anthony Weintraub will be on hand to discuss TEKKONKINKREET following the film.

TEKKONKINKREET is based on the comic book by Taiyou Matsumoto (Ping Pong). The title is a play on the Japanese words for “concrete”, “steel”, and “muscle”. TekkonKinkreet won the prestigious Best Film Award at the 2006 Mainichi Film Awards. It was also named the Number One film of 2006 in the annual "Best of" roundup by the New York Museum of Modern Art's Artforum magazine. The film will be in Japanese with English subtitles. It is not recommended for young children.

This event is free and open to the public. Reservations are required.
RSVP to jiccrsvpspring07@embjapan.org
Japan Information and Culture Center, Embassy of Japan·3 Lafayette Center·1155
21st St NW·Washington DC 20036
202-238-6949·www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/jicc

-
Christopher Wanamaker
DC Anime Club President
http://www.dcanimeclub.org
202 262 2083

July 6: Cartoonists Rights Network dinner

"Dinner Will Raise Funds to Help Threatened Cartoonists" by Dave Astor, E&P Online, June 14, 2007 reports that Flemming Rose, the Danish Islam cartoons editor will be speaking at a benefit dinner for Cartoonists Rights Network. I'll actually be at the dinner because John Lent, International Journal of Comic Arts publisher is sponsoring a table.

It's a good cause and I'm sure it'll be a fun evening - more info can be found here.

Jerry Robinson's Astra on stage in DC

Karen Berman, Director, Super Heroine Manga Musical Astra from the Washington Women in Theatre has written in to say:

"Jerry Robinson (responsible for the iconic Joker in the Batman series) has joined forces with Washington Women in Theatre to produce an original musical about a superheroine named Astra. She’s a fearless, no-fuss woman who visits Earth for the first time, attempting to save her all-female planet from extinction. Her mission? To capture sperm. While discovering men for the first time on Earth, Astra also observes a confused world in the midst of a Cold War."



"This tongue-and-cheek parody about America from an outsider’s perspective was created back in the ‘80s, and has since become a popular Japanese manga by artists Shojin Tanaka and Ken-ichi Oishi. It all started one summer when Washington Women in Theatre co-founder Sidra Rausch approached Robinson in Cape Cod, where the two were both vacationing. A longtime fan, Rausch fearlessly approached him and asked, “how do you feel about feminism?” He was immediately on board. The two brainstormed Astra on the sand that summer, and worked for many years on the concept. The Super Heroine Manga Musical now includes original artwork, thirty never-before-heard songs and Robinson’s legendary spirit."


"The show’s national debut will take place at the Warehouse Theatre between July 7-14. Astra is part of the Washington Women in Theatre’s fifth annual festival of new plays. This year’s theme is "Laptops Ladies Playfest.” WWIT encourages original works written, directed and/or highlighting women such as Astra."

If I recall correctly, at least 1 issue of the comic was published in English as well. Jerry Robinson's still active in promoting comics - I think he's updating his history of the comics book, and he recently helped fill-in with a version of his superheroes exhibit when Art Spiegelman pulled out of Masters of American Comics at the Jewish Museum in NYC and left a hole. Plus he's a darn nice guy who's always been friendly whenever I've run into him.

The Mad War on Bush continues at Big Planet Comics

Joel Pollack, owner of the Bethesda branch of Big Planet Comics, has done something generally unthinkable for him (which is why he's still in business.) He's drastically overordered The Mad War on Bush - to the tune of 100 copies of it. I asked him why, and he said, "I think it's very important for people to see it. I think Mad's strength, since they reworked the magazine almost 10 years ago, is when they do political humor. When it comes to George Bush, people should laugh instead of crying." What, me worry?

David Petersen interview online

David Petersen's interviewed in The Lord of the Cheese: 'Mouse Guard' by Scott Rosenberg at Readexpress.com (June 13, 2007).

I ran into Scott today and he said that a couple more interviews are forthcoming.

Also his compadre Nate Beeler has an absolutely awesome political cartoon in today's Examiner. You've got to love that Gitmo Frankenstein.

Finally, both free papers, the Examiner and the Express ran the same Associated Press article by Frazier Moore on the new Comedy Central animated series, Li'l Bush. One could probably find the article through either of the above links fairly easily.

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa podcast interview

We never crossed paths, but the former Washington City Paper writer, and current comic book writer / playwright was a Big Planet Comics customer. Here's a podcast interview (thanks to Tom Spurgeon's Comic Reporter for the tip) -
Comic Book Queers (June 5, 2007)
http://www.comicbookqueers.com/podcasts.php

Episode 34 - Out Queer Creators (part 2 of 2) - Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
More on out queer creators, and the Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa interview.
Our discussion about out queer creators continues. What do queer comics creators bring to the table that straight creators can't?

This episode also includes our interview with the giggly and adorable Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.

June 15 - Lecture on Brazilian cartoons at Library of Congress

The Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress and the staff-led Portuguese language table present:

"On the eve of the 1964 military coup: Brazil thorugh the eyes of cartoonists," a lecture by Dr. Rodrigo P. S. Motta of Minas Gerais University and the University of Maryland.

Friday, June 15, 2007, noon - 1:00 pm, Mary Pickford Theater, James Madison Building, 3rd floor.

For further information, please contact Cynthia Acosta at (202) 707-2013 or caco@loc.gov

Cartoons from Stamp Wholesaler

My friend Warren noted that I've got Cartoonphilately, a Yahoo group on cartoonists and stamps and sent this, "Attached are two scans that somewhat reverses the whole concept. Amazingly enough, a cartoon book about stamp collecting. I scanned the centerfold so you can get an idea of the cartoons inside. Its 72 pages of cartoons that was published in 1951."

Warren is fond of noting that there's a whole secret history of cartoons contained in magazines like this Stamp Wholesaler. I think he's absolutely correct, and we could use in the US a biographical dictionary of cartoonists like has been done for the UK.

'Bush' League: Comedy Central Bullies the President

Scott Rosenberg's got an online only story on a new animation series - 'Bush' League: Comedy Central Bullies the President.

Ask Cerebra: The Comics Blog search engine

Dirk Deppey linked to this neat new tool - Ask Cerebra: The Comics Blog search engine. Who woulda thunk? But, boy I'm never going to finish a publishable version of my Comics Research Bibliography.

Speaking of which, if any Wizard readers would like to help out with citations, I'd be glad to give them credit and a section of the book which I'm hoping to publish through Lulu, using John Lent's schema that he carried through his 10 volumes of comic art bibliography. And in the meantime, the online version - link to the right - is still the main version. Nothing goes into this print draft until it's been sent to John Bullough for inclusion in the online original.

Here's an example of local interest - citations for articles on the Small Press Expo:

EXHIBITIONS, FESTIVALS, AWARDS
Conventions, Festivals (2006; also under Comic Art in 2005)
Small Press Expo / Expo / SPX
-Aguirre-Sacasa, Roberto. 1998. Small Press Expo. Washington City Paper (September 25): 104
-Arnold, Andrew D. 2002. The Non-Con Comic Con: TIME.comix at the Small Press Expo. Time.com (September 13): http://www.time.com/time/columnist/arnold/article/0,9565,350691,00.html
-Atchinson, Lee. 2002. The Dreamiest of Cons: SPX 2002 [convention]. Sequential Tart (October)
-Atchison, Lee. 2004. SPX Dreams [convention]. Sequential Tart (November)
-Atchison, Lee. 2006. Behind the Scenes with SPX: Jeff Alexander [convention]. Sequential Tart (June)
-Barnes, Derek et.al. 1999. Small Press Expo 99 [(sic), actually 1998 coverage]. [Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington] Fullbleed (Summer): 24-31
-Barnes, Derek. 1999. SPX99: Casting its own shadow. The Comics Journal (217; November): 21-23
-Bennet, Greg, Charles Brownstein, Greg McElhatton and Chris Pitzer (eds). 2003. The SPX 2003 Anthology [Travel-themed small press comic book anthology with some wordless stories]. Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
-Berger, Arion. 1997. Small Press Expo [convention announcement]. Washington City Paper (Sep 19).
-Bieri, Sean. 2000. A whole lotta comics: Small Press Expo is one-stop shopping for the mad medium's finest. Chicago Metro Times (October 24). online at http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=783
-Bothe, Jocelyn. 2006. SPX 2006: A Friday Night Perspective. Sequential Tart (November)
-Daly, Sean. 1997. Only the lonely can play: Silver Spring's Small Press Expo '97 brings the area's top underground cartoonists out of the darkness. Washington City Paper (Sep 26):33-4.
-Flage, Karon. 2000. The Expo 2000 Anthology [Small Press Expo anthology]. Sequential Tart 3 (7; July): http://www.sequentialtart.com/
-Henn, Rich. 1998 Small Press Expo provides showcase in Bethesda Comics Buyer's Guide (1296; September 18): 24
-Jellinek, Anna. 2003. SPX [small press comic book convention]. Sequential Tart (October)
-Keller, Katherine. 2000. In the Driver's Seat: An Interview With SPX/The Expo Steering Committee Member (and Founding Tart) Karon Flage. Sequential Tart 3 (6; June): http://www.sequentialtart.com/
-Keller, Katherine. 2006. SPX: The S stands for Spectacular. Sequential Tart (November)
-Moody, Jenni. 2006. SPX: Favorite Comic Con. Sequential Tart (November)
-Procopio, Joseph. 2000. The Greatly Exaggerated Death of Comic Books: Notes from the underground at the Small Press Expo 2000. Snap Pop! (12; December/January). online at http://www.snappopmag.com/stories/decjan00-01/smallpress1200.html
-O'Bryan, Will. 2006. Independent Ink: Small Press Expo in Bethesda includes 'Gay Interest' section for GLBT cartoonists & artists. Metro Weekly (October 12).
online at http://www.metroweekly.com/gauge/?ak=2354
-Ramos, Nicole. 2003. SPX [small press comic book convention]. Sequential Tart (October)
-Sebastian, Trisha L. 2004. SPX 2004: Small Press Resolutions [convention]. Sequential Tart (November)
-Spurgeon, Tom. 1998. SPX '98 [Small Press Expo convention]: Over the hump. Comics Journal (208; November): 23-27
-Tapper, Jake. 1998. Artifacts: Cartoon weekend [Small Press Expo]. Washington City Paper (October 2): 46
-Various. 1999. The Expo / SPX99 / ICAF Official Guide. Comics Buyer's Guide (1348; September 17)

More needs to be added here, especially the annual anthologies, but it's a start.

Visit the Hall of Justice

If reading Cul de Sac's version of suburbia is too tame for you, Zadzooks reports that you can visit the Hall of Justice in PG County. Personally I preferred the Justice League's space station and teleport tubes to the Superfriends lame Hall of Justice, but I guess Six Flags doesn't have NASA's budget.

Now It Can Be Told - Cul de Sac bursts out of Post...

...much like that scene in Aliens when they hatch out of the guy's stomach? Perhaps.

Richard Thompson is making the leap towards daily syndication with his formerly Sunday-only Washington Post magazine strip Cul de Sac. Congratulations, Richard! You've got to love a strip that has the line, "You interest me strangely" as today's does.

The UPS website says:

Richard Thompson's "Cul de Sac," is a comic strip about the life of a pre-school girl named Alice Otterloop. It is a light-hearted comic strip centered around a four-year old girl and her suburban life experiences on a cul-de-sac. with her friends Beni and Dill, older brother Petey and her classmates at Blisshaven Academy pre-school. Alice describes her father's car as a "Honda-Tonka Cuisinart" (Cuisinart being a toaster brand) and talks to the class guinea pig, Mr. Danders. She has the typical older brother who plays jokes on her, and she contemplates ways to keep the scary clown from jumping out of the jack-in-the-box with friends.

Richard Thompson has been drawing "Cul de Sac" for the Washington Post for nearly three years. He also does the comic strip, "Richard's Poor Almanac" for the Washington Post, which he been creating for the past 10 years. Thompson's work can be seen in galleries and in several illustrated works.

"Since we came up with 'Cul de Sac' for our magazine three years ago, it's become one of our more popular features. A December 2006 web survey (randomized, but not fully scientific) indicated that 43.2 percent of our readers read 'Cul de Sac' all/almost all the time, which placed it in the top third of our recurring features. We also have anecdotal evidence that the readers who follow 'Cul de Sac' feel very attached to it — based on many impassioned letters, both to the editors, and to Richard.," explains Tom Shroder, editor, The Washington Post Magazine.

From Bill Watterson, creator of "Calvin and Hobbes":

"I became a big fan of Richard Thompson when I saw his book, Richard’s Poor Almanac. Thompson has a sharp eye, a fun sense of language and a charmingly odd take on the world. Best of all, his drawings arewonderful—something one doesn’t often see in cartoons anymore. I'm delighted to see 'Cul de Sac', and I have high hopes that Thompson will bring a much-needed jolt of energy to the daily newspaper. We have a real talent here."

Tooned In editorial cartoon site

An email from MJ, editorial cartoonist sent these three cartoons - and I'm a sucker for creative reuses of existing comics tropes (hah! Say that 3 times fast). His (or possibly hers, but I doubt it) site can be found here.

Fred Thompson finger puppet

Richard Thompson's Richard's Poor Almanack (why'd you add the 'k' anyway?) on Saturday has a Fred Thompson finger puppet... to which I can only say, "Fred Thompson?" Who cares about Fred Thompson? We could have had a Paris Hilton puppet, or a Angela Merkel or a Putin, but we get Fred Thompson? This isn't some underhanded propagandizing by relatives, is it?

Wash Post chat - Tim Rickard

Meet the Comics Pages Tim Rickard Cartoonist -- "Brewster Rockit"
Friday, June 8, 2007; 1:00 PM


Join Washington Post Comics page editor Suzanne Tobin on Friday, June 8 at 1 p.m. ET for a discussion with "Brewster Rockit" cartoonist Tim Rickard.

I was able to get a few questions in - I'd encourage you to read the whole thing as it was interesting, but here's the bits from me:

IJOCA, VA: How do you draw the strip? Pen and ink, or is it done on a computer?

Tim Rickard: Half and half. It's drawn in ink, scanned into a computer, and the rest of the work is done in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop using a Wacom tablet.
------------------------

IJOCA, VA: How long did it take you to develop the strip and get it syndicated? How many papers do you have? Did you pick up more than the Post when Amend dropped his daily?

Tim Rickard: Not enough. Now I'll have to convince another cartoonist to cutback.
_______________________

IJOCA, VA: Will you be in DC in July for the AAEC convention?

Suzanne Tobin: For those of you that don't know, AAEC is the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists convention, which will be held in D.C. July 4-7.

Tim Rickard: Sorry. I'll be busy that week staying up til 4 doing cartoons.

_______________________

IJOCA, VA: Did this strip start as a webcomic? If so, did you have to make any changes in technique, style or story when taking it into print?

Tim Rickard: No, it was a syndicated strip from the start. But it has gone through different looks since its inception, though.

_______________________

Actually, I think I was 4/4 on this one. I started posting questions because Ms. Tobin was asking them which I usually figure isn't a good sign. People might have just been surprised though as the chat has been on hiatus for a good long while except for last month's Reuben nominees. It looks like she's back though, because she closed with "Join us again next month when we meet another fascinating cartoonist
here on "Comics: Meet the Pages."" I'm glad to see these back - they're always interesting.

July 7 - Cartoonists With Attitude Cartoon Slideshow

Stringer Randy T. reports that Heidi MacDonald is reporting that in addition to attending the AAEC meeting, Ted Rall's group will be speaking downtown.

Sat July 7, 2pm | DC: Cartoonists With Attitude Cartoon Slideshow w/ Ted Rall, Keith Knight, Mikhaela Reid, Stephanie McMillan, Ruben Bolling, Jen Sorensen, Masheka Wood & more @ Borders, 18th & L Streets NW Washington, DC

Ann Telnaes editorial animations in London's Guardian

Stringer (just kidding!) and Politico editorial cartoonist (really) Matt Wuerker just emailed to say, "Ann Telnaes is just today starting to run animations off the front page of the Guardian UK. check it out-- a great new venue for political cartoons on the front page of one of the marquee international newspaper's website--- http://www.guardian.co.uk/ "

Great news, Matt. I love her work. Here's the direct link. But... "specializing in animated cartoons?" I thought she put Disney behind her when she won that Pulitzer.

Comic Strip play in Baltimore

The Baltimore Sun mentions a play of interest:

A Comic Strip
Baltimore Theatre Project
45 W. Preston St.
Baltimore, MD


This delightfully funny drama tells the story of a famous comic-strip artist who, in the midst of an identity crisis, receives help from his favorite childhood comic strip characters. But despite the show's seemingly juvenile subject matter, it is definitely not for kids.

The show replaces "The 761st: Men of War" as the last show in Theatre Project's 2006-07 season.

More information about Touchstone Theater can be found at www.touchstone.org.


Jun. 7: 8 p.m.
Jun. 8: 8 p.m.
Jun. 9: 8 p.m.
Jun. 10: 7 p.m.
Jun. 14: 8 p.m.
Jun. 15: 8 p.m.
Jun. 16: 8 p.m.
Jun. 17: 7 p.m.

Price: $16
Seniors and students: $11

Box office: 410-752-8558

Victor Vashi cartoons

Last weekend, I picked up some original cartoons by Victor Vashi at a flea market. These were originally done for the Plumbers Journal. The bookseller who had them wrote a note saying Vashi was the author of Red Primer for Children and Diplomats, Viewpoint Books, 1967 and illustrated the Handbook of Humor by Famous Politicians by Stephen Skubik.

Here's scans of all the cartoons, only a few of which still have their captions.

former DC resident David Lewis profiled

See "A DAVE LEWIS & JASON COPLAND ON EMPTY CHAMBER" by Koben Kelly, Newsarama (June 5, 2007). Dave lived around here until heading off to Boston's environs a few years back.

new International Journal of Comic Art is out

The new International J. of Comic Art is out with articles on the history of Chinese comics, and reviews of exhibits mentioned here. It's 750 pages! For $15! If you don't subscribe, hang your head in shame. Here's the info:

An individual subscription for one year (two issues) is US$30; institutions, $40.
Back Issues are available at same rates.

Payment must be made by check or international money order in U.S. dollars payable to John A. Lent/IJOCA.

Susbscriptions should be sent to

John A. Lent,
669 Ferne Blvd.,
Drexel Hill, PA 19026
USA.

Volume 1 is no longer available (but plans to reprint it are underway).