New Year's Day sale at Big Planet Comics

If you're a Comicsvore* like I am, you didn't get everything comics-related for the holidays that you really, really needed. Big Planet Comics is ready to help. For their January 1 sale, take 20% off everything in the stores. How can you go wrong?



BIG PLANET COMICS
4908 Fairmont Ave.
Bethesda, MD 20814
301-654-6856

BIG PLANET COMICS
3145 Dumbarton St. NW
Washington, DC 20007
202-342-1961

BIG PLANET COMICS
426 Maple Ave. East
Vienna, VA 22180
703-242-9412

BIG PLANET COMICS
7315 Baltimore Ave.
College Park, MD 20740
301-699-0498

*coined to describe me by cartoonist and comics writer Darko Macan

Spirit movie reviews, and some other movie bits

People aren't liking it much.

'The Spirit': Enough Ham To Lay a Great Big Egg
By Carina Chocano
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, December 25, 2008; C05

Returned From the Dead, Ducking Villains and Vixens
By A. O. SCOTT
New York Times December 25, 2008

Movie review: Don't waste money on 'The Spirit'
Peter Hartlaub, Chronicle Pop Culture Critic
Thursday, December 25, 2008
This article appeared on page E - 8 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Except for the Kansas City Star.

‘The Spirit’ review: A dazzling visual style | 3 stars
By JASON HECK
Special to The Kansas City Star December 24 2008

And the Times reported this morning that Watchmen's legal woes continue.

Judge Says Fox Owns Rights to a Warner Movie
By MICHAEL CIEPLY
New York Times December 25, 2008

While the latest Batman movie isn't coming to China.

WB shrouds 'Dark Knight' from Chinese audiences
Associated Press Thu Dec 25, 2008

Can you tell I'm working on the 2008 edition of Film & TV Adaptations of Comics? It should be available in mid-January. Would anyone like to see an expanded bibliography section in the next edition for 2009, one that gives you a lot of citations per film, rather than just one or two key ones? Work on the published edition of the Comics Research Bibliography website should be advanced enough to let me do that, but it'll add dozens of pages and cost more.

Another satisfied Cul de Sac reader

Here's my daughter enjoying her Christmas Cul de Sac book.





And here's Richard's drawing in it.

Drawn! blogger picks Cul de Sac book

Richard's first Cul de Sac collection was number one for the Drawn! blog this year. Of the rest of the picks, I've only read Sempe's Nicholas which everyone should check out. I mean to buy Heatley's book though, based on his New York Times' strips. In part 2, I match tastes much better, Wacky Packages is a cool book and I have Bat-Manga, Ojingogo (signed at SPX), As I See It, and What It Is.

I need the St. Trinian's and the Guy Delisle books.

Drawn! is a good blog that I don't look at often enough - time to add them to the Google Reader feed.

Happy Holidays from ComicsDC!

Comic Riffs fan anecdotes from Stantis and Peirce

See "Fave Fan Anecdotes: 'The Buckets' & 'Big Nate'."

Richard Thompson's fanciful progenitor

Check out Richard's blog for a story of Virginia, Santa Claus and possibly how a thread of talent works through generations.

New Wuerker book!

Librarian Martha Kennedy reports, "Matt Wuerker and Sara Thaves just published Inks Campaign '08, a book of election cartoons, [with] a selection of cartoons by leading cartoonists including 8 Pulitzer Prize winners. Published by The Cartoonist Group, ISBN 0-9773284-4-9. Looks good!"

So, any more details, Matt?

Comic Riffs gets anecdotes from Wilkinson and Johnston

Michael Cavna's got two more today - "Fave Fan Anecdotes: 'For Better or For Worse' & Signe Wilkinson".

Kal's Christmas card and online story

Kal sent this note in today and gave his permission to reproduce his excellent Christmas e-card:

On December 15 The Baltimore based Stoop Storytelling series came to the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall for a Holiday extravaganza. The crowd of 1600 enjoyed an evening of entertaining and compelling stories and music. I was honored to be one of the guest storytellers. I recounted my "Strange and wonderful" relationship with Maryland Governor/Comptroller William Donald Schaefer. You can listen in on the 7 minute story online here: http://www.stoopstorytelling.com/shows/35/storytellers/248

The story is really funny - go listen to it.

Comics Articles in Today's Free Papers UPDATED

And there's an online-only Aqua Teen Hunger Force bit at the Express today - "Hunger Forced: 5 Ridiculous Moments From 'Aqua Teen's' Shake."

Porter, Christopher. 2008.
Noisy, brutal genius: The second season of 'Metalocalypse' is a hilarious headbanger.
[Washington Post] Express (December 23): 17

Greenberg, Rudi. 2008.
Just keeps getting quirkier: The sixth volume of 'Aqua Teen' is as whacked as ever.
[Washington Post] Express (December 23): 15

Associated Press. 2008.
Batman and Japan: In a new book, perfect together.
Washington Examiner (December 23); 18

20-year-old Thompson illos

I was sorting through some clippings I inherited (so to speak), and ran across these two 1987 Thompson drawings from the August 17th Washington Post Health section on humor and health.

OT: Dan Reynolds writes in (updated)

Dan Reynolds wrote in a few minutes ago to complement me on the site and ask why he's not mentioned here. I think it's because he has nothing to do with DC. But I own at least one of his books, Christmas Meltdown, and think I have his Belt Height book too, so heck that's close enough for now given this economy. Go check out his site at Go Comics for his Reynolds Unwrapped panel. As you can see from this cartoon I grabbed from the site, he's topical (and funny, but we're all about topicality here).

Dan wrote in, "I'm in the snowbound regions of Upstate NY. I'm located in what's called a snowbelt area north of Syracuse, NY. I'm published in almost every issue of the Reader's Digest and have been for years... My main gig is in the greeting card business. You may not realize it, but my cards are everywhere...they've appeared on American Greetings cards, but most prominently on Recycled Paper greetings (for18 years) and Papyrus Greetings (with whom I have my own line.

My work is basically in every city in the country. Next time you go into the store to get a card, one that sells RPG or Papyrus, look and you will find.

Also, EVERY year I can almost guarantee you you receive my work in forwarded email during the Thanksgiving and Xmas season. You know those cartoon emails with 5 or 6 cartoons...at least one of them is mine every time. (True! I have) I even receive these from people who don't know they're my work!

Dan's working it hard with a daily email of current comic panels, "For sign up of 365 REYNOLDS UNWRAPPED cartoons for one year, please send $10 cash, check or money order (or if you REALLY want to support keeping me in black ink instead of red, you can throw in a cartoonist tip) to Dan Reynolds, PO BOX 444, Brewerton, NY 13029
or send at least $11 via pay pal using this info: dan@reynoldsunwrapped.com Your daily REYNOLDS UNWRAPPED will commence as soon as received. My web site is: www.reynoldsunwrapped.com"

So there you have it, information about the sadly underexposed world of greeting card cartoonists, and a look at a new business model for cartoons.

I think we might start calling this "Support Your Local Cartoonist." I imagine at least as many people will get that, as get the "Reynolds Unwrapped" title.

There's a Washington Webtoonists group?

Tom Spurgeon had a link to a Washington Webtoonists group. If you guys are still functional, drop me a line please.

Our Man Thompsons coughs up a cover

John Read's Stay Tooned mag, a good collection of interviews at a reasonable price, will feature Our Man Thompson on the cover says the Daily Cartoonist. It will have as well an interview conducted at a secret secure location at HeroesCon (during which I sat at his table and watched crestfallen faces when I explained that I wasn't Richard Thompson, but was in fact several inches taller, and they could have easily told us apart if I hadn't been sitting down. I also claimed he was a black Jamaican Rastafarian that they should look for in the crowd if someone was particularly persistent).

Comic Riffs interviews cartoonists

Cavna mentions one of his anecdotes about being a sports cartoonist, and then gets stories for "Favorite Fan Anecdotes: 'Speed Bump' and 'Sherman's Lagoon'". This is a nice idea, and I've liked all three stories so far. Be sure to read the first comment too.

That Darn Toles ... continued

Balancing the Cartoonist
Washington Post Saturday, December 20, 2008; A15

Dec. 13 Free for All writer Jim Welch proposed that The Post use a conservative cartoonist a couple of times a week.

No need to worry; there are already two alternatives: George F. Will and Charles Krauthammer, both of them harsh in their agenda, sufficiently extremist and frequently sketchy enough to provide more than a balance for Toles.

-- James Oglethorpe

Falls Church

·

I'd like to offer an alternative to Jim Welch's suggestion.

I have no problem with Toles's politics, although I don't share them. What I object to is that he, like Herblock before him, is seldom funny.

I'd prefer a cartoonist who shares your editorial page's political views but presents them in an amusing, sophisticated and light-handed way.

-- Myron Ebell

Cheverly

·

Pay no attention to the letter asking that you not run Tom Toles. He is the best part of the editorial page.

-- Gloria Berg

Arlington

Cul de Sac book inscriptions

Guess what I'm giving out for Christmas this year.









And here's another satisfied reader - my Dad.

OT: Dean Haspiel's NY Times comic about holiday drinking

Dean Haspiel did a cartoon for the New York Times Proof blog - Snow Dope - starring himself. A couple of days ago he wrote an entry for their blog, and then followed that up with a post on his own blog.

Comic Art in today's Washington Post

The Opinion section has what purports to be "The Year in Cartoons." It's not a very good selection.

Steve Brodner illustrates 2009 predictions in the last Sunday Source section, which also presumably means that we won't see Danny Hellman's illustrations in the paper anymore either.

A wire story on Broadway's Shrek musical (sigh) was interesting - "The Star of 'Shrek' Basks in the Green Light," By Kristen A. Lee / Associated Press, Washington Post Sunday, December 21, 2008; M10.

Dave Betancourt's review of "The DC Comics Encyclopedia," Washington Post Sunday, December 21, 2008; Page BW14