Art agent Kasra Ghanbari writes:

Ted McKeever and my company, VEI Studios, will be set up at booth #4405 in the Illustrator’s section from Thursday through Sunday. We’ll have original art by Ted available to purchase, as well as Ted’s first-ever sketchbook, a 28-page full color book that Ted will sign and number. It will be limited to 150 and sold for $20 each, $30 if the buyer would like a head sketch drawn in. There will also be a deluxe edition limited to 40 and sold for $50 each that will include an inked single-figure drawing by Ted.

Ted will appear at the Image Comics/Tori Amos panel on Saturday, July 26 between 11:30-12:30 along with Tori, David Mack, Elizabeth Genco, Kelly Sue DeConnick, and others involved in this new Image book.

Lastly, Ted will be appearing at Image’s booth #2729 for some autograph sessions. These are the times as best as we could tell from the schedule Image sent over, all 20 minute sessions, though folks may want to make sure of these times and duration at Image’s booth:

* Thursday 12:00pm
* Friday 4:40pm
* Saturday 6:00pm
* Sunday 1:20pm

Where to find the one and only Kyle Baker:

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Craig Yoe writes:

I’m joining the San Diego Zoo next week, i.e. the San Diego ComicCon. I’ll be signing my new books “Clean Cartoonists’ Dirty Drawings” and “Comic Arf,” and I’ll be on some panels. The rest of the time I’m just hanging out. So I wuz wondering if you’re coming and if you wanna hang? If so call me on my cell at 914-325-0917 or come by the following booths and panels when I’m there as listed below.

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Dustin Harbin’s 26 Cartoonists Which I Have Recently Met And Liked..

The Comics Reporter has an interview with Lynda Barry up that is THE MUST READ of the week and maybe the month because this artist is a national treasure, and when you read things like this, it just amazes and saddens:

I was at a pretty low point because I was also getting kicked out of news papers left and right, I’ve gone from being in over 70 papers to being in 7 papers. I was scrambling to find a way to keep working. My solution was to start selling original art on eBay. I just said, ‘to hell with it!’ and opened a version of my own hotdog stand on eBay and started selling pictures and it’s one of the best decisions I’ve made because I can still support myself, though it’s still a struggle.

The other way I was able to make some money was by teaching writing workshops, and it was teaching that really helped shape What It Is. It turns out I love to make pictures and I love to teach, so even if I couldn’t get published or keep my comic strip going in newspapers I found a way to keep going.

Of course there’s also happier stuff:

Comics are more like music to me than like plain old reading, and music changes the more you hear it because there are so many elements — from lyrics to melody to rhythm to duration in time. Comics have this same mix of elements and just as songs come back to me during my day, so comics came back. And when they did I noticed it and those were the ones I was more likely to wish to include. The thing I loved about this was I could never predict which ones would come back. There are still some comic panels that come back to me all the time. Kaz’s work in particular seems to come back like a song. Who knows why? His work really stays in my head and not just stays in my head but makes me happy when I remember it. How does that work? How can an image that just comes up in your mind make you feel happy? I don’t know! But I know that comics can do that. Don Martin from Mad Magazine did that for me a lot when I was a kid, and so did Big Daddy Roth’s Rat Finks. I just had them in my head like toys and they made me feel better. Dr. Seuss is in there, too. I think that guy is a cartoonist and I think I may have learned quite a bit from him.

One thing that’s touched on in the interview — and continues to be touched on — is whether Barry should have been included in the Masters of American Comics exhibit. At the recent Post-Bang symposium, this was brought up on the “What is Canon” panel, where Dan Nadel argued that Barry could have been in the show, while John Carlin, who organized it–well, he didn’t really defend his choices. He just said he had made choices, and that the arguments over the choices would be as valuable as the choices.

The context for this debate was Carly Berwick’s question “Why Have There Been No Great Women Comic-Book Artists?” and it’s interesting to ponder Carlin’s non-criteria. The decision to put Barry in the show — if she was ever even seriously considered — would have answered Berwick’s question once and for all. But why make history, really? Why rewrite the narrative and pioneer a new way of thinking? That would take true initiative. But not this time.

Maybe someday.

In the meantime, Lynda Barry is back and we must never let her go again.

stuck at the airport with Joe Quinones and Maris Wicks:
Many flights were delayed!

Nick Magazine editor Chris Duffy writes to tell us that Nick Mag has an archive of many of its comics online now. Most are based on Nick shows, but there are also original creations by many top indie cartooners. Dave Roman has some more info, but Chris helpfully points to some of the highlights:

Sam Henderson comics
Deitch Bros. comics
Jef Czekaj
Mark Martin

PLUS: comics written and/or drawn by Mark Crilley, Brian Ralph, Kazu Kibuishi, Stephen DeStefano, Bobby London, Craig Bartlett, Jhonen Vasquez, Kyle Baker and more.

Adult befuddlement note: If small children can actually navigate this flash-based maze of design, we really have no fear for America’s future — we are raising a generation of super-soldiers.

Clifford Meth updates Gene Colan’s health (not great but hanging in there) and reveals that Marvel is doing the right thing:

Not only has Marvel Entertainment awarded Gene Colan a generous retirement bonus, but also plans are underway for an impressive tribute book for early 2009. While the project has not been officially approved, it appears that I will soon be editing THE INVINCIBLE GENE COLAN for Marvel. I’ll share more details as they emerge.

Good news.
[Via Blog@Newsarama]

EW spotlights the new Method Man graphic novel and finds out what the rapper thinks of comics:

All the miniseries and things of that nature, like Crisis on Infinite Earths, Secret Wars part I and II. That was when comic books were big events. It was real. They didn’t have a bunch of variant covers. But I think it’s getting back to its core now. You got writers like Mark Millar with this new book, Kick-Ass, which is so hard to find right now. But it’s a dope book, and it’s penciled by John Romita Jr., who’s also a dope artist. I liked when he did his stints on Daredevil and Iron Man — when Iron Man had to go shut down all of his technology. Sort of like the storyline they had in the movie, but a little different. He was attacking people like the Crimson Dynamo and the Titanium Man, anybody who had his armor. One of the last people he went after was War Machine, who was actually his friend, James Rhodes.

MEANWHILE, at the NY MAgazine blog, Dash Shaw imagines a Ghost Rider revamp:

“I think Ghost Rider should really be drawn as if the target audience is people in motorcycle gangs,” Shaw told us. “Totally badass tattoo imagery. Because right now, it just feels like he’s a superhero who rides a motorcycle. So I really see that as having a crazy oddball aesthetic, culled from tattoo art.”

If you always wanted to meet comics legend Lynda Barry, East Coasters are getting their chance this week!

LYNDA BARRY IN NYC & PHILLY THIS WEEK!
Don’t miss Lynda Barry at one of her events this week in NYC and Philadelphia! Each event will be totally different, don’t miss it!

PHIL Thurs, June 5th, 7 PM Free Library www. freelibrary. org
NYC Fri, June 6th, 8 PM NYU Cantor Center www. moccany. org
NYC Sat June 7th & Sun. 8th MoCCA Fest www. moccany. Org (signing only)

For more information visit:
http://www.drawnandquarterly.com/index.php

D+Q @ MoCCA! WITH BARRY, TOMINE & BELL!
Join Drawn & Quarterly at our favorite NYC convention, the MoCCA Arts Festival at the historic Puck Building this weekend! Signing at our table will be Lynda Barry, Adrian Tomine and Gabrielle Bell!

Saturday, June 7th
12:30-2:00- Gabrielle Bell
2:00-3:00- Adrian Tomine
2:30-4:30- Lynda Barry

Sunday, June 8th
12:30-2:00- Gabrielle Bell
2:30-4:30- Lynda Barry

Next week, Barry hits Chicago, while D&Q represents for the Printer Row Book Fest:

D+Q AT CHICAGO PRINTERS ROW BOOK FEST JUNE 7th & 8th!
Drawn & Quarterly will be making its first ever appearance at the Chicago Printers Row Festival this weekend with Chris Ware and Ivan Brunetti signing AND doing a panel with D+Q Editor-In-Chief Chris Oliveros; the panel will be moderated by Chicago Comics proprietor Eric Kirsammer!

Dearborn & Polk St.
1:00 PM PANEL: Heartland Stage, South Dearborn across from Page Break Park
2:00 PM: Signing immediately following panel at the D Q booth TENT LOCATION: KK3

LYNDA BARRY AT THE HIDEOUT FOR WHAT IT IS JUNE 12th, 5PM!
Oh yes, what could be better than seeing Lynda in person and drinking a beer with her and having your book signed! She will also being a short stage talk at 7 PM!
www.hideoutchicago.com http://chicagocomics.com/
1354 W Wabansia Ave

OOOOOKAY, begin the MoCCA news dump! Chris Mautner at Blog@ has a nice little run down and here’s SOME of what we found on the internets as far as previews go. IF we left you out shoot us an email and we’ll update.

Meathaus
Ben Rosen
Marek Bennett
Vanessa Satone
One Percent Press
Dave Roman
Lunchbox Funnies
Tom Neely
The Flight crew
Kean Soo

Jeffrey Rowland
with NEW POSTER (above.)
Raina Telgemeier
Josh Neufeld
Denis St. John
Marion Vitus
Lark Pien
David Malki
Cliff Face Comics
Daryl Ayo Brathwaite
John Green
Cat Garza
Jen Wang
Below the cut: more news and pre dumps!

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Titan announces some new properties concerning Golden Age legend Joe Simon.

Titan Publishing Group Ltd. has announced the acquisition of worldwide rights to a range of books celebrating the work of Golden Age comics legend, Joe Simon, co-creator of Captain America. Throughout his career, Simon pioneered every aspect of the industry, from writing to art, editing to publishing. He ran a studio that employed some of the industry’s most talented artists, including the famed Jack Kirby. He was the first editor in chief of the company that became Marvel Comics, and ultimately played a pivotal role in comics’ transcendence to an American art form.
 
Scheduled for spring 2009 is Joe Simon: The Man Behind The Comics, an in-depth illustrated autobiography written by Simon himself, taking readers on an illustrated journey through the life and career of this seminal figure in comics history. From his beginnings in newspaper cartooning through the birth of the comics medium, military service during World War II, the Kefauver hearings and beyond, this volume reveals the man and his work.
 
Further volumes will celebrate the collaborative efforts of Joe Simon with Jack Kirby. The Best Of Simon & Kirby, a deluxe hardcover edition, explores the duo’s acclaimed proliferation of work in all genres, including superheroes, horror, detective fiction, westerns, and the first of the romance comics. The Simon & Kirby Superheroes delves into the duo’s work that set the standard for costumed characters through heroes such as Blue Bolt, Fighting American, Stuntman, and the Fly.

Compiled with unprecedented access to rare archive material and exclusive contributions from Joe Simon, these are the only editions authorized by both Joe Simon and the estate of Jack Kirby, marking the beginning of a line of publishing that will offer an unprecedented look at the Dream Team of Golden Age comics.

PR:

Comic-Con, the nation’s largest comic book and popular arts convention, announces this year’s nominees for the Russ Manning Promising Newcomer Award (or The Manning Award as it is more commonly referred).

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, and David Petersen.

The 2008 nominees are:

Fred Chao, writer/artist of Johnny Hiro (published by AdHouse)

Barry Deutsch, writer/artist of Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword (self-published)

Cathy Malkasian, writer/artist of Percy Gloom (published by Fantagraphics)

Mukesh Singh, artist of Shadow Hunter (published by Virgin Comics)

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

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 25 at Comic-Con International: San Diego.

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

As previusly announced Al Jaffee (Above) won THE Reuben, but many other awards were given out over the weekend:
Newspaper Panel: Chad Carpenter
Edtorial cartoons: Bill Schorr
Newspaper Strips Award: Jim Meddick
Advertising Illustration Award: Tom Richmond
Book Illustration Award: Sandra Boynton
Newspaper Illustration Award: Sean Kelly
Animation Feature Award: David Silverman, THE SIMPSONS MOVIE
Television Animation Award: Stephen Silver
NCS division award, Gag Cartoons: Mort Gerberg
Comic Books Award: Shaun Tan
Greeting Cards: Dave Mowder
Magazine Feature/Magazine Illustration: Daryll Collins
Milton Caniff Lifetime Acheivement Award: Sandra Boynton

Alan Gardner reports that Mad’s Al Jaffee gas this year’s Reuben Award for the Outstanding Cartoonist of the year. Congrats!

A little while ago, Dave Sim’s supporters posted an online petition aimed at…well, it was a little hard to tell what it was aimed at, but gaining public support would be the most obvious guess. Sim said he would only correspond in the future with those who signed the petition. Confusion over the appropriateness of this petition led to a crisis over at the Yahoo Cerebus Group, as Sim lashed out against many of his long term supporters. Things got even more complicated with a series of faxes between Sim, fellow cartoonist Chester Brown and Sim’s webmaster Jeff Tundis becoming something of a touchstone. As near as I can make out, Sim wanted the whole thing to be published, but Tundis didn’t because he felt it would make Sim look bad. This and Sim’s rejection of some of his most faithful readers, like Margaret Liss Fisher, have caused much discussion and confusion.

While Tundis has refused to have his side of the faxes published, Rick Sharer has gone ahead
published the Brown/Sim correspondence. This one outburst from Sim seems to sum up his current mindset:

In other words you think I’m the gender equivalent of a racist. This is what I’ve come to realize: that people genuinely believe that I’m the worst imaginable thing (literally: a non-person, a sub-human) in our society. That being the case the only honorable thing is to withdraw from society completely and limit my contact with society to necessities (my rep at Diamond, people I buy food from). Would you associate with anyone who thought you were a subhuman?

Now you may have noticed that I am using the “I” pronoun which I reserve for thing of some serious note. That’s because one of the reasons I’ve read this is my name comes up in my RSS-feeds from various postings. It seems that the hounding of Dave Sim by myself and Gail Simone is being held up BY SOME as what had driven Dave to this sad state of isolation and persecution. I stress the “by some”, as others think he may have been mentally ill to begin with, and others think he had other motivations.

Some think that this is all because of the low sales on Glamourpuss, but according to the John Jackson Miller figures I just linked to, the first issue of Glamourpuss sold 16,515 copies, way more than lots of Marvel and DC books, and nothing to sneeze at for such an oddball title.

Anyway I’ll do no more here than note the above correspondence. There are certainly some notable bits to be mined from them, but the interest is drowned out by the sadness, for me anyway. It’s sad when a great artist goes into a state of self-mandated social withdrawal; the entire matter is sad.

So cute! From 10 years ago, a Cliff Chiang reinvention of the DCU via J-pop stylings.
[Via Blog@]

Over the weekend news spread quickly that Gentleman Gene Colan is suffering from liver failure. Gene’s wife Adrienne sentr out a letter, reproduced here:

My darling, sweet, handsome and brilliantly gifted husband’s liver is failing. The complications are very nasty. This week it’s fluid retention and encephalitis. He’s on powerful meds now to diminish the symptoms. He sleeps a lot and has very little energy. He wants you all to know how badly he wanted to attend the convention. He so seriously wanted to see you all and shoot the breeze.

Not sure how long we have left together, but our family whole and we’ll be taking this sad journey together and nearby.

Clifford Meth has begun organizing a benefit to help with the medical bills. . Neal Adams, Norm Breyfogle, Adam-Troy Castro, Peter David, Tom DeFalco, Pat DiNizio, Harlan Ellison, Mark Evanier, Neil Gaiman, Joe Kubert, Jim Lee, Stan Lee, Leah Moore, Tom Palmer, Mike Pascale, Dave Simmons, Marv Wolfman and Ash Wood have all signed up.

Colan remains one of the greatest Marvel artists of all times. His 70 issue stint on Tomb of Dracula with Marv Wolfman remains a highlight, but his work on Howard the Duck, Dr. Strange and Daredevil are also notable. Colan is one of the few artists whose work always elevated his material, not with dynamics but characterization. His people are always completely realized characters; while Colan would never be called a humor artist, his mastery of expressions definitely helped Howard the Duck, in particular, become a benchmark.

There’s an address to send cards in the top link. Please don’t be shy with your gratitude, admiration and generosity.

Photos from his recent opening at the Clementine Gallery. In the foreground to awesome new art book from PictureBox.

§ Carol Kino profiles Lynda Barry in the New York Times:

BY celebrity standards the cartoonist Lynda Barry leads a reclusive existence. When she first developed a cult following in the 1980s, she cut a highly public figure, with frequent appearances on “Late Night With David Letterman” and the like. But after the market for her work began shrinking in the late 1990s, she gradually withdrew, refusing to talk on the phone with reporters or her editors. Today she draws her 30-year-old weekly strip, “Ernie Pook’s Comeek,” on a dairy farm just outside Footville, Wis., where she lives with her husband, Kevin Kawula, a prairie restoration expert. Since moving there six years ago, the couple have been relatively self-reliant, growing much of their own food and chopping their own wood for fuel.

Check out the multi-media slideshow, narrated by Barry.

§ PLUS : Alice C. Chen interviews Gene Yang in SFGate

Since “ABC’s” rise, the 34-year-old has lived at a frenzied pace. In late April, he released a short story, “The Motherless One,” the only graphic tale in “Up All Night,” an anthology of teenage literature. He travels to destinations such as New York and France, speaking at comic book conventions and teen book clubs. Yang also works full-time as a computer science teacher and director of information services at Bishop O’Dowd, a Catholic high school in Oakland. (He keeps his job because he enjoys education and says it would be too isolating to just cartoon.) He’s married to Theresa, a former teacher, and they’re parents of a 1-year-old daughter and a 4-year-old son. Every night after the children go to bed, Yang heads to his home office to sketch thumbnails and write for hours.

Indie Jones blogs about the School of Visual Arts annual mini comics faire, which we usually go to, but had to miss this year. It’s a shame, because every class includes at least one future star and several future mainstays:

Most interesting thing to note: I’d say about 90% if not more of the kids there draw in a manga-inspired style. I know, I know…shocker, right? But it was very interesting to see what the next generation of OEL kids did when faced with predetermined subject matter from the faculty rather than just spinning off into their own fantasy lands. Let’s take a look, shall we?

Laurel Maury wrote to us with this note the other day:

SVA’s entering class this fall had more women than men for the comics/illustration major. 32 to 30.

That’s just crazy talk.

David Lapham (STRAY BULLETS, YOUNG LIARS) joins the ranks of the bloggerati:

One of the main reasons I decided to start a blog was to refute some of the rumors swirling around certain circles about myself and what happened before. By that I mean before I was a cartoonist, before I was married, before I had two beautiful daughters. Before all that I lived a life of dreams and nightmares. I traveled all over during my competitive playing days and once saw a man disemboweled in an alley in Vienna. I saw my best friend have his head split open, climbed to the summit of Mt. McForester, and lied to save myself from frostbite. I have on numerous occasions worn disguises for personal gain. I ran for my life so fast my flesh was ripped from my body. I met a hobo, mugged a mugger, and held a gun in my hand with the power to do the most monstrous things. I have learned from all this that the truth will not set you free. The truth will usually get you slapped, punched, chased, beaten, kicked, stabbed, and or murdered or hobbled, and I choose not to practice it whenever possible. The next “Early Life” post will be a proper beginning as I tell you about something horrible that happened when I was six that changed my life forever and just might change yours.

Jim Woodring and Paul Di Fillipo team for an illustrated novelette:

COSMOCOPIA, a brand-new novelette by award-winning science fiction and horror author Di Fillipo is about to be published by Payseur and Schmidt in an innovative deluxe edition that will have you cabin-bound with suspense. That’s a promise! And as the French say, “‘Allo; I have a hand in it.”

We are like, so utterly super swamped today that we can only leave you with the golden oldie from Pilipino Komiks, early cover art from Coching, the Jack Kirby of the Phillipines.

The big news coming out of Stumpown this weekend is that Larry Marder’s resurgent Beanworld comics will be published by Dark Horse:

Steve Duin of the Oregonian did a nice write up of today’s panel–including the announcement above and includes the following summary:”Dark Horse plans to republish the first 21 issues of Tales of the Beanworld, possibly in deluxe hardcover editions, then deliver Marder’s new adventures sometime in early 2009. Diana Schutz will edit.”

I’m really very excited to be affiliated with Dark Horse. I’ve admired Mike Richardson and his crew from across the playing field for two decades and have always had the greatest admiration for the entire Dark Horse team.

Today I gave the first solo Beanworld panel presentation in over 15 years. It covered a lot of ground, and I’m almost certainly going to be giving it again at SD08. Also revealed was the name of the up-coming NEW graphic novel: “Remember HERE when you are THERE.”

More: Steve Duin in the Oregonian and an interview with Marder at CBR.