Saturday, December 10, 2011

Friday, December 09, 2011

Big Planet's Greg Bennett's band Jet Age plays tonight

Here's the Post review of the new cd (save me one, Greg) and they're playing in Northwest DC tonight (Dec 9) at 10 pm at the Comet Ping Pong restaurant (next door to Politics and Prose):

Information:202-364-0404

Price:$10

Comet Ping Pong

5037 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, DC


Cavna on editorial cartoonist plagiarism

NEWSROOM PLAGIARISM: Why are cartoonists treated so differently from their journalistic brethren?
By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs December 9 2011
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/comic-riffs/post/newsroom-plagiarism-why-are-cartoonists-treated-so-differently-from-their-journalistic-brethren/2011/12/09/gIQA8pBHiO_blog.html

Weldon on the genius of Carl Barks

The Derring-Do of Donald Duck: Recolored. Restored. Really Great.

by Glen Weldon

National Public Radio's Monkey See blog December 9, 2011

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2011/12/09/143340903/the-derring-do-of-donald-duck-recolored-restored-really-great

Today: Kal on the radio


From: kevin Kallaugher

I thought I'd let you know I am going to be featured on WYPR's The Signal this Friday/Saturday.

http://www.kaltoons.com/wordpress/2011/12/kal-on-npr/


Best

Kal
Kevin Kallaugher
www.Kaltoons,com

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





Thursday, December 08, 2011

Comic Riffs on the death of Jerry Robinson

JERRY ROBINSON, RIP: Pioneering Batman artist and comics ambassador dies at 89
By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog December 8 2011
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/comic-riffs/post/jerry-robinson-rip-batman-artist-and-comics-ambassador-dies-at-89/2011/12/08/gIQACP4efO_blog.html#pagebreak

Team Cul de Sac Zazzle stamps for sale

Barbara Dale's stamp has been revised to lighten it up so you can see Alice better, and David Hagen volunteered his artwork for stamp #3. Collect them all! It's for charity!

 

Truitt on Batwing and Defenders

Judd Winick's 'Batwing' explores the Batman of Africa
By Brian Truitt, USA TODAY December 5 2011

Matt Fraction embraces the weirdness of 'The Defenders'
By Brian Truitt, USA TODAY December 7 2011

Dean Haspiel's minicomic collection

Here's photos of Dean Haspiel's minicomic collection being sorted through before going to the Library of Congress for the new SPX collection.

Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Why I don't read superhero comics anymore

I was looking at this article tonight:

Remender Prepares "Venom" for "Circle of Four", by Dave Richards, December 6th, 2011

and took a closer look at the image promoting it:



Every one of these characters is derivative of a pre-existing and still existing character, and to top it off, these are less pleasant versions. Marvel is now like 1955 DC which had a Superman, Supergirl, Batman, Batdog, Batwoman, Batgirl, Superhorse (Comet), Supercat (Streaky), etc, etc, except they might be murderers or psychopaths.

In this picture is Red Hulk - one of five current Hulks, I think (if you count Hulk's son Skaar) - two male and two female. Given that I thought it was the GREEN gamma radiation that gave the Hulk, She-Hulk, Leader, Abomination etc their powers, I have no idea what Red means.

Venom, was derived from Spider-Man, albeit around two looong decades ago. Spider-Man got a symbiotic black suit that had the same powers he had, and could look like any type of clothes he wanted. It turned evil of course. Venom's the one with the guns, because you know, a suit that can mimic Spider-Man's powers isn't enough. Recently every other person on Manhattan supposedly had Spider-Man's powers. Uh-huh -- they're that special. And another Spider-Man clone is about to be running around as the second Scarlet Spider.

X-23 is the third Wolverine derivative, although her own comic just got cancelled.

And Ghost Rider is a woman now? Who knows, but there's two predecessors there as well, and Johnny Blaze the first one of them is still floating around the Marvel universe. Perhaps like the new female Red Skull (the first one's daughter), someone finds something sexy about a faceless skull-headed woman? If so, I don't want to think about that any more.

DC's not any better either. Harking back to the 1950s, in Grant Morrison's Batman Inc. each country has a Batman, there's no longer just a Green Lantern Corps, but also a Red, Black, Indigo, Orange and Pink set, a multitude of Firestorms, and who knows how many relatives that Superman "the last son of Krypton" has floating around now... Unmentioned so far are Marvel's multiple versions of the Avengers (four teams I think) and the X-Men (also four maybe?).

I'm hearing The Who's New Song as a comic book soundtrack much too often these days.


This post from yesterday touches on another aspect of derivative superhero stories. I track these articles for my Comics Research Bibliography.

Long interview with Batman producer Michael Uslan at City Paper

 
As a reminder, he'll be appearing in Silver Spring tomorrow - the contact information is at the bottom of the interview, or elsewhere on ComicsDC.

PR: Dec 11 - Kal at the Walters!

I've got a copy of his new calender - his 3rd - and I love it.

 

Political Cartoonist Kevin Kallaugher at the Walters 12/11

What: KAL-ender Konversation with KAL
Kevin Kallaugher, a.k.a KAL, is best known for his internationally-syndicated political cartoons in more than 100 publications worldwide. He'll chat about his work, look back at his best cartoons from 2011 and sign copies of his award winning 2012 Kal-endar (a great gift for the holidays), published by The Economist. He'll finish his talk with a fun and lively drawing lesson.
Where:
The Walters Art Museum
When:
Sunday, December 11, 2–3:30 p.m.
Price:
Free

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Stephanie McMillan continues her Occupy DC story

Click here to see actual Park Rangers in comic form. Actually, I'm finding these interesting, but she leaves DC in this segment of The Beginning of the American Fall.

Comic Riffs on Stahler's editorial cartoon controversy

JEFF STAHLER SUSPENDED: Columbus Dispatch political cartoonist's work probed over 'striking similarity' to New Yorker cartoon
By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog December 6 2011
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/comic-riffs/post/jeff-stahler-suspended-columbia-dispatch-political-cartoonists-work-has-striking-similarity-to-new-yorker-cartoon/2011/12/06/gIQA8p6nZO_blog.html#pagebreak

but if you're interested, definitely click through to Alan Gardner's story with the cartoons.

Truitt on Marvel's 2012 slugfest


Marvel Comics pits 'Avengers vs. X-Men' in 2012
By Brian Truitt, USA TODAY December 6 2011
http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/story/2011-12-06/avengers-x-men-marvel-2012-series/51672646/1

and

Marvel event reaches 'critical mass' on social media
By Brian Truitt, USA TODAY December 6 2011
http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/story/2011-12-06/marvel-comics-avengers-x-men/51672784/1

Of course, we first saw this in X-Men #9 from January 1965, where they wrapped it up in a single issue. 1987's X-Men Vs. the Avengers took four issues. 2012 -- a whole year? At least the Avengers finally get top billing after 47 years...

Post on Disneyworld at Christmastime

A Disney home for the holidays
By Steve Hendrix, Washington Post December 4 2011
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/at-disney-its-home-for-the-holidays/2011/11/15/gIQA0pqaHO_story.html

Michael Uslan interview coming to the City Paper tomorrow

I'll post the link when it appears, but I did a 45-minute telephone interview with the Batman movie producer, which touched on his new autobiography, his writing for Archie comics, and of course, on Batman:

Michael Uslan: Yeah, The Boy Who Loved Batman is about the boy who loved Batman, the ultimate fanboy geek who learned to read from comics before he was four, and the adventures and misadventures I had collecting comics, going to the world's first comics convention ever held, becoming an early member of comics fandom, finding a way to incorporate my love of comic books and superheroes, in particular Batman, into my work and life with my attempt to restore dignity to Batman after the tv show and finding the ways for a blue-collar kid from New Jersey to make it to Hollywood to show them the potential of dark and serious Batman movies, even though I didn't come from money, and couldn't buy my way into Hollywood. I didn't know anyone and didn't have any relatives in the business, so it's really my story of a life's journey of what you can do to make your dreams come true – for me I was able to pull it off ultimately.

Randy T discovers Corey Finkle, another local comics writer

Corey Finkle has written an adaption of Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper.

Post columnist on Brian Selznick

Brian Selznick's 'Wonderstruck' is a worthy family tradition [in print, Dec. 1 as "Lightning strikes twice for author"p. AX17].
By Tracy Grant, Washington Post November 30 2011 http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/advice/brian-selznicks-wonderstruck-is-a-worthy-family-tradition/2011/11/20/gIQAOOgPCO_story.html