• Carol Tyler was a visiting artist at the Center for Cartoon Studies last week (and celebrated a birthday yesterday), all noted on her Screened-in Porch blog
• Gipi discusses his recent health problems and presents a series of self-portraits at his blog
And more Things to See from the past week:
• Early strips, illustrations, outtakes and film reviews by Jason at his Cats Without Dogs blog
• List:The New York Times's George Gene Gustines recommends Moto Hagio's A Drunken Dream and Other Stories in their "Graphic Books Roundup — Holiday Gift Guide 2010": "This 10-story anthology shifts from young romance to supernatural mystery to kitchen-sink drama, so there will probably be a touchstone tale for everyone."
• List:New York Magazine presents "Dan Kois's Great New Autobio Graphic Novels," including Joyce Farmer's Special Exits at #4: "The final four years in the lives of underground cartoonist Farmer’s father and stepmother, told with honesty and humor. A book that will resonate for anyone facing the loss of a loved one."
• List: At Robot 6, Chris Mautner compiles "Six x-rated comics you can read without shame," half of which are old (mostly out of print) Eros gems: Birdland by Gilbert Hernandez, Small Favors by Colleen Coover, and Nipplez 'n' Tum Tum by Mary Fleener.
• Review: "Authors Zack Carlson and Bryan Connolly spare no one in Destroy All Movies!!! from the moment the introduction starts. Yes, there are swear words in the book. If you appreciated your time during the 1980s this cultural reference goes beyond just scenes in movies that have punks in them. [...] The short reviews of each flick give an honest and hilarious appraisal of each piece. I wish every movie review would be as succinct as these two authors because it would save a lot of reading and muck to wade through in a film review. [...] If you are a punk film buff, Destroy All Movies!!! is definitely worth the purchase." – William Browning, Yahoo! Movies/Associated Content
• Review: "Zack Carlson and Bryan Connolly got the wild notion to write a guide to every movie that ever contained a punk in it, and the result of their labors is the loveably cumbersome Destroy All Movies!!! The Complete Guide to Punks on Film. ...[I]t's a treat that it exists, and we're lucky to reap the benefits from Carlson and Connolly's obsession." – Ned Lannamann, The Portland Mercury
• Review: "Among the 1,100 titles cataloged, mocked and celebrated by [Zack] Carlson and co-editor Bryan Connolly in this future coffee-table classic [Destroy All Movies!!!] are Hack-O-Lantern,Rock and Roll Mobster Girls,Revenge of the Nerds IV and Invasion of the Mindbenders, none of which you have seen, of course, but all of which you will desperately want to experience after dipping into Connolly and Carlson’s obsessive-compulsive masterwork. If you ever wondered what it would be like if the 'Psychotronic' section of sleazebag anti-classics at Movie Madness grew a brain and then threw up on you, well, here’s your chance." – Chris Stamm, Willamette Week
• Plug: "There's no shortage of scholarship about every conceivable genre of film, from film noir to Westerns to crazy-disturbing B-movie schlock. But admit it: when was the last time you found a comprehensive study of punks on film? Well, that appallingly underrepresented genre can boast its own volume: Destroy All Movies!!!: The Complete Guide to Punks on Film, published by our Seattle friends, Fantagraphics Books." – Kristi Turnquist, The Oregonian
• Review: "Being free of logical constraint and internal consistency, Zippy’s daily and Sunday forays against The Norm can encompass everything from time travel, talking objects, shopping lists, radical philosophy, caricature, packaging ingredients, political and social ponderings and even purely visual or calligraphic episodes. It is weird and wonderful and not to everybody’s tastes… The collected musings of America’s most engaging Idiot-Savant have all the trappings of the perfect cult-strip and this latest volume [Ding Dong Daddy from Dingburg] finds cretin and creator on absolute top form. If you like this sort of stuff you’ll adore this enticing slice of it. Yow!" – Win Wiacek, Now Read This!
• Review: "Fear of Comics is a wonderful book, one of the finest short-story collections the medium has ever produced. It’s laugh-out-loud funny at times, filthy at others, disgusting and poetic and black as midnight at still others. And it’s a showcase for comics’ premier naturalist to abandon that style altogether, to take his distinctive and exaggerated figurework to their absolute extremes, to tell stories that feel like neither the magic realism nor the science fiction for which he is best known but rather like fairy tales, or even myths of some creepy nihilistic religion." – Sean T. Collins, Attentiondeficitdisorderly
• Review: "Richard Sala... knows how to skillfully mix humor with horror and the grotesque. [Peculia] is a collection of short stories whose protagonist is a mysterious girl who lives in a world populated by monsters and strange creatures... Dreams are mixed with reality and the stories could go on forever, and even if the book has a conclusion, this does not answer the questions and doubts of the reader. Never mind, because the stories are still entertaining and illustrated with an original style that combines influences from gothic expressionist cinema and even a purely pop style and very fun." – Valerio Stive, Lo Spazio Bianco (translated from Italian)
• Plug: Our pals at Tiny Showcase are excited for Ray Fenwick's new book Mascots and hint that they're scheming something up for the launch
(not final cover)
• Coming Attractions: Bleeding Cool's Rich Johnston notes our May 2011 publication of Lou Reed and Lorenzo Mattotti's adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven
• Commentary: At Filmicability, Dean Treadway sifts through The Complete Peanuts for references to film and moviegoing, with plentiful examples
This post has been in progress for nearly a month now... with so much to catch up on, I'll just be highlighting a few selected items and then giving you links to the regularly-updated stuff. As always, click for better viewing and possible commentary at the sources.
• Jason reveals the cover art for the French edition of Isle of 100,000 Graves (L'Île aux 100 000 Morts); plus early strips, illustrations, outtakes and film reviews at his Cats Without Dogs blog
• A new war-story page by Tim Lane, with interesting background info; plus recent installments of his ongoing Belligerent Piano strip at his Jackie Noname blog
• At Gabrielle Bell's Lucky blog, the concluding installments of her "San Diego Comic-Con Comicumentary" (which Anthony Vukojevich interprets at Repaneled) and some "embarrassing older work"
Richard Sala has posted his final "Unmasked" Halloween portrait, so now you can browse the entire spooky set! He's collected them into groups on Flickr — group 1, group 2, group 3, group 4 — and you can also see them individually on his Here Lies Richard Sala blog. Nobody does the creepy monster faces like Richard!
Visitors to the Charles Burns appearance this Saturday evening at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery are in for a treat. Eye candy! While supplies last, we'll have free copies of Stéphane Blanquet's fabulous full color TOYS IN THE BASEMENT mini-comic, which includes a 2-page preview of THE LITTLEST PIRATE KING by David B. For indie music buffs we have a limited quantity of the scary 5-song "Haunted Fang Castle" CD by the sensational Spits, including an illustrated booklet by J. J. Rudisill. And our friends from Frontier Records dropped by with a stack of cool full-color vinyl stickers by Jaime Hernandez commemorating 30 years of pleasurable punk rock. [Hit the Frontier link above for a better look at Jaime's illustration – Ed.]
If that's not enough, with each purchase we'll be giving away free copies of Richard Sala's EVIL EYE comic book. All this and Charles Burns! A Halloween to remember.
Richard Sala has revealed a delightfully ghoulish new series of all-new artwork on his blog: "Unmasked" is a Halloween portrait gallery, inspired by old-time ads for monster masks, of the fiends and creeps who may be behind the "masks" (meaning the actual faces) of the people you see every day (including, perhaps, the one in the mirror)! Richard will be posting a new set of faces every Monday, Wednesday & Friday for the rest of October. The first installment is here; stay tuned to Richard's blog, and we'll be sure to alert you to future entries in our periodic "Things to See" posts.
Periodic clips & strips — click for improved/additional viewing and possible artist commentary at the sources:
• Jason presents two cover illustrations: one for a biography of Henrik Ibsen, the other for a 1989 issue of a Norwegian fanzine (oh yeah, and the cover for his next Fanta collection What I Did is in there too)
"Greetings, stranger of the future. If you are reading this, it means the written word has survived, that the world of tomorrow still exists, and that for some reason my ramblings are still considered worth reading. My name is Mark Twain, and I write these words to you in the good old days of August 2010."
• Richard Sala presents a whole bunch of production, concept, and storyboard art from his animated serial "Invisible Hands" from MTV's Liquid Television, in 4 installments (so far) hereherehere and here, with commentary
A lot of catching up to do with this batch of clips & strips — click for improved/additional viewing and possible artist commentary at the sources:
• A couple of things Bill Griffith has recently shared on Facebook: the rejected first draft of the home screen for the Zippy Comix iPhone app, and a "lost" Wacky Packages design that Bill says is "almost sacrilegious"
The 2013 Fantagraphics Ultimate Catalog of Comics is available now! Contact us to get your free copy, or download the PDF version (9 MB).
Preview upcoming releases in the Fantagraphics Spring/Summer 2013 Distributors Catalog. Read it here or download the PDF (26.8 MB). Note that all contents are subject to change.
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