Thursday, September 14, 2017

For Immediate Release
Contact: Catherine Fraas

Washington, DC; September 12, 2017 - The Small Press Expo (SPX), the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comics, graphic novels, and alternative political cartoons, is pleased to announce that the Philadelphia Free Library is the 2017 recipient of the Small Press Expo Graphic Novel Gift Program.

This program, the first of its kind in the United States, is an outright gift of graphic novels to the library as selected by the library's collections specialists, who this year selected 87 titles comprising 310 individual books.

To date, the Small Press Expo Graphic Novel Gift Program has given away over 1800 graphic novels and comics to library systems from Virginia to Pennsylvania.

There was a formal presentation of the books to the Philadelphia Free Library by Small Press Expo Graphic Novel Gift Program Director Catherine Fraas on Saturday, September 9.

The books were selected by the library's collection staff from the offerings of publishers Fantagraphics, Top Shelf, Drawn & Quarterly, Cartoon Books, Adhouse Books and Koyama Press, all of whom support this program.

The artist Kris Mukai designed a special bookplate that has been placed in all of the books to be donated by SPX.

SPX's Graphic Novel Gift Program is an expansion of the philanthropic and charitable endeavors that are part of its corporate charter, and is in addition to SPX's annual support to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. The targets of this program are public and academic library systems in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area as selected by the Small Press Expo.

The goals of this program are:

- to facilitate the availability of graphic novels to readers of all ages utilizing public and school libraries,
- to promote learning and literacy through the availability of graphic novels at local libraries, and
- to provide library systems with additional resources by which they can purchase graphic novels and comics.

SPX will be held Saturday, September 16 from 11am-7pm and Sunday, September 17, 12-6pm at the North Bethesda Marriott Convention Center in North Bethesda, Maryland. Admission is $15 for Saturday, $10 for Sunday, and $20 for both days.

Mike and Maggie Jenkins on NBC News tonight

They'll be on talking about the lunch bags that Mike has drawn for his daughter for years now. Mike says, " NBC Nightly News airs here at 7:00. It'll be near the end of the broadcast, 7:20ish."

Favorites of mine who'll be at SPX

Local friends of ComicsDC include my co-author Matt Dembicki, Christiann "Sticky Comics" MacAuley, Steve "Hurricane" Conley (if his power comes on), Retrofit Comics, DC Conspiracy, Teresa Logan Roberts, G.E. Gallas, Vanessa Bettencourt, Gordon Harris, and Curls Studio's Carolyn Belefski and Joe Carabeo. I buy anything new they have as a matter of course (bitch at me if I've missed listing you; I'm doing this part from memory) and I believe ALL of them have new books.

Speaking of which, I've compiled this book:

Picture This Press publishes first title in the Richard Thompson Library

Picture This Press is proud to publish The Incomplete Art of Why Things Are, the first volume in its new series devoted to the work of artist Richard Thompson. The Richard Thompson Library will collect a variety of works produced by the prolific Thompson over the course of his career that have yet to be reprinted since their original publication.

Other emails I've gotten from people I admire include:

Rosarium Publishing:

Bizhan Khodabandeh and Whitney Taylor at Small Press Expo (SPX) in Bethesda, MD, in September 16-17th.

Kriota Willberg:

This year I will be selling mini comics and body science based images at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda Maryland (http://www.smallpressexpo.com). My debut comic for this event is called Stitchin' Time!, a ridiculous historical fiction based on factual medical history. For the first time ever, the Roman encyclopedist Celsus (25 BCE-50 CE) and the Greek surgeon Galen (129-200 CE) team up to to stitch a disemboweled gladiator back together. Hilarity ensues! My table number at SPX is H13A. If you are in the neighborhood, come on by!

Lucy Bellwood:

If you're in the DC area and want the support of a friendly face, I'll be tabling at the Small Press Expo next weekend in Bethesda, MD. Come find me at Table K9A, right next to the Cartozia Tales team. (Speaking of Cartozia, I'm selling off some rare original art I did for the series over in my online shop, if you're interested in that sort of thing.)

Drawn & Quarterly:

Catch D+Q at SPX at table #W1-4 this coming September 16th and 17th in North Bethesda! We will be accompanied by special guests Jillian Tamaki (Boundless) and Michael DeForge (Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero), all weekend, as well as R. Sikoryak (Terms and Conditions, The Unquotable Trump) on Saturday only.

Fantagraphics:

This year's guests include:
Gilbert Hernandez, Tommi Musturi, Emil Ferris, Charles Forsman, Eleanor Davis, Ann Telnaes, Ben Marra, Michel Fiffe, Noah Van Sciver, Simon Hanselmann, Katie Skelly, Sophie Goldstein, Graham Chaffee, Joseph Remnant, Mark Fertig, Dash Shaw, Liz Suburbia, and others!

Monday, September 11, 2017

Sept 15: SPX's Annual Library of Congress Lecture: Comics & The Power of Intellectual Freedom

Sixth Annual SPX Lecture at the Library of Congress: The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund: Comics & The Power of Intellectual Freedom.

For Immediate Release Contact: Warren Bernard
Email: warren@spxpo.com

Bethesda, Maryland; September 11, 2017

Media Release — This year's annual Small Press Expo Lecture is The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund: Comics & The Power of Intellectual Freedom.

Where: Library of Congress Madison Building
West Dining Room, 6th floor
Metro Stop: Capitol South
When: Friday, September 15, 2017, 12:00 noon-1:00 PM

A trend that began in the 1940s continues today—challenges to comic books! Charles Brownstein, Executive Director of the non-profit Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, will share the history of comic book censorship from the medium's origins to the present day.

Participants will learn about the history of comic book censorship, and how that history still informs challenges to graphic novels happening right now. Learn what CBLDF does to protect this valuable medium, discover some of the most frequently challenged comics and graphic novels, and what you can do to make a difference.

Emerge from this session with a new or renewed passion for comics, graphic novels, and manga and as a strong advocate for protecting this form of free speech!

A selection of comic books from the Serial and Government Publications Division will be on display.

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

http://www.loc.gov/rr/news/calendar.html

SPX also supports the Small Press Expo Collection at the Library of Congress, which preserves the history of both the artistic output of the creators who come to SPX, as well as the art that SPX itself generates as part of its yearly festival. It the first program of its type by a major institution in the United States to preserve the works of the indie comics community.

Small Press Expo (SPX) is the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comics, graphic novels, and alternative political cartoons. SPX is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit that brings together more than 600 artists and publishers to meet their readers, booksellers, and distributors each year. Graphic novels, mini comics, and alternative comics will all be on display and for sale by their authors and illustrators. The expo includes a series of panel discussions and interviews with this year's guests.

The Ignatz Award is a festival prize held every year at SPX recognizing outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning, with the winners chosen by attendees at the show.

As in previous years, profits from the SPX will go to support the SPX Graphic Novel Gift Program, which funds graphic novel purchases for public and academic libraries, as well as the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF), which protects the First Amendment rights of comic book readers and professionals. For more information on the CBLDF, visit their website at http://www.cbldf.org. For more information on the Small Press Expo, please visit http://www.spxpo.com .

Sept 26: Drawing Inspiration with Cartoonist Jim Toomey

Drawing Inspiration with Cartoonist Jim Toomey

Tuesday, September 26 at 7 pm

Reception at 6:30 pm with refreshments

Nationally syndicated cartoonist Jim Toomey, who has been drawing the newspaper comic strip "Sherman's Lagoon" for almost two decades, uses live drawing to demonstrate how he weaves an environmental message into his work, and how he has taken what he has learned in "old media" and applied it to creating short films and animations for an online audience.

Free and open to the public. Location:

Malsi Doyle & Michael Forman Theater – 2^nd Floor, McKinley Building, American University

4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20016-8017

Comic Riffs on the death of Len Wein

Len Wein, the Wolverine co-creator and 'Watchmen' editor, dies at 69

By Michael Cavna

Washington Post Comic Riffs blog September 11 2017

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2017/09/11/len-wein-the-wolverine-co-creator-and-watchmen-editor-dies-at-69/

Wein wrote a lot of the comics I treasured in the 1970s and 80s.

Saturday, September 09, 2017

That darn Keith Knight!

A comic strip's offensive jokes about Trump's children [in print as This comic? Sad!]

John Lane

Washington Post September 9 2017, p. A13

online at https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-comic-strips-offensive-jokes-about-trumps-children/2017/09/07/d80ffee4-9254-11e7-8482-8dc9a7af29f9_story.html

Friday, September 08, 2017

Comic Riffs on New Yorker's upcoming Kim cover

Kim Jong Un is painted as a mysterious, menacing 'Warhead' on the latest New Yorker cover

By Michael Cavna

Washington Post Comic Riffs blog September 8 2017

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2017/09/08/kim-jong-un-is-painted-as-a-mysterious-menacing-warhead-on-the-latest-new-yorker-cover/

by Eric Drooker. (The New Yorker 2017)

The Post reviews Bojack Horseman 4

'BoJack Horseman' returns with its most emotional season yet [in print as New season delves into 'Bojack's' past].

By Bethonie Butler

Washington Post September 8 2017, p. C3

online at https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/bojack-horseman-returns-with-its-most-emotional-season-yet/2017/09/06/567a4b7e-8f4c-11e7-91d5-ab4e4bb76a3a_story.html

BoJack Horseman (voiced by Will Arnett) in Netflix's "BoJack Horseman." (Netflix)

American Masters: Tyrus, tonight on WETA and WMPT

Tyrus

About the Film

Premiere date: September 8, 2017 | 0:02:24

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/tyrus-about-the-film/8917/

People worldwide have seen the Disney animated classic Bambi and been deeply moved by it, but few can tell you the name of the artist behind the film. Even fewer are aware of this pioneering artist's impact on American art and popular culture. Until his death at the age of 106, Tyrus Wong (1910-2016) was America's oldest living Chinese American artist and one of the last remaining artists from the golden age of Disney animation. The quiet beauty of his Eastern-influenced paintings caught the eye of Walt Disney, who made Wong the inspirational sketch artist for Bambi. Filmmaker Pamela Tom (A Tribute to Sir Sidney Poitier, Two Lies ) corrects a historical wrong by spotlighting this seminal, but heretofore under-credited, figure in American Masters: Tyrus, premiering nationwide Friday, September 8 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings) in honor of the 75th anniversary of Bambi (August 1942). After the film, in a new, exclusive interview, filmmakers/artists Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi discuss how Wong influenced them and share an excerpt from their Oscar-nominated animated short The Dam Keeper (2014). This segment and the documentary will be available to stream the following day via pbs.org/americanmasters and PBS OTT apps.

Born in Canton (now Guangzhou), China, right before the fall of the Chinese Empire, Wong and his father immigrated to America in 1919, never to see their family again. American Masters: Tyrus shows how he overcame a life of poverty and racism to become a celebrated painter who once exhibited with Picasso and Matisse, a Hollywood sketch artist, and 'Disney Legend.' Previously unseen art and interviews with Wong, movie clips and archival footage illustrate how his unique style – melding Chinese calligraphic and landscape influences with contemporary Western art – is found in everything from Disney animation (Bambi) and live-action Hollywood studio films (Rebel Without a Cause, The Wild Bunch, Sands of Iwo Jima, April in Paris) to Hallmark Christmas cards, kites and hand-painted California dinnerware to fine art and Depression-era WPA paintings. The film also features new interviews with his daughters and fellow artists/designers, including his Disney co-worker and friend Milton Quon, Andreas Deja (The Little Mermaid), Eric Goldberg (Aladdin) and Paul Felix (Lilo & Stitch), and curators and historians of Wong's work.

"Tyrus Wong's story is a prime example of one of the many gaping holes in our society's narrative on art, cinema, and Western history," said Pamela Tom. "By telling his story, I wanted to shine light on one of America's unsung heroes, and raise awareness of the vital contributions he's made to American culture."

"When I met Tyrus, I knew very little about his astounding work, which I then saw displayed prominently at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco," said Michael Kantor, American Masters series executive producer. "This beautifully realized film is a reminder that there are many American Masters who are not immediately recognizable, but when you learn about their stories, you'll never forget them."

Launched in 1986, American Masters has earned 28 Emmy Awards — including 10 for Outstanding Non-Fiction Series and five for Outstanding Non-Fiction Special — 12 Peabodys, an Oscar, three Grammys, two Producers Guild Awards and many other honors. The series' 31st season on PBS features new documentaries about filmmaker Richard Linklater (September 1), author Edgar Allan Poe (October 30) and entertainer Bob Hope (December 29). To further explore the lives and works of masters past and present, the American Masters website (http://pbs.org/americanmasters) offers streaming video of select films, outtakes, filmmaker interviews, the American Masters Podcast, educational resources and In Their Own Words: The American Masters Digital Archive: previously unreleased interviews of luminaries discussing America's most enduring artistic and cultural giants. The series is a production of THIRTEEN PRODUCTIONS LLC for WNET and also seen on the WORLD channel.
American Masters: Tyrus is a production of New Moon Pictures, Apricot Films, Lux Mundi Productions, and Stone Circle Pictures in association with the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) and THIRTEEN PRODUCTIONS LLC's American Masters for WNET. Pamela Tom is writer and director. Pamela Tom, Gwen Wynne and Tamara Khalaf are producers. Linda Barry is co-producer. Don Hahn, Robert Louie, David W. Louie and Buck Gee are executive producers. Michael Kantor is American Masters series executive producer.

Major support for American Masters and Tyrus is provided by AARP. Additional support for American Masters is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Rosalind P. Walter, Ellen and James S. Marcus, The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, Vital Projects Fund, Judith and Burton Resnick, Cheryl and Philip Milstein Family, The Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation, and public television viewers. Additional support for Tyrus is provided in part by The Louie Family Foundation, The Walt Disney Company Foundation, Buck Gee & Mary Hackenbracht, the National Endowment for the Arts, County of Los Angeles Board of Supervisors, Bill Yee, East West Bank, and Women in Film.

Another Otakon interview from Scoop

Otakon Interview: Hideyuki Tomioka

Scoop September 8 2017

http://scoop.previewsworld.com/Home/4/1/73/1018?ArticleID=199426

Mike Wieringo's Tellos Tribute Books at Baltimore Comic Con

Wieringo Tellos Tribute at Baltimore Comic-Con is the story on the Scoop site.

New collection of Richard Thompson art coming out next weekend

The Incomplete Art of "Why Things Are"
Art by Richard Thompson
Foreword by Joel Achenbach • Edited by Michael Rhode
The Richard Thompson Library, Volume 1

Before the incalculable capacity of the Internet to answer nearly any question put to it while allowing a legion of pedants to hold forth without constraint, getting the facts of the matter took some effort. Just before the end of those benighted times there was a Washington Post column entitled "Why Things Are" to which readers could pose everything from child-like queries to stoner hypotheticals in the hope of answers to life's arcane conundrums. That weekly column ran in the newspaper from 1990 to 1996, and it was adorned with smart, silly cartoons by then staff artist extraordinaire Richard Thompson. In retrospect, it's not surprising that those cartoons stand up quite well by themselves, getting their own laughs from the eccentric questions posed by readers. Gathered here for the first time is a (near) complete collection of Thompson's genius illustrations and cartoons for "Why Things Are," the first regular humor series in Thompson's career.
THE RICHARD THOMPSON LIBRARY 
The Richard Thompson Library, published by Picture This Press, collects the work of one of the great artists working in cartooning and illustration in the last 25 years.
Paperback: $27.95 • 346 pp. • B&W • paperback • ISBN: 978-0-9906932-8-4
Hardcover: $34.95 • 346 pp. • B&W • hardcover • ISBN: 978-0-9906932-9-1 

Richard Thompson (1957-2016)

Photo by Allan Janus

Thompson—one of his generation's greatest cartoonists and caricaturists—was beloved by readers and fellow artists alike. Pat Oliphant called him "Michelangelo with a sense of humor," and Bill Watterson, who had not said anything publicly in almost 20 years, broke his silence to credit Thompson with "giving me a reason to read the comics again." In a more than 35-year career, Thompson, his work appeared in U.S. News & World Report, The New Yorker, Air & Space/Smithsonian, National Geographic, and The Atlantic Monthly. He is best known for his 2004–12 syndicated comic strip, Cul de Sac.

Thursday, September 07, 2017

Sept 21: New York Japan CineFest 2017 in D.C.

Join us for a free screening of animated short films at the JICC!

Highlighting some of the most exciting new voices in cinema, the New York Japan CineFest returns to the JICC for a night of short animated films!

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Japanese animation the program this year will feature selections of animated works from new and talented animators and directors.
Founded by Yasu Suzuki, Kosuke Furukawa, and Hiroshi Kono in 2011, the New York Japan CineFest (NYJCF) began as a small, one-night event in New York City. Now in its seventh year, it has grown into an international, multi-city program connecting up-and-coming independent Japanese and Japanese-American filmmakers with a forum for expressing their unique perspective to the world.
Join us on September 21st for seven award-winning short animated films followed by a discussion and Q&A with animator Naoko Hara. For a full list of films and descriptions, please visit our website or the event registration page below.
In English or Japanese with English subtitles | Not Rated | 98 min | Various Genres
Registration is required.

ANIMATOR: NAOKO HARA

Born and raised in Tokyo, Naoko Hara ventured to NYC to expand her horizons.

With a BFA in Design and Motion Graphics from the School of Visual Arts, she has a flair for typography and design that has attracted the attention of studios and directors.
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Presented with New York Japan CineFest

You are invited to

New York Japan CineFest 2017

Thursday, September 21st, 2017

from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM (EDT)

Japan Information & Culture Center, Embassy of Japan

1150 18th Street Northwest

Suite 100

Washington DC 20036 US

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

In the event of a cancellation, please contact us at jicc@ws.mofa.go.jp.

Doors open 30 minutes before the program. All programs begin at 6:30PM.

No admittance after 7:00PM or once seating is full.

Registered guests will be seated on a first come, first served basis. Please note that seating is limited and registration does not guarantee a seat.

The JICC reserves the right to use any photograph/video taken at any event sponsored by JICC without the expressed written permission of those included within the photograph/video.

1150 18th Street NW, Suite 100 | Washington, D.C. 20036-3838
TEL: 202-238-6900 | FAX: 202-822-6524 | jicc@ws.mofa.go.jp

© 1981-2017 Japan Information & Culture Center, Embassy of Japan