Friday, July 07, 2017

The Post's Spider-Man reviews

'Spider-Man: Homecoming' is a refreshing reboot of a familiar superhero story [in print as Voted most likely to save the world].


Washington Post July 7 2017, p. Weekend 23
online at https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/spider-man-homecoming-is-a-refreshing-reboot-of-a-familiar-superhero-story/2017/07/06/b5f5f2e8-5ffd-11e7-8adc-fea80e32bf47_story.html

He's got it: Tom Holland is Hollywood's next leading man [in print as Baby, you're a star: Tom Holand has it... whatever it is].



Thursday, July 06, 2017

Comic Riffs on the new Spider-Man movie ... and a Clue comic book

In the very fun 'Spider-Man: Homecoming,' Marvel Studios makes the difference


Washington Post Comic Riffs blog July 3 2017

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2017/07/03/in-the-very-fun-spider-man-homecoming-marvel-studios-makes-the-difference/

Spider-Man doesn't swing from a Manhattan skyscraper in his new movie. Here's why.


Washington Post Comic Riffs blog July 5 2017

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2017/07/05/spider-man-doesnt-swing-from-a-manhattan-skyscraper-in-his-new-movie-heres-why/

How the new 'Spider-Man' is really a John Hughes movie


Washington Post Comic Riffs blog July 6 2017
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2017/07/06/how-the-new-spider-man-is-really-a-john-hughes-movie/

The classic board game Clue is now officially a comic book



Washington Post Comic Riffs blog June 28 2017
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2017/06/28/the-classic-board-game-clue-is-now-officially-a-comic-book/

Comic Riffs talks to Tom King about new Batman story

The Joker and the Riddler are going to war over who will kill Batman first


Washington Post
Comic Riffs blog July 5 2017
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2017/07/05/the-joker-and-the-riddler-are-going-to-war-over-who-will-kill-batman-first/

The Post's WorldViews blog on the Iranian cartoon contest

The winning entry in Iran's Trump cartoon contest shows a drooling president wearing a jacket made of U.S. dollars


Washington Post
WorldViews blog July 4 2017

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/07/04/the-winning-entry-in-irans-trump-cartoon-contest-shows-a-drooling-president-wearing-a-jacket-made-of-u-s-dollars/

Comic Riffs talks to Clay Jones about an Iranian cartoon contest

Virginia cartoonist declines award from Iran's Trump cartoon contest


Washington Post
Comic Riffs blog July 6 2017
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2017/07/06/virginia-cartoonist-declines-award-from-irans-trump-cartoon-contest/

Now-local cartoonist Nik Kowsar is interviewed as well.

July 9: Neil Gaiman at Wolf Trap

Neil Gaiman


Sunday, July 9 at 8 p.m.

at The Filene Center at Wolf Trap

"I make things up and write them down" is the way Neil Gaiman describes his varied art. Today, as one of the most celebrated, bestselling writers of our time, his popular and critically acclaimed works (Coraline, The Sandman, American Gods, and The Graveyard Book) bend genres while reaching audiences of all ages. In his live event, he will tell stories and read stories, answer questions, and in his own words "amaze, befuddle and generally delight. It will be fun and odd and not like any other evening with Neil Gaiman." Ticketing for this event is not arranged by Politics and Prose, visit www.wolftrap.org for more information.

Purchase Tickets

'Gay is Good' on GLAA.com


Editor’s note: Richard Rosendall of the Mattachine Society of Washington was on a panel at AwesomeCon last month on using comics to tell D.C. history. Below are his prepared remarks for the panel regarding the story of gay rights advocate Frank Kameny, which was illustrated on ReDistrictedComics.com.

Gay is Good — Frank Kameny in Comics

By Richard Rosendall

GLAA.com

Frank Kameny was a Harvard-trained astronomer and a World War II combat veteran. His career ended in 1957 when he was fired by the Army Map Service for being gay. He responded like none before–he fought back.



Nominate your favorites for the new Ringo Awards at the Baltimore Comic Con

The Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards is an annual celebration of the creativity, skill and fun of comics.

The awards make their debut this year as part of the fan- and pro-favorite convention, The Baltimore Comic-Con.

Nomination voting is now open for the inaugural 2017 Mike Wieringo Comic Book Industry Awards. Nomination ballot voting is open to the public (fans and pros) from June 27, 2017 until midnight on July 18, 2017. We encourage everyone to participate. Creators and new works published during 2016 are eligible.


Unlike other professional industry awards, the Ringo Awards include fan participation in the nomination process along with an esteemed jury of comics professionals.

More than 20 categories will be celebrated with top honors being given at an awards ceremony Saturday, September 23, 2017.

Click here to learn more about the Ringo Awards' rules

Wednesday, July 05, 2017

A chat with Art Hondros

by Matt Dembicki

Local comic artist Art Hondros, whose work occasionally graces the pages of the Washington Post Magazine and other local publications such as Magic Bullet, recently won a grant from the Montgomery County Arts Council to work on a graphic novel. Art agreed to a brief Q&A about the project and the process in competing for the grant. (He also drew exclusively for ComicsDC a nifty illustration related to the upcoming project.)

What can you tell us about the project you pitched?

I'll be doing an adaptation in graphic novel form, of a lost silent feature film from the 1920s about a pilot squadron in WWI.

What was the inspiration for it?

Like most ideas, it seemingly came out of nowhere. I was watching the Turner Classic Movies channel one night, and the late host, Robert Osborne, mentioned the film as it was tangentially related to another movie they were about to show. Archivists estimate that about 75% of all films made before 1930 are lost forever, with no known surviving copies in existence. This particular movie had two leads who went on to become pretty major stars in the subsequent decades, so I thought that was pretty intriguing too.

Is this the first time you applied for a grant? What made you think the project could be eligible? What do you think was key to winning it?
By Art Hondros, for ComicsDC

Yep, first time, and I feel pretty lucky. The aspect of reviving a lost sort of cultural humanity artifact in a different visual medium must have appealed to the Montgomery County Arts Council, I suppose. I have good source material to work from, including a novelization from the screenplay, and a cutting continuity, which is a sort of script, from a museum in L.A. I'd like to think the idea is somewhat original, or at least a different spin on how Hollywood tends to dredge up every cultural thing from the boomer and X'er years and rehash them as feature films nowadays. Plus, World War nostalgia seems big these days. The grant application is pretty involved, with lots of summarized answers and explanations, a timeline, and so forth. But if you give yourself lots of time before the deadline, it's a fair game.

How do your plan to distribute the book?

The grant will cover self-published printing costs. Small Press Expo in Bethesda and whichever other comic cons I can make it to will be good venues, as well as independent book and comics shops. Probably an online order option as well, but that part is a year away (per the grant agreement, I have until June 30, 2018 to complete the project).

Can you talk briefly about your creative process for this project, such as research, writing, drawing, etc.?

My plan is to read the material and thumbnail sketch in a small sketch book by chapters, then go to the inking.

July 8: Third Eye Comics moves to a new location on Saturday

From their newsletter:

We've got a big, big, big week ahead of us - not just in terms of incredible new releases, but for Third Eye in general!

This Saturday marks the grand opening of our new & expanded location in Annapolis at 209 CHINQUAPIN ROUND RD. We've worked very hard on the new stores, and I have to tell you: the new Third Eye Comics location is really something special.

What's even more important though is the fact that it's the loyal and passionate support of YOU, Third Eye Faithful, that has inspired us to expand the store. Our goal is to always give you a truly unique and incredible comic shop experience, and through the entire process, our thoughts of how much you're going to love this place has kept us inspired.

You can read all about our grand opening festivities here.

In the meantime, COMICS! This Wednesday will be our last new comic day in our current home at 2027A West St, and we'll have all of the killer new releases ready and waiting for you! 

Please note, we've begun the process of moving over a lot of inventory, so the shop will mostly just be new releases and current (our back issue wall) releases this week. We'll begin moving over the comic wall on Thursday, but will have the new release wall of new comics up in the shop right up until end of day on Friday 7/7/17!

Monday, July 03, 2017

The Allure of Zines, a guest post by Anna Tecson



by Anna Tecson

While conducting a zine workshop at American University, fellow DC Zinefest organizer Anne Buckwalter (annedrawscomics.tumblr.com) and I demonstrated to a class of fine arts graduate students, simply as a matter of course, the fundamentals of folding a single sheet of paper into a pocket-size book. After which the students launched into shredding campus going-out guides for collages, Crayola markers and glue sticks flying.

Art students in particular might easily understand the symbiotic relationship of consuming and creating for a thriving cultural ecosystem. Yet, for this project on arts and activism, they’re also challenging any perceptions of art as a static work within the confines of a studio. In addition to covering basic zine production, the students watched a screening of Robin Bell’s documentary “Positive Force: More Than a Witness”, which features 30 years of punk politics in action. The students had the unique opportunity to meet Mark Anderson and his colleagues, Sarah Himmelfarb and Dennis, of Positive Force and We Are Family, DC-based organizations with extensive histories of activism, advocacy, and community-building. After which the students embarked on fieldwork to explore and participate in social causes meaningful to them as the basis for their zines. The art instructor at AU is Professor Naoko Wowsugi. She has headed several projects focusing on art and community involvement for social change: http://www.wowsugi.com.

Although these DIY pubs cover every possible topic, early zines stemmed from sci-fi culture and punk. In the 1930s, sci-fi zines emerged when readers of commercial magazines began engaging more with one another in discourse or fandom. “Letters to the Editor” submissions evolved into independent publications. Greater access to self-publishing technology in the 70s, concurrent to the counterculture spirit of punk, also boosted the genre. Since then, the same do-it-yourself practices and ethos have led to a stunning diversity of zine publishing in terms of subject matter, artistic presentation, and social causes. Zines, often in the form of mini-magazines or comics, can vary in technical production, from 4-color, bound and cloth-covered to photocopied and stapled. They’re usually hand-drawn or hand-lettered, consisting of original and collaged art, and are often produced in small batches. Production costs stay within a minimal range because zines are shared and swapped as freely as they’re bought and sold (usually averaging $3–$5, with some exceptions). Regardless of the current boundlessness of format, metadata, and reach of commercial publishing, zinesters maintain a sentient immunity to conventions and economies of scale and instead connect with and revere so many voices and perspectives through these hoardable pocket-size treasures.

This summer, DC Zinefest will host its 7th annual event, July 15, at St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church. DC Zinefest provides a space for zine-makers, self-published artists, and writers to share their work with each other and the Washington, D.C., community.

Panel discussions will focus on arts and activism, topics relevant to people of color, and issues related to mental health. Tablers at this year’s DC Zinefest include DC publishers Swamphouse Press (promising “more Dungeons and Dragons content this year”) and The Doldrums (Unstuck, about feeling creatively and personally stagnant). Vinyl Vagabond features any and all matters related to vinyl music; creators Sara and Eric Gordon also make a variety of mini-comics such as Mr. Squibly, Adventures of a Terrified Pickle, Verse Scribble Verse, Thank You for Your Cooperation: Robocop 1987 Fanzine, Know a Ramen, and more. Zack Bly, a member of the D.C. comics collective Square City Comics, will feature his latest release, a technological thriller about a pig computer hacker. Kaila Bell’s (mostly) autobiographical Nun Comix draws scenes and stories from everyday life, with a special focus on LGBTQA issues, (a lack of) fitness, and living with anxiety. Her latest release, Someone’s in the Kitchen with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, is half foodie zine and half self-help.  JC, of Jenny and the Librarians, writes about disability and mental health. Tributaries shares her experiences related to juvenile rheumatoid arthritis; and Collide is a compilation zine on the intersection of physical and mental illness. Toni Lane will share her creations in Ghetto Girls Rule: “Ghetto Girls are personas from my memory and imagination. Their rules are what they give herself to live by. My rule is: Do Your Dream. Girls have always been the matriarch of most families. For this, strength is strong even when all seems lost. Ghetto Girls can be your sister, your neighbor, the girl up the way, in a place shared, where loneliness is not healthy and silence is a sound of trouble.” The Red Sweater Zine Collective promotes and distributes zines and handmade goodies from artists and writers, including zinesters who can’t get to zinefests because of cost, logistics, or other factors. Their works cover aging, mental health, the joy of dance, and also include thumb-size zines filled with enormous haiku. Other tablers include G. E. Gallas, writer and illustrator best known for her graphic novel, The Poet and The Flea, about William Blake, and her short film “Death Is No Bad Friend”, about Robert Louis Stevenson, and Team KK, who bring “silly pop-culture inspired illustrated zines inspired by bad movies, Nic Cage, The Rock, and anime”. Also, a limited supply of posters featuring this year’s commissioned art by Austin Breed will be available.

The organizers, all volunteers, hold fundraisers and promotional events throughout the year, most recently open mic readings at Black Cat and Pottery House and Zine Swaps at Fantom Comics. DC Zinefest also tabled at an event hosted by the National Museum of Women in the Arts, which featured a conversation with leading women in the comic world fighting for justice and dispelling traditional stereotypes in fiction and beyond. This year, DC Zinefest, through fundraising alone, had the means to grant stipends to underrepresented publishers (people of color, people with disabilities, people who identify as LBGTQIA+, and people who earn low incomes).

Some attendees who travel from out of town manage to find hosts among the DC zinester community and reciprocate in kind at events in Richmond, Philly, Boston, and New York, to name only a few (visit zinenation.org for the entire list of national and international zine events.) The DC and Arlington Public Libraries host zine-making workshops, and the DC Public Library Punk Archives and the University of Maryland D.C. Punk and Indie Fanzine Collection maintain repositories of works dating from the mid-1970s. Local events leading up to this year’s DC Zinefest include the following:


Zine Workshop
Friday, July 7, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.
The Connection: Arlington Pop-Up Library
2100 Crystal Drive, Arlington, VA 22202

Zine Lab
Tuesday, July 11, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Mt. Pleasant Library
3160 16th St. N.W., Washington, DC 20010


Saturday, July 15, 2017
10:00–4:30 p.m.
1525 Newton St NW, Washington, DC 20010

Sunday, July 02, 2017

Cartoonist Paul Merklein is teaching Cartooning Classes in July.

Paul Merklein writes in to tell us:

To all Teen and Tween cartoonists in the DC area -

Are you ready to create your own cartoons this summer?

Cartoonist Paul Merklein is teaching Cartooning Classes in July.

Two weekly Cartooning classes will begin on July 2 at the Arlington Mill
Community Center in VA.

A one week intensive Cartooning class will begin on July 17 at the Fairlington Community Center in VA.

Merklein will also be teaching Drawing classes at local libraries on these dates:

July 6 at Herndon Library in VA
July 7 at Reston Regional Library in VA
July 12 at Caroline County Library in Denton MD
July 24 at Silver Spring Library in MD

To see Paul Merklein's cartoons, go to... http://Paulmerklein.com




July 2: Zine Swap at Fantom Comics

Sunday, July 2 from 5 to 7 pm – Zine Swap – Join DC Zinefest and Fantom Comics for a fabulous zine swap. Bring some zines to trade and leave with a new set of reading material, all for FREE! We'll be collecting donations for DC Zinefest 2017.

Friday, June 30, 2017

July 4: Big Planet Comics 31st Anniversary SALE!

Wow. I've been shopping there for a long time...


Resist Vol. 2 protest magazine available in the area


RESIST the forces that would divide us
RESIST!


RESIST the normalization of fascism

RESIST! is a free print publication of political comics and graphics where our slogan, "Women's voices will be heard," can come true. It was started after the November 2016 election. Our Summer 2017 issue is now available for free in these comic book shops and bookstores or for order on our websiteThe free distribution of RESIST! is intended as an Independence Day celebration of our First Amendment, our diverse country and of our resilience. Our first issue was distributed at 58,000 copies by teams of volunteers at women's marches nationwide the day after the inauguration. RESIST! is edited and produced by Françoise Mouly, art editor of The New Yorker, and her daughter, writer Nadja Spiegelman. 

WHO'S INSIDE:

RESIST! combines some of the biggest names in comics — Roz Chast, Alison Bechdel, Lynda Barry, Kristin Radtke, Miriam Katin, Cathy Malkasian, Laura Park, Lauren Weinstein, Daniel Clowes, Art Spiegelman and many more — with powerful work by new names, ​some never-before-published.

FIND RESIST! NEAR YOU


DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Politics & Prose
5015 Connecticut Ave NW
Washington, DC 20008

(202) 364-1919

MARYLAND


Atomic Books
3620 Falls Rd,
Baltimore, MD 21211

(410) 662-4444

Twilite Zone Comics
18 Crain Hwy,
Glen Burnie, MD 21061

(410) 766-0480


VIRGINIA

Little Free Library of Alcova Heights
3900 7th St South
Arlington, VA 22204

Telegraph Arts & Comics

211A W Main St,
Charlottesville, VA 22902

(434) 244-3210

Meridian Books & Games
61 Court Square, Studio 1
Harrisonburg, Virginia

Hole In The Wall Books
905 W Broad St,
Falls Church, VA 22046
(703) 536-2511

June 30-July 2: BlerdCon


BlerdCon is a new convention in D.C. that includes the usual set-up of celebrity guests, panels, gaming, cosplay, etc. But two things make it different. First, is its focus on “minority nerds” (the convention website says “Blerd” is an acronym for “Black nerd”), though it notes that it is inclusive of all anime, comic books, sci-fi, gaming and cosplay fans. Second, the breadth is really impressive, as it includes all sort of things, like comedy, music and stage combat. Looks like there is something for everyone.

In the comics area, local troupe Art Way Alliance holds a comics-making workshop (“The Power of Panels/Mapping Out Your Comic Story”) on Friday, and later in the days there’s a panel titled “Get Your Comics and Projects Featured in Media Now! (18+).” On Sunday, there’s a panel called “LGBT Responsibility in Comics and Pop Culture.” There are a few more comics-related panel, so check out the program. There's also an artist alley all weekend. 

Three-day tickets are $45. The event is being held at Hyatt Crystal City in Arlington, Va.


Image courtesy of Eric Suggs/Art Way Alliance

Thursday, June 29, 2017

July 9: Neil Gaiman at Wolf Trap

Neil Gaiman


Sunday, July 9 at 8 p.m.

at The Filene Center at Wolf Trap 

"I make things up and write them down" is the way Neil Gaiman describes his varied art. Today, as one of the most celebrated, bestselling writers of our time, his popular and critically acclaimed works (Coraline, The Sandman, American Gods, and The Graveyard Book) bend genres while reaching audiences of all ages. In his live event, he will tell stories and read stories, answer questions, and in his own words "amaze, befuddle and generally delight. It will be fun and odd and not like any other evening with Neil Gaiman." Ticketing for this event is not arranged by Politics and Prose, visit www.wolftrap.org for more information.

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

July 6: '(Super)Hero' opening at Takoma Park, Md.

Takoma Park , Md., will host an exhibit titled "(Super)Hero," from July 6 to September 3, that will include the works of a few local comics creators. The free opening reception will be on July 6 at 8:30 pm at the Takoma Community College. Here's info from the Facebook event page:

"They are bold and bad. They are tough and triumphant.

Superheroes leap from comic book and newspaper pages to save us. The masked and costumed crusaders hail from other planets, while others are homegrown.

But, what is Wonder Woman like behind her shield and Batman beneath his cape? Are they fighters off the clock? What causes their armor to crack?

(Super)Hero looks at the frailties of the people and aliens who vow to battle crime and evil on Earth.

The exhibition features paintings, drawings, and sculpture by Elena Botts, Davd Ross, Linda Button, Gilda Odio, and Nicole Bresner."





July 1: Venus's Comic Shop pre-launch party

The folks at Venus's Comic Shop, a new comics shop opening July 8 at Union Station in D.C., will have a pre-launch party July 1 at Heroic Aleworks in Woodbridge, Va., from 6-10 p.m. The store is named in honor of local comics creator Venus Winston, who passed away of cancer in December. Heroic will donate a portion of the evening's proceeds to cancer research.

July 8: Calling All Teens to Loudoun County Public Library’s Annual MiniCon Celebration

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Peter O'Brien ─ 571-258-3465; peter.obrien@loudoun.gov

Calling All Teens to Loudoun County Public Library's Annual MiniCon Celebration

LEESBURG, VA – June 27, 2017.

Teens are encouraged to join the fun at the 8th annual MiniCon event at Rust Library in Leesburg, VA on July 8. The MiniCon program features a celebration of anime and manga, including an art and costume contest.

·         Attendees may participate in fun competitions, learn cosplay techniques, sing karaoke or just hang out with anime-loving friends.

·         Participants may bring their own manga for an all-day manga swap.

·         Entries may be added into the art contest until 2 p.m. that day.

·         From tails to face paint to armor to hoop skirts, cosplayers bringing anime and manga to life should arrive no later than 2:30 p.m. Costumes will be panel-judged for both quality and creativity.

·         Winners in the art and custom contests will be announced at 4 p.m. that day.

The event will run from 1 to 4 p.m. and is free. Rust Library is located at 380 Old Waterford Rd NW, Leesburg, VA 20176.



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