Writing letters is a joyful craft
Ed Tant
Athens Banner-Herald December 18, 2010
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/121810/opi_758164522.shtml
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Friday, December 17, 2010
Steve Artley's father's latest book recommended in Smithsonian Magazine
Steve Artley writes in about his editorial cartoonist father (Bob) and brother Rob's new book -
A description and cover image of Memories of a Farm Kitchen was included in the "Holiday Gift Guide: A Food Book for Everyone on your List" of the Food & Think section on the electronic version of Smithsonian Magazine.
Memories of a Farm Kitchen, by Bob and Rob Artley. A charming and utterly unique memoir about growing up on a 200-acre farm in Iowa in the 1920s and 1930s, this homespun book recalls bygone days of icebox refrigerators, cellar larders, and ham hanging from the rafters.
Steve told me a bit more about the book's history-
"This was a book that almost didn't happen. My dad started it about 6 years ago. The last few years, he had a series of strokes that affected his vision and hearing, as well as his drawing hand. One day, while I was visiting him in his Florida studio, he showed me some of the pieces he was working on for the book, and I could see they were not up to his usual level of the dozen books he had produced up to that point. I told him this frankly, adding that I figured he'd want to know the truth."
"I offered to help assemble the pieces and layout the pages, if he could finish the text. A couple of years and another stroke later, he got the text to me and it was not quite up to his usual standards of writing either. So, I called in my brother. I told him the manuscript needed more than mere proofreading. It needed fixes in style, etc. I was so pleased that he took on the assignment with enthusiasm. He far exceeded my art direction. He used Dad's story, but dressed up the style. He even wrote an additional chapter, for which we had art, but no words."
"At my father's urging, the publisher had been planning to put my name as co-author. I was never comfortable with that from the beginning. I was just the art director and project manager. My sister Joan Artley-Sterner also took part in planning out the book. Both of us were more comfortable being listed in the acknowledgments only. So I told the publisher to make my brother the co-author."
That's a nice story about a family pulling together, isn't it?
Dean Haspiel's EW Harvey Pekar Tribute
Years ago, my friend Dean Haspiel suggested that I interview Harvey for a Small Press Expo panel - that turned into a journal article, and then a book, as well as a friend acquaintance with Harvey. Harvey died earlier this year, and Dean's got a nice tribute strip up about Harvey now.
Washington Post doesn't like CGI Yogi Bear
Hey, Boo Boo! Zzzzzzzz . . .
By Dan Kois
Washington Post December 17, 2010
http://www.washingtonpost.com/gog/movies/yogi-bear,1168809/critic-review.html
but neither does any other reviewer I've read.
By Dan Kois
Washington Post December 17, 2010
http://www.washingtonpost.com/gog/movies/yogi-bear,1168809/critic-review.html
but neither does any other reviewer I've read.
A Chat with Dan Nokes now at City Paper
Meet a Local Cartoonist : A Chat with Dan Nokes
Posted by Mike Rhode on Dec. 17, 2010http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/books/2010/12/17/meet-a-local-cartoonist-a-chat-with-dan-nokes/
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Signed Doonesbury books on sale at Politics and Prose
I got mine!
SIGNED BOOKS OF THE WEEK | ||||||
We are really excited about our offerings this week. And the Doonesbury collections are both discounted 20% for members since they are featured in our holiday catalogue!
40: A DOONESBURY RETROSPECTIVE and DOONESBURY AND THE ART OF G.B. TRUDEAU When Brian Walker first interviewed Garry Trudeau in 1973, it was for an article on the new comix for the alternative weekly, Silver Lining. While Trudeau denied being a spokesman for the counterculture, it became a label that he had difficulty shaking. Walker later curated the first exhibition of Trudeau's work. DOONESBURY AND THE ART OF G.B. TRUDEAU (Yale Univ., $49.95) explores the evolution of the artist from his prep-school drawing to Bull Notes, the predecessor of Doonesbury, and the impact the series has had on pop culture, from the Broadway musical to ties and Starbucks mugs. Walker also introduces the collaborators Trudeau has worked with over the years. There are plenty of strips here as well, from those early days to the present. It's a lovely companion to 40: A DOONESBURY RETROSPECTIVE (Andrews McMeel, $100), which contains 1,800 strips Trudeau selected as representative of the 40 years since Gonzo, Mike, J.J. B.D., and the huge cast of characters first appeared in papers nationwide. He also provides bios of these iconic characters—all contained in a beautiful slip-cased box. - Deb Morris
Click here to see more of our Signed Event Books. Also, for only $1.50 additional per book, Politics & Prose now offers an Archival Book Covering Service. Click here to add this item to your order! | ||||||
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PR: Fantom Comics Holiday Recommendations
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Xavier Xerexes pulls together a webcomics roundtable
Arlington's Xaviar has an all-star lineup talking about webcomics here -
The ComixTalk 2010 Roundtable
by Xaviar Xerexes on December 16, 2010
http://comixtalk.com/comixtalk_2010_roundtable
The ComixTalk 2010 Roundtable
by Xaviar Xerexes on December 16, 2010
http://comixtalk.com/comixtalk_2010_roundtable
Cartoonists Rights Network on Malaysia's Zunar
The Cartoonists Rights Network, based in suburban Northern Virginia, has issued a letter on Malaysia's Zunar and his problems with censorship.
Comic Riffs on Bob Mankoff and the New Yorker
'Riffs Best Books of 2010: THE NEW YORKER's Bob Mankoff offers a comic window into the year
By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog December 16 2010
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/comic-riffs/2010/12/the_new_yorker.html#more
By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog December 16 2010
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/comic-riffs/2010/12/the_new_yorker.html#more
New Disney animator Jocelyn Cofer is from PG County
A fairy-tale job: Prince George's native draws for Disney movie
By Liz Skalski
The Gazette Thursday, December 16, 2010; T15
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/14/AR2010121407277.html
Dec 29: Politics and Prose bookgroup meeting
Wednesday, December 29, 7:30 p.m.
Graphic Novel Bookgroup
The group is meeting the fifth Wednesday due to the holiday.
Black Hole, by Charles Burns
Graphic Novel Bookgroup
The group is meeting the fifth Wednesday due to the holiday.
Black Hole, by Charles Burns
Wednesday, January 26 selection: City of Glass, by Paul Auster; adapted by Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Politico blog on Sarah Palin comic book
There's not much too it, but for the record, here's Politico's Click blog on the second Sarah Palin comic book - because one was not enough.
Warren Bernard on the International Manga Museum in Kyoto
One of the nice things about going overseas is seeing how much more other countries respect comics than we do in the United States. Though indeed we invented many elements of the medium, we still are far behind our international counterparts in giving comics and cartooning their due in a museum environment.
I was in Kyoto, and decided to take a half day off from seeing amazing Japanese gardens and Zen Buddhist temples to go through the International Manga Museum that was conveniently a six-block walk form my hotel. A true happy accident of planning.
The museum is housed in the Tatsuike Primary School that was built in the late 1860s, when downtown Kyoto began to see a population explosion that required a number of schools be built to handle all the new students. Like America's classic central-city population migration to the suburbs, by the 1990's the school, along with many others, was closed. After having the property lie dormant and vacant, a partnership between the City of Kyoto and the Kyoto Seika University had the school renovated and made into a museum. They have kept two rooms as a museum to the school itself. One had portraits of all the principals that ran the school from inception -- a hard looking bunch if there ever was one.
This museum is in many ways very different from the Tintin Museum in Brussels or the Cartoon Museum in London. One of the main draws of the IMM is the availability of a library of over 50,000 volumes of manga that one can read there, although not take home as in a traditional library. I saw many people there who paid the admission of 500 yen (about $6.25) just to come and read. They were camped out, reading away, in the hallways of the old school or on the main floor at large picnic tables near the main entrance.
The Museum had a very small section of translated material from France, Germany and the United States, which you could also sit and read. But my Japanese is not that good (OK, it's non-existent...) and I already owned all the translated American material so I went to look around.
The manga volumes were stacked in floor to ceiling book cases, some of these reaching over 12 feet high. Computer kiosks were throughout the museum to help you locate a specific book in the densely-packed shelves. The manga were mainly grouped by styles, but in one section that appeared to be in the old gymnasium, they were grouped by decade.
Also in this old gymnasium was the main series of displays that showed the evolution of manga. It is a nice showcase as to the tools and techniques used by the manga artists. I had no idea that Japanese versions of Puck, the American political humor magazine from the 19th-early 20th century, had copycat versions in Tokyo, Yokahama and Osaka. That being said, this museum's view of history was about the development of manga, especially the explosion of it after World War Two. No Little Nemo, Superman or Marvel Superheroes are in this place.
There were three other exhibition areas, of one which had a great exhibit about French cartoonists doing stories about The Louvre. This was apparently the first exhibit they have hosted at the IMM from France and was looked at as introducing French "bande dessinee" to Japanese manga fans. These main exhibition areas were all in both English and Japanese, as were all exhibits I saw there.
But the best part of the trip there? I got the last Astro Boy mug they had in stock.
The next time you're in Kyoto, stop into the International Manga Museum and take a look around. You'll think, just as you wonder about the Japanese shinkensen (bullet train) and their mass transportation system in general, "hey, why don't we have one of these?"
Kal Draws Bill Clinton
Kevin Kallaugher of Baltimore writes in
I have just posted a video and sketches from the recent "World in 2011 Festival" in NYC where I was the official artist. Guests included Bill Clinton, Commander of the US Navy Admiral Roughead, Celebrity Chef Jose Andres and Grammy award winning artist Loudon Wainwright III.
You can view them here: http://www.kaltoons.com/wordpress/2010/12/sketches-from-the-world-in-2011-festival/
Kal
Kevin Kallaugher
kal@kaltoons.com
www.Kaltoons.com
The KAL iPhone App is now available at the iTunes store.
and to bring it all back home, while Clinton was a famous person in Washington, Jose Andres (pictured above) lives here and started his restaurant empire with the excellent Jaleos, featuring Spanish tapas.
Party Crashers artist interviews on the web
Here's a couple of new interviews with people featured in the Party Crashers exhibit in Arlington -
Jamar Nicholas -
Local artist brings graphic life to Canada's history of violence
By ASHLEY HUBER
Philadelphia Daily News December 14 2010
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/features/20101214_Local_artist_brings_graphic_life_to_Canada_s_history_of_violence.html
By ASHLEY HUBER
Philadelphia Daily News December 14 2010
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/features/20101214_Local_artist_brings_graphic_life_to_Canada_s_history_of_violence.html
-and-
Comics 'n Things: An interview with Gabrielle Bell
by Ariel Schrag
December 13, 2010
http://www.afterellen.com/column/comics-n-things-2?page=0,0
Comic Riffs tracks down Yogi animator
The 'Riffs Interview: Animator surprised by virality of his 'BOO BOO KILLS YOGI' video
By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog December 14 2010
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/comic-riffs/2010/12/yogi_1.html
By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog December 14 2010
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/comic-riffs/2010/12/yogi_1.html
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
More pictures from modelmaker David Wilson
Here's some more pictures from David Wilson that didn't fit into the City Paper interview - Meet a Local Model Maker: A Chat with David Wilson
Annie's Annie profiled in today's Post UPDATED
The Kid's Post page is on Annie's Annie, Caitlin Deerin in today's Post. Thanks to Suze Eaton, check here and here.
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