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Tuesday, March 01, 2016
Small Press Expo and Nickelodeon Announce Results of SPX 2015 Nickelodeon Call For Submissions
PR: SuperNoVa Comicons March 6th
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| Herb Trimpe memorial print |
SuperNoVa Comicons is happy to announce our return to Leesburg Virginia on Sunday March 6th from 10 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
50 Tables of vendors, artist, small press and special guests.
There will be vendors from 4 states offering comic books from Golden, Silver, Bronze and Modern Ages. Comic books for all ages.
Confirmed Guests:
Patrick Block
Shelly Block
Pop Mhan
Bill McKay
Angela McKendrick
Dan Nokes
Camilo Ruiz
Hero Initiative
Confirmed Vendors:
Fandata Bargain Comics
Everyday Comics
Shazam Comics & Toys
All American Comics
Silver Dragon Studios
Timber Grove Traders
Cards, Comics and Collectables
Phantom Wolf
Dan Cusimano
Patriot Comics and Toys
Untamed Worlds
Rocket Comic Sales
Anaconda Collectables
Painted Visions Comics
PackCracker Cards and Comics
Damion Hill
Comic Logic
Comics and Gaming
Duckys Comics
Everyday Comics
Shazam Comics & Toys
All American Comics
Silver Dragon Studios
Timber Grove Traders
Cards, Comics and Collectables
Phantom Wolf
Dan Cusimano
Patriot Comics and Toys
Untamed Worlds
Rocket Comic Sales
Anaconda Collectables
Painted Visions Comics
PackCracker Cards and Comics
Damion Hill
Comic Logic
Comics and Gaming
Duckys Comics
We hope you guys/gals will come out and give us a look.
A quick chat with Gary Lucas on reviving the Fleischer Brothers cartoon music
Gary Lucas, a New York musician, will be in town this weekend with his tribute to the Fleischer animation studio music heard in Popeye and Betty Boop shorts. His band Gary Lucas Fleischerei has just released a new album Music from Max Fleischer Cartoons from Silver Spring's Cuneiform Records. I've been given a copy of the album and it's a lively, fun interpretation of cartoon music that's not been revived nearly as often as either Disney's or Warner Brothers'.
I'm on jury duty this week, so I'm going to lift a couple of paragraphs from Cuneiform's press release. Original ComicsDC material resumes with a short interview after the italicized text.
Gary Lucas is one of the great spelunkers of contemporary culture, a fearless explorer who delves into forgotten and overlooked crevices and returns bearing exquisite treasures. His latest project Music from Max Fleischer Cartoons is a particularly spectacular find, a gleaming confection from a hurly-burly era when the Jazz Age crashed into the Great Depression and Tin Pan Alley borrowed shamelessly from Harlem. A 2016 Cuneiform release, the album features songs from Fleischer Studios cartoons originally delivered by actress Mae Questel, who provided the voice and vocals for two beloved but very different characters: the eternally sexy Betty Boop and Popeye’s sometime ‘goilfriend’ Olive Oyl. Finding a singer who could capture the insouciant spirit of Mae Questel while comfortably inhabiting the material proved far more difficult. Lucas turned to his wife Caroline Sinclair, a New York City casting director, who said, “why don’t you let me cast this one?” “That was a good idea,” Lucas says. “Sarah Stiles is really a bundle of fire who can do it all. It was crucial to find a singer who wouldn’t try to hijack the idea and make it about her. We conceived this as a tribute to Mae Questel and the Fleischers. This is about trying to spread Fleischermania.” Part of what makes Stiles such a perfect fit for the material is the way she captures the spirit of the characters. It’s immediately obvious when she’s singing a song associated with the effervescent Ms. Boop and when she’s donning the slippery guise of Ms. Oyl. The album opens and closes with bits lifted from Fleischer productions.
Gary Lucas is one of the great spelunkers of contemporary culture, a fearless explorer who delves into forgotten and overlooked crevices and returns bearing exquisite treasures. His latest project Music from Max Fleischer Cartoons is a particularly spectacular find, a gleaming confection from a hurly-burly era when the Jazz Age crashed into the Great Depression and Tin Pan Alley borrowed shamelessly from Harlem. A 2016 Cuneiform release, the album features songs from Fleischer Studios cartoons originally delivered by actress Mae Questel, who provided the voice and vocals for two beloved but very different characters: the eternally sexy Betty Boop and Popeye’s sometime ‘goilfriend’ Olive Oyl. Finding a singer who could capture the insouciant spirit of Mae Questel while comfortably inhabiting the material proved far more difficult. Lucas turned to his wife Caroline Sinclair, a New York City casting director, who said, “why don’t you let me cast this one?” “That was a good idea,” Lucas says. “Sarah Stiles is really a bundle of fire who can do it all. It was crucial to find a singer who wouldn’t try to hijack the idea and make it about her. We conceived this as a tribute to Mae Questel and the Fleischers. This is about trying to spread Fleischermania.” Part of what makes Stiles such a perfect fit for the material is the way she captures the spirit of the characters. It’s immediately obvious when she’s singing a song associated with the effervescent Ms. Boop and when she’s donning the slippery guise of Ms. Oyl. The album opens and closes with bits lifted from Fleischer productions.
“Fleischer’s animation has a gritty, funky urban sensibility that feeds
right into R. Crumb,” Lucas says. “His cartoons had that Jewish and urban
wiseguy sensibility. There’s a dark, black humor associated with Eastern
European immigrants, and even though I’m from upstate, those are my roots.
Betty Boop in particular embodies a knowing sophistication emanating out of
Times Square, which was a node of melting pot culture where Broadway, Yiddish
theater, and jazz all converged.”
Did you have to have the music transcribed from cartoons, or does
written music for the cartoons still exist?
I transcribed and arranged the guitar parts by ear off the soundtracks;
I'm not sure how Joe Fiedler who arranged the group parts did it that way, but
he could have-- we both have very good ears. I really don't know if any of the
cartoon music exists in their original arrangements as written music. It is
possible it's filed somewhere, at for the stuff that the assembled studio bands
cut in front of the cartoons being projected, photos exist of one of the main
composers Sammy Timberg conducting one of these ensembles in a Fleischer
cartoons recording session. Some of the music came from actual records of the
day that the Fleischer's edited right onto their cartoon soundtracks--such as
the "jungle jazz" instrumental tag on "Betty Boop's
Penthouse" which FLEISCHEREI perform, which I recently learned comes off a
78 recording of the Mills Blue Rhythm Band entitled "Heat Waves."
Perhaps the group re-cut it for the cartoon because it sounds slightly faster
on the soundtrack, but, if so, they stuck to the identical arrangement. The
connection with current Harlem recording acts is a natural as Mills Blue Rhythm
Band were one of the regular ensembles at the Cotton Club uptown. Paramount was the distributor of the
cartoons - and as part of its arrangements with Fleischer Studios, the studio lent
some of the artists in their catalog such as Cab Calloway and Louis Armstrong
to make cameo appearances in the Fleischer cartoons, which were filmed at
Paramount Studios in Astoria, Queens. Sometimes these artists toured nationally
in the same Paramount theaters that the Fleischer cartoons were screened in, with the cartoons themselves serving as advance
publicity for the artist's live appearances.
Did you consider showing the cartoons behind you while you play, as
is so popular with symphony orchestras?
Yes we do this, in a roughly synchronized way. As we improvise a lot
unlike symphony orchestras it's not easy to always have the right clip on the
screen behind us, but I don't think it matters much. It's more about capturing
a flavor. We show the intact cartoons also as part of our show.
What did singer Sara Stiles really think when someone asked her to channel
Betty Boop's voice?
That someone was I, and Sarah loves Betty Boop's voice. She has no
problem channeling it. That is one reason I selected her as the singer.
How has the reception been so far for the tour/album?
We haven't really begun touring this yet. Reaction to the album has
been extremely positive.
Do you know who the original composers are?
Yes, and they are duly noted in the booklet credits.
(And so they are. There's a variety of names with Sammy Timberg being credited the most with five songs)
(And so they are. There's a variety of names with Sammy Timberg being credited the most with five songs)
Did you have a hard time convincing the other musicians to join you
in this project, or is everyone just seeing it as a fun way to spend a few
months?
Everyone in the group loves playing this music. They wouldn't be part
of this otherwise.
How does the live audience react?
The reaction has been phenomenal - people love this project, they get
off on hearing the music and they adore the cartoons.
Why do you think that Disney and Warner Bros. cartoon music has
survived, and relatively prospered, while the Fleischers' was forgotten?
I don't think it was forgotten, I mean, come on - people all over the
world know Sammy Lerner's "Popeye the Sailor Man" theme for instance.
I just don't' think the music has been effectively curated (until now!).
1930's "Swing You Singers"
- a surrealist classic.
Favorite animation overall?
Ditto.
I note Robert Crumb is mentioned in your press release; are you a Crumb fan?
Have you seen him and his Cheap Suit Serenaders? Have you ever met him and
talked music or cartoons?
Yes I love Crumb's work. I never did see his ensemble, although I did
see his guitarist, the late Bob Brozman in action, I have never met Crumb
alas - but I feel a kindred spirit there. I know he was a HUGE fan of Max Fleischer!
We now go back to Mr. Lucas' website to round out this post.
Next up, the full swinging FLEISCHEREI 6-piece band will appear along with many classic Max Fleischer cartoons as a special event night at the Washington Jewish Film Festival on Sat. March 5th 8pm at the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring Maryland.
Preview the tracks "The Broken Record" and "Ain'tcha" from the new FLEISCHEREI album—
and order the album now!
We now go back to Mr. Lucas' website to round out this post.
Next up, the full swinging FLEISCHEREI 6-piece band will appear along with many classic Max Fleischer cartoons as a special event night at the Washington Jewish Film Festival on Sat. March 5th 8pm at the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring Maryland.
Preview the tracks "The Broken Record" and "Ain'tcha" from the new FLEISCHEREI album—
and order the album now!
Monday, February 29, 2016
March 5: Fleischerei concert (tune in tomorrow for an interview with Gary Lucas)
GARY LUCAS' FLEISCHEREI @ WASHINGTON JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL SAT. MARCH 5th /
UPCOMING GL APPEARANCES
UPCOMING GL APPEARANCES
"THE FLEISCHER EVENT WAS AMAZING AND THE RESPONSE WAS RAPTUROUS; I CANT REMEMBER A MORE ENJOYABLE PROGRAM IN OUR THEATER."
--David Schwartz, chief curator of the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens
re Gary Lucas & Sarah Stiles' FLEISCHEREI duo performance Feb. 7th
Check out Gary Lucas & 2015 Tony Award nominee Sarah Stiles' FLEISCHEREI duo performing "The Broken Record"
at the Museum of the Moving Image's tribute to pioneer animation genius MAX FLEISCHER:
https://vimeo.com/155776682
Now GARY LUCAS brings his full 6-piece swinging FLEISCHEREI ensemble to the AFI Silver Theater in Silver Spring Maryland,
as a special event of the Washington Jewish Film Festival Sat. March 5th at 8:30pm:
http://bit.ly/1QYZjOF.
Featuring Joe Fiedler trombone, Jeff Lederer on reeds, Ron Jost acoustic bass, and Rob Garcia drums.
Their new album is just out on Cuneiform Records
Reviews, photos, clips and more here:
http://bit.ly/1JPkqFX
Sunday, February 28, 2016
March 26: Rafer Roberts signing
Rafer Roberts Comics Workshop/Signing!Saturday, March 26 at 2 PM
Fantom Comics in Washington, District of Columbia
Saturday, February 27, 2016
2 new Rafer Roberts interviews
Rafer Roberts Talks A&A: The Adventures of Archer & Armstrong
http://www.denofgeek.us/books-comics/archer-armstrong/252982/rafer-roberts-talks-aa-the-adventures-of-archer-armstrong
FCBD Interview: Rafer Roberts Talks About The Adventures of Archer and Armstrong
February 2016http://www.freecomicbookday.com/Home/1/1/27/206?articleID=174452
More SPX 2015 Panels
SPX 2015 Panel - SPX Spotlight on Phoebe Gloeckner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AZJ36ilvsA
Phoebe Gloeckner has produced one of the most powerful and innovative bodies of works in the comics field. Her classic book "A Child's Life and Other Stories" anthologizes short pieces which, together, powerfully express a textured portrait of adolescent desire and despair. Her mixed format book "The Diary of a Teenage Girl" blends prose, illustration, and comics. The book has been adapted as a critically acclaimed film, and was also republished in a new edition with additional supplementary material. For the past several years she has been researching a book about people living in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Ms. Gloeckner discuses her work in a spotlight conversation with Slate Magazine culture editor Dan Kois.
SPX 2015 - Ignatz Awards Ceremony
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NobdAw_Hyw
The Ignatz Award, named for the character in the classic comic strip Krazy Kat by George Herriman, is the festival prize of the Small Press Expo. Since 1997 the Ignatz has recognized outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning. The award recognizes exceptional work that challenges popular notions of what comics can achieve, both as an art form and as a means of personal expression. Only those present at the Small Press Expo may cast a vote to decide the winners. The ballot is created by a jury of five cartoonists and is voted on by the attendees of the SPX festival. 2015 Jurors are Lamar Abrams, Cara Bean, Robyn Chapman, Sophie Goldstein and Corrine Mucha.
Mistress of Ceremonies C. Spike Trotman hosts the 2015 award ceremony. The 2015 Ignatz Awards are sponsored by Comixology Submit
2015 Ignatz Award Winners:
Outstanding Anthology of Collection - How To Be Happy by Eleanor Davis
Outstanding Graphic Novel - The Oven by Sophie Goldstein
Outstanding Artist - Emily Carroll for Through the Woods
Outstanding Story - Sex Coven from Frontier #7 by Jillian Tamaki
Promising New Talent - Sophia Foster-Dimino for Sphincter, Sex Fantasy
Outstanding Series - Sex Fantasy by Sophia Foster-Dimino
Outstanding Minicomic - Sex Fantasy #4 by Sophia Foster-Dimino
Outstanding Online Comic - The Bloody Footprint by Lilli Carre
Outstanding Comic - The Oven by Sophie Goldstein
Friday, February 26, 2016
Silver Spring's Holmberg on nuclear manga
Pro-Nuclear Manga: The Seventies and Eighties
BY Ryan Holmberg Feb 26, 2016http://www.tcj.com/pro-nuclear-manga-the-seventies-and-eighties/
City Paper on Hirshhorn's fine art animation exhibit
Reanimator: The Hirshhorn's latest exhibition explores the sometimes profound, sometimes obnoxious medium of digital animation.
By Kriston Capps • February 26, 2016, p. 25-26
Still from "Hope and Change" by Josh Kline (2015)
Thursday, February 25, 2016
April1: Wine Tasting and Coloring Party with artist Teresa Roberts Logan (or Coloring Fools Day)
at 6:30 PM - 8 PM
One More Page Books & More
2200 N Westmoreland St, Ste 101, Arlington, Virginia 22213
What do you get when you combine a wine tasting, coloring party, aartist and April Fool's Day? You get Coloring Fools' Day!
We'll start with a wine tasting at 6:30 and then at 7, artist Teresa Roberts Logan will talk about the making of Posh Coloring Book: Paisley Designs for Fun and Relaxation. After answering questions, we'll get down to the serious fun of coloring some of Teresa's beautiful designs. A very fun and funny evening!
As a professional artist and illustrator, Teresa Roberts Logan has created thousands of paintings and drawings (collectors include Whoopi Goldberg, Sherri Shepherd, and Kyoko Cox). Teresa also is the founder of Laughing Redhead Studio, a line of hilarious greeting cards that universally celebrates women through contemporary, edgy humor. She is a cartoonist, humor writer, and standup comic who lives in Washington, DC.
What do you get when you combine a wine tasting, coloring party, aartist and April Fool's Day? You get Coloring Fools' Day!
We'll start with a wine tasting at 6:30 and then at 7, artist Teresa Roberts Logan will talk about the making of Posh Coloring Book: Paisley Designs for Fun and Relaxation. After answering questions, we'll get down to the serious fun of coloring some of Teresa's beautiful designs. A very fun and funny evening!
As a professional artist and illustrator, Teresa Roberts Logan has created thousands of paintings and drawings (collectors include Whoopi Goldberg, Sherri Shepherd, and Kyoko Cox). Teresa also is the founder of Laughing Redhead Studio, a line of hilarious greeting cards that universally celebrates women through contemporary, edgy humor. She is a cartoonist, humor writer, and standup comic who lives in Washington, DC.
Tom King podcast interviews online now
Loika, Pat. 2016.
Tom King.
Loikamania (244; February 23): http://comicbooknoise.com/loikamania/2016/02/23/loikamania-244-tom-king/ and http://comicbooknoise.com/loikamania/podcasts/loikamania244.mp3
Word Balloon Tom King Has The Vision, Leaves Grayson, And Creates The Sheriff Of Babylon
by john siuntres
February 10, 2016
http://wordballoon.blogspot.com/2016/02/word-balloon-tom-king-has-vision-leaves.html
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Comic Riffs talks to Mark Fiore
He once made a pilgrimage to see Herblock. Today, 'pretty emotional' artist wins Herblock Prize.
By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs February 24 2016
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2016/02/24/he-once-made-a-pilgrimage-to-see-herblock-today-pretty-emotional-artist-wins-herblock-prize/
Washington Post Comic Riffs February 24 2016
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2016/02/24/he-once-made-a-pilgrimage-to-see-herblock-today-pretty-emotional-artist-wins-herblock-prize/
A couple of quotes on the Herblock Award, from moi
Here's a quote I submitted when helping to choose Mark Fiore to select the Herblock award. It's at http://www.herbblockfoundation.org/herblock-prize-winner/1251 along with the 15 cartoon videos he sent in.
From Mike Rhode: for Fiore –
Mark Fiore, who practices editorial cartooning through animation, quickly rose to the top of the list for me, but he started as a dark horse. Animated editorial cartooning is young compared to traditional pen & ink drawings in the newspaper, but Fiore is among the first masters of the field. His cartoons covered a range of topics from deeply obscure but important mining law to the constant gun violence warping American society. It was a pleasure to be able to select him for this ground-breaking expansion of the Herblock award.
And here's my quote for Ruben Bolling as the runner-up for the Herblock award - it's at http://www.herbblockfoundation.org/2016-Finalist
From Mike Rhode: for Bolling –
Ruben Bolling's Tom the Dancing Bug has been a consistently excellent strip usually run in alternative newspapers and thus visible to fewer readers. This year Bolling submitted excellent, tight and hard-hitting cartoons on a variety of liberal topics.
PR: Winner of the 2016 Herblock Prize is Mark Fiore
[corrected 2nd paragraph]
For Immediate Release
WASHINGTON, DC, Wednesday, February 24th, 2016 – Mark Fiore has been named the winner of the 2016 Herblock Prize for editorial cartooning. Fiore is the first to win the Prize with all animated cartoon entries.
Mark Fiore, who the Wall Street Journal has called “the undisputed guru
of the form,” creates animated political cartoons in San Francisco, one
of the most fertile regions for creating political animation and
cartoons. His work has appeared
on the San Francisco Chronicle’s web site, Newsweek.com, Slate.com,
CBSNews.com, MotherJones.com, NPR’s web site and is currently being
featured on online news sites ranging from KQED and Truthdig.com to The
Progressive and DailyKos.com. Fiore’s political
animation has been featured on CNN, Frontline, BillMoyers.com,
Salon.com and cable and broadcast outlets across the globe.
Beginning his professional life by drawing traditional political cartoons for newspapers, Fiore's work appeared in publications ranging from The Washington Post to the Los Angeles Times. In the late 1990s, he began to experiment with animating political cartoons and, after a short stint at the San Jose Mercury News as their staff cartoonist, Fiore devoted all his energies to animation.
Mark Fiore was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for political cartooning in 2010, a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award in 2004 and has twice received an Online Journalism Award for commentary from the Online News Association (2002, 2008). Fiore has received two awards for his work in new media from the National Cartoonists Society (2001, 2002), and in 2006 received The James Madison Freedom of Information Award from The Society of Professional Journalists.
The Herblock Prize is awarded annually by The Herb Block Foundation for "distinguished examples of editorial cartooning that exemplify the courageous independent standard set by Herblock." The winner receives a $15,000 after-tax cash prize and a sterling silver Tiffany trophy. Mark Fiore will receive the Prize on May 24th in a ceremony held at the Library of Congress. Mark Shields, a nationally known political analyst, columnist and commentator, will deliver the annual Herblock Lecture at the awards ceremony.
Judges for this year's contest were Kevin Kallaugher (KAL), editorial cartoonist for The Baltimore Sun and The Economist, winner of the 2015 Herblock Prize; Michael Rhode, archivist and author, commentator on comics for the Washington City Paper and creator of the ComicsDC blog; and Peter Kuper, alternative cartoonist and illustrator best known for his autobiographical, political, and social observations is also a visiting professor at Harvard University.
Judge Kevin Kallaugher (Kal) commented, "Mark Fiore's entry contained an engaging and powerful collection of visual commentaries. Fiore demonstrated a great use of parody, adept writing, great visualizations and solid journalism to deliver thought provoking editorials. Like a good Herblock cartoon, Mark's work displayed a consistent and determined passion to fight against societies' ills and absurdities. It is his skilled and masterful cartoon craftsmanship steeped with determined political convictions that make Fiore's animations worthy of the Herblock Prize."
Peter Kuper added, "From the numerous high quality entries to this year's Herblock Foundation award, Mark Fiore's animation entry rose to the top. Not because it was animated, but rather because he demonstrated a consistently strong handle on his subject matter with an ability to convey complex topics with great humor, rage and irony. Fiore produced a powerful body of work that addresses a range of current events and brilliantly serves them up with a smile and a kick in the gut, heart, and other body parts. His work honors the legacy of Herblock and expands the form."
This year's finalist is Ruben Bolling, pen name for Ken Fisher. He is the author of the weekly comic strip "Tom the Dancing Bug" and will receive a $5,000 after-tax cash prize. Judge Peter Kuper stated "For decades Ruben Bolling has consistently produced full page comics that find new angles of attack on familiar subjects. With subtlety, yet tremendous humor, he constructs each comic without any wasted space to build to surprising conclusions. Many of his strips take on several topics at the same time and over the years he has honed his art to deliver these ideas with great verve."
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
March 19: Goode and Ganucheau signing at Big Planet
Big Planet Comics welcomes local
artists Kendall Goode and Paulina Ganucheau for their two new comic series,
The Doorman from Heavy Metal and Another Castle from Oni Press. The signing
will be March 19 from 2-5 p.m. at the College Park store.
March 12: Girl-Con 2016
The Girl Scouts of Central Maryland
is hosting Girl-Con on March 12 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the North Laurel Community Center in
Laurel, Md.
In-Store Convention - Saturday, March 5th at Beyond Comics
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