Thursday, November 12, 2020

Al Goodwyn's latest cartoon newsletter

LoC blogs on Lynd Ward

Lynd Ward's Eerie, Early Graphic Novel, "Gods' Man"

Nov 18: Tommy Siegel, author of I Hope This Helps: Comics and Cures for 21st Century Panic

Nov 18: Tommy Siegel, author of I Hope This Helps: Comics and Cures for 21st Century Panic

Tommy Siegel and his new book are here to help! I Hope This Helps: Comics and Cures for 21st Century Panic  has had our staff laughing since it arrived last month, and we are pleased to bring him to you (virtually) in November!

-->>> This event is free, but please Register

<<<----

The event will stream on Facebook and YouTube (links will be added here a few days in advance). If you register, you will receive direct links via email.

An illustrated guide to the absurdities of our phone-obsessed modern life from one of the sharpest wits in webcomics.

Tommy Siegel's debut book collection includes 200+ pages of comics, essays, and extremely helpful guides to coping with 21st-century panic. With comics titled "Choose your social anxiety coping mechanism" and "What your coffee drink of choice says about you," I Hope This Helps offers clever and sardonic commentary on our phone-obsessed, social media-driven culture, as well as a series of devastatingly funny relationship comics starring his popular Candy Hearts characters.

Tommy Siegel's comics began as doodles in the back of a van as a touring rock musician, and quickly earned a viral global fanbase and shout-outs from cultural heavyweights ranging from Ringo Starr to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. With a perfect balance of absurd humor and insightful writing, I Hope This Helps outlines the journey from the author's earliest "van doodles" all the way to the socially-distanced awkwardness of the present day.

Tommy Siegel is a cartoonist and musician who tries his best to juggle both pastimes with assistance from copious amounts of coffee. As lead guitarist and singer for his solo projects and his power pop trio Jukebox The Ghost, Tommy has played over 1,000 shows around the world, including festivals like Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza and late-night television programs like Letterman and Conan. As a cartoonist, his challenge to draw 500 consecutive days of comics led to a viral fanbase of hundreds of thousands worldwide. 

Event date: 
Wednesday, November 18, 2020 - 7:00pm
Event address: 
online
Arlington, VA 22213

Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Kleefeld on Webcomics - a ComicsDC video interview

By Mike Rhode

Sean Kleefeld, independent comics scholar and author of the new book, Webcomics, was the subject of our first video interview (via Zoom). Sean's been writing about comics for 14 years at his blog, Kleefeld on Comics, and Webcomics (Bloomsbury, 2020; $33) is the first academic book on various aspects of a newish form of cartooning.

I was joined today by two local experts on webcomics - Robb Tanner, who as Xavier Xerxes, was one of the main comics journalists covering the early days of the field - and Megan Halsband, curator of the web comics collections at the Library of Congress.

 Sean joined us from Chicago to discuss his definition of webcomics, the process of writing a book on them, his choices for 7 key texts in the field based on trying to capture the field's diversity, the role of social media and collectives in creating and distributing webcomics, the difficulties in preserving an ephemeral field and other issues.

  I would recommend this book as a key text in an understudied area of the comics arts. I found it very readable and a good, solid explanation of the field whose prehistory dates from 1987, but in reality which took off in 1997, not quite 25 years ago.

Click here to go to the video at the Internet Archive.

https://archive.org/details/comics-dc-kleefeld-on-webcomics in case you missed it.

 
A couple of footnotes - 
 
Robb notes (21:25), "There were four anthology Joey Manley sites: Modern Tales, Serializer, Girlamatic, and GraphicSmash."
 
Sean's final words (36:01) are "...and make money." so just insert that in your head when you listen.
 
For more information on the Library of Congress' webcomics initiative, use these links - 
 

Small Press Expo Comic and Comic Art Web Archive

Comics Literature and Criticism Web Archive

Quick review of Under the Cape: An Anthology of Superhero Romance

by Mike Rhode

Under the Cape: An Anthology of Superhero Romance, Rachel Kenley (ed.), Riverdale Avenue Books, 2020, 320 pp., $17. http://www.riverdaleavebooks.com

From the Amazon description: Super speed, incredible strength, the ability to fly, throw fire, read minds or change forms. What superpower would you choose if you could? Would you be the hero or the villain? And how would it affect your relationships? From heat levels mild to wild, these authors explore the universal truths of love and romance and the happy endings we all desire.The challenge of connection, secrets, and the murky line between good and evil are explored in this collection of 11 original romances by:

-Kim Strattford – Flying Fast, Falling Hard (M/F)
-E.D. Gonzalez – Where There’s Smoke (M/M)
-Naomi Hinchen – The Trust Paradox (M/F)
-Elizabeth Schechter – Time for No Mercy (F/F)
-David Valentin -No Words Needed (M/M)
-Stella B. James – Swiftly In Love (M/F)
-Julie Behrens – Supergay (F/F)
-Christopher Peruzzi -The Little Push (M/F)
-Louisa Bacio – Foolproof (F/F)
-Rachel Kenley – Just Be Yourself (M/F)
-Austin Worley – Love,  Law and the Whippoorwill (F/F)

When  I was a kid in the 1970s, I really wanted superhero prose, but there wasn't much to be had - a couple of Batman tv series tie-ins done in the '60s, some Superman movie novels by Elliot S! Maggin, and a short-lived line of Marvel novels. The main way to get longer super-heroic stories was to read the pulps that were being reprinted at the time - the Avenger, Doc Savage (with covers by James Bama) and The Shadow (covers by Steranko), but these pulp heroes weren't quite the same as the later comic book heroes. The desire for longer stories, which lasted more than 15 minutes to read, and could give more backstory than a comic, was strong for me.


Now, Marvel and DC have regularly published novels about their characters, and many other people have written stories about generic heroes. In fact, Washington's Tom King got his start that way with his 2012 novel A Once Crowded Sky.

The stories are generally competent, although none of them particularly stood out for me. I just enjoyed them as a light fiction read. The heroes' powers and names are often secondary to the plot, as expected, and there's plenty of hero-villain cross-romance, also as expected.

This anthology is probably a bit of a hodgepodge as far as finding an audience, due to its laudable attempt at diversity. As you can see above, the tales vary between hetero- and homosexual, with 5 hetero, 4 lesbian and 2 male stories. The stories are further divided into "sweet" (no sex) and "heat" (explicit sex). I have no idea how romance audiences select their books, but there might not be enough specific content here for anyone but the devoted superhero fan.

Speaking of the devoted superhero fan, Peruzzi's The Little Push does a deep dive into comics fandom and the ending is almost certainly incomprehensible to anyone who doesn't map his Mistress Marvella and Captain Photon onto Shazam-powered Mary Marvel (Fawcett / DC Comics) and Captain Marvel (the original Marvel Comics version). Both of those characters ended up with a superhero form bonded to a human form.

In conclusion, I enjoyed this book for what it was. Other reader's mileage will certainly vary. I appreciate the publisher's agent providing a free copy for me to review.


Robin Ha nominated for Goodreads Choice Award

Robin Ha is nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award for her graphic novel, Almost American Girl. You can vote here.

Tuesday, November 10, 2020

Flugennock's Latest'n'Greatest: "MABA (Make America Brunch Again)"

From Mike Flugennock, DC's anarchist cartoonist -


"MABA (Make America Brunch Again)"
http://sinkers.org/stage/?p=3092

It's this kind of clueless queefage from rich-ass Hollywood knobs like Mark Hamill which perfectly illustrates the attitude of the French aristocracy and bourgeoisie just before the head-chopping started — at last, the Democrats are back in the White House; now we can stop pretending to care about the poor and the working class and go back to brunch again.

Finally, everything's back to "normal" — America is brutalizing the rest of the world, the police are terrorizing Black America, and the Liberals are beating down the Left. Time to celebrate!


Editorial Cartoon by Steve Artley

 

Recent Cartoon (click on Image for larger view)

"Blue State Bar"

©2020 Steven G Artley • artleytoons • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED


The Lily's latest comic

How I learned to let my Christian values — not any political party — guide my vote

It wasn't until college that I started challenging my political beliefs

How I learned to let my Christian values — not any political party — guide my vote

An Editorial Cartoon by Steve Artley

 

Recent Cartoon (click on Image for larger view)

"2021: an electoral odyssey"

©2020 Steven G Artley • artleytoons • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED


Monday, November 09, 2020

Troy-Jeffrey Allen interviews Space Bastards

Interview: Space is the Final Frontier...for Bastards!

Interview by Troy-Jeffrey Allen

Nov 11: Tommy Siegel with Ben Thornewill

Wednesday, November 11 at 7 p.m.
Tommy Siegel with Ben Thornewill
I Hope This Helps: Comics and Cures for 21st Century Panic
Register

Sunday, November 08, 2020

Guston exhibit re-rescheduled

After intense criticism, Philip Guston exhibition rescheduled for 2022-24 [in print as Postponed Philip Guston show coming here in 2023]

Flugennock's Latest'n'Greatest: "Feet To The Fire"

From DC's anarchist cartoonist, Mike Flugennock:


"Feet To The Fire"
http://sinkers.org/stage/?p=3088

This one's going out to all the Leftie media "Blue Checks" who spent the better part of the last four years ripping the mask off the Democratic Party, blowing the Russiagate grift wide open — and then chickening out at the last minute and going with Joe Biden because... harm reduction?

Harm reduction? Really? Even knowing Gropin' Joe's record over the past 40-odd years? F'crissake, the guy practically invented harm.

Shame on you. ALL the goddamn shame on your asses.


That darn Toles

Thank you, Tom [letters on Toles]

Adrienne Dern, William A. Carnegie, Adrianne Krause, Jonathan Roth, T.E. Gardner

Washington Post November 7 2020, p. A13

Friday, November 06, 2020

KAL Show Closing and Book signing Sat Nov 7th


'KAL' 
FINAL DAY OF THE SHOW!
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 7, 2020
4:30 - 6:00


Cartoonist / Satirist / Animator
We thought we would be celebrating the end of the elections... not so fast!!
We will have KAL in the gallery for the final day of his show. He will be here from 4:30-6:00 and will sign his Daggers Drawn book and personalize any of his work.
KAL
This exhibition showcases original pen and ink drawings and prints, including never released 'covers' from the Economist.



Crystal Moll Gallery
Fine Art and Custom Framing

Our mailing address is:
1030 South Charles Street Baltimore Maryland 21230
Gallery : 443-759-4235
Crystal Moll Cell: 410-952-2843
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 12 noon-6











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Art Gallery · 1030 South Charles Street · Baltimore, MD 21230 · USA

NPR reviews 'Blue In Green'

Inks And Colors Rescue 'Blue In Green' From Plodding Plotting

  Etelka Lehoczky

October 31, 2020

https://www.npr.org/2020/10/31/929461708/inks-and-colors-rescue-blue-in-green-from-plodding-plotting

NPR talks to Tom Toles, including his future plans

Wednesday, November 04, 2020

Jillian Tamaki, "Our Little Kitchen," at Politics and Prose

Jillian Tamaki, "Our Little Kitchen"


Nov 3, 2020

Amazing things happen when a community comes together with creativity, energy, and food! Drawn from author/illustrator Jillian Tamaki's volunteer experiences at a small community kitchen in Brooklyn, Our Little Kitchen captures the chaotic but caring work of neighbors taking care of each other with meals and friendship. Tamaki combines the action-filled illustrations of a graphic novel with a rhyming narrative for an explosion of colors, words, tastes, and smells. "Three bags of apples some of them bruised…cut off the brown bits, they're still good to use!". Thumb to the back endpapers to see how these second-hand apples are turned into a dessert to warm the bellies of those you love. Purchase Book Here: https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9...

Jillian Tamaki is a cartoonist and illustrator. She grew up in Canada and attended the Alberta College of Art and Design. The graphic novel she wrote with her cousin Mariko Tamaki, This One Summer, won a Caldecott Honor in 2015. Her graphic novels center on the messy, scary and confusing parts of growing up. She draws comics, editorial and book illustration, teaches, and contributes to the TV show Adventure Time.

John Gallagher, "Max Meow: Cat Crusader," at Politics and Prose

John Gallagher, "Max Meow: Cat Crusader"

Nov 3, 2020

Who needs radioactive spiders to turn into a superhero? It is as deliciously easy as eating a radioactive meatball from your friend's secret lab! Can mild-mannered podCATster Max use his newfound powers for good and save Kittyopolis from the baddies? Will Max listen to the wise words of his best friend or will it be a CATastrophe? Purchase Book Here: https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9...

Meet Max the cat crusader in this hilarious new middle-grade graphic novel series, Max Meow by cartoonist John Gallagher. Join us for an interactive event with a drawing presentation and Q&A from the live audience. John Gallagher is the art director of the National Wildlife Federation's Ranger Rick magazine and has been drawing comics since he was five. John is also the co-founder of Kids Love Comics (an organization devoted to using graphic novels to promote literacy) and leads workshops teaching kids how to create their own comics. John lives in Virginia with his wife and their three kids.