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Tuesday, February 25, 2020
Monday, February 24, 2020
Catching up with The Lily
I have always struggled with dark circles under my eyes. Here's what I didn't realize.
I learned a lot when I looked into the ideas behind certain beauty products
Cuddles and Rage talk Bites of Terror - their new horror comic
by Mike Rhode
Cuddles and Rage (aka Jimmy and Liz Reed) have a new book coming out soon, but it's not a friendly little children's book. Instead it's 144 pages of horror comics starring anthropomorphic food.
As their press release states -
Tales from the Crypt meets All My Friends Are Dead in Bites of Terror: 10 Frightfully Delicious Tales (Quirk Books; On sale: March 24, 2020) by the creative duo Cuddles and Rage, also known as Liz and Jimmy Reed. The team’s adorably creepy work began as a webcomic and has been featured everywhere from Nerdist to the Washington Post. Now they’re bringing their unique combination of adorable hand-sculpted characters, meticulously designed dioramas, and photographed panels to a graphic novel that’s sure to delight anyone with a dark sense of humor. In the book’s foreword, Fangoria magazine’s Phil Nobile, Jr. notes that Cuddles and Rage is “a brilliant storytelling duo that examines the human condition through stories about anthropomorphic foods who live rich, full, hilarious, and often relatable lives.”
From an ice cream cone who makes an ill-fated deal with the devil(’s food cake) to a moldy strawberry craving one last dip in a bowl of whipped cream, Bites of Terror’s characters find themselves caught in various fear-filled scenarios, each with a uniquely morbid twist ending. Introducing the tales is the Cake Creeper, a partially eaten groom’s cake who seems to have a sinister agenda. Here’s a sampling of sinful stories to whet your appetite:
As their press release states -
Tales from the Crypt meets All My Friends Are Dead in Bites of Terror: 10 Frightfully Delicious Tales (Quirk Books; On sale: March 24, 2020) by the creative duo Cuddles and Rage, also known as Liz and Jimmy Reed. The team’s adorably creepy work began as a webcomic and has been featured everywhere from Nerdist to the Washington Post. Now they’re bringing their unique combination of adorable hand-sculpted characters, meticulously designed dioramas, and photographed panels to a graphic novel that’s sure to delight anyone with a dark sense of humor. In the book’s foreword, Fangoria magazine’s Phil Nobile, Jr. notes that Cuddles and Rage is “a brilliant storytelling duo that examines the human condition through stories about anthropomorphic foods who live rich, full, hilarious, and often relatable lives.”
From an ice cream cone who makes an ill-fated deal with the devil(’s food cake) to a moldy strawberry craving one last dip in a bowl of whipped cream, Bites of Terror’s characters find themselves caught in various fear-filled scenarios, each with a uniquely morbid twist ending. Introducing the tales is the Cake Creeper, a partially eaten groom’s cake who seems to have a sinister agenda. Here’s a sampling of sinful stories to whet your appetite:
- Deviled Egg: A freak accident has a Jekyll-and-Hyde effect, leaving a hard-boiled egg split in two sides—one good, one evil.
- Pizza Party Massacre: A pizza slice working in children’s entertainment reluctantly agrees to attend a last-minute birthday party at a previous client’s house, the site of a violent incident.
- Death by Chocolate: At the request of his police chief, a turnip detective grudgingly allows a banana from the press to tail him as he investigates a murder spree perpetrated by a killer who removes the chocolate from his tasty victims.Unfortunate Cookie: After his mother’s death, a fortune cookie gains her gift of second sight, but his newfound knowledge may be more curse than blessing.
- Preserved: A peach tries to keep her life and household afloat while dealing with the incessant criticism and neediness of her mother (and roommate).
In our two previous interviews in 2013 and 2016, I don't think we ever firmly pinned this down. For the record, which one of you is Cuddles and which is Rage? Liz: Personality wise, we go back and forth. Originally, Liz was Rage & Jimmy was Cuddles.
Jimmy: It’s definitely a rotating situation. I feel lucky that we have each other to keep the balance in check.
Where does the name come from anyway?
Liz: “Cuddles” and “Rage” were nicknames we created for each other when we would co-op game together. I can confirm that you are more successful at gaming when you lead with cuddles instead of rage. I died a lot, but Jimmy was always there to revive me.
When last we chatted you were publishing comics on HelloGiggles website. When did you stop doing work for it? Are you doing work for any other web publication now?
Liz: We shared our work there for about two years ending mid-2015. We are so thankful to Zooey Deschanel, Sophia Rossi, and Molly McAleer for the time our comics did live there. They created a platform that lifted a lot of female creators to another level. I don’t think we’d be where we are today without their support. Right now our work is posted on our own site and social accounts, but we’ve done work for a number of other publications and platforms and love collaborating on new projects.
Liz: Over the years, Jimmy and I have worked hard on fine tuning our voice to match our “quirky stories with heart” mantra. With the picture books, we originally wanted them to be darker, but the stories for that age group needed more cuddles than rage. I love that those stories bring smiles instead of nightmares to kids. I hope we will have an opportunity to write some creepy kidlit one day. After writing each picture book, we would animate a new Dr. Taquito short to unleash all the dark humor brewing inside our hearts. For me, horror is my true love. Bites of Terror gave us the opportunity to create darker stories fit for the whole family to enjoy. This is where we want to be.
Jimmy: I agree, we are huge fans of horror. We’re always writing weirder and darker stories for ourselves. I love that we’ve been able to embrace those aspects of our storytelling with Bites of Terror.
What are your influences here? The original EC comics in this mode, or the later DC ones like House of Mystery, or the Tales from the Crypt tv shows?Liz: I grew up watching Tales from the Crypt with my mom. That was really my first experience with horror anthologies. Since then I’ve consumed every horror anthology I can get my hands on. They are the perfect length for a quick fix or a long binge watch. In writing the proposal for Bites of Terror, I read a lot of the EC comics and dissected how the stories unfolded. You can’t beat the classics. Watching the HBO Tales does make me clutch my pearls at times now. Was I too young to be watching something so revealing in the 90s? This is a question I’m saving for my mom next Christmas.
Jimmy: I also grew up watching horror with my mom. It’s something that Liz and I discovered that we had in common early in our relationship. We’re huge film fans, and some of our influences there were horror anthologies like Tales from the Crypt, Cat’s Eye, Creepshow, Trilogy of Terror, and Tales from the Hood. I have always gravitated toward compilations where you get to sample multiple stories. I’m that way at a buffet, too - I’m putting a little bit of everything on that plate!
Who takes the lead in writing the spookier stories? The sweeter ones?
Liz: We each wrote five stories. It surprises me to say this, but I think Jimmy may have some of the darker stories in there. Young. Old. Sweet. Sour. Nobody was safe from Jimmy’s words. My stories focused a lot on relationships and life. Our 14-year-old dog passed away while we were writing Bites of Terror. My life had been flipped upside down. Getting lost in the writing during that time was very therapeutic—although some of the early drafts read a little too sad at times.
Jimmy: I think we found a nice balance between us in giving each story its own voice. We each gave a few of our characters some sweeter moments, but we also both put a few of them through the emotional wringer. No food is safe around here.
Who does the character design?
Liz: We typically designed the characters for our respective stories, but Jimmy did most of the heavy lifting there. I focused on sculpting and sets.
How many media did you use in the new book? I see clay, photography, drawing & paper cutting (the "Make a Wish" title panel).
Liz: Oh gosh! I lost count. Clay, liquid clay, silicone, foam, acrylics, pastels, wire, wood, paper, gel, inks, foil, sticks, foam board, old clothes, cardboard, cotton, steel wool, spray paint, felt, cabinet liners, mesh bags from produce and tons of miscellaneous trash. It got to the point where I had to accept that maybe some of this stuff was more trash than art.
Are all these stories new for the book?
Liz: All new stories. A few of them were inspired by our older comics.
Are you going to collect your earlier webcomic material?
Jimmy: We have self-published a few compilations for our convention appearances, but would love the opportunity to put a comprehensive volume together.
Are you still going to local cons?
Liz: Yes! Our next local con is Awesome Con DC in May. We always love doing Small Press Expo too in September.
Jimmy: We love the local comics community, and our local conventions have such a great mix of artists. We watch the table for each other so we can shop and always walk away with a bag full of new books and art. Are those grape neighbors throwing away raisins? Any other food 'easter eggs' included (besides the deviled egg story)?
Liz: Yes. The cycle of life is quite short for those little guys. We hid mini jokes throughout the entire book. We even included Middle-Aged Pig who we sneak into every book we make.
See Cuddles and Rage:
Cuddles and Rage Presents Beetlejuice at The Alamo Drafthouse, Winchester, VA - March 26 at 7:15pm
Fountain Books Signing, 1312 East Cary St. Richmond, VA 23219 - March 28 at 2pm
Fantom Comics Signing, Washington, DC - April 11, 2pm
Third Eye Comics Signing (date TBD)
To keep up with C&R:
Disturbingly cute stuff by Liz & Jimmy Reed
Follow us on Twitter: @cuddlesandrage
Follow us on Instagram: @cuddlesandrage
Follow us on YouTube: CuddlesAndRageDisturbingly cute stuff by Liz & Jimmy Reed
Follow us on Twitter: @cuddlesandrage
Follow us on Instagram: @cuddlesandrage
Latest comic on The Lily
Do you remember LiveJournal? It was an essential part of my teenage identity.
Back in 2005, I'd spend hours reading what others had written
Bruce Guthrie on UVA's Oliphant exhibit
by Bruce Guthrie I went down to Charlottesville this weekend to see the new Oliphant exhibit there. While there, I met with Molly Schwartzburg who was co-curator of the exhibit that I had been sending emails to regarding photo policies and such. We had a good chat!
This is the official exhibit description:
Oliphant: Unpacking the Archive
September 23, 2019 – May 30, 2020
Celebrating the recent acquisition of editorial cartoonist Patrick Oliphant’s voluminous archive
September 23, 2019 – May 30, 2020
Celebrating the recent acquisition of editorial cartoonist Patrick Oliphant’s voluminous archive
In
2018, Patrick and Susan Oliphant donated almost 7,000 drawings,
watercolors, prints, sculptures, and sketchbooks to the UVA Library.
Complementing the art is a wealth of archival material: correspondence,
photographs, professional papers, scrapbooks, and recordings. This, the
first exhibition to juxtapose the archive with Oliphant’s artwork, shows
how and why Oliphant became the most widely syndicated, most
influential political cartoonist in America, shaping the political
consciousness of generations.
What happens when a great artist takes
up the profession of political cartooning and deploys all the weapons
in his considerable arsenal to send a message? Endowed with a skepticism
of the status quo, a love of drawing, and little formal training,
Oliphant began his career at eighteen as a copy boy in Adelaide,
Australia. When he joined the Denver Post in 1964 he introduced a linear
fluency and wit—a studied awareness of adversary traditions from
Hogarth, Goya, and Daumier to David Low—as well as an expansive
imagination and conceptual reach as yet unknown to American newspaper
audiences.
Oliphant’s swift rise to prominence, including a Pulitzer
Prize in 1967, was followed by five decades of sustained,
uncompromising work. From Watergate to Bridgegate, from Duoshade to
digital delivery, and from the ephemeral newspaper cartoon to the
lasting medium of bronze, Oliphant’s work both embraces its immediate
context and transcends the particulars of time, place, and medium to
reify universal traits of human character.
Today is a moment of
great change for political commentary and visual satire. As newspapers
continue to fold or merge, and the number of staff editorial cartoonists
drops from hundreds to dozens nationally, Oliphant’s archive will be
essential for understanding the place of political cartoons in
newsprint’s last decades of dominance, and inspiring paths forward in an
era of turbulent uncertainty.
It's a wonderful exhibit, filled with bunches of his daily strips, his sculptures, etc.
For
me, the major disappointment was that most of the artwork were
reproductions. Apparently, the originals were hung for the first couple
of months when it opened in September, but were then rotated out. The
signage was not changed to reflect this so I'm not entirely sure what
was original and what wasn't. That's not the way it's supposed to be in
a research library.
But ignoring that, there is a lot to love about the exhibit:
- The sketchbooks -- so many sketchbooks! -- are wonderful. There's even one (clearly a reproduction) that you can pick up and look through. Pat drew everything!
- There's a huge doodle picture on an easel that's just amazing. Between classic drawings are phone numbers, addresses, and appointment reminders.
- The sculptures -- two of which are downstairs -- are great. The National Portrait Gallery has copies of most of them too, but they all went off display when the presidential gallery was reorganized.
- There's a free poster and a fairly modest brochure. Both feature a self-portrait that he did for San Diego Comic-Con back in 2009. That was the one that I sat next to his wife Susan during his talk while he drew obscene things on his writing tablet (Susan kept covering her eyes during the demo).
- The history lesson about growing up in Australia and coming here on assignment were interesting. I always wondered why he was here.
- There was a display about Punk, the penguin character that visits most of his strips. Punk has been around.... well, hell, almost forever. It's his signature like Ralph Steadman's splatter. And like at Steadman's Katzen exhibit, you'll find Punk on the walls in something like ten places throughout the building including on floor landings and in the elevator. (Some Katzen folk got splatters added to their business cards. I'm not sure that happened with Punk.)
They did a
really nice job and it's well worth the trip. Plus that library also
has an interesting exhibit about the Declaration of Independence and
offset printing.
I of course did my normal photo obsessive thing -- so many photos! -- and they're up on http://www.bguthriephotos.com/
Sunday, February 23, 2020
Flugennock's Latest'n'Greatest: "In Case Of Bernie..."
From DC's anarchist cartoonist Mike Flugennock -
"In Case Of Bernie..."
http://sinkers.org/stage/?p=2935
Looks like Bernie Sanders is on a roll already, building up steam heading into the Nevada Caucuses, and that can only mean one thing – it's time to drag out Russiagate again, and like our heroic "first responders" the US media are right on top of things, trying to put out the fire.
What really bugs me about this, though — and along with running as a Democrat, it made Sanders a non-starter for me — is how Sanders, despite all the centrist galaxy brains accusing him of being a Russian stooge, has actually been riding the Krazy Train almost since the beginning.
Really, Berners — is this your goddamn hero, the guy who's going to lead your asses out of the desert? A guy who buys into the empty Russiagate hype, lets himself be rolled and Red-baited, and then bends the knee to a bunch of McCarthyists? Really?
Christ, you guys are going to get so goddamn screwed again — screwed blue and tattooed — and I, for one, am out of sympathy for you.
---------
"Sanders condemns Russian interference in 2020 elections", Politico 2.21.2020
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/21/bernie-sanders-condemns-russian-116640
"Bernie Sanders briefed by U.S. officials that Russia is trying to help his presidential campaign", Washington Post 02.21.2020
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/bernie-sanders-briefed-by-us-officials-that-russia-is-trying-to-help-his-presidential-campaign/2020/02/21/5ad396a6-54bd-11ea-929a-64efa7482a77_story.html
"In Case Of Bernie..."
http://sinkers.org/stage/?p=2935
Looks like Bernie Sanders is on a roll already, building up steam heading into the Nevada Caucuses, and that can only mean one thing – it's time to drag out Russiagate again, and like our heroic "first responders" the US media are right on top of things, trying to put out the fire.
What really bugs me about this, though — and along with running as a Democrat, it made Sanders a non-starter for me — is how Sanders, despite all the centrist galaxy brains accusing him of being a Russian stooge, has actually been riding the Krazy Train almost since the beginning.
Really, Berners — is this your goddamn hero, the guy who's going to lead your asses out of the desert? A guy who buys into the empty Russiagate hype, lets himself be rolled and Red-baited, and then bends the knee to a bunch of McCarthyists? Really?
Christ, you guys are going to get so goddamn screwed again — screwed blue and tattooed — and I, for one, am out of sympathy for you.
---------
"Sanders condemns Russian interference in 2020 elections", Politico 2.21.2020
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/21/bernie-sanders-condemns-russian-116640
"Bernie Sanders briefed by U.S. officials that Russia is trying to help his presidential campaign", Washington Post 02.21.2020
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/bernie-sanders-briefed-by-us-officials-that-russia-is-trying-to-help-his-presidential-campaign/2020/02/21/5ad396a6-54bd-11ea-929a-64efa7482a77_story.html
PR: Meet Ben Percy, the writer of WOLVERINE & X-FORCE today at Third Eye Annapolis!
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Friday, February 21, 2020
Commentary: Alexandra Bowman of Georgetown's "The Hilltop Show" Responds to Callout and Critics
by Alexandra Bowman
Ms. Bowman is a 19-year-old student, political cartoonist, and humorist at Georgetown University. We interviewed her last December. When I met her in person last weekend, she told me about a minor university controversy about a pulp paperback book collection in a GU dorm library that had started to go national due to Brietbart picking it up. I offered her space at ComicsDC for her response. For the record, I'm in my mid-50s and grew up with many of the books pictured in the Georgetown Review story around the house, I have read some of them, and I personally do not find them generally offensive myself. However, I do believe that she and her colleagues have a right to make their opinions known without being trolled. And at least one of the books, The Cunning Linguist, is genuinely hardcore pornography. - Mike Rhode
Launched in fall 2019, The Hilltop Show is Georgetown University's political comedy show. Our team aims to make current campus, national, and international events accessible and entertaining to those who might not typically engage with the news - including not only students but the broader Georgetown community and beyond. In line with this mission, we publish journalistic pieces as well as comedic sketches and interviews with political practitioners and comedians.
I founded the show last April. I write sketches and "informational monologues" (the thing John Oliver does), conduct and coordinate journalistic investigations, organize film shoots, edit videos in Adobe Premiere, and conduct outreach and PR for the Show. I create our graphics, drawing many by hand with traditional and digital media, like our Season 2 poster:
I founded the show last April. I write sketches and "informational monologues" (the thing John Oliver does), conduct and coordinate journalistic investigations, organize film shoots, edit videos in Adobe Premiere, and conduct outreach and PR for the Show. I create our graphics, drawing many by hand with traditional and digital media, like our Season 2 poster:
The Hilltop Show meets in a study space in a dorm that would be more accurately described as a glorified broom closet. Until a few weeks ago, the space included a bookshelf, on which were hundreds of books have been there since 2003 when the dorm opened and an alum donated them. During a weekly team meeting, we noticed one book that caught our eye, entitled Cherokee, which depicted a young Native American girl on the cover illustrated not only in an objectifying way but also with blood on her clothes. Upon further inspection, we realized that at least one of the books was hardcore pornography, but many others of them included derogatory racial elements and glamorized rape, including that of underage girls. We asked the university and multiple organizations if they were aware of the books and if they had any background knowledge of their origins, and within hours of one of our emails being sent, every book disappeared from the dorm library.
The Hilltop Show partners with an independent student media publication on campus, The Georgetown Review, and we worked with them to publish a journalistic report based on The Hilltop Show's research and the events that had transpired. The Show also filmed and published a sketch (a Goodfella's parody) on the same day the books were removed.
Shortly thereafter, the university newspaper, The Hoya, published an article that included a statement from me, with some remarks indicated as representative of the team's views and some as my own. As I noted to them, "While some were simply raucous crime noir murder mysteries representative of the literary and cultural time in which they were written, other books included extremely problematic and damaging elements, including the glamorization of rape, including that of underage girls. Completely naked women of all races were frequently featured on these books' covers. Further, many books fetishized young nonwhite women."
The books were typical of the time in which they were written, but our main question was whether the university knew that they were present considering that the books' racist and pornographic content, regardless of when the books where written, could be harmful to those who read them. Several young children under the age of ten live in the buildings where these books were kept, not far out of their reach.
I'd point to how Disney has approached the issue of many of their older films containing culturally outdated and racist elements. On the new streaming service Disney+, films with these elements have warnings in their descriptions. For example, on the 1967 film "The Jungle Book," the following lines are included in the description of the film: "This program is presented as originally created. It may contain outdated cultural depictions." I believe that even a small plaque on the walls of the McCarthy and Reynolds library with a similar sentiment would have been enough. When we reached out to the university, we didn't want the books to ultimately be removed. We wanted them to be contextualized in a similar way to how Disney has handled such content typical of mid-20th century media.
Conservative higher education news site The College Fix published a laughably biased article, which was not based in fact nor particularly concerned with providing much context for the situation whatsoever. Breitbart apparently then noticed this article and then wrote one of their own based on the College Fix's report.
I'd point to how Disney has approached the issue of many of their older films containing culturally outdated and racist elements. On the new streaming service Disney+, films with these elements have warnings in their descriptions. For example, on the 1967 film "The Jungle Book," the following lines are included in the description of the film: "This program is presented as originally created. It may contain outdated cultural depictions." I believe that even a small plaque on the walls of the McCarthy and Reynolds library with a similar sentiment would have been enough. When we reached out to the university, we didn't want the books to ultimately be removed. We wanted them to be contextualized in a similar way to how Disney has handled such content typical of mid-20th century media.
Conservative higher education news site The College Fix published a laughably biased article, which was not based in fact nor particularly concerned with providing much context for the situation whatsoever. Breitbart apparently then noticed this article and then wrote one of their own based on the College Fix's report.
Breitbart reported the story in a way that suits the narratives popular with their reader base. Their report paints the story thus: liberal snowflake college students complained when something offended them, and the university folded and banned the books those students whined about. The image accompanying the article, a photo of books engulfed in flame, has prompted thousands of commenters to compare what we did - which was to raise questions to the university regarding the presence of dime novels that glamorize rape and pedophilia - to Nazi book burnings.
Brietbart's article has been shared over 38,500 times as of February 20th. Over 11,000 comments have been left.
The Hilltop Show has released a statement via a tweet commenting on the Breitbart article:
"First, we didn't want the books removed altogether. We wanted them contextualized. Censorship? Nope. Second, if you're a fan of keeping books around that glamorize rape and pedophilia, we have Some Concerns. Something tells us you didn't read @thegureview's actual report."
"First, we didn't want the books removed altogether. We wanted them contextualized. Censorship? Nope. Second, if you're a fan of keeping books around that glamorize rape and pedophilia, we have Some Concerns. Something tells us you didn't read @thegureview's actual report."
I'd like to conclude by saying that we are more entertained by our Breitbart callout by anything else. After all, Breitbart has now called the Hilltop Show a "crack research team." Rest assured that "Crack Research Team Member" T-shirts are currently being designed. Cheers.
More information about The Hilltop Show can be found on our website, hilltopshow.com where you can also sign up for our newsletter. Our YouTube channel is linked here. We post updates, political cartoons, memes, and more on our social media pages: we are @hilltopshow on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. As our slogan states, we will continue to #capitalizeonthechaos.
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