Animator Seth McFarlane interview in Express

Today's Express has an Associated Press interview with animator Seth McFarlane who created Family Guy and American Dad and has just been signed to a $100 million production deal.

KAL at Duke this week

Charm City's editorial cartoonist Kal sent in this note:

From November 10-14, Editorial Cartoonist for The Economist Kevin "KAL" Kallaugher will be an Artist-in-Residence at Duke University's Sanford Institute for Public Policy. During his time on campus, he will be creating a clay sculpture to commemorate the 2008 Presidential campaign.

The Sanford Institute will also be holding a forum titled “Laughing at Power: Satire in American Politics” on Tuesday November 11. It will feature Kal and North Carolina cartoonist Dwane Powell as well two staff members of the “Daily Show” with Jon Stewart. The forum is Free and open to the public.

For more information visit the Sanford Institute's website: http://www.pubpol.duke.edu/news/features/panel_nr102208.php

Irwin Caplan 1951 gag cartoon

This has nothing to do with ComicsDC, but I saw this Irwin Caplan gag cartoon on the back of a clipping from the International Herald Tribune, March 18, 1951 so I tossed it on the scanner. Enjoy.

Comics in the World photographs - National Museum of Natural History

The new Oceans exhibit in the National Museum of Natural History in Washington has some cartoons scattered through it. According to one of the exhibit designers, Jill Johnson (in a comment below), they're "by local artist Jim Haynes, Graphics Plus, Silver Spring, MD." The exhibit is very good, and big, so there's probably more than these three that I caught:

Art Spiegelman at Politics and Prose

Spiegelman gave his usual entertaining performance at a booksigning for Breakdowns last week. The crowd was standing room only, but I was near the front due to Rick B's vigilant saving of a seat. After noting that he didn't have to worry about the government trying to kill him or any of his usual fears, Spiegelman ran through a powerpoint that covered the high points of the Breakdowns book, touched on his children's book for his wife's imprint and then took questions. You can buy a recording of the talk from Politics and Prose.

Bruce Guthrie took his usual load of shots, but here's three that I got:

November: Thurber play

A Thurber Carnival is appearing on Fridays and Saturdays this month at The Kellar Theater in Manassas. Written by a cartoonist who spent time in the area as a child, the show also features Amy "Mrs. Cul de Sac" Thompson. Amy made some of the props based on Thurber's artwork, which sounds cool to me.

Today's finger puppet - Obama!

Our Man Thompson finally draws a finger puppet that I want to make - Obama!

QUICK REVIEWS FOR COMICS DUE 11-12-08

QUICK REVIEWS FOR COMICS DUE 11-12-08
By John Judy

ACTION COMICS # 871 by Geoff Johns and Pete Woods. In which we learn if you didn’t escape Krypton before it exploded it’s only because you didn’t try.

BATMAN: CACOPHONY #1 of 3 by Kevin Smith and Walt J. Flanagan. Don’t worry, the working title of this comic was not “Bruce and Selina Make a Porno.” Unfortunately the Big Bad’s name is “Onomatopoeia” and I am not making that up. To save you a trip to Wikipedia I’ll tell you that the word is Greek in origin and refers to the making of words that sound like their meanings. Words like buzz, bop, thump and whatever sound Kevin Smith’s head makes when you smash it repeatedly into a concrete floor for trying too damn hard to be clever. Oh yeah, “Onomatopoeia” in this case is the name of a “mysterious masked killer” bent on vexing the Gotham Goliath. No doubt by making him say his name three times fast. Oy…

BLACK TERROR #1 by Alex Ross, Jim Krueger and Mike Lilly. No, it’s not about what red state voters are experiencing this week. It’s a series spun off from PROJECT SUPERPOWERS that will no doubt appeal to both of the people still reading PROJECT SUPERPOWERS. I liked the Alan Moore TERRA OBSCURA version better on account of Moore being able to write. Hey, these Golden-Age revamps are public domain so write your own if you like!

CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND MI 13 #7 by Paul Cornel and Leonard Kirk. The Mindless Ones are on the attack! Guess they’re still not over last Tuesday. J

JLA/AVENGERS SC by Kurt Busiek and George Perez. Finally one of the biggest of Big Fights is collected in affordable, bookshelf-friendly, trade paperback form. From the days when Big Event comics didn’t suck and/or take all year to come out. Recommended for all ages.

JSA KINGDOM COME SPECIAL: SUPERMAN #1 written and illustrated by Alex Ross. This is the first comic ever done by Alex Ross flying solo. That automatically gets it a “Gotta Look.” Here’s hoping it’s more KINGDOM COME and less EARTH X or PROJECT SUPERPOWERS. Fingers crossed.

THE STAND: CAPTAIN TRIPS #3 of 5 by Stephen King, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Mike Perkins. The best Stephen King adaptation ever continues as we see the super-flu begin its extermination of the world population. No more long lines at the polls! Recommended.

THUNDERBOLTS, VOL.2: CAGED ANGELS SC by Warren Ellis and Mike Deodato. That nice Mister Ellis shows us what happens when one attempts the psychic domination of people who self-mutilate, eat people and throw exploding pumpkins at Spider-Man. Most entertaining! Not for kids.

WALKING DEAD #54 by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard. New friends, old friends and lotsa zombie-killin’! It’s good to vent now and then. Recommended. Not for kids.

WOLVERINE #69 by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven. Okay, much as I hated the movie “Wanted” and don’t want Millar on the next Superman flick, he is delivering a solid, intriguing alternate-future Wolverine story here. But the pay-off better not be that he saw a puppy die and swore off claw-popping forever. Fair warning has been given. Recommended.

X-MEN: MAGNETO TESTAMENT #3 of 5 by Greg Pak and Carmine Di Giandomenico. The Nazis invade Poland and young Magneto still hasn’t powered up. A dark story that doesn’t flinch from the history in which it’s based. Probably too intense for young kids. Good for teens and up. Recommended.

www.johnjudy.net

Local Reviews of Madagascar 2

Local reviews of the new animated movie -

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/11/06/ST2008110601327.html
'Escape 2 Africa': The Hip Are Best When Shaking It [Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa]
By Ann Hornaday
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 7, 2008; C01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/06/AR2008110601106.html
Who's That Voice? [Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa]
By Ellen McCarthy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 7, 2008; WE26

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/06/AR2008110601103.html
Animation: Not Just A Push of a Button [Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa]
By Ellen McCarthy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 7, 2008; WE27

'Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa' has some humor for everybody
By Sally Kline
Washington Examiner (November 7): 21
http://www.dcexaminer.com/entertainment/Madagascar_Escape_2_Africa_has_some_humor_for_everybody.html

Germain, David / Associated Press. 2008.
Youthful Appeal: 'Madagascar 2' is yet another manic mess aimed at the children.
[Washington Post] Express (November 7): 19

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/nov/07/madagascar-2-knows-how-to-move-it/
Washington Times Friday, November 7, 2008
MOVIES: 'Madagascar 2' knows how to move it
Kelly Jane Torrance

http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/movies/07mada.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
New York Times November 7, 2008
Duck! The Penguins Are Flying the Plane [Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa].
By MANOHLA DARGIS

OT: My friend, the Food Fluffer

See how food styling really works, and quickly discover you wouldn't want to actually eat that dish in "How to Build a Dish Like a Food Stylist; Step One: Be very, very picky," by Jule Banville, Washington City Paper November 5, 2008. It features my friend Lisa Cherkasky.

Art Spiegelman! (updated!)

'Toonsmith Art Spiegelman Gets Graphic About His Life, Career and the Processes of a Comics Universe
By Bob Thompson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 6, 2008; Page C01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/05/AR2008110504443.html

Secret Identity: Art Spiegelman's Life Work
Written by Scott A. Rosenberg for Express
Posted By Express at 12:08 AM on November 6, 2008
http://www.expressnightout.com/content/2008/11/secret_identity_art_spiegelman_and_his_l.php


Athitakis wrote in to point out:

another interview -
Art Spiegelman Is Not Arrogant
Posted by Mark Athitakis
Washington City Paper City Desk blog Nov. 6, 2008, at 10:56 am
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2008/11/06/art-spiegelman-is-not-arrogant/

and a review of Breakdowns -

Art Spiegelman
Friday, Nov. 7, at Politics and Prose
By Mark Athitakis
Washington City Paper November 6, 2008
http://washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=36439

Michigan State's comic librarian

My buddy Randy Scott is featured in "Fortress of comic-tude: Almost 40 years of collecting has left MSU with the world's largest library comic book collection," By Sarah Harbison, MSU's The State News November 4, 2008. There's also a video showing some of the collection. I regularly send MSU material and encourage you all to do so as well. Icelandic comics! Polish Tom & Jerry! (actually I think that one IS from me).

Seth in today's New York Times

Good luck finding a hard copy, but Canadian cartoonist Seth illustrated five poems about the Presidential election for the New York Times' editorial page. Fortunately they actually put them on the web this time - and a one, and a two, and a three, and a four, and a five.

Yesterday, Sarah Wheaton had an article on a Treasure Chest comic featuring a black president. The story's been kicking around a while - Catholic University even put out a press release linked to here earlier about owning the issue. See "Foreshadowing a Political First," By Sarah Wheaton, New York Times November 4, 2008.

That darn Toles, continued

Spurgeon called him "the Best Editorial Cartoonist in North America" and linked to today's cartoon, which I liked immensely as well.

November Bash paper hits the streets

I picked mine up yesterday. This is issue #4.

Nov 7: Art Spiegelman at Politics and Prose

Politics and Prose Friday, November 7, 7 p.m.
BREAKDOWNS
ART SPIEGELMAN
(Basic Books, $26.95)

The creator of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus explores the comics form—and how it formed him. Spiegelman traces his life, from a MAD-comics-obsessed boy in Queens to an adult examining his parents’ memories of Auschwitz. An illustrated essay looks back at the ’60s as the artist reaches sixty.

Nov 6: Israeli comics lecture at Library of Congress REPOST

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
101 Independence Avenue SE
Washington, DC 20540
Phone: (202) 707-2905
Fax: (202) 707-9199
Email: pao@loc.gov

October 3, 2008

ISRAELI COMICS TO BE SUBJECT OF NOV 6. LECTURE

Drawing both from Judeo-European and American cultures, comics have been a mainstay of Israeli newspapers and readers’ markets since the early 1930s. Little known outside the Middle East, these comics open an interesting window into Israeli society, past and present.

Ofer Berenstein will deliver a lecture titled “Israeli Comics: Past and Present” at the Library of Congress at 1 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 6, in the Montpelier Room, located on the sixth floor of the James Madison Building at 101 Independence Ave S.E., Washington, D.C.

The lecture, which is sponsored by the Library’s Prints and Photographs Division, Serial and Government Publications Division and the Hebraic Section of the African and Middle Eastern Division, is free and open to the public; tickets are not required.

Ofer Berenstein is a founding member of the Israeli Comic Book Readers and Collectors Society. He served in the Israeli Army Home Front Command as a photographer, graphic designer and editor. He is a graduate student at Bar-Ilan University in Israel.

The Library of Congress, the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution, is the world’s preeminent reservoir of knowledge, providing unparalleled integrated resources to Congress and the American people. Founded in 1800, the Library holds more than 138 million items, including 21 million cataloged books, 61 million manuscripts and nearly 14 million photographs, posters, prints and drawings.

The Library’s Prints and Photographs Division houses the Library’s outstanding holdings of original cartoon and caricature drawings and makes them accessible through its online catalog at www.loc.gov/rr/print/catalog.html. The Library’s Serial and Government Publications Division houses the world’s largest comic book collection (5,000 titles; 100,000 issues).

The Library’s African and Middle Eastern Division (www.loc.gov/rr/amed) is the center for the study of some 78 countries and regions from Southern Africa to the Maghreb and from the Middle East to Central Asia.

# # #

PR 08-181
ISSN 0731-3527
10/3/08

Baltimore City Paper's Tim Kreider interviewed

Brian Heater's got the interview at "Election 2008: An Interview with Tim Kreider," Daily Cross Hatch (November 2). Unfortunately Kreider says he's going to pack it in next year. Say it ain't so, Tim! I get the Baltimore City Paper hand-delivered largely for your comic!

Shilling for Ted Rall

He asked nicely, so here's a press release about Ted Rall's EXCELLENT AND EXCITING NEW ANIMATION:

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

New Animated Cartoon by Ted Rall:
DEATH CAB FOR SARAH PALIN

Editorial cartoonist Ted Rall and animator David Essman have released a hilarious, vicious parody of GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin to celebrate Election Day 2008.

Distributed for free on YouTube and at tedrall.com, "Death Cab for Palin" is an animated political cartoon that lampoons Sarah Palin's presidential ambitions. Noting that vice presidents frequently become presidents, "Death Cab" depicts a rabid Vice President Palin trying to poison and bomb President McCain in the style of the classic "Road Runner" cartoon series.

Rall, a syndicated cartoonist for Universal Press Syndicate, is no stranger to controversy. His "Terror Widows" and "FDNY 2011" cartoons after 9/11 were some of the most controversial cartoons in U.S. history. Will "Death Cab for Sarah" join their ranks? "I don't know," says Rall, "but it was such a fun idea I just couldn't resist going with it."

Permission for reproduction and broadcast are freely given under the condition that the piece not be altered in any form without express permission. To contact Ted Rall, please email ted@rall.com.

---

TED RALL's editorial cartoons and columns are syndicated to more than 100 newspapers around the U.S. Twice the winner of the RFK Journalism Award and a Pulitzer Finalist, he is President of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists.

DAVID ESSMAN is an animator currently at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His animated films have been screened across the country, including Animation Block Party, The Chicago Underground Film Festival, and the St. Louis International Film Festival.

Luna Bros. interview on Filipino site

The local cartoonists are interviewed in "Luna Brothers conquer US comic book scene," Interview by DAVID DIZON, abs-cbnNEWS.com 10/31/2008.