Monday, May 03, 2010

Barbarian Comics profiled in today's Post

This is a job for Superman, and Batman, and the Hulk, and . . ., By Thomas Heath,Washington Post Monday, May 3, 2010; A11.

As Friend of ComicsDC Robert Montgomery noted when tipping me to this article, "The reporter breathlessly mentions that one of the owners has a "30 year old Batman." Probably worth $0.50-$1.00. Or less."

Indeed. Parents, don't let your kids grow up to be comic store owners.

Truitt on Iron Man

How Iron Man got his groove back and new armor By Brian Truitt, USA TODAY.

Clowes interview up at City Paper - he's at Politics and Prose tonight

“Likable Characters Are for Weak-Minded Narcissists”: A Chat with Daniel Clowes
Monday, May 3rd, 2010 is short email interview that he did with me - he's very funny. Go read it now, and then see him tonight at Politics and Prose at 7 pm.

Here's the PR from his publisher:

Dan Clowes On Tour! WILSON in stores!

All of our North American distributors have shipped the most anticipated book of the year to stores -- WILSON by Daniel Clowes, the cartoonist of David Boring, Ghost World and Ice Haven and the legendary Eightball comic book series. Today, WILSON is available everywhere in North America, at a finer store near you. In the next year, foreign language editions will also come out in the UK, Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Netherlands and Denmark.

Dan Clowes embarks on his tour next week in support of his first ever original graphic novel. In each city, Dan will be talking with a special guest moderator complete with slide show. (and it's a great slide show) And in Boston you get to see Ghost World after the event, with an introduction by Dan himself.

05/03/10 | 7 PM Washington DC POLITICS & PROSE With Dan Kois
05/04/10 | 6 PM Cambridge BRATTLE THEATER & HARVARD BOOKSTORE With Hillary Chute
05/05/10 | 7 PM NYC THE STRAND With David Hajdu
05/07/10 | 7 PM Toronto TCAF & TPL With Mark Medley
05/08/10-05/09/10 Toronto TCAF & TPL
05/13/10 | 7:30 PM San Francisco THE BOOKSMITH With Glen David Gold
05/14/10 | 7:30 PM Los Angeles SKYLIGHT BOOKS With Dana Gould
05/16/10 | 7:30 PM Portland POWELLS With Greg Netzer, Director of Wordstock
06/03/10 | 7 PM Oakland DIESEL With Eli Horowitz
06/12/10 | 7 PM Chicago QUIMBY'S (signing only)
06/13/10 | TBA Chicago PRINTERS ROW With Ray Pride

ABOUT WILSON: Meet Wilson, an opinionated middle-aged loner who loves his dog and quite possibly no one else. In an ongoing quest to find human connection, he badgers friend and stranger alike into a series of one-sided conversations, punctuating his own lofty discursions with a brutally honest, self-negating sense of humor. After his father dies, Wilson, now irrevocably alone, sets out to find his ex-wife with the hope of rekindling their long-dead relationship, and discovers he has a teenage daughter, born after the marriage ended and given up for adoption. Wilson eventually forces all three to reconnect as a family - a doomed mission that will surely, inevitably backfire.

Full Color, 80 pages, 8 1/4 by 11 1/2 inches ISBN: 9781770460072 $21.95 US / $22.95 CDN
For more information visit www.drawnandquarterly.com/blog

Ann Telnaes and other editorial cartoonists condemn threats against South Park


17 Pulitzer Prize Winners have signed this petition.

For what it's worth, I agree with them completely (not that anyone cares what a blogger thinks).

Comics on the Rack, Quick Picks for Comics Due 05-05-10


COMICS ON THE RACK
Quick Picks for Comics Due 05-05-10
(Or as they say in Arizona "Cinco de Mayo!)
by John Judy
 
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #630 by Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo.  Spidey must fight a cold-blooded reptile and it ain't Dick Cheney!  The Lizard is back!  Yowza!
 
ASTONISHING SPIDER-MAN/WOLVERINE #1 by Jason Aaron and Adam Kubert.  The best Wolverine writer ever gets his hands on the web-slinger too!  Brace yourself for the MARVEL TEAM-UP from hell!  Recommended!
 
ASTRO CITY: THE DARK AGE BOOK FOUR #4 of 4 by Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson.  This is it!  The final chapter of THE DARK AGE!  Years in the making, two covers and eight extra pages of Astro City WOW!  Recommended!
 
BATMAN AND ROBIN #12 by Grant Morrison and Andy Clarke.  Wrapping up the big Batman-Robin fight and revealing a lot of stuff you'd never guess about characters you'd never heard of until Morrison made them up.  It's bat-stuff crazy!
 
THE BEATS: A GRAPHIC HISTORY SC by Harvey Pekar and Various Collaborators.  This is a softcover edition of Pekar's graphic exploration of a literary movement that shaped his generation.  A mixed bag well worth digging into.
 
BRIGHTEST DAY #1 by Geoff Johns and a Lot of People.  You'd think after coming back from the dead everything else would be a cake-walk.  And you'd be wrong, as a whole bunch of DC heroes are about to learn.
 
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #35 by Brad Meltzer and Georges Jeanty.  Somehow they're really going to wrap this all up in this issue.  With an X-Men tribute cover no less!  Must read!
 
CAPTAIN AMERICA/BLACK PANTHER: FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS #2 by Reginald Hudlin and Denys Cowan.  A World War Two adventure starring a rookie Cap versus a seasoned Panther.  Oh, and the Nazis are in there too.  Recommended.
 
DONG XOAI VIETNAM 1965 written and illustrated by Joe Kubert.  A devastating true story from the days of the Vietnam War, told as only the great Joe Kubert can.  Highly recommended.
 
ELECTRIC ANT #2 of 5 by David Mack and Pascal Alixe.  Based on an original story by the legendary Philip K. Dick, this is already one of the most promising sci-fi comics in a long time.  Great art and a familiar Dick theme of figuring out how much we really know about ourselves and what it means to be human.  Highly recommended.
 
INCORRUPTIBLE, VOL. 1 SC by Mark Waid and Jean Diaz.  In which we meet Max Damage, the bad guy who gets more powerful the longer he's awake.  Except Max isn't bad anymore since the Plutonian went nuts.  Now he's "Incorruptible."  Highly recommended.
 
IRREDEEMABLE #13 by Mark Waid and Peter Krause.  The Paradigm are locked up, leaving the mad Plutonian completely in the hands of the one guy crazier than he is.  Recommended.
 
IZOMBIE #1 by Chris Roberson and Michael Allred.  The adventures of a grave-robbing, brain-eating girl detective.  Yes, you do have to look!  Not for kids.
 
PILOT SEASON: STEALTH #1 by Robert Kirkman and Marc Silvestri.  In the midst of a number of other difficulties a man takes in his aging father who's suffering from dementia.  Unfortunately dad was also the superhero Stealth.  Will Obamacare be able to handle this?  From the creator of WALKING DEAD and INVINCIBLE.
 
PRIDE, PREJUDICE & ZOMBIES GN by Jane Austen, Seth Grahame-Smith, Tony Lee and Cliff Richards.  The only thing that could make me read Jane Austen: Flesh-eating fiends from the depths of hell!!!  Recommended.
 
SECRET SIX #21 by Gail Simone and Jim Calafiore.  Catman's got his claws out like never before.  Definitely not for younger kids.  Recommended.
 
SPIDER-MAN: FEVER #2 of 3 written and drawn by Brendan McCarthy.  Doctor Strange must rescue Spidey's soul from demons in a book that looks like it was painted with melted Good-n-Fruitys!  Gotta look!
 
STEPHEN KING'S N #3 of 4 by Marc Guggenheim and Alex Maleev.  Adapting a Stephen King horror story about a shrink who catches his patient's demon-induced OCD.  You must read this comic ten times before you can put it down safely, in mylar, in a comic box facing north-south.  Seriously.
 
SUPERMAN: WAR OF THE SUPERMEN #1 of 4 by James Robinson, Sterling Gates and Jamal Igle.  Brainiac is now an afterthought as Supes and Zod tear into each other while 100,000 Kryptonians wait in the wings.
 
ULTIMATE COMICS: NEW ULTIMATES #2 by Jeph Loeb and Frank Cho.  This comic was drawn by Frank Cho.
 
UNCANNY X-MEN #524 by Matt Fraction and Terry Dodson.  Last issue "a beloved X-Man died defending Hope."  Okay, I'm not gonna give it away, but come on.  "Beloved?"  Really?  Some of these X-threads are better than others.
 
VERONICA #200 written and drawn by Dan Parent.  A milestone issue starring Riverdale's poor little rich girl, Veronica Lodge!  This issue, Veronica gets a time machine!
 
And this week don't forget to ask for your WHITE LANTERN PROMO RINGS for enhancing your enjoyment of comics and bringing back the dead!
 


TODAY: Kal on Kojo on NPR, May 8th in Baltimore

Kal sends in a note about 2 events he'll be doing this week:

On Monday May 3 I will be a guest Washington's NPR showcase station , WAMU (www.wamu.org,  88.5 FM), on the Kojo Nnamdi show. I will be on the 1-2PM slot as part of a discussion on Satire and Culture.

I will be the guest speaker at the annual benefit fundraiser for "At Jacob's Well" (http://atjacobswell.org) a very worthy charity dedicated to aiding the homeless community in Baltimore.  Here are the details: 

When: Saturday, May 8, 2PM 

Where: Church of the Redeemer, 5603 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD

Details: $20. Admission includes Wine and Hors d'oeuvres. Silent auction to benefit the charity

If you cannot attend but want to help this very worthy group, please visit their website: http://atjacobswell.org/

Also,

Best 

Kal
Kevin Kallaugher

The KAL iPhone App is now available at the iTunes store.






Thursday, April 29, 2010

Book reviews up at City Paper

International Ink: Clowes, Kids, Crackers and Hellboy

PR: DC Comic-Con Costume Contest



DC Comic-Con Costume Contest

Washington, DC - April 28, 2010 - JUST ANNOUNCED!  Iron Man 2, hitting theatres on May 7, 2010, presents the Inaugural DC Comic-Con Costume Contest!
 
Come out to the Iron Man 2 table dressed as your favorite comic book character to enter-to-win Iron Man 2 prizes.  The person with the best costume will win reserve seats at the advance screening of the film in DC!  Best Costume will be picked from all entries at 3pm, so enter early!
 
For more information on Iron Man 2, go to www.ironmanmovie.com.

 
Directions
The show will be held at the George Mason University campus at 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA  22030 in the Student Union Building II (SUB II).  Free Parking is available in Lot A (beside the Patriot Center), which is a short walk from SUB II.  A map of the campus can be found at http://parking.gmu.edu/pdf%20files/parkingmap09.pdf, and directions to the show can be found on the show website at http://dccomicon.com/?page_id=63
 
About The DC Comic-Con
The DC Comic-Con, launching in 2010 on Sunday, May 2nd from 10am-5pm, is a result of the cooperative work of Marc Nathan, sponsor of the Baltimore Comic-Con (http://www.baltimorecomiccon.com/) and Brett Carreras, sponsor of the VA Comicon (http://www.vacomicon.com/). For more information about guests, games, show exclusives, and contests, please visit http://dccomicon.com/.
  

May 3: Daniel Clowes at Politics and Prose

I'll have a brief review of the book up at the City Paper this week, and an amusing interview with him posted there on Monday morning.

Daniel Clowes - Wilson

Start: May 3, 2010 - 7:00pm
End: May 3, 2010 - 8:00pm
The latest graphic novel by Clowes, the author of David Boring and Ghost World is his first not to be serialized. A sequence of single-page vignettes, it’s drawn in different styles and dramatizes the life of a lonely, bitter man searching for human connection.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Comic Riffs on let's not "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day"

Post-'South Park': Cartoonist retreats from 'Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!' [UPDATED], By Michael Cavna, Washington Post's Comic Riffs blog April 26, 2010.

I'm a pretty irreligious guy, and dedicated to free speech, but even I feel this is all getting ridiculous. To use a loaded analogy, it's starting to remind me of the Islam conquest, and countering Crusades, where you 'convinced' the other side by brute force.

John Kelly on the post-cartoon Smokey the Bear

The biography of Smokey Bear: the cartoon came first
By John Kelly
Washington Post April 25, 2010; C03

Zadzooks reviews licensed comics

Comic book reviews: Terminator, Star Wars and Conan, Thursday, April 22, 2010 - Zadzooks - Worlds of Comics, Gaming and Action Figures by Joseph Szadkowski

Nate Beeler chosen for Cartoons for the Classroom

Nate Beeler's drawing of the Iceland volcano was chosen for the April 26th Cartoons for the Classroom educational feature. One can enter a caption contest as well.

Post on South Park censorship

I completely missed this until Cavna's Comic Riffs linked to it -

Comedy Central censors "South Park"
By Lisa de Moraes
Washington Post April 23, 2010