Taped on location at the Small Press Expo! Producer/Host Ulysses E. Campbell talks with ComiXology co-founder John D. Roberts and vice president of marketing Chip Mosher about the services of the premier purveyor of digital comics! John and Chip share why SPX is important, comment on the rise of digital comics and the ComiXology Submit portal that allows cartoonists access to the larger marketplace.
On Tues March 22, I will be giving a lecture at George Washington University on Ferdowsi's epic Persian Poem, The Shahnameh and its use in popular culture and media.
Copies of the book, Shahnameh For Kids will also be available.
This is a free event, open to the everyone but seating is limited so please RSVP below
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog March 18 2016
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2016/03/18/the-simpsons-predicted-a-trump-presidency-16-years-ago-tomorrow-the-writer-explains-why/Washington Post Comic Riffs blog March 16 2016
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2016/03/16/gene-luen-yang-took-on-superman-today-the-writer-exits-with-a-ripped-new-creative-muscle/'Daredevil' actress grows into her Netflix character, even as she braces for dark turns ahead
By David Betancourt
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog March 15 2016
This 'Daredevil' actress used her karate skills to play one of TV's toughest characters
By David Betancourt
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog March 16 2016
How Charlie Cox works faster, harder, tougher for the new season of Netflix's 'Daredevil'
By David Betancourt
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog March 17 2016
From Elektra to the Punisher: Our 5 takeaways from today's striking new season of Netflix's 'Daredevil'
By David Betancourt
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog March 18 2016
A witty, intelligent cultural history from NPR book critic Glen Weldon explains Batman's rises and falls throughout the ages—and what his story tells us about ourselves.
Since his creation, Batman has been many things: a two-fisted detective; a planet-hopping gadabout; a campy Pop-art sensation; a pointy-eared master spy; and a grim and gritty ninja of the urban night. For more than three quarters of a century, he has cycled from a figure of darkness to one of lightness and back again; he's a bat-shaped Rorschach inkblot who takes on the various meanings our changing culture projects onto him. How we perceive Batman's character, whether he's delivering dire threats in a raspy Christian Bale growl or trading blithely homoerotic double-entendres with partner Robin on the comics page, speaks to who we are and how we wish to be seen by the world. It's this endlessly mutable quality that has made him so enduring.
And it's Batman's fundamental nerdiness—his gadgets, his obsession, his oath, even his lack of superpowers—that uniquely resonates with his fans who feel a fiercely protective love for the character. Today, fueled by the internet, that breed of passion for elements of popular culture is everywhere. Which is what makes Batman the perfect lens through which to understand geek culture, its current popularity, and social significance.
In The Caped Crusade, with humor and insight, Glen Weldon, book critic for NPR and author of Superman: The Unauthorized Biography, lays out Batman's seventy-eight-year cultural history and shows how he has helped make us who we are today and why his legacy remains so strong.
Glen Weldon will be in conversationwith Linda Holmes, host and editor of NPR's Monkey See blog.
GEM Gives Scoop Alice in Wonderland Exhibit Preview
Scoop March 18 2016
http://scoop.previewsworld.com/Home/4/1/73/1012?ArticleID=176338
Inspired by the Japanese art of kamishibai, or "paper theater," this wordless story is meant to inspire a performance. A boy and girl are cruelly teasing animals in a forest when a frightened bird takes flight. The children give chase up a mountainside and find themselves confronted by a mystical man who has feathers emerging from his clothing. With a flash like lightning, the children are transformed—into monkeys. Eventually captured by humans, they receive some of the cruel treatment they had earlier perpetrated themselves. In keeping with kamishibai tradition, this tale contains a lesson for young readers to discover as they turn the pages. Ages 5 – 8
In January, 2015 terrorism attacked freedom of expression with the assault on the satire magazine Charlie Hebdo. The slogan "Je suis Charlie" became ubiquitous. All of Europe showed its solidarity with France. The European media reproduced caricatures as a show of solidarity.
European cultural organizations hold on to the belief in the freedom of expression, and refuse to avoid difficult topics. Four caricaturists gathered on February 11, 2016, at NYU's Washington, DC campus to discuss these questions: Steven Degryse (LECTTRR) from Belgium, Ann Telnaes (The Washington Post), Kevin Kallaugher (The Economist), Matt Wuerker (Politico).
This event was held in cooperation with the Embassy of Belgium and the House of Flanders, New York. The program was also supported by the Delegation of the European Union to the United States, the British Council, the Embassy of Slovenia, the Austrian Cultural Forum, the Goethe-Institut, EUNIC and New York University.
Hi guys! My comics will be appearing daily on GoComics starting today! This will be a mix of stuff from my archives and some new stuff. I'm really excited about meeting new readers through GoComics and showing off my years-old comics archives as well. You can check out my GoComics page here!
Play by Amy Thompson
Adapted from the Comic Strip, Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson
http://www.encorestageva.org/2015/05/19/cul-de-sac/
Four-year-old Alice Otterloop and her older brother, Petey, learn about friendship and the importance of being yourself in this world premier play adaptation of Richard Thompson's nationally syndicated Cul De Sac comic strip. When Alice decides to help Petey become more exciting she risks sending Petey further into his shell. With the help other their parents, teachers, and new and old friends the Otterloop children just might be able to learn something from each other. We recommend this production for ages 4 and older.
Performance Dates and Times:
Friday, June 3, 2016 at 7:30pm
Saturday, June 4, 2016 at 11am and 3pm
Sunday, June 5, 2016 at 3pm
Friday, June 10, 2016 at 7:30pm
Saturday, June 11, 2016 at 11am and 3pm
Sunday, June 12, 2016 at 3pm
All performances are held at Thomas Jefferson Community Theatre (125 S. Old Glebe Rd., Arlington, VA 22204)
Tickets: $15 Adults; $10 Children, Students, Military and Seniors with valid ID. Includes all box office fees. Click here to purchase your tickets online, or call our box office (703)548-1154.
This production is sponsored by Michael Rogers, DDS.
 A&A #1 Written By Rafer Roberts |  Superman #50 Beyond Comics Variant Cover |
| Meet Writer Rafer Roberts | Cover Artist Ed Benes |
| Friday, March 25th 11am-2pm Shepherdstown Friday, March 25th 2pm - 6pm Wednesday, March 30th 11 - 1 | Beyond Comics Exclusive Connecting Variant Covers $20 / Set of 2 In Store |
by Erin Allen
"Dogear Wryde Postcards: Neglected Murderesses Series," 1980. Set 208 of 250, numbered and signed by Edward Gorey. Rare Book and Special Collections Division. Photo by Shawn Miller.
'The Neil Gaiman Coloring Book' Helps Support Independent Bookstores
Kristian Wilson
March 11 2016
Cartoonists Roundtable: One Year After "Charlie Hebdo"
March 9th, 2016
https://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/cartoonists-roundtable-one-year-after-charlie-hebdo
http://krieger.jhu.edu/visualarts/2016/03/11/ben-katchor/
Katchor's talk, "Hand-Drying in America and Other Stories," starts at 5:30 p.m. in Room 101 of the F. Ross Jones Building, Mattin Center, on the Homewood campus at 3400 N. Charles St. in Baltimore. A book-signing will follow. Admission is free and open to the public.
Subtitled "Picture-recitations from 18 years of comic-strips about architecture and urban design from Metropolis magazine," Katchor's talk bears the same title as his most recent anthology, published by Pantheon Books in 2013. Hand-Drying in America and Other Stories was included in Time Magazine and NPR's Best Books of the Year lists and was named one of The Daily Beast's Top Coffee-Table Books of 2013.
Tom Chalkley, a cartooning instructor at the university's Center for Visual Arts, describes Katchor as "the rare cartoonist who raises the picture-story to the level of literature – his stories are mysterious, allusive, at once banal and surreal, examining the random forces of history and culture in the America of his imagination."
"Katchor is an urban visionary, building his stories brick by brick from the detritus of the metropolis: the derelict buildings, the unremembered districts, the flotsam and jetsam of the streets," writes Los Angeles Timesbook critic David L. Ulin. "His is an aesthetic of ephemera, but an ephemera that transcends itself, in which loss leads to wonder and then, inevitably, back to loss."
Katchor's other books include Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer, Hotel & Farm, The Jew of New York, The Cardboard Valise, and Shoehorn Technique. In addition to Metropolis, his work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Jewish Daily Forward and numerous weekly newspapers. He has collaborated with composer Mark Mulcahy on six music-theater shows, most recently The Imaginary War Crimes Tribunal.
In 2000, Katchor became the first cartoonist to receive a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. He has also received a Guggenheim Fellowship and is a fellow of the American Academy in Berlin. He is an associate professor at Parsons School of Design/The New School in New York City, where he directs the Illustration program.
Katchor's appearance, his first at Johns Hopkins since 1999, is co-sponsored by the Center for Visual Arts and Homewood Arts Programs.
