NPR: The man behind Wonder Woman

Fresh Air’s Terry Gross interviews Harvard professor and New Yorker contributor Jill Lepore about her new book The Secret History of Wonder Woman and how it related to suffragists and centerfolds.

"I got fascinated by this story because I'm a political historian and it seemed to me there was a really important political story that had been missed that's basically as invisible as Wonder Woman's jet," Lepore says.

Listen to the program.

Nov 22: Nightmare The Rat Signing with Rafer Roberts and John Shine

Rafer Roberts invited you to Beyond Comics 's event   Nightmare The Rat Signing with Rafer Roberts and John Shine Saturday, November 22 at 12:00pm Beyond Comics in Gaithersburg, Maryland   Join     Maybe     Decline   Rafer Roberts will be meeting fans and signing his new Nightmare The Rat collection, from 12 to 4, along with Beyond Comics' own John Shine, Nightmare pin-up contributor. Barbara Dale and 26 others are also in the guest list.             Pending Invites (3) Block invites from Rafer?                 Nightmare The Rat Signing with Rafer Roberts and John Shine Saturday, November 22 at 12:00pm Beyond Comics in Gaithersburg, Maryland Rafer Roberts will be meeting fans and signing his new Nightmare The Rat collection, from 12 to 4, along with Beyond Comics' own John Shine, Nightmare pin-up contributor.

"Jewish War Heroes" Canadian comic book here in DC

Rare 'Jewish War Heroes' comic from 1944 found in box of donated used books

Sarah B. Hood, Special to National Post | October 31, 2014

http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/10/31/rare-jewish-war-heroes-comic-from-1944-found-in-box-of-donated-used-books/

The article says that the Holocaust Museum has a copy.

Flugennock's Latest'n'Greatest: "This Time, Next Year?" on marijuana legalization

"This Time, Next Year?"
http://sinkers.org/stage/?p=1589

Last week, I was over at a friend's house when he pulled out this lid of something really fresh, pulled out this big stinky bud, handed it to me and invited me to take a good smell -- and man, was that some stanky-ass stuff.

So, anyway, my buddy asked me to guess where it was from; I ran down the standard guesses -- Humboldt, Maui -- but you could've knocked me over with a feather when he told me that sticky, smelly bud was grown right here in DC, in Ward 8.

All I could think of is how things could possibly be, this time next year, if Prop 71 goes through, allowing three mature plants. It also reminded me that DC has a state fair now. Can't wait to see next year's Blue Ribbon Ward 8 Skunk Bud.

--

.____________________
Mike Flugennock, flugennock at sinkers dot org
Mike's Political Cartoons: dubya dubya dubya dot sinkers dot org

SPX 2014 Panel - Bob Mankoff: The Past, Present and Future of The New Yorker Cartoons

SmallPressExpo

Oct 17, 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiYVd8sJwEE

Sunday, September 14, 2014 - White Oak Room 1:00 PM. Bob Mankoff is a cartoonist and has been the Cartoon Editor for The New Yorker magazine since 1997. He has written and edited many books including The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker, The Naked Cartoonist, and his new memoir How About Never--Is Never Good for You? In this special presentation, Mankoff discusses the historical development and evolution of the iconic single panel cartoon form and the magazine that perfected and popularized it--with an eye towards the future.

SPX 2014 Panel - Spanish Language Comics

SmallPressExpo

Oct 27, 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPxb_dOSKnY&feature=em-subs_digest

The world of Spanish-language comics from South America to Europe is examined in this SPX 2014 panel. Colombian comics editor Daniel Jiménez Quiroz (Revista Larva) discusses Colombian and South American comics and leads the discussion that includes Spanish comics critic Santiago Garcia, Colombian comics critic Pablo Guerra, and North American editor Scott O. Brown

That darn WuMo, redux

 

Letters to the Editor: Save the lemmings

Chuck Smith, Woodbridge

Washington Post  November 1 2014

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/save-the-lemmings/2014/10/31/6e28e4aa-5d3c-11e4-827b-2d813561bdfd_story.html

Comic Riffs on Wytches and Halloween reading recommendations

HALLOWEEN READING: Bewitching 'Wytches' summons some of Scott Snyder's deepest real-life fears

By David Betancourt

Washington Post Comic Riffs blog October 31 2014

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2014/10/31/halloween-reading-bewitching-wytches-summons-some-of-scott-snyders-deepest-real-life-fears/

 

HALLOWEEN WEEKEND READING: Wanna good (graphic) scare? Here are 10 Dark and Spooky Picks for hiding between their covers

By Michael Cavna

Washington Post Comic Riffs blog October 31 2014

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2014/10/31/halloween-weekend-reading-wanna-good-scare-here-are-12-dark-and-spooky-picks-for-hiding-between-their-covers/

The Post reviews ‘The Tale of the Princess Kaguya’

Not a Disney princess story

[in print in the Express as "A fairy tale made for grown ups"; 'The Tale of the Princess Kaguya' movie review]

By Michael O'Sullivan
Washington Post October 31, 2014, p. EZ 34 and Express, p. 22
http://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/the-tale-of-the-princess-kaguya-movie-review/2014/10/29/bd63986c-5e1d-11e4-8b9e-2ccdac31a031_story.html

Chloë Grace Moretz gives voice to the title character in the dubbed version of the animated "The Tale of Princess Kaguya." (Hatake Jimusho/GKids)

Daumier, in passing, at the Phillips

Schlump in the Night: An invasion of bald everymen lights up the Phillips ["NO/Escape" At the Phillips Collection to March 8, 2015]

By Kriston Capps
Washington City Paper October 31, 2014, p. 31
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/46485/bernardi-roigs-noescape-at-the-phillips-collection-reviewed/

Those darn corporate animators

For families of color, diversity is a fantasy [online as In the land of make-believe, racial diversity is a fantasy]

By Amina Luqman
Washington Post October 31 2014
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/in-the-land-of-make-believe-racial-diversity-is-a-fantasy/2014/10/30/ee206b6c-5b23-11e4-8264-deed989ae9a2_story.html

Swann Foundation Announces Awards for 2014-2015

---

NEWS from the LIBRARY of CONGRESS
October 30, 2014

Public contact: Martha Kennedy (202) 707-9115, mkenn@loc.gov

Swann Foundation Announces Awards for 2014-2015

The Caroline and Erwin Swann Foundation for Caricature and Cartoon, administered by the Library of Congress, is awarding fellowships to three applicants for the academic year 2014-2015.  Recipients are affiliated with McGill University, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Northwestern University.
Andrew Benjamin Bricker, a postdoctoral fellow in English at McGill University, recently completed his doctorate in English at Stanford University.  He will expand on part of his dissertation "Producing and Litigating Satire, 1670-1792," as he investigates a shift in satire in the second half of the 18th century, when changes in British libel laws made printed political and personal satire legally precarious.  Bricker contends that, at mid-century, satire began to migrate from print to visual media, especially caricature and visual satire, and plans to study the wealth of examples held at the Library of Congress.  These visual works were executed by key British satirical artists who offered personalized, nasty and popular critiques of their often well-known human targets.
Paul Hirsch is an instructor in the Department of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he also completed his doctorate in American history. Building on his dissertation "Pulp Empire: Comic Books, Cartoons, and U.S. Foreign Policy, 1941-1955," he will examine the dissemination of and impact made by millions of American comic books and cartoon booklets from the early 1940s to the mid-1950s.  Hirsch contends that these popular publications, whether uncensored commercial ones or government-sanctioned, worked to define, for a global audience, what it meant to be American—presenting American policymakers with both an opportunity and a challenge. The American government, he contends, met this challenge through a combination of repression and co-optation.
Maureen Warren, a doctoral candidate in art history at Northwestern University, analyzes works of art about domestic political disputes in the Northern Netherlands during the 17th century in her dissertation "Politics, Punishment, and Prestige: Images of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt and the States Party in the Dutch Republic, 1618-1672."  The artists creating such work used caricature and satire to mock politicians and religious leaders in Dutch and German news prints and illustrated broadsides.  These include the Hauslab Album, a rare collection of prints that depicts European armed conflicts from 1566-1711. Study of the Hauslab imagery and Dutch prints in the Library's collections will contribute to Warren's goal of contextualizing later examples of Dutch political art.
During the coming academic year, the three recipients will collectively conduct research at the Library, in the General Collections and in the Prints and Photographs, Serial and Government Publications, and Rare Book and Special Collections divisions.
New York advertising executive Erwin Swann (1906-1973) established the Swann Foundation for Caricature and Cartoon in 1967.  An avid collector, Swann assembled a large group of original drawings by over 500 artists, spanning two centuries, which his estate bequeathed to the Library of Congress in the 1970s.  Swann's original purpose was to build a collection of original drawings by significant creators of humorous and satiric art and to encourage the study of original cartoon and caricature drawings as works of art.  The foundation's support of research and academic publication is carried out, in part, through a program of fellowships.
The Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division holds more than 15 million photographs, drawings and prints from the 15th century to the present day.  International in scope, these visual collections represent a uniquely rich array of human experience, knowledge, creativity and achievement, touching on almost every realm of endeavor: science, art, invention, government and political struggle, and the recording of history.  For more information, visit www.loc.gov/rr/print/.
The Library of Congress, the nation's oldest federal cultural institution and the largest library in the world, holds more than 158 million items in various languages, disciplines and formats.  The Library serves the U.S. Congress and the nation both on-site in its reading rooms on Capitol Hill and through its award-winning website at www.loc.gov.

# # #

PR14-193
10/30/14
ISSN: 0731-3527

Follow us on Twitter twitter.com/librarycongress | Blogs blogs.loc.gov | News loc.gov/today

Library of Congress | 101 Independence Ave SE | Washington DC 20540-1610 USA  | 202.707.2905

Oct. 30: 'Wolf Children' at JICC

‘Wolf Children’ will show Oct. 30 at the Japanese Information and Cultural Center (1150 18^th St. NW) at 6:30 pm.

                                                          Click on image to see trailer

Why not watch Gahan Wilson for Halloween?

Steven-Charles Jaffe sent me a copy of his movie this summer to review, and I still haven't gotten around to it, even though Gahan Wilson is one of my favorite gag cartoonists. So I'm passing along his notification that "Gahan Wilson: Born Dead, Still Weird is now available on DVD in time for Halloween with some bonus interviews at http://amzn.to/1nO31Cp.It's still available on iTunes, X-Box, Amazon Prime." And, because I prefer to own the object and support projects like this, I'm going to buy a copy too.

Inkstuds at SPX

Inkstuds on the Road – Part 22 Live at SPX

  October 23, 2014 by Inkstuds
http://www.inkstuds.org/inkstuds-on-the-road-part-22-live-at-spx/
http://www.inkstuds.org/wp-content/podcast/141022_Inkstuds_vs_Cute_Boys_Tour.mp3

Zoey talks to Kazu

5 Questions with Kazu Kibuishi

October 24, 2014
http://theroarbots.com/2014/10/24/5-questions-kazu-kibuishi/

Comic Riffs on Batgirl

'BATGIRL': New creative team gives Barbara Gordon a 'sincerely' hip makeover

By David Betancourt

Washington Post Comic Riffs blog October 28 2014

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2014/10/28/batgirl-new-creative-team-gives-barbara-gordon-a-sincerely-hip-makeover/

Colonial Comics press release

For Immediate Release

Contact: Melanie Roth, Marketing Manager, Fulcrum Publishing

melanie@fulcrumbooks.com  |  www.fulcrumbooks.com  

Named a 2014 BEA Comic Buzz Book by School Library Journal and Comic Book Resources! "This book is smart, surprising, fun and educational. Each story has its own visual and verbal style but all will delight, intrigue, and enlighten both novice and expert alike."                           — James David Moran, Director of Outreach,              American Antiquarian Society "These engaging tales are beautifully illustrated and grounded in the latest scholarship. Highly recommended for kids of all ages!"                                       — Dr. Frank Cogliano, Professor of American History, University of Edinburgh "The nature of the stories and the non-fiction grounding make the style differences not only palatable but enjoyable." — Eccentric Librarian blog

Golden, CO (10/28/14) - Fulcrum Publishing is pleased to announce the release of Colonial Comics: New England, 1620 - 1750.  Colonial Comics is a graphic trilogy featuring unconventional stories of Colonial New England from an eclectic collection of comics writers and artists, fiction and nonfiction authors, university professors, and renowned historians. This first graphic volume is a collection of 20 stories focusing on the colonial period from 1620 through 1750 in New England. Bringing to life the stories not found in history books, including tales of Puritans and free thinkers, Pequots and Jewish settlers, female business owners and dedicated school teachers, whales and livestock, slavery and frontiers, and many other untold aspects of colonial life. Jason Rodriguez says of Colonial Comics: New England, 1620 – 1750, in his interview with the Comics DC blog: "I want to create a book that functions as both entertainment and education. The main idea is to tell stories that you often don't find in school history books that can, in turn, lead into larger discussions about colonial American history […] What I want to do is fill in those gaps and tell stories about the Native Americans and women and free-thinkers and slaves and business owners who came to the Colonies and give a better understanding of what life was like over our first 150+ years, the good and the bad." Read more about Colonial Comics and all of Fulcrum's nonfiction graphic novels in our recent Publisher's Weekly feature!

Meet the Author:  Jason Rodriguez is a writer and editor, whose books have been nominated for an Eisner Award and 8 Harvey Awards.Colonial Comics represents Jason's most ambitious project to date. He lives in Arlington, VA with his wife and their three dogs, two cats, and a parrot. You can usually find him on a street corner, staring out into the future. For more on Jason's current and future projects, visit his website at jasonrodriguez.com or the Colonial Comics website at colonialcomics.com. Connect with him on his Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr page.

Book Information: October 2014 | Trade Paperback | US $25.95 | print ISBN: 978-1-938486-30-2 | ebook ISBN: 978-1-938486-81-4 | 8 x 8 | 256 pages | COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS | ANTHOLOGIES | Young Adult Readers   For ordering information: Fulcrum Publishing | 4690 Table Mountain Dr., Ste. 100 | Golden, CO 80403 Toll-free 800-992-290 | fax 800-726-7112 | orders@fulcrumbooks.com   Marketing contact for review copies, author interviews, or events: Melanie Roth, Marketing Manager Fulcrum Publishing 4690 Table Mountain Dr., Ste. 100 Golden, CO 80403 melanie@fulcrumbooks.com 303-928-8213

Wash Times reviews new book on Puck

BOOK REVIEW: 'What Fools These Mortals Be!'

By Michael Taube - Special to The Washington Times - - Monday, October 27, 2014

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/oct/27/book-review-political-cartoons-of-a-puckish-nature/?page=all#pagebreak

WHAT FOOLS THESE MORTALS BE!: THE STORY OF PUCK, AMERICA'S FIRST AND MOST INFLUENTIAL MAGAZINE OF COLOR POLITICAL CARTOONS

By Michael Alexander Kahn and Richard Samuel West

Library of American Comics/IDW Publishing, $59.99, 328 pages

Barbara Dale's studio and cartoon collection

 Besides being a stunningly successful cartoonist, Barbara Dale also has great collections of comics and cartoon history.  Things like Thomas Nast's business card. She's known everyone, and gotten cartoons from many of them. Barbara opened her house and studio for a ComicsDC tour recently and has agreed to let me show some of her excellent collection.

More pictures are here.

A stack of KAL's art

The Maus in the bathroom

 

Some of Barbara's merchandise

One of three life-size Cathy dolls in existence and a Rube Goldberg original

Steve "Captain America" Rogers' "Dear John" letter

Steve "Captain America" Rogers' "Dear John" letter has been spotted on Old Dominion Beer's Candi cartons (thanks to ComicsDC reader Chris Ingram)

Cartoons and Cocktails 2014 photographs

Cartoons and Cocktails 2014 photographs are online here. The annual auction is a fundraiser for Young DC journalists. This year's guest of honor was Pulitzer Prize winner Kevin Siers (pronounced Sigh-ers).

Local cartoonists in attendance were Teresa Logan, Steve Artley, David Hagen, Mike Jenkins (not pictured - sorry Mike), Chip Beck, Kevin KAL Kallagher (also not photographed), Rajan (also missed), Rose Jaffee (missed her too) and Joe Sutliff.

I ended up winning 3 Siers cartoons and 1 old John Darling comic strip - notable because Batiuk and Armstrong murdered their character on page (but not on the one I bought).