Friday, November 26, 2010

PR: Beyond Comics Black Friday to Sunday Sale !



Beyond Comics
Black Friday - Sunday Sale!
Store Hours
 Friday 8am-10pm         Sat 9am-9pm         Sun 12n-6pm


Graphic Novels*
Excludes Recent Arrivals


  25 % OFF



GI Joe
Graphic Novels


  50 % OFF



New Comics*
Excludes Recent Arrivals

  50 % OFF



Back Issues
 In the Bins


  50 % OFF



Back Issues
In the Showcase


  25% OFF



$1 Comics


 25% OFF



Magic the Gathering
Scars of Mirrodin

  $90/box
Limit 1 box/Limited availability



Hero Clix


  25 % OFF



World of Warcraft
CCG

  50 % OFF



DC Universe 6"
Mattel Action Fig.
Excludes Validus Set
  25% OFF



DC Universe 3 1/2"
Mattel Action Fig.

  50 % OFF



Iron Man 2
Action Figures

  50 % OFF



Star Wars Hasbro
Action Figures

  50 % OFF



Star Wars Sideshow
12" Figures

  25 % OFF



Star Wars Statues
By Gentle Giant

25% OFF



Apparel
T-shirts / Hats / Sweatshirts

25% OFF



All Trading Cards

Excludes Box Prices
25% OFF



Monopoly Games


25% OFF



Posters


25% OFF



Simpsons Merchandise

50% OFF




Collectible Figure
Magazines
Marvel/DC/Star Wars/Buffy
30% OFF


Statues
10% OFF
Sideshow Statues
Namor Comiquette
Sabertooth 1/4 Scale
She-Hulk Comiquette
Silver Surfe Comiquette
Iron Man w/flag
Freddy Krueger 1/4
Elektra Comiquette
SW Dagohba Luke 1/4
The Thing 1/4 Scale
The Thing - Movie
SW Speeder Trooper & Bike
SW Speeder Trooper

15% OFF
Sideshow Statues
X-men Dioramas
Star Wars Dioramas

25% OFF
Hard Hero Statues

25% OFF
Bowen Statues
Excludes: Moon Knight, Black Panther, Black Widow, Black Cat, Mestro, Dr. Doom, Grey Hulk, Falcon

25% OFF
Bowen Mini Busts

25% OFF
Diamond Select
Statues & Busts
X-men, Avengers, Etc.

25% OFF
DC Direct Statues
 Excludes: Cover Girls of the DCU Series

25% OFF
DC Direct Busts
 Excludes: Women of the DCU Series

50% OFF
Watchmen Busts

25% OFF
Kotobukiya Statues

25% OFF
These Statues
 300, Belit (Conan), Mandrake,
King Kong Chess Set, V for Vendetta




GI Joe Action Figures
& Sets
50% OFF





Lightsabers
50% OFF



Star Wars Game
Miniatures
50% OFF







Life Size Props
Helmets/Hammers

25% OFF







Alien Statues
25% OFF

















Action FIgures
25% OFF
Marvel Select AF
Excludes Dr Doom, Abomination, & Thing

50
% OFF
Marvel Legends
12" Icons

50% OFF
Star Trek

50% OFF
Bakugan Figures


25% OFF
Spawn Action Figures
New and Old

50% OFF
All Mighty Mugs


50% OFF
Marvel Minimates


50% OFF
Marvel Paperweights


50% OFF
DC Direct 1:6 Figures

50% OFF
DC Direct AF
Excludes Recent Arrivals

25% OFF Mattel
DC Retro Figures
 

25% OFF
007 Barbies


25% OFF
Sideshow Buffy The
VampireS 12" Figures


25% OFF
Sideshow
Lord of the Rings 12" Figures

50% OFF
These Toys
World of Warcraft, Futurama, Stargate, Battlestar Galactica, Heroes,



All sales subject to availability. Sales do not apply to recent arrivals except where noted. Sale prices not applicable to special orders, on hold items or subscriptions. Discounts may not be combined with any other sales or promotions. Certain exclusions apply, see individual stores for details. Subscriber's not in good standing may be excluded from sales as deemed appropriate.

Please visit our stores any time.

Gaithersburg                                       Frederick
Gaithersburg Square                       Route 85
536 North Frederick Ave                  5632 Buckeystown Pike
Gaithersburg, MD 20877                  Frederick, MD 21704
301-668-8202                               (301) 6668-8202



PR: Fantom Comics Thanksgiving Weekend Sale




Fantom Comics - Where there is a comic book for everyone
Perfect way to spend a holiday weekend?
 
Eating turkey.
 
Not working.
 
Reading comics.
 
And Fantom Comics is the perfect store to help you out with that. This weekend (including this Friday,) all hardcovers, trade paperbacks and t-shirts are 20% OFF!
 
That's right! Every single hardcover, trade paperback and tee: 20% OFF!
 
Our selection is, quite frankly, pretty awesome so please, stop by and check us out. BATMAN! BONE! SPIDER-MAN! THE WALKING DEAD! SUPERMAN/MUHAMMAD ALI! SUPERMAN:EARTH ONE!
 
All in stock, all on sale.
 
Yours to be had. So, come on in!
 
And, as a reminder, due to the Thanksgiving Day holiday, next week's new comics will be in-store Thursday instead of the normal Wednesday.
 
BEST!





Union Station - 50 Massachusetts Avenue NE | Washington, DC 20002 | 202-216-9478
www.fantomcomics.com





Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Comicsgirl reviews Party Crashers exhibit

Comicsgirl reviews Arlington's Party Crashers exhibit - I saw the exhibit briefly last Friday on opening night. Anyone want to try to go together? I think it's a show that talking through with others would be interesting.

Also, there's a nice catalogue for only $5.

'Tangled' reviews in local papers

Disney's 'Tangled' is fun for the whole family
 Sally Kline
Washington Examiner: 11/24/10
http://washingtonexaminer.com/entertainment/2010/11/disneys-tangled-fun-whole-family

'Tangled': Disney's take on Rapunzel is as gorgeous as it is engaging
By Ann Hornaday
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
http://www.washingtonpost.com/gog/movies/tangled-in-disney-digital-3d,1158941/critic-review.html
 
Movie Review | 'Tangled'
Back to the Castle, Where It's All About the Hair
By A. O. SCOTT
November 23, 2010
http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/movies/24tangled.html

 

Mark Zaid's “Superheroes in Court!” exhibit featured in alumni mag

Lawyers and Superheroes—Now That's Comical!
—Karen McCally
Rochester Review November–December 2010 Vol. 73, No. 2
http://rochester.edu/pr/Review/V73N2/0504_zaid.html
http://rochester.edu/pr/Review/V73N2/pdf/zaid.pdf


thanks to Jeff R for the tip

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Picture This Press' Lost Art Books get reviews

Joe Procopio's Picture This Press' Lost Art Books have begun getting reviews - from the Hooded Utilitarian on Zim's Cartoons and Caricatures, comic book creator Steve Bissette and Comics Worth Reading.

As someone who's interested in the history of cartooning, I applaud Joe's efforts. Here's the Washington City Paper interview with him.

PR: The 2011 Kal Calendar is here

The new award-winning* fully illustrated 2011 Economist Wall Kalendar is now available to order. At only $15.00 (plus shipping) the Kalendar is a very unique and popular item for the holidays. You can order copies direct from The Economist website:

https://www.economistsubscriptions.com/calnov_2011/?src=/cal_2011&ref=%2Fcal_2011

The Kalendars and other Kal related items will be available for purchase from my website, www.kaltoons.com from December 1, 2010.

Let me know your thoughts about this year's edition!

Best

Kal
Kevin Kallaugher
kaltoons@comcast.net
www.Kaltoons.com

The KAL iPhone App is now available at the iTunes store.

* Voted Most Original Calendar, US and International divisions, and Finalist, Calendar of the Year by the Calendar Marketing Association





Post on Wuerker's Berryman prize and Toy Story 3's Oscar bid

By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Staff Writer
November 23, 2010; C04
 
By Rafer Guzman
Washington Post November 23, 2010; C04

 

Bringing your own stuffing? Cul de Sac and Miss Manners both address the issue in today's Post

Two views on the stuffing dilemna.
 
DEAR MISS MANNERS -- Is it rude to bring your own stuffing because you don't like what the host is serving?

Annie musical in town

Annie, the musical based on Harold Gray's Little Orphan Annie comic strip, is at the Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Rd unitl January 2nd. Call 301-924-3400 or visit www.olneytheatre.org.
 
The Post reviewed the show today -
By Nelson Pressley
Washington Post November 23, 2010; C02

Monday, November 22, 2010

Truitt on Batman

Scott Snyder puts the 'detective' in 'Detective Comics'
By Brian Truitt, USA TODAY November 22 2010
http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/2010-11-22-DetectiveComics_N.htm

Matt Wuerker of Politico wins Berryman Award

100_0384
Matt Wuerker of Politico has won the Berryman Award for political cartooning. The award is from the National Press Foundation. An article on the NPF's website says that Matt beat out Tom Toles of the Post; Daryl Cagle of MSNBC and Jimmy Margulies of the Bergen Record in northern New Jersey. Matt's recently won the Funny Times' Irving Award, the Herblock Foundation's Herblock Award, and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for the past two years. And he's a really nice guy. Here's a Washington City Paper interview with him and audio from a panel he was on this summer at the DC Public Library.

Congratulations, Matt!

Meet a Local Cartoonist: A Chat with Jennifer Zyren Smith

A local webcomics creator speaks with us today -
 
Meet a Local Cartoonist: A Chat with Jennifer Zyren Smith
 
 

Dec 4: DC Anime Club Presents StarBlazers Marathon Press Release

DC Anime Club

Presents

  StarBlazers Marathon

 

On Saturday December 4, 2010 DC Anime Club will be hosting  a Marathon of the Anime classic Star Blazers with special guest voice actress Amy Howard Wilson who is the voice of the character Nova from Star Blazers
at 2:00pm-5:00pm at Martin Luthur King, Jr Memorial Library 901 G St NW Washington, DC 20001 Room A10.


About Star Blazers: Star Blazers is an American animated television series adaptation of the Japanese anime series, Space Battleship Yamato I, II & III ( Uchū Senkan Yamato?). Star Blazers was first broadcast in the United States in 1979. Significantly, it was the first popular English-translated anime that had an over-arching plot and storyline that required the episodes to be shown in order. It dealt with somewhat more mature themes than other productions aimed at the same target audience at the time. As a result, it paved the way for future arc-based, plot-driven anime translations.

About Amy Howard Wilson: Detroit native AMY HOWARD WILSON had the honor of being cast as the voice of Nova (Mori Yuki) in the classic 1970s anime series STAR BLAZERS, Season 1 - The Quest For Iscandar and Season 2 - The Comet Empire. In 1997, after many years of thinking about Star Blazers only as a fond memory, she was delighted to learn that there are fans around the world who still enjoy it. Since 2002, she's been recording and producing audio books; has formed a family friendly, full service audio production company called  studio V.O.I.C..E., and coined a new title CVO (Chief Vocal Officer). Amy recently entered a new joint venture with Writers Exchange E-Publishers - http://www.writers-exchange.com/. Please visit her website - http://www,amysvoices.com/.

 

 

For more information please call (202) 262-2083 visit the DC Anime Club website at http://dcanimeclub.org.

 

 

About DC Anime Club:

DC Anime Club was established in 2003 to introduce and educate people in the Washington, DC area about East Asian culture, through viewing and discussion of Japanese animation (also known as anime) and Japanese comics (manga).

We also work to provide a positive, alternative activity to the youth in the area by exposing them to foreign culture, encouraging artistic expression and creativity, and providing opportunities for participation in community activities and leadership.

DC Anime Club is a 501(c)(3) not for profit organization. Contributions to DC Anime Club are tax deductible to the extent allowable under the law.

DC Anime Club has been featured in many newspapers and publications .

In addition to our bi-weekly meetings, the club holds an Art Show, a Cosplay Party fundraising event, and anime lectures at local schools . Our club works with the Japan Information and Culture Center, Embassy of Japan, Smithsonian Freer Gallery and DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival on their anime screenings. Our Marketing Team has helped promote performances for several Japanese bands such as Puffy Ami Yumi, Pine am, The Slants, The Captains and Ayabie.

DC Anime Club was founded by Chris Wanamaker (President), Jules Chang (former Vice President) and Craig Vaughn (Vice President) on Saturday June 5, 2003. We have a strong membership that continues to grow. 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday, November 20, 2010

PR: November 21 Beyond Comics Pre-Black Friday Sale









Beyond Comics
Pre-Black Friday Sale!

Not looking forward to standing in long lines, arguing with ignorant sales clerks, fighting for open parking spaces, and sweating like Niagara Falls?

As a valued customer of Beyond Comics we wanted to offer you the opportunity to shop at our store and take advantage of prices even better than our Black Friday Discounts.

2 Hours Only!
 Sunday, November 21st 6pm - 8pm

Here Are Some of our Sales Specials!
On the Rack Comics
New Comics
One Month or Older

$1 Each

Action Figures
All Action Figures
One Month or Older

30% OFF

Apparel
Excludes
New Arrivals


50% OFF




Unable to make it to our Pre-Black Friday Sale? Stop by for excellent discounts from Friday November 26th to Sunday November 28th.

Gaithersburg                                       Frederick
Gaithersburg Square                       Route 85
536 North Frederick Ave                  5632 Buckeystown Pike
Gaithersburg, MD 20877                  Frederick, MD 21704
301-668-8202                               (301) 6668-8202

All Sales exclude recent arrivals, on hold merchandise, subscriptions, and special orders.

*Graphic Novel sales does not include Walking Dead graphic novels.

1970s-era Atlas Comics exhibit at Geppi's Museum

Special Atlas Exhibit Slated for GEM
Scoop November 19 2010

I'm sure the only reason for this is the resurrection of the line, which wasn't that interesting in the first place, but the exhibit sounds worth seeing.

Followup to Colleen Doran's editorial on piracy and copyright

The Post's excellent tech columnist Rob Pegoraro explains what the bill that Doran editorialized in favor of actually is:

Congress's latest awful tech-policy idea: the Net-censorship bill
By Rob Pegoraro

Essentially it's a bill to force Internet providers to block traffic to sites accused of piracy, including aggragators of links to scans - like TCJ.Com's Journalista and multiple other comics sites that point out when something rare has gone online.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Another possible area cartoonist?

Masked Military Man Is Superhero for Troops
By THOM SHANKER
November 19, 2010

WASHINGTON — Faster than a fleeting bullet point in an Army briefing slide. Able to leap Pentagon jargon in a single bound. While he's not a classic superhero like the Man of Steel, he's certainly a man of irony. Meet Doctrine Man...

Dembicki's District Comics website

This sounds really cool to me too:

Matt Dembicki writes in:
District Comics is an online comics anthology that will feature stories about the history of Washington, D.C., from its beginnings to contemporary times. The site will be open to the public. We want schools, libraries, comics readers and everyone else to visit the site to read some really cool stories pertaining to the nation's capital. We're currently looking for story pitches. For more info: http://district-comics.blogspot.com/



Matt Dembicki on Inkstuds

Robin McConnell interviews Matt Dembicki
 November 15, 2010 by Inkstuds
http://www.inkstuds.org/?p=3247
http://www.inkstuds.org/wp-content/podcast/101113_Matt_Dembicki.mp3

Matt Dembicki has put together a great comic anthology collecting and adapting First Nations folklore stories called Trickster.

Pearls Before Swine gives stunning call out to Cul de Sac

Pastis likes Richard! He really likes him!
 
Honestly, I can't recall anything similar to this in the comics. Anyone?

Tonight: “Party Crashers” and Comic Book Culture at Arlington Art Center

"Party Crashers" and Comic Book Culture at Arlington Art Center

Posted by Mike Rhode
 
I'm hoping to make it between 7-8 tonight. I think there's a catalogue as well and will try to get details of that for you.

Comicsgirl sums up 'In Between the Panels' panel

In Between the Panels: DC's Emergence on the Graphic Novel Scene

 Nov 18, 2010
 
Now, aren't you sorry you didn't go?

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Comic Riffs on National Cartoonists Society USO trip in Afghanistan

Artists in Afghanistan: Luckovich, Pastis & Keane moved by latest USO Tour
By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs November 18 2010

Nov 19: Party Crashers comic art exhibit opens in Arlington

I wrote up some details of the Party Crashers comic art exhibit for the City Paper.

Smurfs, Human Target and Peanuts in local papers

Macy's has a 1/2 page Smurfs ad in the Post, the Examiner has a wire story on the return of the Human Target tv show which has now lasted longer than any of the comic books -
 
'Human Target' adds characters -- and character
Rob Owen / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Washington Examiner November 18, 2010   , p. 28
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/lifestyle/tv/Fox_s-retooled-_Human-Target_-adds-characters----and-character-1596570-108725999.html
 
- and the Peanuts gang is available again -

Holidays with Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Deluxe Holiday Collection on Blu-Ray
by Express contributor Sarah Anne Hughes
November 18 2010, p. E8
http://www.expressnightout.com/content/2010/11/peanuts-deluxe-holiday-collection-blu-ray-charles-schulz.php

 

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

1969 editorial cartoon still rings true

I've got some old newspapers that I'm clipping the comics out of to send to Michigan State University. Here's John Fischetti's December 6, 1969 cartoon from the Chicago Daily News:



and here it is with one word edited out to make it relevant 40 years later:



Some may argue that you don't need to alter it to make it relevant, but I don't think extending tax cuts for the rich is a 'reform.'

Colleen Doran on piracy at local blog

I'm posting this because it's in a local publication although I don't remotely agree with her conclusion about copyright. Or about DC's Vertigo's financial problems either.

The "real" victims of online piracy
By Colleen Doran
The Hill's Congress Blog 11/17/10

In my opinion, the carriage makers that survived started making cars, not by continuing to make horse carriages. Technology's changed the world and no matter how Draconian you'd like to make copyright law, it isn't going to matter.  As Rob Pegora says in the Post today, apropos of the Beatles and mp3s, "This is a point that often gets overlooked in entertainment circles: The market continues to function even if the logical and rightful supplier of a product refuses to participate. The ease of duplicating and transmitting digital data ensures that somebody else will fill that vacancy.You can mope about the massive copyright infringement that results from this dynamic, but the best way for artists to reverse it is to get into the market themselves."

That's what's happened with comic book publishers and digital comics. As I like to point out, if the current copyright law was retroactive from when it passed, the Spanish-American War would still be in copyright.  Anyone remember that war? No. Because it happened in 1898. On the other hand, Disney, the chief financier of the law, wouldn't have been able to make any of their movies based on Grimm's fairy tales like Snow White or Cinderella because those original tales would have been in copyright when the films were made in the 1940s.

NPR's Weldon also has an opinion on 'Superman vs. Muhammad Ali'

Float Like a Snagriff, Sting Like a Fish-Snake: 'Superman vs. Muhammad Ali'
by Glen Weldon
National Public Radio's Monkey See blog (November 17, 2010)

Tonight: Between the Panels panel - Free!


In Between the Panels: DC's Emergence on the Graphic Novel Scene

http://www.wnba-books.org/wash/events.php#graphicnovel

Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2010, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Busboys & Poets, 5th & K Streets, Washington, DC
Cost: FREE and open to the public!

The Women's National Book Association, DC Chapter will sponsor a panel discussion on the DC graphic novel scene. The panel for the event, to be held at Busboys & Poets , from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., will include Carolyn Belefski, Molly Lawless, Matt Dembicki, and Mike Rhode. The event is free and open to the public.

Carolyn Belefski is the mastermind behind the web comic Curls. She is also one of the creators of several other comic books: Kid Roxy, Black Magic Tales, and The Legettes, and an indefatigable (nightly) poster to her blog, Sketch Before Sleep. Her work has appeared in USA WEEKEND Magazine, The Commonwealth Times, Virginia Living Magazine, Magic Bullet, CROQ Zine, and The Pulse on COMICON.com. Ms. Belefski is a nominee for the Kim Yale Award for Most Talented Newcomer for 2010.

Matt Dembicki is a DC-based cartoonist whose work includes the award-winning nature parable Mr. Big, The Great White Shark Story, Xoc, and The Brewmaster's Castle, about legendary DC brewer Christian Heurich. His latest anthology, Trickster: Native American Tales: A Graphic Collection, has received rave reviews from Booklist, Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal and has been nominated as one of the Young Adult Library Services Association's 2011 Great Graphic Novels for Teens. In addition to his own work, Dembicki also hosts kids' workshops in the DC area and beyond on making comic books.

Molly Lawless, a Boston native, moved to the DC area in 2005. She has self-published mini comics as well as a compilation, Infandum! Ad Infinitum. She is currently working on a full-length graphic novel for McFarland Publishing titled Hit by Pitch. She is an avid blogger and includes stories about her family in her daily posts.

Mike Rhode, panel moderator, is co-author of the comics research bibliography, editor of Exhibition and Media Reviews for the International Journal of Comic Art, and a contributing writer for Hogan's Alley. In 2008, he was named Best (Comics) Art Blogger by the Washington City Paper for his Comics DC blog. Rhode edited Harvey Pekar: Conversations, a book of interviews with the late underground comic book writer and author of American Splendor published by the University Press of Mississippi. He has written for the Comics Journal and was selected as an RFK Journalism Awards judge for the editorial cartoon division of Comics Journal in 2009 and 2010. Rhode currently writes about comics for the City Paper.

This event is FREE and open to the public!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Brad Meltzer geeks out

Brad Meltzer, the formerly local comics writer, forever outs himself in "Why ‘Superman vs Muhammad Ali’ is still the greatest"

My friend Comics Professor Hatfield justifies his life...


...on YouTube no less! "Interesting Classes CSUN English 333 Comics and Graphic Novels with Prof. Charles Hatfield" - I'd take that.

Charles used to be in DC every year with ICAF and we'd hang around - the above is me, Claire, Charles and Spanish comics scholar Ana Merino, in October 2005, post-ICAF, lounging in my backyard.

Tomorrow: In Between the Panels - free!


In Between the Panels: DC's Emergence on the Graphic Novel Scene

http://www.wnba-books.org/wash/events.php#graphicnovel

Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2010, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Busboys & Poets, 5th & K Streets, Washington, DC
Cost: FREE and open to the public!

The Women's National Book Association, DC Chapter will sponsor a panel discussion on the DC graphic novel scene. The panel for the event, to be held at Busboys & Poets , from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., will include Carolyn Belefski, Molly Lawless, Matt Dembicki, and Mike Rhode. The event is free and open to the public.

Carolyn Belefski is the mastermind behind the web comic Curls. She is also one of the creators of several other comic books: Kid Roxy, Black Magic Tales, and The Legettes, and an indefatigable (nightly) poster to her blog, Sketch Before Sleep. Her work has appeared in USA WEEKEND Magazine, The Commonwealth Times, Virginia Living Magazine, Magic Bullet, CROQ Zine, and The Pulse on COMICON.com. Ms. Belefski is a nominee for the Kim Yale Award for Most Talented Newcomer for 2010.

Matt Dembicki is a DC-based cartoonist whose work includes the award-winning nature parable Mr. Big, The Great White Shark Story, Xoc, and The Brewmaster's Castle, about legendary DC brewer Christian Heurich. His latest anthology, Trickster: Native American Tales: A Graphic Collection, has received rave reviews from Booklist, Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal and has been nominated as one of the Young Adult Library Services Association's 2011 Great Graphic Novels for Teens. In addition to his own work, Dembicki also hosts kids' workshops in the DC area and beyond on making comic books.

Molly Lawless, a Boston native, moved to the DC area in 2005. She has self-published mini comics as well as a compilation, Infandum! Ad Infinitum. She is currently working on a full-length graphic novel for McFarland Publishing titled Hit by Pitch. She is an avid blogger and includes stories about her family in her daily posts.

Mike Rhode, panel moderator, is co-author of the comics research bibliography, editor of Exhibition and Media Reviews for the International Journal of Comic Art, and a contributing writer for Hogan's Alley. In 2008, he was named Best (Comics) Art Blogger by the Washington City Paper for his Comics DC blog. Rhode edited Harvey Pekar: Conversations, a book of interviews with the late underground comic book writer and author of American Splendor published by the University Press of Mississippi. He has written for the Comics Journal and was selected as an RFK Journalism Awards judge for the editorial cartoon division of Comics Journal in 2009 and 2010. Rhode currently writes about comics for the City Paper.

This event is FREE and open to the public!

Monday, November 15, 2010

Nov 19: Party Crashers exhibit opens in Arlington

PARTY CRASHERS:

COMIC CULTURE INVADES THE ART WORLD

NOV 19, 2010 – JAN 16, 2011

Rosaire Appel - Victor Kerlow

Rina Ayuyang - Blaise Larmee

Derik Badman - Andrei Molotiu

Gabrielle Bell - Robert Pruitt

Jeffrey Brown - Jim Rugg

Joshua Cotter - Dash Shaw

Warren Craghead III - Deb Sokolow

Anton Kannemeyer - Olav Westphalen

OPENING RECEPTION:

November 19, 7 – 9pm

THE SHOW:

PARTY CRASHERS mashes up comic art and contemporary gallery culture, and features artists who pass back and forth between the two worlds. This massive two venue show results from a crosstown collaboration between AAC Director of Exhibitions Jeffry Cudlin and Artisphere Gallery Director Cynthia Connolly. The show's two independent halves feature different types of work: Connolly's show presents fine artists who mimic the appearance of comic art; Cudlin's show at AAC contains:

alternative comic artists who also show their original pages and drawings in art galleries

fine and comic artists working side-by-side on a national curated project (Creative Time Comics)

fine and comic artists creating avante-garde, purely abstract sequential art without words or recognizeable imagery

THE BACKGROUND:

In the late 1960s, Andy Warhol, Pop Art, and Fluxus caused a radical shift in what could be shown in galleries or museums—art went from being rarefied, academic and anti-literary to embracing narrative, mass media, and the stuff of everyday life.

Yet the underground comics that began to emerge at that same time were arguably more transgressive and more influential on a subsequent generation of fine artists than any gallery or museum show.

Now MFA students are as likely to be influenced by comics as by art history. In addition, many comic artists also show their original drawings in galleries alongside contemporary painters, sculptors, and photographers.

THE ARTISTS:

Philadelphia artist Jim Rugg's Afrodisiac refers to '70s blaxploitation and mimics the look of aging pop artifacts—each page features simulated yellowing and tattered edges. Rugg uses comic tropes in unexpected ways: advancing a narrative through fragments, covers for nonexistent stories, or sketched, incomplete splash pages.
London-born, NY-based
Gabrielle Bell is known for her confessional autobiographical mini-comic, Lucky, which documents her life as a struggling twenty-something artist in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Her style is decidedly unironic and disarmingly direct.
 
Chicago artist Deb Sokolow contributed to Creative Time Comics. In her art, viewers must follow directional arrows through tangles of drawings and diagrams that describing outlandish conspiracy theories concerning pop culture, politics, and the artist's own neighborhood.

Philadelphia's Derik Badman is a critic, librarian, and comic artist, who transforms found texts, images, and even other comics to acheive unexpected results.

Chicago artist Robert Pruitt, another Creative Time Comics participant, creates large afro-futurist drawings in which isolated black figures are shown wearing the trappings of superhero and science fiction culture—as well as references to avante-garde early 20th century European art.

New York artist Victor Kerlow not only creates surreal stories that bridge the gap between urban ennui and paranoid fantasy, but also observes his environment with a reporter's eye, making energetic line drawings of the city in which he lives and places to which he has traveled.

Portland, Oregon artist Blaise Larmee creates washed-out black-and-white worlds populated by childlike young adults. His current book, Young Lions, highlights the artist's fascination with 'zine culture, bohemian lifestyles, and Yoko Ono. (Larmee also designed and illustrated the PARTY CRASHERS catalogue.)

Charlottesville, VA artist Warren Craghead III creates drawings, collages, books, and mail art inspired by his everyday life experiences. Craghead's stories are free associative and decidedly nonlinear.

Capetown, South Africa-based artist Anton Kannemeyer (aka Joe Dog) creates potent, troubling drawings that explore the legacy of Western colonialism in his home country; the hypocrisy and racism hiding beneath the surface of white society; and the corruption of South Africa's political elite.

Chicago artist Jeffrey Brown draws gently humorous autobiographical pieces, exploring not only the author's experiences with fantasy and comic culture, but also his relationships with his own wife and son. Brown was also featured in the Creative Time Comics series.

New York artist Dash Shaw pairs a powerful, reductive drawing style with sprawling, convoluted narratives. His latest book, Body World, follows botanist Professor Panther's encounters with a strange new psychedelic drug that threatens to turn humanity into a single hive mind, open to alien influences.

New York artist Rosaire Appel creates books and sequential images with asemic writing—a wordless form of writing that often resembles pictograms or reflects the mechanical act of producing text.

Bloomington, Indiana-based artist and scholar Andrei Molotiu is the editor of the award-winning Abstract Comics anthology. Molotiu offers digital animations, abstract comic drawings, and a catalogue essay about the uneasy relationships between comics, literature, and contemporary art in the present tense.

Oakland, California based Rina Ayuyang's Whirlwind Wonderland follows the daily life of a Filipino American girl, navigating, in the artist's words: "sleepy suburban sprawls, empty diners, fantasy-filled commuter traffic jams, misplaced football fanaticism, ethnic identity crash courses, and just good ole family hi-jinx."

Chicago artist Joshua Cotter's latest book, Driven by Lemons, is a sprawling sketchbook packed with ideas, story fragments, and intricate abstract exercises, all struggling against the boundaries of the comic form.

Hamburg, born, New York based artist Olav Westphalen uses the conventions of comics and caricatures to challenge the traditional baggage of fine art, creating outsized (and outlandish) sculptures, drawings, and performances. Westphalen was also featured in the Creative Time Comics series.

Founded in 1974, the AAC is primarily dedicated to supporting new work by contemporary artists in the Mid-Atlantic region. Located in the historic Maury School building, 3550 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, it mounts five exhibitions of contemporary art per year, rents studio spaces, and conducts educational programs for students of all ages. Normal public hours are Wednesday through Friday from 1 pm to 7 pm, and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5pm. For more information, call 703.248.6800 or visit www.findyourartist.org

Meet a Local Cartoonist: A Chat With Molly Lawless

Now up at the City Paper -

Meet a Local Cartoonist: A Chat With Molly Lawless

 
 
"As far as comic artists, the first one I really got into was Dan Clowes. I saw his work and it really resonated—it has that perfect combo of rational realism and absurdity that I love."

'Tangled' wire story in today's Express

Disney's next animated movie 'Tangled' is the subject of a wire story in today's Express.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Donna Lewis' Reply All comic strip launches

Washington continues to be an incubator for comics strips, and they're not coming from the University of Maryland's Diamondback (Liberty Meadows, Boondocks, Watch Your Head) all the time now.

Local cartoonist Donna Lewis' Reply All comic strip will launch soon from the Washington Post Writer's Group. The strip is described as "Reply All is about those moments in today's information-overloaded environment when you forget your adult-self and toss the megaphone to your fifth-grade inner child. The strip explores the value of honesty, the power of knowledge and the impact of a bad-hair day on one's self-perception." It launches on February 28. Donna recently told me that she's reworking her earlier webcomics because she thinks her art has improved.

Congratulations, Donna! My interview with her quoted in the PR is here.

New Trickster review online (again)

Graphic Youth: Trickster by Rich Kreiner, TCJ.com November 12th, 2010

Richard Thompson interview

There's a Richard Thompson interview embedded in this press release -

Web and Mobile Content Platform also Acquires First-Run Rights to Previously Unpublished Interviews with Today's Most Renowned Animators
NEW YORK & LONDON, November 11, 2010 | SHOOT Publicity Wire

which leads you to 'Gifted but not talented' and 'Frankenstein Monsters' and 'Cross-hatching' and 'Venn Diagrams' and 'High Point of Invention' and 'Meet the Otterloops' as well as a bunch of adaptations of Cul de Sac strips.

Groening and Panter curate exhibit in Baltimore

Matt Groening and Gary Panter worked on an exhibit for Baltimore's Visionary Art Museum-
 
By Robert DiGiacomo
Washington Post November 12, 2010; T25

 

Xavier Xerexes reviews 2 books

Two All Ages Comics: Guinea PI and Adventures in Cartooning

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Pekar on NPR

There won't be new interviews with Harvey to print out and put in your copy of Harvey Pekar: Conversations, but here's another NPR piece on him.

Conan, Neal.  2010.
Harvey Pekar: Chronicler Of America's Everyman.
National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation (November 10)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131220021&ft=1&f=1008
http://public.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/totn/2010/11/20101110_totn_02.mp3?dl=1
http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=131220021

LaSalle's Legacy, local webcomic

Jennifer Z Smith wrote in to tell me about her webcomic - "It's a manga-inspired fantasy graphic novel entitled "LaSalle's Legacy"

I've only just started looking at it, but the strip looks like fun with nice clean art. Check it out.

Comic Riffs on latest editorial cartoon layoffs

Pink-slipping the Pulitzer: Editorial cartoonists are cut in Election Day's wake
By Michael Cavna
Comic Riffs November 11 2010

Matt Davies and Marshall Ramsey - Davies won the Herblock award a couple of years ago.

TONIGHT: Meet a Local Cartoonist - Nick Galifianakis

You can meet him tonight in Falls Church and you can read an interview beforehand -

Meet a Local Cartoonist: A Chat With Nick Galifianakis

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Cohen and Dembicki visit site of their graphic story

Matt Dembicki and Andrew Cohen got invited to the Heurich Mansion's annual gala due to their comic book The Brewmaster's Castle and Matt's got the story on his blog.

Guarnaccia in the Post

Not the Picasso painting, but humorous illustrator Steve Guarnaccia is in the Post's Food section today. He's one of the greats that we don't see as often in Washington publications.