Xavier Xerexes pulls together a webcomics roundtable

Arlington's Xaviar has an all-star lineup talking about webcomics here -

The ComixTalk 2010 Roundtable
 by Xaviar Xerexes on December 16, 2010
http://comixtalk.com/comixtalk_2010_roundtable

Cartoonists Rights Network on Malaysia's Zunar

The Cartoonists Rights Network, based in suburban Northern Virginia, has issued a letter on Malaysia's Zunar and his problems with censorship.

Comic Riffs on Bob Mankoff and the New Yorker

'Riffs Best Books of 2010: THE NEW YORKER's Bob Mankoff offers a comic window into the year
By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog December 16 2010
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/comic-riffs/2010/12/the_new_yorker.html#more

New Disney animator Jocelyn Cofer is from PG County

A fairy-tale job: Prince George's native draws for Disney movie
By Liz Skalski
The Gazette Thursday, December 16, 2010; T15
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/14/AR2010121407277.html

Dec 29: Politics and Prose bookgroup meeting

Wednesday, December 29, 7:30 p.m.
Graphic Novel Bookgroup
The group is meeting the fifth Wednesday due to the holiday.
Black Hole, by Charles Burns

Wednesday, January 26 selection: City of Glass, by Paul Auster; adapted by Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli

Politico blog on Sarah Palin comic book

There's not much too it, but for the record, here's Politico's Click blog on the second Sarah Palin comic book - because one was not enough.

Warren Bernard on the International Manga Museum in Kyoto

One of the nice things about going overseas is seeing how much more other countries respect comics than we do in the United States. Though indeed we invented many elements of the medium, we still are far behind our international counterparts in giving comics and cartooning their due in a museum environment.



I was in Kyoto, and decided to take a half day off from seeing amazing Japanese gardens and Zen Buddhist temples to go through the International Manga Museum that was conveniently a six-block walk form my hotel. A true happy accident of planning.



The museum is housed in the Tatsuike Primary School that was built in the late 1860s, when downtown Kyoto began to see a population explosion that required a number of schools be built to handle all the new students. Like America's classic central-city population migration to the suburbs, by the 1990's the school, along with many others, was closed. After having the property lie dormant and vacant, a partnership between the City of Kyoto and the Kyoto Seika University had the school renovated and made into a museum. They have kept two rooms as a museum to the school itself. One had portraits of all the principals that ran the school from inception -- a hard looking bunch if there ever was one.



This museum is in many ways very different from the Tintin Museum in Brussels or the Cartoon Museum in London. One of the main draws of the IMM is the availability of a library of over 50,000 volumes of manga that one can read there, although not take home as in a traditional library. I saw many people there who paid the admission of 500 yen (about $6.25) just to come and read. They were camped out, reading away, in the hallways of the old school or on the main floor at large picnic tables near the main entrance.


The Museum had a very small section of translated material from France, Germany and the United States, which you could also sit and read. But my Japanese is not that good (OK, it's non-existent...) and I already owned all the translated American material so I went to look around.







The manga volumes were stacked in floor to ceiling book cases, some of these reaching over 12 feet high. Computer kiosks were throughout the museum to help you locate a specific book in the densely-packed shelves. The manga were mainly grouped by styles, but in one section that appeared to be in the old gymnasium, they were grouped by decade.





Also in this old gymnasium was the main series of displays that showed the evolution of manga. It is a nice showcase as to the tools and techniques used by the manga artists. I had no idea that Japanese versions of Puck, the American political humor magazine from the 19th-early 20th century, had copycat versions in Tokyo, Yokahama and Osaka. That being said, this museum's view of history was about the development of manga, especially the explosion of it after World War Two. No Little Nemo, Superman or Marvel Superheroes are in this place.



There were three other exhibition areas, of one which had a great exhibit about French cartoonists doing stories about The Louvre. This was apparently the first exhibit they have hosted at the IMM from France and was looked at as introducing French "bande dessinee" to Japanese manga fans. These main exhibition areas were all in both English and Japanese, as were all exhibits I saw there.



But the best part of the trip there? I got the last Astro Boy mug they had in stock.

The next time you're in Kyoto, stop into the International Manga Museum and take a look around. You'll think, just as you wonder about the Japanese shinkensen (bullet train) and their mass transportation system in general, "hey, why don't we have one of these?"

Kal Draws Bill Clinton

Kevin Kallaugher of Baltimore writes in

I have just posted a video and sketches from the recent "World in 2011 Festival" in NYC where I was the official artist. Guests included  Bill Clinton, Commander of the US Navy Admiral Roughead, Celebrity Chef Jose Andres  and Grammy award winning artist Loudon Wainwright III.

You can view them here: http://www.kaltoons.com/wordpress/2010/12/sketches-from-the-world-in-2011-festival/


Kal
Kevin Kallaugher
kal@kaltoons.com
www.Kaltoons.com
The KAL iPhone App is now available at the iTunes store.


and to bring it all back home, while Clinton was a famous person in Washington, Jose Andres (pictured above) lives here and started his restaurant empire with the excellent Jaleos, featuring Spanish tapas.

Weldon's Christmas book recommendations

$683 of great reading!

The Nerds' Noel: Ten Great Gifts for the Picky Comics Lovers on Your List

by Glen Weldon

December 15, 2010

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2010/12/15/132050957/the-nerds-noel-ten-great-gifts-for-the-picky-comics-lovers-on-your-list

Party Crashers artist interviews on the web

Here's a couple of new interviews with people featured in the Party Crashers exhibit in Arlington -

 

Jamar Nicholas -

 

Local artist brings graphic life to Canada's history of violence
By ASHLEY HUBER
Philadelphia Daily News December 14 2010
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/features/20101214_Local_artist_brings_graphic_life_to_Canada_s_history_of_violence.html

-and-

Comics 'n Things: An interview with Gabrielle Bell
by Ariel Schrag
December 13, 2010
http://www.afterellen.com/column/comics-n-things-2?page=0,0

Comic Riffs tracks down Yogi animator

The 'Riffs Interview: Animator surprised by virality of his 'BOO BOO KILLS YOGI' video
By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog December 14 2010
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/comic-riffs/2010/12/yogi_1.html

More pictures from modelmaker David Wilson

Here's some more pictures from David Wilson that didn't fit into the City Paper interview - Meet a Local Model Maker: A Chat with David Wilson

Annie's Annie profiled in today's Post UPDATED

The Kid's Post page is on Annie's Annie, Caitlin Deerin in today's Post. Thanks to Suze Eaton, check here and here.

Meet a Local Model Maker: David Wilson now at City Paper

Meet a Local Model Maker: A Chat with David Wilson
Posted by Mike Rhode
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/visual-arts/2010/12/14/meet-a-local-model-maker-a-chat-with-david-wilson/

I ran into Mr. Wilson at the Capicon comic book show a couple of weeks
ago and was struck by the amount of work he puts into making his
superhero models.

Dylan Horrocks on the real meaning of copyright

It's not quite as seasonal as the real meaning of Christmas, but ace New Zealand cartoonist Dylan Horrocks has an excellent article on the real meaning (and dangers) of copyright online now.

Jan 6: Political Cartoons of the Civil War and Their Role in Shaping History

Here's a tip from Warren Bernard. This is apparently a National Archives event and hopefully will be free, but it's not on their calendar yet. Thursday, January 6, at 7 p.m. Presented at the Newseum's Walter and Leonore Annenberg Theater 555 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. Washington, D.C. Political Cartoons of the Civil War and Their Role in Shaping History How do political cartoons from the Civil War era reveal what Americans thought about the war and how they participated in the politics of the day? Join us for an illustrated discussion focusing on political cartoons—whether humorous, clever, or scathing—and their role in providing insight into the economic, political and moral issues surrounding the Civil War. Featured will be both Union and Confederate political cartoons. Moderated by Harold Holzer, co-author of The Lincoln Image: Abraham Lincoln and Popular Print, panelists include Joshua Brown, author of Beyond the Lines: Pictorial Reporting, Everyday Life, and the Crisis of Gilded Age America, John Adler, who compiled for the online resource HarpWeek, Illustrated Civil War Newspapers and Magazines, and Richard West, co-author of William Newman: A Victorian Cartoonist in London and New York. The National Archives Experience is pleased to present tonight's program in partnership with the Newseum.

Comic Riffs interviews Ward Sutton

PARODY OF THE DAY: The story behind 'How WikiLeaks Stole Christmas'
By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog December 13 2010

Sutton's one of my favorite cartoonists - we need a collection of his work. He's done strips for TV Guide, and cartoon book reviews for Barnes and Noble's website...

Dec 14: Richard Thompson signing at Big Planet Comics

Richard Thompson will be at Big Planet Comics Bethesda on December 14th. That's tomorrow! He'll also be in Northern Virginia at a new bookstore on December 20th at 7 pm.

Yogi Bear wirestory in today's Express

There's Yogi Bear wirestory in today's Express, interviewing Dan Ackroyd about voicing Yogi.

Local Comic Book Writer Rob Anderson interview online at City Paper

Meet a Local Comic Book Writer: A Chat with Rob Anderson

Posted by Mike Rhode on Dec. 13, 2010

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/books/2010/12/13/meet-a-local-comic-book-writer-a-chat-with-rob-anderson/