Jan 27: Material Culture Forum, "Collecting Popular Culture" Smithsonian event

This sounds interesting and on target even if they don't mention comic art. Thanks to Jeff Reznick for the tip. Jeff's venturing into the world of comics scholarship by writing a review of a Peanuts exhibit for the next issue of IJOCA.

Material Culture Forum, "Collecting Popular Culture"

The Smithsonian Forum on Material Culture invites you to attend its 83rd Quarterly Meeting “Collecting Popular Culture,” at the National Portrait Gallery, Donald W. Reynolds Center, 8th and F Street, NW on January 27, 2009.

SCHEDULE

GALLERY TOUR: 3:30-4:15pm, “Ballyhoo! Posters as Portraiture” lead by Wendy Wick Reaves, Curator of Prints and Drawings, National Portrait Gallery, 2nd floor west, open and free to all

PRESENTATIONS & DISCUSSION: 4:30-6:00pm, McEvoy Auditorium, sub-level 1,

Welcoming Remarks by Martin Sullivan, Director, National Portrait Gallery

Moderated by Wendy Wick Reaves, Curator of Prints and Drawings, National Portrait Gallery

“Imported Textiles, Local Meaning,” Bryna Freyer, Curator, National Museum of African Art

“Ray Guns, Spaceships and Action Figures: Outer Space in Popular Culture,” Margaret Weitekamp, Curator, Division of Space History, National Air and Space Museum

“But Is It History?” Ellen Roney Hughes, Curator, Division of Music, Sports, and Entertainment History, National Museum of American History

WINE RECEPTION & INFORMAL DISCUSSION: 6:15-7:00pm, Multipurpose Rooms, 1st floor, open and free to all

BUFFET DINNER & DISCUSSIONS: 7:15-8:45pm, Kogod Courtyard, open to all by reservation, $30.00 per person

To reserve a place for dinner, please email Stephanie Hornbeck at shornbec.si.edu. To pay for dinner, please send a check made out to “Smithsonian Institution,” for $30.00 per person, to Stephanie Hornbeck, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, P.O. Box 37012 Room 1109, MRC 708, Washington, DC 20013-7012.

For questions about this event, please contact Stephanie Hornbeck at 202-633-4615.

Dave Astor interview

Boy, I miss Dave's work for Editor and Publisher. See "Talking Comics with Tim: Dave Astor," by Tim O'Shea, Comic Book Resources' Robot 6 blog January 5, 2009.

Blade's Year in Cartoons issue

The current Washington Blade (January 2nd), on the newstands until Thursday, has two tabloid pages of 28 of Paul Berge's cartoons from the past year, making this the most complete 'year in cartoons' I've seen to date. ... although they're all generally on topics of interest to a homosexual newspaper of course...

Comic Riffs interviews Tim Rickard on Brewster Rockit

See "The Interview: 'Brewster Rockit' Cartoonist Tim Rickard," By Michael Cavna, January 6, 2009.

I like this strip. I got to say hello to Rickard at HeroesCon this year and asked about buying original art, but he draws figures in any old way and then photoshops them into a strip format. Sigh. Technology marches on.

Here's another recent interview with him for you: "Episode 60 - The Tim Rickard Interview," Comics Coast To Coast Tuesday, 23 December 2008.

More on Wondermark and Onion comic strips

David Malki has a blog post confirming that Wondermark is leaving the Onion. He writes:

In late 2006, the satirical newspaper The Onion launched a comics page in its print edition (currently available free on newsstands in 10 metropolitan areas). I was thrilled to feature Wondermark on that page in every market, and for about two and a half years, the comic ran in 700,000 papers every week.

Now, however, the Onion comics page is going away. The issue appearing on newsstands in a few days will be the last to feature a Wondermark strip.*

The asterix is because he did a special strip for the Onion this week which isn't on the website. I'm not going to reproduce it here, because heck, if he wanted you to see it, he would have put it on HIS website.

Look at those numbers though - 700,000 papers per week. And they can't afford to keep in some syndicated strips? Hopefully Malki's resulting move to the MCT Syndicate will pay off for him though.

Cul de Sac picks up Oregon paper

See "New comics debut in News-Review," Vicki Menard, The News-Review January 5 2009, for the thrilling details as Our Man Thompson's empire continues to grow.

New York Times on Spirit movie posters

This is buried on the Times' website, but it's pretty interesting - "Inside the Layers of a Print Campaign," New York Times.com December 25 2008 - the poster campaign is discussed while alongside the posters themselves load. The last poster shown made it into comic book stores, or at least Big Planet, but I didn't get any of the earlier ones. Hint, hint.

Luann is coming to DC!

Luann is coming to DC! Hopefully Toni the firewoman will stop by too. Nobody's visited us since the Family Circus last fall.

Spider-Man strip reboot explained

Michael Cavna touched on Spider-Man's suddenly lacking a wife in Comic Riffs last week, and I can't be bothered to explain it so here's Graeme McMillan to do so for anyone following the strip in the Post. Brian Steinberg at the Examiner just posted on this as well, and appears as cranky about it as I am.

Onion dropping comic strips?

In the January 1 issue of the Onion, Wondermark by David Malki has a strip that says "In three weeks, The Onion will cease printing a comics page." Malki suggests visiting his website and signing up for having the strip emailed, but that's just not the same as reading the paper, is it? DC is one of the two or three places to have a print copy of the paper - it's in New York City, and possibly still in Madison, WI.

Other strips on the next-to-last page are Shannon Wheeler's Postage Stamp Funnies (recently collected by Dark Horse Comics, as was Wondermark), Red Meat by Max Cannon (fugitive from the City Paper and soon homeless again apparently), The Spats, Ziggy (in Spanish... what a waste) and P.S. Mueller's panel.

Earlier in the paper is Ward Sutton's fake editorial cartoon, nominally by 'Kelly.'

Where in the world is ComicsDC?

Well, nominally we cover a small mid-Atlantic area in the United States, but apparently people pop in from all over. I've got a couple of maps in the lower right corner, and the one from ClustrMaps just added statistics by country - which I find amazing. I'm not sure what I'm doing to attract people from all over the world, but thanks for reading! Here's the numbers for our recent 3/4 of a year - from April 2008 when I put the map up, until now.

United States (US) 45,193
Canada (CA) 3,622
United Kingdom (GB) 3,028
Germany (DE) 1,068
France (FR) 816
Australia (AU) 787
Spain (ES) 672
Italy (IT) 600
India (IN) 573
Netherlands (NL) 469
Brazil (BR) 464
Philippines (PH) 364
Mexico (MX) 306
Japan (JP) 278
Belgium (BE) 250
Sweden (SE) 245
Poland (PL) 243
Turkey (TR) 241
Indonesia (ID) 236
South Africa (ZA) 234
Malaysia (MY) 211
Denmark (DK) 210
Singapore (SG) 203
Argentina (AR) 181
Finland (FI) 165
Switzerland (CH) 158
Norway (NO) 157
Russian Federation (RU) 157
Greece (GR) 155
Ireland (IE) 151
New Zealand (NZ) 144
Portugal (PT) 143
Thailand (TH) 139
Romania (RO) 131
Israel (IL) 131
Austria (AT) 127
Saudi Arabia (SA) 118
Chile (CL) 117
Serbia (RS) 110
Hong Kong (HK) 102
Korea, Republic of (KR) 101
Hungary (HU) 92
China (CN) 89
Czech Republic (CZ) 87
Croatia (HR) 87
Egypt (EG) 79
Peru (PE) 79
Iran, Islamic Republic of (IR) 76
United Arab Emirates (AE) 76
Colombia (CO) 63
Pakistan (PK) 62
Europe (EU) 62
Cote D'Ivoire (CI) 55
Taiwan (TW) 49
Bulgaria (BG) 49
Slovakia (SK) 46
Vietnam (VN) 45
Nigeria (NG) 45
Ukraine (UA) 45
Venezuela (VE) 38
Puerto Rico (PR) 38
Guyana (GY) 36
Morocco (MA) 35
Slovenia (SI) 29
Lithuania (LT) 27
Costa Rica (CR) 25
Macedonia (MK) 24
Kuwait (KW) 23
Qatar (QA) 22
Trinidad and Tobago (TT) 22
Estonia (EE) 21
Ecuador (EC) 21
Sri Lanka (LK) 20
Dominican Republic (DO) 20
Latvia (LV) 19
Lebanon (LB) 18
Bangladesh (BD) 18
Guatemala (GT) 17
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BA) 17
Malta (MT) 17
Jamaica (JM) 17
Uruguay (UY) 17
Algeria (DZ) 15
El Salvador (SV) 13
Jordan (JO) 13
Oman (OM) 12
Ghana (GH) 12
Tunisia (TN) 11
Nicaragua (NI) 10
Barbados (BB) 10
Georgia (GE) 10
Bolivia (BO) 10
Panama (PA) 10
Netherlands Antilles (AN) 9
Iceland (IS) 9
Asia/Pacific Region (AP) 8
Luxembourg (LU) 8
Sudan (SD) 8
Kenya (KE) 8
Senegal (SN) 8
Cyprus (CY) 7
Belarus (BY) 7
Palestinian Territory (PS) 7
Togo (TG) 7
Yemen (YE) 6
Macau (MO) 6
Guam (GU) 6
Montenegro (ME) 6
Mongolia (MN) 6
Mauritius (MU) 6
Bermuda (BM) 6
Moldova, Republic of (MD) 5
Albania (AL) 5
Benin (BJ) 5
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (LY) 5
Bahamas (BS) 5
Brunei Darussalam (BN) 5
Maldives (MV) 5
Bahrain (BH) 5
Reunion (RE) 4
Honduras (HN) 4
Martinique (MQ) 4
Burkina Faso (BF) 4
Kazakstan (KZ) 3
Armenia (AM) 3
Malawi (MW) 3
Virgin Islands, U.S. (VI) 3
Syrian Arab Republic (SY) 3
Cayman Islands (KY) 3
Gibraltar (GI) 3
Fiji (FJ) 3
Nepal (NP) 3
Saint Lucia (LC) 3
Paraguay (PY) 2
Iraq (IQ) 2
Azerbaijan (AZ) 2
French Polynesia (PF) 2
Guinea (GN) 2
Guadeloupe (GP) 2
Namibia (NA) 2
Uganda (UG) 2
Greenland (GL) 1
Botswana (BW) 1
Mozambique (MZ) 1
Aruba (AW) 1
Cuba (CU) 1
Cape Verde (CV) 1
Cameroon (CM) 1
Virgin Islands, British (VG) 1
Northern Mariana Islands (MP) 1
Myanmar (MM) 1
Saint Kitts and Nevis (KN) 1
Mali (ML) 1
Somalia (SO) 1
Seychelles (SC) 1
Kyrgyzstan (KG) 1
Zimbabwe (ZW) 1
Cambodia (KH) 1
Rwanda (RW) 1
Gabon (GA) 1
Turkmenistan (TM) 1
Suriname (SR) 1

Bob Staake wrote in the other day after I posted something about him, and noted how long he's been in our paper - "17 consecutive years on the Style Invitational -- and over 25 with the Post." That's amazing. Here's 3 Style illos from the past year that caught my eye and got clipped.

Cameroonian and Marylander cartoonist Issa Nyaphaga's exhibit in NYC

Issa's sent me the following press release about his new exhibit:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

ARTBREAK GALLERY presents
BARACKUDA: POST-ELECTION CARTOON SHOW
by ISSA NYAPHAGA

January 4 - February 6, 2009
Opening reception Friday, January 9th from 5 to 9 PM

ARTBREAK GALLERY is proud to present the work of ISSA NYAPHAGA, an international artist/activist who is working on global issues with FREEDIMENSIONAL here in NYC.

ISSA began his career working as a political cartoonist and reporter in a weekly satirical newspaper in his home country of Cameroon, Le Messager Popoli. His opposition to the political regime in Cameroon led him to several trips to jail in 1994 for his publications. In 1996 he escaped from his country to seek asylum in France, where he began collaborating with the famous photographer Jacqueline Hyde, a former assistant to Man Ray.

Being known as an activist devoted to the issues of refugees and immigrants, ISSA NYAPHAGA was invited on June 16, 2001 to20speak before the French National Assembly on the 50th anniversary of the Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees for the U.N.H.C.R. He also co-founded the organization JAFE (African Journalists in Exile), which defends and protects journalists in danger, and in 1999 he co-authored Comment la France traite l'asile politique (L'Harmattan ed.), a book
that deals with political asylum in France and analyzes the exile experience.

As a way of remaining in contact with his native country ISSA founded the Association "HITIP" (Hope International for Tikar People), which contributes to the development of rural areas in Cameroon, especially in the cultural exchange, health and education sectors.

ISSA NYAPHAGA is currently participating in a three-month residency program in NYC with the HARLEM STUDIO FELLOWSHIP. He is one of many emerging black artists who followed the last presidential election campaign in the US very closely, which then inspired him to produce the body of work in this show.

"As a political cartoonist I was censured and jailed. Today, after 12 years in exile, I seek to examine contemporary society with an expression that transcends the primary function of caricature. For me, drawing cartoons has always been about examining current events in newspapers, and transferring this expression onto a huge canvas or into an installation gives me immense pleasure," explains ISSA.

As part of his 'URBAN WAY' project, on the night of the reception ISSA will be performing on stage with live music.

The show will run from January 4th to February 6th.

For more information go to www.artbreakgallery.com , www.freedimensional.org or www.nyaphaga.com

ARTBREAK GALLERY
195 Grand Street
2nd Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11211
718 302 1021
www.artbreakgallery.com
info@artbreakgallery.com

Seth, Tomine, Neely illos among others in today's NY Times Magazine

Seth, Tomine, and Neely have illos among others in today's NY Times Magazine in this article - "Risk Mismanagement" - click on each page at the bottom to see the next set.

Jillian Tamaki illustrated a book review and a few days ago, J.D. Salinger.

Last week, David Hajdu eulogized Will Elder in "His Mad World," By DAVID HAJDU, New York Times Magazine December 28, 2008.

OT: Another review of Losing Everything

Here's another review of Losing Everything by my friend David Lozell Martin: "A novelist's harrowing journey," REVIEW BY PETE CROATTO, Bookpage, January 2009.

And on a more chipper note, the Post recently ran a story about Wonder Book and Video in Frederick, MD which has sold me a few comics and cartoon things over the years.

Another Luna Brothers interview online

"Keeping The Sword Sharp: Talking to the Luna Brothers," By Vaneta Rogers, Newsarama 30 December 2008 .

The Year According to Toles came out last week

Whoops. December 28th, p. B8 for anyone who kept the paper.

Since all of his Post cartoons are online, I guess it doesn't matter much.

But, hey, look - the Post is selling a print of his post-Obama election cartoon for $30; a bargain compared to the $200 for the signed one.

And although I'm poking fun at them, more power to them for figuring out more ways to make money and keep paying a cartoonist. Personally I think they should do a collection for each year of Toles' cartoons through a print-on-demand service. No upfront cost besides the intern time to put it together and I'd buy one each year.

Bennett's Best catchup

Zadzooks was on a videogame last week so I'm not linking to it, but here's 2 of Greg's recommendations:

Bennett's Best for the week of December 21
Zadzooks Blog
January 02 2009 7:39 PM BY JOE SZADKOWSKI

Back to the 80s when the world was young, and so were Greg and I as he selects Mister X and American Flagg!

Bennett's Best for the week of December 28
Zadzooks Blog
January 02 2009 7:55 PM BY JOE SZADKOWSKI

Shanower's return to Oz and 30 Days of Night here.

Cul de Sac picked up in Knoxville

See "Four new strips replace low finishers in News Sentinel cartoon lineup," By Susan Alexander, Knoxville News Sentinel Sunday, January 4, 2009.

OT: Dilbert interview

Since most of the comics news blogs are on holiday hiatus, I'll link to something that has nothing to do with our stated purpose - here's an interesting interview by my friend Chris Mautner, "'Dilbert' creator reflects on 20 years of cube life," Patriot-News January 2 2009.