Saturday, April 19, 2008

Staake comic strip contest in Style Invitational

Today's Post has a contest based on three comic strips drawn by Bob Staake - Week 761: Strip Mining, Saturday, April 19, 2008; Page C02. Remember, you don't have to live in DC to enter the contest.

Ann Telnaes spoke in NYC this week

Dave Astor has the story at Editor and Publisher. Remember her editorial cartoon animations are appearing twice weekly in the Post.

And Trina Robbins will be reviewing the Sex and Sensibility exhibit that Telnaes appears in for the next issue of the International Journal of Comic Art, which has a new issue available now in spite of the website's datedness.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Post chat transcripts of Rubino and Martinbrough online

You can read the hour-long q&a's at

Comics: Drawing 'Noir' and New York Comic Con
Gangsters, Superheros and Other Creatures of the Underworld
Shawn Martinbrough
Illustrator and Author, 'How to Draw Noir Comics'
Friday, April 18, 2008; 12:00 PM

and

Meet the Comics Pages: Tony Rubino, Cartoonist -- "Daddy's Home"
Friday, April 18, 2008; 1:00 PM.

I sent a couple of questions in to the Rubino chat early as ComicsDC that he answered.

Wash Post on Simpsons

One great thing about the Post, and sadly few other American newspapers, is that they're still staffing foreign bureaus. Yesterday they ran their own original reporting on the Simpsons evolving foreign policy crisis - "D'oh! 'Simpsons' Again Angers South Americans," By Monte Reel, Washington Post Foreign Service, Thursday, April 17, 2008; A18.

Later in the day, they ran this wire service report on their website -
"`The Simpsons' return on Venezuela television," The Associated Press, Thursday, April 17, 2008.

April 18 noon: Post chat with Shawn Martinbrough

Comics: Drawing 'Noir' and New York Comic Con: Gangsters, Superheros and Other Creatures of the Underworld - Shawn Martinbrough, Illustrator and Author, 'How to Draw Noir Comics', Friday, April 18, 2008; 12:00 PM

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Best of DC 2008 - Richard Thompson is Best Cartoonist!

From Washington City Paper's 2008 Best of DC (April 18, 2008)...

Best Cartoonist - Richard Thompson!

...and the crowd goes wild!

Mark Athitakis has a nice writeup of Richard's virtues. The WCP also selected this site as...

Best (Comic) Art Blogger - ComicsDC

Thank you very much! That's very kind, especially after I beat up on the WCP so much this past year about their comics losses. I now feel a very teensy bit guilty. Teensy though.


Both of these were spotted by my friend and houseguest Nick "The System of Comics" Nguyen.

Eisner's PS Magazine scanned and online at VCU Library

Virginia Commonwealth University of Richmond has scanned and posted 162 issues of PS Magazine, Will Eisner's military training comic book.

Bob Andelman will be interviewing the librarian in charge of the project Cindy Jackson, as well as the author of the upcoming book, Will Eisner & PS Magazine, Paul Fitzgerald, on FRIDAY, APRIL 18 at 1 p.m. The URL is: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mrmedia/2008/04/18/Cindy-Jackson-and-Paul-Fitzgerald-WILL-EISNER-PS-MAGAZINE-VCU-librarian-and-author-Mr-Media and you can participate in a simultaneous web chat or call in and ask the experts your own questions at (646) 595-3135.

VCU's library is also the home of Tom Inge's comic book collection.

April 25: Tony Rubino on Washington Post chat

Join Washington Post Comics page editor Suzanne Tobin on Friday, April 18 at 1 p.m. ET for a discussion with "Daddy's Home" creator Tony Rubino at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2008/04/15/DI2008041502007.html.

Comic by D.C. natives launches at NYC Comic Con

Arthur Delaney writes in "myself and three other D.C. natives are launching our DIY comic NANOMAN: THE POST - HUMAN PROMETHEUS at the NYC Comic Con this weekend. What we've got right now is a 52 page "beta" book. Check out our website: www.NewAmericanGraphicNovels.com."

Best of luck with your new comic book, Arthur, and we look forward to hearing more about it.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Ex-Express reporter Rosenberg on NYC comic events

Scott Rosenberg's got a couple of articles in his new paper AM NY - see his Ten-Cent Plague review at "Curse of the comics," by Scott A. Rosenberg, April 15, 2008 and "An iFanboy guide to Surviving Comic Con," by Scott A. Rosenberg, April 15, 2008.

Oliphant exhibit coverage from television

There's a video here too -- "Political Cartoonist, Presidential Candidates Appear In D.C.," NBC 4 April 15, 2008.

The exhibit is excellent by the way. More details to follow.

Wuerker cartoon offends Californians

See "Perspectives on Heston and heaven," Readers' Representative Journal (April 15 2008) in which the article starts, "Bob Smith of Glendale calls him Chuck Heston -- he knew the man for 20 years and spent time with him at the L.A. Tennis Club -- and was horrified to see the Matt Wuerker cartoon in The Times' opinion pages on April 8."

Matt, Matt, Matt...

Washington writer reviews new gag comics book on Nazis

See "Is It Kosher To Laugh At Swastikas?," by Menachem Wecker, Jewish Press April 9, 2008 for his review of We Have Ways of Making You Laugh: 120 Funny Swastika Cartoons by Sam Gross.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Oliphant exhibit opening photos

Here's a link - at some point, I'll put the best up here with labels.

April Previews, or What does Mike order?

I don't know if anybody cares, but I always appreciated it when Bart Beaty did his satirical lists, Send Info, from Previews, and then Rodrigo Baeza does his serious ones. So here's what I'm ordering this month.

Herbie Archive, p. 31

Kyle Baker's Nat Turner sc

Joe Kubert biography - Man of Rock, p. 287

Matt Madden and Jessica Able's Drawing Words and Pictures, p. 291

Donald Duck Family - Dan Jippes

Comics Comics 4, p. 328

Gary Giani on Prince Valiant, p. 398

Dark Knight novel (I've got a childhood fondness for superhero novels, for no good reason),

Superheroes! Capes and Crusaders in Comics and Films book by Roz Kaveney, p. 401

Neil Gaiman's The Dangerous Alphabet, p. 405

If I missed anything, let me know!

Oliphant Exhibit in Washington, DC press release

Oliphant Exhibit in Washington, DC

Kansas City, MO (04/08/2008) Editorial cartoonist Pat Oliphant’s exhibit, "Leadership: Oliphant Cartoons and Sculpture from the Bush Years" will be on display April 15 through July 15, 2008 at the Stanford University Washington Center Art Gallery in Washington, DC.

The exhibit is based on a collection of Oliphant’s work in his recently released book, "Leadership: Political Cartoons – The Bush Years" from Andrews McMeel Publishing.

A review of the book on Comicsreporter.com called Oliphant a "...legend who still rushes at his targets knives out, no apologies. He also draws extremely well. After reading so many newspaper cartoons where it seems the reader is expected to compensate for odd stylistic choices and a lack of craft, reading a bunch of Oliphant is like moving mid-bite from vanilla wafers to rum-laced chocolate cheesecake. He's one of the few cartoonists in that field who can communicate -- and punish -- with the quality of his art alone."

The Stanford University Washington Center Art Gallery is located in the Sant Building at 2655 Connecticut Ave., NW in Washington, DC. For questions about the museum or the exhibit, please call 202.332.6235.

For more of Pat Oliphant’s work, visit: http://www.gocomics.com.

Jeff Kinney podcast

Continuing our coverage of the ex-University of Maryland cartoonist, the Free Library of Philadelphia has a downloadable mp3 of his talk to them from April 12th.

Persepolis editors from Alexandria

See "Anjali Singh: Rooting for good books—graphic or prose," by Calvin Reid, Publishers Weekly, 4/14/2008, and she's got a couple of other comics titles that she acquired too.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Animator Lisa Henson profiled in Sunday's Post

On the kid's page - "Familiar Name, Different View," Washington Post Sunday, April 13, 2008; Page M16. The article by Brenna Maloney starts, "It took two years of huffing and puffing, but Lisa Henson, one of the producers of the animated comedy "Unstable Fables: 3 Pigs and a Baby," finally blew the house down."

WashingtonTimes still polling about comics