If you couldn’t make it to MoCCA, or missed Frank’s panel with Gary Panter and Raymond Sohn for any other reason, here’s an audio recording of the proceedings. (Thanks, Ray!)
Also, Squally Showers has put together an excellent visual companion to the talk.
MoCCA MadnessPictureBox will be at the MoCCA Festival this weekend, June 6-7, 11 am- 6 pm.
69th Regiment Armory
68 Lexington Avenue, between 25th and 26th Streets
NYC
PictureBox has booths 301, 339, 338
So, without further ado:
New from PictureBox for MoCCA!
Mat Brinkman: MULTIFORCE
Yes, you read that correctly — the entire saga at full size. 22 pages of comics genius. Sneak attack.
Ed Nukey Nukes and Jocko Levent Brainiac: PEE DOG 2: THE CAPTAIN’S FINAL LOG
A 60 page opus d’filth from 1986 co-created by an artist we publish whose name rhymes with Shmary Kanter. Just 500 made.
Lane Milburn and Frank Santoro: COLD HEAT SPECIAL #9
Not a season goes by without a slice of such goodness.
Devin Flynn and Gary Panter: DEVIN AND GARY GO OUTSIDE SPECIAL EDITION
Hand-collages unique objects. Just 100 made!
Raw Dog: REAL DEAL BACK ISSUES
First printings how available!
Lauren Weinstein: TWO GHOST STORIES zine
And new work from Matthew Thurber, Anya Davidson, Taylor McKimens, and others!
And…:
Festival Signing Schedule
Special Event: Frank Santoro and Gary Panter in conversation at 3:45 on Sunday in the programming room.
Saturday:
11 am-12 pm: Frank Santoro
12 pm -2 pm: Lauren Weinstein and Frank Santoro
2-3 pm: Matthew Thurber
3:00 pm-5 pm: Lauren Weinstein
5 pm – 6 pm: Frank Santoro
Sunday:
11:30 am – 12:30 pm: Lauren Weinstein
12:30 pm -1:30 pm: Frank Santoro
1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m: Gary Panter and Devin Flynn
4 pm – 6 pm: Lauren Weinstein
See you soon!
By my own (and some popular) demand I interviewed Lawrence Hubbard aka Rawdog, the artist behind the mysterious Real Deal Magazine, a six-issue masterpiece of comics that began in 1989. One of the rare contemporary African-American created and published comics, Real Deal depicts L.A. underworld life with visceral, bone-dry humor and gross out violence rendered in Hubbard’s uniquely gnarly line. Anyhow, I was also happy to discover that Hubbard still has some back issues of Real Deal, so PictureBox will be representing with the original printings of issues 1 and 3-6 at MoCCA and, shortly, online at pictureboxinc.com. Prices at the festival will be $10 for issue 1 and $6 each for the rest.
How did Real Deal begin? Where and when?
Back in the early nineties I was working at California Federal Savings (now defunct) in the IT department (because of family and money problems I have always had to have jobs outside of my art). Anyway I was hanging out in the sub-basement of the building where my buddy HP Mc Elwee worked in the record storage dept, anyway we were just shootin the shit when he showed me these crude stick figure pictures of these characters GC, Ace Brogham, Slick Willy and Pork
Butt, GC’s old lady. Anyway the shit was so funny we laughed like hell for hours, and I thought it was so funny that I said “Hey man you know I draw!” so I took the characters and fleshed them out and made them more realistic. Anyway it was so damn funny to everybody we showed it to that we decided we wanted to publish it. At first we sent out samples to the usual suspects, Marvel, DC, Mad and got clowned by all as usual, Marvel actually sent us a personally written letter, but said sorry we can’t use it. Anyway we said “fuck it” and decided to publish it ourselves, the first issue came out in 1989, and we did comic shows and stuff like that, but because of lack of money, distribution problems (Damn I wish the internet was like it is now back then!!) it didn’t quite work. Anyway we managed to get 6 issues out, but HP McElwee died of a stroke and heart attack at the age of 43. Anyway, one thing that keeps me going in this is the fans!
You mentioned that people you showed the work to would laugh like hell … so did you go into Real Deal with the idea of making your own Mad? A humorous comic for adults?
In a way, a sort of satire from “The Hood” for adults, and one thing that was different in Real Deal was that the characters are older guys whose youth was in the ’70s and they just kind of stayed there (kind of reminds me of a story a guy I used to work with named Ben told me. He said he left Iowa in 1974 for California, when he went back in the early ’90s for a visit, he said a lot of the guys he knew still had the same cars) while most books about this sort of thing would have been about some young hip hoppers. The ’70s is when we came up, Blaxploitation, Disco, double knit rags, pimp mobiles, Funky Music, Soul Power, Can you dig it Baby?? And the main thing was we didn’t see anything else like it.
Where did the characters come from? HP’s own life experiences? His observations?
What’s funny about that is the characters are from both of our lives, we had been friends for years before he came up with it, and it was a culmination of people we had known in both of our lives, convicts, hustlers, drug addicts, crack hoes, car thieves, murderers etc. People we used to talk about. HP’s brother was a car thief, he had been to jail so many times he didn’t seem to mind it.
Do you think of Real Deal as being specific to L. A. and L. A. culture?
Yes most definitely, this is where I grew up, this is where I live, if you look at the backgrounds in my art, you can tell it’s L.A.
What were you main influences in comics and art? Were you a part of a large scene?
My main influences were Marvel and DC comics and especially Mad Magazine, I loved the work of Mort Drucker and Angelo Torres, George Woodbridge. Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, E. Simms Campbell, Doug Wildey and a host of others. There is a downtown scene here in Los Angeles, artist lofts parties etc, there was a printmaker called Rollo, I can’t remember his last name that used to do posters for alternative bands, he did a print of some of my work. unfortunately I have been stuck most of the time doing jobs that have nothing to do with comics.
How did you and HP divide the labor? Did he write scripts?
HP originally wrote all the scripts, and I would add my input and I would show him the pages as I was drawing them. Since he passed away I have been following his formula, and amazingly enough it’s not that hard to write a Real Deal story. You take a simple everyday situation: Going to the store, the car wash, buying some food, you have a confrontation, nobody backs down! And next all hell breaks loose!! And the main thing is none of the characters give a shit about the consequences.
What else do you do for work? Do you publish your work elsewhere?
I’m not publishing anywhere else right now, but soon I plan on doing a big push for Real Deal to put it where it belongs, Right now I work in the IT industry as a Production Control Analyst.
[UPDATE: 5/29/09]
In response to some of the questions in the comments section, I asked Lawrence about some specific L.A. influences, to which he responded:
You know I didn’t know Gary Panter or Raymond Pettibon by name but when I looked them up I immediately recognized their art; they are very good. I think I developed my style from all the cartoonists I named in my interview. One who I always admired was Doug Wildey of Jonny Quest fame, when I used to watch those episodes on TV when they were new, I always admired his attention to realism, I try to bring that to my art. Even though my characters have cartoon faces which fits the style of what I’m doing, I try to make the bodies, hands, backgrounds etc as real and on perspective as possible. I’ve always admired cartoonist who could draw in a goofy cartoon style and then change up and do realistic illustrations, you would look at it and say, “Is this the same guy?”
That’s it for now…
Oh my, what’s this? A preview of Sounds and Pauses: The Comics of David Mazzucchelli curated by yours truly? Could it be? iPhone photos have a wonderful way of obscuring detail (or at least mine do) so I’m not giving too much away here. Anyhow, it’s now up and viewable at MoCCA and there’s an opening reception June 6, 7-9 pm. The show, which I’m really quite proud of, features work from throughout David’s career, with a special focus on the art for his forthcoming book Asterios Polyp. David designed the exhibition itself, making it a wonderfully immersive experience. There’s work here that even the most hardcore Mazzucchelli obsessive will find surprising. Anyhow this 4-month long process has confirmed David’s unique comics genius for me, and I couldn’t be more pleased to be involved. So, here are a few blurry pix of the show…
That’s it. The above 3 are of course details of the installation. You have to go see it to put all the pieces together. And keep an eye out at the MoCCA festival for David’s wonderful exhibition poster.
1. Listen to Dan’s interview with C.F. from this year’s MoCCA, courtesy of Indie Spinner Rack.
2. Go see Gary Panter and Devin Flynn on Saturday at Amoeba Music in Berkeley. Or see Gary later in the day at Park Life in San Francisco at 8 pm.
3. Prepare for Lauren R. Weinstein’s signing for The Goddess of War at Rocketship in Brooklyn Saturday night by taking a photographic tour of her studio.
My favorite comic at MoCCA, honestly, was Benjamin Marra’s Night Business. A disciple of Paul Gulacy in spirit, Marra embodies a certain verve that I find refreshing in these mopey times. It may be a little too hardcore, too fanzine-ish for some Comics Comics readers, but for me, it’s a breath of fresh air, and a surprising find at MoCCA.
The story of a stripper who won’t be bought and a killer on the loose, Night Business trucks in noirish genre tropes but renders them with such detail and conviction that the woody dialogue and relentlessly stark lighting go down smoothly and enjoyably. I like the overall feeling of the comic and feel as though Marra is trying to single-handedly restore some “order” to comics. Marra’s layouts do most of the work, providing a structure for his detailed scenes — murder, XXX dancing, fights with a capital ‘F’ — and it sports one of the coolest covers I’ve seen in awhile. It’s totally over the top and worth checking out.
So, since we’re all recovering here at Comics Comics from the insane heat wave of the last few days and the MoCCA festival I thought I’d try to jot down a few things for posterity. It was a good show, I thought, no? PictureBox table was killing it all day. Lauren Weinstein held it down both days debuting the magnificent Goddess of War, which may just be the best comic to come out this year so far. Gary Panter hung out for a bit, signing. CF was there. Michel Gondry arrived when we were all signing and it sort of became surreal. Especially during the fire drill when we were all standing on the corner of Houston and Lafayette and I thought to myself this is like a dream sequence in one of Gondry’s movies, weird. Fun, but weird.
Um, I did my lecture at the MoCCA gallery (thanks Kent!) and it probably couldn’t have gone better. It was a big relief. So for all of you folks who missed it fear not because it was recorded. More on that soon. (Thanks Tucker! Thanks Nina!) And thanks to everyone who came out and supported my wacky rantings, specifically: Tim Hodler, The CCC crew, Alex Holden, Tom K, Dash Shaw, Jon Vermiliyea, Blissy Higgs, R Siroyak, Chris Mautner, Jog, and everyone else who was there whom I can’t remember by name. It was your enthusiasm and interest that made it a good talk or at least fun for me. There were like 7 or 8 people who came up to me afterwards and were extremely positive, which was really rewarding. Thank you, thank you. Honest.
Oh, and for all of you who were there who didn’t get one of my handouts, I will be reprinting them and will make them available. Just send me an email and I’ll get you one eventually.
I’m planning on doing a nice article on the Closed Caption Comics crew who were out in force at this year’s MoCCA. They are a pretty amazing group of artists with strong individual voices. I recommend their blog to get acquainted, CCC, until the article finds its way on to this blog and into the magazine. Most of the CCC artists are printmakers and they embody a particular spirit in comics that I think is extremely important to cultivate. Meaning that if you don’t learn how to make your own books from scratch and familiarize yourself with the ins and outs of how do it all: writing, drawing, printing, distributing, selling, promoting at shows — then you are missing something. And the CCC crew do it all.
