Howzit Funnies: 'Love Is a Seed'

He missed Valentine's Day, but Andrew Cohen has posted online a nice little twisted ditty called "Love Is a Seed" as part of his Howzit Comics.

Click on image for the four-page comic

Q&A: Terry Flippo on 'Axel and Alex'

by Matt Dembicki
 
Terry Flippo has been on the small-press comics scene for years. The Mount Airy, Md.,  native is a staple at shows such as the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Md., and the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo in Columbus, Ohio, and he’s been a member of several comics collectives, including the now-defunct United Fanzine Organization (which included David Hedgecock, who is now a managing editor at IDW Publishing, and even Frank Miller when he was in high school.) 

Recently, Terry has revamped his well-regarded kids comic Axel & Alex by redesigning the characters as well as his approach to writing and drawing the stories. We’ve asked Terry a few questions and that.

You've been making self-published comics for a long time, and 'Axel and Alex' was one of your staples. Why did you return to the characters?

Axel and Alex was originally conceived as an ongoing action/adventure comic book series.  (This was in the days before webcomics were an option.)  The art and storytelling style was as close to mainstream superhero comics as I could manage. Axel (the robot) was 10-feet tall and built like a tank. Alex (the boy) was maybe 12 or 13 years old. Owing to the comic book format, the narratives were long-form and very plot driven. 

After ending Axel and Alex 1.0, I worked for a few years on an autobiographical humor series (FL!PPED).  With the emergence of the webcomics scene, I decided to try my hand at a comic strip.  As a long time fan of Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbes, I looked forward to working in the short-form comic strip arena. It was then that I decided to revisit Axel and Alex, albeit in a way that I wasn't able to in the action/adventure genre. I quickly decided the standard four-panel newspaper strip format was too restrictive, so Axel and Alex morphed into (ironically) comic-book page format. This freed me up to employ better page designs and camera angles. I like to think of Axel and Alex as "the comic strip that reads like a comic book."

In the new version of A&A, you redesigned the characters. Why?

The main reason for the re-design was the change in storytelling tone, going from over-the-top action to quiet humor. I wanted to make Alex a little younger, and perhaps a little more innocent. As for Axel, I wanted him to appear much more like a home-made robot (which he is!). The joke is Alex thought he was ordering this kick-ass destructo-bot, which is every kid's fantasy (or was it just mine?), and he ends up with this timid bucket of bolts!

You have also taken to the internet--namely, Facebook--to post individual pages as you complete them. Has this changed you approach to making comics? I remember you were wondering whether each installment should be a stand-alone type story or part of a serial story.

Axel and Alex ended up on Facebook by necessity. I didn't know how to design a webpage and was too busy working on the strip to learn how. Kind of a Catch-22! I don't think the delivery method (Facebook) has changed my approach as much as the format change has.  What facebook has given me is a more mainstream (as opposed to comic book fan) based audience. The majority of my readers have probably never read a superhero comic book, yet most all are familiar with the Sunday funnies.  Facebook also offers a form of immediate feedback. Putting out a couple comic books a year is a lot different than posting a new strip twice a week (Sundays and Wednesdays, Friend me!) Creating comics is such a time-consuming solitary pursuit that it's wonderful to receive feedback and encouragement on a regular basis. If you like someone's work, tell them!

As to the stand-alone versus serial narrative debate, I recently put the question to my readers. While a few expressed a preference, the majority enjoyed mixing it up. Even so, I try to make each strip a little story unto itself, even if it is part of a longer narrative. Bill Watterson did this amazingly well with Calvin and Hobbes.

Completing 120-plus pages in such a short amount a time is a herculean feat, especially when you're not doing it full time. Can you briefly walk us through your schedule of making the comic? Do you set aside time each day to do it? Or do you fit in working on it when you can?

I suppose for a guy with a full-time job and a family (Hi Janet, Amanda, and Zach!) I could be considered prolific, I don't know. I think anyone who does comics on the side has to learn how to juggle responsibilities. I'm a little maniacal about putting the time in. So many people you meet have "this great idea for a comic strip," or have a portfolio full of character designs, but it really comes down to sitting down at the drawing board and doing it. At some point, you have to stop talking about it and just do it!

Personally, I like to draw in the morning before work. I'm up every day, 365, between 5 a.m. and 5:30 a.m., working on the strip. Everyone else is asleep so there are no distractions and I don't feel as though I'm missing any family time. It doesn't matter when you do it, but if you're serious about cartooning you have to carve out the time.

What plans do you have for A&A? Will you compile this into a printed book?

Axel and Alex will keep chugging along as long as I'm still having fun doing it. My characters are my avatars on the page. Each one represents an aspect of my personality and worldview. So basically anything I have to say gets filtered through them. I want the strip to entertain foremost, whether it makes the reader chuckle, think, or merely reflect. I like my characters and I want to know what happens to them next. That's the fun part!  Of course, reaching a wider audience would also be a dream come true.

As far as publishing goes, I'd love love love for a publisher to make me an offer. Writing and drawing is quite time-consuming, so it would be a godsend to have someone to handle the publishing end. Hear that, all you publishers out there?! Until then I'll probably continue to put out the 40-page digest-size collections. The books are $5 each and come with a free sketch on the back cover. Just contact me at jmflip4@verizon.net. There are currently two books, with a third on the way! 

I'm also looking forward to exhibiting at the Smudge Comics Arts Expo at the Artisphere in Arlingtion, Va., on March 14.

Smithsonian's American History offers an online course on comics history

The Rise of Superheroes and Their Impact On Pop Culture

EXCLUSIVE! When you complete a verified certificate in this course it will feature original artwork with both Stan Lee's and Michael Uslan's signature.

About this Course

Join the Smithsonian, and comic book industry legend Stan Lee, to explore the history of the comic book and the rise of superheroes.

Lumberjanes' Brooke Allen interviewed

Girl Power to the Max: SLJ Chats with the Creators of the "Lumberjanes" Comics

By Shelley Diaz on March 3, 2015

This article was published in School Library Journal's March 2015

http://www.slj.com/2015/03/up-close/girl-power-to-the-max-slj-chats-with-the-creators-of-lumberjanes/

Gareth Hinds at Hooray for Books: "It’s got to be clear and it’s got to be dramatic"

by Mike Rhode
 
Gareth Hinds recently answered my usual interview questions, but a few days later I was lucky enough to attend his 'chalk talk' at Hooray for Books in Old Town Alexandria. With 45 minutes of speaking and drawing, he covered much more ground than the basic interview questions, so I transcribed highlights of the talk, and illustrated it with photographs. (More can be found here).

Hinds’ first graphic novel was a thesis project at Parsons School of Design. It was about a man who made a deal with the devil and wore a bearskin. The story is one of the more obscure Brothers Grimm fairy tales. “I took this fairy tale which is only two pages long in its original form, and did most of the storytelling visually, with very few words in it, and so it ended up being an 80-page graphic novel. I didn't finish it until after I was out of school.” The Xeric Foundation gave him a grant to self-publish Bearskin which came out in 1998. “That was my opportunity to learn how publishing worked, and all the different parts of putting a book out – how to get it ready for press, how to write press releases, how to get distribution and get it in stores…” Hinds then worked in the video game industry for a decade, doing all types of art including character design and 3-D modeling.

His next book was “closer to the mainstream of comics, which is to say the superhero genre, and is about a warrior who has the strength of thirty men and goes around fighting monsters.” That was Beowulf. “When I’m drawing a graphic novel, the first thing I do is sketch it out very rough. I now do these rough drawings digitally, and then I would do a finished drawing with traditional materials. I would transfer my digital drawing onto a piece of watercolor, or other heavy paper and do a finished drawing on top of it.” “I chose to draw Grendel as metallic, because in the story it says he’s immune to weapons, and that’s the reason Beowulf had to wrestle with him and not fight him with a sword. In the battle scene in my book, I have him wearing hand wraps, almost like he’s a boxer getting into the ring.”

Candlewick Press contacted Gareth and expressed interested in reissuing Beowulf and doing his next book. “I had started both King Lear and The Merchant of Venice. Together we decided that I would finish Merchant first for Candlewick; I would self-publish Lear, and they would reissue it later. It was a weird transition, going from self-publishing to having a publisher.” The characters in Merchant "are all based on real people. This book has more of a modern look to it. I decided to set this in modern-day Venice for a couple of reasons. One was so I could draw all the characters and the locations from life. The other reason is because of the anti-Semitism in the play which is a big deal. The bad guy of the story is a Jewish moneylender. I didn't want to gloss over it, and by setting the story in the modern day, it actually throws it into starker relief and makes the readers ask themselves if this is something we’re still dealing with. The particular form of anti-Semitism seen in this play we don’t have quite as much of, but we definitely have high levels of religious intolerance that are still causing problems."

“My King Lear is another visual experiment where I played around with breaking the action out of the panels and letting the characters walk around on the page as if it were a stage. The characters leave little trails and there’s also little trails connecting the balloons so you know what order to read them in. And then those little trails become the wind that becomes the storm.”

“I wanted my Lear to be really, really old. It’s always a question about how old these characters are in these stories. Shakespeare often doesn’t tell you exactly. I decided to make him quite old, but also still very hale. He clearly was a very strong fighter when he was young, and he still thinks of himself that way. He goes around blustering, and occasionally punching people. His costume is almost like a sheet. One of the things I liked was the idea that maybe he is really mad, and all of the action is occurring in his own mind, and maybe he’s an escaped mental patient and this is his hospital gown. I had this idea when I was walking into the subway station and I saw this guy who looked like King Lear, and thought it would be cool if Lear was a homeless guy who was having hallucinations.”

“My Lear is still muscular, but he’s gotten thin and old. I enjoy drawing muscular old men. The younger and prettier a character is, the more difficulty I have drawing. After King Lear, he adapted the Odyssey. “The Odyssey was my favorite classic when I read it in school. As soon as I was done with Beowulf, I planned to do the Odyssey, but it was a major undertaking so I had to wait until the right time. Odysseus is a fascinating character; he’s an awesome hero. He’s strong and smart, and usually wise, but he has some flaws. He’s also an unreliable narrator. He’s telling you the story and you know that he lies. You see him lie all the time. So how much of his story is really true?”

“Most of what armor and clothing survives is from later periods of Greek history, but there’s a lot of vase and pottery paintings and often the paintings are subjects from Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.” While discussing his decision to make Odysseus an ambidextrous archer, Hinds digressed to note, “Right now, I’m working on some illustrations for a non-fiction book about the famous samurai Yoshitsune Minamoto, and in that period samurai primarily fought with bows. I thought there’s an interesting parallel. Minamoto is actually a lot like Odysseus. He’s a warrior who uses his wits just as much as he uses his physical prowess. They’re both master archers. It would be fun to see them both in battle leading armies.”

“My Odysseus is a little older than most people picture him. While I am adapting a text, I spend a lot of time doodling. I’m visually brainstorming. I might draw 20 or 30 different versions of a character, before I decide which one I want. Sometimes I have a definite idea in my head for the main character. I didn’t draw a million versions of Odysseus; I pretty much knew what he looked like. Other times, like Lady Macbeth, I drew lots and lots of versions.”

Romeo and Juliet was a challenge to draw, because all the characters were young and attractive. “This is a good example of character design. Not only was I drawing lots of different versions of the characters, but Shakespeare has been reset and restaged in different time periods and cultures, so I had a lot of options. However, I’m also aware that a lot of my market is teachers and students, and they want some understanding of historical context. I decided I was going to keep this in historical Verona, but I was going to make the characters multicultural and a little more modern. Tybalt has tattoos. Everybody’s wearing boots instead of slippers. The women have their dresses cut at the knee instead of the ankle. There’s a lot of liberties that the young characters are taking with their costumes and the social conventions of the time period.”

“I decide Romeo would be this young, attractive guy who has little dreadlocks. Mercutio has big crazy dreadlocks. Everybody’s got poofy shirts. They’ve got big poofy tops on their pants. Juliet also wears boots which is definitely not something you would have historically seen. She’s got a Renaissance-style sleeve. She’s Indian, he’s African. They’re about the same height.”

When starting a book, “I will start laying out pages. Often the very first spread is a big title page. For Macbeth, I knew right away I wanted to show an island with a castle and water. Next, I started drawing the page where the witches are talking. I might not have finalized the designs and won’t draw any details on the characters. When I used to do this on paper, I drew word balloons with an approximate amount of text. Now digitally, I can see exactly how much room the text takes up which is very important for the dialogue-heavy pages where characters are talking back and forth and I have to make sure the page fits together. I play around with different compositions at this stage. I will draw three or four versions of a page; I might even draw ten versions if I’m having trouble with it. I’ll draw the whole book out in that form and show it to people including my editor. I’ll read it myself over and over, looking for places where I can make it more dramatic or clear. Those are the two main things: it’s got to be clear and it’s got to be dramatic. Those are the things I’m looking for in my rough layouts. Then I draw the finished line art for the whole book. No color, but all the detail. Typically I’ll get another round of feedback before I get color, but sometimes the color helps people see what’s going and identify issues.”

“When the final art is done, it’s scanned and dropped back into the digital page layout program I used for the rough sketches, and then all the panel borders and speech balloons are added digitally on top of the artwork so that everything is nice and clean. More importantly if anything has to change – if a balloon has to be made bigger or smaller because the text changes – that can be done very easily without touching the artwork.”

“I draw a lot out of my head, but sometimes if a pose is tricky, or the drawing isn’t coming together, I will get a reference. Often what that means is that I’ll pose myself, in a mirror or using my webcam. Sometimes if it’s a female character, I might ask my wife to pose, or look for a photo on the web, or get friends to pose as they did for all of Merchant. I don’t go shot for shot with photographs the way Alison Bechdel does; I would say I probably need reference for every third or fourth panel.” Hinds’ wife noted at this point that she came home one day and found him wearing a toga-like dress and posing, but he won’t let her show the photograph.

When it comes to deciding what book to work on, Hinds says, “It’s mostly me. I typically go to the publisher with a couple of options, and they’ll either pick one or ask which one I really want to do. They’ve been pretty good about it, but we’re both concerned about the market. They’ll ask if a book is being taught much. I picked King Lear because it was one of my favorite of Shakespeare’s, but it’s my least successful books, I think because nobody teaches or reads it in high school. Conversely, The Odyssey is my most successful, so we’re always looking for the next success. Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth are arguably the books I should have started with because those are taught all the time. The publisher doesn’t come to me, but I do get a lot of requests from teachers. Generally the publisher has been happy to do the next thing that I want to do. The next project, after the samurai book, is Edgar Allen Poe’s Stories and Poems.”

When asked about all the pre-existing graphic adaptations of Poe, Hinds noted, “I worry about competition if I feel that somebody has done it well for the educational market. I don’t feel that anyone has done Poe well for that market. There’s some pretty good stuff, but it’s mostly black and white, and there’s some silly spins, which is entertaining but is not what teachers are looking for.”

“People often ask me if I’m going to do any original work. Between projects, I take a couple of weeks to a couple of months to write because I like to write and I have ideas for stories. I’m pretty critical of my writing, and like most writers I find that process can be hard and take a while, so I usually decide I need to be drawing. Eventually one of those projects will probably take off.”

When asked if he would illustrate a book written by someone else, he noted that the upcoming samurai book fits that, as an earlier children’s book, Gift from the Gods, done in the style of The Odyssey. “I’m always happy to do more of that in picture books. I don’t know if I would illustrate somebody else’s graphic novel because it so much work that I don’t know if I want to invest that kind of energy. In my ideal world, I would do a picture book in between every graphic novel. That would be a nice break. A graphic novel takes me about a year. The Odyssey is twice as long and took about 20 months.”

Regarding translations, the most recent are copyrighted, so how does he pick which one to use? “For The Odyssey, I was trying to decide which one to use, but I realized I was putting the cart before the horse. I need to start trying to write the script, and as soon as I did that, I realized I would have to completely rewrite it for brevity. I didn’t have to worry about it too much as long as I wasn’t using direct quotes from the translation. For Beowulf, both the translations I used are out of copyright. The first one I chose for my self-published version is by Francis Gummere is very very archaic and I really like it. My publisher Candlewick thought that one was a little hard, and asked if I could find another one. If I had been working on that book after Seamus Heaney’s translation came out, I probably would have tried to get it.”

When asked about writing for the educational market, Hinds said, “It’s kind of just where I landed, but the thing that feels really good is when I hear my book helped somebody get through a work they wouldn’t have otherwise read, and helped them enjoy it. That’s the big thing to me. I enjoyed them when I read them, but I know a lot of people don’t. I want to share the experience of finding the stories to be cool. In a perfect world, I would also would also sell really well in a comics store, which is the world that I came from. But it’s completely different distribution, and aesthetic. Comics purists don’t like typeset books – when I go to comics conventions, I’m this weird animal that’s neither fish nor fowl. I seem to fit more naturally into that young adult and school library marketplace, but that’s not necessarily something I picked.”

The samurai book will be out in February 2016, the Poe book at the end of 2016, and he announced, “I am under contract to do The Illiad after Poe. I’m going to try to keep it to 200 pages but it will be tough. It’ll be tough in any number of ways. I do enjoy drawing battle scenes, but it will be complicated.”

March 15: SuperNoVa Comicons Leesburg Va.

SuperNoVa Comicons is happy to announce our return to Leesburg Virginia on Sunday March 15th from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Over 50 Tables of vendors, artist, small press and special guests.

​​There will be vendors from 4 states offering comic books from Golden, Silver, Bronze and Modern Ages. Comic books for all ages, Non-Sports Cards, Comic Supplies, Gaming Supplies and MORE!!!

Confirmed Guests and Small Press:
Hebb Trimpe
Patrick Block
Shelly Block
Chris Flick
Bill McKay
Dan Nokes
Paste Pot Prefects
Mark Roberts
Top Secret Press

Confirmed Vendors:
All American Comics- Gene Carpenter
Fandata Bargain Comics- Harry Hopkins
Duckys Comics
Timber Grove Traders- Dave Wulf
Philadelphia Comicon- Derek Woywood
Zeno's Books
Black Dog Collectables
Dave Bowen
Tom Jackson
Hero Initiative
Ram Collectables
Anaconda Collectables
Flying Donut Comics- Dan Cusimano
Comic Logic Books and Art- Kevin Bednarz
Untamed Worlds- Chris Garbee
Scott Deane
Pack Cracker- Teddy Antonakos
Everyday Comics- John Rudemaker
Silver Dragon Studios- Thomas Mulvey
Phantom Wolfe Apparel- Ed Richter
Records and Rarities- Ryan Lynch
GameOn Comics
Cards Comics and Collectables- Marc Nathan

We hope you guys/gals will come out and give us a look.

http://www.SuperNovaComicons.com

Comic Riffs on Warren Bernard's alternative newspaper comics exhibit

'Alt-Weekly Comics': From Feiffer to Derf, new exhibit offers a rare retrospective

By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog March 3 2015
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2015/03/03/alt-weekly-comics-from-feiffer-to-derf-new-exhibit-offers-a-rare-retrospective/

Mark Anderson's Andertoons in today's Post

Another Medicare ad is in today's newspaper.

Herblock's awards

A couple of weekends ago, I was lucky enough to spend some time at the Herb Block Foundation's offices. One room there is decorated with Herblock's awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Pulitzer Prize, the Reuben Award, the RFK Journalism Award, and others. Here's some pictures, and more are online here.

STEAM: Caricatures of Notable People in the World of Science, Technology & the Arts By Mike Caplanis

by Steve Loya

Right down the road from me, at the George Washington University Science & Technology Campus in Ashburn, VA is an extraordinary art exhibit taking place featuring the caricature work of Mike Caplanis. Titled "STEAM: Caricatures of Notable People in the World of Science, Technology & the Arts", this show could not be happening at a more appropriate time, as public schools across the country are now starting to focus more and more on the merging of the strengths of science, technology and arts-related curriculums. In fact, next week my own school will have its first "STEAM Week" (formerly STEM, until recently, when the arts began to finally gain recognition as an absolutely valid element in public school programs). Caplanis, whose brilliant and unique take on the caricature genre, has been featured in the Washingon Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Los Angeles Times, the Oxford-American History Magazine, among many others. He also illustrated the book Drawn to the Civil war, which features the biographies and caricatures of Civil War heroes. Seeing some of my own personal heroes illustrated in this exhibit, including the likes of Claude Monet, Orson Welles, Sitting Bull, Bob Marley, Frida Kahlo, Johnny Cash, the members of the Beatles, and many more, made my day. The exhibit, located at Enterprise Hall on the George Washington University Virginia Science & Technology Campus is free and open to the public, and ends on March 30, 2015. 

International Ink: Smallbug Comics, the Avengers and Bone book reviews

It's been months since I've had the time to post any reviews, but some new material has arrived in the mail recently and it's prodded me to start again. I'll try to work my way backwards too, even if it's only a brief mention of the book and my thoughts on it. - Mike Rhode*


Charles Brubaker's minicomics, Smallbug Comics #2 (December 2014) and #5 (March 2015) remind me of the heyday of Harvey Comics. His characters Koko the Witch and her younger brother Jodo would easily fit into Casper the Ghost's world. In #2 Jodo accidentally acquires the Wizard King's crown and proceeds to enjoy all the attention he gets -- until the crown is reported stolen. In #5, Koko and Jodo take an 'enchanted' yet still horrible train ride for a break on their annual day off. Both stories rely heavily on physical humor and sight gags. Brubaker's storytelling is competent -- you can tell what's happening, and the words and text work together (this isn't always true of comics, even from full-time professionals).

Ask a Cat consists of 1-page cartoons from an advice column answered by a cat. They didn't do much for me, but a colleague at lunch laughed out loud at "What should I make for dinner?" and "Meow, meow, meow, meow. Meow?" The appeal of this zine probably depends on your interest in cats on the internet.

I think these minis would be good for teens, especially those interested in DIY comics. Brubaker's websites are www.bakertoons.com and bakertoons.tumblr.com Brubaker also writes on the history of animation at Cartoon Research.

Jeff Smith's Bone: Out from Boneville Tribute Edition (Scholastic Graphix, $15) is a very pretty version of the beginning of the almost classic graphic novel. An insensitive or suspicious reviewer may believe that this edition is an answer to the age-old question of "how to sell yet another version of the book to people who already have it?" I personally have the original comic books, Smith's b&w reprints, Smith's one-volume b&w reprint, and the Scholastic editions with Steve Hamaker's excellent coloring. This 'tribute edition' is for Scholastic's 10th anniversary of publishing the story; the comic books themselves began in the early 1990s. And what's the tribute one may wonder? In addition to a "brand-new illustrated poem by Jeff Smith!" one also gets "minicomics and artwork inspired by Bone, created by 16 bestselling, award-winning artists." The poem features the Rat Creatures and much of the artwork is from Scholastic's stable of cartoonists turned children's book authors. For the record, the sixteen are Kate Beaton, Jeffrey Brown, James Burks, Frank Cammuso, Nathan Fox, Jimmy Gownley, Kazu Kibuishi, Mike Maihack, Scott Morse, Jake Parker, Dav Pilkey, Greg Ruth, Dan Santat, Raina Telgemeier, Doug TenNapel and Craig Thompson. Snark about multiple editions aside, Bone is one of the great comics for youngsters, and this version is a good introduction to the series.



Marvel: The Avengers Vault (Thunder Bay Press, $35) is by noted comic book writer Peter David (who, according to the Grand Comics Database, never actually wrote the Avengers). As a wee lad, my favorite superhero team was the Avengers. I'd been given a copy of Avengers #8, introducing Kang the Conqueror, by a cousin, and I spent the next 25 years buying their comics. I can't really relate to the Avengers-centric Marvel Universe of today, but the movies are well-done and probably a good part of the reason this book exists. And honestly, the kid reading Avengers #8 would have loved this book. The 'Vault' part of the title is "ten collectible pullouts: a Thor poster, concept art for Iron Man, Captain America's Sentinels of Liberty membership card, original art by Jack Kirby, and more - perfect for the superfan's bedroom wall." The text of the book is quick summaries of the histories of the Avengers and its most famous members Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and the Hulk. David does a good job of summarizing almost 50 years of comic book backstory for each chapter, including the major supporting characters, and highlighting Marvel's post-Civil War history. Chapter 6 is a brief look at animated television adaptations, and then there's an appendix of Avengers members which splits into teams such as The Illuminati, the New Avengers, and the Mighty Avengers. It's too much for this aging fan's brain, but a tween who likes comics or the movies should love this book.

*'International Ink' is what Jonathan Fischer, my first editor at the City Paper, titled the column whenever I did book reviews.

Press Release: Kevin Kallaugher is 2015 Herblock Prize winner

For Immediate Release:

WASHINGTON, DC, Monday, March 02, 2015 – Kevin Kallaugher (KAL) has been named the winner of the 2015 Herblock Prize for editorial cartooning.

KAL is the international award winning editorial cartoonist for The Baltimore Sun and The Economist magazine. KAL's work for The Sun and The Economist has appeared in more than 100 publications worldwide, including The International Herald Tribune, The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, The Washington Post, Le Monde and Der Spiegel. His cartoons are distributed worldwide by Cartoonarts International and the New York Times Syndicate.

In a distinguished career that spans more than 36 years, KAL has created over 8,000 cartoons and 140 magazine covers. His work includes acclaimed animations, six collections of his published work, seven international honors and awards, and exhibitions in a dozen countries. Awards he has won include the 2014 Grand Prix for Cartoon of the Year in Europe as presented by Press Cartoon Europe, the 1999, 2002, 2005 and 2014 Thomas Nast Award presented by the Overseas Press Club of America, and the 2002 Berryman award presented by the National Press Foundation.  

The Herblock Prize is awarded annually by The Herb Block Foundation for "distinguished examples of editorial cartooning that exemplify the courageous independent standard set by Herblock." The winner receives a $15,000 after-tax cash prize and a sterling silver Tiffany trophy. KAL will receive the Prize on May 7th in a ceremony held at the Library of Congress. Don Graham, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Graham Holdings Company (formerly The Washington Post Company), will deliver the annual Herblock Lecture at the awards ceremony.

Judges for this year's contest were Jen Sorensen, nationally-published political cartoonist and winner of the 2014 Herblock Prize; Sara W. Duke, curator of Popular and Applied Graphic Art at the Library of Congress; and Michael Rhode, archivist and author, commentator on comics for the Washington City Paper and creator of the ComicsDC blog.

The judges said they "were unanimous in their decision to nominate Kevin Kallaugher, better known to the world as Kal, for the 2015 Herblock Prize.  Kal draws cartoons for both the UK-based Economist magazine and the Sunday Baltimore Sun newspaper. His portfolio reflected his dual editorial cartoonist roles, and impressed the judges with his ability to jump between macro international policy issues to Baltimore mayor's stonewalling about the accuracy of its speed cameras. Like Herblock, KAL is a committed defender of civil liberties. His full-page cartoon on Edward Snowden is a minor masterpiece. His artwork, still traditional ink on paper, remains strong in his fourth decade of cartooning. He is a master of caricature. Whether single panel, circular, or multi-panel, his cartoons are clear, thoughtful, forceful and in the best tradition of Herblock."

Mike Luckovich, the editorial cartoonist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, was named this year's finalist and will receive a $5,000 after-tax cash prize.  The judges said "His sharp and witty cartoons on Ferguson, Missouri as well as torture, the Koch brothers, and legal attacks on the Affordable Care Act, stood out."

The Herb Block Foundation seeks to further the recognition and support of editorial cartooning: www.HerblockFoundation.org   

-by Sarah Alex

March 28: Anime at the Freer Gallery

Cherry Blossom Anime: Shinji Aramaki in Person!
Saturday, March 28
Freer, Meyer Auditorium
Both films are followed by a Q&A with director Shinji Aramaki and are cosponsored by Otakorp, Inc.

Harlock: Space Pirate (3D screening!)
11 am
Inspired by a wildly popular 1970s television series, Harlock: Space Pirate is a 3D sci-fi adventure with eye-popping CGI effects.

Appleseed: Alpha
3 pm
A female soldier and her cyborg partner roam a World War III-ravaged New York in search of the legendary city of Olympus—mankind's last hope.

Jim Gutierrez and Undead Presidents

by Mike Rhode
 
Jim Gutierrez is graphic designer from Texas who's a recent graduate of UDC. One of his professors, the cartoonist Teresa Logan, put me in touch with him and he answered my usual interview questions.

What type of comic work or cartooning do you do?

The work I do is mostly panels and it usually involves zombies. I love the undead!

How do you do it? Traditional pen and ink, computer or a combination?

I usually work in traditional pen and ink and I do my coloring digitally. It saves me so much time.

When (within a decade is fine) and where were you born?

I was born in 1976 in LaMesa, Texas, but I was raised in the Rio Grande Valley.

Why are you in Washington now?  What neighborhood or area do you live in?

I was attending school for Graphic Design. I currently live in Cleveland Park.

What is your training and/or education in cartooning?

Well, like most cartoonists I know, I've been drawing since I was a child. I later took art classes from middle school all through high school. I would often draw comic books with my friend Renning. I later studied graphic design at UDC and that's where my passion for illustration broke wide open. I took an illustration techniques class with Teresa Logan and she helped to bring out the best in me.

Who are your influences?

Some of my influences are Doug Tennapel for his great storytelling and Nate Van Dyke, I love his line work!

If you could, what in your career would you do-over or change?

If I could do something different in my career it would probably be to have had more confidence in my ability when I was younger. If I did I would have started my career a long time ago! Good thing is that I'm here now.

What work are you best-known for?

I think I'm known for my zombies. Most notably The Undead Presidents.

What work are you most proud of?

The work that I'm most proud of is probably the Undead Presidents. That project took me a very long time to complete. I'm glad I saw it all the way through.

What would you like to do or work on in the future?

I would like to work on my own graphic novel or strip in the future. Something zombie-related of course.

What do you do when you're in a rut or have writer's block?

When I'm in a rut I like to open my ears when I'm in public places. I think it's funny to know what people find are the important things in their lives. I just eavesdrop on a good conversation and take it from there!

What do you think will be the future of your career?

I think I'll find my way back to Texas and try to establish myself there. I have a lot of friends and family I could collaborate with. Plus, its always nice to be creative around familiar surroundings.

What local cons do you attend? The Small Press Expo, Intervention, or others? Any comments about attending them?

Some of the local cons I attend are Awesomecon and the Baltimore Comicon.

What's your favorite thing about DC?

My most favorite thing about DC is having access to all the great art museums!

Least favorite?

My least favorite thing about DC is that everyone else in this country has access to all the great art museums as well! I don't like crowds...

 What monument or museum do like to take visitors to?

I like the National Gallery of Art. I could spend all day in either wing of the museum. I get so much inspiration every visit I make.

How about a favorite local restaurant?

My favorite restaurant is Cactus Cantina. This place totally reminds me of home.

Do you have a website or blog?

I am currently working on my website and hope to publish it soon. www.jimgutierrezdesigns.com

MFK webcomic featured on Comics Riffs

Rising talent: Maryland-native cartoonist Nilah Magruder ('MFK') 'in shock' winning 1st Dwayne McDuffie Diversity Award

By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog March 1 2015
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2015/03/01/rising-talent-maryland-native-cartoonist-nilah-magruder-mfk-in-shock-winning-1st-dwayne-mcduffie-diversity-award/

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