At Fourth Letter, Esther Inglis-Arkell becomes enraged by female comics characters who stand around and explain why they wear skimpy costumes.

And I heard the justification about how Canary’s outfit was in tribute to her mother, even when that means she’s in panties and a jacket in the First Wave books. And I’ve heard the one about Poison Ivy being a plant and therefore unconcerned about human modesty. Oh, and I’ve heard the one about Supergirl being invulnerable and therefore not needing pants. There are a few about how Huntress wanted to show off the fact that she was shot, and she lived, and that’s why she fought in a bikini. And then there’s the one about Batman and Superman . . . oh. Wait. There aren’t that many excuses for how Batman and Superman dress because, golly, for some reason, the male heroes in this mostly male-controlled medium put their fucking clothes on when they’re going to fight someone.

UPDATE: J. Caleb Mozzocco also covers this:

I can’t disagree with anything she said in her post; she’s dead-on right. If I had anything to add, it would be that the writer’s doing the justification of the costumes almost never have any real control over those costumes, and probably think they’re doing something valuable by finding a reason for explaining a costuming choice that sounds better than “Some guy 20-65 years ago though this was totally hot, and wondered if his editors would let him get away with it.” (That doesn’t make it any less irritating though, especially for a character like Power Girl, who is given explanation after explanation for her cleavage window. The first one of these speeches you read is never as annoying as the second, third or fifth).

We wouldn’t be brining this up so soon after our Brokeback posting series except that, as jaded as we were, even The Beat was dazed by the speed with which the “But men are sexualized too!’ and the other bingo card justifications came out.
(more…)

While going around the internet over just the last 24 hours, the following images turned up, all fine examples of the “Brokeback” aka “Show your ass AND your tits” pose, which all male fantasy comics women are required to master. We know artists have a hard time mastering this anatomy-defying pose, since unless you are a member of Cirque Du Soleil it’s actually impossible to turn your ass and your tits in the same direction. But they will try, oh yes, they will try, although the manga example has a rather disturbing addition in the downstairs area that looks like a testicle or a swollen taint or…something.

Luckily, we have comics to rectify that human design flaw.

Darn. This seems like such a paltry tribute to the Brokeback Pose. We encourage readers to send in more tributes. Let’s give the classic the respect it deserves!

UPDATE: Above, the cover to the Juice cover story (Thanks, Steve Stahl.)
Johanna comments on a particularly dopey “trick your woman into liking comics” article entitled Can women learn to enjoy comics?:

Kate Dacey asks why the most recent of those “trick your woman into liking comics” (as she puts it) columns didn’t include any comics created by women or any manga. There’s a simple answer to that.

Most of the guys who ask and answer “how do I get my girlfriend to read comics?” don’t really mean it. What they’re really asking is “how do I get my girlfriend to like the comics I like?” So of course they’re not recommending manga — they don’t read it themselves. And they don’t want the girl they like to know about comics they don’t understand.

I think there should be a new rule: any such “how do I get a woman to like comics?” column MUST be accompanied by a matching column about “how do I get a man to like knitting/ scrapbooking/ quilting” or other feminine craft of your choice. Yes, it would be about as pointless, but reading about a geek trying to crochet a Transformer would amuse me.

As someone who was encouraged to read comics by a mother who was a cartoonist and a grandmother who also read comics, I’m always amazed by all the “CAN women read comics?” rhetoric you still hear out there. It seems to be such a important belief STILL to a few people that women must read comics differently, or must be TAUGHT to like them, like they must be TAUGHT to drive stick. As Cat Yronwode wrote a long, long time ago, “When you create comics for everybody, everybody will read comics.”

R. Crumb’s appearance at Virginia Commonwealth University last week has led to a campus controversy, with his comments on rape and misogyny igniting complaints from students and statements from officials:

Timothy Patterson, a Richmond College senior, cited a quote from Crumb’s speech in his response to The Collegian: “Every woman has a rape fantasy. Every man deep down…hates women.”

Andrew F. Newcomb, dean of the school of arts and sciences, sent a campus-wide e-mail on Nov. 1, stating that although the university made Crumb’s dialogue possible, it doesn’t mean it condoned the dialogue’s content.

At the heart of the controversy is associate professor Bertram Ashe, who assigned the Crumb documentary and his short story, “My Troubles with Women”, as part of his class American Misfit: Geek Literature and Culture. Patterson questioned Ashe’s right to assign such material, while Ashe responded at length:

If Patterson had come to talk to me I would have shared with him that I, too, was offended by aspects of Crumb’s work. I would have showed him where and how Crumb grapples with feminist critiques of his work right there inside his work. I would have demonstrated for him how well the text fits into our semester-long discussion of geeks and nerds. I also would have shared with him the fact that I routinely assign edgy and provocative texts that have the potential to offend students. For more evidence, just ask students in both sections of the 20th Century American Fiction class I’m teaching this semester. Or ask students in my Blackface seminar last spring (a course I’ll be teaching again next spring). “Edgy and provocative is what I do, Mr. Patterson,” I would have said, and yes, academic freedom protects me.

Although Crumb’s early track record is of, well, trouble with women, his new version of Genesis draws heavily on Feminist Bible scholars, particularly Sarah Teubal, and the struggle between patriarchal forces and a presumed more matriarchal Goddess culture. Jewish Week examines this aspect of Genesis and finds some dissension even among scholars.

Still, by citing the work of scholars to buttress his claims of textual accuracy, Crumb invites questions about his own credibility. And many feminist scholars hold Crumb’s sources at a critical distance.  “My own view is that the Teubal book is admirable in attempting to recover positive aspects of women’s lives in biblical antiquity but flawed in its assumptions about the historicity of the ancestors,” said Carol Meyers, a leading feminist biblical scholar at Duke University, in an e-mail response. By historicity, she meant knowing conclusively the realities of life in biblical times.

[We didn’t have time to write a post about the Keith Knight controversy yesterday, but Torsten Adair took time out of his commenting/work schedule to write one for us.]

WYTV in Youngstown, Ohio, reportsthat students at Slippery Rock University, located in western Pennsylvania, are upset about a recent “K Chronicles” cartoon written and drawn by Keith Knight.  In the strip Knight satirizes the current “post racial” society in this country, where any complaints by African-Americans are dismissed as “playing the race card”.
 
Students at SRU feel that the cartoon, especially the first panel showing the cartoonist being lynched, is one more example of recurring racism at the university.  According to an SRU report from Spring 2008, 87% of the 7,836 students at the university are classed as “White, non-Hispanic”.  The local NAACP college chapter plans a peaceful protest and march through campus on Thursday afternoon.
 
Keith Knight’s official statement deals with the protests with his usual aplomb:

A comic strip can be about more than cats eating lasagna or how stupid your boss is. Some of the best comic strips point out truths not only though humor, but through satire.

Many of my best strips involve real issues: Racism, suicide, war, disease. I mix those in with more humorous, less serious issues.

In the first panel of this specific comic strip, white people accuse a black man, who is about to be lynched, of pulling the race card. This is an exaggerated, satirical version of what we often see and hear in mainstream media: the victim gets accused of pulling the race card, which is an easy way to dismiss the real issues involved.

Beat readers may recall that last October, the newspaper of Montclair State University in New Jersey issued an apology after readers were offended by a cartoon which commented on the Presidential election of 2008.  The cartoon was based on a real event which occurred in Washington, Pennsylvania, which is 75 miles south of Slippery Rock.  (The cartoon is also available at the K Chronicles website.)

Heidi adds: Gawker has a snarky write-up on this, and the best part of the whole kerfuffle may well be Knight patiently killing the frog by explaining what humor is and how it works.

No sooner has Rich Johnston noted that much-loved and admired Amanda Conner was the first woman to make Wizard Magazine Top 10 artists list—to much huzzahing and rejoicing—than it was noted, via CB Cebulski’s Twitter, that the SAME issue of Wizard contained THIS:

Boobs!

Did you know that “a boob” means:

1 : a stupid awkward person : simpleton
2 : boor, philistine

So, perhaps the Wizard staff was engaging in a rare moment of self reflection?? Let’s all help them in their admirable goal of self-examination and give them some more feedback. A “trust” exercise, if you will.

This long article in the NY Times Magazine talks about Carl Jung’s mysterious Red Book, a journal he worked on for years which contained his most profound ideas but which has never been published — until now.

This is a story about a nearly 100-year-old book, bound in red leather, which has spent the last quarter century secreted away in a bank vault in Switzerland. The book is big and heavy and its spine is etched with gold letters that say “Liber Novus,” which is Latin for “New Book.” Its pages are made from thick cream-colored parchment and filled with paintings of otherworldly creatures and handwritten dialogues with gods and devils. If you didn’t know the book’s vintage, you might confuse it for a lost medieval tome.

Jung is, of course, one of the founding fathers of psychology, and his invention of the idea of the “archetype” has been a life preserver for many a comics writer as they sought to explain why the adventures of men in tights punching one another was of some import.

Of some interest to us in the present instance is that Jung’s great book has got lots of pictures in it. Our correspondent Torsten Adair sent this to us with the provocative title “Carl Jung: Proto-graphic novelist?” We wouldn’t go THAT far, but let’s jut say that if he were still around, he’d probably have a booth at Comic-Con.

Cheryl Lynn Eaton is blogging for Bleeding Cool .

And here’s the Flickr group, which is the must-see of the show.

Creation is launching a 20-date series of TWILIGHT conventions, writes Geoff Boucher at the LA Times:

The three-day weekend fan conventions will tour around the country and internationally over the next three years, with 20 stops already announced and one scheduled in the Southland at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott Hotel on March 12-14, 2010.

“Twilight” fans will have the chance to meet and get up-close and personal with “Twilight” cast members, including Kellan Lutz (Emmet Cullen) and Ashley Green (Alice Cullen), with additional guests to be announced. No word on whether Robert Pattinson (who plays Edward Cullen), Kristen Stewart (Bella Swan) or Taylor Lautner (Jacob Black) will show up yet.

The conventions will feature exclusive footage sneak-peaks, panel discussions, photo opportunities, contests and parties. There will also be wine and cheese parties for the actors and nine fans lucky enough to win an auction for the private event.

It’s a clever move on Creation’s part. The idea is to lure the rabid fans of the Vampire Romance series into their own containment area so that their cooties will not spread to other, healthy fandoms. Once in lockdown, the Twilighters can be isolated and subjected to reprogramming so that they won’t bother us any more.

Huffington Post’s Disgrasian picks up on Mr. James, the mascot for a new ad campaign for McDonald’s in Japan, which features an awkward white man in unflattering, ill-fitting clothes (rumpled pleat-front khakis) hawking four new sandwiches via practicing Japanese phrases with a horrible accent.

Since American adverts are full of ethnic stereotypes of awkward, heavily accented people, you’d think it’s just an example of the universality of marketing principles being proven yet again. But at least one blogger is upset:

I think a strongly-worded letter from registered NPO FRANCA to McDonald’s USA HQ regarding the issues of stereotyping here would be warranted. Hell, you think McD USA would start putting up a full-body “ching-chong-chinaman” with funny glasses and protruding teeth, saying “Me likee McFlied Lice”. You think that would fly over there? If not, it shouldn’t be allowed over here. And I think you should make your displeasure known if you are so inclined at every McDonald’s you patronize (or not).

Mr. James doesn’t seem to have any major interests aside from sandwiches—i.e. he’s not an overt otaku—but we expect him to bust out a copy of Empowered any day now. .

Our usually on-the-ball Junior Woodchuck Torsten Adair may have missed the ball by not linking to this fantastic gallery of butter/lard sculptures from the Iowa State Fair. The majestic heritage of the butter carving contest is brought forth by this 1940 depiction of Republican presidential aspirant Wendell Willkie, sculpted by Charles Umlauf.

The gallery also plays tribute to the terrific Norma “Duffy” Lyon, the Rodin of Iowa butter sculptures, here seen working on an Elvis in 1997.

Seriously, you really need to look at this gallery.

I own a comic gallery, an art gallery in New York that sells comic art and stuff; the guy that runs the art gallery also runs a comic store and we do a lot of business in France. They understand Alex Raymond, they understand that he was a great artist, they understand Hal Foster and they understand comic art as real art and as a sort of interesting, goofy thing. And I am very much into comic art, and its place in society as a real art, because it is something that expresses the culture as strongly as any other art. What Uncle Scrooge McDuck says about America, about me when I was a kid, is phenomenal. It is one of the greatest explorations of capitalism in the American mystique that has ever been written or done anywhere. Uncle Scrooge swimming around in that money bin is a key to our culture. [Laughs]

– Geoge Lucas

“Rock ’n’ roll, or the Beatles, started as just sort of hillbilly music, just a passing phase, but now it’s revered as an art form because so much has been done in it. Same with comics, and I think same with video games.”

–Sir Paul McCartney

During Wings’ Wings Over America tour in ’76 the band was slated for three nights at the Los Angeles Forum and Kirby associates Steve & Gary Sherman set up a meeting backstage between Sir Paul and ‘King’ Kirby. Kirby gave Sir Paul & Linda a 14” x 17” pencil drawing featuring Magneto and the band. (Visit THIS website to see drawing.) During the concert Kirby and his family and associates sat near the front row and during the band’s performance of Magneto & Titanium Man McCartney dedicated the song to Kirby.

–Doc Lehman (See also The Kirby Museum.)

I know the San Diego Experience has long since receded into either our dreams or our nightmares, but one element of the aftermath has been nagging at the back of my mind, as much as I try to suppress it.
(more…)

Before I get into this, let me state unequivocally that San Diego Comic-Con is a fantastic experience, and despite any kvetching that follows, it’s an incredible, inspiring event and I remain amazed by the organization and efficiency with which it is run. For better or worse, Comic-Con wouldn’t be the mega media event that it has become if the infrastructure to make it so weren’t there. I think in all our suggestions and observations we forget that there is only a small crew of fulltime people who put this on, and as a non-profit, they have a lot of goals to juggle. So let’s give Faye Desmond, David Glanzer, Eddie Ibrahim, and everyone else involved a big hand. They did a phenomenal job and I know I’ll be back.

Another caveat, what I’m going to talk about isn’t about comics and the quality thereof. Comics are swell, and we all know that. I’m more interested in examining the social construct and how it has evolved at the place men call Con.

With that in mind…

There are two things that everyone in our line of work talks about after Comic-Con. “Is it too big?” and “Is there any room for comics at Comic-Con any more?” Let’s start with the crowd issue.

1: Take me out of this Hell Hall   

First, it must be admitted that getting around, getting into panels and, at times, even standing still were all problematic in the Convention Center this year. 2008 saw a big spike in moaning about security, and this year was even worse. Red shirts — Elite Security forces — and orange and green shirts — other security companies contracted by the show — were everywhere and necessary.

With so many people attending, safety is paramount and preventing small children from being trampled should be the main goal for everyone involved in the show. That’s understood. (One rumor going around was that a child had been injured on Thursday, leading to the increased security.) As long as 125,000+ people are trying to get a free bag, this is the way it’s going to be. Indeed, the present structure of the show has evolved around crowd control. The reason the programming is so incredible and jam-packed is to keep people off the floor and moving around. (Former 15 minute breaks between panels have also been eliminated to increase the number of panels and keep people in panel rooms.)

Likewise, security’s evolution means zero tolerance for straying outside the lines, both to keep people moving safely and to create the mood of obedience that keeps a crowd docile.

Bearing in mind that my expertise is in being part of a crowd, not crowd control, some of the new practices (or newly noticed by me practices) seem to be more for psychological than logistical reasons. There’s no winner in the war between freedom and safety. The plan to keep people in a subdued, law-abiding state certainly succeeded. My own personal reaction to this was a state of demoralization and surrender, which did not enhance my enjoyment of the show, and I’m sure others felt as I did.

To give a little context, on Saturday at the PopCult party, I was standing outside with a G&T in my hand for about 20 minutes before a bouncer told me to go inside. Standing outside with an open alcoholic drink is illegal and not allowed in a single club in the land. It was also 15 minutes longer than I went at the convention center without being told I was doing something I wasn’t supposed to be doing.
(more…)

Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether an internet feud is just an excuse to type or lot or a manifestation of an actual conflict. We’d kind of decided that the Con-vs-Twlight feud was halfway a work, but on the floor we heard enough anecdotal evidence and passing references to decide that the Twilighters are, in fact, the most recent invaders to the con, and since they are from a different demo group, they are being greeted with a bit of xenophobic dread.

This seems to be from one of those websites that’s trying to be bold and tough in the way of a Bill Maher-wannabe, so it definitely be a “work”, but the very fact that it’s touching on these issues shows that they have some juice:

This could be a clear iteration of fear of “the other” and general anxiety over female expression of their own interests and activities (though male-focused)…or it could be someone trying to get hits on the Internet.

What say you?

Yesterday’s first ever Asian American ComicCon was a pleasant, laid back affair. As a non-member of the group the show was aimed at, I’m leery of making any pronouncements on how the show functioned as a exploration or celebration of any particular cultural or ethnic entity. But that said, it was a swell day filled with swell people, and some very talented cartoonists, writers and editors. We caught part of the publishing panel — Sherad Devaranan talked a bit about Liquid Comics, which is still ongoing with some Grant Morrison-written projects according to some slides; and Marvel’s Arune Singh talked about the growing audience for online comics. “The Asianization of Pop Culture” panel covered various aspects of Asian influence; the discussion rambled quite a bit, from the worldwide popularity of manga to the need for “outlaw culture” to one audience member’s distaste for the subtext of Clint Eastwood’s GRAN TORINO. At the end of the day Larry Hama was presented with the 2009 Henry Yoshitaka Kiyama Award, recognizing his lifetime achievement in comics.

There were a couple of glitches — panels times got generally messed up, and at one point a group of protesters showed up to picket employment practices at the Museum of Chinese in America, the still under construction venue for the show. But these were small matters in what seemed to be a well-attended, well enjoyed event. We saw a lot of writers and reporters there, so we look forward to reading more accounts of the event.

A few photos:

Artist/editor Carol Burrell, artist Alitha Martinez with son Michael, and colorist Tom Chu.
[continued below]
(more…)

The first ever Asian American ComiCon will be held next Saturday, July 11th in NYC, and they are only selling 250 tickets, so we advise buying one in advance! The guest list and programming schedule have been released and here they are. The programming sounds great, and with folks like Derek Kirk Kim, Larry Hama, Misako Rocks and Greg Pak on hand, it sounds like yet another must attend event. Info on purchasing tickets is at the bottom of the post.

The organizers of the First Annual Asian American ComiCon (AACC) have announced the complete Featured Guest list and final Schedule of Events for this celebration of the unique contemporary role and historical legacy of Asians and Asian Americans in the world of graphic fiction, which will take place Saturday, July 11, 2009 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Museum of Chinese in America (215 Centre Street in New York).

Confirmed Special Guests Include:
• Larry Hama (writer, G.I. Joe)
• Bernard Chang (artist, Wonder Woman)
• Cliff Chiang (artist, Green Arrow)
• Derek Kirk Kim (artist, The Eternal Smile)
• Greg Pak (writer, Incredible Hulk)
• Khoi Pham (artist, Mighty Avengers)
• Sean Chen (artist, Iron Man)
• Christina Strain (colorist, Runaways)
• Fred Chao (writer/artist, Johnny Hiro)
• Christine Norrie (artist, Breaking Up)
• Tak Toyoshima (writer/artist, Secret Asian Man)
• Misako Rocks! (writer/artist, Biker Girl)
• Kuo-Yu Liang (VP Sales & Marketing, Diamond Book Distributors)
• Sharad Devarajan (CEO, Liquid Comics)
• William F. Wu (writer, Hong on the Range)
• The Editors of Secret Identities (www.secretidentities.org)

(more…)

If you ask us, there is not a person more deserving of an award than Larry Hama. Also, dig into the press release for a bold historical claim.

The organizers of the First Annual Asian American ComiCon (AACC), a celebration of the unique contemporary role and historical legacy of Asians and Asian Americans in the world of graphic fiction, have announced the presentation of the Henry Y. Kiyama Award to comics pioneer Larry Hama at the event, to be held on Saturday, July 11, 2009 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Museum of Chinese in America (215 Centre Street in New York).

“We want this annual award to recognize the contribution of Asian and Asian Americans to U.S. comic book culture,” says Jeff Yang, co-chair of the event and editor-in-chief of the graphic novel collection Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology. “No one better exemplifies that contribution than Henry Kiyama, whose career represented the convergence of two worlds and industries, and whose work pointed the way to the future of graphic storytelling.”

Kiyama published his breakthrough book The Four Immigrants in 1931. A poignant collection of cartoon stories about life as a Japanese student expatriate in early 20th century San Francisco, it explores the issues these early immigrants faced in a world whose language, culture and traditions were new, strange and confusing. Originally intended for newspaper serialization, Kiyama’s stories were never published in that form; instead, they were ultimately released as a single book-length collection. This publication format, along with the fact that the stories in Four Immigrants featured a group of semiautobiographical characters (based on Kiyama and his friends) who grew, evolved and contended with real historical issues and events, has led some to advocate that it be recognized as the first original graphic novel published in America (arriving a decade before Virginia Lee Burton’s Calico the Wonder Horse in 1941 and nearly two decades before Arnold Drake and Leslie Waller’s It Rhymes with Lust in 1950). Since 1999, Kiyama’s landmark book has been made available by Berkeley, CA–based Stone Bridge Press.

Tickets for the nonprofit Asian American ComiCon are $15 for students, $25 for adults (18 and older), and $75 for a special VIP Pass, entitling the bearer to priority reserved seating at all panels and workshops, a complimentary Asian American graphic novel, signed by its creators, and an original sketch from one of the artists participating in the event’s Artists Alley. Registration will be limited, and is available in advance through the following link: https://www.nycharities.org/event/event.asp?CE_ID=4187  Note: All passes may sell out before the day of the event.

Shari Goldhagen at Penthouse looks at the idea of meeting members of the opposite (or same, we suppose) sex at conventions . The article is very tongue in cheek while reinforcing some of the very worst ideas about nerd culture.

Sci-fi conventions such as San Diego’s Comic-Con are under-the-radar hook-up havens. No, really.

So I was more than a little surprised when my friendly neighborhood comic-book-store clerk told me she was looking forward to this year’s New York Comic Con because “conventions are all about the sex.”

Yeah, right, I thought. In other news, the world is flat and simultaneous orgasms occur readily outside of Smallville fan fics.

But, she discovers, it’s the PARTY scene that really gets things cookin’:

The big cons—SDCC, NYCC, and Alternative Press Expo—all have VIP parties with open bars, which can lubricate the social interaction for sure. You’re not going to go home with Jessica Alba in her fuck-tastic Fantastic Four garb, but as Vic Holtreman of ScreenRant.com notes, “There’s a lot of hitting on people and flirting; there’s a feeling of community.” And any celebs in tow are well aware that a review from a popular fan site can make or break a sci-fi movie, so they’re at their most approachable.

How to, indeed! Anyway, as you read, you’ll meet Jennifer, who is dressed as Wonder Woman but thinks guys aren’t checking out her double-eagles. And Eva, “who was a very naughty elf at I-CON last year.” And also Valerie D’Orazio and David Gallaher make a cameo.

Charlie Jane Anders (again) rounds up the two most recent clueless dissings of female genre fans. In the first, as Johanna reported, the huge, Fox-owned gaming site IGN ran a contest for a trip to Comic-Con that was originally only open to

males who are both legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and Washington D.C. and who are at least between 18-24 years of age as of July 23, 2009

Well, this spawned a bit of hue and cry. As some pointed out, this was not just a “lucky winner gets a ticket” contest but “the lucky winner gets to be IGN’s lucky guest blogger/video talent/reporter.” And so, IGN explained the contest thusly:

The eligibility requirements for this contest were determined by Columbia TriStar Marketing, the marketing team behind the District 9 film, and were passed on as a directive to IGN as Sponsor of this particular Sweepstakes running on the IGN.com site. While IGN supports gamers of all ages, genders, shapes and sizes, these guidelines were created to foster a buzz for the film among a very narrow target group that the film’s promoters felt would be extremely passionate about the film’s subject matter. Thanks for listening, we hope this provides some clarification…

…which, amazingly, calmed things down entirely, if by “calmed down” you mean “threw a can of gasoline wrapped in excelsior into the fireplace.”

Torie Atkinson at Tor.com pointed out the irony in that the movie DISTRICT 9 is about societal tensions caused by the arrival on Earth of insectoid aliens.
(more…)

Did you know that The University of Nebraska-Lincoln library archives contain a digital archives of 175 free government comics from around the world? It’s true!

Duck and cover! Conserve water! The war against drugs! The price of Freedom! Captain America and Campbell’s Soup fight energy drainers! IT’S ALL HERE.

Smokey Bear!

And this classic tale — presented by the New York State Dept. of Mental Hygiene — in which we see Dagwood’s life for the hellish cycle of abuse that it truly is.

Like we said, hours of fun.

[Via the Parsons Illustration blog]

It started when James Sturm from CCS, presented a slideshow on children’s book illustrator Virginia Lee Burton on the feminist blog DoubleXX. Sturm proposed that Burton might be a lost link in the early history of the graphic novel and pointed out that the crossover between illustration and comics has always been a fluid one:

But it’s increasingly clear to me, as I watch my students struggle to bring nuance to a medium that has historically lacked it, that they have as much (if not more) in common with children’s book artists like Burton as with the men who worked in the sweatshops in the early years of comic books. It is time to stop looking at the history of comics as the history of the comic industry. We need to make room for more masters, Burton among them.

Along the way, Sturm pointed out that all of the cartoonists in the Masters of American Comics exhibit were men, which is, as we all know, because there were no great women cartoonists.

That inspired this from Spurge:

(more…)

More info here.

Yow, two great-sounding anthologies in one day? This one will be online, but covers a topic that has been, as yet, little covered by comics (or most of the media.) ACT-I-VATE announces THE IRAQ WAR STORIES ANTHOLOGY, edited by Nick Bertozzi:

Sundays on ACT-I-VATE.com starting 5/10/09

“What’s happening over there?”

Nick Bertozzi has been teaching cartooning at The School of Visual Arts for six years. This past year he asked the students in his Comic Book Storytelling Workshop to adapt stories that took place in Iraq during the War. The majority of the stories were found on blogs, a few were adapted from stories told to the students by friends, and one student, himself a veteran of the Iraq War, wrote and drew a story based on his own experience.

The purpose of the anthology is not to wave a flag for the war or against it—though some of the stories certainly have a political bent—instead, the students were asked to write and draw stories that would give the reader a sense of how the War has effected individuals, both American and Iraqi.

ACT-I-VATE is a host for new online comics and is pleased to run this thought-provoking anthology on its site.

These stories are intended for educational purposes only. The artists receive no money from these stories. The points of view within do not represent those of The School of Visual Arts or ACT-I-VATE.

The thirteen stories will run one-a-week, beginning Sunday, May 10th.

A new anthology dealing with gender issues has been announced, and it’s called The Big Feminist BUT. It’s edited by Suzanne Kleid (The Believer Magazine), Joan Reilly (Deep Six Studio), and Shannon O’Leary (PET NOIR), and includes stories by Jeffrey Brown, Ayun Halliday (BUST Magazine), Julia Wertz and Dean Haspiel. It sounds pretty meaty:

Women can run for the highest offices in the land. BUT: turn the channel and we’re bombarded with Girls Gone Wild, Bridezillas, and Real Housewives. Women can have any career they want. BUT: they still have to do the bulk of the childrearing at home. We know what we’re supposed to do if a guy turns out to be “not that into you.” BUT: what if he is? Can an artsy urbanette still call herself a hipster if she secretly longs for a husband and a baby and a white picket fence? What do we really mean when we say things like “I’m not a feminist BUT…” or “Sure I’m a feminist! BUT NOT ONE OF THOSE…”? These days we are probably no closer to answering Freud’s age-old question, “What does a woman want?” BUT: we’ve fired up our laptops, sharpened our pencils, inked up our brushes, and we’re going to make some comics about it.

A single panel from Jeffrey Brown:

Holy shit, have people really been PREDICTING this pandemic thing? You’d think so, based on this 12 page comic on preparing for a flu epidemic, produced by the Seattle & King County Public Health dept. The artist is David Lasky. The comic is FREE, but sorry, sufferers, you must be perishing in King County, WA in order to get one. You other losers are doomed to become just another statistic.