FLOG! Entries - September 2008

David Levine: American Presidents Exhibit in NYC

Eric

August 30, 2008, New York, NY - Forum Gallery presents American Presidents & Selected Paintings: 1966 - 2008, including nearly 50 paintings and drawings by David Levine, America's acclaimed observer of humanity and politics. For over four decades Levine has entertained readers of The New York Review of Books with his often-satirical portraiture of public figures. The current exhibition brings together these caricatures and Levine's intimate painted portraits of the diverse characters that populate New York City.

The exhibition features a selection of more than 40 political figures from the caricatures the artist has created since he began working for The New York Review of Books in 1963. With the November 2008 presidential election upon us, Levine's sketches of the Kennedys, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, the Clintons and their advisors and appointees are a wry and incisive reminder of how history informs and embellishes political life.

The exhibition celebrates the release of David Levine's new book, American Presidents, 128 pages of Levine's caricatures and anecdotes chronicling five administrations in some of their most notable and shameful moments. As Bill Moyers and Michael Winship write in their foreword to the volume:

"For more than four decades, David Levine has pierced the public image of America's presidents and politicians with a fistful of sharpened pen nibs and gallons of India ink carefully tinctured with carbolic. 'Politicians should be jumped on as often as possible,' he once told Time Magazine. Levine pounced where many feared to tread."

David Levine's caricatures and paintings are featured in public and private collections across the country including, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; The National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; The National Portrait Gallery, London, UK; The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; and The Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

A November 2008 Vanity Fair article will chronicle David Levine's art and life, and Forum Gallery is producing a video interview with the artist to discuss his upcoming exhibition, his new book, and his recent retirement from 40 years at The New York Review of Books.

The 128-page Fantagraphics book, American Presidents, with an introduction by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship and commentary by the artist, accompanies the exhibition and is available for $20 plus $2. S&H. An opening reception will take place on Thursday October 2, 2008 at Forum Gallery, 745 Fifth Avenue at 57th Street, Fifth Floor. The exhibition continues through Saturday November 8, 2008. For more information, images or B-roll please contact Rachel Feinberg at Forum Gallery.

LOCATION: 745 5th Avenue at 57th Street, 5th Floor

HOURS: 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Tuesday - Saturday

TELEPHONE: 212-355-4545

FAX: 212-355-4547

View the exhibition HERE

View VIDEO of this exhibition:

Tijuana Terrorist

covey

Greg Zura, sales manager for a decade here at Fantagraphics, you forgot some of your stuff when you quit to pursue writing*. We found this Tijuana Bible portrait of Osama Bin Luba behind your desk.

*Sort of.

Tim Lane show pics

Eric

Subterranean Books has some great pics up from Tim Lane's art show and book release party last Friday night. Here's one of the author with a life-size cut out that I want for my living room:

Popeye DVD Comic

covey

I have a feeling I've already mentioned this but... The Popeye cartoons have been getting a reissue lately and we put together this little "Plunder Island" full-color comic book as a teaser to next year's Volume Four of our Complete Popeye comic strip. It's available only in the DVD package.

Depression Bailout Package

Eric

Our pal Jenn Chan sent us these awesome photos of a weekend baking jag inspired by Krazy Kat (and perhaps even Chris Ware's design). Her husband was "feeling really bummed about the Mets so I made these to cheer him up." Lucky man. Well, aside from those Mets, anyway. At least he's not a Mariners fan. Back to the Kupkakes. Mmmmmm:

Convergences

Eric

Left: Rock Bottom, Michael Shilling (2009)

Right: Misery Loves Comedy, Ivan Brunetti (2007)

I don't mean to necessarily suggest the above is a swipe -- I think it could be entirely coincidental. But I was just struck by not only the design similarities (down to the sans serif fonts), but the similarly nihilistic titles the designs serve. Did the tone of each title drive the design to similar, bleak places independent of the other, or did the designer of Rock Bottom look to Misery for similarly bleak inspiration? And what was Ivan riffing on when he designed his book? I have no answers, I just saw the cover to Rock Bottom at LitMob and immediately asked myself these questions. There's probably some famous art manifesto from the 1930s that has this same design that is obvious to everyone but me.

Avast! Georgetown Art Attack on Saturday Oct. 11

LarryR

SHOCK AND AWE AT GEORGETOWN SECOND SATURDAY ART ATTACK ON SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11

Adventurous arts enthusiasts are again invited to invade Georgetown on Saturday, October 11 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM for the Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack. This lively celebration of creative diversity features provocative programming in visual, performing, and applied arts at over 30 locations throughout the historic Georgetown industrial arts district.

Among the many highlights: Georgetown artist Tina Randolph's cement and encaustic paintings on steel panels at Revival Home & Garden; a Day of the Dead group show, "Día de los Muertos," including Chris Lefebvre, Amaranta Ibarra, Tamlin Marx and others at Georgetown Tile Works; "Just Kids," a charming exhibition of children's portraits by Georgetown photographer Rebecca Bolte at Bolte Creative; "Transect," new and selected works by Michael McDevitt at Georgetown Art Center; new works by Marty Gordon at the Mix; "Cosmocopia," an exhibition by cartoonist and fine artist Jim Woodring with a reading by acclaimed science fiction author Paul DiFilippo at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery; Georgetown's Dubcar performing a sensuous blend of rock ‘n' roll, old school reggae, funk and soul at 9 Lb. Hammer; a festive CD release party for "Sharing My Heart" by Eileen Day at Helmet Head Salon; handmade glass by local artisans at Totally Blown Glass; exquisite handcrafted gifts at Little q Designs and George boutiques; delicious dining and drinking at Jules Maes Saloon, Georgetown Liquor Company, Calamity Jane's, Smarty Pants, Stellar Pizza & Ale, Hanger Café, All City Coffee, and Squid and Ink; amazing antiques at Great Stuff, 24 Karat, the Stables, and Fruit Cocktail Collectibles; open salons at several unique art studios.

The Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack on October 11 follows the ART ON AIRPORT 2008 studio tour, a multi-building open studios event. Visit dozens of our artist neighbors to the north at Sunny Arms Artists' Cooperative studios, 707 S. Snoqualmie St., The Old Rainier Brewery Complex studios, 3200 Airport Way S., and 4810 Airport Way S. studios from 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM.

The Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack is a production of the Georgetown Merchants' Association. A map locating Art Attack participants can be found at: www.georgetownartattack.com. For more information please contact GMA chair Kathy Nyland or Art Attack coordinator Larry Reid.

Now in stock: Krazy and Ignatz: The Complete Sunday Strips 1925-1934 (2nd Ed.)

mike

Krazy and Ignatz: The Complete Sunday Strips 1925-1934
By George Herriman

We said we would never reprint it... but popular demand overwhelmed our will! Our second limited-edition printing of this deluxe hardcover (limited to 600 copies this time) compiles the first five Krazy & Ignatz softcover collections books we published, comprehensively collecting the years 1925 through 1934, under hard covers. It's not a slipcase, it's a single hardcover book. The covers to the original five softcover books are NOT included, but literally everything else is. And yes, we are similarly collecting the years 1935-1944 and, eventually, 1916-1924, as those softcover volumes are completed. (Since we get asked this once in a while — even though it's covered in the first one we did, at the end of the book, ahem — YES, we will go back and reprint the years prior to 1925, after we publish everything through 1944, when the strip ended.) Because of the limited nature of this item, we are not distributing this through traditional bookstores or Diamond distribution. A beautiful, must-have brick of a book for the Ignatz in you (though lobbing it at any unrequited love interests WILL cause serious physical harm — be warned).

600-page black & white 9" x 12" hardcover • $75.00
Add to Cart • Read More...

Preview video/slideshow: Man of Rock

mike

Today we're bringing you an advance look at Bill Schelly's upcoming biography of all-time comics great Joe Kubert, Man of Rock (coming next month). Click here if the slideshow doesn't appear above.

Report from Duke on Dash Shaw Show

Eric

Flog!'s North Carolina Bureau Chief Rob Clough attended the opening of the Dash Shaw show at Duke this past Friday night and was kind enough to provide us with this exclusive report:

Dash Shaw's show BOTTOMLESS at the John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University debuted on Thursday, September 25th. The well-attended opening was a multi-media affair that was as much about process as it was about a final product. The way that curator Diego Cortez designed the show gave a unique glimpse into Shaw's method. By juxtaposing Shaw's original pencils against his color sheets on the walls of the exhibit, the viewer could see the way Shaw composes color for his pages is unusual. On display were pencils and color pages from his webcomic BodyWorld and MOME short stories "Train" and the upcoming "Satellite CMYK". That latter story may well be his best effort yet.

There were also some other unusual entries, like a drawing Shaw made of himself and Barack Obama as surfers.

Shaw also had the animation he created for his book BOTTOMLESS BELLY BUTTON showing on a continuous loop, surrounded by drawings he made as individual frames he drew for the animation. Those were fascinating to look at, given the way they reflected his book's motifs so vividly. Shaw told me that he was in negotiations with IFC to do a series of short animations that would air on that cable network. He's also creating a short BodyWorld feature that will act as a trailer for that work when Pantheon publishes it. Chip Kidd will be helping Shaw design the book, which will have an unusual format.

On September 26th, Shaw was joined by his former thesis advisor and friend Gary Panter, the great multimedia artist and cartoonist for a discussion of Shaw's work. Discussing BodyWorld, Shaw noted that he was inspired by some webcomics he saw that were created by teenagers with no audience. They simply made these crazy adventure stories because they felt compelled to create and explore their own worlds, even if it was one that no one else saw. "I wanted to be that kid", he enthused, feeling drawn to the weird ways in which these comics didn't conform to standard comics language. He felt as though it was much like the dawn of newspaper comic strips, where there were no rules and many possibilities. He went on to note that Boney Borough, the experimental, wooded town in BodyWorld, was inspired by the original design for the EPCOT center as an actual place to live.

Shaw went on to describe his experiences as a student in Japan, the ways in which manga influenced his storytelling choices in BOTTOMLESS BELLY BUTTON, and how he views autobiographical comics as a genre like any other. Panter said that Shaw was an easy student to work with because of his work ethic, and Shaw thought that many of his classmates at the School of Visual Arts were lazy. Panter bemoaned the fact that many of his students couldn't even produce a page a week, blaming it in part on distractions like video games and the internet. Shaw gently chided him for that comment, saying "You're such a dad!", but Panter was adamant about this point, as well as his view that artists didn't take advantage of libraries as a set of visual resources and inspirations.

When asked about a comment he made regarding beauty, Shaw made a distinction between "pretty" (a surface quality) and "beautiful" (a quality of depiction that attempts to get at the truth of something). Panter noted "Aesthetics is a form of seduction", creating a relationship between art and viewer. Shaw was asked about his opinion of comics becoming movies these days. Shaw said that what was interesting about this trend was the way personal visions were being portrayed on the screen. Whether or not you thought SIN CITY was a good movie, he noted, the fact that Hollywood didn't make Frank Miller change this yellow character was an interesting thing. He also said that producers are gobbling up comics these days, in part because a comic book looks a lot more like a movie than a screenplay; it's easier to digest. He related a story of some writers he knew who couldn't sell scripts, adapted them to comics for small-press publishers, and then sold them subsequently.

BOTTOMLESS will be at the Franklin Center's gallery until October 31st. Anyone interested in Shaw's comics or the process of making comics will want to see this show.

Photo 1: Dash Shaw

2. Gary Panter

3. Wall of drawings

4. Page from BodyWorld

5. Display of books

6. Color and black & white pages

7. Another color/B&W comparison

8. Dash and cartoonist Eric "Mickey Death" Knisley

9. Curator Diego Cortez (L), Gary Panter and others

10. Stills for the Bottomless Belly Button animated featurette

21. The animation, shown on continuous loop

Perspiration

jmiles

Robert Pollard interview

Eric

The Boston Phoenix talks to Robert Pollard about Town of Mirrors and his new band, Boston Spaceships.

Inspiration.

covey

About eight years ago I took these photos of Jim Lee's figure for Raphael, the Ninja Turtle.

And, yes, I do dream of doing the equivalent of Batman Collected with TMNT. And, yes, I realize that I'm no Geoff Spear but, actually, the person I was trying to be in Photography school was David Levinthal.

Also appearing at SPX 2008...

Eric

Minnesota Hot Ink

Eric

This show includes Zak Sally and Tom Kaczynski and looks pretty darn good to me!

FBI GOES TO WASHINGTON: SPX 2008!

Eric

Gary Groth, Kim Thompson and myself are all headed east this weekend to attend one of our favorite shows of the year:

Taking place Saturday and Sunday in Bethesda, MD, SPX is the last great East Coast show of the year, and we'll be there in full force with a slew of signings, events, debuts, etc. To wit:

FANTAGRAPHICS SPX SIGNINGS:

SATURDAY
12PM: Paul Karasik & Miss Lasko-Gross
1PM: Paul Karasik & Tim Krieder
2PM: Dash Shaw & John Kerschbaum
3PM: Dash Shaw
4PM: Lilli Carré

SUNDAY
12PM: Paul Karasik & Miss Lasko-Gross
1PM: Lilli Carré
2PM: John Kerschbaum & Tim Krieder
3PM: Paul Karasik & Dash Shaw
4PM: Dash Shaw

FANTAGRAPHICS-RELATED PANELS:

Sat. 1:00PM: Kim Thompson: Vingt Sur 20
Sat. 1:30PM: Critics' Rountable with Gary Groth
Sat. 5:00PM: Herge and the Clear Line with K. Thompson and Joost Swarte
Sun. 1:30PM: Cartooning in Collaboration, with Dash Shaw
Sun. 2:ooPM: Spotlight on Joost Swarte, moderated by Paul Karasik

FANTAGRAPHICS AUTHORS WITH THEIR OWN TABLES:

Joost Swarte W42 (right next to us)
Miss Lasko-Gross C7-8
Lilli Carré E4
John Kerschbaum F16
Eleanor Davis B1-2
Paul Hornschemeier D15
Jon Vermilyea H7-8

NEW TITLES DEBUTING AT SPX!

THE LAGOON by Lilli Carré
PETEY & PUSSY by John Kerschbaum
FUZZ & PLUCK: SPLITSVILLE by Ted Stearn
MAN OF ROCK: A BIOGRAPHY OF JOE KUBERT by Bill Schelly
AMERICAN PRESIDENTS by David Levine
POPEYE Vol. 3 by E.C. Segar

Hope to see you all there!

Preview video/slideshow: American Presidents

mike

Before you watch the McCain/Obama debate in a few minutes, get yourself in the right frame of mind by taking an advance look at American Presidents, our upcoming volume of Presidential portraits by master caricaturist David Levine (coming next month). Click here if the slideshow doesn't appear above.

Blogosphere roundup for 9/26/08

mike

Here are the book reviews that turned up around the web on this relatively quiet week:

• The incredibly-named I Love Rob Liefeld recommends Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 for fellow L&R newbies; the more sensibly-named Read About Comics looks at the issue as well; Johnny Bacardi gives it an "A" (scroll about halfway down)

• Former Fantagraphics intern Michael Jewell recommends The Complete Love and Rockets in Savannah College of Art & Design's District

• Brazilian blog Quadrinhos Coquettes takes note of Mome

• Comic Book Bin looks at Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko by Blake Bell

• The Forager Blog takes a trip down Matthias Lehmann's HWY 115

• Comics And... Other Imaginary Tales takes an advance look at a few of our late-Fall releases

And some other articles of interest:

• Here's what appears to be all the dialogue from Cathy Malkasian's Percy Gloom translated into Japanese

• Comic Book Resources profiles Kevin Huizenga

• Thomas Ott: the Brad Pitt of scratchboard! (according to this funny Angry Mum cartoon)

• The Duke University Chronicle talks to Dash Shaw

• I hadn't seen this before: the Chicago Hero statuette from Chicago Comics, designed by Chris Ware and sculpted by Alex Ross

• Drawn! features David Levine

• The Boston Phoenix talks Boston Spaceships (his new band) and Town of Mirrors (his new book) with Robert Pollard

• If our selection of Fantagraphics iPhone wallpapers doesn't include what you're looking for, you can make your own like Tim of Sparky Malarkey did

'Beto's Homer

Eric

Go read: Gilbert Hernandez does the Simpsons!

Chocolate Cheeks for 9/26/08

mike

Time for a new installment of Steven Weissman's in-progress pages from "Blue Jay," an epic 32-page story from Chocolate Cheeks, the next collection of the Yikes! gang's adventures. In this week's episode: somebody gets Rocky Roaded! (Remember, you must be registered and logged in to read.)