Tuesday, August 13, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Steve Artley

"BOOM Economy(click on Image for larger view)


LoC blogs on samurai animals in comics

I can't believe they have Samurai Penguin.

Let's Talk Comics: Samurai Animals

Aug 17: Art Lab: Creating Comics with Julian Lytle


Art Lab: Creating Comics with Julian Lytle


Aug 17 1-2 pm
Apple Carnegie Library

801 K Street NW

Washington, DC 20001

Create a comic that tells your story with cartoonist and podcast creator Julian Lytle. He'll share his belief that comics are a contemporary way to share stories regardless of technical experience and take you through the steps to creating a comic in the Procreate app. Using creative prompts from Lytle, you'll sketch characters and scenes on iPad with Apple Pencil.


J. Michael Straczynski photos by Bruce Guthrie

From the event at Politics and Prose -

J. Michael Straczynski - Becoming Superman: My Journey from Poverty to Hollywood
Straczynski is best known as the creator of the Babylon 5 and Sense8 TV shows, but his amazing four-decade career also encompasses screenwriting—Changeling, Thor, and World War Z—writing for several D.C. and Marvel Comics' series, and creating his own award-winning graphic works. Now in this stunning memoir he tells his own story—perhaps his most fantastic feat yet. Straczynski grew up in the care of adults variously damaged by addiction, mental illness, and poverty. His only refuge from the misery was comic books, and he gradually realized that he, too, could invent alternate worlds. But even as he managed to take power over his future, a terrible secret in his family's past continued to haunt him. 


Mo Willems at the Kennedy Center

Mo Willems brings a little silliness into the Kennedy Center's storied halls

The 'Pigeon' author and illustrator is the center's first education artist-in-residence.

Friday, August 09, 2019

Shawn Martinbrough interviewed on More To Come 380: SDCC 2019 Interview Special Pt. 4

More To Come 380: SDCC 2019 Interview Special Pt. 4


Live from San Diego, in part four of More To Come's San Diego Comic-Con special, Calvin Reid interviews the veteran comics creators and collaborators writer Andy Diggle and artist Shawn Martinbrough about Promethee 13:30,' a new three issue prequel to Christophe Bec's epic science fiction bande desinee 'Promethee,' published by Comixology Originals. Check out PublishersWeekly.com/comics for more SDCC coverage from Publishers Weekly!

More on Otakon from Scoop

The Post and Express review live-action Dora

It's good to see that the Express has a new movie critic, replacing Page-Kirby who moved to the Post.

'Dora and the Lost City of Gold' brings positive Latino roles to the big screen [in print as Uncharted territory].


There's no treasure to be found in the boring 'Dora and the Lost City of Gold' [in print as Live-action reboot is an adventure that is all over the map].

Thursday, August 08, 2019

Hickman's Influences on House of X

By RM Rhodes

I haven’t read X-Men comics in at least a decade, if not longer. I would be hard-pressed to tell you if I’ve even read a single issue from this century, to be honest. But I do keep up with the news of X-Men the same way that I keep up with what my ex-wives are doing these days – I used to care a lot more, but I’m still curious. At the very least, I figure that I’ll hear about current developments on Jay and Miles Explain the X-Men at some point in the future.

I mention all of that to explain why I knew that it was a big deal that Jonathan Hickman was going to be writing the X-Men. And why I knew that in the new Hickman-written book, House of X, Moira MacTaggert was now a mutant who has lived several lives, reincarnating again and again to change things in her next life. That's an interesting plot twist.

And then I saw on Twitter that author Claire North was noting similarities between that plot and the plot of her 2014 book, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. I did not see that coming.

I did find the interview that Jonathan Hickman did with The Beat back in 2016, where he mentions The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August as a book that he’s currently reading and currently enjoying.

No word as of yet whether anyone has pointed this out to Hickman or Marvel, or gotten a response if they did. But it’s certainly something worth noting. Because Claire North has certainly noted it.

More to follow, I'm sure.

__________________________________________________________

Why is this here? It's a long story. Mike Rhode first introduced himself to me when I first started vending at SPX. Over the years, we've talk to each other at Comic conventions around the DC area and never quite get around to sitting down for lunch. 

When I moved to Arlington two years ago, I didn't realize that Mike lived within a mile of my building. Nor did I realize that he lived next door to my ex-girlfriend's friend from college. We also discovered, by accident that we work two buildings away from each other, because we work in adjacent organizations. The world is a very small place, sometimes. 

It really feels that way when I run into Mike at the local farmer's market. Naturally, that's when I pitch him article ideas. I'm reading the entire run of Heavy Metal in public (in blog format) because I happen to own the entire run of Heavy Metal. This means that I'm engaged in an ongoing study of the magazine. In addition, I have a diverse and idiosyncratic reading list that tends towards the weird corners of comics history. Sometimes one circumstance or another results in long articles that I don't really have anyplace to put. Mike has been gracious enough to let me publish them here.

In summary: this is an article about comics from someone in the DC area. 

Former local animator Danny Taylor obituary

Danny Gordon Taylor (formerly of Hyattsville) Dead: Oscar-Nominated VFX Artist Was 69 | Hollywood Reporter

8/7/2019 by Mike Barnes
"Raised in Tonawanda, New York, near Buffalo, Taylor worked for WDCA-TV 20 in Washington before launching Taylor Made Images in Hyattsville, Maryland. At his company from 1983-91, he did traditional animation and VFX work for clients including DuPont, PBS, Sam Raimi, the IRS and the U.S. Armed Forces, as well as a feature film, Metamorphosis: The Alien Factor (1990). ... "

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/danny-gordon-taylor-dead-oscar-nominated-vfx-artist-was-69-1230130

Thanks to Michael Cavna for the tip

Cavna on Tom Richmond's caricature of Mad

The story behind the fake Mad magazine and TV Guide covers in 'Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood'


NPR on the 90s comic book, at least the alternative version

With These Comics, Learn How to Laugh Like It's 1999 (Hint: Don't)

Hole in the Wall Books to close

After 40 Year Run, Hole in the Wall Books Closes Its Doors This Month