April 19: Zippy's Bill Griffith speaks in Baltimore

Dave Astor reports that Bill Griffith will be speaking at Johns Hopkins. A google search will probably reveal the fine details.

April 15: Capital Associates comic convention

Thanks to Randy T for the tip.
http://www.capicons.com/

10-3 at the Dunn Loring Volunteer Fire Department, $3 entry

Venue info:
Dunn Loring Volunteer Fire Department
2148 Gallows Road
Dunn Loring, VA 22027
Tel: 1-703-893-1340

The Dunn Loring Volunteer Fire Department is only about a five minute drive (1.5 miles) from the Tysons DoubleTree Hotel.

Directions through Mapquest

Or...
Take I-495 (DC/Capital Beltway),
to Exit 47A (Rt 7 West)
Go ½ mile, Left on Gallows Rd
1 mile to 2148 Gallows Rd

'INTERPLANETARY JOURNAL OF COMIC ART: A Festschrift in Honor of John Lent' is now available.

April 5, 2007 – INTERPLANETARY JOURNAL OF COMIC ART: A Festschrift in Honor of John Lent is now available.

Editor's note - The first issue of the new InterPlanetary Journal of Comic Art (or IPJOCA as we call it around the virtual office) is now available. We are proud to invite you to the 43rd indispensable academic organ published by JOHN LENT MULTIMEDIA ENTERPRISES. All are personally hand-edited by our founder and publisher JOHN LENT, and we remind you that any suggestions of forced labor or involuntary servitude were completely dismissed in Temple University grad students v. JOHN LENT FAMILY CONGLOMERATE. This issue is slightly late, and we apologize for that. Editor JOHN LENT was traveling widely with stops on Pluto, Venus, Charon, Deimos and Phobos, Antarctica, Cyprus, Monte Carlo and the French Riviera, interviewing aging cartoonists and presenting learned discourses on the history of comic art. LENT's presentation on Pluto, "Which came first? The planet or the dog?" was particularly well-received and will appear in a future issue of IPJOCA. IPJOCA is a proud successor to the Colonial Journal of Comic Art, the Union Journal of Comic Art, the Confederate Journal of Comic Art, and the Imperial Journal of Comic Art, as well as the continuing flagship International Journal of Comic Art.

Actually, IPJOCA is a work of satire and parody, published on the occasion of John's seventieth birthday in 2006, give or take a few months. Since 1960, John has published, taught, and lectured widely on comic art, and since 1999 has been the publisher and editor-in-chief of the academic International Journal of Comic Art. In March of this year, John served on the Pulitzer Prize Nominating Juries in Journalism. John has published over 70 books and 800 articles on comic art, mass communication and Asian studies.

John's colleagues in the comic world have come together to create a tribute book, and to present it to him on April 6th at the Popular Culture Association meeting in Boston. The fully-illustrated book features a front cover by cartoonist Nick Thorkelson, and a back cover by Ralph Steadman as well as 100 pages of witty articles.

To order your copy for $10, go to http://www.lulu.com/content/679026; to subscribe to the International Journal of Comic Art, go to
http://www.ijoca.com and follow the instructions.

Table of Contents

Lent Knows – cover by Nick Thorkelson

Seqart Scholarship across the United Planets: A Brief Survey - Josty Ketew (Randy Duncan)

ICAF Times – comic strip by Roger Sabin & C. Hill

"Domus inferna Sancti Guthlaci": A Rediscovery of the twelfth-century narrative of "The Saint and the Money Pit" - K. A. Laity

ICAF Round-table: 'The Contribution of John Lent' - Rogerius Sabinis

Give It Up For Lent! – cartoons by E.C. Lockett, from ideas by Sabin & Rhode

The Exegesis of John Lent's Exegesis: A Postmodest Explalicinalysis of John Lent's Comicological Scholarship - Dr. Solomon Davidoff

Cartooning on Venus: A Problematic Field - Michael Rhode

Cheroots of the Gods: Ancient Contact with Talking Animals from the Stars - Er'q Vondan Iken (Steve Thompson)

Letters - Fusami Ogi

From the X-JOCA Family Archives - K.A. Laity

Men's Comics are from Mars, Women's Comics are from Venus: A Visual Exploration - M.O.D.O.C.A. (Barbara Postema)

A Dozen True Facts about Fredric Wertham That I Will Only Reveal For John Lent - Bart Beaty

Japanese Comic Art History's Mystery Bearded Figure - Ronarudo Suchuwaato (Ron Stewart)

Battle of the Titans: The Great National Geographic - New Yorker Cartoon Rivalry - Cathy Hunter and Michael Rhode

Out of this World (…and back again…) – autobiographical comix by Craig Fischer

Animated Yoga - Cathy Hunter

News - Fantagraphics Books Searches for Saints - Ana Merino

Obituaries - Therian Blackenshort, Theban political cartoonist - Mark C. Rogers

Faded Star Column - Rad Signal by Weary'in Ellis -Michael Rhode

Book Reviews
Leonardo da Vinci, The da Vinci Codex - Trina Robbins

Purty Pitchers All In A Row: A Review of The Interplanetary Comic Art Bibliographies of JOHN LENT Comprehensive Companion Series - Dr. Solomon Davidoff

Martianorum Mangorum Universalis Historia - Marcus Titus Pellitterius (Marco Pellitteri)

Exhibition and Media Reviews
The McDuck Collection: World's Greatest Collection of Rarities, Duckburg Museum - Michael Rhode

Disney Planet Amusement Facility, the dwarf planet formerly known as Pluto, Sol system - Gene Kannenberg, Jr.

Corrections - Leonard Rifas

Anticipatory Errata - Charles Hatfield

Comic Art Bibliography - New Resources in the Field - Michael Rhode

So Who is JOHN LENT really? - Xu Ying

Contributors' Self-Serving Biographic Blurbs

The Serious Art of Laughter – back cover by Ralph Steadman

The 'Return Ted Rall to the City Paper' campaign status

Well, they ran my letter in today's paper, but didn't put Rall back in.

Rall in This Together
Washington City Paper (April 6, 2007): 6

I'm a regular reader of the Washington City Paper, especially for your arts coverage and the comics. I'm sorry to see that you appear to have dropped Ted Rall who is one of the hardest-hitting editorial cartoonists around these days. Please reconsider this decision and bring him back - you could easily drop the two new strips, neither of which is competent nor interesting.

Mike Rhode
Arlington, VA

The bit about the two new strips was a bit harsh and I told them they could drop it when they wrote to me to confirm I was me, but obviously they decided to go with it. They did drop one of them in this week's redesign of the paper, but have kept Thingpart by Joe Sayers.

Onion arrives in DC - new strips for us

The satirical weekly newspaper The Onion arrived in their green boxes in DC today. The paper seems to run regular reviews of comic books although there weren't any in today's issue. However, we do get some more comic strips in town, some of which I haven't seen before.

*Red Meat by Max Cannon - already running in the City Paper;
*Cathy - no longer in the Post, and this version is in Spanish;
*Postage Stamp Funnies by Shannon Wheeler - small panel by the Too Much Coffee Man creator;
*The Leftersons by Colin T. Hayes - seems to be political;
*Wondermark by David Malki - clip art, but of a higher level than Rees' Get Your War On. Online at http://wondermark.com;
*The Spats by Pickering - a King Features syndicated gag strip.

Also there's a political cartoon by Kelly, credited to the Onion Syndicate.

April 6-8, Reistertown, MD: Cards, Comics, & Collectibles sale

The postcard I received says Gold & Silver 30% off, Modern Back issues 70%, Toys and statues 50%, new comics 20%, hardcovers and trades 50% and on Sunday, 80% off Modern Back issues. Tempting.

They're at 100 A Chartley Drive, Reisterstown, MD 410-526-7410

Coming Soon: Geppi's Entertainment Museum, Gib Crockett tumblers and the Herblock award ceremony

As well as the Interplanetary Journal of Comic Art's debut, and more on Steinberg's short tenure at the Smithsonian. But they'll have to wait a day as I'm too tired to post due to the 4 am thunderstorm wakeup call.

Homeland security out of control in Baldo? UPDATED

(Originally posted on 4/2/07)

Was anyone else suprised by yesterday's strip in which Homeland Security's ICE thugs busted in and dragged off Tia Carmen? I was waiting to see what happened today, but the strip's continuing its storyline of Carmen meeting a nice gentleman. Interestingly, the artist morphed from the usual cartoony style to a more realistic style for these strips.

But back to the deportation - so did the strips run out of order? Obviously this Sunday strip isn't a humorous parody.

--UPDATE Dave Astor points out that this was an April Fool's joke. Well, they got me, as Master Ibid pointed in the comments (that I'm just seeing now after completing this post. Sigh). Here's the cartoonists' explanation from their website at Baldocomics.com (on their blog, there's a lot of comments, pro and con after their post):

Tuesday, April 3, 2007
A message from Hector & Carlos
WOW!! What an incredible reaction! There are way too many letters to post, but below are some of the more interesting responses we've gotten to Sunday's strip showing Tía Carmen being deported. Here's the deal. Our April 1 strip was an April Fool's strip (duh). Considering how much people love Tía Carmen, we thought it would be interesting to have her "deported" in dramatic fashion -- something we would never do in the strip, but something that makes a powerful statement. Admittedly, we took lots of creative license for dramatic effect (it is a comic strip after all). But that's all we did. Now, obviously, the strip hit a nerve with LOTS of people, both pro and anti immigrant. The issue itself is no joke and we don't take it lightly. It's a serious matter and we hope we got people to thinking about it. Some readers even see Carmen as a symbol of the immigration issue and demanded a T-shirt. We're happy to oblige and have set up a little store here.

Free Tia Carmen!

But we're gonna move on now. We think our point has been made -- even if it was unconventially delivered. Our familia played out their skit and we now return to our regularly scheduled programming. Bueno? Bueno!

Saul Steinberg: Illuminations quick review

This exhibit is great. Go see it at the Smithsonian American Art Museum when it opens.

Too quick? Yeah, I think so too. In the newly-renovated and renamed SAAM, three large galleries are devoted to the exhibit which was curated by Joel Smith for Vassar College. The exhibit has over 100 drawings, paintings, sketches, masks, and wooden sculpture-type objects, as well as some sketches unique to the Smithsonian. The exhibit follows Steinberg's career from the 1930s until the 1990s. As you can see below, he was capable of a variety of styles of illustration and cartooning.
"Techniques at a Party (1953) copyright the Saul Steinberg Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.
By being arranged chronologically, Smith and SAAM curator Joann Moser let us see the development of Steinberg as a cartoonist and an artist as he moves from style to style and experiments with techniques. Steinberg, born in Romania in 1914 trained as an architect in Italy in the 1930s, but also became known as a cartoonist there. He moved to the US in 1942, and became part of the New York art scene as well as a professional cartoonist. His anti-Axis cartoons for PM magazine, although not in the show, were particularly good. During this time, he developed his graceful and playful line that one thinks of as particularly 'Steinbergian,' assuming one thinks that way. To the left, a good example is "Underground," (1946) copyright the Saul Steinberg Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.

Steinberg also did a lot of commercial illustration and advertising work at this time, doing Christmas cards for MOMA and then Hallmark as well as magazine ads. He also became firmly part of the New Yorker stable. Eventually his 1975 "View of the World from 9th Avenue" would probably become the most widely known cover the magazine ever had. Copyright the Saul Steinberg Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.

One thing that becomes obvious in this exhibit is Steinberg's sense of experimentation. As well as cartooning, he tried photography drawing the famous image of a woman on a bath tub and then shooting it, but also drawing directly on photographs. He did collages, and odd things, like the "Female Mask" below.
"Female Mask" (1959-1965) copyright the Saul Steinberg Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

Out of context, the Mask series seems strange and odd. When you see them after years of his experimentation with paper and collage and lines, they make a perfect playful sense. In the 1980s, he moved into making illusions and illustrations with wood. The exhibit opens with "Library," a fake desk with fake books. I didn't really appreciate Steinberg going into this exhibit, but I left with a great fondness for his work.
Pieces like "Wyoming" (1969) above demonstrated his love of graphic imagery and whimsical sense of humor. Those of us who only knew his later work, which was sketchier and more stylized, especially the posthumous publishing the New Yorker is doing now, owe it to themselves to see the livelier artworks. Copyright the Saul Steinberg Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.

The exhibit is on April 6-June 24th, from 11:30-7 daily. Additional events include:

April 7 - On stage with 21st Century Consort, 4 pm lecture, 5 pm concert - there's a charge.

April 15 - Curator Joel Smith at 3 pm.

May 12 - Cartoonist Matt Diffee at 3 pm (he's a good speaker.)

June 2 - Improv Troupe Now This! at 3 pm.

June 3 - New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff at 3 pm (get that Complete New Yorker Cartoons signed).

June 9 - Improv Troupe Now This! at 3 pm.

And there's a big honking catalogue for $65 that I haven't cracked yet.

Go see this show. Let me know what you think.

Express on Rick Veitch

Local comics journalist Scott Rosenberg's got an online-only article about Rich Veitch's new series Army@Love.

The April 2nd Politico on Jib-Jab

The Politico is DC's newest free paper, at least for two more days when the Onion appears. I picked up a copy today, and enjoyed Matt Wuerker's political cartoon and column-heading caricatures. "A Jab at JibJab: YouTube has stolen satirical video site's thunder" by Ryan Grim argues that JibJab isn't as funny as it used to be. I loved This Land is Your Land and some of their other works, but not the animation that preceeded that short run of brilliance, so I'd say give 'em some time.

Read today's Mallard Fillmore

A headline I never thought I'd write. However, today's Mallard Fillmore by Bruce Tinsley, run locally on page 2 of the Washington Times, is a touching tribute to Jay Kennedy, the recently deceased King Features editor.

Stagger Lee graphic novel signing report

I'm late with this report , and I apologize. The signing for the Stagger Lee graphic novel was at Big Planet Comics in Bethesda on Wednesday, April 28, 2007. It started at 2:00 pm, unfortunately after the lunchtime new comics rush. Writer Derek McCulloch (the guy with the hat) and artist Shepherd Hendrix (the guy without the hat) were making an East Coast tour on their own dime, and had appeared on XM radio the day before, and were due at Barnes and Nobles in NYC the day after, followed by a college appearance before returning to California. More details can be found on McCulloch's blog.

Things were slow when I arrived so I talked to them for a bit, and found out a few points of interest. McCulloch had the idea for the book, and showed the script to his old friend Hendrix at a party and Hendrix agreed to illustrate it. The book was about half-drawn when they pitched it to Image. They had been planning on self-publishing, but went with Image for its larger reach and abilities.

The book's been out for about a year and is a bit of a cross-over title, bringing out more music fans than superhero fans. I can attest to this because the 2nd customer had heard the radio show and drove down from Baltimore to buy 3 copies.

McCulloch wrote a full script and Hendrix drew from that. Hendrix had a couple of pieces of the original artwork with him as well as pieces from a couple of fantasy series that he's working on - some very nice stuff. The comic was a bit of a hobby for both of them until Image accepted it and then it became a job and had to be done much faster.

Well, that's all I can recall at the moment - I'll add anything I think of in later. I bought my copy and I encourage you all to give it a try. I imagine Joel's got extra signed copies at Big Planet because Image doubled the shipment he had requested. For more information, don't forget Scott Rosenberg's article - Cruel Old Stagolee Gets Graphic: The legendary tale of Stagger Lee gets a graphic treatment.

Bryan Talbot's Alice in Sunderland

Bryan Talbot will be at Big Planet Comics soon - late afternoon on April 11th. We've met once or twice at SPX, and shared a meal with Paul Gravett at Greg Bennett's a few years back, and I've got to say that his Tale of One Bad Rat is an excellent look at the Beatrix Potter mystique. Now Bryan's turned his attention to Alice in Wonderland - read "He were a right bonny lad, that Mad Hatter; Lewis Carroll's debt to the north east is writ large in the wise and witty graphic book, Alice in Sunderland" by Rachel Cooke in the Sunday April 1, 2007 Observer.

April 5, Fredericksburg: The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life

The Post's Book World reports that Steven Watts will lecture on Disney at the University of Mary Washington, George Washington Hall, Dodd Auditorium, 1301 College Ave, Fredericksburg, VA on April 5 at 7:30 pm. No cost is listed, but the phone number is 540-654-1055.

Ted Rall definitely dropped by City Paper

It's been three weeks, and Ted Rall hasn't been in the City Paper. It's time to start a letter-writing campaign. Their email is mail@washingtoncitypaper.com or webmeister@washingtoncitypaper.com . I'm sending a stiff note to both right now.

BTW, Louis Bayard gave Meet the Robinsons the best review I've seen so far in the March 30th issue.

Mister Ron greeted by Bud Grace

Mister Ron Evry, the Springfield comics historian and collector who's been mentioned here before, has posted a video greeting on his blog from Piranha Club cartoonist Bud Grace.

April 6: Saul Steinberg: Illuminations

The Washingtonian reports on Saul Steinberg: Illuminations
Date(s): 06. Apr 2007 - 24. Jun 2007
Cost: Free
Phone: (202) 633-1000
URL: http://americanart.si.edu/press/press_kits.cfm#steinberg

Saul Steinberg, born in Romania in 1914, began drawing cartoons while studying architecture in Milan. After moving to New York in 1942, he worked as an illustrator, muralist, and designer of fabrics, greeting cards, and stage scenery­—but it was his whimsical cartoons and covers for the New Yorker that brought him fame. Most memorable was his cover depicting a New Yorker’s view of the world—with not much beyond the Hudson River.

“Saul Steinberg: Illuminations,” an exhibit of drawings, collages, and sculpture, is on view April 6 to June 24. It was a hit earlier this year at New York’s Morgan Library, but that version did not include doodles the cartoonist made when he was artist in residence at the Smithsonian in 1967.

Curator Joel Smith will speak on “Steinberg’s Century: Art, Humor, and the Middlebrow Avant-Garde” on April 15 at 3 p.m.

3/31-4/1: Washington International Print Fair - Free

The Print Fair is at the Holiday Inn Rosslyn at 1900 N. Fort Myer Dr in Arlington, today from 10-6 and tomorrow from 11-5. It's free due to their silver anniversary. I'm sure there's comics material here, and I'll be there about 2.

Bits from the Post

Richard Thompson creates a few new cherry tree myths to try out on tourists in his "Poor Almanack" panel in Style.

In "The High and Low Of the Art Scene," Jessica Dawson reviews the exhibit "Tug of War" at Hemphill Fine Arts gallery on 14th street. This is the exhibit with Gary Baseman and Shag paintings in it as well as a few others who have been influenced by cartoons.

In the Metro section, but not online, is a photo of protesters 'Agitating for the First Amendment' whilst wearing V for Vendetta masks.