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."
Tuesday, September 12, 2017
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.
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
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!
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
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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 – 2nd Floor, McKinley Building, American University
4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20016-8017
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.htmlFriday, 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
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].
BoJack Horseman (voiced by Will Arnett) in Netflix's "BoJack Horseman." (Netflix)
American Masters: Tyrus, tonight on WETA and WMPT
Tyrus
About the Film
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.
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.Art by Richard Thompson
Foreword by Joel Achenbach • Edited by Michael Rhode
The Richard Thompson Library, Volume 1
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)
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| 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.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
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.
TEL: 202-238-6900 | FAX: 202-822-6524 | jicc@ws.mofa.go.jp© 1981-2017 Japan Information & Culture Center, Embassy of Japan
Flugennock's Latest'n'Greatest: "4 Ways Cannabis Can Kill You"
From DC's anarchist cartoonist Mike Flugennock:
"4 Ways Cannabis Can Kill You"
http://sinkers.org/stage/?p=2315
It's been considered a long-established fact that nobody has died due to cannabis -- until now. My extensive research has uncovered these four major ways that cannabis can kill.
Let this be a warning -- to YOU.
"4 Ways Cannabis Can Kill You"
http://sinkers.org/stage/?p=23
It's been considered a long-established fact that nobody has died due to cannabis -- until now. My extensive research has uncovered these four major ways that cannabis can kill.
Let this be a warning -- to YOU.
Wednesday, September 06, 2017
New caricature coasters at the Hay-Adams
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg of the Supreme court in a caricature drawn by Ann Telnaes on a coaster from the Hay-Adams' Off the Record bar.
Kim Jong-Un by Matt Wuerker and Angela Merkel by Kal.
Mitch McConnell (from 2014) by Kal and Vladimir Putin by Matt Wuerker.
The Junior Woodchucks are everywhere
The Junior Woodchucks of Carl Barks show up in the oddest places. From The Patience of the Spider by Andrea Camilleri with the footnote by translator Stephen Sartarelli, available in Arlington County library. They're also back on Disney's streaming service now as Ducktales returns.
ComicsDC ads in Magic Bullet, then and now
I just got a copy of the new free comics newspaper Magic Bullet #15. Matt Dembicki drew a new ad for us:
Rafer Roberts drew the first one for me in 2012, and the original art is at my desk at work:
Tuesday, September 05, 2017
Cartoonists Draw Blood Anthology out soon!
New book to premiere at SPX 2017 - America's Premier Indie Comics Festival this year "Cartoonists Draw Blood: Trick or Treat" our first anthology! 10% of each book's proceeds have already been donated to American Red Cross. Cover illustration by Teresa Roberts Logan and I developed a new CDB logo design and did the ToT type treatment. Hope you can pick up the book at Small Press Expo, Baltimore Comic-Con 2017, or New York Comic Con this fall. We will also have "CDB: ToT" at our blood drive on October 21!
Stories by: Joe Sutliff Joe Carabeo Teresa Roberts Logan Steven George Artley Carolyn Belefski Eric Gordon Art Hondros Mal Jones Steve Loya
Tom King coming to a Slate podcast (at some point)
I can't actually find anything about when the podcast drops.
How Does a Batman Comic Book Writer Work?
http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/working/2017/09/how_does_batman_writer_tom_king_work.htmlNational Book Festival's graphic novel panel photos
Pictures of the graphic novels panel with Gene Yang, Lincoln Peirce, Ann Telnaes, Mike Lester, and Roz Chast moderated by Washington Post's Michael Cavna are now online. Arranged by Library of Congress's Sara Duke and Small Press Expo's Warren Bernard.
Bruce Guthrie's professional quality pictures: http://www.bguthriephotos.com/
My cell phone shots: https://www.flickr.com/photos/42072348@N00/albums/72157686243404783 The Post checks in with Shawn Martinbrough
A chance to draw Hellboy was comic-book heaven for this artist
Disney theme parks advice panel
Disney introduces its panel of experts . . . moms and dads with plenty of park time [in print as Have a tricky Disney question? Moms know best].
Washington Post (September 3, 2017): F6
online at https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/disney-introduces-its-panel-of-experts----moms-and-dads-with-plenty-of-park-time/2017/08/31/afa566c8-8cd8-11e7-84c0-02cc069f2c37_story.html Joel Pollack Remembers Bernie Wrightson (part 2)
by Lee Benaka
Originally published in CFA-APA #101, March 2017 fanzine
Lee Benaka is a Washington, DC, original comic art collector who maintains a searchable database on comic art sales at www.comicartads.com.
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Frankenstein art for sale from Joel’s Fantastique Illustration #3 catalog, 1984.
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Joel: Whenever I visited Bernie, we would always have dinner at least one night at a restaurant that was owned by Albert Grossman. He was the manager for Bob Dylan. He owned a restaurant in Woodstock called the Little Bear. It was a Chinese restaurant. We always had dinner there. It was usually a group of us. Usually Jeff Jones came along, with Bernie and Michele, and Jeff’s current girlfriend at the time, whoever it might be.
talking about how horribly Barry treated his girlfriend Linda Lessman. They all kind of looked down on Barry for that, because Linda was a sweet person.
Lee: The first time you went to Bernie’s place, you obviously went with some money in your pocket. Was that a large amount of money that you had saved, or a fairly modest amount?
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Bernie Wrightson art from Joel’s Fantastique Illustration #1 catalog, 1983.
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Joel: I brought as much money as I had at any given time. It was probably a modest amount by today’s standards, but it still bought a lot of Wrightson artwork. He was selling it to me very reasonably.
Lee: Did you zero in on certain pages? Did he have Swamp Thing pages?
Joel: I have owned one Swamp Thing page, but I don’t really believe he still had any of that art at that point. Bernie sold a lot of what he did. He didn’t hang on too much, although he still has stuff, I’m pretty sure. I was probably visiting him between 1982 and 1985. I opened a shop in 1986, and I don’t know whether I was visiting him at that point.
Lee: When you got the art from Bernie, did you just list it in the catalog, or did you have contacts you would call to let them know about the art?
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The cover of Joel’s Fantastique Illustration #3 catalog, 1984.
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Joel: I think I was just selling through the catalogs. I think I probably advertised the catalog in early issues of the Comic Buyer’s Guide. I had a mailing list, but I didn’t necessarily talk to anyone on the telephone. I remember one of the early people on my list was Benno Rothschild. I was a charter member of the CFA-APA, so I had a lot of connections that way.
Bernie really liked dealing with me because I always paid cash. I always brought cash, never a check.
Lee: Did you keep any pieces for yourself?
Joel: For a long time I did. I kept four of five of the very best Frankensteins that I had. I had the title page. But I ran into tax problems sometime in the 1980s, and I
was really dumb. Instead of borrowing money from friends to pay taxes, or taking out a loan to pay taxes, I sold art. I got good money for it. The title page for Frankenstein, I got $2,500 for it. You know what that’s worth now? I wouldn’t be shocked if you could get $100,000 for that right now. Certainly $50,000, just like that, I’m sure.
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More Frankenstein art for sale from Joel’s Fantastique Illustration #3 catalog, 1984.
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Lee: Do you remember who you sold those to?
Joel: The title page I might have sold to Richard Kelly, but then when Richard switched over to illustration art, he sold that himself.
Lee: You stopped going to Bernie’s house around the time you opened your shop?
Joel: I think I pretty much did. We had Bernie in for a signing at one point. He had a very aggressive girlfriend who was marketing him. I don’t remember her name. She was very attractive, and she was definitely smart. She wanted to make sure Bernie got paid properly, which he did. We did get to do a Wrightson signing with him. It could have been Hooky, because I had a lot of the Hooky pages at one point. I don’t think I ever had any of the Thing/Hulk pages. But I had a bunch of the Hooky pages. I probably had 20 of those pages at least.
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An ad that was included as part of Joel’s contribution to CFA-APA #5, 1986.
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I don’t think I ever got to watch Bernie draw. When we moved him from Queens to Kansas City, though, I remember he threw away a lot of artwork. He lived in a building where Simonson and Chaykin were both living at the time, and Simonson and Chaykin were always raiding his trash can. Bernie would throw away really nice artwork, because it wasn’t perfectly the way he wanted it. You’ve seen all the Frankenstein “outtakes”. There’s probably 50 Frankenstein drawings that never got published. Bernie was a real perfectionist. Sometimes he would lose interest in something, and you would look at it and ask, “Why? This is fantastic.”
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Joel’s copy of Creepshow, signed by Bernie and Michele Wrightson, as well as Stephen King.
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After Frankenstein, I think he went through a fallow
period. I think it’s because he spent
himself on Frankenstein. Originally, he
was going to self-publish Frankenstein.
I don’t think he had the patience for business. He didn’t want to have to do all the work
that was involved with self-publishing.
It’s a shame a fan didn’t step forward and say, “I’ll publish for you
Bernie. I’ll take care of all the
details and do it.” He ended up selling
it to Marvel, and I think that took a little bit out of him emotionally. His work seemed to slip a bunch at that
time. He was also having
some allergy problems with his hands.
Evidently the ink and part of his brush were causing his hands to get eczema,
where they were cracking. That might
have affected him a bit too.
But
I think that Frankenstein was such a masterpiece, and he sweated blood into
that. It’s hard to say that he ever did
work that was better than that. He had
moments that were equally as good. But
he went through a period where he did a bunch of comics for Marvel, which he
said he would never do. He didn’t really
want to do comics again, but he went back and did comics, because he had kids
then, and he had to earn a living.
Bernie had a lot of years there where he wasn’t living up to his
promise, and I think he’d be the first one to really tell you that privately,
if not outwardly. Maybe his heart wasn’t
into it. I’ve been told that having kids
can be a huge distraction. I don’t think
you could say that the work he did on Punisher: POV and Batman: The Cult was as
good as the work he did on Swamp Thing, or for Warren magazines. The work he did for Warren was amazing. That was probably his high point in
comics.
It’s
interesting because, the thing he did a few years ago, Frankenstein Alive,
Alive! That was a return to form for
him. I was amazed. He really seemed inspired by that. It’s a real shame that it probably never will
be finished. And if it’s not finished,
they should still publish what’s there in a paperback, because it deserves to
be in permanent form.
I’m
not sure I fully appreciated how talented he was back then, compared to how I
look at him now. Genius might be the
wrong word for him, because all his genius was just in one area—drawing. But he was a prodigy. He was great from day one, and he just kept
getting better.
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Bernie Wrightson’s preliminary drawing
for the cover of Toe Tags Featuring George Romero #3 (DC Comics, 2005) (from
the collection of Joel Pollack).
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