February 13-15: Katsucon 15 anime and manga festival

On February 13-15th, Katsucon 15 anime and manga festival is in Arlington's Crystal City at the Hyatt Regency. As of this writing, they have slightly less than 3,000 spaces open, or half what they started with, so get cracking! The cost appears to be $50.

Ari Folman interview on 'Bashir' in Post

See "Film 'Can't Change The World': 'Bashir's' Ari Folman Draws Conclusions About Conflict," Robin Shulman, Washington Post Sunday, January 25, 2009; M02.

Nanoman, by DC natives, available now

Got an email today from editor Arthur Delaney which reads, the first issue of a fully professional NANOMAN is now for sale on IndyPlanet: http://www.indyplanet.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1660

Our artist, Jon Reed, was the winner of the 2008 Comic Idol contest at the NYC Comic Con last year. He's absurdly good.

We'll be exhibiting our story at the Con this year as well.

www.newamericangraphicnovels.com

Sal Buscema, ace Spider-Man artist, interviews

Back in the 1970s, it seems like every Marvel Comic I bought was illustrated by Sal Buscema. Today he lives in Northern Virginia, and I keep hoping to meet him. The Spider-Man Crawl Space website interviewed him and put up 3 podcasts this week.

Podcast 55: Honoring Sal Buscema with Guests Stan Lee, Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz, Roy Thomas and Danny Fingeroth
January 13 2009

Our first guest of 2009 is artist Sal Buscema. He just celebrated his 40th year at Marvel Comics. He also holds the record for the longest penciling stint on a Spider-Man comic. He drew 104 issues straight of the Spectacular Spider-Man title. To honor Sal for this accomplishment we invited a few of his friends along. On the podcast we have Stan Lee, Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz, Roy Thomas and Danny Fingeroth.

Podcast 56: Honoring Sal Buscema with Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz
January 15 2009

We continue our interview of legendary Spider-Man artist Sal Buscema. He’s joined by writer Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz as we answer questions live from people around the world. We talk about artistic tips, spider-clones and our favorite female, Spider-Girl!

Podcast 57: Honoring Sal Buscema pt 3 with Tom DeFalco & Ron Frenz
January 18 2009

We wrap our conversation with artist Sal Buscema. In this last half hour we answer your written message board questions. Some of the questions range from Sal’s thoughts on Amazing Spider-Girl getting canceled, funny experiences at comic book conventions, and why the Hulk is his favorite character to draw. His buddies Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz are along the ride for the show.

Zadzooks on Mahfood and The Scream (not that one - a comic book one)

Zadzooks: Reviews of Kick Drum Comix and The Scream,
Joseph Szadkowski, Washington Times Thursday, January 22, 2009.

Washington Times-Post on Waltz with Bashir

"Brilliant 'Bashir' Brings A Dark Memory to Light," By John Anderson, Washington Post Friday, January 23, 2009; C01 and "The first 'Waltz': Israeli filmmaker turns to animation to unlock war memories," Sonny Bunch, Washington Times Friday, January 23, 2009.

Everybody's been liking this - I'll have to go see it.

D.C. Conspiracy's website redone

Matt Dembicki wrote in to say, "D.C. Conspiracy's Web site has a new look. Check it out at www.dcconspiracy.com."

Local ace comics photographer Bruce Guthrie on tv

Bruce Guthrie, my buddy who's shared his comics photographs on this site, has gotten almost 1/10 of his fifteen minutes on tv recently when he shot 2500 inaugural photos.

Superhuman Resources new comic by NoVa expat

I'm on a borrowed computer because mine got wormed last night (while trying to watch the Inaugural concert on HBO!) so I'm keeping this short. Here's some PR that just came in, along with two interviews with cartoonist Ken Marcus for more background - "Ken Marcus - Super Human Resources," by Christopher Moshier, Dec 3, 2008 and "MARCUS' SUPER HUMAN RESOURCES TEAM," by Jennifer M. Contino, Comicon's The Pulse November 25 2008.


I have a comic due in stores in late February from Ape Entertainment. It's called Super Human Resources. It's about the HR department of the world's greatest super team.

We've gotten a lot of good press (quotes below) But I'd love to know what you think of us. Your blog is a lot of fun. A recent discovery of mine.

What does this have to do with DC? I’m from DC. Northern VA. I’m in Richmond right now.

I would love a mention or review on the blog. I can dream, right?

Thanks so much for your time.
ken


"If you ever had a job, Super Human Resources is FUNNY. If you ever liked superheroes, Super Human Resources is VERY FUNNY."
- Joe Kelly (Spider-Man, Action Comics, JLA, Deadpool.)

"This might be the funniest comic book Man has ever produced. Highly recommended and I give it an A."
Jeff Marsick, Newsarama Best Shots.

"When being funny isn't enough in an industry chock-a-block with genre-humor yarns, what a new series needs is character. And that, sweetly, SHR has in spades. Oh, and the comic is really damn funny."
Dave Baxter, Broken Frontier

"Just when you think all possible avenues of the super-hero genre have been covered and recycled to death, a work like this sneaks on by to yank out your funny bone and hit you over the head with it."
Richard Caldwell, ComicNews.Info

"Super Human Resources is one of the best Indy books I have seen this year and by far the funniest!"
Eric, The Pullbox.com

"It's ridiculous. It's lunacy. It may just be the single most entertaining comic book you'll ever read. And no, I'm not blowing things out of proportion."
Keith, Staff Picks. Diamond Previews.

3 local 'Waltz with Bashir' Israeli animation reviews

The City Paper has the more substantial one - "Distended Animation: Waltz With Bashir and Inkheart seek release through fantasy," By Tricia Olszewski, Washington City Paper January 23, 2009. The Express interviewed the director though -
"What Happened: Ari Folman's 'Waltz With Bashir'," by Christopher Correa, Express January 22, 2009. See also "Oscar-nominated 'Waltz With Bashir' shows wounds of troubled region," By Sally Kline, Wshington Examiner Movie Critic 1/23/09.

OT: George Pelecanos at Arlington Library

This will be good - I've seen Pelecanos multiple times and he's always interesting. With crime writers like Denise Mina and Ian Rankin doing comics, perhaps it's oly a matter of time...

Author Event: An Evening with George Pelecanos
Mon Jan 26, 2009, 7pm
Arlington Central Library Auditorium, 1015 N. Quincy St., Arlington, Va.
Esquire magazine calls George Pelecanos "the poet laureate of the D.C. crime world." Join him at Arlington Central Library for a discussion of his work including his latest crime noir, "The Turnaround." Pelecanos also wrote extensively for the critically hailed HBO series "The Wire." Books will be available for purchase and signing.

Rob Tornoe inauguration toons

Rob and I were never able to meet up, but he's got 6 inauguration cartoons on Daryl Cagle's big site where he's got a blog.

Kal and Cavna were at the Inauguration too

KAL made two short films at the Inauguration yesterday - you can see them through his blog here and here. The second one, on the Economist website, I'll embed here as I'm not sure his link will last.



Comic Riffs writer Michael Cavna's got some very nice sketches of his experiences online too.

And there's a cool video of amateur SuperObama art on the Economist too.

Dame Darcy exhibit reviewed in Examiner

Surprisingly (to me at least), Dame Darcy's exhibit is reviewed quite positively in today's Examiner - "There’s nothing like Dame Darcy," By Chris Klimek, Washington Examiner 1/21/09.

Update to Big Planet customers

The comic books are in! Please disregard the message posted previously.

Note to Big Planet customers

Joel Pollack says, "UPS delays due to Inaugural events, may result in a delay for comics appearing on our racks until mid-afternoon Wednesday, and that's a best-case scenario. Please bear with us, and join us as we welcome our new President to town."

Wordless comics bibliography available now

Some years ago I helped put together a bibliography of wordless comics that was published in the International Journal of Comic Art 2:2 (Fall 2000). Today questions about those comics were raised on the comix-scholars list with some people sending in suggestions about titles. I pulled up my old list to take a look at it and decided to make an update available.

I whipped up a corrected and updated version of the 2000 version of the list I had and stuck it on Lulu.com at http://www.lulu.com/content/5790271 as Stories Without Words: A Bibliography with Annotations 2008 edition. You can download a pdf for $1 (it wouldn't let me set it any lower), or buy a print version for $10.00.

Dave Horsey reflects on Civil Rights

Dave Horsey hung around in Falls Church rather than downtown on Sunday, but reflected on Washington and the struggle for Civil Rights - "Novus ordo seclorum," by David Horsey at January 19, 2009.

If I can descend to editorializing, it's been a long time coming. I feel good about my country and what it stands for - life, liberty, equality and the pursuit of happiness - for the first time in a long while.

Comic strip characters in DC for Inauguration

Verne from Over the Hedge probably gets the closest although Prickly City did ok too. The Rudy Park cast apparently hasn't heard that all the highways from Virginia are closed - maybe they're coming from Maryland where the roads stayed open? Secret Asian Man is watching it on tv.

And Curtis is in trouble! I never realized he lived in DC before, but he just took a bus into town so he must.

Ted Rall's coverage of President Obama's first day