Jeffrey Thompson's Hiawatha originals

Jeff Thompson who works at Big Planet Bethesda on Wednesdays is a Baltimore artist who's done children's books. He gave me a couple of pieces of artwork. Here you can see his Hiawatha children's book - scratchboard originals mounted with the finished book cover.



Jeff can be found online at

deviant art page
http://xochicalco.deviantart.com/

web site
http://mysite.verizon.net/jeffrey71o/

flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9440125@N07/

Animaniacs unleashed in Arlington

Has anyone noticed that fire departments generally feel, and seem to be, immune from copyright or trademark considerations? Personally I agree with them, but I'm not a large soulless corporation. Here's a picture of a Warner Bros. Animaniacs billboard that suggests you practice your fire escape plan at a fire department in Arlington, VA.

Post interviews Kung Fu Panda's Black for kids section

Scott Moore interviewed Jack Black of the new animated movie "Kung Fu Panda" for "Dude, That's So Skidoosh: Behind the Microphone, an Inner Voice -- and Barrel Kicks," Washington Post Sunday, June 1, 2008; M14 and "Getting to Know Jack Black."

And here's an article on the movie's background - "Call them martial artists: The directors of the ambitious "Kung Fu Panda" break animation boundaries," by COLIN COVERT, Minneapolis Star Tribune May 31, 2008.

Stantis offends people too

Yesterday's letter to the editor - "A Cartoon That Fell Flat," by Richard E. Hurst, Washington Post Saturday, May 31, 2008; Page A11.

Zadzooks on Speed Racer toys

"High-'Speed' action on the racetrack," Joseph Szadkowski, Washington Times Saturday, May 31, 2008.

Illustrators Club exhibit reviewed in Post

See "Who Needs Words? The Pictures Say It All," By Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post Staff Writer, Friday, May 30, 2008; WE31.

The exhibit info is:

On the Wall: 14th Juried Exhibition of the Illustrators Club of Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia Through June 27 at Edison Place Gallery, 702 Eighth St. NW (Metro: Gallery Place-Chinatown) Info:202-872-3396. Hours: Open Tuesday-Friday noon to 4. Admission: Free.

NY Times (and New Yorker) on Iranian cartoonist

I must confess that I was completely unfamiliar with Mohassess's work, but there's an exhibit of it in New York city. See Life in Iran, Etched With Suspicion and Humor By KAREN ROSENBERG, New York Times May 30, 2008. In Ardeshir Mohassess’s drawings, the coded beauty of traditional Persian art comes face to face with the ugliness of successive autocratic regimes.

and "Satire, Iranian," by Ben McGrath, New Yorker June 2, 2008

Baltimore area county intros comics to elementary classes

Actually, Hartford County's school system comes off rather sadly as the report implies that the students can only read at a comic book level (whatever that might mean), "School has been so traditional for so long. This is providing an outlet for a different kind of learner," said teacher Alana Cassedy. Read it yourself at "Comics Add Excitement To Classroom Reading," Gigi Barnett, WJZ May 30 2008.

Richmond's AdHouse Books publisher Chris Pitzer

See Indie Spinner Rack Issue #125 from Monday, May 26, 2008 for Part One of our look at the state of comics distribution! Retailer Andrew Neal, owner of Chapel Hill Comics and publisher Chris Pitzer of AdHouse Books join us to discuss Diamond Comic Distributors - how the system works, what works well, what doesn't, and how can it be improved?

OT: Warren Ellis' FREAKANGELS comes out each Friday

I've been enjoying Warren Ellis' webcomic FREAKANGELS, so when he asked bloggers today to mention it ... well, I just did.

June 21: Pixar book author at Politics and Prose

Bruce Guthrie sent in this tip. At the moment I'm planning on going.

Saturday, June 21, 6 p.m.

DAVID A. PRICE, author of THE PIXAR TOUCH (Knopf, $27.95)

Before the success of Toy Story, Pixar Animation Studios was a struggling computer company. What happened to turn computer animation from an unprofitable fringe industry into the entertainment dynamo it is now? Price has interviewed dozens of company insiders, from executives to animators.

May 31 update - Here's a review of the book by a noted animation historian: "How Pixar got to be the best in the business," Charles Solomon, page M - 4 of the San Francisco Chronicle, Friday, May 30, 2008.

OT: June 22: Superhero fashion conference at the Met

Pete Coogan, who's been studying comics for years, wrote that he's participating in this event at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City:

Sunday at the Met-Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy
This special one-day lecture and panel event, held in conjunction with the exhibition Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy, brings together leading international scholars, critics, and designers to discuss the world of costumes and comics. Themes include the appropriation of the uniform, the adaptation of superhero costumes for the screen, the creation of modern mythologies, and the role of the superhero as metaphor in contemporary society.

Reservations and tickets not required. For more information, contact lectures@metmuseum.org or call 212-396-5460.
Free with Museum admission
10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium

Pete can be contacted at coomics@hotmail.com if anyone would like to discuss the event with him.

May 29: Meet Author D.J. MacHale

This is at a good bookstore in Arlington, and here's more about MacHale and his graphic novel which is illustrated by local cartoonist Carla Speed McNeil.

Meet Author D.J. MacHale
Thursday, May 29, 2008
at 4:00 p.m.

D.J. MacHale, author of the popular Pendragon fantasy series, will introduce and give a talk about the newest, and final, volume of the series, Pendragon Book Nine: Raven Rise. In Raven Rise, Bobby Pendragon is missing, and Mark Diamond and Courtney Chetwynde must hold off their enemy long enough to reach Bobby, and bring him back for the final, epic battle readers have been anticipating for so long. MacHale also will introduce his first graphic novel, Pendragon Graphic Novel Book One: Merchant of Death. MacHale is a writer, director and producer of several popular television series and movies that include Flight 29 Down; Are You Afraid of the Dark?; Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective; Tower of Terror; and Ghostwriter. A book signing will follow. Please call to register. Ages 10 and up.


Alina Gawlik
Aladdin's Lamp Children's Books and Other Treasures
2499 N. Harrison St.
Arlington, VA 22207
Tel 703-241-8281
Fax 703-241-8283
Email: aladlamp@speakeasy.net

STORE HOURS: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, & Saturday 10 am to 6 pm, Tuesday & Thursday 10 am to 8 pm, Sunday 11 am to 5 pm

PSA for Harvey Pekar

Have you contacted Harvey Pekar recently about an exhibit in New York of his work? If so, he's lost your contact information and would like you to call him again. Feel free to repost this so it gets wider circulation, please. This has been a Pekar Service Announcement.

Besides that, he read me a couple of the short strips he's writing now. I had a total fanboy moment - Harvey Pekar's reading me his scripts and asking what I thought. For the record, I honestly liked them. Buy his new comic book from DC - it's excellent.

John Held Jr. postcard

I ran across this postcard left where it was piled waiting to be filed. So just for fun, here's John Held Jr's late style on an advertising card.

Cartoonists Rights Network PR on Dutch cartoon issues

Live from Northern Virginia...

May 27, 2008 11:19 ET
Cartoonists Rights Network, International: CartoonBombing of the Dutch Ministry of Justice
Hundreds die of laughter!

Freedom of expression buried in the ridiculous.

BURKE, VIRGINIA--(Marketwire - May 27, 2008) - Following the arrest in Holland of a free lance cartoonist last week, the head of the Federation of Cartoonists Organizations (FECO), the largest cartooning organization in the world, called on cartoonists all over the world to send their cartoons, all their cartoons new and old, to the Dutch Ministry of Justice. Since the arrest it has come out that the Dutch Secret Service apparently have a division dedicated to checking all the cartoons being published in the country for their political correctness. Responding to heated complaints from some extremist Muslims, the Dutch police last week arrested cartoonist Gregorious Neskschot ("shot in the back of the neck") for cartoons considered "offensive to Muslims and other people of dark skin".

With his arrest, the Minister of Justice revealed the existence of a heretofore secret working group that has been screening cartoons in Holland since 2006. At the same time, the Minister revealed the cartoonist's identity (Nekschot is a pen name) exposing him to the real possibility of assassination, a long standing threat against cartoonists made by various militant groups. Dutch film maker, Theo Van Gogh, was stabbed to death in November 2004 for a film that offended some Muslims. Three men were arrested in Denmark earlier this year when a plot to assassinate one of the 12 Danish cartoonists was uncovered by Danish police.

The campaign to drown the so-called Cartoon Police of the Ministry of Justice with hundreds and thousands of cartoons from all over the world is the brain child of Dutch cartoonist Peter Nieuwendijk, founder and present Secretary General of FECO. The viscous cartoon attack on the Ministry is now supported by the Dutch Cartoons Association, the Dutch Foundation Pers and Prent (Press & Print), FECO International and Cartoonists Rights Network, International.

In a letter to the Minister, dated May 21, 2008, Nieuwendijk factiously asks the Minster to appoint a few of the working group members to sit on an international cartoon competition jury for the Dutch Cartoon Festival of 2009, "in order to alleviate any fear of reprisals and/or uninvited police raids!"

Cartoonists Rights Network International asked all of its affiliate organizations around the world to join the fray, encouraging cartoonists to send their cartoons to the Dutch Ministry of Justice for their considered approval.

To read the email to the Dutch Minister of Justice and the email addresses to send the cartoons, please visit: www.cartoonistrights.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=61&Itemid=44.

For more information, please contact
Cartoonists Rights Network, International
Dr. Robert Russell
Executive Director
(703) 543-8727
Email: mayte6@aol.com or director@cartoonistrights.com
Website: www.cartoonistrights.com

OT: the late Ted Key

Ted Key died a few weeks ago, and his obituary ran in the NY Times. Coincidentally I was looking at material to send to MSU's Comic Art Collection and found his work in the February 1963 Jack & Jill.





Note the runner-up kids got an autographed copy of a drawing by Key - I'd rather have had that than what the 'winners' got.

OT: In Burbank, Gris Grimly will be having a book signing party

The following came over the e-transom today. I'm posting it because 1.) in my friend Tom Inge's book on Poe, Tom thanks Mr. Grimly for loaning artwork and 2.) Grimly's book with Neil Gaiman is coming out on Thursday and was one of John Judy's recommendations from his Quick Reviews this week.

Illustrator and storyteller Gris Grimly will be having a book signing party for “Where Madness Reigns”, at Halloween Town in Burbank, CA on June 7 from 7pm – 9pm.

“Where Madness Reigns”, the first book to showcase the art of Gris Grimly, we be released as a limited edition hardcover. There will also be limited edition silk screened posters, exclusive event t-shirts and one-of-a-kind items in addition to a gallery display of prints and original art for sale, some of which has never been on display or available to the public before. Props from Gris Grimly’s film “CANNIBAL FLESH RIOT!” will be on display as well as some three dimensional sculptures.

Who: Gris Grimly

What: Book Signing Party for “Where Madness Reigns”

Where: Halloween Town, 2921 W. Magnolia Blvd, Burbank, CA

When: June 7 from 7-9pm

ABOUT GRIS GRIMLY:

GRIS GRIMLY can be best described as a storyteller. His distinctive style and wide selection of mediums have captivated a variety of loyal fans and fine art collectors. Originally recognized for his dark yet humorous illustrations for young readers, Mr. Grimly’s interpretive visions have now captured the attention and recognition for his full resume of work. Check out www.madcreator.com to see examples of his work.

QUICK REVIEWS FOR COMICS DUE THURSDAY 05-29-08

QUICK REVIEWS FOR COMICS DUE THURSDAY 05-29-08
By John Judy

(Did I mention everything’s shipping a day late because of Memorial Day?)

ACTION COMICS #865 by Geoff Johns and Jesus Merino. Featuring the return of the original Toyman. Not a hoax, not a dream!

ALL-STAR SUPERMAN #11 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. Superman is dead, but I’ll bet there’s more to it than that. This series is Pure Fun. Recommended!

ASTOUNDING WOLF-MAN #6 by Robert Kirkman and Jason Howard. Have you ever lost control of your powers, accidentally killed a beloved superhero and then that beloved superhero’s team-mates find out? Does Hallmark even make a card for something like that? Recommended.

BATMAN #677 by Grant Morrison and Tony Daniel. “Batman R.I.P. the storyline that will change the Dark Knight forever” continues. And by “forever” we mean “not forever.” It’s Grant Morrison so you have to look.

DAN DARE #6 of 7 by Garth Ennis and Gary Erskine. It’s Dan and the Royal Space Navy versus that dirty Mekon and his black hole! Get your mind out of the gutter and place yer bets! Recommended.

THE DANGEROUS ALPHABET HC by Neil Gaiman and Gris Grimly. A dark romp through the alphabet with pirates, sewer-monsters, and organs in jars! Highly recommended for fans of Charles Addams, Edward Gorey and the like. Great for kids who need literacy and a good scare!

DAREDEVIL #107 by Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka and Michael Lark. A new four-parter begins as DD must make his peace with his failure to save his wife from madness. Highly recommended.

ESSENTIAL RAMPAGING HULK VOL. 1 SC by Lotsa Seventies Marvel Bullpenners. Okay, all you really need to know is that the Hulk had a black & white magazine back in the day and this book collects those issues. Sadly this volume does not include issue #23, the infamous “Bruce Banner almost gets raped in a YMCA group shower” issue. It does include RAMPAGING HULK #1-9, THE HULK #10-15, and for some reason INCREDIBLE HULK #269. We’re gonna see a lot of this stuff for the next few months so brace yourselves.

FINAL CRISIS #1 of 7 by Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones. Not a lot of detail on this other than it’s by Grant and the guy who did all the great covers on “52.” Oh, and it involves a lot of redesigns on Kirby’s Fourth World characters. Worth a look anyway.

GIANT-SIZE ASTONISHING X-MEN #1 by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday. The grand finale of the Whedon/Cassaday run in which some will live, one “won’t walk away”, and the denizens of Breakworld finally start spinning on their heads and moonwalking! Recommended!

GREEN LANTERN #31 by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis. Yet another re-telling of Hal Jordan’s early training by Sinestro, but this one’s by Geoff and Ivan so it should be good.

IMMORTAL IRON FIST #15 by Matt Fraction and Khari Evans. Another done-in-one Tale of Iron Fists Gone-By. I kinda like these. Recommended.

JACK KIRBY’S OMAC: ONE-MAN ARMY CORPS HC by Da King! Collecting the entire eight-issue series for the Kirby Kompletist on your list! With a forward by Mark Evanier, author of “Kirby: King of Comics.”

JUDENHASS GN by Dave Sim. The creator of “Cerebus” takes on the holocaust and its cultural and historical roots. There’s a preview on-line at http://www.judenhass.com/ and it looks extraordinary. Highly Recommended, but probably too intense for younger readers. Far and away the pick of the week.

KING-SIZE HULK #1 by Jeph Loeb, Art Adams, Frank Cho and Others! Not “Economy-Size!” Not “Family-Size!” And especially not “Super-Size!” It’s “King-Size Hulk #1” and three new tales and a bunch of reprints all to help the current Red Hulk storyline make sense! Gotta look!

MARVEL 1985 #1 of 6 by Mark Millar and Tommy Lee Edwards. It’s complicated but evidently a bunch of super-villians have invaded our world and now it’s up to a 13 year-old boy to get the heroes to saddle up after ‘em! But it’s 1985 so they’re all too busy listening to Falco and getting their MBAs! Zoinks!

NEARLY COMPLETE ESSENTIAL HEMBECK ARCHIVES OMNIBUS SC by Fred Hembeck. Thirty years of work, 900 pages, and a forward by Stan “Da Man” Lee make this a Must-Have for fans of Comicdom’s most prolific cartoon humorist.

NEW AVENGERS #41 by Brian Michael Bendis and Billy Tan. The New Avengers are doomed unless Ka-Zar can save them from 1980s Skrull versions of themselves! It’s come to this….

NORTHLANDERS #6 by Brian Wood and David Gianfelice. Prince Sven builds alliances against his Uncle. Unfortunately it involves Saxons. Recommended.

SHE-HULK #29 by Peter David and Val Semeiks. In which we learn why She-Hulk was disbarred! She authored the White House torture memo! Kidding. It was nothing that bad. If it was she’d be teaching law at Berkley…

STARMAN OMNIBUS VOL.1 HC by James Robinson, Tony Harris and Others. A hardcover edition of issues #0-16 of the series that started the Great Revival of the Golden-Age DC heroes. Highly recommended.

THOR #9 by J. Michael Straczynski and Olivier Coipel. More of Straczynski’s stories of Asgardian Gods adjusting to their new lives in Midgard. This one gets better each month. Highly recommended.

TRUE STORY SWEAR TO GOD ARCHIVES VOL. 1 SC by Tom Beland. The collected autobiographical adventures of a free-lance cartoonist living in Puerto Rico.

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #122 by Brian Michael Bendis and Stuart Immonen. Quite a good little story about Ultimate Shocker. I’m not kidding.

UNCANNY X-MEN #498 by Ed Brubaker and Mike Choi. In which we discover the source of the psychedelic disturbance in San-Fran and a bunch of Russkies learn it’s never a good idea to mess with the X-Men. Fun stuff.

WOLVERINE FIRST CLASS #3 by Fred Van Lente and Salva Espin. Some early “untold” adventures of Kitty Pryde and Wolverine. Featuring funny animals that talk.

X-MEN LEGACY #212 by Mike Carey and Scot Eaton. The untold origin of Professor X, guest-starring Gambit. Someday X-continuity will be figured out by someone. That person should be President of the World. Forever.

All this and PREVIEWS from Marvel and Diamond Comics to boot!

www.johnjudy.net

3 comics articles in Monday's New York Times

One is probably bad news:

"Warner Tries a New Tactic to Revive Its DVD Sales," By BROOKS BARNES, New York Times May 26, 2008

LOS ANGELES — Retail’s love affair with the DVD is on the rocks and Warner Brothers Entertainment would like to patch things up.

Faced with a decline in DVD sales, Warner Brothers, part of Time Warner, is planning an unusual effort around its upcoming adaptation of the popular graphic novel “Watchmen.” Directed by Zack Snyder and set for a March 2009 release, the big-budget movie tells the story of a group of retired superheroes who are tied to a conspiracy that could change history.

The twist is that Mr. Snyder, known for turning the Spartan comic book series “300” into a global hit movie, is also directing a separate-but-related picture that Warner plans to distribute exclusively on DVD.

The second film, tentatively called “Tales of the Black Freighter,” follows a side “Watchmen” storyline about a shipwreck and will arrive in stores five days after the main movie rolls out in theaters. The DVD will also include a documentary-style film called “Under the Hood” that will delve into the characters’ backstories.

The second, also in the business section, is on a webcomic that I hadn't heard of, and won't be reading:

This Is Funny Only if You Know Unix
By NOAM COHEN
Published: May 26, 2008
XKCD.com is serving up an online comic strip with jokes for a very specific audience: techies.

and the third is on Jamie Hewlett's post-comic book career in animation and is interesting:

Opera Meets Animation to Tell a Chinese Tale
By DANIEL J. WAKIN
Published: May 26, 2008
“Monkey: Journey to the West” is a newfangled sort of opera that is making its American debut at the Spoleto Festival U.S.A.



The Post covered this as well, although in less detail - "It's the Year of the 'Monkey' at Spoleto USA: Reinvigorated Festival Casts a Spotlight on Circus-Opera Hybrid," By Anne Midgette, Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, May 26, 2008; C01.