Read Comments (5)

1. A vanishingly small subset of readers will be interested in this, but for those of you who enjoy discovering the hidden connections between Nabokov and comics, under-appreciated great-novelist John Crowley believes he knows the answer to one of the master’s more obscure comic-strip allusions. (An allusion that apparently baffled Alfred Appel Jr. himself, no less.)

His answer is here.

2. These are all over the internet already, but I would still feel remiss if I didn’t draw your attention to the comics coverage at The Onion AV Club and Vice this week. Some of the content in both is a little hinky (Is “hinky” a word? Does it mean what I want it to mean?), but some of it is pretty good and shouldn’t be missed. In particular, I recommend the interviews with Seth (who I was pleased to learn is a fellow Dick Ayers appreciator), Michael Kupperman, and Al Jaffee, as well as a top ten list from Gary Panter.

Comments Off

This is funny. I found this quote in a folder on my desktop. It made me think of some of my friends who find themselves on the fence between Art and Comics. Or is it the rapidly gentrifying warehouse district between the two? You know what I mean. Maybe it won’t make you think of the “space” between Art and Comics. Maybe you won’t think it’s funny either, but I do. Insightful too. It’s an excerpt from an interview with Gary Panter by Mr. Spurgeon from Comics Reporter.

—————–

PANTER: I seem to make old guy comics now. I remember working for this animator back in the ’70s: Tex Henson, who had been at Disney in the ’30s. He was drawing these stupid comics that looked kind of like Spike and Tyke. Bulldogs and cats and stuff. And I thought, “Gee, what an idiot. I’m doing this advanced, Clockwork Orange-y stuff. I’m in the future, and he’s back there with his stupid bulldogs.” Now I’m drawing bulldogs and cats and squirrels. What is that? I can’t be hip and fresh and young. I’m not that anymore. I try to be, so that’s sort of what I can do.

The full interview

Read Comment (1)

Tonight! Brooklyn! Devin & Gary featuring Ross! Come see the vibes.
The Market Hotel
8 pm.

Tomorrow in Brooklyn!

Conversational Comics continues at Union Pool!
2pm
Telling Stories: Fiction in Comics with Jessica Abel, Jason Little & Matthew Thurber
panel discussion followed by drinks.

[UPDATE, FROM TIM: The CBLDF has just put up the audio from the last Conversational Comics event, with David Heatley, Lauren Weinstein, and Julia Wertz, and you can listen to it here.]

Read Comments (19)

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.

Read Comments (9)

MoCCA Madness

PictureBox 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!

Read Comments (3)

1. Tucker Stone interviews Frank and writes about Cold Heat.

2. A good, thorough review of that Fumetto Festival in Switzerland that Dan, Frank, Lauren, and Mark Newgarden kept going on and on about a few weeks back. I don’t mind that I didn’t attend, not at all. It sounds awful. I’m really glad I didn’t waste my time.

3. Lauren reports from last week’s SPX in Sweden, which I’m also glad I missed.

4. Gary Panter’s Zomoid!

5. I haven’t read Jamilti, and so can’t comment on the accuracy of this Guardian review of Rutu Modan’s collection, but I found it kind of interesting how the anti-comics-respectability meme idea-or-behavior-that-spreads-from-person-to-person-within-a-culture [Thanks, zik!] made its way in at the end. I’m probably forgetting a dozen different things, but I don’t remember encountering it in the mainstream press in quite this form before.

6. I didn’t actually have enough patience or interest to do more than skim this article from the same paper, but I’d say that in my case, my overindulgence in exclamation points stems almost entirely from having read too many comic books! I was surprised that Stan Lee didn’t get mentioned!

Done. And done!!!

UPDATE: Or not. One more quick one. If I wasn’t avoiding Twitter as much as possible on general principle, I would’ve seen this earlier. I had to google J.P., but it was worth it.

Read Comments (11)

1. I reviewed Amanda Vähämäki’s The Bun Field for the April/May issue of Bookforum, which is impressively packed with comics-related material in general, including Ben Schwartz on Harvey Kurtzman, CC contributor Joe McCulloch on Yoshihiro Tatsumi, and Nicole Rudick on Beasts!

2. Gary Panter animated, kinda.

3. Pretty awesome Milt Gross-created book reviews in comics form. I’ve never seen or heard of these before.

4. Not comics: The only review of Watchmen (the movie) you need. (The author of that also said some other stuff worth reading.)

5. Oh, and various prominent comics bloggers have weighed in on the new Cold Heat: here, here, here, and here.

UPDATE: I forgot one.

6. An interview with Ted May, partly re Injury 3. I’m pretty excited to see that issue, not only because I really liked the first two, but because CC designer Mike Reddy drew one of the stories in it. Mike showed me a few of the pages, and they were great, and I can’t wait to see the whole thing. Ok, I’m done now.