SPX's Ignatz Award nominations open

2014 Ignatz Awards Submissions Are Open!

Tis the time to submit your comics for consideration in Small Press Expo’s festival prize, the Ignatz Award. Submissions are open to all independent comics creators and publishers. 

Note: You do not need to be an SPX 2014 exhibitor to submit, nor do you need to attend Small Press Expo to win.

Fame, fortune, glory and drink tickets galore await you!

Ignatz nominees are selected by a super-secret jury of creators (a new group each year) and voted on by attendees and exhibitors of Small Press Expo 2014.  

As a part of the SPX Permanent Collection at the Library of Congress, all Ignatz nominees will automatically be sent to the LOC for permanent preservation.

Previous Ignatz winners include Kate Beaton, Michael DeForge, Lisa Hanawalt, Jaime Hernandez, Kevin Huizenga, Jillian Tamaki and Craig Thompson to name just a few!

The Ignatz Categories

All work will be eligible in all applicable categories, which include:

• Outstanding Artist
• Outstanding Anthology or Collection
• Outstanding Graphic Novel
• Outstanding Story
• Promising New Talent
• Outstanding Series
• Outstanding Comic
• Outstanding Minicomic
• Outstanding Online Comic

Dat Rat

Speaking of “Promising New Talent,” starting in 2012 we began asking the winner of this particular award to create their own version of George Herriman’s brick-throwing rat (thank you Daryl Ayo and Lale Westvind!).

Last years’ well-deserved winner, Sam Alden produced the wonderful illustration above for our use in 2014.

The Ignatz Submission Process

In order to be considered for an Ignatz nomination, six copies of a work published between June 1, 2013 and May 31, 2014 should be sent to:

SPX Ignatz Awards
c/o Big Planet Comics
4849 Cordell Ave.
Bethesda, MD 20814

USA

** Please note this is a different address from last year. ** 

Links to comics eligible for the Outstanding Online Comic category should be emailed to spxignatz@gmail.com.  

All submissions must be received by June 7, 2014.

Full guidelines are available at http://www.spxpo.com/ignatz-guidelines.

All questions should be sent to the Ignatz Award coordinator, Eden Miller, at spxignatz@gmail.com.

Batman 1960's TV show writer dies

Screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr. dies at 91; worked on blockbuster movies, TV’s ‘Batman’

By David Colker, Washington Post April 3 2014

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/screenwriter-lorenzo-semple-jr-dies-at-91-worked-on-blockbuster-movies-tvs-batman/2014/04/01/27146a04-b8f9-11e3-9a05-c739f29ccb08_story.html

Comic Riffs talks to Archie Comics

How the Archie Comics CEO rescued ol’ Riverdale High from being ‘old school’

BY DAVID BETANCOURT

Washington Post Comic Riffs blog April 2 2014

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2014/04/02/how-the-archie-comics-ceo-rescued-ol-riverdale-high-from-being-old-school/

"Herblock Looks at 1964" Exhibition Opens April 5

Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave. SE
Washington DC   20540

April 3, 2014

Public contact:  Sara Duke (202) 707-3630, sduk@loc.gov

“Herblock Looks at 1964” Exhibition Opens April 5 

The Civil Rights Movement and the struggle to pass the Civil Rights Act will be the main focus of a 10-cartoon display of Herblock drawings at the Library of Congress.  Herblock was the Pulitzer-Prize winning political cartoonist at the Washington Post for more than 55 years.

The exhibit, “Herblock Looks at 1964: Fifty Years Ago in Editorial Cartoons,” will open Saturday, April 5, 2014, in the Herblock Gallery of the Graphic Arts Galleries, ground floor of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St. S.E., Washington, D.C.  Free and open to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday, the exhibit runs through Saturday, Sept. 13, 2014. 

Six of the cartoons in the exhibit deal with Civil-Rights issues.  The other four drawings cover the Barry Goldwater nomination, the ill effects of cigarettes, unregulated mail-order purchases of firearms, and the strained relationship between China and the Soviet Union.

The Herblock Gallery, part of the Graphic Arts Galleries, celebrates the work of Herbert L. Block with a rotating display of 10 original drawings.  The display changes every six months.  A second set of drawings from 1964 will be placed on exhibition from Sept. 20, 2014 to March 14, 2015.

One of the cartoons depicting the struggle to pass the Civil Rights Act is “SAFE!” published in the Washington Post on June 21, 1964.  Baseball was one of Herblock’s visual metaphors for the game of politics.  In this drawing, he used the slide into home plate as a celebration for the end of the 54-day filibuster that delayed passage of the Civil Rights Act in the Senate until June 19, 1964.  The House agreed to the Senate’s language and ended the era of Jim Crow legalized segregation.  President Lyndon Johnson signed the bill into law on July 2, 1964.

The Herb Block Foundation donated a collection of more than 14,000 original cartoon drawings and 50,000 rough sketches, as well as manuscripts, to the Library of Congress in 2002, and has generously continued to provide funds to support ongoing programming.

“Herblock Looks at 1964” is part of the Library of Congress commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act which is anchored by the web-based Civil Rights History Project and the exhibition, “The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom.”  The exhibition, opening June 19, is made possible by a generous grant from Newman’s Own Foundation and with additional support from HISTORY®.

The Library has been collecting original cartoon art for more than 140 years.  It is a major center for cartoon research with holdings of more than 100,000 original cartoon drawings and prints.  These works, housed in the Prints and Photographs Division, span five centuries and range from 17th-century Dutch political prints to 21st-century contemporary comic strips.

The Prints and Photographs Division holds the largest-known collection of American political prints, the finest assemblage of British satirical prints outside Great Britain and holdings of original drawings by generations of America’s best cartoonists and illustrators that are unequaled in breadth and depth.  Extensive runs of rare satirical and comic journals from Europe and the United States represent another distinguishing facet.  The Library acquired these materials through a variety of sources including artists’ gifts, donations by private collectors, selective purchases and copyright registration.

The Library of Congress, the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution and the largest library in the world, holds more than 158 million items in various languages, disciplines and formats.  The Library serves the U.S. Congress and the nation both on-site in its reading rooms on Capitol Hill and through its award-winning website at www.loc.gov.

# # #

PR14-58
4/3/14
ISSN: 0731-3527

Bob Mankoff talk pictures

 Bruce Guthrie's pictures from Bob Mankoff's talk at Politics and Prose last night are up on his site.  The direct link is http://www.bguthriephotos.com/graphlib.nsf/keys/2014_04_02G_Mankoff

As usual, Mankoff was very amusing and very generous with his time.

Cartoonists Joe Sutliff, Steve Artley, Bob Mankoff, Al Goodwyn, comics historian Mike Rhode and comics curator Sara Duke.

__,_._,___

'Spider-Man 2' promos get rolling

A U.S. Postal Service truck on K St. bearing a promo for the 'Spider-Man 2' movie.

Comic Riffs talks to Stripped movie creators

‘STRIPPED’ Q&A: As new docu tops iTunes, filmmakers wax passionate about their ‘love letter’ to comic strips

BY MICHAEL CAVNA

Washington Post Comic Riffs April 2 2014

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2014/04/02/stripped-qa-as-new-docu-tops-itunes-filmmakers-wax-passionate-about-their-love-letter-to-comic-strips/

Cavna reviews 'The Harlem Hellfighters' in The Post

‘The Harlem Hellfighters,’ written by Max Brooks and illustrated by Caanan White

By Michael Cavna, Washington Post April 2 2014

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/the-harlem-hellfighters-written-by-max-brooks-and-illustrated-by-caanan-white/2014/04/01/9999ec58-b5f1-11e3-8cb6-284052554d74_story.html

Beyond Text and Line: A Discussion on the Art of Comic Books

In conjunction with its new art exhibit, “A Shared Universe: The Art of Comic Books” (which runs April 12-June 8), Strathmore in North Bethesda, Md., will host a panel discussion with local comics folks on April 27 at 2 p.m. titled “Beyond Text andLine: A Discussion on the Art of Comic Books.” Tickets are $5.

“Join the colorful conversation moderated by Greg McElhatton, former Executive Director of the Small Press Expo (SPX,) a founding freelancer for Wizard, and a current reviewer on iComics.com. Panelists include: Emily Gillis of Wayward Studios; JD Deardourff, a local comic-inspired artist; Rafer Roberts of Plastic Farm Press; and Monica Gallagher of EatYourLipstick.com.”

Photo: Strathmore

May 31: Box Brown at Big Planet Comics DC

NPR on Captain America film's DC locations

Captain America On The Potomac

by LINDA HOLMES

National Public Radio's Monkey See blog April 01, 2014

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2014/04/01/297704279/captain-america-on-the-potomac

Bob Mankoff asks, "How About Wednesday - Is Wednesday Good For You?"

Robert Mankoff is the New Yorker's cartoon editor and a very smart man. He'll be at Politics and Prose on Wednesday, April 2, at 7 pm to discuss his new book, How About Never - Is Never Good for You? My Life In Cartoons (Henry Holt, $32.50).

The book is a breezy, extremely well-illustrated autobiography / history of New Yorker cartooning / treatise on gag cartooning that is a quick, but worthwhile read. The style is one that Mankoff perfected on his From the Desk of Bob Mankoff blog: short, pithy, humorous essays well illustrated by cartoons. By this point, in 20 years of being the cartoon editor, he's selected over 14,000 for the magazine, many of which aren't by him. That's actually a sample of the type of humor in the book by the way.

My suspicion is that parts of this book actually appeared there first, which in no way undermines its value. The introduction is actually useful for anyone who picks up the book and is unfamiliar with Mankoff's role in cartooning. He then begins with a superficial look at his early interest in cartooning, relating that to the currently-fashionable theory that Jews produced much of the 20th century's comic art.* And honestly, that is all we really need about his teenage years, and the book picks up steam when he writes about attempting to break into Lee Lorenz's cartoonist stable. His discussion of the need for a distinctive style, and developing his pointillist version, is quite interesting. Mankoff's look at the first cartoons by him, Jack Zeigler, Michael Maslin, Roz Chast and Mick Stevens is clever, and his discussion of the changing nature of New Yorker cartoons is a must-read.

A chapter looks at how he began the Cartoon Bank, an electronic database / syndication service for cartoons the New Yorker rejected, sold that to the magazine which expanded it, and indexed and digitized all the cartoons the magazine had ever run. The way the magazine handled this before was a scrapbook for each cartoonist with clippings pasted in them. One can easily see the possibilities that having a computer-searchable catalog opened up for licensing and reprint books.

Perhaps a little too much space is devoted to the Seinfeld episode which focussed on the New Yorker's cartoon choices, but Mankoff uses that as a stepping off place to write about the nature of cartoon humor. As I said, he's a very smart man. Mankoff also looks at the joys and difficulties of developing his own stable of newer cartoonists, how and why cartoons are selected, editor-in-chief David Remnick's role in the final selection, the cartoon contest is the magazine's back pages, and closes with a look at the newest cartoonists to join the magazine.

Overall, if one is interested in either gag cartooning, the New Yorker, or the nature of humor, this is a must-have book.

*Not that there's anything wrong with that, to quote another comedic Jew, Jerry Seinfeld.

Game On! Comics Graphic Novel Trade-In Day this Saturday

Got some old Graphic Novels sitting around? 

 Trade them in for store credit! 

 Do you have old graphic novels sitting around unread, and you want to clear up some space for new collections? Bring your used graphic novels in this Saturday, April 5, from Noon-4pm, for our new Trade-In Day!

We will give you store credit based on the resale value and condition of your books that you can use immediately, or in the future, on any store product (even books in your subscription box)!

Graphic Novel Trade-In Day! This Saturday April 5th All Day

We will be exchanging store credit for your used trades!   

Here is how it works:

Value of your graphic novel

$1-$20 = $5 store credit token

$21-$40= $10 store credit tokens

$41-$60= $15 store credit tokens

$61-$80= $20 store credit tokens

$81-$100= $25 store credit tokens

That's it!  Just bring them in and trade!

*We do reserve the right to decline graphic novels based on condition, popularity, and current stock.

The Post censors Pearls Before Swine, reports on itself doing so

PEARLS BEFORE ‘NEIN’: Stephan Pastis finds irony in Post nixing strip about word choice…because of word choice.

BY MICHAEL CAVNA

March 31 2014 http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2014/03/31/pearls-before-nein-stephan-pastis-finds-irony-in-post-nixing-strip-about-word-choice-because-of-word-choice/

Comic Riffs on new comics syndicate for charity

Upon National Kidney Month, cartoonist launches syndicate site fueled by son’s disease

    By Michael Cavna     

    Washington Post Comic Riffs blog March 31 2014

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2014/03/31/upon-national-kidney-month-toronto-cartoonist-launches-syndicate-site-fueled-by-sons-disease/

Frozen videogame review in The Post

Frozen Free Fall: Familiar, if basic, fun [online as Pass the time with Frozen Free Fall, which follows tried-and-true puzzle formats]

By Hayley Tsukayama,

Washington Post March 30 2013

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/techbit-pass-the-time-with-frozen-free-fall-which-follows-tried-and-true-puzzle-formats/2014/03/26/dd85fd78-b3b0-11e3-8cb6-284052554d74_story.html

That Darn Prickly City, continued

A Natural home for politics [online as,The comics have always been home to politics]

Washington Post March 29 2014, p. A13

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-comics-have-always-been-home-to-politics/2014/03/28/2b6d8fb2-b297-11e3-bab2-b9602293021d_story.html

Ladies' Night at Fantom Comics tomorrow

Fantom Comics this Sunday is holding its second bimonthly Ladies' Night of the year from 6-9 p.m. The theme for this one will be cosplay.

"Awesome Con will be right around the corner in April, so this will be an entire evening discussing the fantastic sartorial choices available to us as comic book fans," according to Fantom's Facebook event page. 

Cohen's birds on exhibit in B'more

Local cartoonist Andrew Cohen has some of his bird drawings as part of the new "From Fur to Feathers" exhibit at the Schuler School in Baltimore.

New Big Planet shirts are coming!

New Big Planet shirts are coming!

If you would like a particular size (men's, women's, kid's), let us know so we make sure to get enough! Email vienna@bigplanetcomics.com

(lifted from their Facebook page)