Martin Nodell, Green Lantern creator, dies

Tom Spurgeon's got the story and all the links, but I'll put up this picture of Mr. Nodell, myself and my daughter Claire taken at last year's Baltimore Comic-Con. It was a real pleasure to meet him and thank him for creating such a great character.

Bits from Monday, December 11th's papers

The Washington Examiner published a long, but fairly uninteresting interview with Disney's CEO Robert Iger. For some reason, they don't put most of their articles up as text, so to read it you have to open a PDF version for December 11th and select page 24.

On the positive side, I found that they've given Nate Beeler, their excellent editorial cartoonist, blog space starting in November.

In the Express, comics guru Scott Rosenberg recommends Popeye, Dick Tracy and Moomin reprint volumes, all available now. The Express's website is even worse than the Examiner's, so no links. Complain to the Post which owns it.

Dec 16 - Comics signing at Big Planet?

Dirk Deppey's put a comics signing by Abby Denson and Shannon O'Leary at the Big Planet Georgetown store at 3:30. I'm checking on this, but I figured I'd put it out there in case anyone needs to make plans. Anybody familiar with their work?

Dec 13 - Booksigning - Neal Gabler on Walt Disney REPOST

Gabler's signing his new biography on Disney at 7 pm on Wednesday, December 13th at Politics and Prose. It's been getting very good reviews including one posted here last weekend from Dirda in the Post. I'm going to try to attend.

Berryman bookplate article

Years ago, I dashed off a quick article about Washington editorial cartoonist Clifford Berryman's design of bookplates. I sent it to Hogan's Alley along with copies of the plates and somehow it fell between the cracks with both of us forgetting about it. Now editor Tom Heintjes has resurrected it on the web. I think there's some cute stuff here. There's also an article on Berryman that I helped with a bit in the Fall 2002 issue of the International Journal of Comic Art.

Speaking of editorial cartoons...

... I can't believe that this one, by Mike Luckovich and published in December 9th's Post, comparing Mary Cheney's pregnancy to the Virgin Mary's, won't bring in letters. For those not following the story, lesbian Mary Cheney, the Vice-President's daughter, has campaigned for the current administration, but lives in anti-gay-marriage Constitutional-amendment-passing Virginia, and has chosen to bear a child. I'll leave further commentary to the comments section.

"Peanuts" music profile in Post

'Charlie Brown,' an Evergreen Treat By Matt Schudel, Washington Post Staff Writer, Sunday, December 10, 2006; Page N01 is a nice look at Vince Guaraldi's involvement from the beginning with the Schulz "Peanuts" animated cartoons.

The Post Magazine section also has a brief bit about the profusion of celebrity voices in animation. Right over Richard Thompson's "Cul de Sac" strip in fact. ;^)

Black Christian Heroes To the Rescue in Comics

The Post's run a story on comics on the religion page in the back of their Metro section:

Black Christian Heroes To the Rescue in Comics;
Stories Meld Religious, African American Themes
By Timothy Wilson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 9, 2006; B09

Milestone Media member Michael Davis has founded the Guardian Line in cooperation with a religious group. Longtime comics readers may recall Milestone Media as the DC-distibuted black superhero line from the 1990s. The stories were generally good, but there was an explosion of superhero lines at the time, and they didn't really catch on. "Static," cleaned up a bit, did become a Saturday morning TV series, "Static Shock."

Cartoon America reviewed in Dec 9 Examiner

The free Washington Examiner ran a review of Cartoon America today.

Also in the paper was the USA Weekend section which had an a article on the voice of Wilbur in the new animated Charlotte's Web. The Spider-Man comic book continues reprinting the original #8 with another new cover, this time by Olivier and Morales again.

Geppi's Museum reviewed in Post

Today's Post Weekend section has a favorable review of Geppi's Entertainment Museum in Baltimore. At $10 per person, the museum's a bit pricier than I expected. Another bit or two about the Museum appeared in their Scoop newsletter today.


There's also a review of Marvel's Ultimate Alliance videogame on the preceeding page.

That 'truly disgusting' cartoon in the Post

A few days ago, I mentioned this letter from the December 2 Post - Drawing Disgust: The Post has achieved a new low. The Nov. 25 Drawing Board cartoon on the op-ed page concerning contraception and a presidential "withdrawal plan" was truly disgusting. Enough said. -- Nancy Copeland, Manassas.

Thanks to my neighbor Bill's archive, we can identify it as a cartoon by Dan Wasserman of the Boston Globe - specifically this one.

Truly disgusting? Moreso than this one by Luckovich that was next to it?

New comics expected Dec 6, courtesy of Big Planet Comics

Big Planet highlighted that Captain Marvel (the Fawcett one) Showcase and it's impossible to disagree. I spent many happy hours taking the 1970s hardcover rerpint Shazam From the '30s to the '70s out of the library and poring through the unknown (to me at least) characters.

And I'm not sure where my pictures went - a lot of links seem to be broken - but when it's working right, I'll post comics-related pictures from the National Postal Museum's exhibit.

New comics arriving this WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6TH

DC COMICS
52 WEEK #31
ALL-NEW ATOM #6
AMERICAN SPLENDOR #4
BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL #1
DESOLATION JONES #8
DETECTIVE COMICS #826
EXTERMINATORS #12
FRIDAY THE 13TH #1
JONAH HEX #14
JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #28
JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #1
LOONEY TUNES #145
MANHUNTER #26
MIDNIGHTER #2
MYSTERY IN SPACE #4
NEXT #6
NIGHTWING #127
NINJA SCROLL #3
OTHER SIDE #3
OUTSIDERS #43
SACHS AND VIOLENS TP
SHOWCASE PRESENTS SHAZAM VOL. 1 TP
SPIRIT ARCHIVES VOL. 20 HC
SUPERGIRL #12
SUPERMAN CONFIDENTIAL #2
TRANQUILITY #1
WRAITHBORNE TP

MARVEL COMICS
AGENTS OF ATLAS #5
AVENGERS: EARTH’S MIGHTIEST HEROES II #3
BEYOND #6
DOCTOR STRANGE: OATH #3
ESSENTIAL DEFENDERS VOL. 2 TP
INCREDIBLE HULK #101
IRREDEEMABLE ANT-MAN #3
MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN #22
MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS WOLVERINE VOL. 4 TP
MARVEL HOLIDAY SPECIAL
NEW EXCALIBUR #14
NEW X-MEN: CHILDHOOD’S END VOL 3 TP
NEWUNIVERSAL #1
RED PROPHET #4
RUNAWAYS VOL. 2 HC
SPIDER-MAN AND POWER PACK #2
SPIDER-MAN: REIGN #1
STAN LEE MEETS SILVER SURFER
STAR BRAND CLASSIC VOL. 1 TP
ULTIMATE VISION #1
UNCANNY X-MEN #481
WHAT IF CLASSIC VOL. 3 TP
WHITE TIGER #2

INDYVILLE
ANGEL: AULD LANG SYNE #2
ARCHIE #571
ARCHIE DOUBLE DIGEST #175
CROSS BRONX #4
GI JOE: AMERICA’S ELITE #18
HERO SQUARED #4
INVINCIBLE #37
JEREMIAH HARM #5
MELTDOWN #1
MODERN MASTERS VOL. 9: MIKE WIERINGO SC
NEW TALES OF OLD PALOMAR #1
NIGHTLY NEWS #2
OFFICIAL HANDBOOK O/T INVINCIBLE UNIVERSE #1
SPECTRUM VOL. 13
STAR WARS: REBELLION #5
STRANGERS IN PARADISE #86
TOYFARE #114
WALKING DEAD #33
WITCHBLADE #102

PLANET PICKS
52 WEEK #31
AMERICAN SPLENDOR #4
BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL #1
DESOLATION JONES #8
DETECTIVE COMICS #826
DOCTOR STRANGE: OATH #3
INVINCIBLE #37
JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #1
MIDNIGHTER #2
NEWUNIVERSAL #1
SHOWCASE PRESENTS SHAZAM VOL. 1 TP
SUPERMAN CONFIDENTIAL #2
ULTIMATE VISION #1
WALKING DEAD #33

ComicsDC profiled in GW Hatchet, OR, Tooting my own horn

Mike Rhode at the Library of Congress,
photograph by Erin Shea of the GW Hatchet

I was the subject of a profile in today's George Washington University's Hatchet as an alumnus with too much time on his hands, I think. Both the author Megan Marinos, and the photographer Erin Shea, were very pleasant and professional and I'm pleased at the way this turned out (although Hogan's Alley is an actual magazine that will send you a paper copy if you send them money).

International Journal of Comic Art TOC

When I posted on the new issue being available, a comment was left asking about the table of contents. John is in Thailand, interviewing cartoonists, so I just scanned the pages and provide them here - you can click on them to make them readable. It can be ordered by sending a check or international money order for $15 / issue or $30 for the year to John Lent/IJOCA, 669 Ferne Blvd, Drexel Hill, PA 19026. Tell him Mike sent you.

Cartoon America "Why No Trudeau?" answered

Co-curator Sara Duke kindly wrote to me this morning to answer the question posed to me by a visitor to the exhibition.

Mike,

The question of "Why no...?" in Cartoon America, I think is especially true of the comic strip section of the exhibition, because people are passionate about their favorite artists and strips. We could not display all the best comic strips that have been produced since 1895 when the Yellow Kid first made his appearance in the Sunday newspapers. There are simply too many. We selected highlights from the wide range of cartoon art Art Wood collected to provide people with an overview to the collection and introduce the casual visitor to cartoon art in general.

Art Wood compiled a brilliant selection of comic strips by the greatest artists, and for some of the creators the depth of his collecting was magnificent. Repeat visitors to the Library of Congress exhibitions can expect to see cartoon art from the Art Wood collection for years to come.

Qualified researchers may view original works of art in the Art Wood Collection by applying for "Access to Unprocessed Collections" (http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/info/022_unpr.html). We make every effort to serve researchers in a timely manner. Some 500 drawings from over 36,000 original drawings that Mr. Wood sold and donated to the Library of Congress are available (as thumbnails) through the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC): http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/catalog.html

While there is one comic strip drawing Trudeau in Art Wood's collection, it was not selected for exhibition. However, Mr. Trudeau has been extremely generous to the Library of Congress over the years. The Library featured the work of Garry Trudeau in 1986 in an Oval Gallery exhibition "Comics that Bite: Doonesbury and Pogo." The press clippings in the file are limited to announcements, but based on the hard copy text, Bernard Reilly, Jr., the curator emphasized the political nature and social satire in the dialogue as well as the distinctive style of the art.

Both Doonesbury and Pogo have been processed into the Prints & Photographs "Cartoon Drawing" filing series. 86 original works by Garry Trudeau are described in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog, but of course the thumbnails for those works that have been reproduced are impossible to read. There are 115 original drawings by Walt Kelly described in PPOC, and these too, are represented off campus by impossibly small gif files. Why? Because the Library of Congress is dedicated to protecting copyright. We do welcome researchers who wish to view the originals.

Sara W. Duke
Curator, Popular & Applied Graphic Art
Prints & Photographs Division
Library of Congress
Washington, DC 20540-4730

(202) 707-3630 - voice
(202) 707-6647 - fax
sduk@loc.gov
http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/

Items of interest in the weekend's papers

The Sunday Post Book World has three comics bits. In their
best books of the year, not one comic made it although under fiction we find - Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders, by Neil Gaiman (Morrow). Gaiman writes in different registers: comedy, satire, pastiche, deadpan, lyrical or whimsical, but almost invariably dark. -- Graham Joyce

Dennis Drabble did pick the new Popeye reprint from Fantagraphics as one of the top 10 gift books though. And Michael Dirda gave a great review to Neil Gabler's new biography of Walt Disney.

And the Letters section is always fun, with this printed on Saturday - Drawing Disgust: The Post has achieved a new low. The Nov. 25 Drawing Board cartoon on the op-ed page concerning contraception and a presidential "withdrawal plan" was truly disgusting. Enough said. -- Nancy Copeland, Manassas
I'll have to hunt around a bit to see if I can find the 'truly disgusting' cartoon - The Drawing Board is the weekly reprint of 3-4 syndicated cartoons.

Webcomics snuck into an article on Wikipedia on Sunday - "Andrew Klein kept an eye on the drubbing given to an entry about "Cake Pony," a Web comic strip that he writes and illustrates with his girlfriend, Lauren Wong. The editors questioned the strip's notability and huffed that Klein had written the piece himself, a major strike against." For those wondering, Mr. Klein's entry did not survive.

Meanwhile over in the Times, Hellboy toys were described in "Star Wars action figures hit right note for season" by Joseph Szadkowski. The Express's Scott Rosenberg recommended the Superman Ultimate Collector's Edition" DVD set and "The Marvel Encyclopedia" on Friday, while the Examiner ran Afton Woodward's review of "The Animaniacs vol. 2" DVD. I didn't watch the show, but the conclusion, "Comparable only to the classics and unsurpassed in wit and intelligence, 'The Animaniacs' just might be the last great modern children's cartoon" is unsupportable to me. I think we're in a new golden age of television animation now.

In actual comic strips, "Prickly City" was drawn most of the week in manga style by Sarah White as Scott Stantis recovers from surgery. Saturday's Post had a couple of interesting strips - "Zippy" appears as though it might go autobiographical again - I find these to be among Griffith's most interesting strips. And Richard Thompson returned with a December calendar cartoon, although not online. In the Post's Sunday comics, one could find a few interesting bits. Today's "Mutts" was a loving tribute to Winsor McCay's "Little Nemo." And Berke Breathed's Opus skirted on the edge of the Danish Islam cartoon controversy. And the "Spider-Man Collectible Series vol. 16" distributed in Saturday's Examiner had a cover by Frenz and Milgrom which must have been done for a previous reprint since neither of them work for Marvel anymore.

Cartoon America photographs

I went back yesterday to view the exhibit again so I could write an International Journal of Comic Art review, and also to have my picture taken for an article that should run tomorrow (not that I had anything to do with this exhibit). Boy, Art Wood had an amazing collection. As to the question, "Why no Trudeau?" that was posed to me in the exhibit, I'm researching that (well asking curators Martha Kennedy and Sara Duke) and will get back to you. The Library also has a fine full-color brochure and checklist for the exhibit that's well worth picking up.

So here's some pictures to hold you until the Library gets its own website up.

Illustration
Cruickshank

Kley

Nell Brinkley (and an unfortunately phallic Washington Monument the girls are descending towards).

Vernon Grant, creator of Snap! Crackle! and Pop! elves

Johnny Gruelle

Flagg

Political cartoons
Nast
Political cartoons

Rube Goldberg

Clifford Berryman, Washington cartoonist and creator of the Teddy Bear

Caricature
KAL

Richard Thompson, now with the Washington Post

Animation


Popeye closeup.

Gag cartoons


Comic Strips

Washington Post doesn't censor comic!

Dave Astor reported that newspapers were given an advance warning that "Pearls Before Swine" used the phrase...

...wait for it...

...'BITE ME' on December 2 in case newspapers wanted to pull the strip. Amazingly enough, the censorship-heavy Post ran the strip - if anyone cares, I'll try to dig up the cases where they did censor the comics.

Believe it or not!

Diffee followup - Mankoff interview

Diffee's also posted an interview with Mankoff on his own blog -
Robert Mankoff Interview: Part One, 11.15.2006 and Robert Mankoff Interview: Part Two, 11.27.2006.

Bill Plympton animation at E Street Cinema

According to Arion Berger in the 11/30 Express, Bill Plympton provided animation for the film "F-ck: A Documentary" which is playing at the E Street Cinema at 555 11st St, NW as of today.

Plympton is one of the great twisted cartoonists of our time. He's got a few books out as well.