Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Ron Wimberley on 10 best list

Ben Hatke and Alexis Frederick-Frost on Paste kids comics list

The Best Kids Comics of 2016

By Hillary Brown, Sean Edgar, Steve Foxe The Paste Comics Crew  |  December 16, 2016
https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/12/the-best-kids-comics-of-2016.html

March and Mighty Jack make SLJ's comics list

Top 10 Graphic Novels | 2016

 

Brigid Alverson is editor of "Good Comics for Kids." Also contributing: Lori Henderson, Esther Keller, Mike Pawuk, Scott Robins, Eva Volin.

By the "Good Comics for Kids" bloggers on November 21, 2016

This article was published in School Library Journal's December 2016 issue

http://www.slj.com/2016/11/reviews/best-of/top-10-graphic-novels-2016/#

March leads PW critics poll

Monday, December 19, 2016

"La Fabrique à Bulles" - "Bubble Factory" contest

The Alliance Française 

de washington, dc

Presents the Second Edition of


The 2017 Theme:

Childhood Memories / Les Souvenirs d'Enfance 

8 December 2016 - 30 April 2017 




Alliance Française de Washington DC  |  FranceDC.org  |  +1 202.234.7911
2142 Wyoming Avenue N.W. | Washington, DC 20008 | USA

Sunday, December 18, 2016

Juana Medina (and Cece Bell) reviewed in NY Times

Two New Chapter Books for Rookie Readers

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/16/books/review/two-new-chapter-books-for-rookie-readers.html

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Dec. 17: The Return of Grump!

The off-beat holiday expo GRUMP returns this Saturday, Dec. 17, to the Shops in Crystal City in Arlington, Va. Among the vendors are local comic-bookers Santiago Casares, Jason Rodriguez and myself.

Esther Kim leaving Fantom Comics store for Image Comics publisher

From today's Fantom Comics newsletter -

Saturday, December 17 – Fantom Holiday Party: "Bon Voyage, Esther!" – Our holiday party! With party games, booze, and a tearful farewell to Esther, who's leaving in January to go work for Image Comics in Portland, Oregon. Stop by to celebrate the holiday season AND say farewell to the gal before she leaves!
https://www.facebook.com/events/1535864199773797/

Fantom has become one of DC's standout stores, and we'll miss Esther and her enthusiasm.

Matt Dembicki tells me that current employee Jake Shapiro is taking over as manager.

Monday, December 12, 2016

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Venus Winston, October 8, 1981-December 11, 2016

by Mike Rhode & Matt Dembicki

According to her Facebook page, artist and cartoonist Venus Winston passed away last night, from cancer. She was a member of the DC Comics Conspiracy (DCC) and a contributor to the group's Magic Bullet comics newspaper

Winston was a DC native, but lived recently in Hyattsville, MD. For an interview with us earlier this year, she noted, "In high school I attended Duke Ellington School of the Arts majoring in Visual Arts. After graduating I majored in Illustration at Rhode Island School of Design. I started making art at age 8 and loved reading comic books. I actually didn't start creating comics till 2010, when I started writing. Before this, I wanted to be a children's book illustrator or animation."  Winston began her "Cooking with Cancer" comic in 2014 as her own therapy. In addition to showing how to prepare food that might help a cancer patient, Winston was in favor of medical marijuana to stimulate the appetite.

Earlier this year, Winston was invited to present on her comic at Dundee University in Scotland this summer for the Annual International Graphic Medicine Conference. While fundraising to attend the conference, Winston wrote, "I lost my ovaries to cancerous Krukenberg tumors and it is my belief I survived by enforcing a healthy diet and mindset within my personal environment. 'Cooking with Cancer' has now grown into a collection of short stories, recipes and informative pieces focusing on my experience with cancer and how food can help beat illness."

Winston told us in September, "In a few months, I'll be self-publishing a children's book I've been working on for years." If her family continues that plan, ComicsDC will attempt to highlight it. Her work can be seen on her websites www.bongyongart.com and www.cookingwithcancer.tumblr.com

We here at ComicsDC send our condolences to her family and friends.

'They Came to See Me Die!' No. 2

The long-awaited continuation to They Came to See Me Die! is now available! OK, not sure it's really long-awaited, but we finally got it printed. It's the story of legendary aviator Lincoln Beachey--and I'm willing to guess you've never heard of him. Too bad. He was quite the guy. But you can learn now about him in our comic (art by Andrew Cohen, story by me). I've attached the first few pages. Email me or ping me on Facebook if you'd like a copy. 




My mini-comics collection now at Library of Congress

by Matt Dembicki

On Friday, I loaded up the minivan and brought my minicomics collection to the Library of Congress. It wasn't easy to part with, because these are not just books, but momentos and memories. But in the end, LOC will do a much better job preserving it and allowing researchers and others to find those gems they're looking for. My collection is mostly from 2000 up to present (with a heavy does of Midwest and D.C. area cartoonists) but there are a bunch from earlier decades as well as from other countries. One that comes to mind was a mini done by Kevin Eastman before he did Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.


Saturday, December 10, 2016

Cast a Vote for that Occasional Contributor to the ComicsDC blog, aka Steve



Last week, while laying in bed reading, getting ready to fall asleep, I suddenly heard a gleeful squeal from my wife Kris, who happened to be looking at her i-phone with eyes wide open. Barely able to get the words out of her mouth, she managed to inform me that I was nominated in the "best artist" category for the current 2017 Best of Loudoun poll. At first I thought she was being funny, but to my pleasant surprise, there was my name, among about fourteen others. In the past, Kris and I would fill in these polls, and I'd always give Kris my "write-in" vote, as she would also do with me, but this time I found myself on the actual list. I'm not sure what it means to be "best artist", as there is a plethora of great artists in this very large county known as Loudoun, however I am very grateful to whoever it was who nominated me, and found my work worthy enough to be in this poll. If you also find my artwork worthy, and if you've followed my artistic endeavors and adventures for a while, or if you've just found out about it and like what you see, then why not vote for me? A win is definitely a long shot, but it's always so nice to see there are folks who appreciate what you do, somewhere out there. By the way, the pic below is just a screen shot. HERE's the link to vote. It's simple and you can vote from anywhere. Thanks a ton, in the meantime (and apologies for the horn tooting)! -Steve Loya