Via Vertigo: Graphic Content. Click for a larger version.

Jeremy Eaton is an acclaimed English artist who will have a show at Secret Headquarters in LA this Friday. The subject is his Cartoon Jumbles that mash up popular cartoonesque icons, like a Danger Mouse of the canvas.

What: ENGLISH ARTIST JEREMY EATON TO TAKE LIBERTIES WITH VENERABLE AMERICAN ARTFORM ON 4TH OF JULY WEEKEND!
When: Friday, July 3rd, from 8-10 PM, at
Where: Secret Headquarters on 3817 W. Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90026

English artist Jeremy Eaton will unveil nearly two dozen new and recent works in his popular series of Cartoon Jumbles illustrated paintings, featuring the irreverent pairings of cartoon icons including Uncle Sam & Uncle Scrooge, Fred Flintstone & Alley Oop, Little Lulu & Wonder Woman, The Yellow Kid & Mr. Natural and Mark Trail & Bullwinkle, all rendered in soft gouache watercolor tones and ink, on austere, pulp-hewn manila paper.

Called Guston-like by preeminent Seattle art critic, Regina Hackett (Seattle Post-Intelligencer), Eaton’s delicate yet forceful paintings are full of surprises and deft trickery, with numerous unexpected shapes appearing within their thoughtful cross-pollinations. Having commenced upon the series during the Spring of 2008, the artist, best known for his early ’90s comics published by Fantagraphics, Kitchen Sink and other alternative imprints, has created more than three dozen of the paintings, many of which will be included in the Secret Headquarters show, made available for purchase for the very first time. Response to the enigmatic series has been strong throughout the cartooning community, and beyond. It seems Eaton’s plucky disassembling of such well-loved characters as Mr. Magoo, Charlie Brown, Nancy and Bugs Bunny, has pushed some notoriously opinionated buttons.

We esp. like Lotta Galactus, below:

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JULY 2
Anime Expo 2009 kicks off. The biggest Anime show in the US runs until the 5th, in Los Angeles, CA. Guests include Yun Kouga, Takashi Okazaki, Yasuhiro NIghtow and many more.

JULY 3
White River Junction, VT

FIRST FRIDAY BOOK RELEASE PARTY
WHERE: Revolution, 26 North Main Street, White River Junction VT, 05001
WHEN: Friday July 3rd, 6pm-9pm
DEBUTING FOUR NEW COMICS:

Woman King by C. Frakes $7
5.5 x 5.5″, 88 pages, perfect bound
A story about a girl raised by bears and the cyclical nature of war.

Monsters & Girls: Amelia Part 2 by Denis St. John $5
36 pages of Twisted Terror!
Amelia faces creatures and horrors both real and imagined in this strange book that brings new meaning to the term “body horror”, for mature audiences only!

Indestructible Universe Quarterly 2, by Morgan Pielli $5
8.25 x 6.75 20 pages
The second issue of this quarterly collection of strange and surreal stories from artist Morgan Pielli.

Don’t Hate, Menstruate by Jen Vaughn $5
5 x8 1/2″ 24 pages
A 24 page comic made in 24 hours focusing on one girl’s trials and errors (and more errors) with different feminine products.

JULY 5

LOS ANGELES
Dale Sizer (above) and Miles Thompson show
July 3 – July 26, 2009
Artist reception: Friday, July 3, 2009 ~ 8:00 -11:00 pm
LA LUZ DE JESUS GALLERY, 4633 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027

July 11
LOS ANGELES:

Reception for the artists: Lou Beach (above), Hudson Marquez, Jayme Odgers, Mel Weiner
Saturday, July 11th, 7-10 pm
BILLY SHIRE FINE ARTS, 5790 Washington Blvd. Culver City, CA 90232

The spring Xeric winners have been announced and they are:

Joe Boruchow – Stuffed Animals: A Story in Paper Cutouts

Adam Bourret – I’m Crazy

Timothy Godek — !

Adam Hines – Duncan the Wonder Dog (Note: there were several cartoon Adam Hines — hope this is the right one. More here.

Joshua Smeaton — Haunted

Note: Art is from each artist but not necessarily their Xeric winning project.

PR:

The Xeric Foundation has announced its most recent grant recipients. A total of $22,002 was awarded for five comic book projects. The Foundation has awarded in excess of $2M to comic book creators and nonprofit organizations since its first grant cycle in September 1992.

Established by Peter Laird, co-creator of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Northampton, MA based foundation offers financial assistance to self-publishing comic book creators in the US and Canada and to qualified charitable and nonprofit organizations in western Massachusetts.

The next deadline and review dates for comic book grants are September 30, 2009 and November 1, 2009, respectively. The charitable organization grants are decided annually in March and announced separately.

With J.H. Williams’s amazing work on this week’s DETECTIVE the buzz book of the week, it’s worth pointing out that  Todd Klein’s latest print is a collaboration with Williams. You can buy the print at the above link and see the rest of his neat stuff for sale here.

From Heroes Con.

IGN has a few pages of a BATMAN AND ROBIN #2 preview by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. It’s hard to overstate how brilliant Quitely’s storytelling and characterization are on even this single page. Panel 1 — the “death from above” shot, perfectly executed, but the angle emphasizing Batman and Robin’s viewpoint — they’re not unleashed, not yet, they’re just floating into the scene. In panel two there are two amazing things happening. #1 is the crab-like outline of Dick Grayson/Batman’s cape…it’s engulfing him, obliterating him…he’s just a tiny head. The mantle of Batman is literally swallowing him. And then there’s Damian/Robin’s curious hunched posture…he just landed with a lot of momentum, but the ground has sucked all the energy out of him, leaving him literally skulking in. Damian’s flawed, difficult character is the heart and plot of this book, and Quitely encapsulates it all in this one drawing.

After those two epic panels, a third is almost too much, but once again, the masks and rituals of the Bat-man garb are transforming the two people inside them. Slit-eyed, dangerous…how can they even SEE?

Whew! We’re just gonna explode when we get the whole book, aren’t we?

And many other comics, also with new Graham art.

I really like the early Dreadstar comics. I feel like this is seeing a dude at rock bottm.
Years later in therapy Dreadstar will be talking about his low point of boning a magic blade.
And after that he ended up being such a bad father that the book about his daughter got writen by peter david–”if only she’d just become a stripper!” falling in with a bad crowd.

The new Vertigo blog, Graphic Content, previews SWEET TOOTH, the new ongoing series by Jeff Lemire.

Well, it’s a wonderful post apocalyptic story that follows Gus, from the sanctuary of the home he’s known since birth, on an adventure to find “The Preserve” a fabled safe-haven for hybrid children. Along the way, Gus not only learns he loves chocolate, but he begins to unravel the mystery surrounding the origin of the disease that ravaged the American landscape just a decade before.

And at Standard Attrition, Lemire posts the cover for the collected ESSEX COUNTY, now in Previews.

From Golden Age Comic Book Stories illustrator John R. Neill at the peak of his Oz powers for The Emerald City of Oz, which included his scary, manic rendition of the Nome King.

Via Kazu Kibuishi. Above art by Adam Volker.

Fresh off While continuing his run on the ever-cosmic GØDLAND, Tom Scioli is back to his own graphic novel, And yes, it looks familiar. But that is the fun of it.

On August 27, A-Okay Comics celebrates the 10-year anniversary of Thomas Scioli’s Xeric-Winning sci-fi fantasy comic series, The Myth of pus by releasing the first all-new installment in 5 years, The Myth of pus:The Labyrinth.

Why the 5-year gap since the last graphic novel? “Once Godland took off, it ate up so much of my time, ” says writer-artist Scioli, “My intention was to do my work for Image, and keep pus going on the side, but I just wasn’t prepared for the number of hours a monthly comic takes. I had to squirrel away time for it, but I finally was able to finish Labyrinth. I can’t wait to get it out there. It’s where my heart is.”

“8-Opus, the title character, is a space-faring demigod compelled by visions of the past, present and future shown to him by his mystical stone mask. In this latest installment, pus embarks on star-spanning odyssey to expose a conspiracy of cosmic proportions.The tone is a bit different from Godland. It’s got the whole cosmic kirbyesque flavor, but this is underground stuff, real do-it-yourself comics. I wrote, drew and lettered the whole thing from start-to-finish. This is my most personal vision. To me this is a homecoming. My comics career started with pus. I’ve drawn a lot of comics since then and learned a lot about the craft. Now I’ve come back to pus bringing with me all I’ve learned.”

§ Robot 6 asks Yow! What have they done to Little Lulu? Apparently, in Brazil, they’ve made her and her gang manga-style skaters, videogamers and fashionistas. In all honesty, this doesn’t bother us much…The original Lulus are still there, sitting right on my shelf, so nothing has been hurt in the making of this comic. Plus…the originals were of their time — kids lived a simple suburban life without electronic stimulation, aside from the radio and an occasional movie. That life is nonexistent, and the kids of today are just as funny and poignant as ever. So…sure, give it a whirl. The PTB would probably be better off thinking of something original, but that might be too hard.

§ Shaenon K. Garrity looks at the Top Five Cartoonists/Children’s Book Illustrators. One is Crockett Johnson — who are the OTHERS?

§ Colleen Doran alerts us to a convention con artist who has everyone from Edward James Olmos to Robert Piccardo on the rampage against him for unpaid fees. Not cool.

MoCCA Section:

§ We’ll have a longer overview of MoCCA along in a bit, but the happy posts where people show off their treasures from the show are in abundance. Here’s one from Ricky Purdin. Geekanerd has another. And Alex Robinson a third. Since we didn’t get as many comics as we would have liked, we’ll try to link to a few more tomorrow.

§ Gary Tyrell summed up the webcomics contingent.

§ Metabunker looks at the Mazzucchelli contingent.

§ Finally, here is the MUST READ post of the day, with Gary Panter’s list of fine artists who should influence comics. Amazing, amazing stuff.

After all that doom and gloom, here’s a new Yojimbo print by Paul Pope, based on the Kurosawa/Mifune classic. And here’s how to order it AND a special T-shirt.

Will there be graphic novels in 2100? Well, the year, we don’t know…the special which airs on ABC tonight…definitely! According to an email from Joe Infurnari:

Tonight at 9pm EST, ABC will air a two-hour news special titled, Earth 2100. What’s exciting about it is that it uses animated ‘graphic novel elements’ to put a human face on it’s dire predictions for the future of our civilization and planet. These animated segments feature the illustrations of Tim Hamilton (Fahrenheit 451), Leland Purvis (Vox, Pubo), George O’Connor (Journey Into Mohawk Country, Kapow!) and myself (the Process, The Transmigration of ULTRA-lad!) and were co-written by Josh Neufeld (A.D. New Orleans after the Deluge)!

More info:
Yahoo Preview.

Official web site

While the Norton booth was hyping the fall release of R. Crumb’s adaptation of the Book of Genesis with a big poster, and editor Robert Weil had a copy, he refused to show it to anyone in the press, citing an embargo until today’s New Yorker.

As a long time loyal New Yorker subscriber, we can tell you that there is indeed an 11-page excerpt from GENESIS in this week’s New Yorker. We won’t spoil things (and it’s sure to be scanned soon anyway) but here’s a one-panel teaser. The rest of it is just as fantastically amazing. Based on this excerpt, it’s a fitting capstone to Crumb’s great career.

Meanwhile, you CAN read online a story about Peter Poplaski and the making of the book:

Peter Poplaski lives in the same medieval village in the south of France as Robert Crumb, and when Crumb began work on “The Book of Genesis” (his unabridged illustrated version of the first book of the Bible), Poplaski brought over his copy of D. W. Griffith’s 1916 silent film “Intolerance.” Crumb was so impressed with its colossal Babylonian gates and attack scenes, he wished aloud for film stills he could reference.

“So I offered to help Robert build a photo morgue,” said Poplaski. “When I was eleven, I used to take pictures of Superman on T.V. My father had a camera you could stop at 1/24 of a second, and I would take pictures of George Reeves crashing through windows.”

Technorati Tags: Genesis, R. Crumb

When geniuses collide! Cartooner Tony Millionaire does the cover for Elvis Costello’s latest album.

Via Todd Alcott.

Continuing our brief survey of this year’s Russ Manning Award nominees, Eleanor Davis is one of America’s most acclaimed young cartoonists. With her husband and collaborator Drew Weing, she runs their self-publishing company, Little House. A frequent contributor to MOME, she drew the cover for the 2008 Best American Comics. She created the children’s graphic novel STINKY for Toon Books, and the first volume of her new GN series, THE SECRET SCIENCE ALLIANCE, is due soon from Bloomsbury. Of Davis’s art, Toon Books editor Francoise Mouly told PRINT Magazine, “It’s very imaginative and funny and fanciful, but it’s also very thoroughly worked out. She’s not afraid to be clear.”

More at her website, Doing Fine.

We thought it would be nice to spotlight the art of this year’s Russ Manning Award nominees. With so many people getting into all levels of comics these days, it’s hard to keep up with all the emerging talents. First up: Gregory Baldwin.

According to his website, Gregory Baldwin bounced around at many jobs while pursuing his first love, art. Finally he landed a gig as Lead Character Artist at Insomniac Games, a video game company whose games include Ratchet and Clank and Resistance.

Baldwin entered the graphic novel world with PATH, published by Com-X, described as the tale of a rabbit and an elephant attempting to survive in a hostile landscape.

As the editor of the eagerly awaited WEDNESDAY COMICS, Mark Chiarello is widely known as an editor who gets all the best people working for him, but many forget he’s an artist in his own right. Luckily, he’s just launched Mark Chiarello.com to remedy that. Posted are much of Chiarello’s recent trading card art, including his wonderful Negro Leagues set, and some other tasty goodies.

Colleen Coover reimagines the popular board game. Did she do it with a wrench in the conservatory? That’s how we like to do it.

Via PR, the nominees for this year’s Russ Manning Promising Newcomer Award, to be presented at this year’s Eisner Awards ceremony:

The 2009 nominees are:

Gregory Baldwin, writer/artist of Path (published by com.x Ltd)

Eleanor Davis, writer/artist of Stinky (published by RAW Junior/Toon Books)

Leigh Kellogg, artist of Wayfarer’s Moon (Single Edge Studios)

Lukas Ketner, artist of Witchdoctor (self-published)

Christian Slade, artist of Korgi (published by Top Shelf)

The Manning award has been given out annually at the San Diego Comic-Con since 1982. It is presented to a comics artist who, early in his or her career, shows a superior knowledge and ability in the art of creating comics. It is named for Russ Manning, the artist best known for his work on the Tarzan and Star Wars newspaper strips and the Magnus, Robot Fighter comic book. Russ was a popular guest at the San Diego convention in the 1970s. The first recipient of the award was former Manning assistant Dave Stevens, Others to have received the award include Jan Duursema, Steve Rude, Scott McCloud, Art Adams, Eric Shanower, Dan Brereton, Jeff Smith, Gene Ha, Alexander Maleev, Goran Sudzuka, Eric Wight, R. Kikuo Johnson, David Petersen, and Cathy Malkasian.

The nominees were selected by a committee consisting of representatives of the West Coast Comics Club and Comic-Con International: San Diego, and the winner will be chosen by past Manning award winners and Russ Manning assistants. The recipient will be announced during the Eisner Awards ceremony on July 24 at Comic-Con International: San Diego.

More information about the Manning Award can be found at www.comic-con.org/cci/cci_manning.shtml

Speaking of N.C. Wyeth, John K., whose blog we don’t link to nearly often enough, compares the illustration great to Yogi Bear in order to demonstrate good composition, and you know what? He’s right!

And to prove how right is he, here’s an unrelated, supporting example, by Jock, via Standard Attrition.

The awesomely amazing Souther Salazar has a new show up at the Jonathan Levine Gallery, and you can view it online here. Beautiful stuff.

SoCal artist Jeff Soto is currently on exhibit in London at the Stolen Spaces Gallery, with a show called “Inland Empire”, and its images of exploding sci-fi mixed with the dusty pickups of suburban California are a haunting mix.

“The region I live in is called the Inland Empire. It is an area about 50 miles east of Los Angeles nestled between the desert and the mountains. Overall it is a low-income area, mostly suburbs and manufacturing plants with a high minority population. When the economy was booming the Inland Empire grew at a fast rate as people headed east, unable to afford homes in Los Angeles. It was one of the fastest growing areas in the U.S. But when the economy crumbled the Inland Empire was hit hard. As home values dropped most who bought houses ended up backwards on their mortgages and let them fall back to the banks. We have lost 115,000 jobs since 2007 and the unemployment rate is near 12%. I see the Inland Empire as a miniature version of what is happening around the world- poor people and the working class are getting poorer and disempowered while the rich and powerful are getting more rich and more powerful.”