A Pre-SPX Chat with R.M. Rhodes up at City Paper

Meet a Local Sequential Artist: A Chat with R.M. Rhodes

Posted by Mike Rhode on Sep. 8, 2010

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/general/2010/09/08/meet-a-local-sequential-artist-a-chat-with-r-m-rhodes/

No new comic books today

Due to Labor Day on Monday, new comics day is on Thursday this week.

A few SPX items from Matt Dembicki

 Matt Dembicki would like us to know:

-The D.C. Conspiracy (www.dcconspiracy.com) will have tables W3-W9
-We'll have FREE copies of our latest project, the 'Magic Bullet' comics newspaper
-Native American storyteller and 'Trickster' contributing writer Joseph Stands With Many will be a guest at my table at W9 on Sat., from 3-5
p.m.

A Chat with Carolyn Belefski online at City Paper

SPX is coming up and here's an interview with a cartoonist who'll be selling her books there -

Meet a Local Cartoonist: A Chat with Carolyn Belefski

Posted by Mike Rhode on Sep. 7, 2010

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/general/2010/09/07/meet-a-local-cartoonist-a-chat-with-carolyn-belefski/

Another Intervention convention interview

Giving the Internet An INTERVENTION: A Q&A With Onezumi
Posted on Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
http://charmcitycurrent.com/bmorenerdy/2010/08/17/giving-the-internet-an-intervention-a-qa-with-onezumi/

Sept 9: One Night Only! Richard Thompson + Keith Knight LIVE

They're at Politics and Prose bookstore on Conn Ave, NW in the District -

Thursday September 9
Richard Thompson & Keith Knight
7 p.m. In conjunction with the Small Press Expo (September 11-12 at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center), we're delighted to host two artists who excel at contemplating the minutiae of everyday life and making it hilarious. Thompson's strip is focused on a loveable family in a suburban development, while Knight's is told through the eyes of a city dweller.

and the following evening-

Friday September 10
James Sturm - Market Day
8 p.m. Co-founder of the Center for Cartoon Studies, Sturm has set this beautifully crafted historical fiction in the Eastern European countryside of the 1900s. His day in the life of Mendleman, a carpet peddler, uses spare narrative and finely-honed images to achieve a powerful emotional resonance.

Small Press Expo This Weekend with Jaime Hernandez, James Sturm, Dean Haspiel, Raina Telgemeier, Richard Thompson and A Cast of Thousands

Small Press Expo This Weekend with Jaime Hernandez, James Sturm, Dean Haspiel, Raina Telgemeier, Richard Thompson and A Cast of Thousands

Bethesda, Maryland, September 7, 2010 - The Small Press Expo will be held this weekend, Saturday September 11 and Sunday September 12. This year we are featuring the First Annual SPX Animation Showcase along with showings of Nina Paley's full length movie Sita Sings The Blues. This is in addition to the Ignatz Awards presentation Saturday night, September 11 at 9PM, which is open to all SPX attendees.There will be a programming slate running both days that includes one on one interviews with James Sturm and Jaime Hernandez, as well as a dialogue on cartooning between Julia Wertz and Kate Beaton. There will be the ever present exhibitors hall with over 350 exhibitors selling the best in graphic novels, as well as self published comics and mini-comics.

The hours for SPX 2010 are 11AM-7PM Saturday, September 11, and noon-6PM Sunday, September 12. Admission is $10 for a single day and $15 for both days.

More information is available on our web site at 

http://www.spxpo.com.

Here is the complete list of special guests:

Richard Thompson writes and draws the successful syndicated comic strip Cul de Sac and drew the weekly Washington Post cartoon Richard's Poor Almanac, best known for the George W. Bush parody "Make the Pie Higher." Thompson was nominated for the National Cartoonist Society's Reuben award in 2009, and his illustrations have appeared in The New Yorker and the Atlantic Monthly.

 Jaime Hernandez is the Harvey Award winning and critically acclaimed creator behind the long running LOCA series from Love and Rockets. He has also done work for The New Yorker, as well as album covers for such bands as Los Lobos and Michelle Shocked. He drew the cover for Strange Tales Vol.2 #2 from Marvel, due in November and there will be a new installment of Loca in Love and Rockets: New Stories #3, to be released in September from Fantagraphics. 

James Sturm is an Eisner and Xeric Award winner as well as being a co-founder of The Center for Cartoon Studies. His latest graphic novel, Market Day, published by Drawn and Quarterly, drew critical acclaim from such media outlets as The New York Times and NPR. James is the creator of the equally well received The Golem's Mighty Swing,  as well as co-authoring Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow. He just completed a long stint off the Internet and e-mail, which was documented in a series he did on the subject for Slate. 

Kate Beaton  is the winner of the 2009 Doug Wright Award for Best Emerging Talent. She recently had her first cartoon published in The New Yorker, and drew a poster for Janus Films. She will be part of the next issue of Marvel Strange Tales, due out in October. Her History Comics  takes an irreverent and comical view of history and historical figures, this leading to coverage in Wired Magazine, Bitch and Macleans. Kate is responsible for a number of the banners on the SPX site, for which SPX has received rave reviews. Kate's work can be viewed at her web site http://harkavagrant.com/.

Dean Haspiel  won the Emmy Award for Best Title design for his work on the show Bored to Death for which he also did a comic available on the shows web site. He is the one of the founders of the renown web comic cooperative ACT-I-VATE , as well as a having collaborated with the late, great, Harvey Pekar on The Quitter and American Splendor. He has worked for such outlets as New York Times, Marvel, DC/Vertigo as well as Dark Horse, where he illustrated Michael Chabon's The Escapist. See Dean's work on the ACT-I-VATE web site at http://act-i-vate.com/.

Nate Powell is a novelist, publisher and musician who owns the DIY record label Harlan records. He received the 2009 Eisner Award for Outstanding Graphic Novel for his work Swallow Me Whole and also received the 2009 Ignatz Award for Best Artist. Visit his web site at http://www.seemybrotherdance.org.

R. Sikoryak has been producing comics adaptations of literary classics, turning familiar cartoon imagery and tropes into quirky and insightful parodies, starting with his early appearances in the groundbreaking series RAW. He has published drawings in The New Yorker and Esquire among others, including The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He currently teaches illustration at Parsons in New York City

Vanessa Davis is known for her work for such magazines/web sites as BItch, Vice, Tablet and Bust. Her latest book, Make Me A Woman from Drawn and Quarterly, is premiering at SPX.  Make Me A Woman is a collection of her diary series that spans her life from her Bat Mitzvah to the current day. Check out her website at http://www.spanielrage.com/.

Keith Knight is the creator of the hit newspaper strip The Knight Life and will be on hand at SPX to sign the first compilation of that series, entitled The Knight Life: Chivalry Ain't Dead from Grand Central Publishing. Keith is a multiple Glyph Award winner and has drawn for such publications as Mad and ESPN Magazine. His (TH)ink and K Chronicles series have been critically acclaimed and may be found on his web site at http://www.kchronicles.com/.

Raina Telgemeier's latest work, Smile (A Dental Drama) published by Scholastic Press, led to excellent reviews by both Publishers Weekly and the New York Times. She drew four graphic novels for Scholastic based on the best seller series by Ann M. Martin, The Baby-sitters Club. Raina has won the Eisner, Ignatz and Kimberly Yale Awards and is the artist for this years SPX poster. Raina's website is http://goraina.com/.

Jim Rugg is an illustrator and cartoonist from Pittsburgh. His graphic novels and comic collections include Afrodisiac (Adhouse Books), Street Angel (SLG Publishing), The PLAIN Janes and Janes in Love (DC Comics), One Model Nation (Image Comics) and The Guild (Dark Horse Comics). He has also produced short comics for VH1, New York Magazine, True Porn, Meathaus, Cinema Sewer and Project Superior.

SPX is a registered 501(c)3 which brings together more than 300 artists and publishers to meet their readers, booksellers and distributors each year. Graphic novels, mini comics and alternative comics will all be on display and for sale by their authors and illustrators. 

As in previous years, profits from the SPX will go to support the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF), protecting the First Amendment rights of comic book readers and professionals.  For more information on the CBLDF, go to their website at http://www.cbldf.org/.  

Paul Conrad's obit in Washington Post

Pulitzer-winning political cartoonist Paul Conrad dies at 86
By Matt Schudel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 6, 2010; B04

Grand Comics Database expanding

For many years, a dedicated group of people have been attempting to index comic books worldwide into the Grand Comics Database. Back before I had projects like this blog, I used to contribute data and I still love the idea of the project. Recently a spin-off project for comic strips was begun and you can get in at the ground floor here.

Cavna on Paul Conrad

IN MEMORIAM: RIP Paul Conrad, Pulitzer-winning giant of political cartooning
By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog September 5, 2010;
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/comic-riffs/2010/09/in_memoriam_paul_conrad.html

Today in The New York (Comics) Times

Pekar, Paul Conrad and Rutu Modan -

The Unfinished Tale of an Unlikely Hero
By DAVE ITZKOFF
Harvey Pekar, the obsessive chronicler of everyday lives, was collaborating at the end of his life on a Web project whose fate in print remains uncertain.

Paul Conrad, Cartoonist, Dies at 86
By ROBERT D. McFADDEN
Mr. Conrad’s editorial cartoons in The Los Angeles Times and other papers slashed presidents, skewered pomposity and exposed what he saw as injustice for six decades.

And Rutu Modan illustrated the review of Skippy Dies in the Book Review.

Comics in today's Washington Examiner

There's a review of Seymour Chwast's version of Dante's Inferno and a wire story about PBS' Cat in the Hat cartoon.  Links may follow.

"Superheroes in Court: Lawyers, Law and Comic Books" exhibit done by local collector/lawyer

Local lawyer and big-time comic book collector Mark Zaid has got an exhibit of legal-related comic book covers up in a Yale law library. That's a neat idea for a theme. Here's 3 links about the show that Mark sent me:
 

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/graphic-books-best-sellers-throwing-the-book-at-them/

http://advocatesstudio.com/2010/09/03/art-imitating-law-comic-style/

http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/holy_smokes_batman_law_in_comics_featured_in_new_exhibit/?from=widget

Penny Arcade interview at Post

The 'Riffs Interview: 'PENNY ARCADE' artist Mike Krahulik talks success, charity & today's PAX
By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog September 3, 2010

That darn Cho!

Another Saturday, another letter to the editor...

You should have named Le Pont des Arts in Paris
Washington Post September 4, 2010
Judith Judson, Arlington

...at least they reran Cho's picture.

Post runs book review by graphic novelist

The most interesting piece for this blog is "Gabaldon's latest novel, "The Exile: An Outlander Graphic Novel," will be published later this month."

Review of Anne Fortier's novel "Juliet," a riff on "Romeo and Juliet"
By Diana Gabaldon
Washington Post September 4, 2010; C03

John K Snyder III and Matt Wagner visit Library of Congress

John K Snyder III and Matt Wagner visited the Library of Congress to see the original Spider-Man pages last week, before attending the Baltimore Comic-Con. Scoop has the story. You can see friend of ComicsDC, librarian Sara Duke, in the 2nd picture behind Matt.

Truitt on Wolverine

Wolverine goes to hell in his new comic
By Brian Truitt, USA TODAY September 2 2010

Mark Ruffin's take on Baltimore Comic Con

We were loooking for each other, but missed again.  As a group, DC's comics bloggers are great individualists.

Hundreds of talents, patrons and vendors commenced valuable identity for Baltimore Comic Con Thursday, September 2, 2010 As a specialty reference comic-con may be an accustomed jargon nation-wide, driven by online frequency, over the last three years to be institutionally known as a variable of descriptors in the capacity of a household term. Infuse comic-con into any... Read more » DC Comic Books Examiner, Mark Ruffin Mark Ruffin, a freelance writer and story editor, recalls a first read of Peter Parker, the Amazing Spider-Man #8 and a collection of comic books from that point. Following honorable service in the military, he has contributed and edited articles on subjects political, sports car related, and of murder mystery dinner games. Grouped with his enthusiasm for culinary arts and sports, he enjoys discussions on the various perspectives of the comics medium. Contact Mark here.

PR: Fifth Annual Washington DC Comics Conspiracy Counter Culture Festival

The Washington DC Comics Conspiracy is proud to announce that the Fifth Annual Counter Culture Festival will be held on October 24th, from 12-8pm. The event will be held at RFD's, with an entrance on 8th street NW, between H and I streets - just one block from the Gallery Place-Chinatown metro station. Admission is free.

The event will feature vending by local comics creators and artists, as well as music and entertainment. For more information, including how to reserve a vending space, please visit:

http://www.dcconspiracy.com/blog/2010/09/counter-culture-festival-5.html

Please contact RM Rhodes at rhodes@oletheros.com with any questions.

Class of '63 Oceanus Procellarum Book Two the new webcomic
by R. M. Rhodes
http://www.webcomicsnation.com/oletheros/op