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.
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.
The PictureBox site is mysteriously sick right now, so here goes:
PictureBox will be at the MoCCA comics festival this weekend at NYC’s Puck Building (At the corner of Lafayette and Houston).
We will debut the following books and zines:
-Goddess of War by Lauren Weinstein
-Cold Heat Special by Jim Rugg and Frank Santoro
-Core of Caligula by CF
-We Lost the War but Won the Battle by Michel Gondry
-Crazy Town by Paul Gondry
-Bicycle Fluids (not) by Matthew Thurber
-Faded Igloo by Jim Drain
-The Museum of Love and Mystery by Jim Woodring (a Presspop edition)
-Cold Heat Special by Ryan Cecil Smith
Michel Gondry, Paul Gondry, Gary Panter, Frank Santoro, Lauren Weinstein, CF and Matthew Thurber will all be in attendance.
The schedule is:
Saturday:
11-12: Frank Santoro and Lauren Weinstein
12-2: Michel Gondry, Paul Gondry and Lauren Weinstein
2-3: CF, Frank Santoro, Gary Panter
3-4: Gary Panter, CF, and Lauren Weinstein
3:45-4:55: Frank Santoro Lecture @ MoCCA!
4-5: CF, Michel Gondry, Paul Gondry
5-6: CF and Dan Nadel in Conversation @ MoCCA!
5-6: Lauren Weinstein, Michel Gondry, Paul Gondry
Sunday:
11-12: Frank Santoro & Lauren Weinstein
12-2: Michel Gondry, Paul Gondry, Lauren Weinstein
2-3: Frank Santoro, Matthew Thurber, Lauren Weinstein
3-5: Michel Gondry, Paul Gondry, Matthew Thurber
Tonight I’m moderating a panel with Kim Deitch, Evan Dorkin and Lauren Weinstein. Three generations of inspired lunacy. Come on out! Here’s the info:
The AIGA NY Presents:
Bamboozled beauties, hunky heroes and eccentric side-kicks populate the quirky universe of graphic novels and comic books. Dazzling drawings elevate plot points while witty repartee illuminates characters. Dan Nadel from Grammy Award-winning PictureBox, Inc. will explore this marriage of image to word with three artists that wield pen and pencil with equal dexterity. Kim Deitch introduces brilliant beings like Waldo the Cat into the comix cannon; Evan Dorkin chronicles dairy products gone bad in “Milk & Cheese”; Lauren R. Weinstein charts teenage angst in her semi-autobiographical “Girl Stories.” Come join this trio for a talk on crafting prose and drawn protagonists.
Speakers
Dan Nadel is the publisher/editor/art director of PictureBox, Inc., a Grammy Award-winning New York-based packaging and publishing company. Its most recent releases include Gary Panter. He is the author of Art Out of Time: Unknown Comic Visionaries 1900–1969. PictureBox has recently opened a retail space in Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood, featuring an international assortment of books, records, prints, editions and sundries.
Kim Deitch has a reserved place at the first table of underground cartoonists. The son of UPA and Terrytoons animator Gene Deitch, Kim was born in 1944 and grew up around the animation business. He began doing comic strips for the East Village Other in 1967, introducing two of his more famous characters, Waldo the Cat and Uncle Ed, the India Rubber Man. In 1969 he succeeded Vaughn Bodé as editor of Gothic Blimp Works, the Other’s underground comics tabloid. During this period he married fellow cartoonist Trina Robbins and had a daughter, Casey. “The Mishkin Saga” was named one of the Top 30 best English-language comics of the 20th Century by The Comics Journal, and the first issue of The Stuff of Dreams received the Eisner Award for Best Single Issue in 2003. Deitch remains a true cartoonists’ cartoonist, adored by his peers as much as anyone in the history of the medium.
Evan Dorkin is the creator of MILK AND CHEESE, DORK, and HECTIC PLANET, all published by SLG/Amaze Ink. He’s also put in time at Marvel (Bill and Ted’s Excellent Comic, Agent X, The Thing: Night Falls On Yancy Street), Dark Horse (Hellboy: Weird Tales, The Dark Horse Book Of Hauntings, The Mask) and DC (Superman and Batman: World’s Funnest, Bizarro), among other comics publishers. His work has appeared in such publications as Esquire, Spin, The Onion, Mad, Disney Adventures, Penthouse Hot Talk and Nickelodeon magazine and he recently provided the cover art and interior illustrations for Larry Doyle’s novel, I Love You, Beth Cooper, published by Harper Collins. He’s written for Space Ghost Coast To Coast, Superman, Batman Beyond and The Shin-Chan animated series. He was the creator of the Welcome To Eltingville animated pilot, which aired on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block of programming, and was based on his Eltingville Club strips from Dork. It was a terrific bomb. His second pilot for the Swim, Tyrone’s Inferno, was shelved last year before it could reach bomb status. He is currently working as a writer and designer for the children’s show Yo Gabba Gabba!, contributing to Mad and Nickelodeon magazine, writing material for the Bart Simpson comic from Bongo, and developing a series for Dark Horse comics along with collaborator Jill Thompson.
Lauren R. Weinstein is a cartoonist. Her most recent book, Girl Stories, was published by Henry Holt and was rated one of Booklist’s top 10 great graphic novels for teens. Her work has been featured in Yale University Press’s Anthlogy of Graphic Fiction and Houghton Mifflin’s Best American Comics of 2007. Currently, Lauren teaches drawing and cartooning to children and adults at the 92nd Street Y, Parsons School of Design, and the School of Visual Arts. In 2003, she was the recipient of the Xeric Grant, allowing her to self-publish her first book, Inside Vineyland. In 2004, she received the Ignatz award for “Promising New Talent.” Her comics and illustrations have appeared in The New York Times, Glamour, McSweeney’s, LA Weekly, The Chicago Reader, Kramer’s Ergot, and Seattle’s The Stranger. Currently she is working on the sequel to Girl Stories, tentatively entitled Calamity. Her sci-fi fantasy comic entitled The Goddess of War is coming out in May, 2008 from PictureBox.
TIME AND PLACE
Wednesday 4 June 2008 6:30–8:00PM
Galapagos
70 North 6th Street
between Kent and Wythe
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11211
718 782-5188
galapagosartspace.com
6:30–7:00PM Registration
7:00–8:00PM Presentation
$20 AIGA member
$10 AIGA student member
$30 general public
This is just to remind you that the new issue of Comics Comics should be arriving in stores this week!
This time around:
*Sammy Harkham interviews Guy Davis (and they collaborate on a beautiful new cover)
*The legendary Kim Deitch explains the Meaning of Life
*Dan has some bones to pick with the Masters of American Comics show
*David Heatley and Lauren R. Weinstein in conversation (they also collaborated on a brand-new oversize drawing)
*The long-awaited (by me) conclusion to my article on Steve Gerber
*The beloved Joe McCulloch on Mutt and Jeff
*An illustrated list from Renée French
*An amazing back cover by Marc Bell
*Plus a terrific new redesign from Mike Reddy, the debut of our new letters page, hilarious Matthew Thurber cartoons throughout the issue, somewhat more careful proof-reading, reviews of The Avengelist, Casanova, “Curse of the Molemen”, GØDLAND, The Immortal Iron Fist, Reading Comics, Ronin, Self-Loathing Comics, Swamp Preacher, and more!
We will also try to offer it for sale here on the site very soon.
Does YOUR favorite store carry Comics Comics?
Via Alvin Buenaventura, Brian Chippendale is pictured on the cover of the new June/July issue of the Believer.
After Lauren last month, that makes two PictureBox artists immortalized by Charles Burns in a row.
And if Eric Reynolds is right about Fletcher Hanks in August (who you may remember was included in Art Out of Time), we may be looking at something like a hat trick!
Assuming there aren’t any disasters at the printer, the new issue of Comics Comics will finally debut this weekend at the MoCCA festival in New York, and it’s probably the best one yet.
This time around:
*Sammy Harkham interviews Guy Davis (and they collaborate on a beautiful new cover)
*The legendary Kim Deitch explains the Meaning of Life
*Dan has some bones to pick with the Masters of American Comics show
*David Heatley and Lauren R. Weinstein in conversation (they also collaborated on a brand-new oversize drawing)
*The long-awaited (by me) conclusion to my article on Steve Gerber
*The beloved Joe McCulloch on Mutt and Jeff
*An illustrated list from Renée French
*An amazing back cover by Marc Bell
*Plus a terrific new redesign from Mike Reddy, the debut of our new letters page, hilarious Matthew Thurber cartoons throughout the issue, somewhat more careful proof-reading, reviews of The Avengelist, Casanova, “Curse of the Molemen”, GØDLAND, The Immortal Iron Fist, Reading Comics, Ronin, Self-Loathing Comics, Swamp Preacher, and more!
So stop by the PictureBox table (A14-16) this weekend to pick it up (there’s plenty of other new stuff and some great signings, too), and if you won’t be able to make it, keep your eyes open. It should be out in stores in early July.
Does YOUR favorite store carry Comics Comics?
1. I don’t want to turn this blog into an all-Lauren Weinstein, all-the-time promotional vehicle, but it’s been a good month for her. First, there was the new Believer interview, and now she’s mentioned in the same breath as the great Daniel Clowes in a New York Times review of Ariel Schrag‘s new anthology Stuck in the Middle. Which is too awesome not to mention.
2. I also don’t want to turn this blog into an all-Patrick Smith, all-the-time promotional vehicle, but he is apparently the 146th greatest cartoonist of all time, which is also too awesome not to mention.
3. I enjoy Sean T. Collins’s blog quite a bit, but I don’t really agree with this sentiment from a recent post:
The thing that most irks me about [Alan] Moore’s work, even his best work, even his work I enjoy a great deal, is how ostentatiously writerly it is–the way his Godlike Authorial Hand shows in every move machination of his clockwork-precise plotting. And the thing is, to employ a criterion frequently used to lambaste superhero comics of a very different sort, what does this say to you about life, anyway? I think it’s awesome that there’s a completely symmetrical of issue of Watchmen, but it has sweet fuck-all to do with the way the world actually works.
First of all, who said art has to tell you anything about life? Who says art has to tell you anything about anything? This is not a criterion I use to evaluate comics. (I realize that not everyone will agree with me on this.)
Secondly, whatever a person might think of Alan Moore’s work in particular (I mostly like it, especially in the work from his pre-ABC years), this kind of complicated, thought-out, formalistic art has a very long and healthy pedigree, and I for one find discovering the hidden riddles, subtle thematic symmetries, and multiple levels of meaning buried in a well-conceived example of that kind of work to be one of art’s primary pleasures. It’s why I like the books of Nabokov and Borges and Gene Wolfe, the comics of Ware and Clowes, and the films of Kubrick. This kind of art may not reflect “the way the world actually works”, but it can certainly reflect the way the artist’s mind works, and can provide a readerly pleasure otherwise unavailable. A comic or movie or whatever that really reflected the way the world works would be as chaotic and unformed and nonsensical as life itself, and very difficult to understand.
Which isn’t to say that I disagree with Collins’s larger point: art doesn’t have to be so deterministically planned out to succeed, and certainly more improvised fictions also have their particular charms and effects. (And it would be foolish to deny that over-plotting can be stifling, and that Moore’s comics sometimes suffer from that.) But both strategies can work, and I imagine most artists use a little bit of both as a matter of course.
Also, I have to say that judging from the recent mainstream comics I’ve read, it’s simply not the case that writers are over-thinking their comics’ formal aspects.
UPDATE: While I was writing this, Collins put up another post, clarifying his problems with Moore, and making his argument a lot more supportable. I don’t really think Moore is quite as guilty (in terms of leaving “only one way to skin the cat” of his stories) as Collins does, but it’s certainly a fair point.
4. On a somewhat related note, a Jon Hastings post referenced by Collins does a really good job of explaining one of the more common problems with current mainstream comics. (I’m referring to part II of the post.) This argument seems a lot more convincing and specific than the standard complaint that the problem is just “too much continuity”.
When I read superhero comics as a kid (and I didn’t read very many, other than the odd issues my mother bought me for long trips or on days when I was home sick), the references to past events and other comics titles were often the most exciting parts. They indicated that there was a whole big world of this stuff to explore, Iron Man and the Hulk had had tons of previous adventures, and if only I could track down Avengers #89, Hulk #55, or whatever, I could follow along. (I never actually went ahead to do that, and left the mysteries unsolved by continuing to read superhero comics only very sporadically, but I may have enjoyed the ones I did read all the more just because of that. I never spoiled my imagined versions of their incredible adventures by actually reading them.) Which is all just to say that I think Hastings is making sense when he explains why comics “continuity” references doesn’t always work that way anymore.
5. And now the bloviating ends.
THE BELIEVER: What’s it like spending all this time mining your adolescence to find the hardest, darkest, maybe the funniest stories? Is this a way of purging these experiences? Or making sense of them?
LAUREN WEINSTEIN: Even if you’re pulling up old memories, they’re completely unreliable. I remember running into this guy before our ten-year high-school reunion. He said, “Oh, man, what really destroyed high school for me was that I could never date anyone because I wrote that really bad, hyperconservative op-ed piece about how women should be barefoot and tied to the stove.” And I thought, That’s not why no one dated you. But that was his story. In general, everyone’s got their own issues in high school, and they’re not such a big deal to other people.
Because the print run of the second issue of Comics Comics has sold out, we are now making it available for free downloading over at the sidebar.
So if you missed out on getting your own copy (and unfortunately, this one really does work best in its oversize paper form), you can now finally enjoy:
Peter Bagge on Spider-Man!
An interview with PShaw! (He has posted a nice color variation of this issue’s cover on his own site, by the way.)
Part one of a far-too-long essay on Steve Gerber‘s cult ’70s Marvel comics (Howard the Duck, Omega the Unknown, etc.)! (By the way, don’t forget to read the article’s accidentally excised footnotes.)
Kevin Nowlan on color separations!
Dan on Dave Sim‘s Collected Letters 2004!
Mark Newgarden on Michael Kupperman!
A beautiful “perpetual calendar” by the legendary Justin Green!
Comics and cartoons by PShaw, Matthew Thurber, and Lauren R. Weinstein!
And more!
P.S. When you’re done, drop us a line. There’s still time to make the letters page for issue three.
