Daniel Boris interview online at City Paper

Meet a Local Cartoonist: A Chat With Daniel Boris
by Mike Rhode on Mar. 7, 2011
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/books/2011/03/07/meet-a-local-cartoonist-a-chat-with-daniel-boris/

Zadzooks on comic books

Zadzooks: Captain Wonder 3D, Fables, Hellboy and Sir Edward Grey
Put away the 3-D glasses for real art
By Joseph Szadkowski
Washington Times March 3, 2011
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/mar/3/zadzooks-captain-wonder-3d-fables-hellboy-and-sir-/

Truitt on The Intrepids

'The Intrepids': Mad scientists, 1960s culture and family themes
By Brian Truitt, USA TODAY March 2 2011
http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/2011-03-02-TheIntrepids_N.htm

Brodner illustrates Milbank

Steve Brodner illustrated Dana Milbank's column in today's Washington Post. The drawing's not online at the moment.

Google's Will Eisner tribute

Google's homepage logo today is a tribute to the great cartoonist, Will Eisner, on what would be his 94th birthday. Eisner was a guest at SPX and spoke at the Library of Congress at least once.

Thanks to Jeff R for the tip.

Katchor and Farmer reviewed in Post

Book reviews: Ben Katchor's 'The Cardboard Valise' and Joyce Farmer's 'Special Exits: A Graphic Memoir'
By Dan Kois
Washington Post March 6, 2011
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/04/AR2011030404735.html

That darn Mutts continued

Guard Dog takes a stand for abused animals
Washington Post March 5, 2011
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/04/AR2011030405806.html

Regarding the Feb. 26 Free For All letter "It's a dog's life":

Hatke's Zita review with a lesson plan for school

Katie's Korner: Graphic Novel Reviews for Schools and Libraries
Katie Monnin,
Diamond Bookshelf March 2011
http://www.diamondbookshelf.com/public/default.asp?t=1&m=1&c=40&s=836&ai=106277&e=1

American Political Cartoons, 1754-2010 book

Until I met them today, I didn't realize Stephen Hess & Sandy Northrup, the authors of American Political Cartoons, 1754-2010, were both in the DC area. Sandy tells me that they'll be making at least three appearances, "speaking at the National Archives, April 13th, 7PM; Library of Congress, April 27th, 12PM and; Newseum, May 15th, 2:30PM. It should be a lively discussion accompanied with a power point presentation." I plan to attend at least one and will buy the book, which is an update of the first edition (that I already have).

Baltimore's Tim Kreider interviews

Fantagraphics has links to Tim Kreider's recent media appearances.

Comic Riffs on Rango

'RANGO' BOWS IN: How the animated Depp film could help change the game
By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog March 4 2011
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/comic-riffs/2011/03/rango_bows_in_how_the_animated.html#more

Richard Thompson's popping up all over the place

You can see a poster he did for Arlington's Mardi Gras - St. Patrick's Day extravaganza.

Tom Richmond's drawn a caricature of him leading the pack to the National Cartoonist Society's Reuben awards.

We launched the Team Cul de Sac blog tonight to try to get more regular updates about this great project out to you.

Local cartoonist Mike Shapiro

Mike Shapiro just wrote in to let me know he's in the area:

I'm a magazine cartoonist (WSJ, Barron's, Nat. Law Journal, etc) that lives here in DC. I also do a weekly cartoon for the Post's  Capital Business. I'm featured in the latest issue of Stay Tooned magazine (it's a small feature, but I'm in there).*

My site is: http://www.mikeshapirocartoons.com

My blog is: http://mikeshapirocartoons.blogspot.com

*#6, out now, with an interview of Mike by our friend David Paccia. And I'll be doing an interview with him for the Washington City Paper too.

Takoma Park librarian on Amy Ignatow's move from webcomics to prose

Children's Corner: 'Popularity' sequel: Amy Ignatow's inner 5th-graders romp on
    * By KAREN MACPHERSON, Scripps Howard News Service 03/02/2011
http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/60043

 

Karen MacPherson, is the children's/teen librarian at the Takoma Park, Md., Library.

Post review on Rango

Ann Hornaday reviews 'Rango'

By Ann Hornaday
March 4, 2011
http://www.washingtonpost.com/gog/movies/rango,1158940/critic-review.html

 

The Express ran this review, the Examiner ran part of an Associated Press one, and the City Paper didn't review it.

 

Mondello recommends Bambi

DVD Picks: 'Bambi'
by Bob Mondello
National Public Radio's All Things Considered March 2, 2011
http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2011/03/02/134176859/dvd-picks-bambi
http://pd.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/atc/2011/03/20110302_atc_20.mp3
http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=134176859

Comics return to the City Paper

The City Paper's redesigned itself and has this to say about comic strips -

Comics Page. Like many of our readers, we were sorry to see the paper's comics go a few years ago. Starting next week, they'll be back, on a single dedicated page that will feature Derf's excellent The City, Shawn Belschwender's Clown Time, David Malki's Wondermark, and Michael Kupperman's Up All Night. You'll still find Dirt Farm in its usual place.

- and we note that Ben Claassen is the cartoonist of Dirt Farm.

March 6: Feminist art leads to graphic novel at National Gallery of Art?

The Children of the Revolution: New Documentary Examines Trials and Triumphs of Feminism in the Arts
Jessica Roake
Express March 3 2011: E6
http://www.expressnightout.com/content/2011/03/women-art-revolution-documentary.php

 

In the above interview, one reads:

 

There's a graphic novel and a curriculum guide to complement the film. How would you like feminist art to be taught?
That it's taught at all is important. Believe it or not, there were no curriculum guides for this subject.

So you can go ask about it at:

 

National Gallery of Art, 4th Street and Constitution Avenue NW; Sun., 4:30 p.m., free; 202-737-4215, (Smithsonian)

March 5: Secret of Kells at Artisphere in Arlington

At 11 am and 2 pm on March 5, you can see the excellent animated film Secret of Kells at Artisphere in Arlington for $6.

A little more on the Herblock Award, from two of the judges

Matt Wuerker, 2010's winner of the Herblock award, and Signe Wilkinson are the editorial cartoonists who were two of the three judges for the 2011 award. They've shared their thinking behind the selection of Tom Toles as the winner with us.

Judging the Herblock award this year was really, really hard.  There was too much good work in way too many inventive forms.  It's good news for our readers ... but hard for judges. Different judges would have ended up with a different decision.

In the spirit of transparency, we'd like to lift the veil a little on the thinking that went into our judging this year. Think of this as a little WikiLeak of what happened on the path to awarding the 2011 Herblock Prize.

Before the judging, it was agreed that this year the finalist would also be recognized.  We knew the job was to come up with two top cartoonists.

We had a great, broad sampling of political cartooning today: lots of traditional single-panel cartoons, plenty of stellar "altie" work, a number of great ventures into cartoon journalism and, of course, the animation submissions. We even had cartoons rendered with actual oil from the BP spill.

In the apples and oranges comparisons that are such a big part of the process, it was hard to measure the simple punchy genius of single panels by the likes of Pett and Britt against long-form docucomics that went beyond the headlines, like those submitted by Ohman, Wasserman and Varvel, or for that matter animated reporter's sketchbooks such as the engaging submission from Rex Babin.

Mike Thompson's finger on the pulse of Detroit crime and Bill Day's attention to child abuse were both powerful uses of our medium. For taking us where cartooning had not gone before, Ted Rall's enterprising trip to Afghanistan was particularly noteworthy.  Pat Bagley's wonderful loose humor and engagement with his readers made him a contender. The "Alties," led by Bors and Sorensen, all made it to the semifinal pile, as did Ramirez, whose graphic punch and strong, clearly expressed political opinions kept him in the running right up to the end.

We all agreed that, to the best of our abilities, we'd not judge according to our political bent but solely on the quality and consistency of the cartooning found in the portfolios we were looking at.

Though Matt Davies had what we all agreed was the single best cartoon of the year, "WikiLeaks" (by the way, a non-animated black-and-white single panel),  the quality and creativity of the Toles and Telnaes portfolios put them at the very top.  Choosing between the two was excruciating and took a while, but in the end we felt the overall consistency of Toles's complete portfolio made him the winner, with Telnaes No. 2 by a hair ... or a .3 Micron line.

---- Signe Wilkinson and Matt Wuerker