Thursday, April 02, 2020

PR: 2020 SPX Lottery Submissions Now Due April 17


Hello Everyone!

Given the current circumstances, SPX is extending the due date for Lottery Submissions two weeks, with the new date now Friday April 17.

All of the other details about the lottery remain the same.

Head here to apply. A few things to keep in mind:

  • Applications are now due April 17th at 5pm EST and will not be accepted afterwards

  • We will not be picking the randomized lottery winners until after all applications have been received; this means there is no benefit to applying early or late (except maybe peace of mind).

  • In light of COVID-19, we will not be asking for any payment until late May/early June and applying to the lottery is completely non-binding. If you are selected or placed on the waitlist expect more communication from us as we get closer to the date.

  • You can only apply for the lottery once, and multiple entries will result in being removed from the lottery pool (unless you email us and tell us you accidentally clicked twice or something, we do have a heart!).

  • While we allow table sharing, there is a limit of two people per half table without approval, so be aware of that when requesting a full or half table. The hotel has a hard occupancy cap on the hall and if everyone tries to fit 8 people at a table, we'll exceed it.

  • We will be checking to make sure you make or publish comics, so if you're exclusively an illustrator, novelist, cosplayer or anime figure retailer (we get them) we reserve the right to remove you from the pool. With this in mind we will be collecting direct links to your work so please have a sample of it available somewhere on the internet.
Hit us up on Instagram, Twitter, or  Facebook for a quick reply. We're also happy to chat if you email us at exhibitor-inquiries@smallpressexpo.com.
We hope everyone is staying as safe as possible out there!!!

Jamie, Devon, Warren and the rest of the SPX Executive Committee

Copyright © 2020 Small Press Expo, All rights reserved. 
You are getting this email because we know you might want a table to SPX 2020!! 

Our mailing address is: 
Small Press Expo
P.O. Box 5704
Bethesda, Maryland 20824




PR: Beyond Comics - Letter to Our In-store Subscribers

[Edited by ComicsDC to remove the long list of comics available via subscription - reach out to Beyond Comics if you want the full list]


B&W Logo





We are here for you!
Dear In-Store Subscription Customers,
 
Due to the Covid-19 Stay-at-Home order in place in Maryland the immediate future is uncertain for many of us. Some are able to work from home, while others are not. Businesses that are deemed essential are open, while most others are temporarily closed. As you are probably aware, Beyond Comics is closed to customers for the foreseeable future. With no in-store income, this puts us in a tenuous position.
 
Most comic shops operate on a week-to-week basis financially, paying for the comics you order upon shipping to us, then getting reimbursed for that when you pick up your subscriptions. When the Stay-at-Home order was issued we had just received one of the largest and most expensive orders so far this year. This left us with limited resources to ride out the pandemic. As of this communication we are down to one employee working extremely limited hours in each of our locations, and only for vital and essential duties.
 
And so we wish to reach out to you for help. We have been taking mail order requests and filling what we can, but thus far this does not make up for lost income required for basic store needs. Many of you are planning to wait out the quarantine to get the comics you have on hold in your subscription - this is understandable. Some of you have very generously offered to pay for your comics now, to be picked up when this all blows over and we could not be more thankful for this. It is in this spirit that we ask for your help. If you are still employed or able, we ask that you consider reaching out to us to pay now for what comics we may be holding for you, either to be mailed to you, or to simply be held for the time being. This would provide us with the necessary income to keep the business functioning until we can re-open our doors to you.
 
If this is something you think you could do, please reach out to us. These are the hours that someone will be in-store to take your calls:
 
Frederick:
301-668-8202
Friday: 10am to 4pm
Monday: 10am to 4pm
Wednesday: 10am to 5pm
 
Gaithersburg:
301-216-0007
Fridays: 1 pm to 4 pm
Saturdays: Noon to 3 pm

Email anytime:
Please make sure you let us know which store you shop at.
 
We thank you in advance for your ongoing support, generosity and any assistance you can offer. The Beyond Comics family wish the best to you and your families in this trying time – stay safe and healthy! We look forward to seeing you all when the stores are able to re-open and in the meantime possibly online as well.
Don't have an in-store Subscription but want one?

Below is our latest subscription form. If you would like to
start a subscription please feel free to copy it, print it
or just email the information: beyondcomics@beyondcomics.com

No matter what, please identify which store you want to have it with.

This form is not complete nor always one hundred percent accurate as titles are often fluid with their release schedules. To that end, if you know of any titles you would like to subscribe to that are not on the form you may write them down and include them.
Frederick
5632 Buckeystown Pike
Frederick, MD 21704
(301) 668-8202
Gaithersburg
18749 B N. Frederick Rd
Gaithersburg, MD 20879
(301) 216-0007


Gift Cards Available!

Gift cards are available on our website or if you call the store.

Free shipping.

We will add $5 for every $50 gift card
($10 for $100 Gift Card)

Matt Wuerker comes in second for the "formerly known as Thomas Nast" Award CORRECTED


Matt Wuerker  actually was cited for SECOND PLACE from the Overseas Press Club. Adam Zuglis won first place.  ComicsDC regrets the error.

Cartoons
THE BEST CARTOON AWARD
Best print or digital graphic journalism, including cartoons, on international affairs.
Sponsor: Daimler
Adam Zyglis
The Buffalo News
Judges:  An impressive caricaturist, Zyglis is the kind of cartoonist who would have to be jailed immediately if he lived abroad. That’s the standard by which all great political cartoonists should be judged.

From the Overseas Press Club citation page

Cartoons
THE BEST CARTOON AWARD
Best print or digital graphic journalism, including cartoons, on international affairs.
Sponsor: Daimler
Matt Wuerker
Politico

(thanks to Michael Cavna for the tip)

Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Cavna on coronavirus cartoon heroes

The New Yorker cover and political cartoons are saluting coronavirus responders as heroes

Clay Jones' new video is online

Clay emailed me today about this -

What do people do with time to kill during a state-at-home order? This was hard.

https://youtu.be/wdkkWo1GzlU

He's got a Paypal button if you want to buy a print or send him a tip, in this difficult time. I did.

--
Clay Jones

Tales from the Trumpster Fire

Please visit  Claytoonz,

Friend me on Facebook

Follow me on Twitter

Follow me on Instagram

Watch me draw on YouTube


Saturday, March 28, 2020

Flugennock's Latest'n'Greatest: "At Last! The Left Rises!"

From Mike Flugennock, DC's anarchist cartoonist:

"At Last, The Left Rises!"
http://sinkers.org/stage/?p=2954


It seems that everywhere you look around the world these days, the Left is gathering strength and taking the streets, often organizing and acting outside the constraints of standard-issue electoral politics. The issues they address are international, issues that the People can unite around worldwide: neoliberalism, austerity, fascism, militarism.

Everywhere except in the United States, that is. Here in the Evil Empire, what passes for even a merely "progressive" Left is turned inward, all about the "election", all about "beating Trump", pouring all of its available energy into getting one guy elected President. Said "sociailst" hero will, of course, once again — as in 2016 — cave at the Convention and endorse whatever vile-ass, useless centrist the Democrats want to serve up, and leave the Left with nothing.

Now, I didn't graduate PoliSci — I was just some hippie arts major — but it would seem to me their time and energy would be better spent breaking out of the prison of American electoral "democracy" and organizing and acting around the global issues and building international solidarity instead of pissing it all away on a process known to be compromised by capitalism, and rigged against the People.

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Meet a Visiting Cartoonist: Spain's Tomás Serrano


by Mike Rhode

Tomás Serrano visited Washington recently just as the city was shutting down from the coronavirus. We were still able to meet and chat about his work with local cartoonists Matt Wuerker and Mike Jenkins, although this interview was done by email later. Tomás is temporarily living in America and cartooning via long distance.

What type of comic work or cartooning do you do?

Several types. At 25, I got my paid to start doing caricatures for a local newspaper in Salamanca, Spain. Years later I got into political and gag cartoons, and one of them won me the Mingote Award in 1995. Six years later, my first children´s book was published. In 2013, I made an animated musical video. In 2014, I began to work for the Spanish newspaper ABC drawing caricatures and editorial illustrations. Since 2015, I´ve been the political cartoonist of the online newspaper El Español and also sometimes I illustrate the editorials of the newspaper. In recent years, I did caricatures for the Magazine of the University of Chicago.

How do you do it? Traditional pen and ink, computer or a combination?

In the beginning, I used traditional tools like color pencils, gouache or watercolors. At this moment, I do sketches with a red pencil and mark the lines with a 5B pencil then scanning and adding color with a Tablet and Photoshop. It´s the fast way because, usually, I have only a couple of hours to send the cartoon.

When (within a decade is fine) and where were you born?

I was born in León, Spain, in 1960.

Where are you living now? Why?

Since July 2019, I moved to Lexington, Kentucky because Heminia, my wife, is working as a middle school teacher. For me, living in the US is a great experience. I love it. The American culture was always present in my life since I was a child: old TV series, movies, illustrated books, music…

Is it hard being an editorial cartoonist from a different continent and with 5 time zones changes?

Not at all. It´s so easy now. The only difference is the time: There, I drew after lunch; here, before. I´m following the current Spanish trends through the radio, podcasts, streaming live TV and the online newspapers.

What is your training and/or education in cartooning?  Why did you leave architecture?

My training is in architecture. This helped so much in staging my ideas and composing the images. I use to draw realistic architectural backgrounds because it emphasized the nonsense of the conduct of politicians. The strong crisis for architects in Spain from 2008 helped me to recover my passion for cartooning.

Who are your influences?

When I was young, my principal influence was Francisco Ibañez´s comics, Mortadelo y Filemón author. Visually, Disney´s artists were my favorites so far. Uderzo, Jean Giraud… Back then I didn´t like the UPA artists that I love now. Over time, I realized the influence of the freshness of my brother Carlos “badly done” drawings. Regarding humor, the movies of Charles Chaplin, the Marx Brothers, Bob Hope, Billy Wilder and Woody Allen. My favorite cartoonists are Jean Jacques Sempé, Ronald Searle, Charles Addams and the caricaturist Al Hirschfeld.


If you could, what in your career would you do-over or change?

I think I´ve been very lucky in my cartoonist career. In Spain, I was awarded with the best prize you can get. I feel recognized by my the heads of my newspaper… I wouldn´t change anything.

What work are you best-known for?

Maybe for my current cartoons in El Español, the number one in the top ranking of the Spanish native online newspapers.

What work are you most proud of?

For my first published children´s book Salfón el limpiador de tejados, by the unforgettable moment when I told and drew it to my son Guillermo, improvising the characters and the story.  I would be happy if it was published in the States.

I´m so proud too of my Mingote Award and my first illustration in the US for the Magazine of the University of Chicago.

What would you like to do  or work on in the future?

I would like to design characters for the movies, or have orders for advertising campaigns, or covers of books… And yes, I would like to work for US publishers.

What do you do when you're in a rut or have writer's block?

I take it easy. It happens sometimes, but experience makes last minute ideas to come…  That´s what I always say to my daughter Paula. For drawing and for everything.


What do you think will be the future of your field?

These are bad times for the press, and there are a lot of people doing funny things for free on the net. Many online newspapers have no cartoonist. Maybe the brilliant ones will survive because an image has still a high value.
Mike Jenkins and Seranno share a caricature moment

What's your favorite thing about DC?

You know I was in DC only for a weekend. As a big fan of the movies, I liked to be in the places I´ve seen there: the White House, the Capitol, the Memorials… and The Exorcist steps! In addition, I would recommend the Blues Alley Club and the Off the Record Bar.

Least favorite?

There are outstanding buildings in DC (e.g. the Old Post Office), but some mixes of styles in the streets didn´t convince me. Anyway I´ll remember the beautiful houses in Capitol Hill and Georgetown.

What monument or museum do you enjoy? What did you hope to see, but missed due to the coronavirus shutdowns?


I loved the Lincoln Memorial and the National Portrait Gallery. I enjoyed the fantastic exhibition of John Singer Sargent portraits in charcoal. I missed, among others, the National Gallery of Art. I hope to come back.

How about a favorite local restaurant when you visited?

I enjoyed the Indian food of Rasika and The Smith's burger.

Do you have a website or blog?

I recently renewed my website: www.tomasserrano.com









Josh Kramer teaching cartooning online

DC Cartoonist Offers Needed Distraction For Coronavirus Shut-Ins

Josh Kramer, a freelance cartoonist from Washington, D.C., is presenting drawing tutorials for those stuck at home due to the coronavirus.

By Michael O'Connell, Patch Staff 
Mar 25, 2020

The Post's obituary for Asterix's Uderzo

One of the last of the French greats...

Albert Uderzo, co-creator of French comics series Asterix, dies at 92

Harrison Smith 

Washington Post March 24, 2020

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/albert-uderzo-co-creator-of-french-comics-series-asterix-dies-at-92/2020/03/24/1de6125c-6dd9-11ea-a3ec-70d7479d83f0_story.html

Cavna recommends comics at the Post

New Dates: Washington DC’s Awesome Con Moves to December 11-13

In light of the recent developments due to COVID-19, Awesome Con 2020 [awesome-con.com] has been postponed to Friday, December 11 through Sunday, December 13, 2020 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in downtown DC.

Monday, March 23, 2020

Beyond Comics - New Comics Available Curbside - This Week! Inbox x



B&W Logo
This Weeks Comic Books Are
Available For Curbside Pick-up

Tuesday - March 23 10:00am to 5:00pm
Wednesday- March 24 10:00am to 5:00pm

If you are confident that your subscription is accurate
just give us a call with your credit card.

Then when you get here just give us a call and
we will run it out to you.

You can also email us your order from the list below and we will pull them and give you a total during our pick-up hours, run your card and you give us a call when you get here.
NOTE: THIS IS EVERYTHING SHIPPING
ALL VARIANTS, TRADES AND MERCHANDISE
(Look for the nicer email tomorrow morning)

Frederick - email to beyondcomics@beyondcomics.com
Call - (301) 668-8202

Gaithersburg - email to shine@beyondcomics.com
Call - (301) 216-0007