Friday, April 04, 2008

Kliban on pot, not cats, or A Secret History of Comics post

This is from the well-known Cat cartoonist, the late B. Kliban.

Kliban - 1976-01

It appeared in Apple Pie, January 1976.

Comics action in Cosmo 1957

Day ad Cosmo1957-04
Robert Day ad for Bell Telephone from Cosmopolitan, April 1957, in which they kindly define 'ubiquitous' for the reader.

Boy, public telephones certainly aren't 'ubiquitous' now, are they? In fact, this ad is incomprehensible to anyone under 20, isn't it?

Florida cartoonists1 - Cosmo1957-04
Florida Cartoonists Poke Fun at Their State, p. 1, Cosmopolitan, April 1957. Featuring Lowell Hoppes and Charles E. Sharman.

Florida cartoonists2 - Cosmo1957-04
Florida Cartoonists Poke Fun at Their State, p. 2, Cosmopolitan, April 1957. Featuring Martin Filchock and Bandell Linn.

OT: April 4: Illuminations exhibit opens

A friend at work is part of an art gallery co-op in Baltimore and the following card is from the latest show of works on paper. The opening is tonight.

April 13: Capital Associates comic book show

April 13: Capital Associates comic book show at the Dunn Loring, VA fire dept as usual, 10-3, $3.00. Pop Mhan guest stars again.

QUICK REVIEWS FOR COMICS DUE 04-09-08

QUICK REVIEWS FOR COMICS DUE 04-09-08
By John Judy

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #556 by Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo. Creepy Mayan blood cults, snowstorms, and Spidey finds a new use for the Daily Bugle. Nuthin’ dirty but your mind, Mister Man.

BATMAN: DEATH MASK #1 of 4 written and illustrated by Yoshinori Natsume. A Prestige Format manga mini from the creator of “Toguri.” Ask your kid.

BOOSTER GOLD #8 by Geoff Johns, Jeff Katz, and Dan Jurgens. Still a really good title but the recurring presence of those stupid OMAC things is cause for concern. OMACs are the evil future clones of the DCU.

CRIMINAL 2 #2 by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Another done-in-one story featuring Teeg Lawless, patriarch of the low-rent Lawless crime family. This issue has an expanded number of main story and back-up pages and is pure Blue Magic heroin for lovers of the crime noir genre. Too rough for kids. Highly recommended for clever teens and up.

DOKTOR SLEEPLESS #6 by Warren Ellis and Ivan Rodriguez. Injury to the eye motif! Comics Code Authority turning in its grave! Avatar website still horrible. Somebody call me a Doktor!

FANTASTIC FOUR #556 by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch. Big fights with Robo-Cap in the snow. It's a ride.

GOON #23 written and illustrated by Eric Powell. Overheard outside Madame Elsa’s Burlesque: “Back off, youse mugs! I swiped this here salmon and I’m gettin’ the squeezin’s!” Recommended!

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #14 by Geoff Johns, Alex Ross, and Dale Eaglesham. Why, God, why? Why are the clouds laughing at our heroes? And why do the clouds have fangs and crows feet? It’s an Alex Ross cover and thus filled with hidden meaning. Really. Look for the word “Nina.”

MARVEL ZOMBIES: DEAD DAYS HC by Lotsa People. Featuring all those Marvel Zombie stories that didn’t appear in the two mini-series. Twisted kicks. NOT for kids.

NUMBER OF THE BEAST #1 of 8 by Scott Beatty and Chris Sprouse. It’s the Apocalypse done up Wildstorm style! Featuring the return of a hero we all thought Warren Ellis had killed off! (Okay, that doesn’t narrow it down much, I know…)

PUNISHER #56 by Garth Ennis and Goran Parlov. The final Garth Ennis story-arc in which eight Special Forces soldiers are ordered to take out the Punisher, knowing that he won’t fire back on U.S. military and The Law. Not for kids, no-how, but highly recommended for all others.

SERENITY: BETTER DAYS #2 of 3 by Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews, and Will Conrad. The crew goes on vacation in the good ol’ days before fan favorites died horribly on the big screen.

TITANS #1 by Judd Winick and Ian Churchill. Looks like a return of the original Marv Wolfman/George Perez line-up so that’s a nice nod to us geezers. Gotta look.

WHATEVER GN written and drawn by Karl Stevens. A collection of short stories about life in the college town of Allston, Massachusetts. No capes, no tights, no kidding. Neat stuff.

WOLVERINE #64 by Jason Aaron and Ron Garney. Crazy, bloody chase caper continues! Great fun from Aaron and Garney. Ron Garney's tears cure athlete's foot.* Recommended!

WONDER WOMAN #19 by Gail Simone and Bernard Chang. WW’s having trouble with a nasty bunch of Khunds. They’re an alien race, so help me.

YOUNG LIARS #2 written and drawn by David Lapham. If you’re missing your fix of Lapham’s “Stray Bullets” you should certainly be reading this. Nihilistic fun, but not for younger kids.

www.johnjudy.net

*disclaimer from the blog owner. Probably not, but Mr. Garney did write in and ask that he be acknowledged as one of the creators of the comic in response to one of Mr. Judy's recent posts.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Piskor covers City Paper


The new issue of the Washington City Paper has a really nice cover of books as buildings by Pekar-collaborator Ed Piskor. He did interior illos for the story too. I'm willing to entertain requests for tear sheets if they come in soon.

April 21: Jef Thompson painting exhibit

Big Planet Comics' Jef Thompson has a show of Icelandic and English Landscapes in Baltimore from April 21-May 16. Viola!

Oliphant exhibit in April

There's one opening around April 14th - the exhibit that had been in Georgia - somewhere on Connecticut Ave in a Stanford gallery or something. More and better details will follow and clear up this post.

9 Chickweed Lane

Neither the Post nor the Times run 9 Chickweed Lane which I can't understand and I really don't get Gene Weingarten's professed dislike especially when it has strips like this.

Al Hirschfeld and Flash Gordon

Now how often do you see a duo in a title like that? Here's a couple of pieces I picked up recently, which is the only thing they have in common.

Hirschfeld - LaMancha
Al Hirschfeld cover for Man of La Mancha - note there's one Nina in there (click on the picture to open a larger one in Flickr). Record albums frequently used to have covers by cartoonists. I pick up a few, but there's some hard-core collectors out there with big collections.

FlashGordon5 - Playboy9801
Ming the Merciless paper toy from Playboy, January 1981. Print and make it now!

FlashGordon6 - Playboy9801
...and the instructions.

I love paper...

April 5: 6th Cherry Blossom Anime Marathon.

The Freer-Sackler's showing anime this weekend for their 6th Cherry Blossom Anime Marathon and details are in Rachel Kaufman's "Animated Imports: What's as Japanese as cherry blossoms? An Anime Marathon," [Washington Post] Express (April 3): E5.

Here's the film info from their website:

Sixth Annual Cherry Blossom Anime Marathon
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Meyer Auditorium
In celebration of this year’s National Cherry Blossom Festival, the Freer Gallery of Art, in conjunction with the Japan Information and Cultural Center and Otakorp, Inc., presents a day-long festival of four Japanese Anime films. This year’s event includes a costume show courtesy of the DC Anime Club as well as surprise special guests.

Free tickets for all films (limit 2 per person per film) will be distributed beginning at 10:30 AM, and will be available throughout the day.

All films are in Japanese with English subtitles, unless otherwise indicated.

11:30 AM
Jungle Emperor Leo
Adapted from a manga comic by the legendary Osamu Tezuka, this charming fable directed by Yoshio Takeuchi is a treat for animal lovers of all ages. Leo, a majestic white lion, rules the jungle at the foot of mysterious Moon Mountain, living in harmony with the other beasts – until humans show up and threaten to shatter their peaceful existence. 1997 / 100 min., Rated PG, Dubbed in English.

2:30 PM
Atagoal: Cat's Magical Forest
Hideyoshi is, literally, a fat cat who loves nothing more than gorging himself on tuna and rocking out at the annual town festival in the magical land of Atagoal. He gets into trouble, however, when he accidentally releases the imprisoned Botanical Queen Pileah, who has sinister plans for Hideyoshi and his feline friends. Mizuho Nishikubo’s film is fun for the whole family. 2006 / 81 min., suitable for all ages.

5:00 PM
5 Centimeters Per Second
The title of Makoto Shinkai’s wistful coming-of-age film describes the velocity at which cherry blossom petals fall – a metaphor for the impermanence of human relationships that is the theme of its three connected stories. Each story takes place at a different point in the lives of the film’s three main characters, from puppy love thwarted by a family move, to an unrequited teenage crush, to melancholy reminiscences in adulthood. 2007 / 62 min., unrated, appropriate for all ages.

7:00 PM
Appleseed: Ex Machina
The year is 2138. Society is divided between humans and peaceful cyborgs developed to prevent the wars that killed half of the world’s population. But what happens when nefarious forces find a way to make them violent? Inspired by a popular manga comic, Shinji Aramaki’s sci-fi braintwister offers state-of-the-art animation, thrilling action scenes, and a provocative meditation on what our world might become. 2007 / 105 min., PG-13.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Positive review of Cul de Sac

"'Cul de Sac,' the Comic Strip You Need to Read: Richard Thompson mixes childish innocence and adult neuroses to perfection," by Van Jensen, ComicMix Tue Apr 1, 2008.

Manga Shakespeare photos

I've got notes about the presentation that I'll try to write up soon, but here's some pictures at least. It was very interesting.

Writer Adam Sexton and artist Yali Lin, adaptors of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet: The Manga Edition. Booksigning after lecture at Folger Shakespeare Library.
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Georgetown University professor op-ed on Danish Islam cartoon controversy

See "The Controversy Over the Cartoons," by Noureddine Jebnoun, Middle East Online pril 2, 2008. Jebnoun is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.

April 7: David Hajdu at Politics and Prose

Monday, April 7th at 7 pm: David Hajdu turns from the folk pop era of the ’60s (Positively Fourth Street) to the comic book era of the ‘30s and ‘40s with THE TEN-CENT PLAGUE at Politics and Prose in DC.

I'm going; anyone else?

April 12: Howard Zinn and Mike Konopacki

Saturday, April 12, 1 p.m at Politics and Prose - HOWARD ZINN & MIKE KONOPACKI's A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF AMERICAN EMPIRE: A GRAPHIC ADAPTATION (Metropolitan, $17).

The people’s historian has teamed up with labor cartoonist Mike Konopacki for a graphic presentation of American imperialism. Zinn’s primary-source accounts are illuminated by the artist’s pen, making for a dramatic and bracing retelling of the darker side of our national story.

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Singer on Morrison on Superman

Go read Marc on All-Star Superman #10, and briefly return with us to the thrilling days of yesteryear when titans like Eliot S! Maggin wrote about a godlike superhero.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

National Cartoonist Society nominations online

And our own Richard Thompson's name can be seen on the site. The very last name, it's true...

For the main Reuben, it's an odd group - two single panel cartoonists even though no single panels where nominated for an award, and a grand old man of MAD Magazine, Al Jaffee, who should win. There's a good article on Jaffee in "A Veteran MAD Man Remains in the Fold,"By NEIL GENZLINGER, New York Times March 30, 2008.

April 4: Stephen King at Folger

April 4, 2008 8 P.M. PEN/Faulkner winds up its 2007-08 season with a reading by "The Three Kings": bestselling novelist Stephen King, his wife, Tabitha King, and their son Owen King at the Folger Shakespeare Library, 201 East Capitol St. SE. A reception and book signing follow. Tickets are $30; RSVP at 202-544-7077 or http://www.folger.edu/pen.

April 1: Marjane Satrapi in Baltimore; April 2 in McClean

She's well worth going to hear.

April 1, 20087 P.M. Iranian-born writer and artist Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis (her memoir of Iran's Islamic Revolution told in graphic novel form and the basis for an Oscar-nominated animated film), delivers the 2008 Baldwin Lecture in Humanities at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland, 4701 N. Charles St., Baltimore, Md. A book signing follows. For details, call 410-532-5516 or visit http://www.ndm.edu.

She will also speak on Wednesday, April 2, at 7 p.m. at the McLean Community Center, Alden Theatre, 1234 Ingleside Ave., McLean, Va. Admission to this event, sponsored by the Fairfax County Public Library (part of its "Perspectives" series), is free. Tickets will be distributed (limit four per person) beginning at 7 p.m.; call 703-324-8428 for details.