Postcards review in Bookslut

Colleen Mondor reviews DC-ite Jason Rodriguez's forthcoming anthology Postcards in Bookslut July 2007. I've got a proof copy thanks to Chris Shields that I will attempt to review here soon.

July 20-22 - Otakon 2007 in Baltimore

See "Otakon convention takes on Baltimore" by Tyler Waldman, Baltimore Towerlight 7/8/07 for more details on this anime and manga convention.

AAEC, CWA and animation bits and pieces UPDATED

A review of a new animated TV show, "Rick & Steve the Happiest Gay Couple in All the World," appeared in the Blade last week - "Logo's 'South Park': New animated show creates a gayer version of Comedy Central's cartoon hit" by BRIAN MOYLAN, Washington Blade Friday, July 06, 2007.

In the City Paper, Derf's strip is autobiographical from when he was a garbage man. He's done a whole comic on that which is worth reading.

Meanwhile Daryl Cagle, whom I saw but didn't get around to meeting, posted a report on his AAEC experience on his blog today. Also, South African cartoonist Zapiro's award from the Cartoonist Rights Netowrk is noted in "Zapiro's work draws bravery accolades."

The Washington Examiner has a small report in their gossip column on the Cartoonists with Attitude event at Borders. Jeff Dufour and Patrick Gavin wrote "Yeas & Nays : Cartoonists Weigh In On The President," Washington Examiner (July 9, 2007): 6, although I didn't notice either of them there. Also in the print version, but not online, is a recipe from Ratatouille, from and for Ratatouilee and sent by AP.

NPR reviews American U exhibit with 2 cartoonists

The exhibit's open through July 29th.

Ydstie, John. 2007.
Cartooning Bush and President Next
National Public Radio's Morning Edition (July 9).
Online at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11794366

For more than six years, President Bush has given political cartoonists plenty of fodder. But enough already. Some of them say they're ready to turn their pens on new targets.

An exhibit at American University in Washington, D.C., features cartoons of the Bush administration. John Ydstie tours "Bush Leaguers:Cartoonists Take on the White House" with Rex Babin of the Sacramento Bee and Mikhaela Reid, a freelancer whose work appears in alternative weeklies.

They talk about what it might be like to draw some of the possible presidential successors come 2009.

Bladensburg 7-11 transformed into Simpson's sim

The Bladensburg 7-11 converted to a Simpson's sim is profiled in "Apu Fans Flock to Bladensburg Kwik-E-Mart "by Express contributor Michael Tunison, online only at Express July 6, 2007. The picture here is by Mr. Tunison, and from the Express website.

Association of American Editorial Cartoonist Cartoonapalooza pictures

I've got some of the pictures I took at Cartoonapalooza on July 3rd online now.

Cartoonists with Attitude booksigning photographs

Chris Shields took pics of the booksigning - see his "cIndyCenter.com...Cartoonists crossing BORDERStm" and note that TM because it's a damn clever phrase.

Thanks for the tip, Chris! Chris also has a new cartoonist interview up that I'll try to link to later today. It was a busy week.

Jerry Robinson's Astra musical opens in DC

I ran the press release on this a few weeks ago, but now the show's hitting the mainstream media.

Japanese and Jewish; The musical 'Astra' has mixed parentage, By Lisa Traiger, Washington Jewish Week.

Y'know, I gave him and his wife a ride back to their hotel last night and forgot to ask him about this...

Rob Ullman cartoon for City Paper's Savage Love is a repeat

But he seems to have a good reason - Tom Spurgeon notes that he's now a new dad! So I guess we'll cut him some slack this time.

Congratulations, Rob, and I look forward to seeing her at SPX this year. Rob's illustrations regularly make the Savage Love sex column in the Washington City Paper a must-see, and I buy some of his original artwork each time I see him.

Censored Tom the Dancing Bug online now UPDATED

At Tuesday's Cartoonapalooza session, Reuben Bolling said the Post won't be running this week's Tom the Dancing Bug strip on Dick Cheney. It's online now, so you can see the strip the Post thought was piling on poor Dick after their reporters 5-days of articles about the V-P's creation of a fourth branch of government that certainly isn't the fourth estate. Bolling showed the censored strip which was of Cheney killing his aides when they brought bad news, but now we can all enjoy it.

Tom Spurgeon linked to my first post on this and reasonably said that he's not quite sure this is censorship and running one cartoonist over another can be a reasonable editorial policy. I don't disagree with that, but I do think when you choose not to run the strip the artist submits, for an admittedly political reason, and then run another older strip by the same artist, that's censorship, not just editing. But thanks for noticing Tom! Tom's got one of the two best blogs for consolidating comics news reports on the web and his site should be read every day.

To recap, as I've noted before, The Post has a pattern of censoring comics and not telling its readers as I reviewed here a few months ago.

UPDATE (after checking my notes): Just to show the Post is not alone, Ruben mentioned that the Richmond Post-Dispatch always drops the strip when God-man is featured.

AAEC in DC - Dave Astor continues to have the story

I "attended" most of these sessions, lurking in corners, thanks to AAEC president and Pittsburgh cartoonist Rob Roger's tolerance. He did an excellent job organizing things, and I hope we see more of him in DC - he attended the Mankoff talk I posted about last month which is where me met. I also met Dave Astor who has linked to this blog off and on, and has done an excellent job covering syndicates and cartoonists for over twenty years at Editor and Publisher. So here's Dave's coverage:

Cartoonists' Group Backs Measures To Save Jobs
By Dave Astor
E and P Online
Published: July 07, 2007 4:30 PM ET

Drawing Conflict: Cartoonists Discuss War
By Dave Astor
Published: July 07, 2007 9:00 AM ET

Shapiro Receives 'Courage in Editorial Cartooning' Prize -- Will Durst Speaks
By Dave Astor
Published: July 07, 2007 9:45 AM ET

At Cartoon Confab, Mark Shields Tweaks Pols
By Dave Astor
E and P Online
Published: July 06, 2007 3:23 PM ET

Cartoonists Have Varying Degrees of Enthusiasm for Blogging
By Dave Astor
E and P Online
Published: July 06, 2007 9:50 AM ET

Cartoonists at Confab Hail Animation
By Dave Astor
Published: July 06, 2007 10:30 PM ET

Muhammad Cartoons Editor Among Speakers Discussing Muslim Images
By Dave Astor
Published: July 06, 2007 9:43 AM ET

(One point that Dave missed that Rose made was that at least one of the cartoons, the one with the child writing on a blackboard, called the editor a 'provacateur' and had nothing to do with Mohammad, as others did not as well. Another point was the cartoonist who drew the bomb in the turban was raised as a fundamentalist and is now anti-religion and regularly draws anti-Christian cartoons as well.

Cartoonists with Attitude booksigning report

A couple of days ago, Matt Bors was commissioned to do a full-page drawing for "Drawing Blood: Cartoonists With Attitude" by Scott Rosenberg, Express July 5, 2007. I found out from Scott when I ran into him at the event that this interview with Tom the Dancing Bug cartoonist Ruben Bolling was online even though I couldn't find it. So here's the article. The event was well-attended - standing room only as I got there late having driven (duh) to the wrong downtown Borders. The gang loosely led by Ted Rall each showed three or four of their cartoons, sans microphone, and then took questions and signed books. I think I head the Borders rep say 150 people were there. I spotted local cartoonists Richard Thompson and Jason Rodriguez (whose Postcards book is coming out soon), Scott, cIndy blogger Chris Shields, SPX organizer Warren Bernard and OSU Comic curator Jenny Robb. I bought all the books I hadn't by the group and if I wasn't so tired, I'd list them for you. And yes, I got them all signed.

Cartoonists Rights Network dinner

Last night, thanks to the generosity of John Lent, I attended the
Cartoonists Rights Network dinner of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists. I may expand this post later, but I'll just note that the four after-dinner speakers were excellent. The Canadian Ambassador spoke about Canada's commitment to free speech (but not to hate speech - slippery slope there). Iranian turned Canadian cartoonist Nik Kosar, a previous winner of the CRN yearly award was there and noted that he had just been reunited with his family, four years after he was forced to flee Iran. Fleming Rose spoke on the Danish Islam cartoon controversy; at an earlier session he made the salient point, "It is individuals, not religions, who enjoy human rights." In this session, he warned strongly against capitulating on free speech issues.

Jonathan "Zapiro" Shapiro of South Africa was presented with this year's award and discussed being sued by a South African politician for $2 million dollars due to three cartoons claimed defamatory. He's fighting it of course, but also told us about his earlier career as an anti-apartheid cartoonist. An article about his award is in his newspaper
"Zapiro's truth to power lauded" Mail & Guardian 6 July 2007.

The evening ended with political humorist Will Durst cracking up all the gathered editorial cartoonists. Pictures hopefully will follow.

Dave Astor posted his take on it -
Shapiro Receives 'Courage in Editorial Cartooning' Prize -- Will Durst Speaks
By Dave Astor
Published: July 07, 2007 9:45 AM ET

AAEC in Washington - Dave Astor's got the story

The editorial cartoonists are in DC for their con, and Editor and Publisher's Dave Astor's got the stories.

Editorial Cartoonists Discuss: Can Their Profession Survive?
By Dave Astor
Published: July 05, 2007 7:00 PM ET

Longtime Cartoonist Jerry Robinson Co-Authors New Musical
By Dave Astor
Published: July 05, 2007 3:20 PM ET


Helen Thomas Praises Cartoonists for Not Fearing 'The Truth'
By Dave Astor
Published: July 05, 2007 10:40 PM ET


Dana Priest Thanks AAECers for Walter Reed Scandal Cartoons
By Dave Astor
Published: July 05, 2007 3:35 PM ET

July 5: Special comics feature in free Express! UPDATED

I got a tip last week that there would be something interesting comics-wise in Thursday's Express (the free paper in the yellow bins). It's a full color page strip by Matt Bors on Cartoonists with Attitude and then an article on the group with is in town for the AAEC convention.

I picked up a bunch should an out-of-town reader (are there any besides Journalista?) really really desire one.

July 16 Train Man manga movie

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


CONTACT: Misako ITO , 202-238-6949 misakoito@emjapan.org

The Japanese Information and Culture Center Present: Train Main

TRAIN MAN:
DENSHA OTOKO
Monday July 16th
6:30 PM
Japan Information & Culture Center

A quiet, young computer programmer decides to step out of his shell and stand up to a lecherous drunk harassing a young woman on one of Tokyo’s many trains. The Otaku (geek) then finds himself in the unfamiliar position of interacting with the grateful and attractive woman. With no knowledge of how to even talk to a girl, he enlists the help of an online forum to pursue his new love. Can his rag-tag group of chat buddies find a way to transform him into the man of her dreams?

TRAIN MAN: DENSHA OTOKO was inspired by true events on a popular online bulletin board in Japan called 2ch. It was then made into a manga series, novel and even a play. It was also turned into a hugely popular television series.

In Japanese with English subtitles 105 minutes

This event is free and open to the public. Reservations are required.
RSVP to jiccrsvpsummer07@embjapan.org
Japan Information and Culture Center, Embassy of Japan
Lafayette Center 1155 21Pst PSt NW Suite M200 Washington DC 20036
202-238-6949 www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/jicc

This showing of TRAIN MAN: DENSHA OTOKO is made possible by VIZ Pictures
http://www.trainman-movie.com/

AAEC report with DC cartoonists quotes

A good article on the state of editorial cartooning can be found in "Trying Times In Toontown" by Randy Barrett, National Journal, Monday, July 2, 2007. Barrett talks to Tom Toles and Ann Telnaes on the local front, and many of the same points (and cartoons) were made in last night's Cartoonapalooza.

Post censors Tom the Dancing Bug - AAEC breaking news

At tonight's Cartoonapalooza session, Reuben Bolling said the Post won't be running this week's Tom the Dancing Bug strip on Dick Cheney. It's not online yet, but enjoy last week's excellent King George strip, a clipping of which I got signed by Bolling tonight. Bolling showed the censored strip which was of Cheney killing his aides when they brought bad news. The Post has a pattern of censoring comics more than other pieces as I reviewed here a few months ago.

Links, more description of the event and fuzzy pictures to follow.

Washington DC gets a Kwik-E-Mart!

Well, Bladensburg really. Still, it's close, but it's Maryland?! Does that mean that Springfield, VA is not the home of the Simpsons? Surely the 495/95/395 mixing bowl Beltway merge was designed by Homerians.

The Washington Post has the story too. There's a picture in the print version.

Richard's Poor Almanack on the transformation of Dick Cheney UPDATED

My wife, not a comics aficionado, really really liked this Saturday's panel on Dick Cheney's embodiment of the Heisenberg uncertaintity princle - he's not part of the Executive Branch, not part of the Legislative Branch, so what is he? She liked it so much I'm making photocopies so she can hang one up and mail one to her father.

It's not online yet (sigh - does the Post think you're going to run out and buy a 2-day old paper?) but you can see last week's Beach Houses.

Richard Thompson stalkers will be able to find him (and me) at tomorrow night's Cartoonapalooza.

July 4th update - it's online now. At the Cartoonpalooza event, many people were complementing Richard on this strip. Also this week, Doonesbury's been running strips on Cheney and the 4th branch, as did yesterday's Candorville.