The colorful Georgetown Carnival arts festival enters its 7th year with an eclectic array of entertainment reflecting the sensibilities of one of Seattle's liveliest neighborhoods. This free, family friendly event features diverse music, interactive art, acrobats, circus acts, carnival games and confections, as well as Hazardfactory's world famous Power Tool Races. The fun is from noon to 8:00 PM on Saturday, June 8 in the heart of the historic Georgetown industrial arts corridor.
Don't miss stiltwalkers, aerialists, tall bikes, brass bands, and rock ‘n' roll. Young performers from Georgetown's School of Acrobatics and New Circus Arts will be joined by youthful musicians from the Seattle Drum School on the Carnival Stage. Artists from Georgetown's Equinox Studios present intriguing art activities. Sandbox Sports hosts a children's beach party. Students from nearby Cleveland High School screen short films. "Minions" from Despicable Me 2 wander the Carnival grounds. Kids win wonderful prizes at creative carnival games.
Thrill to the spectacle of customized power tools drag racing side-by-side in Hazardfactory's infamous Power Tool Races, concluding with a cacophonous demolition derby. This year's Fantagraphics entry will be unveiled at Fantagraphics Bookstore on Saturday, June 1. Sweet!
More than 15 bands perform on 3 stages, including Tom Price Desert Classic (featuring Fantagraphics own Martin Bland), Cute Lepers, The Billy Joe Show, Rocket Surgery, The Gum, Dead Man, and more, along with the grand opening of the Sub Pop Mega Mart in advance of their Silver Jubilee celebration in Georgetown on July 13. The Stables Midway Sideshow and Georgetown Brewing Beer Garden features mature entertainment including burlesque dancers, drag queens, and lounge acts. An additional beer garden is located at the Georgetown Trailer Park Market of Curiosities and music stage.
Plan to spend your whole summer in the enchanting Georgetown district!
Portland, get ready for a lot of cool accents in the comics community this weekend as the Rose City hosts the 2013 International Comic Arts Forum!
From Thursday, May 23rd through Saturday, May 25th, you are invited to attend this annual academic conference, featuring Fantagraphics special guests Megan Kelso, Tommi Musturi, and T. Edward Bak!
The entire weekend is jam-packed with wonderful panels, discussions, and papers, but here are a few highlights we thought you'd particularly enjoy! (... 'cause they feature our artists!... )
Thursday, May 23rd
7:30 - 9:00 PM // A Celebration of Finnish Comics at Floating World Comics: Comics illustrator Tommi Musturi, whose work is featured in Kolor Klimax: Nordic Comics Now, and editor Ville Hänninen will discuss their work on Finnish comics at Floating World Comics [ 400 NW Couch Street ]. A pre-talk reception begins at 6:30 PM, with a Q&A to follow the talk.
Friday, May 24th
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM // Women & Politics: Alisia Chase will present “Matrixial Graphics: Motherhood and Politics in Megan Kelso’s Watergate Sue" at the University of Oregon's White Stag Building [ 70 NW Couch Street ].
Saturday, May 25th
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM // Self, Memory, Perception: Josina Robb will present "The Spatiality of Voice: How Joe Sacco’s Palestine Takes Up the Ethos of New Journalism" at the University of Oregon's White Stag Building [ 70 NW Couch Street ].
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM // Roundtable: Comics and the Pacific Northwest: With comics creators Megan Kelso, Greg Rucka, and T. Edward Bak. Moderated by Ben Saunders at the University of Oregon's White Stag Building [ 70 NW Couch Street ].
All these wonderful panels and events are totally FREE! All you gotta do is register online here.
Fantagraphics is thrilled to welcome world-famous cartoonist and filmmaker Max Andersson to town for the Seattle International Film Festival. He'll be screening his first feature-length film Tito on Ice at the SIFF Cinema Uptown on Sunday, May 26th at 8:00 PM, with an encore screening on Tuesday, May 28th at 3:30 PM.
To promote their Fantagraphics book Bosnian Flat Dog, Andersson and fellow Swedish artist Lars Sjunnesson toured the countries of former Yugoslavia with a mummified Marshal Tito in a refrigerator.
Now comes the documentary, Tito on Ice, which takes Super 8 footage of their tour and animates it with cardboard cutouts and garbage and other recycled materials. The result is a surreal trip through the Balkans that is part promotion, part performance art, and part history of Marshal Tito and the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. It’s also about the underground arts and music venues that popped up when the country split apart.
Through it all there is a comics creator’s eye at work: live-action interviews suddenly switch to animation, and more than 50 sets were built for the film, all shot and animated on Super 8 film. Tito on Ice is a joyous trip through the war torn subconscious of an underground artist.
Max will be in town on Sunday night to introduce the film and engage in a Q&A afterwards. Fantagraphics will be on site, selling you copies of Bosnian Flat Dog to get signed. Tito on Ice is screening at the SIFF Cinema Uptown, located at 511 Queen Anne Avenue North. See you there!
Jaime will discuss the lives and loves of his crazy ‘locas’ -- Maggie and Hopey -- and other much-loved characters from the independent phenomenon Love and Rockets.
Doors open at 6:00 PM, and the event starts at 6:30 PM sharp! The discussion runs through 8:00 PM, followed by a signing.
Tickets are selling FAST, and they've already moved the event to a larger venue to accomodate all you Love and Rockets fans! Do not sleep on this: get your tickets today either online, or by calling the box office at 020 7871 3515.
Don't let the name fool you: the Ciné Lumière Cinema at the Institut Francais is located in London at 17 Queensberry Place. The nearest tube station is at South Kensington on the Piccadilly, Circle & District lines.
It's been twenty years since comics legend Jaime Hernandez visited London, and we are making up for it in a big way!
Not only will Jaime be a guest of honor at COMICA: The London International Comics Festival, but he kicks off his UK visit on Wednesday, May 29th with a special appearance at Gosh! Comics! This signing and the COMICA talk are Jaime’s only two engagements in London, so catch him at one, or both, or miss out entirely!
Jaime will be signing from 5:00 to 7:00 PM, and our friends at Gosh! state:
As yet we do not have a limit of how many things can be signed other than the usual ‘Please be polite to your fellow fans and do not bring a suitcase full of stuff’. We’ll have a look at the line on the day and see if we need to put a limit on – if we do it will probably be something like three items. Also! Because we’ve only got Jaime for a couple of hours, we will not be able to take signed requests for this one, sorry. If you can’t make it just bribe your friend with beer or chocolate (those new Malteaser bars are pretty good) or owe them a dinner. If Jaime’s got a spare ten minutes before he’s whisked away to his own dinner we will ask him to sign some stock for us, and if that happens we will announce it. I promise. Cross my heart and hope to die.
Gosh! Comics is located at 1 Berwick Street in London. Miss this, and risk waiting another twenty years to meet him!
The genius Dash Shaw has been touring across the country in support of his latest graphic novel, New School, as well as the one-shot comic book, 3 New Stories. On Tuesday, May 21st, he brings at all back home to Brooklyn with an animation screening at Light Industry in the lovely Greenpoint neighborhood.
Dash will screen his animation works, from cinematic permutations of his own comics, as well as adaptations of game shows and reality tv that marry their source materials' original audio tracks with a series of static illustrations to uncanny effect — Wheel of Fortune never seemed so heartbreaking, or so strange.
Rounding out the lineup is a film chosen by Shaw that he finds resonant with the concerns of his particular hand-drawn animation techniques: Bobby’s Girl, an '80s anime rarity about a teenage biker, his pen pal, and his death drive.
I have to tell you: having seen Dash's presentation at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery earlier this month, I cannot encourage you more to go! The entire audience was hanging on his every word, and his explanations on his process were absolutely fascinating. You don't want to miss this, Brooklynites.
Please note: seating is limited, and first-come, first-served, so get there early! Box office opens at 7:00 PM. Tickets are $7.00, and are available at door.
Light Industry is located at 155 Freeman Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, in a ground-floor space shared with Triple Canopy and The Public School New York.
This Friday, May 17th, at the appropriately named Pure Evil Gallery, VICE will be holding an exhibition of work from some of their favorite illustrators, including Johnny -- "just so we can stick all their drawings up on a wall and show everybody else how great they are," they say.
The exhibition is going to include a selection of new prints, work that's been featured in VICE and original drawings especially for the show, which are designed to give an insight into how the people who do drawings for them go about doing their drawings.
The Pure Evil Gallery is located at 108 Leonard Street in London. The show runs through Sunday, June 2nd.
A metaphorical Winnebago (one that drives on water) containing 7 Australian comics creators has embarked upon a three-week North American tour, and this Saturday, May 18th, they'll stop at the Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery!
Come meet Scarlette Baccini, Mirranda Burton, Marijka Gooding, Patrick Alexander, Gregory Mackay, Dan Hayward and Bruce Mutard from 1:00 to 8:00 PM! They'll be giving a short presentation, discussing their work, and screening the feature-length documentary Graphic Novels! Melbourne!, which illuminates how Melbourne's strange water produces so many good comics.
Join us for the International Comics Celebration this weekend, and let's help welcome them to Seattle!
Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is located at 1201 S. Vale Street in Seattle's Georgetown district. Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM. Phone: (206) 658-0110.
Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery celebrates the lasting legacy of the late European Pop artist Guy Peellaert with a luscious new book and exhibition this Saturday, May 11 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. Guy Peellaert: The Adventures of Jodelle and Fragments of the Pop Years includes his colorful avant garde comix and collaborations with celebrities like Serge Gainsbourg, Yves Saint Laurent, Mick Jagger, Wim Wenders, David Bowie, Martin Scorsese, and others, which left an indelible mark on contemporary culture.
The book and display features Peellaert’s stunning 1965 comic album The Adventures of Jodelle, newly translated by Fantagraphics co-publisher Kim Thompson, and examines the breadth of the artist’s work in comics, illustration, graphic design, dance, film, and fashion.
The opening at Fantagraphics Bookstore on Saturday, May 11 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM includes musical entertainment by K recording artist Angelo Spencer performing lyrical French-language songs. Pop Art aficionados, Francophiles, and music fans alike will appreciate this event, which coincides with the festive Georgetown Art Attack.
Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is located at 1201 S. Vale Street (at the corner of Airport Way S.) only minutes from downtown Seattle. Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM. Phone 206.658.0110.
Join Fantagraphics this weekend, Saturday, May 11th and Sunday, May 12th, at the 2013 Toronto Comic Arts Festival in Canada! Dare we say, it's our biggest TCAF yet? Just look at this signing schedule!
12:15 – 1:15pm // Spotlight: Ulli Lust A talented Austrian cartoonist who makes her home in Berlin, Germany, Ulli Lust is well known across Europe for her cartooning. Her debut full-length graphic novel Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Lifewon huge acclaim in 2011, including taking the prestigious Angouleme “Revelation” prize. Now this important work of memoir and reportage has made its way to English audiences, and Ulli Lust and Verlag Der Tagesspiegel journalist Lars von Torne as they explore this important and highly-anticipated TCAF debut. (Reference Library)
12:15 – 1:15pm // Spotlight: Gilbert Hernandez’s Marble Season Gilbert Hernandez is the co-creator of the acclaimed series Love & Rockets, which just celebrated its 30th anniversary. Gilbert is attending TCAF in support of his highly-anticipated, semiautobiographical new graphic novel, Marble Season. Marble Season tells the untold stories from the American comics legends’ youth, but also portrays the reality of life in a large family in suburban 1960s California. Pop-culture references—TV shows, comic books, and music—saturate this evocative story of a young family navigating cultural and neighborhood norms set against the golden age of the American dream and the silver age of comics. Gilbert will present from this new work, and participate in a moderated Q&A. (Forest Hill Ballroom)
1:30 – 2:30pm // Moebius, Past and Future Jean Giraud, also known as Moebius, was a legend in the comics industry – his lush, whimsical art and creative storytelling inspired a generation of cartoonists around the world to take the comics medium to new directions and new heights. Four cartoonists discuss Moebius’ life, work, and his role in inspiring the industry today – as well as their own books. With Frederik Peeters, Paul Pope, David B., Glyn Dillon. Moderated by Xavier Guilbert. (Forest Hill Ballroom)
2:45 – 3:45pm // Writing Life These four cartoonists tell the most personal kind of stories – stories from their own lives. This program explores what’s involved in memoir. How accurately can memory and representative artwork depict real life? And are there kinds of stories that cannot be told? Featuring Raina Telgemeier (Smile, Drama), Derf (My Friend Dahmer), Ulli Lust (Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life), and Lucy Knisley (Relish). Moderated by Robin Brenner. (Pilot Tavern)
4:00 – 5:00pm // Spotlight: Michael Kupperman Acclaimed American comics artist and humourist Michael Kupperman (Tales Designed to Thrizzle) discusses his life, work, and upcoming projects in this special TCAF Spotlight program. Perhaps certain special guests will drop by? (Pilot Tavern)
Sunday, May 12th
12:15 – 1:15pm // What’s Funny in the Funnies? Comics & Humour What makes a comic funny? We couldn’t tell you exactly, but what we do know is that these five panelists have made some damn funny comics, so they’ve likely got some insight. We’ll refund show admission if they don’t. Featuring Bill Amend (Foxtrot), Ivan Brunetti (HAW!), Danielle Corsetto (Girls with Slingshots), Lisa Hanawalt (My Dirty Dumb Eyes), and Michael Kupperman (Tales Designed to Thrizzle). (High Park Ballroom, located in the The Marriott Bloor Yorkville.)
12:15 – 1:15pm // Queer Comics 2013 You don’t have to be queer to make or read queer comics. Social, civil, and sexual issues, serious or satirical, make queer comics works that deal with the joys and problems of life that affect all of us. The creators on this panel make books that transcend gender identities to appeal to everyone. Featuring Justin Hall, Erika Moen, Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, Chip Kidd, and moderator Zan Christiensen (Northwest Press). (Pilot Tavern)
2:45 – 3:45pm // Spotlight: Dash Shaw Acclaimed cartoonist and animator Dash Shaw discusses his new and upcoming graphic novels, New School and 3 New Stories, in this multimedia presentation. (Reference Library)
2:45 – 3:45pm // Spotlight: David B. TCAF presents a conversation with acclaimed French cartoonist David B. (Best of Enemies) on his life, work, and the French comics industry. Moderated by Sean Rogers. (High Park Ballroom, located in the The Marriott Bloor Yorkville.)
4:00 – 5:00pm // Spotlight: Ivan Brunetti Renowned cartoonist Ivan Brunetti (HAW!) is also Assistant Professor in the Art and Design Department of Columbia College Chicago, teaching courses on drawing, design, illustration, cartooning, and graphic novels. On this special TCAF Spotlight panel, Brunetti will talk about his own cartooning career, and the importance of comics in education, as outlined in his new book Aesthetics from Yale University Press. (High Park Ballroom, located in the The Marriott Bloor Yorkville.)
4:00 – 5:00pm // Live Drawing… 2! Four creators enter, one creator leaves! Come watch four artists draw for their lives – and for your entertainment. Winners will feast on the souls of the losers (vegetarian option available). Featuring Phil McAndrew, Lucy Knisley, Jim Rugg, and Scott C.! (Pilot Tavern)
So, stop by Tables 142 & 143 and give all your money to our PR/Marketing duo of Jacq & Jen! We're on the first floor by the stairs, so you can't escape us.
The Toronto Reference Library is located at 789 Yonge Street. The closest major intersection is Yonge & Bloor. The closest subway station is Yonge/Bloor Station. See you at TCAF!
