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I’m currently buried in Art Out of Time 2, making it as epic as possible. And I do mean epic. I have one word for you: KONA!!!!

Anyhow, here is some current reading with reviews to come:

-Brush With Passion: The Art and Life of Dave Stevens
-Parasyte vols. 1-3 by Iwaaki
-D.O.A. Comics 1 by Osborne
-A Drifting Life by Tatsumi
-Marvel Masterworks Atlas Era Heroes 3 by Everett and Ayers
-Tarzan: The Jesse Marsh Years Vol. 1

Book of the year for me, in terms of interest, if not quality, so far has been the Stevens book, for reasons I’ll cover in a future post. Is it art I like? Not really. But it’s a fascinating story for reasons that I don’t think the authors really fully understood. I haven’t gotten very far in the Tatsumi yet but I can’t wait.

And, an idle question for you people out there: Is there a Russ Manning estate somewhere? I can’t find much of anything.

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I’m very pleased to announce that Mark Newgarden and I are pretty deep into a long-term Milt Gross biography/art book. We have spoken to hitherto undiscovered sources, found incredible artwork, and are finally beginning to understand the scope of Gross’s epic career in comics, film, prose, animation, fine art, and even television. We don’t have a release date for the book yet, but assure you that we will spend summer ’09 sweating it out over our keyboards. Anyhow, should any of you out there have rare Gross photos or ephemera, please contact me: dan (at) pictureboxinc (dot) com.

Thanks.

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ICHIBA / YOKOYAMA (1)

ICHIBA / YOKOYAMA (2)

NEWGARDEN / YOKOYAMA

More Luzernnotes: We were having dinner with Yokoyama and Ichiba when I asked them both for their “autograph.” Yokoyama was happy to oblige but instead of just signing his name or making a little drawing in my notebook, he got Ichiba to “jam” with him on the same drawing. It was a drawing game. The notebook is folded back, and the participants are drawing while facing each other, holding the folded notebook between them so that each person cannot see what the other is drawing. Yokoyama made a mark where the top and the bottom of the head will be, a mark that both can see. This way it’s a surprise what the other will draw, but the proportions of the face will “line up.” It was pretty funny just to watch Yokoyama and Ichiba bantering in Japanese and laughing while they tried it twice. Later at the “Jazz Kantine” bar, Yokoyama and Mark Newgarden gave it a whirl and made me laugh so hard I choked on my wine. (I love how on their drawing it’s difficult to tell who did which half. Any guesses?)

Oh, and Yokoyama kept drawing faces with a “Do You Know?” word balloon. I asked him what that was about and he said that everyone—meaning Dan and me—kept asking him questions like “Do you know Jack Kirby?” or “Do you know Suehiro Maruo?” So he began writing it on these head drawing and said to me that the drawing is saying, “Do you know ME?”

Funny shit.

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Hello strangers, friends.
Been awhile.
Over on the Cold Heat blog, I posted some sketches from a train ride in Switzerland.
Quite an adventure.
Pittsburgh looks dirtier than ever. So what.
I like being back.

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So this was unexpected (and awesome):

Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism
* Comic Book Resources, produced by Jonah Weiland
* The Comics Journal, edited by Gary Groth, Michael Dean, and Kristy Valenti (Fantagraphics)
* The Comics Reporter, produced by Tom Spurgeon and Jordan Raphael
* Comics Comics, edited by Timothy Hodler and Dan Nadel (PictureBox)

I think the nominee seal is pretty cool, but it might seem weird affixed to newsprint. The winner seal looks like it will blend in nicely, though, and considering our competition in this category, that’s likely going to be the one we end up using.

No, but seriously, check out those nominees. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but one of these things is not like the others. [EDIT: This is meant to be self-deprecating, folks.] Which really, it would be smarter not to mention. So please pretend I didn’t, and thanks!

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A daily drawing by Blutch

Fumetto was certainly a blast. Essentially the festival takes over the town of Lucerne, Switzerland, and mounts about a dozen exhibitions, holds panel discussions and demonstrations, as well as signings and tours. It’s a non-commercial festival, with one great store located in the festival center and that’s it. It was wonderfully well-organized, well programmed and just, well, kinda perfect. It’s also interestingly broad, encompassing illustration and art as well as more traditional comics. By the end, we were told, 150,000 people had been through the festival. For me, it was a great chance to be involved with a different vision of what a festival can be, as well as a fun international cultural exchange. After all, PictureBox was there in the form of an exhibition by Frank, Lauren and CF, as well as a show by Yokoyama. But so was Ever Meulen, with a wonderful little retrospective. And so was Blutch, the “artist-in-residence” who provided excellent new drawings everyday in his hotel lobby. Mark Newgarden mounted, for me, the best exhibition of the festival, with a conceptually tight showing of his original artwork and ephemera. Shary Boyle was there with a fantastic show, and so was David Shrigley, not to mention Daisuke Ichiba, Elvis Studio, Alex Baladi, and numerous others. Anyhow, here are some pictures from the scene and there is much, much more on Flickr. Thanks to Lynn Kost and the Fumetto staff for such a wonderful experience!

Elvis Studio’s show.

Study for RAW cover and finish by Ever Meulen.

Newgarden made gorgeous large-format prints of Love’s Savage Fury.

Preggers Lauren is a great cook.

CF and Yokoyama bonded.

Oh yeah, one day me and Frank went to see Lee Perry at his mountain retreat an hour from Lucerne. He and Frank collaborated on this Batman drawing.

At the feet of THE RULER.

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Here’s a quick look at what’s happening in Lucerne…

Group interview time! Santoro, Weinstein, me, Forgues, Yokoyama. Major topic: Hemingway and humanism. Also: war comics.

Very large painting by Yokoyama, circa 1994

Part of Frank’s installation.

Part of Lauren’s show.

Oh, there’s this.

Brinkman here in spirit but not body.

I do love Ever Meulen.

Mark Newgarden makes his presence known.

More later.