FLOG! Entries - June 2008

Ray Fenwick: Inkstud

mike

The venerable Inkstuds internet radio program kicks off a month-long focus on Canadian cartoonists by interviewing Hall of Best Knowledge and Mome cartoonist Ray Fenwick.

Two Midwest exhibits

mike

The Daily Cross Hatch has word on "Zines of the Cities," a great-looking retrospective of Minneapolis/Saint Paul zines now on display at the Stevens Square Center for the Arts gallery (1905 3rd Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55404), featuring work by Zak Sally and Mr. Mike (no relation) among many others.

And the Star Clipper Blog clues us in to the Mad Magazine Exhibit, currently on display at the St. Louis Artists' Guild in Clayton, MO. It's not stated which artists are included in the exhibit (Kurtzman? Elder?) or even what era, if any, the exhibit focuses on, but admission is free so it won't cost you nothin' to find out.

More Angry Youth classix

mike

Johnny Ryan dips his bucket into the archives again and hauls up another load of early Angry Youth Comix.

Anders Nilsen sketchbook comics

mike

Anders, as he occasionally does, posts more moleskine pages.

Strangeco Stranger strangeness

mike

From Jim Woodring comes word that our pals at Strangeco have created an online gallery of Jim's panel-cartoon-of-sorts that used to run in The Stranger a few years back. Oh yes.

Art of the Internet.

covey

Knowing of my own Ninja Turtles sketchbook, Mike Baehr pointed me to this sketchbook with several TMNT interpretations from folks at Heroes Con. Turns out it's the sketchbook of SubSub, aka Joseph Lambert, one of the CCS grads.

Impressed by the accuracy of the Krang illustration I looked into Matt Bernier's website and discovered he's friends with Jon Vermilyea, one of my favorite cartoonists/illustrators, which pointed me to Jon's portrait of Washington on the Vice website. If you're interested they've got five more portraits from people like Laura Park and Bald Eagles. But not by Kaz Strzepek who did the awesome TMNT rubdown sketch.

Cheesecake photos

mike

Hoppin' times in Georgetown last night with the opening of our "Now Serving Cheesecake" exhibit of classic pin-up cartoon art. Above, Angielena Chamberlain models for artist Augie Pagan's live pin-up drawing demonstration; click here for the rest of the photos!

I love my neighborhood.

Eric

Wonder Twin powers, ACTIVATE! And yes, they're naked. Unfortunately, I can't find the flickr account I grabbed this from -- if you see this, let me know so I can link to your excellent pool of naked cyclist photos.

Blogosphere roundup for 6/27/08

mike

Our ego-surfing results for the week:

• Independent Weekly profiles Robert Pollard, visual artist, as collected in Town of Mirrors (link via Largehearted Boy)

• Speaking of Largehearted Boy, Dash Shaw's Bottomless Belly Button is included in LHB's "Summer Reading Suggestions." More BBB coverage includes a profile of Dash in Canada's National Post, a starred review from Publishers Weekly (scroll to the bottom), a review by The Daily Cross Hatch, the previously-linked mention in the Wall Street Journal, another profile (alongside Jason Lutes and Guy Delisle) in the Christian Science Monitor, and Kevin Church calling the book "easily the best graphic novel of the year so far." Whew!

• Via The Comics Reporter, a passel of links to Daada Books' reviews of Acme Novelty Library #16 by Chris Ware; Mome; Monologues for the Coming Plague by Anders Nilsen; and Outlaws, Rebels, Freethinkers & Pirates by Bob Levin

• Speaking of Levin, Tom Spurgeon of The Comics Reporter says Levin's Most Outrageous is "Maybe The Best Book About Comics Ever." Meanwhile, Levin announces that Most Outrageous is banned in California state prisons (via Journalista)

• More French love for Linda Medley, as the French edition of Castle Waiting is named one of "20 Essential Albums for Summer 2008" by l’Association des Critiques de Bandes Dessinées (Google translation)

• Publishers Weekly gives an industry-focused take on the forthcoming Love and Rockets: New Stories

• Speaking of L&R, here's PrettyFakes on The Education of Hopey Glass by Jaime Hernandez

• Icats Nitram, on a roll lately, looks at Richard Sala's Delphine #1

• Comic Book Galaxy's Alan David Doane says Patrick Rosenkranz's Rebel Visions is "one of the greatest historical recountings ever dedicated to the artform"

• Sean T. Collins presents his 2005 Comics Journal review of Marc Bell's (unfortunately out-of-print) Worn Tuff Elbow

• Our hometown alt-weekly, the coincidentally-named Stranger, looks at Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell

• Shuffleboil on the most recent volume of The Complete Peanuts

• Not to be outdone by the WSJ in comics coverage, The Fort Worth Business Press looks at two recent Popeye collections: ours, of E.C. Segar's original comic strips, and Warner's DVD collections of the Fleischer cartoons

• du9 on Thomas Ott's The Number 73304-23-4153-6-96-8

• Matthew Brady on Billy Hazelnuts by Tony Millionaire

Chocolate Cheeks for 6/27/08

mike

It's time for your weekly installment of Steven Weissman's "Chocolate Cheeks"! In this week's strip: rockin' and rivalry-in'. (Remember, you must be registered and logged in to read.)

Gotham Apartments

covey

I got this email from Eric Reynolds: "I love these pics so much, they're beautiful and heart-breaking at the same time. I sent these to Jeremy [Eaton] and he said, 'I could write a novel based on that photo of Captain America and the Hulk sitting in their respective apartments.'"

Everyone seems so lonely. So human. I could stare at the image above for days. Even the way Wonder Woman is lying in the middle of this house of men, possibly masturbating, is accidental art on the grandest scale.

Thom Zahler was a lucky kid.

Bagge in Portland OR, TONIGHT & this weekend

mike

Peter Bagge writes and sez:

It'll be an event-clogged weekend in PDX for me this upcoming weekend, all revolving around a 2 day, all-day teaching seminar I'll be holding at the Portland Northwest College of Art on Sat, June 28th and Sun. June 29th (Jessica Abel, Matt Madden and Daniel Dufford will be teaching courses there all this week as well).

I also will be signing copies of the APOCALYPSE NERD book collection at Powell's bookstore on Friday the 27th at 7:30 PM.

On Saturday the 28th at 5pm, I'm scheduled to take part in an "Interactive discussion with comic creators" at the Someday Lounge, though no mention of it is made on their website so attend at your own risk!

Right after that, from 7 - 9 pm, the nearby Floating World comic shop will be holding a "closing" party for a group art show featuring work by JR Williams, Mats?!, David Chelsea and myself (we'll all be in attendance except for Mats?!). Floating World's website appears to be down at the moment, but you can get all the info you need from their MySpace Page.

Strange Bedfellows Dept.

covey

In case anyone is still debating whether comics are in a heyday: Dash "Mr. Shaw" Shaw featured on the Wall Street Journal website.

I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Radio Stations

mike

Here's more interview audio for your listening/downloading pleasure today: Paul Karasik talks Fletcher Hanks with Worcester, MA NPR station WICN's "Inquiry" program.

Words Fail Us

kimt

This is easily the most awesome art ever commissioned by a mime troupe for their promotional purposes.

Seeking Woodring fans on film!

kimt

Jonathan D. Howells is putting the finishing touches on a long-simmering documentary about Jim Woodring. In the course of doing this he discovered that he does not have signed releases from two of the people of who are prominently featured, at least for one shot, in the version he has put together. Since he really wants to keep these clips in, he's hoping the two can step forth and identify themselves, and sign the release -- or if you know them, notify them or us! (Contact Jonathan directly at johnadhowells [at] hotmail.com.)

This woman was at a signing held at Confounded Books in Seattle about six and a half years ago (a co-signing with Jim and Charles Burns):

This man was at LA's Meltdown Comics about six years ago:

Rob & Cathy at the Con

mike

What happens when Robert Goodin and Cathy Malkasian share a hotel room at Comic Con? Based on an untrue story (I hope)!

Meanwhile... whoops

mike

You may have heard about the clerical error which led to a mistaken Harvey Award nomination announcement... long story short, Meanwhile... A Biography of Milton Caniff by R.C. Harvey (no relation) has been added to our 15%-off Harvey Award Nominees sale. Congrats, Bob!

Pin-ups in the P-I

mike

Today's Seattle Post-Intelligencer previews "Now Serving Cheesecake," our show of classic vintage pin-up cartoons opening Saturday at our storefront. (Pictured: Larry Reid with a Bill Ward original. Photo: Scott Eklund / P-I)

A panoramic view of Pinhead-ville!

kimt

(click to enlarge)

Bill Griffith turned in his spectacular cover to the upcoming WELCOME TO DINGBURG Zippy collection, which focuses heavily on Dingburg, the "city inhabited solely by pinheads." (Other than Washington D.C., of course.) The inside cover will feature a full-color fold-out map of Dingburg, and as a result the front cover is also a foldout and our man Bill knocked himself out on both. Enjoy your sneak peek at the original to the cover (we're keeping the map under wraps for now), and look for the book late this year.