Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Phillip Kennedy Johnson to write Superman

Future State: Superman writer says the Man of Steel "shows us who we're supposed to be"

By

November 23 2020


Writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson describes his love for Superman and preview his two Future State Superman titles

The Post talks to Bliss and Martin

How Steve Martin and illustrator Harry Bliss ended up working on the 'upbeat book' we all need right now [in print as It's all in the timing, both comic and cosmic]

Co-Creator of “Woke” Keith Knight talks politics

Co-Creator of "Woke" Keith Knight talks politics

Brooke Minters

Politico 11/18/2020

https://www.politico.com/video/2020/11/18/cartoonist-keith-knight-talks-politics-no-one-can-be-woke-enough-101012

Local cartoonist Justin Benedict RIP

Justin Benedict Struck, Killed Crossing Street

by
November 23, 2020


Beloved Cartoonist Struck, Killed While Crossing Street in Old Town


Monday, November 23, 2020

Dec 1: Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell at Politics and Prose (virtually)

Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell with Isaac Fitzgerald
Pirate Stew | For Families
Tuesday, December 1 at 6 p.m. The first 100 purchases of Pirate Stew will receive a signed bookplate.
Purchase

Lala Alcaraz piece in new SAAM exhibit

by Bruce Guthrie 

There's a new Smithsonian American Art Museum exhibit -- in the building with the National Portrait Gallery - that opened on Friday.

Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now
November 20, 2020 – August 8, 2021
In the 1960s, activist Chicano artists forged a remarkable history of printmaking that remains vital today. Many artists came of age during the civil rights, labor, anti-war, feminist, and LGBTQ+ movements and channeled the period's social activism into assertive aesthetic statements that announced a new political and cultural consciousness among people of Mexican descent in the United States. ¡Printing the Revolution! explores the rise of Chicano graphics within these early social movements and the ways in which Chicanx artists since then have advanced innovative printmaking practices attuned to social justice.

I did my normal obsessive coverage of it when I went in on Friday. 


One of the pieces that's part of it is by Lalo Alcaraz.  It's a digital image, not an original piece of art, so it's shown on a screen rotating with other pieces.  Does anyone know if Lalo works mostly digitally?  The piece is from 2018 and was in response to the mass shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL.




--
Bruce Guthrie
Photo obsessive
http://www.bguthriephotos.com


Sunday, November 22, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Steve Artley

 

"Luna Tic Toc"

©2020 Steven G Artley • artleytoons • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED


Friday, November 20, 2020

Crime Comics With Eddie Muller, Tom King and The Noir City Team

Crime Comics With Eddie Muller Tom King and The Noir City Team

Nov 17, 2020

Featuring Steve and Mike Kronenberg and Eddie Of Of TCM's Noir Alley and the founder of Noir City . We'll discuss great crime comics and our favorite noir films and TV

Is The Rebooted 'Animaniacs' Still Zany To The Max?


Is The Rebooted 'Animaniacs' Still Zany To The Max?
Aisha Harris, Margaret H. Willison, J.C. Howard
Pop Culture Happy Hour November 20, 2020
https://www.npr.org/2020/11/18/936185289/is-the-rebooted-animaniacs-still-zany-to-the-max
https://play.podtrac.com/510282/edge1.pod.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/pchh/2020/11/20201120_pchh_pchh_201120_animaniacs_final.mp3

After 22 years off the air and locked in the Warner water tower, Dot, Yakko and Wakko, return for more wild antics and meta references!

Because everything in Hollywood must be revived these days, the Animaniacs are back after being locked in that Warner studio water tower for more than 20 years. Led by the fictional siblings Yakko, Wakko and Dot, the super-meta cartoon featured slapstick humor and cultural references that appealed to both kids and adults alike. Hulu has released a new batch of Animaniacs episodes and much of the original voice cast returns — though this time around you should expect fewer Goodfellas jokes and more cracks about presidential elections.

Glen Weldon on Star War's holiday specials

A Tale Of 2 Star Wars Holiday Specials: 2020 (LEGO) Vs. 1978 (Oh, No)
Glen Weldon
November 17, 2020
https://www.npr.org/2020/11/17/934507936/a-tale-of-2-star-wars-holiday-specials-2020-lego-vs-1978-oh-no

Formerly local cartoonist Malaka Gharib draws a sharable covid zine

COMIC: A Kids' Guide To Coping With The Pandemic (And A Printable Zine)
Malaka Gharib

Cory Turner

 NPR's Goats and Soda blog November 17, 2020

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/11/17/933920696/comic-a-kids-guide-to-coping-with-the-pandemic-and-a-printable-zine 

 

NPR talks to Bliss and Martin about gag cartoons

Chris Pitzer from Richmond's AdHouse Books interviewed at Solrad

Thursday, November 19, 2020

Cavna's picks for 2020's best of comics

2020 graphic novels and comic books: Five trends that defined the year

P&P Live! Tommy Siegel | I HOPE THIS HELPS with Ben Thornewill

P&P Live! Tommy Siegel | I HOPE THIS HELPS with Ben Thornewill

Nov 11, 2020 Politics and Prose
 
Join cartoonist, Tommy Siegel as he discusses his new book, "I Hope this Helps" in conversation with Ben Thornewill on P&P Live!

Tommy Siegel's debut book collection includes 200+ pages of comics, essays, and extremely helpful guides to coping with 21st-century panic. With comics titled "Choose your social anxiety coping mechanism" and "What your coffee drink of choice says about you," I Hope This Helps offers clever and sardonic commentary on our phone-obsessed, social media-driven culture, as well as a series of devastatingly funny relationship comics starring his popular Candy Hearts characters.

Tommy Siegel is a cartoonist and musician who tries his best to juggle both pastimes with assistance from copious amounts of coffee. As lead guitarist and singer for his solo projects and his power pop trio Jukebox The Ghost, Tommy has played over 1,000 shows around the world, including festivals like Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza and late-night television programs like Letterman and Conan. As a cartoonist, his challenge to draw 500 consecutive days of comics led to a viral fanbase of hundreds of thousands worldwide.

In addition to his own solo work, Ben Thornewill is a singer/songwriter/pianist in Jukebox the Ghost (alongside Tommy Siegel), an internationally-touring cult pop/rock band. In addition to festivals like Lollapalooza, Outside Lands, Bonnaroo, and Bottlerock, Jukebox the Ghost has also performed on The Late Show with David Letterman and Conan. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, he currently resides in Brooklyn, NY where you can find him working out of his home studio as a songwriter and audio engineer for TV, film, and musical theater. You can find him across social media platforms under @benthornewill.

Wednesday, November 18, 2020

Fantom Comics newsletter excerpts

>>> SATURDAY, 11/21 ONLY - "FILL-A-BAG" DEAL:
Come in Saturday, 11/21, and buy a Fantom Tote Bag for $5 (normally $20) and fill it with as much product from the store as possible to get 25% pff your entire purchase! Only items excluded are Magic the Gathering and we will have a limit of one bag per customer, so that means anything else you can fit into one Fantom Tote is good for the discount! With many families unable to see their loved ones this season, graphic novels are the perfect gift that can be mailed and keep your loved ones entertained while quarantining! Not to mention some early Black Friday goodness!

>>> SUNDAYS ARE BACK AT FANTOM COMICS:
Beginning this Sunday, 11/22, we'll be open Sundays again! In store Sunday hours will be 11am-6pm with requirements of a face mask and social distancing! We know it can be tough to get in during the week, so we're super excited about helping folks out on another day of the weekend!

Tommy Siegel, I Hope This Helps: Comics and Cures for 21st Century Panic

This is an interesting talk by a part-time webcomics musician who posts his cartoons on social media.

Tommy Siegel, I Hope This Helps: Comics and Cures for 21st Century Panic

Liz Warner

 
Tommy Siegel and his new book are here to help! I Hope This Helps: Comics and Cures for 21st Century Panic has had our staff laughing since it arrived last month, and we are pleased to bring him to you (virtually) in November!

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Beyond Comics in-store sales

Beyond Comics New Arrivals
Wednesday - November 18, 2020
Masks Required - Maintain 6 Foot Distances - Customer Capacity Limits


Facebook Live Sale!
Thanksgiving Night (Thursday, November 26th) 7pm to 9pm
HOLIDAY SALE SALES!
Graphic Novels 20% Off
All In Stock Graphic Novels
Board Games
Buy One Get One 40% Off


November 11th to November 30th
In Stores Only!

Fredericksburg political cartoonist Clay Jones has covid-19



Clay Jones, who is a friend of mine, has announced via his blog and other media that he's contracted covid-19. Fortunately he appears to be doing ok and has put up a new cartoon and blog today discussing his thoughts on having it and the wider epidemic.

We at ComicsDC send our best wishes to Clay and his family, and since that won't buy him a cup of coffee, I'm sending him $40 for a print of yesterday's cartoon, Goodbye, Dumpster.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 9103, Fredericksburg, VA 22403. And since someone asked this morning, yes. You can still get a signed print for $40.

Sunday, November 15, 2020

Nov 18: P&P Live!: G.B. Trudeau — DBURY@50 - in conversation with David Stanford

P&P Live!: G.B. Trudeau — DBURY@50 - in conversation with David Stanford

This event will be streamed online as part of our P&P Live! Series. 

The ultimate Doonesbury package celebrating a half-century of G.B. Trudeau's celebrated comic strip. This limited-edition deluxe set includes: A USB flash drive with all 50 years of Doonesbury comics, including 26 years of Sunday comics available for the first time in digital format. Includes a searchable calendar archive, character biographies, and a week-by-week description of the strip's contents. The Dbury@50 User's Guide, a 224-page wire-bound book taking readers through each year of the strip's storied history, with historical trivia, milestone strips, featured storylines and characters, and much more. A commemorative 16" x 20" poster featuring a grid with new sketches of all the strip's characters.

G. B. Trudeau has been drawing his Pulitzer Prize-winning comic strip for more than forty years. In addition to cartooning, Trudeau has worked in theater, film, and television. He also has been a contributing columnist for the New York Times op-ed page and later an essayist for Time magazine. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He lives in New York City with his wife, Jane Pauley. They have three grown children.

David Stanford is an independent editor who has worked on books by authors ranging from Ken Kesey, Jack Kerouac, and William S. Burroughs to Charles Schulz, Art Spiegelman, and G.B. Trudeau. For the past 40+ years he has worked with Garry Trudeau on innumerable fascinating projects, and since1995 has served as Duty Officer of Doonesbury.com. For eight years he oversaw the Doonesbury milblog The Sandbox, editing over 700 posts by more than 150 soldiers, spouses, and caregivers. On Fridays, he works at Oblong Books and Music in Millerton, New York.

Instead of a set ticket price, we have provided a couple different ways for you to attend this event. If you'd like to purchase a copy of the book, you will not be charged an extra fee for a ticket, and we can either ship your copy, or you can retrieve it at one of our stores.

Troy-Jeffrey Allen interviews ACO on 'American Ronin'

Got It Covered: ACO's Mesmerizing 'American Ronin'

by Troy-Jeffrey Allen

Thursday, November 12, 2020

Al Goodwyn's latest cartoon newsletter

LoC blogs on Lynd Ward

Lynd Ward's Eerie, Early Graphic Novel, "Gods' Man"

Nov 18: Tommy Siegel, author of I Hope This Helps: Comics and Cures for 21st Century Panic

Nov 18: Tommy Siegel, author of I Hope This Helps: Comics and Cures for 21st Century Panic

Tommy Siegel and his new book are here to help! I Hope This Helps: Comics and Cures for 21st Century Panic  has had our staff laughing since it arrived last month, and we are pleased to bring him to you (virtually) in November!

-->>> This event is free, but please Register

<<<----

The event will stream on Facebook and YouTube (links will be added here a few days in advance). If you register, you will receive direct links via email.

An illustrated guide to the absurdities of our phone-obsessed modern life from one of the sharpest wits in webcomics.

Tommy Siegel's debut book collection includes 200+ pages of comics, essays, and extremely helpful guides to coping with 21st-century panic. With comics titled "Choose your social anxiety coping mechanism" and "What your coffee drink of choice says about you," I Hope This Helps offers clever and sardonic commentary on our phone-obsessed, social media-driven culture, as well as a series of devastatingly funny relationship comics starring his popular Candy Hearts characters.

Tommy Siegel's comics began as doodles in the back of a van as a touring rock musician, and quickly earned a viral global fanbase and shout-outs from cultural heavyweights ranging from Ringo Starr to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. With a perfect balance of absurd humor and insightful writing, I Hope This Helps outlines the journey from the author's earliest "van doodles" all the way to the socially-distanced awkwardness of the present day.

Tommy Siegel is a cartoonist and musician who tries his best to juggle both pastimes with assistance from copious amounts of coffee. As lead guitarist and singer for his solo projects and his power pop trio Jukebox The Ghost, Tommy has played over 1,000 shows around the world, including festivals like Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza and late-night television programs like Letterman and Conan. As a cartoonist, his challenge to draw 500 consecutive days of comics led to a viral fanbase of hundreds of thousands worldwide. 

Event date: 
Wednesday, November 18, 2020 - 7:00pm
Event address: 
online
Arlington, VA 22213

Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Kleefeld on Webcomics - a ComicsDC video interview

By Mike Rhode

Sean Kleefeld, independent comics scholar and author of the new book, Webcomics, was the subject of our first video interview (via Zoom). Sean's been writing about comics for 14 years at his blog, Kleefeld on Comics, and Webcomics (Bloomsbury, 2020; $33) is the first academic book on various aspects of a newish form of cartooning.

I was joined today by two local experts on webcomics - Robb Tanner, who as Xavier Xerxes, was one of the main comics journalists covering the early days of the field - and Megan Halsband, curator of the web comics collections at the Library of Congress.

 Sean joined us from Chicago to discuss his definition of webcomics, the process of writing a book on them, his choices for 7 key texts in the field based on trying to capture the field's diversity, the role of social media and collectives in creating and distributing webcomics, the difficulties in preserving an ephemeral field and other issues.

  I would recommend this book as a key text in an understudied area of the comics arts. I found it very readable and a good, solid explanation of the field whose prehistory dates from 1987, but in reality which took off in 1997, not quite 25 years ago.

Click here to go to the video at the Internet Archive.

https://archive.org/details/comics-dc-kleefeld-on-webcomics in case you missed it.

 
A couple of footnotes - 
 
Robb notes (21:25), "There were four anthology Joey Manley sites: Modern Tales, Serializer, Girlamatic, and GraphicSmash."
 
Sean's final words (36:01) are "...and make money." so just insert that in your head when you listen.
 
For more information on the Library of Congress' webcomics initiative, use these links - 
 

Small Press Expo Comic and Comic Art Web Archive

Comics Literature and Criticism Web Archive

Quick review of Under the Cape: An Anthology of Superhero Romance

by Mike Rhode

Under the Cape: An Anthology of Superhero Romance, Rachel Kenley (ed.), Riverdale Avenue Books, 2020, 320 pp., $17. http://www.riverdaleavebooks.com

From the Amazon description: Super speed, incredible strength, the ability to fly, throw fire, read minds or change forms. What superpower would you choose if you could? Would you be the hero or the villain? And how would it affect your relationships? From heat levels mild to wild, these authors explore the universal truths of love and romance and the happy endings we all desire.The challenge of connection, secrets, and the murky line between good and evil are explored in this collection of 11 original romances by:

-Kim Strattford – Flying Fast, Falling Hard (M/F)
-E.D. Gonzalez – Where There’s Smoke (M/M)
-Naomi Hinchen – The Trust Paradox (M/F)
-Elizabeth Schechter – Time for No Mercy (F/F)
-David Valentin -No Words Needed (M/M)
-Stella B. James – Swiftly In Love (M/F)
-Julie Behrens – Supergay (F/F)
-Christopher Peruzzi -The Little Push (M/F)
-Louisa Bacio – Foolproof (F/F)
-Rachel Kenley – Just Be Yourself (M/F)
-Austin Worley – Love,  Law and the Whippoorwill (F/F)

When  I was a kid in the 1970s, I really wanted superhero prose, but there wasn't much to be had - a couple of Batman tv series tie-ins done in the '60s, some Superman movie novels by Elliot S! Maggin, and a short-lived line of Marvel novels. The main way to get longer super-heroic stories was to read the pulps that were being reprinted at the time - the Avenger, Doc Savage (with covers by James Bama) and The Shadow (covers by Steranko), but these pulp heroes weren't quite the same as the later comic book heroes. The desire for longer stories, which lasted more than 15 minutes to read, and could give more backstory than a comic, was strong for me.


Now, Marvel and DC have regularly published novels about their characters, and many other people have written stories about generic heroes. In fact, Washington's Tom King got his start that way with his 2012 novel A Once Crowded Sky.

The stories are generally competent, although none of them particularly stood out for me. I just enjoyed them as a light fiction read. The heroes' powers and names are often secondary to the plot, as expected, and there's plenty of hero-villain cross-romance, also as expected.

This anthology is probably a bit of a hodgepodge as far as finding an audience, due to its laudable attempt at diversity. As you can see above, the tales vary between hetero- and homosexual, with 5 hetero, 4 lesbian and 2 male stories. The stories are further divided into "sweet" (no sex) and "heat" (explicit sex). I have no idea how romance audiences select their books, but there might not be enough specific content here for anyone but the devoted superhero fan.

Speaking of the devoted superhero fan, Peruzzi's The Little Push does a deep dive into comics fandom and the ending is almost certainly incomprehensible to anyone who doesn't map his Mistress Marvella and Captain Photon onto Shazam-powered Mary Marvel (Fawcett / DC Comics) and Captain Marvel (the original Marvel Comics version). Both of those characters ended up with a superhero form bonded to a human form.

In conclusion, I enjoyed this book for what it was. Other reader's mileage will certainly vary. I appreciate the publisher's agent providing a free copy for me to review.


Robin Ha nominated for Goodreads Choice Award

Robin Ha is nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award for her graphic novel, Almost American Girl. You can vote here.

Tuesday, November 10, 2020

Flugennock's Latest'n'Greatest: "MABA (Make America Brunch Again)"

From Mike Flugennock, DC's anarchist cartoonist -


"MABA (Make America Brunch Again)"
http://sinkers.org/stage/?p=3092

It's this kind of clueless queefage from rich-ass Hollywood knobs like Mark Hamill which perfectly illustrates the attitude of the French aristocracy and bourgeoisie just before the head-chopping started — at last, the Democrats are back in the White House; now we can stop pretending to care about the poor and the working class and go back to brunch again.

Finally, everything's back to "normal" — America is brutalizing the rest of the world, the police are terrorizing Black America, and the Liberals are beating down the Left. Time to celebrate!


Editorial Cartoon by Steve Artley

 

Recent Cartoon (click on Image for larger view)

"Blue State Bar"

©2020 Steven G Artley • artleytoons • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED


The Lily's latest comic

How I learned to let my Christian values — not any political party — guide my vote

It wasn't until college that I started challenging my political beliefs

How I learned to let my Christian values — not any political party — guide my vote

An Editorial Cartoon by Steve Artley

 

Recent Cartoon (click on Image for larger view)

"2021: an electoral odyssey"

©2020 Steven G Artley • artleytoons • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED


Monday, November 09, 2020

Troy-Jeffrey Allen interviews Space Bastards

Interview: Space is the Final Frontier...for Bastards!

Interview by Troy-Jeffrey Allen

Nov 11: Tommy Siegel with Ben Thornewill

Wednesday, November 11 at 7 p.m.
Tommy Siegel with Ben Thornewill
I Hope This Helps: Comics and Cures for 21st Century Panic
Register

Sunday, November 08, 2020

Guston exhibit re-rescheduled

After intense criticism, Philip Guston exhibition rescheduled for 2022-24 [in print as Postponed Philip Guston show coming here in 2023]

Flugennock's Latest'n'Greatest: "Feet To The Fire"

From DC's anarchist cartoonist, Mike Flugennock:


"Feet To The Fire"
http://sinkers.org/stage/?p=3088

This one's going out to all the Leftie media "Blue Checks" who spent the better part of the last four years ripping the mask off the Democratic Party, blowing the Russiagate grift wide open — and then chickening out at the last minute and going with Joe Biden because... harm reduction?

Harm reduction? Really? Even knowing Gropin' Joe's record over the past 40-odd years? F'crissake, the guy practically invented harm.

Shame on you. ALL the goddamn shame on your asses.


That darn Toles

Thank you, Tom [letters on Toles]

Adrienne Dern, William A. Carnegie, Adrianne Krause, Jonathan Roth, T.E. Gardner

Washington Post November 7 2020, p. A13