Matt Wuerker of Politico wins Berryman Award

Matt Wuerker of Politico has won the Berryman Award for political cartooning. The award is from the National Press Foundation. An article on the NPF's website says that Matt beat out Tom Toles of the Post; Daryl Cagle of MSNBC and Jimmy Margulies of the Bergen Record in northern New Jersey. Matt's recently won the Funny Times' Irving Award, the Herblock Foundation's Herblock Award, and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for the past two years. And he's a really nice guy. Here's a Washington City Paper interview with him and audio from a panel he was on this summer at the DC Public Library.

Congratulations, Matt!

Meet a Local Cartoonist: A Chat with Jennifer Zyren Smith

A local webcomics creator speaks with us today -

 

Meet a Local Cartoonist: A Chat with Jennifer Zyren Smith

 by Mike Rhode on Nov. 22, 2010

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/general/2010/11/22/meet-a-local-cartoonist-a-chat-with-jennifer-zyren-smith/

 

 

Dec 4: DC Anime Club Presents StarBlazers Marathon Press Release

DC Anime Club

Presents

  StarBlazers Marathon

 

On Saturday December 4, 2010 DC Anime Club will be hosting  a Marathon of the Anime classic Star Blazers with special guest voice actress Amy Howard Wilson who is the voice of the character Nova from Star Blazers
at 2:00pm-5:00pm at Martin Luthur King, Jr Memorial Library 901 G St NW Washington, DC 20001 Room A10.

About Star Blazers: Star Blazers is an American animated television series adaptation of the Japanese anime series, Space Battleship Yamato I, II & III ( Uchū Senkan Yamato?). Star Blazers was first broadcast in the United States in 1979. Significantly, it was the first popular English-translated anime that had an over-arching plot and storyline that required the episodes to be shown in order. It dealt with somewhat more mature themes than other productions aimed at the same target audience at the time. As a result, it paved the way for future arc-based, plot-driven anime translations.

About Amy Howard Wilson: Detroit native AMY HOWARD WILSON had the honor of being cast as the voice of Nova (Mori Yuki) in the classic 1970s anime series STAR BLAZERS, Season 1 - The Quest For Iscandar and Season 2 - The Comet Empire. In 1997, after many years of thinking about Star Blazers only as a fond memory, she was delighted to learn that there are fans around the world who still enjoy it. Since 2002, she's been recording and producing audio books; has formed a family friendly, full service audio production company called  studio V.O.I.C..E., and coined a new title CVO (Chief Vocal Officer). Amy recently entered a new joint venture with Writers Exchange E-Publishers - http://www.writers-exchange.com/. Please visit her website - http://www,amysvoices.com/.

 

 

For more information please call (202) 262-2083 visit the DC Anime Club website at http://dcanimeclub.org.

 

 

About DC Anime Club:

DC Anime Club was established in 2003 to introduce and educate people in the Washington, DC area about East Asian culture, through viewing and discussion of Japanese animation (also known as anime) and Japanese comics (manga).

We also work to provide a positive, alternative activity to the youth in the area by exposing them to foreign culture, encouraging artistic expression and creativity, and providing opportunities for participation in community activities and leadership.

DC Anime Club is a 501(c)(3) not for profit organization. Contributions to DC Anime Club are tax deductible to the extent allowable under the law.

DC Anime Club has been featured in many newspapers and publications .

In addition to our bi-weekly meetings, the club holds an Art Show, a Cosplay Party fundraising event, and anime lectures at local schools . Our club works with the Japan Information and Culture Center, Embassy of Japan, Smithsonian Freer Gallery and DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival on their anime screenings. Our Marketing Team has helped promote performances for several Japanese bands such as Puffy Ami Yumi, Pine am, The Slants, The Captains and Ayabie.

DC Anime Club was founded by Chris Wanamaker (President), Jules Chang (former Vice President) and Craig Vaughn (Vice President) on Saturday June 5, 2003. We have a strong membership that continues to grow. 

 

 

 

 

 

PR: November 21 Beyond Comics Pre-Black Friday Sale

Pre-Black Friday Sale! Not looking forward to standing in long lines, arguing with ignorant sales clerks, fighting for open parking spaces, and sweating like Niagara Falls? As a valued customer of Beyond Comics we wanted to offer you the opportunity to shop at our store and take advantage of prices even better than our Black Friday Discounts. 2 Hours Only!  Sunday, November 21st 6pm - 8pm Here Are Some of our Sales Specials! On the Rack Comics New Comics One Month or Older $1 Each Action Figures All Action Figures One Month or Older 30% OFF Apparel Excludes New Arrivals 50% OFF CHECK OUT THE FACEBOOK EVENT Unable to make it to our Pre-Black Friday Sale? Stop by for excellent discounts from Friday November 26th to Sunday November 28th. Gaithersburg                                       Frederick Gaithersburg Square                       Route 85 536 North Frederick Ave                  5632 Buckeystown Pike Gaithersburg, MD 20877                  Frederick, MD 21704 301-668-8202                               (301) 6668-8202 All Sales exclude recent arrivals, on hold merchandise, subscriptions, and special orders. *Graphic Novel sales does not include Walking Dead graphic novels.

1970s-era Atlas Comics exhibit at Geppi's Museum

Special Atlas Exhibit Slated for GEM
Scoop November 19 2010

I'm sure the only reason for this is the resurrection of the line, which wasn't that interesting in the first place, but the exhibit sounds worth seeing.

Followup to Colleen Doran's editorial on piracy and copyright

The Post's excellent tech columnist Rob Pegoraro explains what the bill that Doran editorialized in favor of actually is:

Congress's latest awful tech-policy idea: the Net-censorship bill
By Rob Pegoraro

Essentially it's a bill to force Internet providers to block traffic to sites accused of piracy, including aggragators of links to scans - like TCJ.Com's Journalista and multiple other comics sites that point out when something rare has gone online.

Another possible area cartoonist?

Masked Military Man Is Superhero for Troops
By THOM SHANKER
November 19, 2010

WASHINGTON — Faster than a fleeting bullet point in an Army briefing slide. Able to leap Pentagon jargon in a single bound. While he's not a classic superhero like the Man of Steel, he's certainly a man of irony. Meet Doctrine Man...

Dembicki's District Comics website

This sounds really cool to me too:

Matt Dembicki writes in:
District Comics is an online comics anthology that will feature stories about the history of Washington, D.C., from its beginnings to contemporary times. The site will be open to the public. We want schools, libraries, comics readers and everyone else to visit the site to read some really cool stories pertaining to the nation's capital. We're currently looking for story pitches. For more info: http://district-comics.blogspot.com/

Matt Dembicki on Inkstuds

Robin McConnell interviews Matt Dembicki
 November 15, 2010 by Inkstuds
http://www.inkstuds.org/?p=3247
http://www.inkstuds.org/wp-content/podcast/101113_Matt_Dembicki.mp3

Matt Dembicki has put together a great comic anthology collecting and adapting First Nations folklore stories called Trickster.

Pearls Before Swine gives stunning call out to Cul de Sac

Pastis likes Richard! He really likes him!

 

Honestly, I can't recall anything similar to this in the comics. Anyone?

Tonight: “Party Crashers” and Comic Book Culture at Arlington Art Center

"Party Crashers" and Comic Book Culture at Arlington Art Center

Posted by Mike Rhode

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/visual-arts/2010/11/18/tomorrow-party-crashers-and-comic-book-culture-at-arlington-art-center/

 

I'm hoping to make it between 7-8 tonight. I think there's a catalogue as well and will try to get details of that for you.

Comicsgirl sums up 'In Between the Panels' panel

In Between the Panels: DC's Emergence on the Graphic Novel Scene

 Nov 18, 2010

 

Now, aren't you sorry you didn't go?

Comic Riffs on National Cartoonists Society USO trip in Afghanistan

Artists in Afghanistan: Luckovich, Pastis & Keane moved by latest USO Tour
By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs November 18 2010

Nov 19: Party Crashers comic art exhibit opens in Arlington

I wrote up some details of the Party Crashers comic art exhibit for the City Paper.

Smurfs, Human Target and Peanuts in local papers

Macy's has a 1/2 page Smurfs ad in the Post, the Examiner has a wire story on the return of the Human Target tv show which has now lasted longer than any of the comic books -

 

'Human Target' adds characters -- and character
Rob Owen / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Washington Examiner November 18, 2010   , p. 28
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/lifestyle/tv/Fox_s-retooled-_Human-Target_-adds-characters----and-character-1596570-108725999.html

 

- and the Peanuts gang is available again -

Holidays with Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Deluxe Holiday Collection on Blu-Ray
by Express contributor Sarah Anne Hughes
November 18 2010, p. E8
http://www.expressnightout.com/content/2010/11/peanuts-deluxe-holiday-collection-blu-ray-charles-schulz.php

 

1969 editorial cartoon still rings true

I've got some old newspapers that I'm clipping the comics out of to send to Michigan State University. Here's John Fischetti's December 6, 1969 cartoon from the Chicago Daily News:



and here it is with one word edited out to make it relevant 40 years later:



Some may argue that you don't need to alter it to make it relevant, but I don't think extending tax cuts for the rich is a 'reform.'

Colleen Doran on piracy at local blog

I'm posting this because it's in a local publication although I don't remotely agree with her conclusion about copyright. Or about DC's Vertigo's financial problems either.

The "real" victims of online piracy
By Colleen Doran
The Hill's Congress Blog 11/17/10

In my opinion, the carriage makers that survived started making cars, not by continuing to make horse carriages. Technology's changed the world and no matter how Draconian you'd like to make copyright law, it isn't going to matter.  As Rob Pegora says in the Post today, apropos of the Beatles and mp3s, "This is a point that often gets overlooked in entertainment circles: The market continues to function even if the logical and rightful supplier of a product refuses to participate. The ease of duplicating and transmitting digital data ensures that somebody else will fill that vacancy.You can mope about the massive copyright infringement that results from this dynamic, but the best way for artists to reverse it is to get into the market themselves."

That's what's happened with comic book publishers and digital comics. As I like to point out, if the current copyright law was retroactive from when it passed, the Spanish-American War would still be in copyright.  Anyone remember that war? No. Because it happened in 1898. On the other hand, Disney, the chief financier of the law, wouldn't have been able to make any of their movies based on Grimm's fairy tales like Snow White or Cinderella because those original tales would have been in copyright when the films were made in the 1940s.

NPR's Weldon also has an opinion on 'Superman vs. Muhammad Ali'

Float Like a Snagriff, Sting Like a Fish-Snake: 'Superman vs. Muhammad Ali'
by Glen Weldon
National Public Radio's Monkey See blog (November 17, 2010)

Tonight: Between the Panels panel - Free!

In Between the Panels: DC's Emergence on the Graphic Novel Scene

http://www.wnba-books.org/wash/events.php#graphicnovel

Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2010, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Busboys & Poets, 5th & K Streets, Washington, DC
Cost: FREE and open to the public!

The Women's National Book Association, DC Chapter will sponsor a panel discussion on the DC graphic novel scene. The panel for the event, to be held at Busboys & Poets , from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., will include Carolyn Belefski, Molly Lawless, Matt Dembicki, and Mike Rhode. The event is free and open to the public.

Carolyn Belefski is the mastermind behind the web comic Curls. She is also one of the creators of several other comic books: Kid Roxy, Black Magic Tales, and The Legettes, and an indefatigable (nightly) poster to her blog, Sketch Before Sleep. Her work has appeared in USA WEEKEND Magazine, The Commonwealth Times, Virginia Living Magazine, Magic Bullet, CROQ Zine, and The Pulse on COMICON.com. Ms. Belefski is a nominee for the Kim Yale Award for Most Talented Newcomer for 2010.

Matt Dembicki is a DC-based cartoonist whose work includes the award-winning nature parable Mr. Big, The Great White Shark Story, Xoc, and The Brewmaster's Castle, about legendary DC brewer Christian Heurich. His latest anthology, Trickster: Native American Tales: A Graphic Collection, has received rave reviews from Booklist, Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal and has been nominated as one of the Young Adult Library Services Association's 2011 Great Graphic Novels for Teens. In addition to his own work, Dembicki also hosts kids' workshops in the DC area and beyond on making comic books.

Molly Lawless, a Boston native, moved to the DC area in 2005. She has self-published mini comics as well as a compilation, Infandum! Ad Infinitum. She is currently working on a full-length graphic novel for McFarland Publishing titled Hit by Pitch. She is an avid blogger and includes stories about her family in her daily posts.

Mike Rhode, panel moderator, is co-author of the comics research bibliography, editor of Exhibition and Media Reviews for the International Journal of Comic Art, and a contributing writer for Hogan's Alley. In 2008, he was named Best (Comics) Art Blogger by the Washington City Paper for his Comics DC blog. Rhode edited Harvey Pekar: Conversations, a book of interviews with the late underground comic book writer and author of American Splendor published by the University Press of Mississippi. He has written for the Comics Journal and was selected as an RFK Journalism Awards judge for the editorial cartoon division of Comics Journal in 2009 and 2010. Rhode currently writes about comics for the City Paper.

This event is FREE and open to the public!

Brad Meltzer geeks out

Brad Meltzer, the formerly local comics writer, forever outs himself in "Why ‘Superman vs Muhammad Ali’ is still the greatest"