Last free Spider-Man comic?

After a long search, I found today's Examiner to get what appears to be the last Spider-Man Collectible Series #24. There's a new, unsigned cover, and you can buy the complete set by downloading a mail-in form at http://www.smartsource.com.

Today's papers - Ghost Rider, Superman Returns videogame and Clifford Berryman

"Riding Solo" in the Washington City Paper (February 23, 2007) by Tricia Olszewski is a positive review of Ghost Rider by a woman, which surprises me somewhat for no good reason at all.

John Gaudiosi reviews the videogame for Superman Returns in "Superman's Kryptonite," Washington Post (February 23, 2007); WE44 and doesn't like it very much.

And the above drawing of Roosevelt as Shakespeare by Clifford Berryman will be in the "Shakespeare in American Life" exhibit opening March 8th at the Folger Shakespeare Library, which is one of the great places in Washington.

See a slice of my collection

Al Rio will send you a postcard of his art for free, but asks you to send back a picture of you with the postcard. Since a.) I love comics ephemera, b.) collect cartoon philately and c.) don't consider myself particularly photogenic, I took this shot of the card with a slice of my collection that they've put up on their website.

I've got 2 postcards from ASIFA-Hollywood Animation's Archive project for the person who can name the most items in the picture. Both are caricatures of animators - Grim Natwick and Ub Iwerks.

China? Shojo manga? Shazam!

China Mieville at Politics & Prose bookstore, February 20, 2007


Scott Rosenberg, following up an interesting but off-topic interview with SF/fantasy writer China Mieville.... well he did put a comic he wrote and Liam Sharp illustrated in his last collection so we'll let him in... interviewed Jeff Smith for an article in today's Express. I haven't read the first issue of the comic yet - I'm waiting for the trade as the kids today say.

And in tomorrow's Post (you'll just have to wonder), Michael O'Sullivan has a review of the shojo manga exhibit. I met him at a New Year's Party (namedropping!), introducing myself because he was talking about the excellent Hiroshi Sugimoto exhibit that was at the Hirschhorn Museum last year with another one across the street at the Sackler following close behind it. In tomorrow's review, I think he has this exactly right: Still, one of artist Masako Watanabe's drawings on view, from a comic created for readers (if that's the right word) in their 20s and 30s, features a graphic sex scene more reminiscent of shunga, the erotic variety of ukiyo-e, or traditional woodblock prints. Another image, from "Chumoncho," a comic by the same artist, depicts a murder-suicide by a lovesick courtesan. With its delicate spray of bright red blood frozen in midair, it's among the exhibition's most striking pictures.

These are by far the most striking images, and even though the both sex scene and the violence are quite explicit, they are mounted in the building's lobby where anyone can see them at any time. Go see the show before it closes to see what he meant.

Shojo Manga exhibit reviewed on web

Johanna Carlson's site Comics Worth Reading just ran a guest review by Ed Sizemore of the exhibit which is still here in DC for a few more weeks.

Today's Express, too late for usefulness

Today's Express had a wire article from the LA Times on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, and a interview of China Mieville by comics fan (and ex-Examiner columnist) Scott Rosenburg. Mieville appeared tonight at Politics & Prose, and gave a fun talk about his new young adult novel Un Lun Dun. Tying him to comics, he did a strip with Liam Sharp in a collection of short stories.

The two newspaper bits should be available on their website.

Also, Flushed Away, last year's best animated film (Cars? get real - it was completely predictable) from Aardman Animation came out on DVD today. Best Buy is giving away plush singing slugs with their dvd. Can life get any better?

Herblock award to Jim Morin

Dave Astor reports that Miami Herald cartoonist Jim Morin has been awarded this year's Herblock award - named after the Washington Post cartoonist Herbert Block and funded with his capital. Since he owned a lot of Post stock, that's apparently a lot of capital. The award will be given on April 4th, and oddly enough, they always have a non-cartoonist speaker who takes up the lion share of the time. It was Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor the last time I went - she was very interesting, but had no interest at all in cartoons. This year it's Tom Brokaw.

Michael Cavna editorial cartoon in Post

Infrequently, the Post runs editorial cartoons by Michael Cavna. Today's is on p. N7 and is "Oscar: The Year of the (Subliminal) Subtitle" in which Borat shows how foreign language films are actually subliminal Oscar propaganda.

Obligatory Richard Thompson mention

Richard's Cul de Sac in today's Washington Post Magazine is one of those self-referential strips that always amuses me. Petey is attempting to read the comics to his little sister who doesn't understand that each panel segues into the next. Petey prefaces reading the strips by saying, "They're 'comic strips' examples of a mighty yet dying art form." Et tu, Richard?

He also does the weekly illustration for Joel Achenbach's column a few pages later. I don't think either the strip or the illo is online.

Bernie Wrightson interviewed in Times

Joseph Szadkowski ran a short interview with horror and superhero comic book artist Bernie Wrightson in yesterday's Washington Times. Wrightson may be best known for co-creating Swamp Thing and illustrating Stephen King, but he's done a lot of comic work over the years.

Editorial cartoonist Matt Wuerker

Alan Gardner picked up a story on editorial cartoonist Matt Wuerker at his Daily Cartoonist blog. Harry Jaffee's written a good profile of Wuerker's gig at the new tabloid the Politico for the Washingtonian's website. Did this appear in print as well?

For whom the Toles bells

Ouch. Ok, I'll go back to normal headlines. Anyway, someone compiling the Saturday 'Free for All' letters page of the Post must either a.) have it in for editorial cartoonist Tom Toles or b.) think that carping letters about his cartoons make good reading.

I think they ran about the 3rd in a month today - a letter from Mr. Wayne Smith of Greenbelt, MD pointing out that the Jamestown settlers were not illegal immigrants, and that even if they were colonists, that was ok because they declared themselves to the "Indian authorities." Toles' cartoon was of the 400th anniversary of Jamestown - Celebrating the state's first illegal immigrants.

Right above it, they ran a letter by Ms. Pam Kincheloe in favor of Toles' cartoon about murderous diaper-wearing astronauts. So b. must be the right choice above.

Flugennock returns!

DC poster artist Mike Fluggenock has announced a new series of caricatures under the banner New Editorial Cartoon Series: "Your Jackass Slate For 2008!" As you can imagine, the pictures aren't pretty - so click on the link and look at them. It's up to you whether you poster the town with broadsheets though.



Boy, I just love his stuff and more of it's here.
Don't miss the New Day with the New Democrat Majority series either!

Post reviews Ghost

I could get into writing these headlines. The Post reviewed Ghost Rider today, which was not screened for critics - apparently that's always a bad sign.

See the Post headline writer enjoys writing them too - 'Ghost Rider': Hells, um, Devils By Stephen Hunter, Saturday, February 17, 2007; Page C01.

Hunter's main point is: "Ghost Rider" is a compelling image in search of a movie.
And he wraps up: Mainly the movie's about riding a bike at the speed of sound while your head is burning. They can do anything these days, which isn't quite the same as saying they should do anything these days.












The Washington Times ran their review yesterday -
'Ghost Rider' cheese: Too thin, too stale by Christian Toto, February 16, 2007.

Toto concludes:

Writer/director Mark Steven Johnson drapes the entire project with a layer of cheese, but it's never gooey enough to make "Ghost Rider" a guilty snack. And making Johnny groove to Carpenters' music to psych himself up for a stunt is as creepy as his flamed-out skull. "Ghost Rider" is no "Spider-Man." Heck, it's less interesting than either "Daredevil" or "Elektra," leaving the audience cursed for nearly two hours.

Big Planet of development

I stopped by Big Planet Comics in Bethesda as usual last week, and what to my wondering eyes should appear, but this evil sign (click on the photos to read it).

Woodmont Triangle was rezoned last year to permit more development and Joel's building was sold around the same time. So now, we see the sign for the proposed development - 118 condos.

Joel's still got a bit of time on his lease and is approaching this sanguinely. Me? I'm not ready for him to make another move - that'll be two in 20 years and I can't take that pace of change.

Ted Rall and Spider-Man both missing

This week's City Paper didn't have Ted Rall's comic in it. Instead the comic that had been appearing on page 3 moved back and a new amateurish comic appeared on page 3. Rall, in spite of his... abstract drawing style... is one of the hardest-hitting editorial cartoonists out there, and it would be a shame if he's not appearing in DC anymore.

In today's Washington Examiner, the weekly Spider-Man comic book was nowhere to be seen. My guess is that they were stopped by the winter storm. I hope we get a two-fer next weekend as this should have been the week with the new cover art.

2/17: Tobacco editorial cartoon exhibit presentation

The British medical journal, The Lancet reviewed the exhibit briefly, concluding "Although heavy handed at times, the exhibition powerfully illustrates the devil's bargain the US struck with the deadly weed and how difficult it has been to break the deal despite the devastating toll on public health."

I hear editorial cartoonist Bill Garner of the Washington Times will be stopping in as well.

“WHEN MORE DOCTORS SMOKED CAMELS: A CENTURY OF HEALTH CLAIMS IN CIGARETTE ADVERTISING”

The National Museum of Health and Medicine will host “When More Doctors Smoked Camels: A Century of Health Claims in Cigarette Advertising,” a free illustrated lecture and gallery talk presented by Alan Blum, M.D., on Saturday, Feb. 17 at 1 p.m., highlighting the exhibit “Cartoonists Take Up Smoking,” on display through April 1, 2007.
Week in and week out from the 1920s through the 1950s, tobacco companies used images of physicians and their implied endorsements to help sell cigarettes. Such advertisements appeared not only in most issues of Life, Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News and World Report, but also in the Journal of the American Medical Association and the New England Journal of Medicine.
“Through the years, cigarette advertising depicted doctors almost as often as movie stars and sports heroes,” said Blum, curator of the exhibit, and whose lecture will feature many such ads and vintage television commercials.
Although cigarette advertisements were banned from TV in 1971, their print counterparts did not completely disappear from medical journals until the 1980s.
“Cartoonists Take Up Smoking,” is an exhibition of original newspaper editorial cartoons retracing the 40-year battle over the use and promotion of cigarettes since the publication of the landmark Surgeon General's report on smoking and health in 1964. It also addresses complacency on the part of organized medicine, politicians, and the mass media in ending the tobacco pandemic.
The exhibit features 55 original cartoons by more than 50 nationally known American editorial cartoonists and is supplemented by smoking-related items, from the original newspaper headlines that inspired the cartoons to advertisements promoting the health benefits of lighting up.
In addition to the cartoons, several mini-exhibitions are on view, including the airline flight attendants’ battle to get Congress to pass the ban on smoking on commercial aircraft; a history of the Kent Micronite Filter, made from asbestos; the advertising of cigarettes in medical journals from the 1920s to the 1980s; and the selection of cigarette commercials and smoking scenes from TV and the movies. Two preserved lungs from the museum’s anatomical collection—one showing the ill effects of smoking and the other a healthy lung—highlight the exhibit.
The exhibit will be on display at the museum, which is open every day except Dec. 25 from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The museum is located at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 6900 Georgia Avenue and Elder Street, NW, Washington, D.C. For more information call (202) 782-2200 or visit www.nmhm.washingtondc.museum. Admission and parking are free.

The System of Comics - new book, and still off-topic

Another post with nothing to do with DC except that one of the translators has stayed in my basement. My friends Bart and Nick, although Canadians (that's a joke, son), undoubtedly did an excellent job on translating Groensteen's book, which apparently will be one of the major books on comics theory. Nick, being an archivist* like me, should have brought a lot to this partnership.
Click on the title to buy a copy now, or order it from Amazon for the free shipping.


The System of Comics
Thierry Groensteen
Translated by Bart Beaty and Nick Nguyen

An authoritative exploration of how the comics achieve meaning, form, and function

This edition of Thierry Groensteen's The System of Comics makes available in English a groundbreaking work on comics by one of the medium's foremost scholars. In this book, originally published in France in 1999, Groensteen explains clearly the subtle, complex workings of the medium and its unique way of combining visual, verbal, spatial, and chronological expressions. The author explores the nineteenth-century pioneer Rodolphe Töpffer, contemporary Japanese creators, George Herriman's Krazy Kat, and modern American autobiographical comics.

The System of Comics uses examples from a wide variety of countries including the United States, England, Japan, France, and Argentina. It describes and analyzes the properties and functions of speech and thought balloons, panels, strips, and pages to examine methodically and insightfully the medium's fundamental processes.

From this, Groensteen develops his own coherent, overarching theory of comics, a "system" that both builds on existing studies of the "word and image" paradigm and adds innovative approaches of his own. Examining both meaning and appreciation, the book provides a wealth of ideas that will challenge the way scholars approach the study of comics. By emphasizing not simply "storytelling techniques" but also the qualities of the printed page and the reader's engagement, the book's approach is broadly applicable to all forms of interpreting this evolving art.

Thierry Groensteen is a comics scholar and translator in Brussels, Belgium. He is the author of La bande dessinée: Une littérature graphique and La construction de la cage, among other books. Bart Beaty is associate professor of communication and culture at the University of Calgary. Nick Nguyen is an archivist at Library and Archives Canada, in Ottawa, Ontario.

FEBRUARY, 192 pages (approx.), 6 x 9 inches, introduction, index
Cloth, 1-57806-925-4
(978-1-57806-925-5)
For sale in the U.S. and its territories only

*Archivists are your jack-of-all-trades of the cultural world. ;^)

A couple of oddities from Tuesday's papers

In the Post, Starbucks has an ad on page A12 to "Draw Salty." Salty's a cartoon pirate head, like the old "if you can draw this" ads that ran in comics. There's 7 blank boxes to draw Salty in various art styles - minimalism, cubism, dada, abstract expressionism, post-impressionism, surrealism and baroque - but this doesn't appear to be a contest.

In the Examiner, a letter to the editor takes them to task for a Darryl Cagle editorial cartoon. The letter writer appears to completely miss the conceit of 'putting lipstick on a pig':


The Washington Examiner
Feb 13, 2007
http://www.examiner.com/a-562401~Letters__February_13__2007.html

WASHINGTON -
Cartoonist got it exactly backwards on Department of Defense budget

Re: “Whoa, I’m gonna need more lipstick” cartoon, Feb. 12

Daryl Cagle’s cartoon gave a factually false image of the defense budget as an ugly pig that is much larger than the “domestic budget.”

According to OMB figures, defense spending will be $439 billion in a total 2007 budget of $2.9 trillion, or 15 percent. Even if one adds the State Department and other international programs, and possible supplemental requests for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the total still comes to less than 20 percent of federal spending. That leaves 80 percent for “domestic” programs.

As a share of the economy, defense spending is at the lowest level since the 1930s. The massive cuts in the 1990s explain why our military is so overextended in what are actually very small wars by historical standards. A country as rich as ours should never be contemplating retreat in the face of insurgent thugs, but we are.

What is driving the increase in federal spending are “mandatory” entitlement programs which are about to consume half the budget. In Senate testimony last month, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned that higher entitlement spending could cripple the economy.

Cagle should get his facts straight, assuming facts matter to his expression of “opinion.”

William R. Hawkins
Senior Fellow for National Security Studies
U.S. Business and Industry Council
Washington, D.C.

And now for something completely different- Pocket Cartoon Course!

I bought this a few years ago to add to my collection of stamps and comics - it fits if you squish it. And this has nothing to do with comics and DC, except for being located somewhere in my house.