Thursday, May 16, 2013

Captain America filmmaking at Dupont Circle tonight

The DCist has the story about Captain America filmmaking at Dupont Circle tonight

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Jamie Noguchi interviewed at CBR

THE KICKSTAND: Celebrating Office Romance
Brigid Alverson,
Comic Book Resources Mon, May 13th, 2013
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=45455

Captain America: The Winter Soldier continues to be seen around DC

Captain America: The Winter Soldier continues to be seen around DC, and the DCist has the story today.

Actually, they pulled the story from NBC - 'Captain America' Closes Some D.C. Streets
By Megan McGrath
May 14, 2013

Jamie Noguchi On the Radio With Comic Geek Speak

On the Radio With Comic Geek Speak!

Posted by Jamie Noguchi

I did an interview with the Comic Geek Speak guys about the comic and the Book Kicker and all sorts of fun stuff! If you're a comics fan, and I'm pretty sure you are, CGS is a great podcast to keep updated with the latest comics news. They update more often than some webcomics out there! Check it out!

Monday, May 13, 2013

Candorville cartoonist eulogizes his grandfather

In today's comic strip (which runs in The Post), Candorville cartoonist Darrin Bell eulogizes his grandfather.

Magic Bullet #7 comic newspaper submissions open

Editor Carolyn Belefski writes, "Magic Bullet #7 comic submissions are now OPEN! Read more about our theme and specs here: http://magicbulletcomics.blogspot.com/p/submissions.html "

Caricaturist Kerry G. Johnson on Blog Talk Radio

From: Kerry G. Johnson

I wanted to share with you a recent interview that I participated in (May 10) on Yolanda M. Johnson-Bryant's Blog Talk Radio show, "On the Air with the Literary Lady".

During the interview we discuss my career as a professional caricaturist and cartoonist.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ontheairwiththatliterarylady/2013/05/10/on-the-air-with-kerry-g-johnson

*Kerry G. Johnson Design & Illustration*
Caricatures by Kerry
Website/Blog: http://kerrykraft.com
Twitter: caricaturekerry <http://twitter.com/caricaturekerry>

Oreo comic strip ad in The Post

There's a full-page comic strip style ad for Oreos on page A18 of today's Washington Post.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

That darn Beetle Bailey

Letter to the Editor: Sarge's wrong message
Virginia Montecino, Odenton
Washington Post May 11 2013
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/sarges-wrong-message/2013/05/10/cef289dc-b7f0-11e2-b568-6917f6ac6d9d_story.html

Given the alarming numbers of sexual abuse cases in the military, some by senior officers, The Post showed poor judgment in publishing the May 8 "Beetle Bailey" comic strip. It is sad that treating women as objects is so embedded in our culture that this kind of humor is okay.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Richard Thompson's Richard's Poor Almanack for sale again

Great deal here on Richard Thompson's Richard's Poor Almanack - signed copies of 19 months of misinformation in handy cartoon form.

Friday, May 10, 2013

2013 Herblock award video online

Dan Perkins: 2013 Prize Winner acceptance speech and Gwen Ifill's talk.

May 11: ANS Sci-Fi & Comic Con!

Hi, there! Here's all the latest news about the Second Annual ANS Sci-Fi & Comic Con!

Remember, the ANS Sci-Fi & Comic Con is an event benefiting Archbishop Neale School, a great Catholic School in La Plata, MD. ALL of the planning, advertising and organization for the event is done by a group of committed and enthusiastic parent volunteers. And EVERY PENNY of the vendor and admission fees and money raised from the silent auction goes DIRECTLY to the school's operating budget. We thank you all for your support!

Vendors! We have over eighty tables with more than 25 different vendors and over 20 artists and creators. Check out our website for a larger sampling! We have many of the BIG comic shops joining us this year including Cards, Comics and Collectibles from Reisterstown, MD; Third Eye Comics from Prince Frederick and Annapolis, MD: and Laughing Ogre Comics from Virginia! Not to mention the great comic and book shops from the Southern Maryland area like Comics MD and Booknuts Book Shop! Many of our friends from last year's show will be returning, too, like Harry Hopkins, Gene Carpenter, Don "Ducky" Gehl and Ben Penrod, plus some terrific NEW supporters like The Comics and Gaming Outpost, Untamed Worlds and TeeMinus24.com!

Artists! What an amazing group of artists we've gathered for you! Right off the top and thanks to our friends at Cards, Comics and Collectibles, we have one of the biggest names in the comic industry - FRANK CHO! You know Frank from his work on the newspaper and webstrip, Liberty Meadows, along with his incredible work with Marvel including the current 'Savage Wolverine', not to mention the fact he's one of the best pin-up girl artists in the business! We are thrilled and honored to have him signing for you at our event! Please Note: This is Frank's ONLY scheduled convention appearance in the DC/MD/VA area for the rest of the year! Don't miss him!

In addition to Frank, our good friends from Third Eye Comics will have up and coming artists Jerry Gaylord and Bryan Turner! These cutting edge artists have a gritty, urban-manga style and their work can be seen in such cool titles as 'Fanboys Vs. Zombies', 'Adventure Time' and the new 'NFL Rush Zone'! Bryan and Jerry, along with Jerry's wife, artist Penelope Gaylord, will be signing at Third Eyes' table and at their own table on the Artists' Avenue!

We're also delighted to have many artists returning to our show including Bill McKay, Dan Nokes, Keir Lyles, and Laura Inglis! Plus we have many NEW artists joining us for the first time including Carolyn Belefski, Joe Carabeo, Rod & Leanne Hannah, Liz & Jimmy Reed, Roger McCormick, Mike Munshaw, and Advent Comics' Tony Kittrell! Again, check out our website for more artists!

Events! This year, we're proud to present a screening room at our show, with a big movie screen and quality sound! We're still solidifying our screening schedule, but we can promise you a Sneak Preview Clips of an amazing new film call PLASTIC GALAXY - The Story of Star Wars Toys! The director of this indie film is New York-based director Brian Stillman and he'll be making the trip down to present the film and conduct a Q&A with audience members! He's interviewed dozens of folks connected with the Star Wars toy business, so bring your questions for Brian!

Also making the trip down from New York is Sarah Hoppes from indie comics publisher Dark Ink Pictures! She'll be there with copies of Dark Ink's comics and she'll be conducting a panel for comic fans!

And coming back this year from Zeitgeyser Games is Andy Niggles, designer of the awesome Conquest Tactics strategic card game! Andy will be conducting demos throughout the day, so get ready for some very cool gaming action! And, the most exciting part, Andy will be premiering - for the FIRST TIME EVER! - the new game

BAD BAD CREATURE KILLERS! These are incredibly fun games that you don't need a super-expensive, rare, foil embossed card to play! Andy and his team from Zeitgeyser Games will be will be demoing their games throughout the day.

The Silent Auction! Our Silent Auction this year will be VERY special! We have tried to gather many unique and unusual items, most autographed especially for this show! We have some terrific autographed items from Karen Traviss, Troy Denning, James Arnold Taylor, Aaron Allston, Carlos Garzon and Doug Chiang! And we'll have INCREDIBLE, ORIGINAL ART from Doug Chiang, Laura Inglis, Dan Nokes, Keir Lyles, Mike O'Shields and legendary comic artist John Byrne!

And if all this isn't enough!! Returning to our show for a second time are the Viking Re-Enactors from the Longship Company! The Vikings were incredibly well-received last year by kids and adults and we're very happy to have them back! Also returning - and in greater numbers - Star Wars Stormtroopers from the legendary 501^st Legion! The troops will be on hand for photos and games with the kids with great Star Wars prizes! And also for Star Wars fans and collectors, the DC Star Wars Collectors Club will be on hand!

Plus! The Kids Art Contest will be back, door prizes will be announced every hour and we'll have lots of great food! Thanks to Deputy Dog Hot Dogs, Circus Ice Cream and Sir Pops-A-Lot Kettle Corn for joining our returning food vendors, T&J's BarBQ and Pizza Hotline! Most of all, we want to thank YOU! There's no show without you! So please tell all your friends, go to our website, LIKE us on Facebook and join us on Saturday, May 11, from 10-3pm for the Second Annual ANS Sci-Fi & Comic Con!

The ANS Sci-Fi & Comic Con is an ALL AGES fan and collectors event benefiting Archbishop Neale School on Saturday, May 11, 2013, from 10am to 3pm. For more information, visit www.anscomiccon.com

About Archbishop Neale School -

Archbishop Neale School is a Catholic elementary school in La Plata, Maryland that has been in continuous operation since 1927, with a two-track system for grades Pre-K through 8 and a curriculum centered on the Archdiocese of Washington graded course of study. We are fully accredited, and our teachers are certified by the State of Maryland in their specific areas. We serve Catholic students from over seven parishes and many non-Catholics as well. For over 80 years, parents have entrusted their children to ANS because they are assured of an excellent, Archdiocesan standards-based academic curriculum that encompasses Catholic faith and values delivered in a safe, caring environment. For more information, visit www.ArchbishopNealeSchool.org

NoVA's Bro Russell on editorial cartoonists and censorship

Editorial cartoonists resist censorship
By Rehman Tungekar and David Reed
Mid-Missouri Public Radio's KBIA's Global Journalist (May 9 2013)
http://kbia.org/post/editorial-cartoonists-resist-censorship

Panelists:

Mark Fiore, president-elect of Association of American Editorial Cartoonists

Dr. Robert "Bro" Russell, executive director of Cartoonists Rights Network International

Bob Staake in the NY Times

Bob Staake is always in the Washington Post on the weekends, with a small drawing for the Style Invitational contest. Here's a larger piece in another newspaper:

The Open Book

A young reader goes on an adventure [wordless comic].

New York Times book Review

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/05/10/books/review/12staake.html

Carla Speed McNeil Wins Two Stumptown Awards

As noted herein...

DARK HORSE WINS FOUR STUMPTOWN AWARDS!

MAY 10, MILWAUKIE, OR—The Stumptown Comic Arts Awards were presented on April 27 at the tenth annual Stumptown Comics Fest, in Dark Horse Comics' backyard of Portland, Oregon.

As reported via Twitter by comics' own Jen Vaughn, Dark Horse walked away with four wins, a very impressive showing.

The nominees, chosen by a blue-ribbon panel of judges, journalists, and retailers, reflect the wide range of independent material being published in comic and graphic novel form today.

DARK HORSE STUMPTOWN 2013 AWARD WINNERS

Best Artist

Juanjo Guarnido (Blacksad: A Silent Hell)

Best Publication Design

Blacksad: A Silent Hell, designed by Cary Grazzini

Best Cartoonist

Carla Speed McNeil (Finder: Talisman)

Best Letterer

Carla Speed McNeil (Finder: Talisman)

About Stumptown Comics Fest

The Stumptown Comics Fest was started almost on a whim in 2004 by a small group of Portland-area cartoonists lamenting the lack of local convention-style outlets. While there were certainly other comic book shows in town, there weren't any that gave much attention to the artists themselves. The dream was to design a festival with the creators as its focus, rather than dealers and work-for-hire publishers.

About Dark Horse Comics

Since 1986, Dark Horse Comics has proven to be a solid example of how integrity and innovation can help broaden a unique storytelling medium and establish a small, homegrown company as an industry giant. The company is known for the progressive and creator-friendly atmosphere it provides for writers and artists. In addition to publishing comics from top talent like Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, Neil Gaiman, Gerard Way, Will Eisner, and best-selling prose author Janet Evanovich, Dark Horse has developed such successful characters as the Mask, Timecop, and the Occultist. Additionally, its highly successful line of comics and products based on popular properties includes Star Wars, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Aliens, Conan the Barbarian, Mass Effect, Serenity, and Domo. Today, Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent comic-book publisher in the United States and is recognized as both an innovator in the cause of creator rights and the comics industry's leading publisher of licensed material.

Ann Telnaes interviewed in new IJOCA issue

The new, paper-only issue of the International Journal of Comic Art (15:1) is out and features an interview of political cartoonist Ann Telnaes done during the 2011 Small Press Expo, as well as reviews of exhibits on Roy Lichtenstein at the National Gallery of Art and Patrick Oliphant at the Phillips Collection.

More with Lincoln Peirce and Big Nate

(all images by Bruce Douglas for Adventure Theatre)

Yesterday, the Washington City Paper ran my interview with Lincoln Peirce about the current adaptation of his Big Nate comic strip to a musical at Adventure Theatre in Glen Echo Park. The show runs through June 2, 2013.

Peirce also took questions from the children in the audience after the show.

Q. Are you going to make any new books?

LP: I'm working on it, I'm working on it. There are two kinds of books. There's the chapter books and then there are the compilation books which are collections of the comic strip. The compilation books they just assemble from the strips I work on every day. The chapter books come out once a year. The most recent one came out in February so that means the next one's coming out next February. I wish I could write it as fast as you could read it.

Q: What is your favorite book and why?

LP: I can tell you that my favorite book when I was your age or a little older was a mountain-climbing story called Banner in the Sky by James Ramsey Ullman. It's the story of a boy who tries to climb a mountain on which his father was killed. I read it many times. I probably read it twice or three times a year from when I was ten until when I was sixteen or seventeen. That's probably my favorite book ever from when I was a kid. Sometimes kids ask what's my favorite book of the Big Nate books and I always say I like them all for different reasons, but I'm especially fond of the second chapter book, Big Nate Strikes Again. It's got all the Ben Franklin comics in it because I love Ben Franklin. The fourth one is call Big Nate Goes for Broke and it's a winter story. I wanted to write a story about winter because I wanted to be able to draw winter scenes. I'm particularly fond of those two.

Jenny, Gina and Artur

LP: "Why do I make Big Nate hate Artur?" Well, here's the thing. It's a fine distinction. Nate doesn't hate Artur. Nate is jealous of Artur. Nate understands that Artur is a nice guy and that's what bothers Nate. When I brought Artur into the comic strip, I brought him in because I wanted to give Nate sort of a friendly rival. At the time I was writing a lot of comics about chess. Nate's a chess whiz. So I brought in Artur who's the champion of the entire country of Belarus so he can be better than Nate at chess. And then I thought wouldn't it be funny if Artur is just a little bit better than Nate at everything? I personally think we all have an Artur in our lives. We all have somebody that we want for our friends and yet they are always just a little bit out. So Nate does not hate Artur. He hates Gina.

Q: Have you ever written anything else besides Big Nate?

LP: Probably not that you've ever seen. Nothing's that really been published. I tried to write some cartoons for Cartoon Network, but they never quite made it. Down the line, I certainly plan to write some other things after I'm done writing Big Nate, but I can't tell you what those are now.

LP: "How long have I been writing my books?" Not all that long. Most of the kids here hadn't heard about Big Nate until a few years ago because that's when I started writing the chapter books. The first one came out in the spring of 2010 so that's only three years ago. But Big Nate's been around as a comic strip for years and years before that -- it started in 1991. So Big Nate has been around for twenty-two years and he's still eleven years old.

Q: Have you ever thought about making a movie about Big Nate?

LP: Well, I can tell you why there has not yet been a Big Nate movie, and that's because the offers we've received have been to make a live-action movie with real-life performers playing the kids. I've always said Nate's a cartoon character. One of the things that's so great about this show is how much it uses the art from the comic strip and the books. For me, it would be difficult for me to accept seeing a real-life ten or eleven year old wearing a Big Nate wig and trying to act like a cartoon character. If we can find a way to make a Big Nate movie or a tv show that's a cartoon? Then we'll make it happen.

LP: "Why did I come up with the name Nate?" Because that's my brother's nickname. I'll tell you the story. My brother's name is not actually Nate. It's Jonathan. When we were kids, I realized if I took the first two letters off his name, J-O, I was left with Nathan. So I came up to him one day and said, "I'm going to start calling you Nathan." He said, "No, you are not." Then I said, "Well how about I call you Nate?" and he said, "OK." I called him Big Nate because he's my big brother and he's a big person. It's one of those family names that almost nobody calls him except me. It's sort of like a secret name, and I've always loved the name. When I started the comic strip it was a way of me fulfilling a dream of doing a comic strip, but also having the name Nate attached to it is just a reminder for me of my brother and how much I love my brother.

Q: Are you going to ever have Nate grow up?

LP: No, no, he's never going to grow up. There are two kinds of comic strips out there -- there are the ones where people stay the same age all the time and there a few -- For Better or For Worse is one or Gasoline Alley is another -- where the characters age. Here's why I don't want Nate to grow up. I would have to teach myself how to draw him differently each year that passes. I'm too lazy for that. I'm just going to keep him eleven years old.

Enslave the Mollusk

Q: Where did you get the name Enslave the Mollusk?

LP: I'm often asked do you get ideas from real life, and usually the answer is no. It's not that often that I get ideas from real life, but when our son, who is now nineteen years old, was in sixth grade some friends asked him to join a band they called Enslave the Mollusk. Their illustrious career lasted for one rehearsal. Then it was over, and now they're just a legend.

Q: How do you get your ideas for Big Nate?

LP: A lot of times, if you're a writer or cartoonist, you're submitting ideas and your editor will tell you to write about what you know best. So I'm the sort of person -- I don't have a really good memory for recent events, but I remember in vivid detail almost everything that happened to me when I was in sixth grade. I remember the first day of sixth grade better than I remember yesterday. So I thought when I was trying to get this comic strip going, I thought I'd write about a sixth grade boy because that's who I was and what I remember best.

Q: Why does Nate like Jenny?

Jenny

LP: Nate kind of likes the idea of Jenny more than he likes Jenny. Over the course of time... Jenny's been around in the comic strip since the very beginning, so for all of these twenty-two years, he's liked her. But if any of the other characters asks Nate why he likes her, he never really has a great answer. It's not that they have a lot in common. It's not that she treats him real well. It's just that she's an ideal. She's a dream. That's why I loved it when Jenny came skating out [in the play] with the wings and everything. That's exactly the way he thinks of her. A lot of times, especially when you're a young person, you think you're feeling something really intensely, but what you're feeling is something different. In Nate's case, he doesn't quite know what he's feeling. He thinks it's love.

Q: Would you ever make Jenny dump Artur?

LP: I don't know. You know, Artur has not been in the comic strip since the beginning and before Artur came around, Jenny had a few other boyfriends. So I suppose it's possible that she could still have yet more boyfriends, which would mean that she and Artur could break up. When I do the comic strip.. the comic strip that appeared in the paper today, I actually did about three weeks ago. So I'm right now doing comic strips for July, and into August, so as of August, they're still together.

Mrs. Godfrey, Nate and Gina

Amanda Russell: For the playwright and the writer of the music, how many drafts did you do?

Christopher Youstra & Jason Loewith: We had drafts, but it was more evolutionary. There were probably four or five really big drafts. We had a workshop in December and we spent a week and made a lot of little changes. We made sure the characters were in the voices that were in Lincoln's head and then once we got here, there's was a lot of cut and change. The music changed far less.

Christopher Youstra & Jason Loewith: Lincoln, you've been living with these two-dimensional people here in your head -- which of these actors sounds the most to you like what you've got in your head?

LP: Gina.

Thursday, May 09, 2013

Ben Hatke art for Kids Read Comics

Ben Hatke art for Kids Read Comics can be downloaded here.

Another profile of local student cartoonist Christopher Huh

14-Year-Old Author Tells Story of Holocaust in Graphic Novel
Eighth-Grader Christopher Huh Debuts 'Keeping My Hope'
By Laura Moser
Jewish Daily Forward May 09, 2013, issue of May 17, 2013.
http://forward.com/articles/176210/-year-old-author-tells-story-of-holocaust-in-gra/