Gahan will discuss his distinguished career and answer questions in a talk moderated by Emily Gordon, former PRINT magazine Editor-In-Chief and proprietor of the Emdashes blog (about all things New Yorker).
FUNNY (not funny) Recent Comic Art Exhibiting Signs of Black Humor Curated by Ryan Standfest
January 22 - February 26, 2010 Reception: Friday, January 22 6-9pm
The University of Michigan Work : Detroit Gallery 3663 Woodward / Suite 150 Detroit, MI 48230
Participating Artists: Ivan Brunetti Chris Cilla Sue Coe Lisa Hanawalt Glenn Head Tim Hensley Ian Huebert Ben Katchor Michael Kupperman Mats!? Daniel Maw Taylor McKimens Travis Millard Tom Neely Mark Newgarden David Paleo Jonathon Rosen David Sandlin Rob Sato Jon Vermilyea
The "FUNNY (not funny)" exhibition seeks to elicit uncomfortable laughter in the realm of black humor-a place where the serious and the taboo are fodder for comic provocation. Artists in numerous media have long sought to overturn convention and challenge what is funny with what is not as a means of producing humor out of the unlikeliest of situations. Work by the twenty artists on view in "FUNNY (not funny)" demonstrates that cartooning is keeping the tradition of black humor alive and flourishing. The very form of the comics page itself is as relevant a vehicle as ever, freed from so many of the commercial restrictions placed on other art forms, to effectively deliver potent images and narratives that carry with them a very immediate and accurate measure of the absurdity of our age.
I attended Joe Sacco's Town Hall event last night in Seattle, and it was, as expected, a great talk. Is there a more charming, erudite, and intelligent soul in this racket? I tend to think not. Anyway, I'm not even going to begin to write a recap -- too many foreign sects, races and historical events to keep track of -- except to say that the talk focused on the social and political events from about 1949 to 1956 that led to the massacre investigated and reported on in his new new book, FOOTNOTES IN GAZA, followed by an excellent Q&A session. When one woman asked Joe if it was true that he was planning on following up FOOTNOTES with some lighter, funnier comics and he confirmed it, she asked him if he could elaborate. He simply replied, "I have some very good ideas." We have no doubt about that, Mr. Sacco.
Above photo: Joe Sacco contemplates some of his great ideas before his event at Seattle's Town Hall, 01.13.10.
Fantagraphics' co-leader and secret weapon Kim Thompson speaks to Chris Marshall of the Collected Comics Podcast about our line of classic strip reprints and foreign translations.
If, like me, you enjoy baseball almost as much as comics, this is one of the coolest posts I've seen in awhile. Wezen-ball uses The Complete Peanuts to calculate the Peanuts gang's baseball record from 1950-1970. I love the idea of Kim Thompson's awesome Complete Peanuts indexes being useful to sabermetricians.
POWELL'S 7:30 - 8:30pm 1005 W. Burnside READING/SIGNING Portland, OR 97209 Phone: 503-228-4651
Wednesday, January 13 Seattle, WA
7:00 - 8:00pm TOWN HALL SEATTLE READING/SIGNING 1119 8th Avenue Great Hall Seattle, WA 98101 Phone: 206-652-4255
Thursday, January 14 Berkeley, CA
BOOKS INC. 7:00 - 8:00pm 1760 4th St. READING/SIGNING Berkeley, CA 94710 Phone: 510-525-7777
Tuesday, January 19 Los Angeles, CA
SKYLIGHT BOOKS 7:30 - 8:30pm 1818 North Vermont Avenue READING/SIGNING Los Angeles, CA 90027 Phone: 323-660-1175
Wednesday, January 20 New York, NY
MCNALLY ROBINSON BOOKSELLERS 7:00 - 8:00pm 52 Prince Street READING/BOOK SIGNING New York, NY Phone: 212- 274-1160
Thursday, January 21 Brooklyn, NY
BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY 7:00 - 8:00pm Dr. S. Stevan Dweck Center for Contemporary Culture READING/BOOK SIGNING 10 Grand Army Plaza Brooklyn, NY 11238 Phone: 718-230-2100
Also, go HERE for a sneak peak at Ray's next book, MASCOTS, coming later this year from Fantagraphics. I bet you didn't know about that. You did? Well, did you also know that Ray's in a band? I'll stump you yet.
A few months ago, I was having dinner with a certain cartoonist and his family, we went to a lovely place near the Fantagraphics Bookstore that welcomed kids, and even gave the kids crayons and a coloring book. The kids took to the coloring like gangbusters, and it wasn't until some time had passed that any of the adults looked at what the kids were coloring. It turns out they had discovered a drawing that someone else had already started, of a large mushroom in the forest -- the perfect place for a group of elves to have a picnic under.
It was a delightful evening, both for us and the elves.
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If, like me, you enjoy baseball almost as much as comics, 
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