OT: Comics Journal interview with David Astor

Our old friend is interviewed - Talking future of newspaper comics with former E&P editor Dave Astor, by Eric Millikin on January 11th, 2010. I really miss his Syndicate column.

Zadzooks still at Washington Times?

The Washington Times has laid off lots of editorial staff - apparently up to 60% - but it looks like Zadzooks might still be there as he had a game columnthis past week.

UPDATED: Yes, Joe Szadkowski has emailed me that he's still at the Times, so I'll continue to look for his column each week.

COMICS ON THE RACK (Quick Picks for Comics Due 01-13-10)

COMICS ON THE RACK

(Quick Picks for Comics Due 01-13-10)

by John Judy

 

ADVENTURE COMICS #6 by Geoff Johns and Francis Manapul.  Superboy is determined to do something nice for Lex Luthor.  Y'know, to bring out the good in him.  This should be awesome!  Recommended.

 

ALAN MOORE NEONOMICON HORNBOOK by Moore and Jacen Burrows.  Prepping you for the sequel to Moore's THE COURTYARD, a modern take on the H.P. Lovecraft mythos.  Sure to be demented in all the right ways.  Crazy or not, Alan Moore is always a "gotta look!"

 

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #617 by Joe Kelly and Max Fiumara.  The Rhino is back and he really wants to kill… the Rhino?!  But what will the Rhino have to say about this?

 

BATMAN: WIDENING GYRE #4 of 6 by Kevin Smith and Walter Flanagan.  After a month off (which is really not bad for a Kevin Smith book) BWG is back as Batman tries to turn a bit more of the crime-fighting workload over to his new admirer.  Silly Batman!  Don't you know what happens when you trust someone in Gotham City?

 

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #31 by Joss Whedon and Georges Jeanty.  Buffy flies.  Willow glows.  Oz says just the right thing.  Of course he does!  Whedon's writing!  Recommended.

 

CREEPY ARCHIVES, VOL. 5 HC by Various Creators including Steve Ditko, Reed Crandell, Angelo Torres and Alex Toth.  Yeah, you know you want it!  Classic horror for the post-holidays!  Recommended!

 

DAYTRIPPER #2 of 10 by Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon.  OK, after last issue I'm not sure how this is possible, but this issue Bras and his best friend go on a nature hike and find more than they bargained for.  Recommended.

 

GHOUL #2 by Steve Niles and Bernie Wrightson.  An old-school LA detective noir starring an unkillable giant drawn by Wrightson.  Who could ask for more?

 

INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #22 by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca.  Can Tony Stark's pals re-boot his brains before the Ghost blows them out?  Guest-starring Doctor Strange!

 

MARVELS PROJECT #5 of 8 by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting.  Steve Rogers puts on the red, white and blue and the Sub-Mariner comes up for a look.  Recommended!

 

NO HERO SC by Warren Ellis and Juan Jose Ryp.  Collecting the full run of the adventures of one of Ellis's less fortunate super-wannabes.  And that's saying something.

 

POWER OF SHAZAM #48 by Eric Wallace and Don Kramer.  Osiris is back from the dead as a Black Lantern.  And weren't we all secretly longing for that to happen?  And what does a zombie who's half-alligator poop look like?  Gotta look!

 

PUNISHERMAX #3 by Jason Aaron and Steve Dillon.  One of the best Punisher stories in quite a while has Wilson Fisk clawing his way to Kingpin-dom and trying not to get killed doing it.  Oh, and the Punisher's in it, too!  Highly recommended.  Not for kids.

 

SECRET SIX #17 by John Ostrander, Gail Simone and J. Calafiore.  Part two of the Secret Six/Suicide Squad team-up finds the Six needing to rescue Deadshot from the Squad.  Maybe certain parties need this "team-up" concept explained a little more carefully…

 

STRANGE #3 of 4 by Mark Waid and Emma Rios.  The ex-Sorcerer Supreme and his newest apprentice go road-tripping in the American South.  And you thought you'd seen Mindless Ones before!  Recommended.

 

STUFFED GN by Glen Eichler and Nick Bertozzi.  From a writer of "The Colbert Report" and the creator of "Daria" comes this multiple-categoried concoction about a couple who inherit a Museum of Curiosities and discover that sometimes names don't quite cover it.  Recommended.

 

TROUBLEMAKERS HC written and drawn by Gilbert Hernandez.  Drugs, greedy-low-lifes, fires, beheadings and gunplay!  It don't get pulpier than this!  Not for kids!

 

UNWRITTEN #9 by Mike Carey and Peter Gross.  This issue: "Tommy Taylor and the Prison Riot!"  Recommended.

 

www.johnjudy.net

Boy, that Herblock was clever

Actually, this is a nice appreciation of the new Herblock book - Iconography • When Newspapers Were Newspapers, Robert Birnbaum, Our Man in Boston: A Book Blog January 7, 2010.

The Post had a national edition?

Ed Hall inks final issue for Washington Post
Mark Pettus
Ponae Vedra Recorder January 8, 2010

Post on Simpson's anniversary

Fox anniversary special salutes 20 years of 'The Simpsons'
By Jen Chaney
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 10, 2010; E04

Jan 30: Darwyn Cooke at American Art

Here's a reminder post, based on the DC Examiner mentioning it today.

Saturday January 30, 2010
The Hunter with Darwyn Cooke Lectures & Seminars
4:00 PM
McEvoy Auditorium, Lower Level
American Art Museum
Eisner Award–winning writer and artist Darwyn Cooke will discuss his evocative graphic novel, The Hunter, based on the 1962 crime classic by Donald E. Westlake (writing under the name Richard Stark). This best seller has been critically acclaimed in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post for breathing new life into one of the classic characters of crime fiction. With a visual style that both pays homage to and plays with ‘60s retro style, The Hunter vividly depicts the film noir genre.
Limited free tickets (two per person), G Street Lobby, one hour prior. Book signing follows.
McEvoy Auditorium, Lower Level

Herblock award to accept animated editorial cartoons

Alan Gardener has the story on how the Herblock award committee is willing to look at animated editorial cartoons.

Gigacon schedule and bios

Here's the schedule and here's the biographies of the speakers.

Jan 8-9: Gigacon at National Building Museum

The Art Institute of Washington has Gigacon, a media arts convention going on today an dtomorrow at the National Building Museum. Animators from Adult Swim and other places are attending as is David Silva, a sculptor for McFarlane Toys. Cost is $10, and it runs from 10 am-5 pm. Here's a pdf poster with more information.

ToonSeum Press Release: January Cartoon Arts Lecture Series

The ToonSeum's in Pittsburgh, but DC's Nevin Martell is speaking there...

The ToonSeum January Lecture Series
The ToonSeum announces the line up for it's January Saturday Lecture Series.
The series features artists and authors discussing various aspects of the cartoon arts and its history.
The ToonSeum is Pittsburgh's Museum of Cartoon Art. Located in downtown Pittsburgh's cultural district. It is one of only three museums dedicated to comics and cartoons in the nation.


January 16th, 5:30 PM

Rob Rogers

Rob Rogers will be at the ToonSeum speaking about his 25 years as an editorial cartoonist in Pittsburgh and his new book, "No Cartoon Left Behind."

As a editorial cartoonist for the last 25 years, Rob Rogers' cartoons appear regularly in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Newsweek, and USA Today, among others. His "How the Gingrich Stole Christmas" graced the cover of Newsweek's 1994 year-end issue. He received the 1995 National Headliner Award, the 2000 Overseas Press Club Award and has won seven Golden Quill Awards. In 1999, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

In his new book, "No Cartoon Left Behind", Rogers recounts his humorous path to cartooning and shares his own personal perspective on the major news stories of the past two and a half decades, covering a diverse range of topics including the Cold War, gun control, smoking, racism, the environment, 9/11 and presidential elections. It is considered as a must-have for political junkies, history buffs, cartoon fans.


January 23rd, 5:30 pm

Finding Calvin and Hobbes with author Nevin Martell

Author Nevin Martell shares his quest to uncover the story behind one of comics most elusive creators, Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes.

For ten years, between 1985 and 1995, Calvin and Hobbes was one the world's most beloved comic strips. And then, on the last day of 1995, the strip ended. Its mercurial and reclusive creator, Bill Watterson, not only finished the strip but withdrew entirely from public life. There is no merchandising associated with Calvin and Hobbes: no movie franchise; no plush toys; no coffee mugs; no t-shirts (except a handful of illegal ones).
There is only the strip itself, and the books in which it has been compiled
- including The Complete Calvin and Hobbes: the heaviest book ever to hit the New York Times bestseller list.

In Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and His Revolutionary Comic Strip, writer Nevin Martell traces the life and career of the extraordinary, influential, and intensely private man behind Calvin and Hobbes. With input from a wide range of artists and writers (including Dave Barry, Harvey Pekar, Jonathan Lethem, andBrad Bird) as well as some of Watterson's closest friends and professional colleagues, this is as close as we're ever likely to get to one of America's most ingenious and intriguing figures - and a fascinating detective story, at the same time.

Only 3,160 Calvin and Hobbes strips were ever produced, but Watterson has left behind an impressive legacy. Calvin and Hobbes references litter the pop culture landscape and his fans are as varied as they are numerable.
Looking for Calvin and Hobbes is an affectionate and revealing book about uncovering the story behind this most uncommon trio - a man, a boy, and his tiger.


January 30th, 5:30 pm

Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front, Author- Todd Depastino

The program will be an illustrated talk on the great World War II cartoonist Bill Mauldin, an army infantry sergeant who rocketed to fame at age twenty-two with his wildly popular feature "Up Front."  Week after week, Mauldin defied army censors, German artillery, and General George Patton's pledge to throw him in jail for insubordination to deliver his grim depictions of war to "Stars and Stripes" and hundreds of homefront newspapers.

There, readers followed the stories of Willie and Joe, two wise-cracking 'dogfaces' whose mud-caked uniforms and pidgin of army slang and slum dialect bore eloquent witness to the world of combat and the men who lived
- and died - in it.  We have never viewed war in the same way since.

The talk is based on Todd's book, BILL MAULDIN: A LIFE UP FRONT (W.W.
Norton, 2008), a winner of the 2009 Anne M. Sperber Prize for biography.
Todd is also editor of acclaimed WILLIE & JOE: THE WWII YEARS (Fantagraphics Books, 2008), the first complete collection of Mauldin's World War II.

His previous books include CITIZEN HOBO: HOW A CENTURY OF HOMELESSNESS SHAPED AMERICA (University of Chicago Press, 2003) which won a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. He has a Ph.D. in American History from Yale University and teaches at Waynesburg University.
Currently, he lives in Mt. Lebanon with his wife and two daughters.

Lecture series is included with paid admission to the ToonSeum.

4 dollars for adults

3 dollars for students

www.toonseum.org


For more information visit www.toonseum.org or call 412-232-0199.

Our mailing address is:
The ToonSeum
945 Liberty Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
 

Kal on Maryland NPR

From: kevin Kallaugher

I wanted to alert you to an interview that will be airing tomorrow (Friday) at the local NPR station in Baltimore, WYPR 88.1FM. 

It is dedicated to my work with the new 2010 Illustrated Kalendar and The Economist.... it's long (15 minutes) and is the second leg of the hour long show which is called The Signal.  

The show airs Friday at noon and again at 7PM. But they have already released the show on the web. Here's the link to the web audio (my interview starts at the 15:30 mark):  

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wypr/arts.artsmain?action=viewArticle&id=1596412&pid=347&sid=14

I hope you enjoy it!

Best

Kal

Kevin Kallaugher

kaltoons@comcast.net

www.Kaltoons.com

Matt Wuerker defends his Cheney record

Here's a letter by him on Poynter.

Beetle Bailey found by DC bloggers on the road

A couple of my friends, well one friend and his girlfriend whom I haven't actually met, drove across country and discovered Beetle Bailey on the road. One senses the possibility of an epic poem here.

Today's Beeler Cartoon hearkens back to x-ray specs ads

 Nate Beeler's Washington Examiner cartoon today hearkens back to the golden days of comic book advertisements, as he shows TSA agents using those x-ray spectacles that would purportedly see through women's clothing.  Ahh, if only everything sold in comic books worked as advertised...

Click the link to see the cartoon - Full-Body Scanning and the TSA

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs DVD

Jen Chaney gives the animated Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs DVD a rave review in today's print Express. I saw this movie recently and thoroughly enjoyed it.

This also appeared in the following day's Washington Post, and online.

Textile Museum's cosplay

Arion Berger at the Express notes in today's print edition that the Textile Museum has a program on 'Harajuku Japanese Street" which probably has some relevance to cosplay.  The event is January 10, 2-4 pm, $20 for non-members.

Dirda on science fiction

Michael Dirda, a Post book critic, isn't afraid to get his mind dirty with genre fiction. He's reviewed longform comics for the Post. Here, courtesy of a link from Politics and Prose, are excerpts from an interview with Locus magazine that focuses on science fiction..

Richmond, VA, February 5th: Jim Rugg and Chris Pitzer @ Velocity Comics

From: Colin S

Jim Rugg and Chris Pitzer hit the road to talk about their latest creation: AFRODISIAC.

http://www.conventionscene.com/2010/01/06/vanc-afrodisiac-tour/

This is a bit too far afield to me, but the book looks pretty amusing.

NPR's Weldon's graphic novel year in review

Glen goes back to the well ...

2009: The Graphic Novels That, Um ... Grabbed?
by Glen Weldon
National Public Radio's Monkey See blog January 6, 2010