Friday, June 15, 2018

Tomorrow: Ralph Steadman Exhibit Opening Weekend at the AU Museum!



American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center

Summer Opening Reception  June 16, 6 - 9 PM
free and open to the public
Mix and mingle with fellow museum patrons and meet the artists and curators behind the four new Summer exhibitions: Ralph Steadman: A Retrospective, Latitude: The Washington Women's Arts Center, FIGURES: Kiley Ames, Janice Nowinski, Kyle Staver, Jo Weiss, and Things Unseen: The Fluency of Abstraction
on view tomorrow through August 12

Join the waitlist for information about the Gallery Talk with Ralph Steadman here. Come at 4:30 to watch the talk from an overflow seating area, and sign up for the chance at an open seat. If you can't make it, watch the livestream from our Facebook page

Images (from top left):

Ralph Steadman, Hunter S Thompson 1937-2005, 2005Courtesy Ralph Steadman Art Collection.
Adrienne Gaither, Drift No. 2, 2018. Courtesy of the artist. 
Jo WeissYellow Pushback, 2018Courtesy of the artist. 
Carol Summar, Origins of Language I,1979 (detail). Courtesy of the artist. 




Mark Wheatley interviews on upcoming steampunk book

The Post on Incredibles 2

Witty and visually stunning, 'Incredibles 2' is totally worth the long wait [in print as After 14 years, a family's heroic return].



'Incredibles 2' and the power of parenting [in print as All too powerful? 'Incredibles 2' puts its heroes to task].


Express June 15 2018, p. 28
online at https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2018/06/15/incredibles-2-and-the-power-of-parenting/

Comic Riffs on Stan Lee's difficult endgame

Stan Lee's alleged elder-abuse and money issues have grown. Here's how we got to this point.


Washington Post Comic Riffs blog June 14 2018
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2018/06/14/tan-lees-alleged-elder-abuse-and-money-issues-grow-heres-how-we-got-to-this-point/

Comic Riffs on the firing of Pittsburgh editorial cartoonist Rob Rogers

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette fires anti-Trump cartoonist, and mayor says it sends 'wrong message about press freedoms'


One of Rob Rogers's finished cartoons that were recently killed by his Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editors. (Rob Rogers / Andrews McMeel 2018)

Thursday, June 14, 2018

July 2: Cuddles & Rage at Hooray for Books

*JUST ANNOUNCED*
A Sweet Story Time with Liz and Jimmy Reed
Saturday, July 28: 1 pm
Husband and wife duo extraordinaire, Liz and Jimmy Reed, bring their new book for a special story time, Sweet Success. Fans of Terry Border and Drew Daywalt will devour this punny and clay-ful picture book

Recommended for readers ages 3 and up.

Hooray for Books!® | 1555 King St • Alexandria, VA 22314 | 703.548.4092


Unable to make it to an event? You still can get a signed and personalized copy of the featured book! Give us a call at 703-548-4092 or email order@hooray4books.com at least three days before the event.

Wonder Woman 2 also to film in Alexandria

Ted White editorial in Falls Church News-Press

Shortly after he had a letter appear in The Post, retired comic book writer/editor Ted White has a substantial anti-gun editorial in his local newspaper.

Guest Commentary: On School Shootings, Falls Church & the Past

By Ted White

RVA Magazine profiles Richmond-based comic book

Sink/Swim Press Releases Third Issue of Post-Apocalyptic Comic, The Savage Lyrics

https://rvamag.com/art/zines-books/sink-swim-press-releases-third-issue-of-post-apocalyptic-comic-the-savage-lyrics.html

David Apatoff's Saturday Evening Post columns

New Capitals caricature lands in The Palm in DC

Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis lands another D.C. prize


Washington Post June 14 2018 p. C2
online at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/reliable-source/wp/2018/06/13/washington-capitals-owner-ted-leonsis-lands-another-d-c-prize/

The caricaturist is Al Evcimen.

The Post on local Wonder Woman 2 filming

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

DCist on Wonder Woman 2 filming in Georgetown

Filming For 'Wonder Woman' Sequel To Hit Georgetown Streets


Flugennock's Latest'n'Greatest: "Introducing: Democratic Donuts"!

From DC's anarchist cartoonist, Mike Flugennock:


"Democratic Donuts"
http://sinkers.org/stage/?p=2533

If you've been involved as long as I have with the Dirtbag Left -- or, as us old folks call it, the Left -- you're intimately familiar with the infamous Donut Incident at the DNC Galactic HQ on Capitol Hill:

"...The grievances converge around a recent trip to deliver petitions to the party's headquarters in Washington, where Turner and other progressives were greeted by barricades, security guards, and an offering of donuts and water, which she saw as an empty gesture indicative of an institution that isn't 'smart enough, humble enough, to say, 'let's take a step back and really listen to the people'...".

– Nina Turner, quoted on BuzzFeed, 08.09.17

Needless to say, the Hillaroids and other centrist dead-enders proceeded to taunt the Left on Twitter with snide donut references and the use of donut emojis in their handles, earning them the epithet "Twitter Donuts".

On top of all that, what with Nancy Pelosi personally promising to do exactly jack shit -- and, in fact, make things even worse -- if the Progressives help the DNC take back the House, it seemed high time that the disruptive entrepreneurs who brought you the Democratic Diner rolled out a new, even more disruptive food spectacular, Democratic Donuts!

Feast your retinas and drool at their inaugural "Premier Assortment"...

Comic Riffs talks to Jules Feiffer

How a hunt through the Library of Congress helped get a new movie made


Washington Post Comic Riffs blog  June 13 2018
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2018/06/13/how-a-hunt-through-the-library-of-congress-helped-get-a-new-movie-made/

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

You, too, can write reviews!

by Melissa Riggio

You close the book (or click "exit" on the eReader). Satisfied with the story, you briefly think over the characters, the plot, and maybe one or two things you would have changed, but overall, it was a great read. You've got a bit of time left today before you tackle your responsibilities - perhaps time to start another book?

Or you could consider pausing to write a review. 

Reviews are a huge industry within the publishing world. From a one-line Goodreads review to a full-page review in the New York Times, a good review can boost a book up in sales - or plummet it down to obscurity. There are entire blogs dedicated to book reviews, down to specific genres (YA, urban paranormal romance, steampunk, LGBTQ - endlessly niche for every taste). Comic books (graphic novels, individual issues, tradebacks) also are items you can review.

Where does the average reader without a blog or following fit into this? They fit in quite easily, actually. There are plenty of platforms to leave a review, the most popular ones being Amazon and Goodreads. The reviews can be short - from one sentence to several paragraphs, to a whole page. 

So why should you write a review, even if you don't have the clout of a New York Times or NPR reviewer? 

It's useful for publishing companies and authors to see the reviews and use them for publicity, or, in turn, learn from them - if enough reviews say the same thing, it could affect the publishing of the book, for better or worse. 

Some tips for writing reviews

·  avoid negatively reviewing a book due to a shipping problem, or error with the online ordering service. 
·  avoid reviewing poorly based on a dislike of the theme itself - if you dislike horror, and read a horror book, giving it 1 star because you dislike horror is a discredit to the book for simply existing within its genre. (You may find this odd, but if you read through enough Goodreads reviews, you'll find people rating books very lowly because they "just don't like romance novels", and yet read an entire one and proceeded to review it poorly for being a romance novel.) 
·  if you're having trouble finding the words, just mention a particular passage, panel, or quote that struck you. For comic books, the artist and writer can sometimes be different, so commenting on them individually is something you can also do. 
·  "I couldn't put the book down" or "I read it so quickly because I had to know what happened" are valid reviews - it's not about the length of the review as much as the sentiment and thought behind it. 

Still a little nervous about writing reviews? You can mark certain reviews on books you've read as "helpful" or not on Amazon, which can push certain reviews to the top that you feel really help a reader decide if they should read the book or not.

If you've purchased books from Amazon lately, you can go through your back orders and leave reviews on those pages. It's been debated how much leaving a review can alter the ranking of a book, and if the review being a verified purchase matters or not (as in, purchased from Amazon under your account, thus proving you did have the item) but all of the other reasons to review still apply. 

If you're on Instagram, Twitter, or Tumblr, you can take a picture of the book and tag the author or publishing company - reader pictures are great inspiration and motivation for authors. Seeing their book "in the wild" is something almost every author aims for. Some people "live review" books as they are reading them, quote lines, and post critiques as they go along, which is another way to have a reviewing experience with a book. 

So glance through your bookshelf (or Kindle library), see the books that inspired you or made you think, and take a minute publish a review! The authors and publishers will thank you. 


Melissa Riggio is a a local comics professional who works for Rosarium Publishing in the DC area. She is an avid Goodreads/Amazon reviewer and library fanatic who will be occasionally posting on here about topics related to comics, publishing, and reviews.

Monday, June 11, 2018

June 15: PAPER CUTS / LIVE Comic Extravaganza

PAPER CUTS / LIVE Comic Extravaganza

https://www.wpadc.org/events/paper-cuts-live-comic-extravaganza

Join us for the final PAPER CUTS / LIVE conversation, curated by artist Christopher Kardambikis and featuring comic book artists: Adam Griffiths, Kendra and Kat, Athena Naylor, and Anna Sellheim. The conversation and reading will be recorded and archived as a PAPER CUTS podcast. This is part of an ongoing series of conversations related to Bookshelves: PAPER CUTS / LIVE which is on view through July 5.


Location

Washington Project for the Arts
2124 8th Street NW
Washington, DC 20001

Dates

Friday, June 15, 2018, 7:30pm

Related Exhibition

Bookshelves: PAPER CUTS / LIVE

February 16  July 5, 2018

About the artists

Adam Griffiths is a cartoonist, illustrator and arts organizer based in the DC region. Griffiths' studio practice is cartooning, comics, and illustration-focused with a politicized, diy image production ethos that he calls ZAGO.  He has exhibited his illustration and video work with Washington Project for the Arts, Hillyer Art Space, School 33, the International Curatorial and Studio Practice (ISCP) program, and Transformer Gallery. He has completed workshops and residencies at The Center for Cartooning Studies in White River Junction, VT and Comics Workbook in Pittsburgh, PA, and tabled at the annual Small Press Expo (SPX) in Bethesda. He will present his first solo show at Arlington Art Center in Virginia in 2018. Recently, he published the first installment of his 600-page graphic novel Washington White as a tabloid newspaper, and last year released his first mini-comic, The Permanent Night. Online, he posts full-color illustrations, numerous character sketches, works-in-process, and a weekly comic strip titled American Cryo-. 

Kendra & Kat have been making comics together for 8 years, and plotting over cupcakes for far longer. With comics and zines that run the gamut from queer space pirate shenanigans to illustrated cookbooks inspired by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, they are driven by sparkles and fun. Their work has been featured in anthologies such as Coven and Purity, and they've been a staple in the DC-area comic scene since tabling at DC Zinefest back in 2012.

Athena Naylor is an autobiographical cartoonist and illustrator based in DC and originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Included in her many interests are: perceptions of memory, everyday absurdity, and contemporary adaptations of historical events and stories. She earned a master's degree in art history to explore the relationship between art history and comics, and her writing has been featured in DIRT magazine. You can most easily find updates on her current creative projects on instagram @athena.naylor.

Anna Sellheim is a cartoonist practicing out of Rehoboth Beach DE and is desperately trying to relocate back to the DC/Baltimore area. Her work tends to focus on mental health and progressive politics. She received her MFA in cartooning from the Center For Cartoon Studies in 2016. She has been in multiple anthologies including Sweaty Palms, Dirty Diamonds Vol 6, and Comics for Choice. Her second volume of her mental health series Everything's Fine has been nominated for a Broken Pencil Zine Award, received an honorable mention for a DINKy award in the best zine category, and won a MICE mini grant.

Saturday, June 09, 2018

That darn Hagar, Judge Parker and Mark Trail

Why I read terrible comics such as 'Mark Trail' and 'Judge Parker' [in print as No longer at full tilt].

Asher Roth, Broadlands

Washington Post (June 9 2018): A15


Under Trump, jokes about burning books aren't funny [Hagar the Horrible; in print as Searingly unfunny].

 

W. Luther Jett, Washington Grove

Washington Post (June 9 2018): A15

online at https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/under-trump-jokes-about-burning-books-arent-funny/2018/06/08/111de8ae-691e-11e8-a335-c4503d041eaf_story.html



The Post on SpongeBob's staying power

How 'SpongeBob SquarePants' invaded our brains [in print as SpongeBob fits in anywhere with ease].

Washington Post June 10 2018, p. E5