Comic Riffs talks to Ted Rall

SPX 2015: Why Ted Rall felt compelled to tell 'Snowden's' cartoon tale

By Michael Cavna September 17 2015
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2015/09/17/spx-2015-why-ted-rall-felt-compelled-to-tell-snowdens-cartoon-tale/

Jennifer Hayden, her breasts and their autobiographical comix: A pre-SPX interview

by Mike Rhode

A few years back I was doing an academic talk and paper which eventually was published as Graphic Tales of Cancer. Jennifer Hayden was working on her own story about cancer and was kind enough to talk with me then about her cartooning project about cancer. It's finally out now and I couldn't be more pleased to present this Q&Q with her. Everyone should go to the Small Press Expo this week, and buy her book.

Why will you be in Washington?

I'll be in Washington as a guest of Small Press Expo (SPX), where I'll be debuting my new graphic novel The Story of My Tits.

What type of comic work or cartooning do you do?

I write and draw autobiographical comix. My new book is a 352-page graphic memoir about my life and my experience with breast cancer. My first book Underwire (published in 2011) was a collection of short-storylength comix about my family. I post a short-form four-panel webcomic
called S'Crapbook at activatecomix.com and a webcomic diary called Rushes at thegoddessrushes.blogspot.comthegoddessrushes.blogspot.com, part of which I self-published in 2013.

How do you do it?

With my diary comic, I draw with a copic pen in a blank Clairefontaine notebook. With all my other comics, I draw on Bristol paper with a rapidograph, which has begun to hurt my hand, so I do some details with a dip pen. I now also add tones with a black watercolor pencil, which I wet for a softer, painted look. I work panel by panel, not page by page, and go straight to ink, no pencil. If I don't like the panel, I toss it out and start over. I write in a notebook at my side, where I test the words until I get them right before I start the panel. I never really know what's next--I like the surprise. When the art is done, I scan it and assemble the pages in Photoshop, cleaning things up, but always keeping the hand-drawn look.

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

Oh, it's time for me to be classy about my age. I was born in 1961 in New York City.

Can you tell us a little about your new book that you'll be in town discussing?

The Story of My Tits is a graphic memoir about my bout with breast cancer, but it includes a lot of other stories that ripple out from mine and resonate with it, like my mother-in-law's cancer story, my mother's cancer story, the story of how these marriages were affected by cancer, and how my own childhood, teenagehood, adulthood, marriage and motherhood influenced the way I reacted. I have to add that I think of it as a graphic novel, not a memoir, because I was less interested in being accurate and more interested in giving the reader the same ride through life that I had had, which involved some tragicomic tweaking here and there.

Breast cancer is a serious illness much discussed in the media, but it's also very personal. How did you decide to do a comic on it? Where did the amusing, but perhaps off-putting book title come from?

Cancer has been a popular subject for graphic novels, it seems to me. It's the perfect medium for this disease, because you can be almost simultaneously hilarious and desperately sad. And ironic, and informative, and real, and anything else you want. Comix are so utterly free. From the moment I was recovering from my breast cancer experience--which was when I discovered graphic novels--I knew this would be the best way for me to tell my story. I was very inspired by Marisa Marchetto's great strip Cancer Vixen in Glamour magazine, which I saw before she turned it into a book, and that helped convinced me this was the way to go.

I don't remember really considering any other title. When I wrote it down I thought, uh-oh. This isn't going to be one hundred percent popular. But then again, I'm not writing this book to tell anything but the truth. So that's the title and I stuck with it. And my publisher Top Shelf never asked me to change it.

What is your training and/or education in cartooning?

I have none. I studied a lot of literature in high school and college, where I majored in art history, so I also studied a lot of great art and loved learning how visual narratives were built into those images. I always drew, and read Archies compulsively when I was growing up, but I lost track of comics as a grownup. Then, having written a few (very bad) novels that were never published (thank the   Goddess) and illustrated some children's books (which were just too rated G for me), I stumbled on
graphic novels and I just felt like I had come home. I knew exactly what to do. I gave myself a year to read all the best graphic novels I could find, then made myself sit down and start. The Story of My Tits begins with the first comix panel I ever drew.

Who are your influences?

Oh, so many. Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Charles Dickens, Albrecht Durer, Maurice Sendak, Hilary Knight, Goscinny and Uderzo (Asterix and Obelix are the gold standard for me; the most comedy and emotion in comics per square inch!), Garry Trudeau, Alison Bechdel, Lynda Barry, Julie Doucet, Dame Darcy, Will Eisner, and Jeffrey Brown. For a start.

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

Discover comix in college, before I started losing my eyesight and getting sore hands. Go to art school and get some training in other media. But I probably would have just ruined art for myself, since I ruined everything then, being so hell-bent on "being an artist" (actually, at that time, a writer) and not on living a life that would inspire me to make art. So, I guess, actually, I would change nothing. It was all supposed to turn out this way.

What work are you best-known for?

Best-known for!? Possibly my pioneering work in conversational swearing. I'm not sure I'm known at all!! Underwire was my first  webcomic and my first book, so if I'm known for anything, it would have to be that.

What work are you most proud of?

Well, I really have done great work advancing the art of conversational swearing. But I'm also very proud of The Story of My Tits. All the years I was writing, all the years I was drawing, I was trying to grasp life, hold it for a moment, trap it, get it down where someone else could see it and feel it, just like me. And I think that in this book maybe at last I have.

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

I have two more autobio projects I'd like to see in print--my diary comic and a collection of my S'Crapbook strips--but then I feel like getting my feet wet in fiction again. I have another graphic novel in mind that's a mix of family history, autobiography, and fiction. I've taken notes on index cards for a while and thrown them in a box, so I'd like to open that box and see what happens.

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

I do not say those last two words. Ever. I had troubles as a writer I have never had as a comix creator, so I make it a point now just to keep moving forward. And never to judge my subject matter. The greatest skill I have learned is how to recognize that particular tickle of humor/sorrow/ aliveness that makes me know I have a story to tell. I go where it takes me and I do not question it. When I'm in a rut or too swamped with emotion about the subject to go on, I take a break. Hours, days, weeks. I adhere to no schedule, thanks to my publisher. I work every day, but I am the mistress of my own material.

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

Many more people are reading graphic novels now, especially women, than two, five, ten years ago. I believe this is a very wide-open art form right now, and it's appealing to some great verbal and visual talents. What you can do in great art and in great literature, you can do in graphic novels, only it's better, because you can use techniques from both at the same time. I think we're going to see some incredible masterpieces, which will establish the graphic novel, like jazz or rock 'n roll, as a vital new channel of expression.


You've attended the Small Press Expo previously - do you have any thoughts about your experience? Will you be attending it in the future?

Oh, I absolutely love Small Press Expo! This is my sixth year, and it is the highlight of my comix calendar. The organizers are fantastic, the venue is relaxed, the exhibitors are nothing but the best. I've exhibited there, I debuted my first book Underwire there in 2011, and I never miss it. Last
year I got a chance to tell Jules Feiffer--a guest of the show--how much I adored his book Kill My Mother--and in the next moment I met a brand-new cartoonist visiting from Switzerland and had lunch with her at the bar, talking about autobiographical comix. Everyone is there for the love of
the art form, and it just seems to erase all barriers.

What's your favorite thing about DC?

I grew up in New York City, so what I love about DC is that it's such a small city, and yet there's so much in it. It also feels European to me, with all those big pretty streets and monumental, classical buildings. When I first went to the Smithsonian, I was just running along the mall, in and out of all those unbelievable museums, cackling at my husband: "It's free! It's all free!"

Least favorite?

It does seem to be a company town. Everyone seems to be either working for the government or probably a spy.

What monument or museum do like to or wish to visit when you're in town?

Our family favorite is the Spy Museum. Yeah, we like spies. But I also love the Lincoln Memorial. And all the art galleries, I couldn't even pick one.

Do you have a website or blog?

My website is jenniferhayden.com and my blog is goddesscomix.blogspot.com. I have another blog where I post my daily diary comic called thegoddessrushes.blogspot.com. And if you're on Facebook, my author page is jenniferhaydenauthor.

Former local cartoonist Liz Suburbia interviewed at TCJ

A Conversation with Liz Suburbia

BY Annie Mok Sep 17, 2015
http://www.tcj.com/a-conversation-with-liz-suburbia/

SPX featured in today's Express

The Small Press Expo salutes a new wave of indie comic artists in its 21st edition

By Kristen Page-Kirby
September 17, 2015
https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2015/09/17/the-small-press-expo-salutes-a-new-wave-of-indie-comic-artists-in-its-21st-edition/

Small Press Expo exhibit at Library of Congress

The Serial & Government Publications Division of the Library of Congress has been collecting material at and from the Small Press Expo (SPX) for a few years. They've got an exhibit of some of the material in the main Jefferson building through October. Images courtesy of the LoC.

SPX opens Saturday at 11 am. 

1 person's suggestions for comics activities in DC

A Comics Lover's Guide to Washington, D.C.

Melody Schreiber

9|16|15
http://panels.net/2015/09/16/comics-lovers-guide-washington-d-c/

Compleating Cul de Sac and Art of Richard Thompson books on sale at SPX

I will have a few copies of each book for sale at the Small Press Expo. Pick me out of the crowd if you'd like to buy a copy out of my car's trunk. They'll be slightly discounted.  - Mike Rhode

Comic Riffs on Kate Beaton

1st is print newspaper version, 2nd is web version.

'Step Aside, Pops': Kate Beaton's delightful sendup of history's greats

By Michael Cavna
Washington Post September 16 2015
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/step-aside-pops-kate-beatons-delightful-sendup-of-historys-greats/2015/09/15/2b855896-5b05-11e5-9757-e49273f05f65_story.html

SPX 2015: Hark! Kate Beaton steers an artfully smart new book, 'Step Aside Pops'

By Michael Cavna Washington Post Comic Riffs blog September 16 2015
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2015/09/16/spx-2015-hark-kate-beatons-deftly-steers-her-new-book-step-aside-pops/ 

ED. NOTE: Kate Beaton will be a special guest at this weekend's Small Press Expo in North Bethesda.
–M.C.

(Drawn & Quarterly)

Telnaes on security at French cartoon conference

The world's cartoonists come together in France — under heavy police security

By Ann Telnaes
Washington Post September 14 2015
 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2015/09/14/the-worlds-cartoonists-come-together-in-france-under-heavy-police-security/

Oct 20: Peter Kuper talk at Library of Congress (CORRECTED)

at noon about his new, "328 page graphic novel called Ruins that follows a fictional couple on sabbatical in Mexico and in tandem the migration of the Monarch butterfly."

Further details to come.

Liz Sururbia interview online

Liz Suburbia interviewed by Katie Skelly

September 14, 2015 by Inkstuds
http://www.inkstuds.org/liz-suburbia-interviewed-by-katie-skelly/
http://www.inkstuds.org/wp-content/podcast/150914_Liz_Suburbia.mp3

Big Planet Comics and Retrofit Comics premieres at SPX

Check Out These SPX Previews: Butter And Blood & Ikebana From Retrofit/Big Planet Comics

  September 12, 2015 by by Hannah Means Shannon

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/09/12/check-out-these-spx-previews-butter-and-blood-ikebana-from-retrofitbig-planet-comics/

Sept 18: Dylan Horrocks of New Zealand at Politics & Prose

Dylan Horrocks - Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen

Friday, September 18, 2015 at 7 p.m.

Politics & Prose Bookstore
5015 Connecticut Ave NW

Washington DC 20008

Sept 18: Little Nemo at the Library of Congress

DRAWING ON HISTORY
Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream

Josh O'Neill, Andrew Carl and Chris Stevens of Locust Moon Press tell the fascinating story of the creation of the 2015 Eisner Award winning volume, Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream. In 2014, Locust Moon Press started a Kickstarter campaign to fund the printing of the volume, a tribute to master cartoonist Winsor McCay. Many of the world's finest cartoonists celebrated his masterpiece, the comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland, by creating 118 new Little Nemo strips, each in their own unique style. The resulting work, published on the same giant, broadsheet newspaper-sized canvas as McCay's creation, is both a stunning homage to McCay and a publishing work of art.

This is the fourth annual SPX festival program sponsored by the Serial & Government Publications Division.

Friday, September 18th, 12 noon -1pm
West Dining Room
6th Floor, Madison Building
Library of Congress

Meet a Local Cartoonist: A Chat with Adam Griffiths

by Mike Rhode

Adam Griffiths sent an announcement of a cartooning class he's teaching in to us, so I leaped at the chance to get the thoughts of another local cartoonist on record. 

What type of comic work or cartooning do you do?

Right now, I have been working on my first graphic novel, Washington White, a satirical right-wing beltway insider treatise concerning white America, translated from the narrative center of a fictional African-American right-wing viewpoint. For a naturally purple-minded African-American raised in Wilmington Delaware, simulating both this viewpoint and this narrative is incredibly taxing. It’s taken me 2 years to finalize a script that’s engineered solely to deprogram aspirant douches from their entitled sense of necessity in western society. The final work will be published in 2 parts, each about 300 pages long. In the meantime, I post one fully-realized full-color non-sequitur cartoon online each week to my Facebook and Tumblr pages. 

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


I use cheap ballpoint pens to make many of my drawings and cartoons. I color them digitally.

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

I was born in 1982, at Takoma Park’s Washington Adventist Hospital, and it’s very weird that I live just around the corner from there now, considering I am the only member of my immediate member of family to move back to the DMV area. My parents were both police officers working in Southwest DC, and met on the police force.

Why are you in Washington now?  What neighborhood or area do you live in?
 
I came back to Washington because, probably, like many cartoonists, there is part of me that is largely invested in nostalgia. I got a Bachelor’s Degree in General Fine Arts with a concentration in Video Art at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, then went into an administrator position with Provisions Learning Project in Washington D.C., a nonprofit devoted to arts and social change before Busboys and Poets even existed. I worked as a fine arts administrator for many years, sometimes for private galleries, also for Washington Project for the Arts. While in school, I was skeptical of students who mocked the practices of popular New York fine artists, so much so, that I declaratively NEVER wanted to be in New York. I worked in the fine arts world here for almost a decade before realizing that it was not the place for the kind of work that I wanted to make. My art is very much a reflection of that experience. I make drawings that are sometimes abstract, I make drawings that are sometimes symbolic within the realm of editorial cartoons, I make drawings that are sometimes on the fringe of mainstream comics. So I see myself as a cartoonist who inhabits a number of roles, but currently, I attempt to feed the fine arts world of DC while seeking to address cartoonists’ and comics concerns.

What is your training and/or education in cartooning?

I am mostly self-taught, I started drawing when I was four years old, and started art education formally through weekend classes at the Delaware Art Museum at age nine. Later when I was in college, I thought I was going to work with communities in Baltimore to make publicly-engaged murals and video art; I considered this kind of work to be of the utmost decency in its political intent, the least condescending. Lucy Lippard and Jane Jacobs were my heroines, but the graduate program for Community Arts did not exist yet, I moved on.  Independently, I do my own research and reading. I reach out to cartoonists whose work interests me. Because the university system offers safe entrance to artistic validation, I’ve simultaneously embraced it because of the talented artists there, but also rejected it, because I abhor elitism. The university system is not successful at reorganizing society, our democracy, as it should. I am ambivalent about my own capacity to sustain cartooning as a career, but I recognize that education can bestow an individual with the necessary embers of autodidactism.

Who are your influences?

I read non-exclusively. I am at home with popular comics writers and artists, editorial cartoonists, graphic novelists, zine cartoonists, small press publishers and creators, and mainstream publishers, philosophers and I suspect that many other creators read the same way. It’s disingenuous for me to give you a list because I continue to read, allowing myself to be inspired, superseded, and bought into admiration by accomplishments in contemporary art, art history, comics history, and current comics being made world-wide.

To be influenced is to accept the presence of others. I’m very non-competitve because I think artists, above other professions, recognize that they generate peace through an active engagement with their respective societies. I look to creative people for community, whether living or dead, because something they’ve generated strikes me. My list for now: Barry Windsor-Smith, Stephen Bissette, Whit Taylor, Simon DeBeauvoir, John Chad, Josh Bayer, Sabin Cauldron, Phillip Zimbardo, Adam Polina, Chris Bachalo, Joseph Silver, Garth Ennis, Ashley Woods, Marshall McLulan, Howard Cruse, Victor Hodge, Charles Burns, Adrian Tomine, Dan Nadel, Alison Bechdel, Elizabeth Beier, Lee Lai, Kara Walker, Danny Simmons,  Jessica Abel, Italo Calvino, Jim Mahfood, Jessica Abel, Mimi Pond. Also, there are some very interesting minicomics being made in New Zealand right now. When I am working, I ignore other creative people, it’s a mistake to look to them for ideas.

If you could, what in your career would you do-over or change?
 
When I wasn’t even in high school, I remember sending an inquiry to the Joe Kubert School of Cartooning in Newark, New Jersey for more information. I presented the brochure that I received back to my father, who told me that this school wasn’t ‘good enough’ for me. I ended up in fine arts school which was nice, but I didn’t belong, art-wise -- even the illustration department was too fancy. I’ve always been very interested in the popular arts but unfortunately my life experience has mutated me beyond that ever being a possible destination for my work. I’ve confronted the reality that there is nothing I can change about these experiences, and I am content with making it up from here on.

What work are you best-known for?

My first major gallery show was about drinking and adulthood, and happened in DC. I made a series of paintings, a sculpture, and a video about the life of Candice “Candy” Lightner, the founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). This was really a journalistic endeavor. I spent months talking with Candy over the phone so that I could create paintings that would define the era and time in which the anti-drunk-driving movement was formed, and how it came to be a typical Washington non-profit special interest institution in all its surreality. It was an odd show that I enjoyed thinking about and conceiving, and I only sold one painting, ha! Otherwise, I’m increasingly known for posting noticeably sick, yet compassionate cartoons online.

What work are you most proud of?
 
This question is beyond my personal self-awareness. Is dignity worth a lifetime of appearances?

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

I would like to have a daily comic somewhere, which I am already developing. There are also several other shorter graphic novels I’m trying to complete in addition to Washington White, but of course those aren’t real until I’ve executed them.

What do you do when you're in a rut or have writer's block?
 
I sing loudly and dance, probably because I’m so queer. This is a lesson that I learned from cartoonist Alec Longstreth’s very useful manual “Your Comics Will Love You Back.” He is an instructor at the Center for Cartooning Studies in White River Junction, Vermont who is very dynamic, who gives it all away. Not an inch of Miles Davis within him.
 
What do you think will be the future of your field?

Electronic media has been directing the future of comics so far. I think comics artists embrace their medium as interactive media already, and will likely figure out how to ingratiate their creative practice into the administrative structure, which ultimately, is where all art needs to go. Being in the fine arts world, I couldn’t focus on what was important because fine arts criticism is very palace intrigue, meditating about what decisions people in museums are making, which doesn’t help working artists at all. Constantly artists are accused of being useless because executives in private enterprise are close-minded, and historically, editorial cartoonists have largely been employed by newspapers in order to help their audiences and covertly, their own journalists quantify information about current events. However, they will soon realize that employing cartoonists as consultant creators will help them to make better decisions.

What local cons do you attend? The Small Press Expo, Intervention, or others? Any comments about attending them?
 
I have attended the Small Press Expo in Bethesda religiously for years, meeting many interesting artists and zinesters, reading their work. I am looking forward to two cons in Ohio: the Sõl-Con: Brown/Black Comix Expo and Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, which is hosted by Ohio State University, home of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum. I went up there recently with John Kinhart, a filmmaker who dedicates himself to making films about indie comics legends, to help record interviews with cartoonist Carol Tyler and minicomics godfather Justin Green. I can honestly say that Ohio feels like a place where the mid-western independent and mainstream audience for comics can convene without any tricky media-engineered divisive politics intervening.  It’s that ecclesiastic spirit and enthusiasm for comics that I am always seeking, which begins with people.

self-portrait

What's your favorite thing about DC?

DC comics artists are uncommonly mainstream, even if their comics are not considered so, and even though there is no mainstream comics studio based in DC (we need one). When it comes to subject matter in DC, everything is welcome, and educating through comics is revered, in addition to humor and drama, and weirdness. I admire webcomics artists like Carolyn Belefski, dynamic comics shop managers like Esther Kim, organizers like Andrew Cohen and Matt Dembicki, and obsessive makers like JT Wilkins and Rafer Roberts, who are going to do what they will, regardless of whether an audience exists for their work or not. Comics remain relevant because of the risk-takers, not because of comfortable virtuosos.

Least favorite?
 
The comics community of DC doesn’t seem to interface with many other facets of the creative community here, and especially so with the editorial cartoonists, who only seem to want to run with other journalists and professionals within major news-worthy publications or at awards banquets (though, the Library of Congress rocks). As someone who worked in the non-profit art world of DC for many years, I want to say that uniqueness, flavor, and funkiness should be a DESIRED standard because of that cross-pollination, because, CULTURE. I wish I knew more actors. I wish I knew more writers, I wish I knew more in-house economists, graphic designers. What is the point of being in a city if all these worlds are frozen, incestuous?

What monument or museum do like to take visitors to?
 
The World War I Memorial. It’s quiet and you can have a conversation with one or two good friends on a swampy summer DC weekend afternoon.

How about a favorite local restaurant?

It’s very expensive to eat out in DC. My husband and I eat at home because fabulousness eludes us. Obviously, we are shameful homosexuals. 


In a rare instance of consistency in restaurant-going on my part, I’ll be hosting a SKETCH SHARE event every Thursday at 6:30pm, from October 19th to November 12th at Petworth Citizen , as part of 4-session class that I’m teaching at Upshur Street Books next door (http://www.eventbrite.com/e/comics-djinn-drawing-and-storytelling-by-you-led-by-adam-griffiths-cartoonist-tickets-18546345619)). You don’t have to be enrolled in the class to attend SKETCH SHARE, it open to the public, so bring your supplies and come draw with us!

Do you have a website or blog?

http://www.adamgriffithsart.com

The Disney gas mask featured in The Post

Did you know Walt Disney designed the world's weirdest gas mask?

By John Kelly

Washington Post September 13 2015
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/did-you-know-walt-disney-designed-the-worlds-weirdest-gas-mask/2015/09/12/885be808-57d8-11e5-8bb1-b488d231bba2_story.html

PR: NBM Hits SPX

Good stuff here.

On the weekend of September 19th-20th, you can find NBM Publishing participating at two exciting events the 2015 Small Press Expo and The Brooklyn Book Festival.

And at both events we'll be debuting three new titles, Fires Above Hyperion by Patrick Atangan , Religion, A Discovery in Comics by Margreet de Heer and Walking Wounded: Uncut Stories from Iraq by Mael & Olivier Morel.

Fires Above Hyperion by Patrick Atangan

Imagine Sex and the City written by a gay Charlie Brown.

"One day I woke up and realized I had been dating for twenty years.  Twenty years.  It's hard to imagine anyone with as little resolve as I have doing anything for so long." 

In this autobiographical work, Patrick Atangan documents the sad hilarity of his love life from awkward first encounters, to finding out that the great guy you've been dating already has a boyfriend, to the sad inevitability of a break up. With a dark sense of humor, Atangan navigates the perils of the gay world.

Religion, A Discovery in Comics by Margreet de Heer

The author of the bestselling Discovery in Comics series, including on Science and Philosophy, tackles a very sensitive subject. Dealing with religion often means walking on eggshells – that is what comic artist Margreet de Heer finds out in this book in which she presents the five major religions and modern spirituality in a colorful, personal yet serious manner. She explores religious history and practices with tact and an open mind, but can't prevent a few eggs from breaking. Why is religion such a sensitive subject?

This book in comics is fun and informative for believers, non-believers and everyone in between. It offers a fresh look from different perspectives on the phenomenon of religion, the backgrounds and history of the five major world religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism) and makes the point that religion is something that should unite us, not drive us apart.

Walking Wounded: Uncut Stories from Iraq by Mael & Olivier Morel

For hundreds of thousands of young Americans, after the shock of 9/11, there was Ar Ramadi, Baghdad, Abu Ghraib… The war in Irak. Then came the trauma. Olivier Morel gave them a voice in his compelling documentary On the Bridge. Walking Wounded isn't the book of the documentary but the story of Morel getting close to the young vets, their troubled experience and lives. So close he could not avoid living their trauma himself, seeing all too clearly their vision of the world after their gut-wrenching experiences. From torment to reflection, Morel and artist Mael relate through these vets the impossible return of those who do aspire vividly to get back to a normal life. The effort is huge, some can't make it, others score their own victory by finally turning the corner… a parable for our country's war sickness.

SPX Details and Signing Schedule

September 19th-20th; Located at E 1-2

Appearing Saturday Only: Olivier Morel & Margreet de Heer

The Small Press Expo is North America's premiere independent cartooning and comic arts festival. SPX brings together more than 4,000 cartoonists and comic arts enthusiasts every fall in Bethesda, Maryland.

Unlike many conventions that are geared toward pop culture or corporately owned comics, SPX was created in 1994 to promote artists and publishers who produce independent comics. SPX hosts an annual festival that provides a forum for artists, writers and publishers of comic art in its various forms to present to the public comic art not normally accessible through normal commercial channels.

Signing Schedule:

11:00 am – 12:00 pm:  Olivier Morel

12:00 pm – 1:00 pm:   Margreet de Heer

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm:     Olivier Morel

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm:    Margreet de Heer

3:00 pm – 4:00 pm:  Olivier Morel & Margreet de Heer

Stefan Blitz
Publicist
NBM publishing
Graphic novel publisher since 1977
Distributed to the general trade by IPG
www.nbmpub.com
visit us on Facebook / follow us on Twitter
Visit our new Press Page: http://www.nbmpub.com/press/press.html

Brodner caricatures Trump in The Post

Donald Trump is like . . .

Is there a metaphor that can't be used to describe the Republican front-runner?

By Steve Brodner
Washington Post September 13 2015
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/09/10/donald-trump-is-like/

Q&A: Keeling on his ‘DC Punk' series

by Matt Dembicki
 
Local comic booker and co-DC Conspiracy founder Evan Keeling is putting the final touches on his new comic DC Punk Presents: Nation of Ulysses: Part 1: ’88-’90. Over the past few years, Keeling has reached out to various members of the defunct D.C. punk band to pull together this book. Below, Keeling answers a few questions about this book—which is premiering at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Md., Sept. 19-20—as well as his previous book in the series on the band DC Punk Presents: The Warmers: Part 1.

What inspired you to do this series on D.C. punk bands?

I grew up in D.C. and got really into punk music and the music coming out of D.C. in high school. D.C. has a long history with punk and a very influential one, but what mostly gets documented is the '80s. While that was an extremely fertile time and hard a larger impact on punk at a national level, most of the histories I’ve read or seen stop right before they really get into the bands that meant a lot to me growing up. Also for some of these bands, I wasn’t finding a lot of information available on the them so I could either wait around till someone else maybe wrote something or I could go find it myself.

Through my research, I did find Brandon Gentry who wrote the great eBook Capitol Contingency that is covering some of the same ground. He has been a great help getting me e-mails. But while his book focuses on individual albums, I wanted to dive a little further into how the members of the bands lived outside of their musical accomplishments. I also found some great resources’ for information like the D.C. Library Punk Archive and the UMD D.C. Zane archive, which is curated by John Davis (Q and not U, Title Tracks). That I will be utilizing and contributing to as I continue the project.

What connections did you have with the bands members in both books? Was it difficult in finding them after so many years?

Previous to this project, I didn’t know any members of these bands personally. I had talked to Alec [MacKaye] a couple of times back during the time the Warmers were active, but not much more than that. But I did know a number of folks that were in other bands that I am going to cover in the series and I started with them and it spread out from there.

Basically, I just started going through some of my friends Facebook friends, and when I recognized a name I would blind e-mail them and ask if they would let me interview them. Then, as people agreed, I would ask them to pass the word along or get me in touch with other members of their bands and get more e-mails and send out queries.

Luckily, a lot of folks are really happy to talk about the bands that they were in and have been very forthcoming with information. One of the first people to get back to me was Tim Green from Nation of Ulysses, and he was really forthcoming and a fountain of information, and Alec has had me over to his house a couple of times and shown me a lot of great pictures from his personal stuff. So far I would say for the most part the people I’ve interviewed have been super helpful.

I especially liked the endnotes at the end of Nation of Ulysses; they give deeper context to the events in the book without breaking the natural flow of the story. How did that idea come about?

It’s been over 20 years since most of these bands were together so sometimes memories are short and have to fabricate events for the flow of the story. I wanted to make these comics a narrative not just a string of facts and I remembered in [the graphic novel] From Hell how Alan Moore had extensive end notes that told page by page what he made up what lines were taken from different writings and such. I thought that would be a great way to get the information out and still have a narrative. There are also a lot of people and places that are going to appear in the stories. I didn’t want to crowd the pages with informative text boxes or have awkward introductions like “Hello, Christina Billotte from Slant 6” or “Let’s go to independent music venue d.c. space.” Nobody talks like that and I want the conversations to be as natural as possible. This isn’t like Harry Potter or some such thing where everyone and everything is getting introduced, these people have known each other for years.

Local label Dischord Records now carries The Warmers. Can you tell us how that came about?

When I was tabling this year at the DC Zine Fest, Ian MacKaye [Dischord Records founder] came by my table. I had talked to him before briefly about the project. His partner Amy Farina was the drummer in the Warmers and I had sent her a copy of the book. So he knew about the comic and wanted to pick some up for some other folks. I had a bunch of misprints that I had cut out to make buttons of peoples faces from the book and Ian had his and Amy’s son with him so they were having fun digging through the buttons and grabbing ones of people they recognized. While this was going on Ian asked me if Dischord Direct was distributing it. I told him that I was having trouble getting in touch with them. So Ian emailed me and got me in direct touch with Brian who runs Dischord Direct. It’s pretty exciting to be distributed there because if someone were to go to the Dischord site and look up the Warmers, my comic is listed right there along with their albums.

What bands are you eyeing for to cover in future issues?

[Local cartoonist/artist] Eric Gordon of Vinyl Vagabonds is going to draw at least one issue about Circus Lupus for me once I get him some more info. With a little more legwork I’m hoping to put together a comic about Corm-Tech. Then I have a number of other bands like Monorchid, Bratmobile, The Meta-Matics and the All-Scars where I have some information but need to conduct some more interviews to develop a narrative. I’d really like to do one on Slant 6 and Frodus, but I have to get in touch with some folks to get those going.

There are so many bands that it is going to take a while. I started with Eric but I am still scouting around for collaborators so I can get more issues out faster. 

Axtell's work featured at Comic Logic

Local artist Jason Axtell has books featuring his work on a special display at Comic Logic in Ashburn, Va.

Intervention con covered in Paste Magazine

10 Reasons Geeky Creatives Need The 'Intervention' Experience

By Tai Gooden

September 10, 2015
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/09/10-reasons-geeky-creatives-need-the-intervention-e.html

I was out of town so I missed it this year...

PR: Cartooning Class this fall at Upshur Books

Comics Djinn: Drawing and Storytelling by You, Led by Adam Griffiths, Cartoonist

Upshur Street Books, 827 Upshur St. NW, Washington, D.C.

Every Monday, October 19, 2015 at 7:00 PM through November 9, 2015

Click here to register:
http://www.eventbrite.com/e/comics-djinn-drawing-and-storytelling-by-you-led-by-adam-griffiths-cartoonist-tickets-18546345619
 
Cartoonist Adam Griffiths leads a four-session drawing and storytelling course that covers the cartooning process from style to character development to the nuts and bolts of getting started in the comics profession.

Each course is split into 2 half-hour blocks. One half covers the theme of the day's session. The other half is a studio lesson in comics.

Ages 18-Adult, All Skill Levels Welcome. 

Recommended reading: 
Drawing Words, Writing Pictures by Jessica Abel
This book will be available to course enrollees at a discount. 

Supplies: 
8 ½ x 11" sketchbook, 50 pages
2 pencils: 2H & 2B
Alvin White vinyl pencil eraser
Gum eraser
12" ruler or T-square
NOTE: Do not buy inking supplies until we cover this topic in the 2nd session
FINAL PROJECTS: 2 pieces of 11 x 14" vellum Bristol board will be provided 

Participants will attain intermediate knowledge of comics literature and the comics profession. Participants will create one fully developed, completed page of comics. 

SESSION 1: Genres of the Comics World
 What interests you most? Editorial cartooning? Web comics? Daily strips? Graphic novels? Manga? Superheroes? Underground comics? Minicomics? Nobrow comics? Art comics? Zines? Instructor will lead a discussion of various facets of the comics and cartooning world, followed by a lesson in basic to intermediate concepts of the comics narrative language.

BAR HOURS: Every Thursday at 6:30pm during the course, Adam Griffiths will come to Petworth Citizen for SKETCH SHARE, which is open to the general public. Anyone wishing to share sketches made during this time will have them posted online and to the instructor's Instagram account with a special hashtag. Course participants can come to draw, discuss comics with peers or have questions answered by the instructor about their final projects. 
 
SESSION 2: Strength of Character
Character development is a crucial element to the storytelling process. The instructor will present successful examples of character-building, with participants offering insights about the characters they observe. The studio block will explore various inking methods.

SESSION 3: Word, Text, Form, Vision: Maximizing Your Storytelling 
Instructor will lead an in-depth lecture on the formal aspects of storytelling, delving into innovative storytelling concepts, themes, and challenges for creators. For the studio block, participants will have the opportunity to work on final projects with one-on-one feedback from the instructor.

SESSION 4: The Comics Profession and Final Critiques
How does a comics creator make it work today? What's in a cartoonist's portfolio? Where should I pitch my comics project? What type of exposure do I want for my work? Where can I meet other comics artists? Participants will be provided with a resource sheet and presented with samples. The instructor will cover expos, conventions, websites, professional journals, and publishers where a creator can find support, followed by a critiques of final projects. 

FINAL THURSDAY SKETCH SHARE: Participants' final projects and any other drawings made during the course will be presented in the reading room of Petworth Citizen.
 
See cartoons, illustrations, and artwork by the instructor: www.adamgriffithsart.com

Sept 12: Headlopper at Third Eye Comics

at THIRD EYE ANNAPOLIS

Click here for event info on FACEBOOK.

First 25 In Line Receive a FREE Special Gift!

Signing from 11AM-1PM

Catching up with Keith Knight before SPX

by Mike Rhode

Michael Cavna, Keith Knight and Lalo Alcaraz

Keith Knight is one of my favorite cartoonists and one of the hardest working men in comics. His 7-day strip Knight Life appears in the Washington Post (only on Sundays, boo!). He does another panel each week called (Th)ink). And his first 1-page multi-panel, The K Chronicles, is still running. You can see them all at http://www.kchronicles.com/

Keith was in town last weekend for the National Book Festival (link to my pictures) and we started chatting until he had to go on stage. He's had a lot of changes in his life in the past year or so. First read my 2011 interview with Keith.

MR: Why did you move to North Carolina from California? How's that working out? 

KK: One of my first comic strip slideshows was in the Research Triangle of North Carolina (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill)..I had such a great time and really enjoyed the area..so it was always in the back of my mind...Then my mom moved down to South Carolina from Boston, so there's that...  Affordability was also a huge factor.  The boys have a yard to run in...

MR: What's the story behind your NAACP award?

K: I was recognized, along with a number of other activists, for my cartoon slideshow about police brutality.  It's not really an award, just recognition.

MR: You're taking on the serious topic of police violence against black people in more ways than just drawing a cartoon. Can you tell us about that, and why you feel the need to do so?

 
KK: I felt like a slideshow of 20 years of my police brutality cartoons would be a good way to engage audiences to ask why these incidents continue unabated.  I was really frustrated drawing yet another cartoon after Ferguson. I used to say to myself, "I hope this is the last time I have to draw one of these." Clearly, it never is.

And this Shaun King quote really resonated with me: "LISTEN: If you ever wondered what you would do if you were alive in the Civil Rights Movement, NOW IS THE TIME to find out." 

MR: Your children are bi-racial, you live in a progressive part of NC, and you've chosen to home-school them. Why?

KK:  A number of reasons, but the biggest being that we felt it was a doable. The amount of resources the Research Triangle offers to secular folks who decide to home-school is incredible.  Classes for home-schoolers are held at libraries, the Y,  the university..There's even a homeschooling store near our place.

Keith's sign language interpreter kept cracking up.

MR: You've told me that your business model has been changing from sales of books to sales of prints, and that you're doing better at art shows than you do at comic cons. Can you expand on that?

KK: Comic book conventions give folks a chance to get their fantasy on, so I can understand how they don't want to be confronted with the ugly reality of some of the stuff I do.  To balance things, I've been doing comics celebrating some of the people I've looked up to who have recently passed.  Folks like Julian Bond, Maya Angelou, and Nelson Mandela. I do their portraits, along with some of their quotes.  They go over really well in non-comic book settings.  Sometimes it's better being the one cartoonist at an art show, than one of 500  at a comic book convention.

MR: Keith returns to DC next weekend for the Small Press Expo. I can't recommend his work highly enough.

Dylan Horrocks' new book reviewed in The City Paper

Around the Block [online as A graphic novel about self-doubt and writer's block gets meta].

Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen 

By Dylan Horrocks 

Fantagraphics, 228 pps. 

By Dominic Umile • September 11, 2015. p. 34
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/47472/sam-zabel-and-the-magic-pen-reviewed-a-graphic-novel/

Flugennock's Latest'nGreatest: "Tripping Refugee"

From Washington's only anarchist cartoonist:

"Tripping Refugee"
http://sinkers.org/stage/?p=1784

Y'know, I've seen mainstream media types pull some pretty lowdown stuff in my day. I've heard Chris Matthews telling the antiwar movement it should apologize. I've heard Bill O'Reilly call the Black Lives Matter movement "terrorists". I've heard a CNN anchordroid acting disappointed at the absence of violence at the premiere of Straight Outta Compton. But I've never seen something as rock-bottom piss-poor as the Hungarian TV camerawoman sticking her leg out to trip a Syrian war refugee trying to flee the Roeszke detention camp.

What's especially sad about this, though, is that the camerawoman's behavior pretty much encapsulates the current policies and attitudes of most EU member governments.

Mike Flugennock, flugennock at sinkers dot org
Mike's Political Cartoons: dubya dubya dubya dot sinkers dot org

Telnaes to head Editorial Cartoonists group in 2017

This was in Jack Ohman's Comic Riffs interview:

"Ann Telnaes will be president in 2017, and I was particularly pleased she's taking a leadership role. [She and current president Adam Zyglis] both have leadership personalities, and they are both people who take strong positions."

Good luck, Ann

Comic Riffs interviews Jack Ohman

As AAEC shifts, Jack Ohman weighs challenges facing modern political cartoonist

By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog September 10 2015
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2015/09/10/as-aaec-shifts-jack-ohman-weighs-challenges-facing-modern-political-cartoonist/

Comic Book Legal Defense Fund to benefit from digital Gaiman collection

Calling Neil Gaiman fans: Author's rarities go on Humble Bundle to back CBLDF

By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog September 9 2015
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2015/09/09/calling-neil-gaiman-fans-authors-rarities-to-go-on-humble-bundle-to-back-cbldf/

Marmaduke cartoonist obituary in The Post

Brad Anderson, cartoonist who created 'Marmaduke,' dies at 91 [in print as Brad Anderson, 91; Created Marmaduke, charismatic Great Dane of cartoons].

By Emily Langer
Washington Post September 9 2015, p. B5

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/comics/brad-anderson-cartoonist-who-created-marmaduke-dies-at-91/2015/09/08/768e737c-5646-11e5-b8c9-944725fcd3b9_story.html

Brad Anderson, creator of the "Marmaduke" comic strip, died at 91 on Aug. 30, 2015. (Courtesy of UFS)

Marmaduke creator remembered at Comic Riffs

RIP, Brad Anderson: His syndicate editor remembers the 'Marmaduke' creator

By Michael Cavna Washington Post Comic Riffs blog September 9 2015
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2015/09/09/rip-brad-anderson-his-syndicate-editor-remembers-the-marmaduke-creator/

Ben Hatke interview online

Web Exclusive – September 1, 2015

Ben Hatke: Assembling parts for new friendship

BookPage interview by Cat Acree

http://bookpage.com/interviews/18740-ben-hatke

Jonathan Luna interview from early summer

Luna and Vaughn Talk the Star Crossed Lovers of Alex + Ada

We dig into the book with the team of the acclaimed Image title

By David Harper

June 25, 2015

sktchd.com/interview/jonathan-luna-and-sarah-vaughn-talk-the-star-crossed-lovers-of-alex-ada/

I missed this one earlier.

Bruce Guthrie's pictures of cartoonists at the Library of Congress Book Festival online now

DC -- Natl Book Festival 2015 -- Cece Bell
A Virginia-born author and illustrator, Cece Bell enjoys limeade and lives in an old church. She majored in art at the College of William and Mary, where she met her author-illustrator husband, Tom Angleberger. Her works include "Bee-wigged," "Itty Bitty," "Food Friends," "Busy Buddies" and the Sock... (Partially reviewed)

DC -- Natl Book Festival 2015 -- Jennifer L. Holm
Jennifer L. Holm is a New York Times best-selling children’s author inspired by her own childhood. She has written the Newbery Honor-receiving novels “Turtle in Paradise,” “Penny from Heaven” and “Our Only May Amelia,” as well as the “Boston Jane” series. Instead of fighting with him for the comics... (Partially reviewed)

 DC -- Natl Book Festival 2015 -- Christian Robinson and Mac Barnett ("Leo: A Ghost Story")
Christian Robinson is an illustrator and animator. He has worked with Pixar Animation Studios and The Sesame Street Workshop. Robinson is the illustrator of several best-selling and acclaimed picture books, including "Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker," "Gaston," "Last Stop on Market... (Partially reviewed) 

DC -- Natl Book Festival 2015 -- Graphic Novels Part 1: Knight, Alcaraz, Stantis w/Michael Cavna
Keith Knight is a musician and cartoonist. His works include The K Chronicles, (Th)ink and The Knight Life series. He has received the Comic-Con Inkpot Award for career achievement, multiple Glyph Awards for best comic strip and the Harvey Kurtzman Award for best syndicated comic strip. His art has... (Partially reviewed) 

DC -- Natl Book Festival 2015 -- Graphic Novels Part 2: Noomin, Lasko-Gorss, Robbins
Diane Noomin is a comics artist best known as the creator of Didi Glitz. She is one of the original contributors to Wimmen's Comix and is the editor of the anthology series Twisted Sisters. Her work has appeared in many books, magazines and underground comic publications, including Weirdo, Young Lust,... (Partially reviewed) 

DC -- Natl Book Festival 2015 -- Stephan Pastis w/Michael Cavna
Stephan Pastis used to be a lawyer. Now, he is the award-winning cartoonist who creates "Pearls Before Swine," a syndicated daily comic strip that runs in 750 newspapers around the world. The humorous comic strip's host of friends—Rat, Pig, Goat and Zebra—deliver a smart, witty and painfully honest... (Partially reviewed)

Sept 13: Parkinson's Walk for Team Cul de Sac

Team Cul de Sac

Please Help Us Walk Off Parkinson's

http://engage.parkinsonfoundation.org/site/TR?team_id=2180&fr_id=1050&pg=team

We are participating in Walk Off Parkinson's on Sunday September 13, 2015 at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. to benefit the Parkinson's Foundation of the National Capital Area (PFNCA).

That day, we will gather with thousands of others impacted by Parkinson's to show that those facing this disease that they do not do so alone. We will raise funds to support those impacted by Parkinson's including people diagnosed with the disease, care partners and their family members.

Please join us or make a donation.

You can make a donation in honor of a member of our team by selecting their name from the roster on the right.

Together, we will Walk Off Parkinson's.

Thank you.

 About Team Cul de Sac

Team Cul de Sac is a fundraising effort in honor of Richard Thompson, the cartoonist behind the Cul de Sac comic strip. Richard was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. With Richard's support, Chris Sparks asked cartoonists across the country to contribute comics compiled into a fundraising book published by Andrews McMeel (Team Cul de Sac: Cartoonists Draw The Line At Parkinson's). The original artwork was auctioned to raise additional money. Team Cul de Sac continues to progress and expand our fundraising efforts.

 

- See more at: http://engage.parkinsonfoundation.org/site/TR?team_id=2180&fr_id=1050&pg=team#sthash.HTSVCSG2.dpuf

Photos from the Library of Congress National Book Festival

Here's pictures of some of the cartoonists including Jennifer Holm, Peter De Seve, Keith Knight, Scott Stantis, Lalo Alcaraz, Diane Noomin, Miss Lasko-Gross, and Trina Robbins. Also Michael David Thomas of SPX.