Franco Appearance at Laughing Ogre Comics

Laughing Ogre Comics is proud to welcome Franco, writer of Tiny Titans. He will be signing at their Lansdowne, VA location (19340 Promenade Drive, Lansdowne, VA 20176) on Sunday, July 13th from 2pm-5pm.

Laughing Ogre used to be known as Phoenix Comics. They acquired the Laughing Ogre store in Columbus, OH, and recently moved to adopt its name (which I think is attrocious, but apparently, it had to do with getting a trademark on "Phoenix" being a non-starter!).

Franco is also the writer of Patrick the Wolf-Boy, also an amusing read.

Wall-E continues to draw in editorial writers CORRECTED

The Washington Times goes first because I only saw theirs online - "'WALL-E's critics miss point: Pixar films have traditional values," Scott Galupo, Washington Times Friday, July 11, 2008.

The Post also ran one on Friday - "A Robot Who Offers Renewal" by Michael Gerson. Gerson writes, "'Wall-E' is partly an environmental parable, but its primary point is moral. The movie argues that human beings, aided by technology, can become imprisoned by their consumption. ... The pursuit of our rhinestone desires manages to obscure our view of the stars." A valid point, but one I feel a bit conflicted about, given that I am sitting alone retyping this, but also that I'm reaching a larger audience, some of whom have become my friends. (Thanks to alert reader Aziz Gökdemir who pointed out I had my newspapers mixed up!)

Cartoons at National Gallery of Art

There's some animated shorts at the National Gallery of Art this weekend and next and then in early August:

Artistic Journeys
July 12, 16, 23 at 10:30AM, 11:30AM
July 13 at 11:30AM
East Building Concourse, Large Auditorium

(ages 4 and up) Join us for a screening of creative journeys. See what happens when a sculpture by Alberto Giacometti walks out of the museum in search of its soul mate in Walking Man (Michael Lindbough and Mads Tobias, Denmark, 1999, 4 minutes); watch a group of mice explore the unfamiliar in Seven Blind Mice (Weston Woods Studios, USA, 2007, 8 minutes); meet a dog who collects some wonderful treasures in Aston's Stones (Lotta and Uzi Geffenblad, Sweden, 2007, 9 minutes); and learn about the life and work of artist Mary Cassatt in the animated biography Mary Cassatt (Mike Venezia, USA, 2008, 24 minutes).

Reel Fun
August 2, 6, 13 at 10:30AM, 11:30AM
August 3 at 11:30AM
East Building Concourse, Large Auditorium

(ages 4 and up) This series of animated shorts will put a smile on your face. Films include My Happy End (Milen Vitanov, Germany, 2007, 5 minutes); A Sunny Day (Gil Alkabetz, Germany, 2007, 6 minutes); Giraffes Can't Dance (Weston Woods Studios, USA, 2007, 10 minutes); Puss and the Moon (Suzanne Tuynman, Netherlands, 2005, 5 minutes); Charlie and Lola: Welcome to Lolaland

Self-referentialism in today's Post comic strips

Three comic strips today benefited from some inside knowledge of reading them regularly perhaps.

Today's Pearls Before Swine builds on a week of Pastis referring to deaths in comic strips - after taking a passing swipe at Family Circus, Pastis killed himself in the strip - today he meets his syndicate rep as a giant floating head in heaven who tells him he can't kill the strip because of the ancillary products making money.

Candorville's been doing a tribute to the late comedian George Carlin all week, but today he got into criticizing obituary editorial cartoons which frequently feature a character at heaven's pearly gates. This almost certainly comes off a discussion at the Associations of American Editorial Cartoonists that Dave Astor covered.

Finally, Agnes (pick the July 12th one) is on the fact that Peanuts is still appearing in reruns years after Schulz's death.

Kung Fu Panda's reception in China

The Post picked up a story idea that's been making the rounds of the newswires and did some more reporting to provide an interesting take on China's feeling that Kung Fu Panda mines their heritage. Off course, Disney already did this for all of Europe (and in fact there's a book and an exhibit on those borrowings), a bit of South America (The Three Caballeros), and North America so they shouldn't feel special. "'Kung Fu Panda' Hits A Sore Spot in China: Why a Quintessentially Chinese Movie Was Made in Hollywood," By Maureen Fan, Washington Post Foreign Service, Saturday, July 12, 2008; C01.

Express poll on comic book movies

Do you think Hollywood is making too many movies based on comic books?

I voted no, and as of 11 am Saturday, the results were:

46% Yes
54% No

Like anything else, the source material shouldn't control the quality of the adaptation, at least in my opinion. If I forget to check on Monday, hopefully someone will post the final results in the comments.

Off to Hellboy2

The neighborhood geeks are rolling at 9:15...

...and the followup review - it was goofy, but I enjoyed it. Large plant elemental, royal elves, sentient ectoplasm and two love stories. What more does a movie need?

Times Post Times on Hellboy 2

'Hellboy' chaos: Del Toro's otherworldly beasts, sets no substitute for a story
Christian Toto
Washington Times Friday, July 11, 2008

Monsters Brawl; 'Hellboy II': Things Get a Little Punchy In Guillermo del Toro's Richly Imagined World
By Ann Hornaday
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 11, 2008; C01

Like Bogey, but With a Really Big Fist
By A. O. SCOTT
New York Times July 11, 2008

Zadzooks on Hulk games

The movie spinoffs just keep coming. See "ZADZOOKS: Hulk is game for smashing," Joseph Szadkowski, Washington Times Thursday, July 10, 2008 for a review of some of them.

New online comic story by Harvey Pekar and Rick Veitch

My book collecting interviews from twenty years of Harvey's career should be out in a couple of months. In the meantime, here's a new story - Exclusive: A New Comic by Harvey Pekar and Rick Veitch. At some point, I heard that Veitch's family was from around here, and there's a Veitch street that intersects Columbia Pike in Arlington.

Washington Post Writers Group has success with Pickles.

Dave Astor's got the story and the quotes at "'Pickles' Comic Strip Signs Its 500th Newspaper," E&P July 10, 208.

Baltimore Sun blogger gets comics recommendations

See "Check It Out: Comics galore," by Nancy Johnston on July 9, 2008 for the Comics Kingdom store's recommendations. I've read about 1/3rd of them since I don't read too many superhero series any more ... can't take the long, drawn-out storylines or the multi-book crossovers.

July 20: Lost Ones booksigning with Panter and Niles

Steve Niles and Gary Panter will be signing their new graphic novel, The Lost Ones, at Big Planet Comics in Bethesda on July 20th at 2-4 pm. The book, from Microsoft's Zune Arts, will be given away for free!

I'll be there as well. Anybody else? (Date corrected per Our Man Thompson)

Robots exhibit in Baltimore

This little ad at the bottom of an edition of the Examiner led me to Port Discovery, Baltimore's children's museum and the traveling exhibit based on the cartoon Robots which is there from May 24-September 8. Here's their description:

Robots: The Interactive Exhibition is a one-of-a-kind exhibit that features characters from the blockbuster movie "ROBOTS." Each of the characters introduces children to the exciting and wondrous world of robotics through more than 15 interactive and hands-on experiences.

Embodying the spirit of technology and imagination, this exhibit is designed to engage, entertain, and enlighten visitors to the ever-changing field of science.

I enjoyed the cartoon, which I don't think did great at the box office. It had design work by William Joyce whom I always like.

Post censors comics again; punning headline writers despair

Gene Weingarten's July 8th chat reveals that the Post once again censored the comics section, this time Breathed's Opus. Weingarten wrote:

And lastly, HERE is Sunday's Opus. No, that's not the one you saw in The Post, which ran a sub. I believe the editors perceived a racial-ethnic insensitivity.

Bad decision. Nothing wrong with that comic. I really liked the real-world "available now" labeling.

A click on the 'censorship' label below will pull up the other examples for you.

Minor comics articles in the NY Times

For the new Batman movie, "Many Movie Theaters Decide to Leave the Bat Signal on Till Dawn," By MICHAEL CIEPLY, New York Times July 9, 2008.

In Internet avatar animation, "Google Introduces a Cartoonlike Method for Talking in Chat Rooms," By BRAD STONE, New York Times July 9, 2008.

Will more become less?

I noticed the above ad in a recent issue of the New Yorker and wondered about it since the two titles weren't familiar. Following the link to this page and doublechecking against Amazon shows that at least 4 of these books are self-published - The Book of Moms, The Book of Dads, The Graduation Collection and Will You Be Mine? I'd rather see more in print of course, but this does highlight a problem with both collecting and bibliography that's accelerating rapidly. It's very unlikely that any of these four books will end up in a library collection for example, unless they're actively sought out. I probably won't buy them as the price is a bit steep - $25 for 100 pages? Or$100 for four slim books?

Andrews McMeel's publishing through Lulu.com leads to the same problems. I can see a return to the earliest days of print when small publishers brought out items and now copies may not exist of their publications...

Big Planet TV commercials on YouTube

Joel sent a link to these a couple of weeks ago. Who knew? There's three of them on YouTube from this May. The note says, "Commercial for Big Planet Comics. Produced & Directed by Paul Nadjmabadi & Angela Ottinger." I don't recognize anyone in #1 at least. Here's #2 and #3. Anybody seen these on tv yet?

Heroescon hangover or holdover or something

Our host at Heroes Con (really Our Man Thompson's as I was the driver and go-fer) Dustin Harbin's just posted a cool blog post and drawing about cartoonists he's met and liked recently. Our Man Thompson is not actual size.

Neat, isn't it?

Washington realtors have a new hero

The real estate multiple listing service, Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc., of Washington launched its own DC-based web superhero.

For details, see "Introducing 'Mr. Is,' an MLS superhero; Comic strip promotes Web site relaunch," Inman News, Thursday, June 26, 2008.

To read the strip Mr. Is, click here. He's even got a backstory!