Buy David Hagen's Carrot Ride on a t-shirt this weekend

David says "10.40% off this weekend!"
http://hagenillustration.blogspot.com/2011/04/carrot-ride-after-dark.html

You can also buy stuff with the ComicsDC logo that he did for me too. He doesn't get any money for that though.

ICv2 reviews Carla McNeil's Finder, and likes it

Review: 'Finder: Voice' TP
ICv2 Stars: 5 (out of 5)
04/15/2011
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/19868.html

 

Cavna on Pulitzer possibilities

These are all excellent choices.

HANDICAPPING THE PULITZERS: Which cartoonists might get the call next week?
By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog April 14 2011
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/comic-riffs/post/handicapping-the-pulitzers-which-cartoonists-might-get-the-call-next-week/2011/04/13/AFzI7qdD_blog.html

More on Frank Lewis, Stafford County Sun cartoonist

Sun cartoonist led full life
By Tracy Bell
April 13, 2011
http://www2.staffordcountysun.com/news/2011/apr/13/sun-cartoonist-led-full-life-ar-970036/

April 21: Lecture on William Kentridge at Library of Congress

William Kentridge: 'Stone Age Drawing,'

 

  Cartoon Logic & South Africa's Process of Change

 

An Illustrated Lecture by Dr. Leora Maltz-Leca

SWANN  FOUNDATION  FELLOW, 2010-2011

         

 

 THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2011, AT 12 NOON

in Whittall Pavilion, Jefferson Building, LJWH

                                                                   Ground floor

 

Sponsored by the Swann Foundation for Caricature and Cartoon

and the Prints &Photographs Division of the Library of Congress  

 

          Request ADA Accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 TTY or "ADA@loc.gov"

For further information, email swann@loc.gov or call Martha Kennedy at (202) 707-9115.

Weldon on the comics industry

Amid Slack Sales, The Comics Industry Once Again Tightens Its Utility Belt

by Glen Weldon

National Public Radio's Monkey See blog April 14, 2011

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2011/04/14/135381019/amid-slack-sales-the-comics-industry-once-again-tightens-its-utility-belt?sc=nl&cc=msb-20110414

 

OT: New webcomic by John Kovaleski, MAD Magazine artist

My friend John Kovaleski would like you to know about his new webcomic -

John Kovaleski has launched a new webcomic called "Dadding Badly" - all true tales of a first-time father. Not your typical parenthood stories, "Dadding Badly" has already covered such hot topics as leprechaun impersonations, square cows, and how many times you can hit your father in the head with an empty Kleenex box. Attached is a sample comic.  Please visit the site below for more fathering fun.

http://daddingbadly.com/

John Kovaleski is a cartoonist and humorous illustrator. He is the creator of the comic strip "Bo Nanas," which was syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group from 2003 to 2007, and collected in the books "Monkey Meets World" (2005) and "APPEELING: The Best of Bo Nanas" (2008). He is also a frequent contributor to MAD Magazine, making him one of the "usual gang of idiots."


------------------------------------------------
You can see more of my work here:
http://www.kovaleski.com/

As always you can find  out too much about me on my blog:
http://kovaleski.wordpress.com/

Or follow me on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/johnkovaleski

Comic Riffs interviews Sarah Glidden on cartoon journalism

COMICS JOURNALISM: Cartoon Movement debuts Sarah Glidden's new Mideast work
By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs April 13 2011
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/comic-riffs/post/comics-journalism-cartoon-movement-debuts-sarah-gliddens-new-mideast-work/2011/04/13/AFIBK7WD_blog.html

ED interview up at City Paper

Meet a Local Cartoonist: A Chat With ED

by Mike Rhode on Apr. 13, 2011

 

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/books/2011/04/13/meet-a-local-cartoonist-a-chat-with-ed/

 

- be sure to note the 3-D comics...

2 new pieces on Team Cul de Sac blog

There's 2 new pieces on the Team Cul de Sac blog - local cartoonist Steve Artley and Stephan Pastis.

Start saving your money now to bid early and often.

April 13: Hess and Northrup on political cartoons at National Archives

Stephen Hess and Sandy Northrup speak on their new book, Drawn & Quartered: The History of American Political Cartoons tomorrow:

Wednesday, April 13, 7PM, National Archives, McGowan Theater

I'll be at this.

A Drop's Life cartoon on the DC water pollution

Here's the article about a nice little cartoon on about treating runoff pollution - "A Drop's Life," produced by Free Range Studios, tells the story of DC Water's Clean Rivers Project from the perspective of a single water drop."

New Cartoon Explains DC Water Project
(WUSA) Apr 12, 2011
http://wusa9.com/news/article/146465/373/New-Cartoon-Explains-DC-Water-Project

And the A Drop's Life cartoon is on Youtube.

Flugennock answers "Are You In?"

http://sinkers.org/stage/?p=824 - click here to see his comments and cartoons.

May 6 - June 4: We Are Monsters exhibit features local cartoonists

Lifted from Facebook, courtesy of Carolyn Belefski. Marc Crisafulli, Carolyn and Evan Keeling are cartoonists that I know.

We Are Monsters

Friday, May 6 at 7:00pm - June 4 at 6:00pm
________________________________
Location
Pleasant Plains Workshop
2608 Georgia Avenue NW
Washington, DC
________________________________
More Info
A hand-picked group of over twenty artists, illustrators, and designers are bringing the beasts to the heart of DC. Dual heads, third-eyes, cloven hoofs, purple fur, and forked tongues will be found in obscene abundance. Media will include painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, maybe even a little video.

Opening Friday May 6, from 7–9pm at Pleasant Plains Workshop. Artists include

Marc Crisafulli
Carolyn Belefski
Greg Pizzoli
Dana Jeri Maier
Antonio Peters
Adam Dwight
Elizabeth Graeber
John Foster
Rich Bernett
Tim Gibbon
Melinda Rainsberger
Catherine Smith
Josh Dihle
Mike O'Brien
Allison Glancey
Ivan Anic
Evan Keeling
Kristina Bilonick
Stephanie Kwak
Steve Loya
Jodi Hoover
Lisa Adang
Pia Blumenthal
Anthony Dihle

PR: Alterna Comics and Rafer Roberts present PLASTIC FARM: SOWING SEEDS ON FERTILE SOIL TPB

Alterna Comics and Rafer Roberts present PLASTIC FARM: SOWING SEEDS ON FERTILE SOIL TPB

A revised edition of the critically acclaimed underground comic book series PLASTIC FARM to be released through Alterna.

Alterna Publisher Peter Simeti and Plastic Farm creator Rafer Roberts have announced that a new revised edition of PLASTIC FARM: SOWING SEEDS ON FERTILE SOIL will be released through Alterna Comics in June 2011 and can be found in Diamond's April Previews catalog, order code APR110754. "Sowing Seeds" is the first volume in the epic PLASTIC FARM comic book series about a man who is losing his mind and how that madness reshapes reality in many strange, terrifying and hilarious ways.

To celebrate this new edition, creator Rafer Roberts has gone back into these early works and digitally cleaned up much of the artwork and re-lettered a large portion of the comic."I didn't know what I was doing early on," says Roberts. "Most of the lettering in the early issues was pretty terrible and mostly unreadable and I saw this team-up with Alterna as the perfect opportunity to correct some my youthful ignorance." Roberts sates that he spent "about a month doing new hand-lettering for the book. There's at least 100 pages with new lettering, which works out to be about a third of the book." Roberts laughs when thinking about the process. "This process about killed my wrist, but seeing the final product, I can say it was absolutely worth it."

Aside from an obvious facelift, the edition being released through Alterna will boast 352 pages in black and white with an affordable price tag of $19.99.
Alterna has been publishing creator-owned titles since 2006 and PLASTIC FARM will be no exception to that rule. With a line-up of more than 30 graphic novels in 5 years, Alterna has one of the largest libraries of creator-owned work for a small press publisher. The partnership with Alterna will allow for wider distribution and visibility for PLASTIC FARM.

"I'm ecstatic about partnering with Peter and Alterna", says Roberts. "I've long admired the other books they've put out, like AMERICAN TERROR and THE CHAIR, and to be part of this team is a thrill."Simeti echoed Roberts' comments, "Rafer has been great to work with and I couldn't be happier about having PLASTIC FARM as the second addition to our Partnership Program. We've already had a lot of success with Jeff McComsey's FUBAR as our initial selection for the program and I feel strongly that we'll repeat that success with PLASTIC FARM. It's a great book with a compelling story – what more could you want?"

PLASTIC FARM has been described as "A really strange, really engrossing good comic book" by CEREBUS creator Dave Sim and as "An epic descent into madness and, not coincidentally, hilarity" by Rob Vollmar, the Eisner nominated author of CASTAWAYS and BLUESMAN.

PLASTIC FARM began publication in 2000 as a series of mini-comics and has been published in print and online. PLASTIC FARM: SOWING SEEDS ON FERTILE SOIL is written and mostly drawn by Rafer  Roberts, and features artwork from Danielle Corsetto (Girls With Slingshots), Dennis Culver (ONI's TRUE TALES OF ROLLER DERBY), Dave Morgan, Wendi Strang-Frost (JOHNNY PUBLIC, ELFQUEST) and Jake Warrenfeltz (MAGIC BULLET, TRICKSTER).

For more information about PLASTIC FARM, please visit: http://www.plasticfarm.com
ISBN: 9780981457024
For more information about Alterna Comics and their Partnership Program, please visit: http://www.alternacomics.com

A pdf preview of the collection can be downloaded here:
http://plasticfarm.com/alterna/PlasticFarm-free-preview.pdf



###



Rafer Roberts
Plastic Farm Press
http://www.plasticfarm.com
813 S. Potomac Street
Hagerstown, MD 21740
301-992-7719

Comic books uh-oh

Beyond Comics puts out a weekly newsletter, listing the new comics and the like coming  out that week.

This list caught my eye as an egregious sign that speculation is back in the comic book market:

Variant Covers
 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN THOR GOES HOLLYWOOD VAR #658
 BATMAN AND ROBIN VAR ED #22
 BLACK PANTHER MAN WITHOUT FEAR THOR GOES TO HOLLYWOOD #517
 FLASH VAR ED #10
 GI JOE VOL 2 10 COPY INCV #1
 HELLBOY BUSTER OAKLEY GETS HIS WISH MIGNOLA VAR
 IRON MAN 2.0 DJURDJEVIC VAR #3
 JOHN BYRNE NEXT MEN 10 COPY INCV #5
 JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY A ADAMS VAR #622
 JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY THOR GOES HOLLYWOOD VAR #62
 JUSTICE LEAGUE GENERATION LOST VAR ED #23
 NEW AVENGERS THOR GOES HOLLYWOOD VAR #11
 SHIELD INFINITY WEAVER VAR
 SKAAR KING OF SAVAGE LAND TAN VAR #1
 SUPERMAN VAR ED #710
 TRANSFORMERS ONGOING 10 COPY INCV #18
 TRANSFORMERS RISING STORM 10 COPY INCV #3
 ULTIMATE AVENGERS VS NEW ULTIMATES CHO VAR #3
 ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN MCGUINNESS VAR #157
 UNCANNY X-FORCE THOR GOES HOLLYWOOD VAR #7
 UNCANNY X-MEN THOR GOES HOLLYWOOD VAR #535
 WARLORD OF MARS DEJAH THORIS 10 COPY A ADAMS VIRGIN VAR #2
 X-MEN LEGACY THOR GOES HOLLYWOOD VAR #247

...almost 25 variant covers in one week?  Not good.

More on the Stafford County Sun's Frank Lewis

Tom Spurgeon of the Comics Reporter dug more into Frank Lewis' career and found these two articles:

Lewis contributes to children's book
By Stafford County Sun Staff
January 26, 2011
http://www2.staffordcountysun.com/news/2011/jan/26/lewis-contributes-childrens-book-ar-800749/


Frank Lewis: cartoonist and combatant
By BEN BLANKENSHIP / Stafford County Sun
 May 09, 2007
http://www2.staffordcountysun.com/lifestyles/2007/may/09/frank_lewis_cartoonist_and_combatant_05_09_07_scs-ar-296219/

Richard Thompson quoted in Little Nemo article

Winsor McCay's 'Little Nemo' brought a new animated spirit to film 100 years ago
Charles Solomon
April 11, 2011
http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2011/04/11/winsor-mccays-little-nemo-brought-a-new-animated-spirit-to-film-100-years-ago/

Daniel Boris still in Cartoonist Studio contest

According to his Facebook page, Daniel Boris is still in the running for the Cartoonist Studio contest.

Al Goodwyn is still in Cartoonist Studio contest

Al Goodwyn wrote in:

Just wanted you to know that the contest is still progressing.  So far I've made it into Round 7 of this 10 Round competition.  They've eliminated 70 cartoonists so far.

Here's the link to this week's entry of mine:http://tinyurl.com/6y9llrn

Here's the link to what they call the Amateur Cubicle where I have quite a few of my cartoons posted:http://tinyurl.com/3o4tzos