Next Sunday, May 30th, Cinefamily, in cooperation with Family bookstore and Picturebox's Dan Nadel, bring you "Adventurous Cartoonists & Far-Out Comics," an evening-long presentation featuring Johnny Ryan interviewing Real Deal creator Lawrence Hubbard, Jaime Hernandez presenting a screening of the 1949 Joseph L. Mankiewicz classic A Letter To Three Wives with a discussion moderated by Sammy Harkham, and much more! Click here for details.
BEN SCHWARTZ, SAMMY HARKHAM, and ROBERT FIORE discuss BEST AMERICAN COMICS CRITICISM at SKYLIGHT BOOKS!
WHEN: Thursday, 05/27/2010 | 7:30pm - 9:30pm
Ben Schwartz, editor of the new anthology Best American Comics Criticism, will discuss comics and comics criticism with Kramers Ergot editor Sammy Harkham and comics critic Robert Fiore at L.A.'s SKYLIGHT BOOKS!
Skylight Books 1818 N. Vermont Avenue Los Angeles, California 90027
Artists included are: Andrew Brandou, Jeffrey Brown, Albert Calleros, Coop, Ludovic Debeurme, Michael Deforge, Valerie Fletcher, Yoko Furusho, Robert Goodin, Lisa Hanawalt, Dustin Harbin, Sammy Harkham, Sam Henderson, Josh Holinaty, Patrick Kochakji, Joy Kolitsky, Joe Lambert, Bob London, Tom Neely, Ben Newman, Laura Park, Brian Ralph, Aaron Renier, M. Jason Robards, Johnny Ryan, Richard Sala, Genevieve Simms, Jeremy Tinder, Jon Vermilyea, Anthony Vukojevich, and Steven Weissman.
There will be drinks.
For those out of town, the show can also be experienced on the blog with one cover being posted per day beginning March 6th. Work can be purchased by following a link to the Secret Headquarters Flickr page.
Here's something to keep an eye on: John Orlow has a series of video interviews with the likes of Tim Hensley, John Pham & Sammy Harkham, Lisa Hanawalt, and Paul Hornschemeier (above), who tipped us off to their existence via his blog. They're posted on the Royal Jelly blog and in high res on Orlow's Vimeo page. Stay tuned for future installments to see if he gets out of the H's.
• Review: "Anderson’s King is most definitely NOT your feel-good, sanctifying version of King’s life that most readers are probably used to. ...[T]he MLK presented here is a multi-dimensional, gifted man … but still very much a man, nevertheless, filled with doubt, frustration, anger, arrogance, and even deceit. ... While Anderson starkly presents King’s less-than-saintly episodes... the final reaction is a fuller understanding of a great man, with inspiring ideals, and an unshakeable dedication to equality through nonviolent, loving means. ... MLK’s legacy undeniably lives on in Anderson’s King." – Terry Hong, Bookdragon (Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program)
• Review: "Dash Shaw was praised to the skies for his hefty 2008 graphic novel Bottomless Belly Button, but the 26-year-old cartoonist’s real strength so far in his career has been his short strips, which have displayed a diversity of subject matter and style that make each piece feel like something wholly new. The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century A.D.... does reveal a future master in his formative stages, working to find a balance between his interest in subtle adult relationships—teacher/pupil, flirter/flirtee, etc.—and his yen to try out new approaches to drawing and coloring. Shaw may be the cartoonist of the rising generation most capable of delivering a long-form work with the formal daring and humanity of a David Mazzucchelli or an Art Spiegelman. Consider The Unclothed Man a document of his baby steps… B+" – The A.V. Club
• Plug: "The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976 comes out in March, meaning we'll be halfway through this amazing, historical publication. I can't say enough about these collections. It's not only remarkable in its simple, truthful capturing of the human condition, but a beautiful historical document of the second half of the 20th Century." – Rob Kozlowski
• Interview: On the Inkstuds radio programme, Jordan Crane and Sammy Harkham have a feisty conversation with host Robin McConnell about their webcomics concern, What Things Do
• Commentary:NPR 's Glen Weldon, surveying some of the connections between comics and pop music, says "Love and Rockets, by Los Bros Hernandez, wasn't just about a punk band, it was a book steeped in an anarchic punk sensibility that even today, 30 years later, still seems bracing and unapologetic."
Your first order of business is to head to whatthingsdo.com right now and gape at the jaw-dropping array of entirely free comics on view from Jordan Crane (including all 3 issues of Uptight in their entirety, The Last Lonely Saturday and much much more), Sammy Harkham, and Ted May. Oh heavens this is BIG, people.
Los Angeles film fans not only get to watch great films at the Silent Movie Theatre, part-owned by Sammy Harkham-- they also get to take home monthly programs with cover art by great cartoonists. (Shown: Harkham, Richard Sala, Josh Simmons.)
