Cover, Walt and Skeezix Volume 1, Chris Ware (after Frank King).

Top portion of Stumptown poser, by Brandon Graham (After Chris Ware after Frank King).

(Just so there is no misunderstanding, I want to make it clear that this post is not meant to be a criticism  of Brandon Graham. His poster is lovely and I’m gratified that the Walt and Skeexiz books are informing the sensibility of younger cartoonists. The full Stumptown poster can be seen here. Thanks to Tom Spurgeon for calling attention to this poster. Everyone should buy the Walt and Skeezix books!)

Cliff Sterrett's Polly from 1924, the year before he went wild.

For more on Sterret, you can read this nifty article by Jo Colvin about the cartoonist’s roots in Alexandra, Minnesota.

And here is the opening of my intro to the Polly book:

THE MOST MUSICAL OF CARTOONISTS, CLIFF STERRETT loved to start up a round of songs as soon as guests stepped inside his house. “Heavenly days, sit down won’t you and I’ll get some music going,” Sterrett said one evening in 1922, almost immediately after writer Ring Lardner and cartoonist Tad Dorgan dropped by Sterrett’s out-of-the-way house in Garden City, Long Island. Lardner and Dorgan were both sporty, metropolitan characters, in their comfort zone in pool halls and around boxing rings when they weren’t drinking it up with their baseball-playing pals, so they were both struck by how Sterrett gave off the air of a bumpkin and a homebody even though he was one of America’s most famous and well-paid cartoonists.

“His family are all musicians but they play on instruments that no one ever lamped before,” Dorgan reported in a characteristically chatty column, thick with 1920s smart-aleck lingo. “His wife plays a trick piano, his son Paul plays a violin that has one string and a phonograph horn attached to it. His brother Paul tickles a ukulele that is built like a butter barrel and Cliff himself plays on a saw with a violin bow that holds about 29 strings. And the songs. Whoa, January. They were favourites in Ozark mountains before Sitting Bull sat down. It might be good music, I can’t swear that it isn’t, but anyway you get an awful kicking watching the orchestra work. Right in the middle of the Ozark Anthem the day I was there a dog as big as a Shetland pony eased into the room and started to moan an accompaniment to the piece.”

After witnessing Sterrett at home, Dorgan started pondering the old adage, “You can take a hick out of the country but you can’t take the country out of a hick” It’s an open question whether Sterrett was a “hick” or something much more complicated: a smart, sly man who liked to play at being a hayseed. Perhaps like many other members of the cartooning tribe, Sterrett enjoyed stylizing himself as a living caricature. Like his characters, Sterrett, who was 5’6” tall, could be a funny-looking bird, with his moon-round face and upturned nose (described as “retrousse” on his passport), large mouth, fair complexion, blue eyes, and light brown hair.

The new Inkstuds book

As Jog mentioned last week, the Inkstuds book is now in stores. Jog avoided saying too much about it for conflict of interest reasons, and I have even more conflicts than he does. I wrote the introduction to the book, which also includes the transcript on an interview with me, Dan, and Tom Spurgeon.

But Comics Comics has a long and noble tradition of **ahem**Dan Nadel**ahem** shameless self-promotion, so I’ll say a few words. It’s a very handsome book, amply illustrated with examples of the cartoonists work. And to his credit Robin McConnnell has interviewed many cartoonists who have rarely if ever been questioned about their work (notably the great Ted Stearn). Finally and unexpectedly, the interviews read very well in print. Even though I’ve listened to many of the interviews before, I’ve found that when I read them I pick up on nuances that I missed as a listener. So if you’re interested in contemporary comics, I’d suggest picking up the book.

Here’s an excerpt from my intro:

Among the many comics interviewers, the best were Verne Greene, John Benson, Arn Saba, Gary Groth, and Todd Hignite.  In the early 1960s, Greene, who then drew the strip Bringing Up Father, hosted a radio program on WRVR in New York City where he chatted with peers like Chester Gould and Roy Crane, getting them to share in the secrets of their craft. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Benson conducted path-breaking interviews with comic book artists such as Bernie Krigstein and Gil Kane, where they spoke honestly about the commercial limits of the form and their artistic ambitions. In the 1970s, Arn Saba, then a young cartoonist with an enviable gig at CBC radio, interviewed such venerable comic strip masters as Hal Foster, Floyd Gottfriedson, and Milton Caniff, catching them in the twilight of their career…..

I’ll add a regret that I didn’t talk about Tom Spurgeon as one of the great interviewers, since he’s done some really deft quizing of both mainstream comics artists, and a wide range of contemporary art cartoonists and also writers about comics. I know from my own experience, that Tom is a really acute reader whose questions are like x-rays in the way the lay bare the insides of a book. 

Come see Brian Chippendale and C.F. release their new books into the world at 4 pm on Sunday, Nov. 14 at Ada Books in Providence, R.I. They will be inaugurating their almighty slide show talks in which they will reveal all of their secrets. I will be there nervously standing to the side, wondering what kind of vegan food I’ll be eating for dinner. The tour then rolls on, my friends, as you can see below (and yes, you’re reading that correctly, the boys will be interviewed by Matt Fraction in Portland OR).

PROVIDENCE, RI: ADA BOOKS: NOV. 14, 4 pm. Slideshow and signing

NEW YORK, NY, THE STRAND: NOV. 18, 7 pm. Slideshow and signing

PORTLAND, OR: FLOATING WORLD COMICS: NOV. 19, 6 pm, Signing, slideshow and special live interview by Matt Fraction

LOS ANGELES, CA: FAMILY: NOV. 20, 8:15 pm, Slideshow and signing

TORONTO, ON: THE BEGUILING: DEC. 2, 7 pm, Slideshow and signing

First: We will be at SPX in Bethesda, MD, tables G5-G8. Frank will of course be occupying one table, foisting his epic back issue selection on you, the unsuspecting yet increasingly discerning consumer!

There will be many wonderful things at PBox for you to blow your cash on:

-We will be hosting Brian Ralph and Paul Lyons as they launch the new issue of Monster, featuring work by Brinkman, Chippendale, CF, Drain, Goldberg, and many others.

-Advance copies of Renee French’s H Day and Julie Doucet and Michel Gondry’s My New New York Diary for sale!

-Karl Wirsum: Drawings 1967-70 – A deluxe oversize new catalog from the master accompanying the exhibition I curated at Derek Eller Gallery, NYC.

-Garo Manga: The First Decade – Ryan Holmberg’s essential history

-A new zine by Matthew Thurber and Billy Grant

-Yuichi Yokoyama’s BABYBOOMFINAL – Yokoyama’s insane art/comics heavyweight tome

-Our full line of vintage Brazilian porn

-Deep and dark publications from the Paris house United Dead Artists, including Permagel by Charles Burns

-And because no one except Jason Miles asked for it: Complete runs of the early 1980s classic: New York City Outlaws!

-We will also have one, that’s right, ONE, copy of If ‘n Oof for you to ogle and be amazed by.

If that wasn’t enough, we will be at the Brooklyn Book Festival on Sunday, with all of the above, and more! Come see us in Suburban D.C. or downtown Brooklyn.

Every now and then I feel compelled to make sure you, the CC faithful, are aware of what’s going on over at PictureBox. This is one of those times. You want fusion? Criticism? Porn? We have it all.

Dig this, and don’t go crying to Santoro if you miss it all:

-Comics by Carlos Zefiro, a mid-century Brazilian cartoonist who makes Raymond Pettibon look like a wussy.

-Deeply underground material from the 1970s, like Book of Dreams by John Thompson (signed with drawings!) and Inner City Romance by Guy Colwell.

-Evidence of a burgeoning obsession with Italian comics maestro Magnus, in the form of a jaw dropping retrospective book and a very cool edition of Necron.

-Graphic novels from the golden 80s.

-And of course, a gorgeous silkscreen and flocked print by Sir Tim Hensley and a new Jimmy Corrigan story by Chris Ware.

It’s like our very own Comic-Con! But less crowded and more fun. Don’t forget our comic strip, True Chubbo, multiple blogs, and the enchanting “Daily Yokoyama”.

Now back to your regularly scheduled reading.

Now let's REALLY talk comics...

Here I am in Switzerland lecturing about Art in Time. Are you tired of hearing about Art in Time yet? I’m flogging it hard. Anyhow, listen below to hear me flail about as a I try to explain things to foreigners! Allow the intro music to vibe with you, man.

mp3

Also! Yet another book release event: Come join me at Desert Island in Brooklyn on Friday, May 21st, 7 – 9 pm.

Desert Island
540 Metropolitan ave
Brooklyn NY 11211
(718) 388-5087

I will be signing books and the esteemed critic Richard Gehr will be grilling me about all things Art In Time! All of this beginning at 7 pm.

Info under the cut…

April 10th and 11th
MoCCA Festival, New York
Saturday 12:45 to 1:30pm, panel with Frank Santoro and Bill Kartalopoulos.

Tuesday, April 13th
The Strand
828 Broadway, New York, NY 10003
7pm event with Chip Kidd.

Thursday, April 15th
Desert Island Comics
540 Metropolitan, Brooklyn, NY 11211
7pm event

April 16th to 18th
C2E2, Chicago
Friday 5:30 to 6:30pm, panel with Chip Kidd and Chris Ware.

Tuesday, April 20th
McNally Jackson
52 Prince Street, New York, NY 10012
7pm event with Frank Santoro.

Wednesday, April 21st
Harvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
7pm event with Paul Karasik.

April 22nd to 25th
Swedish Small Press Expo, Sweden

Monday, April 26th
Commonwealth Club of California
595 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94105
6:30pm, (part of the Inforum series) this is a ticketed event.

Tuesday, April 27th
Isotope Comics
326 Fell St, San Francisco , CA 94102
7pm event

Wednesday, April 28th
Pegasus Books Downtown
2349 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA 94704
7:30pm event

Thursday, April 29th
Powell’s
3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, OR 97214
7:30pm event