Wildly OT: USS George Washington manga

This has nothing at all to do with Washington and comics, but you can download a free manga book made by the US Navy to justify the visit of the USS George Washington aircraft carrier to Japan. I think it's an interesting use of educational manga. Or would that be propaganda...

Our Man Thompson's blog

Richard's on a roll with a one and a two good beach cartoons and a great Stalin caricature that I immediately saved from the Post Magazine when it first appeared.

However, I'm guessing he should be working rather than blogging since we'll be off to Heroes Con next Thursday. For myself - I'm going to Synetic Theater's "Carmen."

Matt Wuerker sends in...

a subject line of "here's some good ink on a fine international cartoonist" with a link to this article about Nicaraguan political cartoonists. "Postcard from Managua: Cartoonists Go to War," By TIM ROGERS, Tuesday, Jun. 10, 2008. Thanks, Matt!

Johnny Bunko - Edumanga in Express

See "A Comic Office: 'The Adventures of Johnny Bunko'" by Express contributor Rachel Kaufman, Express June 11 2008 for an interview with the writer Daniel Pink. This is both in print and digital.

Bits from today's paper

Naif al-Mutawa's Teshkeel Media is profiled in "Author Looks to the Koran For 99 New Superheroes," By Faiza Saleh Ambah, Washington Post Foreign Service, Wednesday, June 11, 2008; A14.

A new exhibit on Roy Lichtenstein opens in NYC - see "The Painter Who Adored Women," by ROBERTA SMITH, New York Times June 11, 2008. The blog link sums it up as ""Roy Lichtenstein: Girls" at the Gagosian Gallery reveals the artist honing his indelible yet impersonal style."

Minor comics - movies article in Express promo'ing tv show

There's a syndicate piece in today's Express which is mostly a blurb for Starz documentary "Comic Books Unbound" which is on at 10 pm tonight for those with premium cable.

Syracuse receives grant to support cartoon art collection

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 6, 2008

The Special Collections Research Center (SCRC), Syracuse University Library has been awarded a grant of $79,440 by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to support the arrangement and description of the library's 134 unprocessed collections of original cartoon art. The funds will help support a full-time project archivist for a period of two years. The award to Syracuse was one of six "Detailed Processing Grants" awarded by NHPRC and the Archivist of the United States. Other recipients included Princeton University and the University of Chicago.

Syracuse's collection of original cartoon art is among the most comprehensive in America. It includes original work by approximately 173 artists (more than 20,000 items) and comprises more than 1,000 linear feet of material. Spanning the course of the 20th century, it includes both serial and editorial cartoons. Among the serial cartoonists represented are: Bud Fisher, whose Mutt and Jeff was the earliest
successful daily comic strip; Mort Walker, whose Beetle Bailey anticipated the changing notions of American masculinity and militarism during the Cold War; Hal Foster, whose lavishly illustrated Prince Valiant elevated the artistic ambitions of the genre; and Morrie Turner whose Wee Pals was the first comic strip to chronicle the lives of racial and ethnic minorities in American life. The editorial and political cartoonists represented in the collection include: William Gropper, whose leftist political cartoons in the Daily Worker raised working class consciousness during World War II; F.O. Alexander, whose everyman alter-ego "Joe Doakes" experienced the turbulence of the 1960s in the pages of the Philadelphia Bulletin; and Carey Orr, whose editorial cartoons appeared in the Chicago Tribune for nearly fifty years straight.

The physical cartoons in Syracuse's collection are as wide-ranging and diverse as the artists that created them, assuming countless shapes, sizes, and media including pencil, pen, and gouache on paper. Over the next two years, the project archivist will take steps to ensure that the cartoons are housed in archival-quality containers. He or she will also draft online, searchable finding aids so that curious individuals all over the world can access them. The NHPRC grant is exciting news for scholars who specialize in the genre, casual fans, and, of course, for Syracuse University, which has held many of these collections since the 1960s.

About the Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Library

With more than 100,000 printed works and 2,000 manuscript and archival collections, SCRC holds some of Syracuse University's most precious treasures, including early printed editions of Gutenberg, Galileo, and Sir Isaac Newton as well as the library of 19th century German historian Leopold von Ranke (1795-1886). SCRC's holdings are particularly strong in the 20th century; they include the personal papers and manuscripts of such luminaries as artist Grace Hartigan (1922- ), inspirational
preacher Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993), author Joyce Carol Oates (1938- ), photojournalist Margaret Bourke White (1904-1971), and architect Marcel Breuer (1902-1981). SCRC strives to be a "humanities laboratory" where librarians and scholars collaborate with the artifacts of history in an ongoing and vital learning process. Home to a new, state-of-the-art instructional seminar room, SCRC also regularly hosts exhibitions, lectures and classes focusing on its collections.

...

Sean MacLeod Quimby
Director, Special Collections Research Center Syracuse University Library
222 Waverly Avenue
Syracuse, New York 13244-2010
t. 315.443.9759
f. 315.443.2671
smquimby@syr.edu

Our Man Thompson goes MAD

Thought Balloonist Craig Fischer is reporting that he'll be moderating a panel "A Chat with Al Feldstein (and Friends)," with Al Feldstein, Roger Langridge* and Richard Thompson at Heroes Con on Saturday, June 21 at 4 pm. Hoo-hah! I'm there!

*when I saw Roger at SPX last year, I bought 3 pages of original art from him. Richard was no use at all making the selection so I just bought them all. I'd encourage you to do the same from both of them. You won't regret it. Well, not for long.

Comic postcards

For some reason, comic postcards generate even less interest among comic art fans than greeting card cartoonists, who, like Sandra Boynton demonstrated conclusively recently by winning a National Cartoonists Society award, at least may break out to a larger audience.

Here's a selection of postcards I picked up at a flea market this weekend. Some are barely worthy of the 25 cents I paid for each, but they are a part of the history of comics.

This one says it's from C.T. Busy Person's Comics - 10 Subjects. The CT is the company Curt Teich of Chicago. Unfortunately I don't know who the artist is.



This gag is by G.A. Devery or GAD, no. 59 in his "Fun Cards by GAD" series, from 1956.



A 1963 advertising card from the Hilton Hotels International's Queen Elizabeth in Montreal. The card is from The Beaver Club restaurant. The cartoon is "Specialty dishes from the Beaver Club Menus as seen by the Montreal artist Jeff."



Walt Munson signed a few of the cards I saw - for some reason I picked up this one which isn't very interesting. The back says it's in "Series M Army Comics - 10 Subjects" and it's postmarked 1942. Munson's name seems to ring a bell...



This unattractive stereotypical card 's lacking any information, but it was mailed in 1957 from Tampa, FL to Dickerson, Md.


The prevalence of MAD's Alfred E. Neumann images has never really interested me, but here's three for Craig Yoe.


1960 postmark from Colourpicture Publishers, Boston. Mad and Alfred E. are well-established by this point, so the publisher's probably jumping on the bandwagon.

Same card, different coloring. Postmark appears to be 1964.



Bob Petley of Phoenix, Arizona drew and published this card, circa 1963.

New York Times says Stan Lee still looks good

See the next to last article in the New York Times June 9, 2008 "Metropolitan Diary."

Tom the Dancing Bug news

Remember when Tom the Dancing Bug would brighten your Weekend section as you slogged through the Washington Post on Friday? You'd skim over all the stuff you had no interest in doing in the Weekend section? And then there was Bolling's strip on the last page of the paper you read? Yeah, me too. Other people who are not Post editors must feel the same way judging from this press release I was sent today:

“Tom The Dancing Bug” Wins AAN Award:Best Cartoon in Alternative Weeklies

NEW YORK (06/09/2008) “Tom the Dancing Bug,” the weekly comic strip by Ruben Bolling, won the 2008 Best Cartoon Award from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (AAN) at the 13th annual AltWeekly Awards luncheon in Philadelphia on June 7.

This is “Tom the Dancing Bug’s” fourth win of the AAN Best Cartoon Award (it also won in 2002, 2003 and 2007). “Tom the Dancing Bug” is the only comic to have won the award more than once, and it is the only comic to have been a finalist in every year the award has been given, starting in 2001.

“Tom the Dancing Bug” is distributed by Universal Press Syndicate. It can be seen at www.tomthedancingbug.com and www.gocomics.com.

Contact: Kathie Kerr at kkerr@amuniversal.com or 816-360-6945

OT: Cookeville, Tennessee produces comic book writer

My wife's from Cookeville, a smallish town in middle Tennessee, so I was surprised to see this pop up today about an adaptation of the Hindu epic the Ramayana: "Barbara Jackson releases her first graphic novel," Margaret Shuster, Cookeville Herald-Citizen Staff, Sunday, Jun 08, 2008. A late-1980s comic book artist named Barry Crain also lived there.

Kevin Rechin's lottery ad work at the Stadium metro

Kevin's just written in with a picture of his cartoons for the DC Lottery, that are in the Stadium metro stop. Remember to send in your picture of them for posting! Here's Kevin's note and artwork.

"Here is a file of the finished characters. I also did a sky and grass wash background and they put the figures on top of that for the metro station displays."

QUICK REVIEWS FOR COMICS DUE 06-11-08

QUICK REVIEWS FOR COMICS DUE 06-11-08
By John Judy

ABSOLUTE SANDMAN VOL. 3 HC by Neil Gaiman and Various Artists. For all of us who don’t already have every trade collection in soft and hardcover first prints.

ACTION COMICS #866 by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank. Time to duke it out with Brainiac. Again.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #562 by Bob Gale and Mike McKone. Featuring a fake Spidey, compulsive gambling, and a last page gag that frustrated Marvel fans should appreciate.

ANGEL AFTER THE FALL #8 by Joss Whedon, Brian Lynch and a Host of Others. Wrapping up the first night in Hell stories in which things got problematic.

BOOSTER GOLD #10 by Geoff Johns, Jeff Katz and Dan Jurgens. Booster learns someone’s gotta die. It was really cool having “someone” back for a while….

BPRD: WAR ON FROGS #1 by Mike Mignola, John Arcudi and Herb Trimpe. “Down to the family crypt. Two of the frogs, formerly Cavendish brothers, were there too. They seemed to be taking their mother’s corpse into the crypt for burial – under the waters of the flooded chamber.” Good times! Recommended!

COMPLETE LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE VOL. 1 HC by Harold Gray. Collecting over 1000 of the original daily strips from 1924 – 1927. Featuring Sandy the dog, Daddy Warbucks and no pupils! Ever! “Leapin’ lizards!” Recommended.

DOKTOR SLEEPLESS #7 by Warren Ellis and Ivan Rodriguez. Remember “Desolation Jones?” Me neither. This one features a naughty nurse, so that’s good.

ETERNALS #1 by Charles & Daniel Knauf and Daniel Acuna. Continuing where Neil Gaiman and John Romita Jr. left off. Best appreciated by hardcore Marvel Zombies.

GOON #25 written and illustrated by Eric Powell. “What the hell is that?” “I dunno, we found it in a ditch and slung a rope round its neck. It goes flyin’ into a fit when you throw firecrackers at it. Watch.” Highly recommended.

NEWUNIVERSAL SHOCKFRONT #2 of 6 by Warren Ellis and Steve Kurth. Someone gets killed playing football so right there you have your entertainment value. Recommended.

SECRET INVASION: WHO DO YOU TRUST? by Lotsa People. Five stories! Only $3.99! Skrulls!

SKYSCRAPERS OF THE MIDWEST HC written and illustrated by Joshua Cotter. Observations of childhood isolation and existence in the American Midwest. With giant robots. Eisner Award- nominated. Recommended.

TRINITY #2 by Kurt Busiek and a Huge Support Staff. It’s Supes, Bats, and WW! Every week! Hopefully this will wash the taste of “Countdown” out of your brain!

THE TWELVE #6 of 12 by J. Michael Straczynski and Chris Weston. Lotsa action and the Origin of Rockman, Underground Secret Agent! Highly recommended!

WONDER WOMAN #21 by Gail Simone and Aaron Lopresti. WW teams up with Beowulf and Stalker, even though Stalker was a bad guy last time I read “JSA All-Stars.” Oh well, it’s Gail Simone. She’ll make it work.

X-FORCE AIN’T NO DOG by Charlie Huston and Jefte Palo AND Jason Aaron and Werther Dell’Edera. Featuring two stand-alone stories. The first is a vicious “Frank Miller’s Sin City” type of thing starring evil sociopath Wolverine. The second is a more nuanced short focusing on James Proudstar and his moral concerns at being groomed as an assassin by evil sociopath “heroes” with Xs on their costumes. It’s by Jason Aaron who writes “Scalped” so it’s a level above most X-Force material. Summing up, this X-Force is a dog but at least it knows a few tricks.

YOUNG LIARS #4 written and drawn by David Lapham. Until the next issue of “Stray Bullets” comes out we have this.

www.johnjudy.net

New York Times Book Review Comics

Tom Gauld of the UK has the pride of place on the front cover of the NYTBR. To misquote Bill Griffith, a tip of the hat to Sean L who turned me onto his work.

On the back page, Leanne Sharpton, a graphic novelist whom I'm not familiar with, has done a brief piece of comics journalism with bookstore clerks.

Zadzooks still in non-existent Saturday Times?

When it dropped its Saturday edition last week, the Washington Times said it would keep publishing an e-version for subscribers. I don't know what happened to Zadzooks' comics column, but it doesn't show up with a search on the Times' website. Anyone know?

New exhibit at Geppi's Entertainment Museum is ... new?

Arnold Blumberg in Diamond's Scoop newsletter for June 6th wrote,

Beginning Saturday, June 14, 2008, we’re stepping “Out of the Box” and allowing visitors both young and old to get hands-on with pop culture by giving everyone an up close look at the characters that are popular right now with toys that you can actually touch and play with. It’s the future of pop culture today!

While it may sound strange to shift from a retrospective to something so up-to-date, it’s worth remembering the bigger picture. The mission of our museum demands that we not only take a look at what toys and characters shaped American pop culture and entertainment in the past, but which ones are defining our present and future. After all, those toys you see in the stores today and all those TV shows and movies you’re watching now are going to be the subject of museum exhibitions themselves before we know it, so why not get a head start on the process? It won’t be as easy to play with them when they’re locked behind glass!

Our “Out of the Box” exhibition will run until December 2008, and in addition to the toys and the opportunity to build and play right here at the museum, we’ll also be featuring giveaways, face painting, costumed characters, and much more. You can find out more by calling us at (410) 625-7060, e-mailing us at info@geppismuseum.com, or visiting the museum website at www.geppismuseum.com.

Weingarten's latest chats -

His readers are absolutely wrong on Keith Knight and Weingarten is right.

May 20th chat

Gene Weingarten: Good afternoon.

Jef Mallett, creator of Frazz, e-mailed me yesterday after he returned from The National Cartoonists Conference in New Orleans. During the conference, he said, a whole bunch of cartoonists went off to help build a house in the city, as part of a Habitat for Humanity project. I asked him to draw a cartoon of what a house would look like if it was built by cartoonists. Here is Jeff's drawing, along with his commentary.

What I learned from this experience:

1. Cartoonists cannot hold hammers. You've never seen so many people choke up so high on a hammer.

2. What's black and white and red all over? A Scottish-Norwegian cartoonist messing with tar paper shingles all day in the sun. Heehaw. Trust me on this one.

3. When cartoonists hammer their thumbs, what they say isn't really spelled "##%!!*."

4. Whatever you think you know about the devastation down there, you don't have a clue. And it's almost three years.

What I learned from drawing the two cartoon characters in this picture:

1. Rosie the Riveter seems to be giving us all the "up yours" gesture. I never quite noticed that.

2. I am apparently one shopping trip to Williams-Sonoma away from being as gay as a Mardi Gras float. This, too, was a big surprise.

May 27th chat

CPOW: That Knight's Life is not a funny comic. You just like it because it supports what you (and all of us) have been saying. The Pearls on the other hand IS funny.

Gene Weingarten: I am allowed personal bias.

_______________________

Fairfax, Va.: Agreed on liking Knight Life. The first replacement, about the stay-at-home dad, clearly got old quickly. The second one, while promising, seems like it was trying too hard to be The Far Side. The third one, while it may fall into that category of nerdy young black man with Candorville and Watch Your Head, seems by far to be the best. Any idea what the general reaction to the three has been?

Gene Weingarten: The Post people are pretty smart. I've liked the last two, actually. I am hoping we keep both and get rid of some antedeluvian ones.
---------------------------------------
Baltimore, Md.: You have GOT to be kidding about Knight Life, right? Anyone who names a comic strip after himself immediately has one strike against him. And, Sunday's cartoon included jokes so old and lame even my 5 year old thought they were stupid. THIS is what the Post thought could replace Doonesbury, even temporarily? My God, ...the horror.

Gene Weingarten: Yeah, Sunday's was bad. I agree.

_______________________

Washington, D.C.: Yes, the Knight Life comic is funny, but can you answer me this question. If the Post is going to add a new comic strip, why oh why, isn't the daily Cul de Sac, by the Post's own Richard Thompson, not up for consideration?

Gene Weingarten: It should be the first choice.

_____________________

Re: The Knight Life: The art on this strip is terrible. Doesn't that bug you?

Gene Weingarten: No. I like the art.

OT: Harry Katz in San Diego

The San Diego Union-Tribune is reporting that Harry Katz, formerly of the Library of Congress' Print collection is speaking on next Wednesday. Harry's still associated with the Herbert (Herblock) Block Foundation so he's seen in Washington fairly regularly.

June 7, 2008

Harry Katz, editor of “Cartoon America, Comic Art in the Library of Congress,” will be the featured speaker at the next meeting of the Southern California Cartoonist Society, 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the San Diego Blood Bank, 440 Upas St. Members, guests $5. Students free. Bring your portfolio. Potluck, raffle. Information: sccs-online.org.

Kevin Rechin's cartoons up at Navy Yard Metro

Kevin just wrote in, "Just wanted to give you a heads up that the baseball cartoons I did are finally up at the Navy Yard Metro at Nationals stadium. They did a good job and dedicated almost all the ad spaces to the characters."

This is seriously off my beaten path, so anyone who goes down there - take some pictures and I'll post them. As many as I get sent. Put your kids in front of them. Put your girlfriend there. Put your husband. Let's see how many Rechin pics we can get.