Michael Kupperman has a blog!

Via LJ. Follow the link for MUCH, MUCH more Graham art and news.

[Note; we totally thought we had posted this last week, but it went up during a period of turmoil in Wordpress. Moral: we suck.]

New York City is lucky to have many awesome comics-related events, but one of the most awesomest was a recent conversation between comics demi-gods Chris Ware and Marjane Satrapi moderated by Francoise Mouly. With a line-up like that, it’s no wonder the Skirball Center at NYU was jammed — we’d estimate there were somewhere between 400-500 people there on a Friday night. Images from the work of both was flashed on an enourmous screen, and both were effusive in their praise for one another, and talkative about their own processes. On paper it was a bit of a mismatch — Satrapi is witty and voluble, while Ware is known for his Herculean self-effacement. While on previous occasions we’ve seen Ware speak, he was genuinely shy, he’s now an absolutely hilarious and engaging speaker, and it’s safe to say both had the crowd eating out of their hands. But why take our word for it when an audio recording is up on WYNC?

Comment: Ware and Strapi have very different attitudes when it comes to discussing their own work. Strapi is comfortable and reflective while Ware’s adorably self-deprecating. When it comes to talking about your own art, can you relate?

One other thing that fascinated us about the event is that it was part of a larger three day festival of New French Writing that paired French and US authors in talks. There were some well-known names in the US contingent — E. L. Doctorow, Edmund White– and equal heavy hitters from the French squad — Bernard-Henri Lévy. However, after talking to a few people we confirmed that the cartoonists had the biggest crowd AND the biggest venue. Which is odd, because books without pictures are, in theory, more popular than books with pictures. But during the lengthy wait for the program to begin there was a palpable excitement for the superstars of cartooning to appear. Talking to a few non-comics affiliated folks at a reception later at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, they confirmed that Ware and Satrapi were the “rock stars” of the event.

We’re pretty sure Ware, in particular, wouldn’t be all that comfortable being branded a “rock star,” but as comics, graphic novels and “graphic books” get more and more acceptance and notice, it’s interesting to see that this kind of excitement is being generated over the creators. Hopefully, rather than it being a distraction or having a cheapening effect, it’s a sign of something we’ve long known: that cartoonists are important creators with important things to say.

All in all, a great evening. In the jump a larger version of the above picture where you can see how big the images were, because it was cool.

[Audio link via Jeet Heer]
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Legendary EC writer/artist Al Feldstein has told members of his mailing list that his recent and future comics convention appearances (including a canceled appearance at MegaCon) are canceled, due to some heart problems, and he’s currently awaiting admission to the Mayo Clinic for a heart bypass.

He writes that on February 24th, he blacked out while driving on his Montana ranch. After being taken to the hospital, testing revealed the need for the bypass. Because of his age — Feldstein is 83 — he’s a “high risk” candidate for surgery. However, the Mayo Clinic accepted him as a patient, and he’s waiting for the procedure.

Despite his health setbacks, Feldstein writes that he will “continue to send my usual rabble-rousing garbage…and please!, continue to send me yours.” He’s also enjoyed the outpouring of good wishes from his many fans.

As the editor of most of EC’s horror and crime comics, and the man behind MAD for 29 years, Feldstein is undoubtedly one of the most influential editors and writers in comics history. We snapped the above picture of him and fellow legend Jerry Robinson at the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con. Here’s hoping that Al is back to full health and back doing what he enjoys very, very soon!

TOKYO, a new triptych film directed by Michel Gondry, opened on Friday, and one of the segments is an adaptation of Gabrielle Bell’s comic book, CECIL AND JORDAN IN NEW YORK, in which a girl turns into a chair. NY Mag interviewed Gondry about the film, and he had much to say about it…and Bell:

Gabrielle actually did a comic book of Repulsion, so it’s part of her universe. It’s funny that you ask, because I think there’s a connection between Gabrielle and this Repulsion character. [Editor’s note: The heroine in Polanski’s film ends up killing a man.] Once I went to see a therapist with Gabrielle, and she was talking and talking and talking, and the therapist said, “Gabrielle, did you ever think of trying to kill yourself?” And Gabrielle said, “No.” And I said, “Ask her if she’s ever thought of killing somebody else — ME!” [Laughs.] When you work with Gabrielle, you never know what will happen.

§ Today’s MUST READ: Christopher Borrelli at the Chicago Trib has a fantastic profile of Lynda Barry. Matt Groening, Chris Ware, and Ivan Brunetti all sing her praises, colorful thoughts and anecdotes are recounted, and lots of players and history are revealed:

I ask if she liked “Peanuts.” She says she appreciates it now, but hated it at the time—too melancholy for a sad child. She liked “Family Circus”—”You know how everything’s in a circle? I wanted to reach into it.” She recently met Jeff Keane, the son of “Family Circus” creator Bil Keane. She says she touched his hand and burst into tears.

Matt Groening says he tried to get Barry to go Hollywood in the ’80s. “I said to Lynda, ‘Let’s write a romantic comedy,’ and she agreed.” A pitch meeting followed at a Los Angeles movie studio. Groening remembers walking into the executive’s enormous office, where Barry immediately moved toward a cagelike sculpture in the corner and stood inside it.

§ A comic shop opens in Brooklyn!

§ John Jakala regards the upcoming manga-sized NEXUS reprints from Steve Rude.

§ Johanna Draper Carlson looks at Archie sales figures for 2008:

It’s that time of year again. Due to the way they mail subscriptions, Archie Comics are required to file Statements of Ownership, Management, and Circulation in their publications. So I collect the figures to see how an often-overlooked comic franchise is doing.

§ And Noah Berlatsky DID NOT LIKE old POWER MAN comics:

And lord, the art is horrible. I’ve argued at various points in the past that mainstream comics art has dropped off a cliff in recent years; this volume seems designed to make me eat my words. Frank Robbins and Lee Elias are the main artists in the run, and there’s just nothing to like about either of them. Bizarrely distorted faces, awkward poses, an utter lack of style or design sense; it’s just page after page of ugly, mediocre dreck. A few of the fill-in artists (Sal Buscema, Bob Brown) are somewhat better, but none of the drawing is what you’d call enjoyable until John Byrne (with Chris Claremont in tow) comes in for the last two issues. Not that John Byrne is my favorite artist or anything, but in comparison — well, this volume makes quite clear why he was hailed in some quarters as a demi-god.

Those Essentials are a double-edged sword, I tells ya.

There’s a new look to the Jeffrey Brown Comics website, and it includes GI JOE, among other goodies.

Is Jeffrey Brown the new Steve Ditko? Discuss.

Editorial cartoonist Brian Duffy was recently let go from his job at the Des Moines Register; after leaving, he discovered that his artwork, which had been left behind, was not going to be returned to him but was planned to be donated to the University of Iowa.

Duffy said he was always under the impression that his sketches were a joint copyright, just like when he published his book.

“Copyright Brian Duffy and the Des Moines Register, not just the Des Moines Register,” said Duffy. “I have no problem donating a large body of work to the University of Iowa. In fact, I’d love to do that.”

But he wants to do it on his terms not on behalf of the newspaper that shooed him out the door.

Now Ted Rall, president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, has written an open letter to Carolyn Washburn, the editor of the paper:

Dear Ms. Washburn:

As President of The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC), I am writing to express the collective dismay of our membership at reports that you plan to dispose of Brian Duffy’s original political cartoons without his consent.

While your newspaper may claim ownership of Brian’s thousands of original cartoons he drew during 25 years as The Register’s staff editorial cartoonist, there remain compelling questions of what is customary and what is right.

Although it used to be common for newspapers to keep their cartoonists’ original artwork, that practice changed decades ago, and almost universally cartoonists now leave their newspapers with their artwork. These original drawings represent an artist’s life work, and while newspapers pay for the its production, they do so in order to publish the work on its editorial page—not to possess each piece as artwork.

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Michael Kupperman really is blogging! Early posts are baby-centric, due to the arrival of little Ulysses, but there are also comics aplenty.

Alvin Buenaventura has posted his Angouleme ‘09 photos and they are quite protean. In case you can’t see it clearly, that’s Crumb, Ware, Clowes, Tomine, and Buenaventura all scrambling around on some rocks or ancient battlements or whatever they keep in medieval French towns. Here’s another one:

That Marjane Satrapi sure likes to talk, right? That’s Tom Gauld, Ware, and Clowes again. What do you think they’re talking about? Cheese? I’ll bet it’s cheese.

[Link via Flog]

This is the third time we’ve linked to Kiel Phegley’s coverage of the ICv2 conference, but it’s hard to resist when it’s chock full of quotes to ponder — including this exchange between Ira Rubenstein, executive VP of Marvel’s Global Digital Media Group, Dave Roman, cartoonist and Nickelodeon Magazine associate editor, and Stuart Levy, Tokyopop’s chief executive:

Rubenstein: But Dave, I think there’s a difference. No one can write about Spider-Man or X-Men except for us.

Roman: I disagree.

Levy: Totally.

Rubenstein: Those are our characters. How could someone else write another Spider-Man story?

Roman: Because fan fiction is becoming so powerful. I’ve seen the power of fan fiction. Working at Nickelodeon, there are people out there doing ‘Avatar’ comics that are soooooo much better…

Rubenstein: But that’s like saying YouTube is a real entertainment channel. It’s not.

Roman/Levy/like five people in the audience: It is.

Posted by Aaron Humphrey

A couple of cartoonists who’ve drawn stories revolving around S-E-X were interviewed this week, and their approaches to the material couldn’t be more different.

There’s nothing particularly salacious here, but we’ve tucked it behind the cut for the sake of good taste.

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Sometime MAD artist Peter Kuper sent us this sketch commemorating MAD’s move to quarterly as it approaches its 500th issue.

Rich Faber writes that he’ll be at the show and selling many items (like the print above) to raise money to pay continued expenses for his wife’s cancer treatment:

Now, as for the title of the post, the NYCC is this coming weekend, from February 6-8th, and I will be there. Thanks to the generosity of my colleagues at Kids Love Comics, I will have a table with them at booth #1930, and will be selling all of my various wares, to help raise money for my wife’s medical bills, as well as a lot of other related expenses we’ve been incurring. My hope is to come up with enough to keep things stable for another month or two, and I’m hoping you guys that will be there can help. Below are pics of most of the things I’ll have for sale. I hope you’ll drop by to see me, and maybe pick up a little something. In addition to what I’m showing here, I’ll have 15 years of original comics art for sale, including Green Lantern, Steel, Titans, and many others. I will also probably be doing some character head shot sketches, for those interested. The main goal is to raise money, so I’ll be there for the entire weekend, and try to stay at the table as much as possible, so I am able meet as many of you as I can. Please stop by to say hi. Thanks!

We’ve heard how Diamond’s new policy changes are likely to affect independent publishers like SLG and Oni, as well as acclaimed cartoonists like Sammy Harkham and Kevin Huizenga. But what about the smaller publishers and cartoonists trying to get a foot in the door? Indy Comic News asked some newer names in comics what Diamond’s changes meant to them. Everyone is a bit anxious, but some creators reported having greater success through other avenues to begin with. A couple of highlights:

Daniel M. Davis (MONSTER COMMUTE):

I think that the new policies will make Diamond less and less viable to full-on indie creators. While I’ve really considered going with Diamond in the past for my books, I’m now less inclined to even try. Instead, I’m concentrating on generating my own fan-base, and selling my products directly to them… sans traditional distribution. It’s slower, but it works, and I can make money doing it.

David Hopkins (ASTRONAUT DAD):

I’m concerned that such ’smaller’ small press companies won’t be featured in the catalog, and that’s a shame. These companies take greater risks on new talent, and our industry needs that. At the same time, my graphic novels received slightly more pre-orders through Baker & Taylor than through Diamond. That means, the regular book stores carried more copies of my work than the comic book stores. We did some promotion in the direct market, and none with the book store market.

Posted by Aaron Humphrey

If you live in Hoboken and want to be in the live audience for a radio taping, Evan Dorkin writes to tell us:

I am going to be a guest on next week’s Second Second Delay radio show on WFMU. [That’s tomorrow, February 4th] The show is hosted by station manager Ken Freedman and Monk creator Andy Breckman, and will be broadcasting live from the legendary Maxwell’s in Hoboken, NJ. The program starts at 6:00 p.m.

The variety-style show will feature guests, probably a musical act and other shenanigans, and folks can come down to Maxwell’s to see it all happen live. And it’s a free event. Yep, free!

Here’s the pertinent information:

Maxwell’s
1039 Washington Street
Hoboken, NJ

Wed, Feb 4th, 6-7:00pm

WFMU.org/91.1 FM

Does Baker draw like this just to make other people feel bad?

Yesterday, cartoonist Tom Tomorrow revealed the dire news that his strip, This Modern World, and all other weekly cartoons were being canceled by Village Voice Media, publisher of the Village Voice, the LA Weekly, and 13 other newsweeklies.

This still leaves me with eighty-odd papers, as well as Salon and Credo, so it’s not a fatal blow. And believe me, I wasn’t so naive as to imagine I was going to get through this economic mess without taking some hits. Nonetheless it’s a serious chunk of major cities to lose in one fell swoop (don’t get me started on the joys of consolidation this morning). Anyway, if you live in one of those cities and think this is a bad decision, you might want to share those feelings with the local editor. Politely, it should go without saying. And keep in mind: it’s not just my cartoon, it’s all of them, so put in a kind word for my compatriots while you’re at it. The only thing any of us have going for us in a situation like this is reader support.

The Minnesota Independent confirmed the cuts. We’re too bummed to get dressed and run to the corner to get a copy of the Voice to see which other strips were running. Their comics page mentioned only Tomorrow and Mr. Fish, but there were others.

Today, Tomorrow has updated the situation and runs a quote from Derf who says it’s doom-time:

OK. This is it. We’ve reached the apocalyptic final struggle for the future of cartoons.

Village Voice Media is the largest group of weekly newspapers in the biz. It is suffering from the ills that have befallen the rest of the newspaper industry: dwindling revenues and withering readership. Their corporate response, which was delivered to me Monday, is to “suspend” all cartoons across the chain, said suspension to last at least through the rest of the first quarter, and quite possibly beyond. That’s right. NO more cartoons. None. This is very probably a fatal blow to me. Not only is it a significant income hit, but these are six of the largest and finest papers in the weekly industry. I’ve been in the pages of some of these publications for years. The Riverfront TImes was one of my first papers. I started run- ning there in 1991! This isn’t about me “sucking ” either. Since I won the Robert F. Kennedy Award in 2006, one of the highest honors bestowed on a cartoonist, I’ve been losing papers steadily. The reason cited is always budget cuts. Always.

Jen Sorensen was also cut from the Voice, and puts it into more economic context:

Now, cartoons are cheap content that keep a certain number of readers habitually picking up the paper week after week. Those readers might not take the time to write the editor if they disappear; they’ll just stop picking up the paper. Or they’ll write us to complain. I do understand that low ad revenue means low page counts, which means space is at a premium. (Space is a mysteriously complex issue even in “normal” times.) But it seems to me that the few crumbs — and I do mean crumbs — these papers save by axing cartoons is self-defeating. Heaven help us if the cost of cartoons makes or breaks the industry.

Emphasis mine. Derf and Tomorrow urge readers to write to their local alt. weekly editors and complain about the cartoon cuts. It would seem counterintuitive in an era when everyone just pops onto craigslist to get an apartment or a used dresser to cut original content that readers might actually, y’know, enjoy, but we’re living in an economy of nickels and dimes.

Somebody better figure out a way to make money off the Internet…pronto.

(AP Photo by Thibault Camus)

As previously reported, Paris’s famed Louvre museum is now housing an exhibition featuring comic books by some of the world’s best cartoonists, another signpost on comics’ Road to Global Domination.

The Louvre rarely showcases modern art. That fact alone makes this exhibition worth noting, and since this exhibition is as modern as it gets — the artwork on display is from original books commissioned by the museum. The artists were given essentially free rein, as long as their work included the exhibition’s Theme Ingredient: the Louvre itself.

BoDoi has a look at some pages by the European contributors.

Both Nicolas De Crécy and Marc-Antoine Mathieu have had their contribution to the project published on this side of the Atlantic by NBM Press. De Crécy’s GLACIAL PERIOD was nominated for a 2007 Eisner Award, and Mathieu’s MUSEUM VAULTS achieved similar fame upon its release last January.

The next Louvre book to be published should be Éric Liberge’s ODD HOURS, followed by ROHAN AT THE LOUVRE by Japan’s Hirohiko Araki, and a book by Belgium’s Bernard Yslaire which was created digitally — it seems that the Louvre showed his work on video monitors rather than in frames.

GLACIAL PERIOD was originally published in France in 2005, which testifies to how long this project has been in process, and we’re still years off from seeing all the books published stateside, since Araki and Yslaire have yet to finish their contributions. The exhibition is on display through April 13. Anyone been there yet?

Posted by Aaron Humphrey.

Chynna Clugston (BLUE MONDAY) talks about what draws women to comics, and why girls don’t always mind the ones with punching:

We need more well-written character pieces to get women in here. I don’t mean lame romances or popularity contests, bitch fights and more of that crap. We need a good balance of everything, and for the record we’re not usually shy about someone getting punched in the face, since many of us have the urge to punch plenty of people in the face. If some people could see that we’re not all that different, that we just tend to enjoy stories with substance and characters we give a shit about, we’d get more women in here.

Meanwhile, on the side of comics that is all about punching, Marvel editor Bill Rosemann tells MySpace Comics that he’d like to see more super hero stories embrace heroism:

Things I want to see more of…ah…this sounds odd, but I guess just more stories about heroes. We live in very dark times. By and large, our industry’s books are about heroes, so let’s see them do heroic things. Don’t be afraid to have characters that inspire us, and show us that even in the darkest of times, it’s the heroic heart that can win.

But Marvel’s flagship writer Brian Bendis, currently penning a book about villains replacing The Avengers, explains to Newsarama that he isn’t sure that heroism is something that can easily quantified. In fact, it may not even exist at all!

Every once in awhile I see someone refer to themselves in a comic book as a criminal, or “I’m the bad guy.” They’ll actually say, “I’m the bad guy.” And I’m like, no one actually thinks they’re a bad guy! You know? Even the sociopaths have a complete agenda. So I really wanted to explore that. Norman is the hero of his story, and everyone on his team is the hero of their story. Yes, they have vendettas, and absolutely, they want to stick it to the man and let everyone have it. But how they’re doing it is through this idea of being the hero of their own story.

Posted by Aaron Humphrey

Craig Yoe has launched a website devoted to the great George Herriman, creator of Krazy Kat.

Today is the “launch” of GeorgeHerriman.com! Garge (as his fellow cartoonist TAD used to “call” him) is my favorite cartoonist! Putting together this “tribute” is a dream come true. What you “see” on the site is just the beginning. There will be “lots more” rare art and “ephemera”, much of it never before seen, as we move ahead. I want this to be very interactive, so “please” let us know of cool stuff from “your” collection or things you’ve spotted, your ideas for the “site” (and products, too) and any thoughts you might have. BTW speaking of “product” please order your Krazy Kat goodies through GeorgeHerriman.com (we even have some “exclusives”). It will “help” in a small way to defray the expenses of doing this and enable us to “do” more. And tell your friends, “blog” readers and the “world” about this Kat konclave!

Colleen Doran has moved her blog to a redesigned site and will be running A DISTANT SOIL as a webcomic:

Welcome to the new A Distant Soil webcomic. We’ll be posting comic book pages every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, as well as updating info about all of Colleen Doran’s other works, and posting important information about creators’ rights.

Click on the About A Distant Soil page above for more information about this series. At our SHOP page, you can order A Distant Soil graphic novels as well as other books by Colleen.

Thanks for stopping by. Your support of this website helps Colleen Doran create her work. Please forward this link to your friends, and subscribe to the webcomic by clicking the above link.

Doran’s old blog is vapor, but she’ll be reposting popular informational posts on agents, insurance, time management, and so on.

The Xeric Foundation has announced its most recent grant recipients. A total of $25,031 was awarded for six comic book projects.

Box Brown - Love is a Peculiar Type of Thing

Ed Moorman, editor - Ghost Comics: A Benefit Anthology for RS Eden

Annie Murphy - I Still Live: Biography of a Spiritualist

Ethan Rilly - Pope Hats

Sophia Wiedeman - The Deformitory

J.T. Yost - Old Man Winter & Other Sordid Tales

The Foundation has awarded in excess of $2,000,000 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 March 31, 2009 and May 1, 2009, respectively. The charitable organization grants are decided annually in March and announced separately.

If anyone is not familiar with the surreal, haunting work of Jim Woodring, they are really missing out on one of the finest cartoonists working. Those who are will be excited to hear that Wooding is working on a new FRANK book, as he reports at his blog:

If you are so constituted that you hope to find new drawings on this “blog” at semi-regular intervals I have mixed news; for the forseeable future your Uncle Jim is working on a 96-page Frank story to be released toward the end of the year. I’ll post occasional snippets of this sprawling epic, such as this one, and also such peripheral effort-children as may be born of excess chitta.

From USA Today’s interview with Jeff Kinney, author of the DIARY OF A WIMPY KID series:

For the cover of the first book, its main color — burnt red — was chosen to match the cover of J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, which also has a discontented narrator, if older and more jaded.

“Greg is like Holden Caulfield,” Kochman says. “What he doesn’t like in others he’s guilty of himself. Kids recognize that. And when you identify with something, you can rise above it.”

Kinney’s humor is gentle, compared with the Cartoon Network. But some of Greg’s vocabulary — “morons,” “booger” and “farted” — isn’t on school spelling lists.

From The Comics Journal’s new interview with Italian cartoonist Gipi about his graphic novel GARAGE BAND:

“Youth is war. At least it was in my case. A war against your own family, to become an individual. A war against society, so full of hypocrisy and intolerable for a teenager’s purity-thirsty eyes. Of course, I am talking about my experience as an Italian teenager during the ’80s. I don’t know if this feeling could be shared on the other side of the ocean nowadays. For me, it was a real battle. Nothing around me pleased me or even satisfied me. Not the politic, social, economical or religious systems I grew up in. It wasn’t a coincidence I was the singer of a punk hardcore band.”

Posted by Aaron Humphrey.