|| SUNDAY COMIX ||

Nix Comics Quarterly #4 on Kickstarter

2011-11-14T19:59:00.005-05:00

Nix Comics Quarterly, the rock music inspired horror comic created by Ken Eppstein, is getting ready for its fourth issue to go to press, and we all have a chance to help this effort by contributing to Ken's Kickstarter campaign.

Nix Comics Quarterly is well worth supporting, not only because the stories, mostly written by Ken, are great fun to read but because Ken pays the artists who illustrate his stories.

Issue 4 features cover art by Michael Neno as well as a story illustrated by Matt Wyatt. Michael Neno's work has appeared in the first three issues, and Matt Wyatt and Max Ink contributed to Issue 3.

If you haven't yet explored any of the Nix Comics Quarterly issues, for a mere $20 you can get all four issues and support a fantastic venue for independent comic creators. If you can contribute more, you can get ad space or even original art work from the issue.

Coffee + Comic Book Art = Awesome

2011-11-05T15:07:00.002-04:00

Attention Comic book fans! Boys and girls! Ladies and gents! Now presenting... an adventure in geekdom at Kafe Kerouac! Check out what the local comic book talent has to offer at the Kafe Kerouac's Comic Book Fans and Artists Night Out on Friday, November 11 from 8p-11p. There will be plenty of comic book art & goodies to be had.

So you think you know all there is to know about comics? From Alan Moore to Warren Ellis? From Archie to Xenia? Prove it! There's going to be a trivia game where you can get to use that nerdy knowledge to win prizes provided by the ever popular comic book store on High Street: Laughing Ogre. There's also going to be a "comics caption" game. Show off that rapier wit in head to head competition!

Also! A huge community poster jam will be going on so that anyone can add in their own little drawings and jam with the indie artists who are at the show.

So, come out, have a cup of coffee or some brewskies (or wine!) and mingle with local creators and see their artwork featured on the walls and on the shelves.

Local Comic Book Writers Roundtable

2011-11-05T12:38:00.001-04:00

On October 5, local comics writers Ken Eppstein, Dara Naraghi and Max Ink were interviewed by Doug Dangler for the WRITERS TALK program. The interview is available in audio as well as video. It will also be broadcast this week: Monday, November 7, 7 pm., on WCRS radio (98.3 & 102.1 FM) and Wednesday, November 9, 8:00 p.m., on WCBE radio (central Ohio's NPR station, 90.5 FM)

Enjoying the SIMPLEXITY of it all

2011-10-21T13:30:00.001-04:00

Much fun was had by many on Thursday night to celebrate Michael Neno’s SIMPLEXITY gallery show at the Wild Goose Creative. Here are some pictures to prove it!

Mid Ohio Kick Off Party at Packrat Comics

2011-10-18T05:34:00.001-04:00

Mid-Ohio Con is landing in Columbus this Saturday and Sunday, but the fun begins on FRIDAY at Packrat Comics in Hilliard!

Beginning at 1pm, comic artist Steve Scott will be at Packrat signing comics. His most recent work includes Batman prior to the DC relaunch, X-Men Forever, Wolverine and JLA! He'll be here all afternoon to sign your copy of Batman 713...the issue that shows the second location of Packrat in Gotham City next to the Wayne Foundation!

Then, at 7pm the annual turkey dinner will be served to get the Mid Ohio Kick Off Party in full swing! There's free transportation to and from the convention center, plenty of free food and drinks, and an exclusive showing of our Mid Ohio Comic Con Publishing Contest comic book winners in their brand new art gallery. There's also the charity comic book Texas hold `em poker tournament, live music with disco lights & a fog machine. So come to Packrat Comics and join the fun!

Shuttle Service provided by Packrat Comics: Starting at 6:30pm and every 30 minutes thereafter there will be a shuttle to pick up party goers at 400 High Street in front of the Columbus Convention Center on the corner of Goodale and High. RSVP on the Facebook Event to reserve space on the Packrat Comics Kick Off Party Shuttle.

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WANTED: NIX #4 Cover Art

2011-10-17T02:52:00.002-04:00

Ken Eppstein, the head honcho over at our friendly neighborhood NIX Comics, is looking for a few good artists. Well, actually, he's looking for ONE good artist, but never mind that right now. Ken is prepping for the fourth issue of NIX Comics Quarterly and is in search of a cover artist. As he writes on the NIX website, "it will require someone with a decent feel for the rock music/horror comic crossover material that is the bread 'n' butter of Nix Comics Quarterly." The artist that gets the gig will receive $300 for the cover art upon completion, plus 12 contributor copies of the book after printing is complete. The initial print run will be 2500 books. "If we are lucky enough to go into a second print, we'll negotiate a second deal for use of your art."

All the details and such can be found at the NIX Comics website.

A Maus in the Haus

2011-10-17T01:25:00.001-04:00

This poster was totally ripped

off from a different Spiegelman event

“What the %@&*! Happened to Comics?”

Thursday, October 27, from 7:30 to 9 pm, Capital University, Mees Hall

Capital University is proud to present one of the icons of the comics medium, the Pulitzer winning Art Spiegelman for its annual Gerhold Lecture in the Humanities. Art is on a publicity tour for MetaMaus, (a very special new edition packed full of extras to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his stunning work Maus) and is combining that with his lecture on the history of the medium entitled What the %&*! Happened to Comics?

For those of you who don't know: in 1992, Spiegleman won the Pulitzer Prize for his masterful Holocaust narrative Maus, which portrayed Jews as mice and Nazis as cats. Maus II continued the remarkable story of his parents’ survival of the Nazi regime and their lives later in America. His comics are best known for their shifting graphic styles, their formal complexity, and controversial content. In his lecture, What the %@&*! Happened to Comics? Spiegelman takes his audience on a chronological tour of the evolution of comics, all the while explaining the value of this medium and why it should not be ignored. He believes that in our post-literate culture the importance of the comic is on the rise, for "comics echo the way the brain works. People think in iconographic images, not in holograms, and people think in bursts of language, not in paragraphs.”

This event is FREE and open to the public.

Michael Neno's SIMPLEXITY

2011-10-17T00:15:00.001-04:00

Mutated cats

A heat-seeking dwarf

Val Crocodile, Associate Professor of Linguistics

What do these things have in common?

They all oozed out of the mind and hands of Michael Neno and will be on display at the Wild Goose Creative from Oct.20 until Oct. 24. There you will witness a wide variety of Mr. Neno's comic book art pages, story book illustrations, webcomic art, minicomics, as well as an example of Michael's working process from notes to the finished page. There will be a gala opening on Thursday night from 7p-10p complete with exhibition notes, comic-related music, and snacks to fill the margins.

Mr. Neno is a recipient of a Xeric Grant and the Ohio Governor's Award of Excellence. He's been writing, drawing, lettering, coloring and publishing comic books since the 1980s. Michael's also curated three previous exhibits at Wild Goose Creative (including "Hey Kids! A History of Comic Book Advertising" which was featured throughout the 2010 Wild Goose Creative Geekfest).

SIMPLEXITY: COMICS, DRAWINGS and DAYDREAMED DOODLES by MICHAEL NENO

Opening Reception: Thursday, October 20th from 7-10 PM

Wild Goose Creative: 2491 Summit Street, Columbus, OH 43202

RSVP the event on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=284180084933739

See more of Micheal's work at http://www.nenoworld.com and http://eventized.blogspot.com

Available Light Theatre Presents Skyscrapers of the Midwest

2011-04-14T15:48:00.005-04:00

[adapted from the original post on Ray Tomczak's Gutter Talk]

Skyscrapers of the Midwest, a graphic novel by Joshua Cotter, is an odd yet haunting and affecting tale of two young boys, depicted as anthropomorphic cats, growing up in the 1980's. As he writes in his blog, Matt Slaybaugh, founder of Columbus, Ohio acting troupe Available Light Theatre, began to see the possibilities of adapting the comic for the stage shortly after first encountering it in 2008. Thus, Slaybaugh got in touch with Cotter and began the process of transforming the sequential narrative into a live theatrical experience.

The results of that process are on display beginning tonight as Skyscrapers of the Midwest, the play, written and directed by Slaybaugh, runs for two weeks (Apr 14-23) at the Riffe Center's Studio Two Theatre in Downtown Columbus. Appearing in the production are Emily Bach, Acacia Duncan, Drew Eberly, Jordan Fehr, Adam Humphrey, Brant Jones, Leigh Lotocki, Elena Perantoni, and Ian Short.

When I wrote that Skyscrapers, the comic, was odd, that was by no means intended as a slight. Based on the fact that he included giant robots in the story, I get the feeling that "odd" is, at least in part, exactly what Cotter was going for. It was those same giant robots that lead me to wonder as I read the book how Matt was going to bring this story to the stage. I'm looking forward to seeing how he pulled it off. I've been told that the art of puppetry is involved.

Available Light employs the "pay what you want" pricing strategy for nearly all of its productions, Skyscrapers included. This means there are no set ticket prices, allowing patrons to pay what they can afford or what they feel the show is worth. As stated on Available Light's web-site, "It’s simply a better world when we can all afford to see good shows, no matter how much cash we’ve got in our wallets on a daily basis....it’s about removing the barriers between you and great art"

Skyscrapers of the Midwest promises to be another great show from Available Light Theatre, and I strongly urge anyone in the Columbus area with an interest in either theatre or comics to head downtown this weekend or next and check it out.

If Ray's preview above didn't convince you you about the awesomeness of Skyscrapers, how about a very very cool video from AVLT:

Skyscrapers of the Midwest video preview from Available Light on Vimeo.

Seriously... check it out.

Sunday Comix Raffle to Benefit AFSP at S.P.A.C.E.

2011-03-21T15:53:00.001-04:00

"Every 15 minutes someone dies by suicide."

That sad statistic comes from the web-site of The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. As far as I'm concerned, once every twenty years is more than enough. In my life, I have lost two people that I have cared about to suicide. First, my childhood best friend Eric "Igor" Brown in 1991, and most recently my nephew Steve Pisarchick in 2008.

Thus, this past weekend at the 12th Annual Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo (S.P.A.C.E.), I organized a raffle at the Sunday Comix table, the proceeds of which went to the AFSP.

Before the show, I took a basket, donated by fellow Sunday Comix member Canada Keck, around the room, filling it with comics generously donated by many of the exhibitors to be the prize. Throughout the day, as well, several other artists came up to the table and added to the prize pool. By the time we finally held the drawing, the basket could no longer hold all the comics that had been donated.

Selling tickets for $2, or 12 for $10, we managed to raise $168. To that I added $32 from my own pocket to make a $200 donation to AFSP in Steve's memory.

I would like to thank everyone at the show who donated comics, all those who bought tickets, and, most of all, my fellow members of Sunday Comix, especially Canada and Max Ink, for all their help and support. I could not have pulled this off without it.

You can find more information about the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and make a donation on-line, at afsp.org.

Our New Home

2011-03-15T12:39:00.005-04:00

ANNOUNCEMENT: The Sunday Comix Cartoonist Group will now be holding both our monthly Sunday afternoon meetings and weekly Wednesday evening meetings at Packrat Comics (in their "Comics Cave"). Special thanks to the friendly support of Jamie and Theresa Colegrove for giving these gypsy cartoonists a more permanent home. Our inaugural meeting is tomorrow-- we'll be eating pizza and folding & stapling our collected Jam Comics books, Sunday Gold and Blue Sunday.

SPACE

2011-03-14T17:52:00.004-04:00

Join us at SPACE this weekend, March 19 and 20, for the release of our two new collections- SUNDAY GOLD and BLUE SUNDAY--. (Each available for $3 or buy both for $5!)

Neno Curates Album Cover Exhibit At Wild Goose Creative

2010-02-22T21:20:00.001-05:00

Michael Neno, creator of the just released The Signifiers, will be curating a new exhibit of classic album covers from the 60's and 70's at the Summit Street headquarters of local arts community Wild Goose Creative.
I just wrote about this on my blog Gutter Talk, so you can read more about it there.

Genghis Con Invades Cleveland November 28

2009-11-14T08:03:00.002-05:00

GENGHIS CON CELEBRATES RICHES OF MIDWEST INDEPENDENT PUBLISHING

Comic Show Features the Unknown Work of Local Graphic Storytellers

You won’t find Superman, expensive back issues or fading Hollywood celebrities at Genghis Con, a comic book convention organized to showcase the work of independent artists and writers from the Midwest. The event will be held at the Beachland Ballroom on Saturday, November 28, 2009 from 12:00 noon to 6:00 pm. The convention will feature the talent of approximately 50 graphic storytellers from around the Midwest whose work does not fit into the normal perception of what a comic book should be.

For 70 years the part of the country known as the “rust belt” has provided the world with an incredible abundance of creative talent in the art of telling stories with pictures. This form of communication has reached its pinnacle of popularity in the form of the beloved comic book. Many of the biggest names in comics today hail from the Midwest.

Comic readers are familiar with such Ohio natives as Brian Bendis, Brian Vaughn, Fred Van Lente, Harvey Pekar and Jeff Smith. These and many others from around the Great Lakes are the modern personalities shaping graphic storytelling as we know it today. The common thread through each of these current and rising stars of the industry is they began their careers creating and publishing their own material.

Like their famous brethren, the participants of Genghis Con use skill, imagination and craftsmanship to create engaging, original graphic storytelling art. Their work, however, remains largely unpublished outside of the creator’s own trips to the local copy center. Genghis Con exists to bring this creative talent together in one place and to provide a venue for interaction with potential readers who may not have any other opportunity to see this work.

The organizers of Genghis Con are committed to creating an event which is unique in many ways. Early in the planning stages, the convention organizers decided to break most of the rules of a normal comic convention. These changes include eliminating the dealer’s room and the endless rows of fading TV celebrities. Perhaps the most radical difference is participants will not be charged for table space as they are at other comic conventions. The organizers feel this will free the artists from feeling the pressure to “make up their costs” and allow them to focus on promoting their work.

"We are not doing this to make money,” says Scott Rudge, one of the Genghis Con organizers and owner of Astound Comics in Westlake, Ohio. “We want the creators to use the money they save on renting space to offer inexpensive copies of their work. This benefits both the artist and the audience in a way not seen at a typical comic con. We want those attending the convention to feel comfortable interacting meaningfully with the creators and we hope to do that by making the communication of ideas as inexpensive as possible.”

To further break down the barriers between the artists and readers, Genghis Con attendees will be able to build their own comic book containing the work of each artist at the show. This book will be included at no additional charge with normal admission of $5.00.

“We are looking for creators who use a comic book style format to tell their stories, but we also have accepted some ‘zine and poster artists,” says Rudge. “While we may have some of the next generation of mainstream stars displaying their work, we are also looking forward to offering the work of those who have no interest in promoting their material beyond the desire to simply tell a story.”

The call is out for artists wishing to participate in Genghis Con. Artists are welcome to submit samples of their work for consideration. The organizers of Genghis Con will be accepting submissions until November 15th. For complete details and submission guidelines, creators should go to the event website.

(There was also recently a write up on the show in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Read that here. )

2009 Columbus 24-Hour Comics Marathon

2009-10-05T19:02:00.003-04:00

This year, the official 24HCD fell on the same weekend as Columbus' Mid-Ohio-Con (Oct 3-4); and so, Max Ink (author of Blink and executive director of Sunday Comix) took it upon himself to organize a special "Halloween Edition" 24HCD for the Columbus comic book creating community. The cartoonist group Sunday Comix (that's us!) will set up at Crimson Cup (where they meet every Wednesday from 6-8pm) and if any other group wishes to participate in the event, they are more than welcome and their events will be posted here. Also, Sunday Comix is partnering with the HERO Initiative and will have comic book related items (including the very first 24 Hour Comics Anthology) available for sale and the proceeds will go directly to the Initiative.

The 24 Hour Comic Book Day is an annual challenge for cartoonists to produce a 24-page comic book written, drawn, and completed in 24 consecutive hours. No sketches, designs, plot summaries or any other kind of direct preparation can precede the 24 hour period. Indirect preparation such as assembling tools, reference materials, food, music etc. is fine. For a full set of guidelines for the 24HR Comic Dare, read Scott McCloud's explanation (Scott is the author of the seminal book, Understanding Comics and originator of the 24 Hour comic concept).

Coffee, Comix & Crypts, Oh My!

2009-09-29T03:36:00.004-04:00

Sunday Comix will be having an Opening Reception to celebrate its second Art Show at the Crimson Cup Coffee House [4541 North High Street] this Friday, October 2nd from 7pm until 9pm. The works of Jonathon Riddle, Bob Corby, Kira Keck, Matt Wyatt, Ray Tomczak, Michael Carroll and Max Ink will be on display.

There will be a Sunday Comix Jam happening and our Jamtastic Foray books will be available for sale.

2009-09-25T23:52:00.003-04:00

The Ohio State University’s archives of comics-related material is one of the most respected (and undoubtedly largest) collections of comics history and art on the planet. But you wouldn't know it. It's tucked away across from the Wexner Center for the Arts and behind the Mershon Auditorium. But as of last week, it will be renamed the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum and relocated to Sullivant Hall (which is currently under renovations) thanks to a gift of $7 million from the Elizabeth Ireland Graves Foundation.

According to the press release:

The project is estimated to cost $20.6 million and will be completed in 2013, at which time Sullivant Hall will house both the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum and The Ohio State University Department of Dance.    “The Graves Foundation has made a critical investment to enhance the learning environment for students, faculty, and visitors from around the world,” said President E. Gordon Gee. “The revitalized Sullivant Hall will be a fitting home to two university treasures – the top-ranked Department of Dance and the world-renowned Cartoon Library and Museum. Naming the latter in Billy Ireland’s honor is a fitting tribute to a remarkable Ohioan.”

The Elizabeth Ireland Graves Foundation is managed by Billy Ireland’s granddaughter, Sayre Graves, and is based out of Bremo Bluff, Va..    The Columbus Dispatch hired Ireland, a native of Chillicothe, Ohio, shortly after his high school graduation in 1898. A self-taught cartoonist, he worked for the Dispatch until his death in 1935 (the above cartoon was illustrated in 1934) and was known both for his editorial cartoons and for his Sunday feature The Passing Show.    An exhibition of Ireland’s work will be held at Ohio State in the fall 2010.    “Billy Ireland was a Columbus celebrity during his lifetime,” according to Lucy Shelton Caswell, the cartoon library and museum’s founding curator. “He enjoyed a national reputation and his work is still delightful to read. This is a fitting honor for a great cartoonist. We look forward to sharing his work with a new generation of readers.”    Established in 1977 with a founding gift of the Milton Caniff Collection, the Cartoon Library and Museum was housed in two converted classrooms in the Ohio State’s Journalism Building. Since then, Caswell has built it into a widely renowned collection that is a destination for both cartoon researchers and fans from around the world.
Thousands of donors have contributed to the collection, with gifts ranging from one item to tens of thousands. With the recent addition of the IMCA’s extensive permanent collection, the Cartoon Library and Museum now houses more than 400,000 works of original cartoon art, 35,000 books, 51,000 serial titles, 2,800 linear feet of manuscript materials, and 2.5 million comic strip clippings and newspaper pages.

Now the world’s largest collection of cartoon art and comics, the Cartoon Library and Museum is currently located in the basement of the Wexner Center for the Arts http://cartoons.osu.edu/. Its new, permanent home in Sullivant Hall will expand its space from its current 6,808 square feet to more than 40,000 gross square feet of space storage and exhibit space allowing more of the collection to be displayed and accessible to the public.

New Sunday Comix Gallery Show

2009-09-25T01:10:00.002-04:00

I just a have a few tweakings to do on this poster (it should read "Esoteric" and not "Strange," for instance), but this is the main info on one more comic bookish thing going on next weekend (and throughout all of October). This show will be Sunday Comix's second this year at the `Cup. (We'll probably have more next year there and elsewhere.) On board to be on display is Sue Lense, Ray Tomczak, Michael Carroll, Matt Wyatt, Bob Corby, Jonathon Riddle, Kira Keck and myself. (I think that's everyone.) Later this month, we've also got a special event planned (but we're waiting for approval), so keep your Hallowed Calendars open (if ya catch my drift).

OH, Comics Digs in the Dirt

2009-09-24T00:29:00.005-04:00

Back Porch Comics proudly announces the publication of Oh,Comics! #18 “Earth.”

According to publisher/editor Bob Corby's press release, this issue of OH, COMICS features 76 "salt-of-the-earth pages containing 18 rock-solid strips by 13 dirty creators!" Sunday Comix regulars Max Ink, Jonathon Riddle, Ray Tomczak, Michael Carroll, Brent Riches, Matt Wyatt and Bob Corby (of course) comprise over half of the list of creators; and Sue Lense (another of our illustrious crew) not only provided her Onion City comics for an added taste of humor to the book but also illustrated the "down-to-Earth" cover.

The anthology will be available for sale (at $3.50, it’s dirt cheap!) at the Back Porch table at the Mid-Ohio Con on October 3 and 4, 2009. The book will also be available to purchase on-line at via the Back Porch Comics website on October 5. 2009.

New S.P.A.C.E. site

2009-09-10T15:42:00.005-04:00

S.P.A.C.E., the Midwest's largest exhibition of small press and creator owned comics, is celebrating its 11th year in Columbus with a new website (www.spacexpo.info) and a new location (Ramada Plaza Hotel & Conference Center, Columbus 4900 Sinclair Rd.). Designed by resident S.P.A.C.E. vollunteer artist, Tom Williams, and lorded over by event coordinator, Bob Corby, the new website provides all the info from the tried and true decade old website, a history of the show, a list of exhibitors, more accessible contact info and features a new blog to boot. (The website is still in progress, so if you find any broken links, contact Tom.)

If you're an artist/writer/publisher of indie comix, sign up for a table to exhibit your work (Tables are still $55 till February but fear not, it only goes up to $65 for full tables. Still a bargain compared to other indy shows)! If you're a reader/lover of comic books, be sure to clear your calendars on APRIL 24 & 25 to see all SPACE has to offer in 2010.

This show is purely a grassroots effort/ DIY show. So, anything you can do in your area to help promote this is a good thing. The show lives and dies by word of mouth so spread the word.

John Porcellino Book Signing Tour

2009-09-10T14:34:00.009-04:00

Legendary small press artist/writer John Porcellino is on tour across the United States promoting the release of his newest collection of comics, Map of My Heart (released Sept. 29 and published by Drawn & Quarterly) and will be arriving in Columbus on Monday, October 12 for an appearance at Wholly Craft (3169 N. High St., http://www.whollycraft.net) beginning at 7pm. (Interesting to note: Ohio has been called "The Heart of It All" and John will be making a grand total of 4 appearances throughout this fair state. He'll be in Akron on Sept. 23 @ Square Records, Cinci on Sept 29 @ Shake It! Records & on Oct 10 he'll be @ Cleveland's Visible Voice. For a full tour listing, see here.)

Map of My Heart celebrates the twentieth anniversary of John Porcellino’s seminal and influential comics zine, King-Cat Comics, which he started self-publishing in 1989 and which has been his predominant means of expression. In this collection, while Porcellino is living in isolation and experiencing the pain of divorce, he crafts melancholic, tender graphic ballad of heartbreak and reflection.

Known for his sad, quiet honesty rendered in his signature deceptively minimalist style, Porcellino has a command of graphic storytelling as sophisticated as the medium’s more visually intricate masters. Few other artists are able to so expertly contemplate the sadness, beauty, and wonder of life in so few lines.

Patrick Porter will accompany John with some fine acoustic music.

2009-07-18T12:29:00.002-04:00

The ToonSeum will be presenting Tom Richmond: the MAD Art of Caricature, from August 1 through October 4.

Tom Richmond is one of the most recognized and respected caricaturist in the world. A member of MAD Magazine’s Usual Gang of Idiots since 2000, His sharp pen has produced dead-on caricatures of pop culture icons, political figures, movie stars and even the president’s dog.

Tom’s style and technique carry on in the great tradition of MAD Magazine legends such as Mort Drucker and Jack Davis.

Tom’s work appears in publications, films, and comics worldwide. His company also provides caricature artists for some of the nations top theme parks. He recently completed a new book about President Obama’s dog due for release this fall.

The “MAD Art of Caricature” also gives a behind-the-pen-and-brush look at Richmond’s parodies of movies, including “Harry Plodder,” “Spider-Sham,” “Battyman Begins,” “30 Crock,” “Obama’s Inauguration” and many more.

“The ToonSeum is proud to take MAD out of the teacher’s trash can and put it on museum walls where it belongs,” says ToonSeum Executive Director Joe Wos. “Tom is truly a master of mockery, and we are delighted to present his work at the ToonSeum.”

Richmond will drop by the ToonSeum Aug. 1 and 2 for book signings, a demonstration and a special Master Caricature Class. More information is available at www.toonseum.org.

The exhibit runs from Aug. 1 through Oct. 4 at the ToonSeum, which is located inside the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh on the city’s historic North Side.

What: “Tom Richmond: The MAD Art of Caricature”
When: Aug. 1-Oct. 4
Where: ToonSeum at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh on the city’s historic North Side, 10 Children’s Way, Allegheny Square.
Cost: ToonSeum admission is included with paid admission to the Children’s Museum, which is $10 for children 2-18 and seniors; $11 for adults

Details: 412-325-1060 or www.toonseum.com

Lora Innes' The Dreamer

2009-07-03T00:11:00.004-04:00

“I usually describe it as Gilmore Girls meets Pirates of the Caribbean... It’s half high school dramedy (with) fast-talking interaction. The other half of it is adventure in a historical time period.”

“When I figured out I wanted to do a dreamer/time-travel piece, I started looking into the Revolutionary War... I fell in love with the crazy guys who started the war. They were so idealistic, and actually believed that their ideas were right and had the power to change the world.”

Lora Innes

Bone to WB

2009-06-29T22:40:00.004-04:00

I don't think live-action is out of the question. How hard can it be to render the Bones in CGI?

Zits' Jim Borgman

2009-06-23T18:50:00.002-04:00

"...Here in Cincinnati, everyone said I was a flaming liberal, which means I'm probably in the middle of the spectrum for most of the rest of the country. But I grew up as the son of a working-class, blue-collar family. That dirt under my fingernails is my conservative streak, my cautious streak, but I'm sure I was always pushing the envelope. In this town, it's always important to challenge the prevailing winds."

Jim Borgman

Jeff Smith @ Heroes Con

2009-06-21T11:38:00.003-04:00

CBR has the story on Jeff Smith (with Alec Longstreth) on a panel at Heroes Con in Charlotte.

This Is A Comic Book (Gallery Exhibit)

2009-06-19T15:37:00.003-04:00

I found this on the Wexner Center for the Arts WexBlog.

During the month of August, the Mahan Gallery will holding an exhibit, “This is a Comic Book,” which focuses on the art stylings of some of the most independent, individualistic and far-reaching comics being published (or self-published) today. The exhibit will be featuring artists such as Ron Rege Jr. (Los Angeles), Lauren Weinstein (Mass.), Anders Nilsen (Chicago), and Columbus’s own Phonzie Davis.

There will be an opening reception, Sat, August 1, 6-10pm (during the Gallery Hop, of course)

<-- image credit:
Panayiotis Terzis
King Top: Bluetooth, 2009
17 x 23.5 inches, watercolor on paper

Green Brain Comics Celebrates 10 Years

2009-06-18T06:56:00.005-04:00

In celebration of their 10th Anniversary, Detroit's comic shop supreme Green Brain Comics kicks off a summer full of events with the inaugural exhibition in their new art gallery space.

Entitled "The Best of the Green Brain Comic Jams" this exhibition features some of the most unique, humorous and downright baffling pieces of comic art created by a host of local and visiting cartoonists. These works have been culled from a huge library of collaborative works created over the last several years at monthly Comic Jams.

"We have been inviting local cartoonists to collaborate on comic jams on the second Wednesday of the month for years." says Dan Merritt, co-owner of Green Brain Comics "And we thought it would be great to open our gallery space by showing off some of the gems that were created right here by some of our good friends and talented cartoonists."

The opening reception runs from 7pm to 10pm on Saturday, June 20, 2009.

And just six days later, author James Danky will present a slideshow and be signing his book, Underground Classics on Friday June 26th from 5pm to 7pm. Mr. Danky is both co-author (along with Denis Kitchen) and co-curator (same) of the art exhibit Underground Classics: The Transformation of Comics Into Comix (running May 2 through July 12, 2009 at the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison, WI).

Underground Classics provides the first serious survey of underground comix as art, turning the spotlight on these influential and largely underappreciated artists. Essays from the book’s co-writers and co-curators James Danky and Denis Kitchen, alongside essays by Paul Buhle, Patrick Rosenkranz, Jay Lynch, and Trina Robbins, offer a thorough reflection and appraisal of the underground movement. Over 125 original drawings, paintings, sculptures, and artifacts are featured, loaned from private collections and the artists themselves, making Underground Classics indispensable for the serious-minded comics fan and for the casual reader alike.

So, if you're in the neighborhood, visit Green Brain Comics at 13210 Michigan Avenue in East Downtown Dearborn and see what Jams they've got on the walls! More information can be found at www.greenbrain.biz or by calling 313-582-9444.

GEEKFEST THIS WEEKEND

2009-06-18T06:03:00.003-04:00

The Wild Goose Creative is hosting a weekend of Geek-related awesomeness. "Geekfest" runs from Thursday until Saturday at the Wild Goose Creative homebase (2491 Summit Street, Columbus.) There will be plays, movies, games, comic book readings and stand-up comedy.

Of particular note is on Thursday (that's TONIGHT!), the first act of Michael Neno's superhero play-in-progress, Octo's Helmet, will be performed along with three other geekishly-themed plays. Members of WGC will be bravely tackling the roles of Rabbit Lass, Metal Elbow, and other forlorn misfits from Mr. Neno's vast Universe of misfits.

Geekfest is open to any and all geeks - from movie buffs to comic fanatics, Whedonites to Tolkienites--you’ll find something to feed your obsession! Each event is a suggested donation of $5, but don’t let that stop you. Pay what you can, or just stop by to have some fun!

Want more information? Email Jessie.

Carol Tyler, father, signing in Cincy 6/13

2009-06-10T12:42:00.003-04:00

When:	06.13.2009 \| 17:00 - 19:00
Event Title:	You'll Never Know - Dad & Daughter Book Signing
Where:	Shake It Records - Cincinnati
Category:	Book Signing

Event description:
"You'll Never Know" Dad & Daughter Book Signing Saturday, June 13, 2009 5 - 7 PM Shake It Records will be hosting a book signing with local artist C. Tyler for her new graphic memoir You'll Never Know, Book One: A Good and Decent Man. And, as an added rare bonus, her father, 90 year old World War II veteran Chuck Tyler -- subject of the book -- will also be there to sign copies. A Cincinnati Exclusive!!!! You'll Never Know Book One: A Good and Decent Man is published by Fantagraphics of Seattle. It tells the story of the 50-something author's relationship with her World War II veteran father, and how his war experience shaped her childhood and affected her relationships in adulthood. "You'll Never Know" refers not only to the title of her parents' courtship song from that era, but also to the many challenges the author encountered in uncovering the difficult and painful truths about her Dad's service. You'll Never Know makes full use of Tyler's virtuosity as a cartoonist: stunningly rendered in detailed inks and subtle watercolors, it plunges the reader headlong into the diverse locales: her father's wartime experiences and courtship, her own childhood and adolescence, and contemporary life.

Join the Schulz Challenge!

2009-06-05T10:14:00.003-04:00

The OSU Cartoon Library and Museum needs your support to raise funds for the renovation of Sullivant Hall, the future home of the library. Donate to the Schulz Challenge & Cartoon Library and Museum Fund and your contribution will be matched dollar for dollar by Jean Schulz.

Jean Schulz, the widow of Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz, issued a challenge: in addition to her initial gift of $1 million, she will provide an additional matching gift of $2.5 million if Ohio State raises the same amount from other sources.

"We are very grateful to Jean Schulz for her generous gift and for her challenge which will encourage everyone who cares about cartoon art to become involved in our project," said Lucy Shelton Caswell, Professor and Curator of the library. "The new Cartoon Library and Museum will be a place of learning and enjoyment for the public and scholars alike."

Located at a highly visible location along High Street and adjacent to the Wexner Center for the Arts, the historic Sullivant Hall is in dire need of repair. The planned renovation will provide 40,000 gross square feet of space for the new Cartoon Library and Museum that will include a spacious reading room for researchers, three museum-quality galleries, and expanded storage with state-of-the-art environmental and security controls. A dedicated ground-level entry will allow for easy access to the new facility. The addition of exhibition galleries dedicated to cartoon art will facilitate public display of the Library's extraordinary collection. Total renovation costs are estimated at $20.6 million.

More Upcoming OSU Library and Museum Events

2009-06-05T09:50:00.003-04:00

Tuesday, July 14, 2009, 7:00-9:00 pm, 162 Hopkins Hall, 128 North Oval Mall

"A Whirlwind History of American Comics" by Dr. Jared Gardner, Dept. of English, followed by a gallery talk by Lucy Shelton Caswell, curator of From the Yellow Kid to Conan: American Cartoons from the International Museum of Cartoon Art. Free and open to the public.

Sunday, July 19, 2009, Free Family Programs

12:30-4:30 pm From the Yellow Kid to Conan: American Cartoons from the International Museum of Cartoon Art at the Hopkins Hall Gallery + Corridor,

1:00 pm The Secret of N.I.M.H. (1982), Wexner Center for the Arts Film/Video Theater

2:30-4:30 pm Special events at the Hopkins Hall Gallery + Corridor: enjoy lemonade and cookies, print a comic strip with Bob Tauber, Logan Elm Press and Book Arts Program, and make an authentic newspaper printer's hat

Co-Sponsors: The Ohio State University Cartoon Library & Museum, Wexner Center for the Arts, the Department of Art Hopkins Hall Gallery + Corridor, University Libraries, and Logan Elm Press and Book Arts Program

Upcoming OSU Library and Museum Events

2009-06-05T09:40:00.003-04:00

Two new exhibitions at The Ohio State University celebrate the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection, which was recently transferred to OSU’s Cartoon Library and Museum (formerly the Cartoon Research Library). The union of these two institutions created the largest collection of original cartoon art in the world. The exhibitions showcase the treasures of the collection including original art from editorial cartoons, comic strips, animation and comic books. Fan favorites Peanuts, Calvin and Hobbes, Blondie, Dick Tracy, Mickey Mouse, For Better or For Worse, Doonesbury, Spider-Man, Beetle Bailey and Family Circus will all be on display. The characters and images depicted may be familiar, but taken out of their traditional context in print and on screen, cartoons can be examined and appreciated as works of art; triumphs of design and craftsmanship. The originals reveal the method behind the magic, offering visitors an opportunity to look at the popular culture icons and images so prevalent in their everyday lives in new and different ways. These exhibitions will engage and delight audiences of all ages.

Exhibitions:
From Yellow Kid to Conan: American Cartoons from the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection will be held at the Hopkins Hall Gallery + Corridor from June 28 – August 7, 2009.

Hogarth and Beyond: Global Cartoons from the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection will be held at the Cartoon Library and Museum’s Reading Room gallery from June 10-August 31, 2009.

Exhibition Opening Reception and Special Events:

Saturday, June 27, 2009, 7:00 pm, Wexner Center for the Arts Film/Video Theater

101 Dalmations(1961) proceeded by animated shorts, the Brave Little Tailor (1938) and Leprechaun's Gold (1949). Introduction by animation historian Jerry Beck. Visit wexarts.org or call 614-292-3535 for tickets. $7 ($5 for members, students, and senior citizens).

Sunday, June 28, 2009, Grand Lounge, The Ohio State University Faculty Club, 181 South Oval Dr.

1:00 pm Milestones of the International Museum of Cartoon Art. Panel discussion with former trustees Brian Walker, Jerry Robinson, and Arnold Roth moderated by Dr. Jared Gardner, Dept. of English.

2:15 pm Keynote Speaker - Jim Borgman, Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and co-creator of the comic strip Zits

3:30-5:00pm Exhibition opening reception at the Hopkins Hall Gallery + Corridor. Refreshments will be served.

All June 28 events are free and open to the public.

For more information:
http://cartoons.osu.edu/?q=events http://www.wexarts.org/fv/index.php?eventid=3887 http://cartoons.osu.edu/?q=press/international-museum-cartoon-art

new location for SPACE 2010

2009-05-18T22:43:00.003-04:00

From Bob Corby:

Dear SPACE Exhibitors

SPACE 2010 Update

Date:
SPACE 2010 will be April 24 and 25, 2010.

New Venue:
I just wanted you guys to be the first to know about the new venue for next year. We are moving to the
Ramada Plaza Hotel And Conference Center
4900 Sinclair Road
Columbus, OH 43229

It's right off I71 at the Morse Sinclair exit.
They have a restaurant, a bar and shuttle service to the airport. The room rate will be less than $80.00 per night.

I haven't finalized the layout yet but there appears to be room for about 140 tables which is about what we had at the Aladdin Shrine Complex and a panel room that's just across the hall from the exhibitors room. (I lost about 10 pounds at SPACE 2009 running from the front to the panel room a few times each hour.)

I don't have final numbers worked out but I think we will be holding the table prices (including the returning exhibitor early registration price) the same as last year.

Don't do anything yet. I will notify you for the early registration and particulars about the hotel rate.

Flyers at MOCCA:
MOCCA is about 2 weeks away. If anybody is planning on going and is willing to drop SPACE flyers off at the freebie tables please let me know.

SPACE Prize for Webcomics:
I'm adding a 3rd catagory for the 2009 SPACE Prize- Webcomics. The prize will consist of a plaque and $50.00 (enought to pay for your website for a month or two). If you were an exhibitor at SPACE 2009 and would like to enter your comic please send me the following info:

Comic Name:
URL:
Artist, Writer:
Address:
e-mail address:

A few rules:
The comic (or portion under consideration) must have been posted on-line between March 3, 2008 and April 17, 2009.

We can't afford to pay a charge or a subscription fee to get to your comic. If that is the case some way to deal with that will be needed. The comic could be reviewed by up to 3 different people for judging.

More Webcomics Participation:
I've been trying to include webcomics into SPACE for sometime now and I know we have a healthy participation. The Webcomics Prize is a product of that effort. I'd appreciate it if anybody has some ideas on how to further incorporate it into SPACE to send them along. If anybody participated in the the New England Webcomics Weekend this year and has some info on how that worked I'd be interested. I will be contacting them directly to hopefully compare notes.

That's it for now.

Bob Corby
Back Porch Comics / SPACE
www.backporchcomics.com

new format for Smith's RASL

2009-05-13T12:25:00.002-04:00

24 pages and bi-monthly beginning this fall.

Jeff Smith @ Ohioana

2009-05-06T11:43:00.001-04:00

From his website:

The Ohioana Festival takes place in Columbus, Ohio this week May 6-9, 2009

Here are the details of Jeff’s appearances:

Tomorrow, Wednesday May 6, kicks off with a WOSU Interview hosted by Fred Anderle with fellow authors Ann Hagedom, and Phil Brady from 11am-12pm. You can stream it live by clicking here.

Thursday May 7, 2009: Signing at Barnes and Noble Lennox Town Center from 6:30pm-7:30pm

Saturday May 9, 2009: Panel Discussion with fellow author Erin McCarthy at the Board Room of State Library of Ohio from 11:30am-12:15pm

A Conversation with Jeff Smith at State Library of Ohio from 2:00pm-2:45pm followed by a booksigning / meet & greet at 2:45pm-3:30pm

Schulz' widow gives $1M to Cartoon Library

2009-04-24T12:40:00.001-04:00

Jean Schulz, the widow of Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz, has given $1 million to the Ohio State University Cartoon Library & Museum to support the renovation of Sullivant Hall, the future home of the world’s most comprehensive academic research facility dedicated to documenting printed cartoon art. Jean has also promised another matching gift of $2.5 million if Ohio State raises an equal amount.

“We are very grateful to Jean Schulz for her generous gift, and for her challenge which will encourage everyone who cares about cartoon art to become involved in our project,” said founding curator Lucy Shelton Caswell. “The new Cartoon Museum and Library will be a place of learning and enjoyment for the public and scholars alike.”

Pope groks Spock

2009-04-20T12:05:00.002-04:00

On the occasion of the new Star Trek film, Paul Pope illustrates a Spock story in Wired guest-edited by director JJ Abrams.

SPACE HAPPENINGS

2009-04-15T15:15:00.003-04:00

From the SPACE PR machine (aka Bob Corby):

Nate Powell, who is an LA Times Book Prize finalist in the Young Adult fiction category (up against the likes of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman!) for his graphic novel, SWALLOW ME WHOLE will be at SPACE on Saturday and Sunday. SWALLOW ME WHOLE is the first graphic novel since 1992's MAUS to make the list! Find out more at http://www.topshelfcomix.com/ and http://seemybrotherdance.org/

Also just announced SWALLOW ME WHOLE has been nominated for three Will Eisner Awards: Best Graphic Album (New), Best Writer/Artist, and Best Lettering!

On Saturday, April 18, we will be presenting an exhibition of original pages from Carol Tyler’s soon to be released graphic novel “You’ll Never Know Book One: A Good and Decent Man”, published by Fantagraphics Books. The book is the first in a series regarding her father’s World War II experiences. There's additional information on the book and other projects of Carol’s at the University of Cincinnati website. Also, you can read this Publishers Weekly interview.

Jeff Stahler (”Moderately Confused” and editorial cartoonist for the Columbus Dispatch), Steve Boreman (”Little Lost Dog”) and John Kovaleski ("Bo Nanas" and MAD Magazine UGOI) will be on a panel called “The Adventures of a Working Class Syndicated Comic Stripper” at 2:00 Saturday, April 18

Sunday , April 19, We will be presenting the Atomic Indy Artist Comix Show
An exhibition the Cartoon Art of Columbus’ Sunday Comix Group (That's us!).

Two full days of Panels, Programs and Exhibits are posted at http://www.backporchcomics.com/program.htm

Also there are 6 pages of Premiere Comics which will be available at SPACE at http://www.backporchcomics.com/premier_comics.htm

Check out who else is going to be there at the Exhibitor List http://www.backporchcomics.com/space.htm

And don’t forget:

Friday April 17, 2009 3:00-5:00 PM meet some of the SPACE exhibitors at
The Ohio State University Cartoon Library and Museum (formerly the Cartoon Research Library) Open House

Enjoy the Reading Room Gallery Exhibition, Light: A Forgotten 19th Century Humor Magazine, along with behind-the-scenes tours of the library stacks and a special display of treasures from our collection.

There will also be some special treasures out for viewing, including original Bone art by Jeff Smith, original Calvin and Hobbes art by Bill Watterson, and original art by P. Craig Russell.
SPACE Exhibitors will also be working on the annual jam panel.

The first 20 people in the door will receive a free single day pass to SPACE!

The Small Press & Alternative Comics Expo (SPACE)

The Mid-West’s Largest Exhibition of Small Press, Alternative and Creator Owned Comics

April 18 & 19, 2009
Saturday 10am-6pm Sunday 10am-5pm
Aladdin Shrine Complex
Multipurpose Room
3850 Stelzer Rd. Columbus OH
Off I 270 near the Easton Town Center
Free Parking!

Admission $5.00 per day and $8.00 per weekend.
www.backporchcomics.com

Watchmen's Tse to adapt Pope's Battling Boy

2009-04-13T13:30:00.001-04:00

According to The Hollywood Reporter.

Rich Watson interview

2009-04-10T13:41:00.002-04:00

Some of you may know that I run an awards program, in conjunction with the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention, called the Glyph Comics Awards, which honors black comics and creators. I recently did an interview over at Comixfan where I talk about it.

Looking for Noel Sickles

2009-04-08T11:34:00.003-04:00

"...Chillicothe, Ohio is not only the birthplace of Sickles, but also of Billy Ireland, a longtime cartoonist at the Columbus Dispatch and a mentor to both Sickles and Caniff. To the general public, though, Chillicothe is known as the original capital of Ohio and the home of Mead Paper. Sickles worked for Mead, providing cartoons for the company newsletter. I didn't take a picture of the paper mill, now significantly changed from when he would have worked there. I did visit the Carnegie Library. The library, built in 1907, was where Sickles would spend many hours in the art stacks, studying the great masters. What must it have been like for a young man with artistic ambition in a small town?"

Also: A Paul Pope video interview.

Cartoon Library open house 4/17

2009-04-02T19:49:00.002-04:00

Open House at the Cartoon Library & Museum

Date: April 17, 2009
Time: 3:00 - 5:00 pm
Location:
Reading Room Gallery
27 West 17th Avenue Mall

Enjoy the Reading Room Gallery Exhibition, Light: A Forgotten 19th Century Humor Magazine, along with behind-the-scenes tours of the library stacks and a display of treasures from our collection, including original Bone art by Jeff Smith, original Calvin and Hobbes art by Bill Watterson, and original art by P. Craig Russell, acclaimed illustrator of Ring of the Nibelung, The Sandman, Hellboy, and Coraline.

This event is in conjunction with SPACE, Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo.

The first 20 people through the door will receive single day passes to SPACE!

The Cartoon Library and Museum

Lakeland CC Comics Symposium 4/3-4

2009-04-01T12:31:00.002-04:00

The 6th annual Lakeland Community College Comics Symposium in Kirtland, OH is this Friday and Saturday. Details, including guest speakers and a schedule of events, here.

Sean McKeever returns to Waiting Place

2009-03-31T13:03:00.002-04:00

"...Back in New York Comic Con, in February, I had an idea for a new story, but I was kind of struggling with the ending. And then I saw this commission that Mike [Norton] did for somebody of Jeffry and Lora from The Waiting Place. And seeing Mike, today, drawing those characters just lit a fire under my butt to get the story going. So I finally came up with the whole story. I'm scripting it currently. And I'm really geeked to see Mike draw them with his ability now."

Sean McKeever

Comic Me @ Urban Spirit 4/4

2009-03-30T16:31:00.003-04:00

No website that I can find; just getting this off of the promo...

The Brush Experience presents Comic Me
featuring the artwork of Freestyle Komics and the sounds of the Liquid Crystal Project
@ Urban Spirit Gallery/Loft
893 East Long St
April 4, 2009
8PM - 12AM every first Saturday
18+ (for the mature and the progressively artistic)
$10 cover at the door

Have you ever wanted to be a superhero? Or imagined having a super power? Maybe be a character in your own comic book... Well now is your chance!!!

We at the Brush Experience are bringin' out our inner comic book hero on canvas!!!

Come out for a night of fun and action... you be the artist and the hero this night!!! We will be featuring local comic book artists Freestyle Komics!!! And the Liquid Crystal Project!!!

LIVE MUSIC, REFRESHMENTS, AND LIVE ART

The Brush Experience is a social experiment combining people and art to yield creative results. It's where everyone can be an artist (if only for one night) while indulging in food and drinks in an inviting and inventive environment. As the evening progresses joint artworks bloom and are shared for all artists to enjoy! Paint, socialize, chill as you create or watch masterpieces being made!

For more info email marshall@soulotheory.com

Chris Yambar exhibit @ Y'town

2009-03-30T13:44:00.003-04:00

Celebrating the 15th anniversary of Mr. Beat. Through May 9 at the SMARTS Gallery in Youngstown.

Paul Pope's Loverman

2009-03-30T13:17:00.003-04:00

For a French magazine in June.

P. Craig Russell signing @ Wexner 5/12

2009-03-26T02:13:00.002-04:00

Wayne Alan Harold and P. Craig Russell
Night Music: The Art of P. Craig Russell

Book signing | 6 PM

(Wayne Alan Harold, 2008)

Tue, May 12, 2009 | 7:00PM
Film/Video Theater

Night Music provides an illuminating behind-the-scenes look at one of the most acclaimed and interesting comic book artists working today, P. Craig Russell.

Before the film, come by the Wexner Center Store where Russell will be signing copies of his work, including his graphic novel adaptation of Coraline, at 6 PM.

Born in Wellsville, Ohio, and now living in Kent, Russell quickly established himself as one of the most distinctive artists in the fantasy genre with early work on Doctor Strange for Marvel Comics in the mid 1970s. He has since created mesmerizing interpretations of characters ranging from Conan to Neil Gaiman's Sandman, along with a string of astonishing adaptations of operas (The Magic Flute and Salome among them) and of Gaiman's children's classic Coraline. (80 mins., video)

Wexner Center for the Arts

Jeff Smith doc @ Wexner 5/22

2009-03-25T19:45:00.002-04:00

Ken Mills and Jeff Smith
The Cartoonist: Jeff Smith, Bone, and the Changing Face of Comics

World Premiere

(Ken Mills, 2009)

Fri, May 22, 2009 | 7:00PM
Film/Video Theater

The Cartoonist is a portrait of Columbus-based cartoonist and Bone-creator Jeff Smith and his impact on the field during the past 20 years. The Wexner Center is pleased and proud to host the film's world premiere.

The film surveys Smith's career during the run of Bone and also captures the key moment when he shifted focus from completing his popular epic to beginning new projects, including Rasl. Shot during the run of Smith's Wexner Center exhibition Bone and Beyond in 2008, the film is filled with interviews with fellow cartoonists including Harvey Pekar, Terry Moore, Paul Pope, and Scott McCloud. (76 mins., video)

Wexner Center for the Arts

Atomic TV

2009-03-13T09:43:00.007-04:00

This weekend, you can tune in to WDEM 17 and watch LIFELINE COLUMBUS. There, you'll see all manner of cool and interesting stuff going on in Columbus, One of those interesting things is the Sunday Comix Group's Atomic Indie Comix Show along with an interview with Max Ink! To see when the show is playing, check out their schedule. And if you have any trouble tunning in to (or finding) Channel 17, you can watch their broadcast being streamed online here or here. So there's no reason not to see the Atomic Indie Comix Show!

or... you can watch it right here!

Watchmen As Alternate History

2009-03-11T20:58:00.003-04:00

One of the most common comments I've read about the Watchmen movie from people who didn't read the book is “Why is Nixon still president?” and now that I think about it, I'm wondering that myself. To be honest, upon close examination, writer Alan Moore's alternate version of American political history seems poorly thought out and doesn't quite make sense.
In Moore's telling, Nixon sent the super powered Dr. Manhattan in to Southeast Asia and won the Vietnam War, and kept Watergate to coming to light by having Woodward and Bernstein arrested. He then got the Constitution's term limits on the president repealed, allowing him to still be in office as Watchmen's story opens in 1985.
Watchmen is one of two comics published by DC in 1986—the other being The Dark Knight Returns-- that perfectly captured the zeitgeist of the 1980's, and while the name and face of the president of Watchmen's United States are Nixon's, the foreign policy that Moore is reacting to is Ronald Reagan's.
Therein lies my major problem with Moore's alternate history. Quite frankly, I cannot see Richard Nixon, a president who prided himself on his statesmanship and foreign policy expertise, allowing U.S.-Soviet relations to decay to the point, as is the case in Watchmen, where the bombs are just moments from flying, especially with Henry Kissinger at his side as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State. Under Reagan, however, this scenario was frighteningly plausible.
If Nixon is merely a stand in for Reagan, why not use Reagan? In the early stages of Watchmen's development, DC nixed the use of the characters from Charlton Comics defunct “Action Heroes” line of comics, which DC had recently acquired the rights to. Moore was forced to create new characters that roughly parallel the Charlton heroes. Dr. Manhattan stands in for Captain Atom, Nite Owl II is Blue Beetle, Rorschach is the Question and so forth. Did DC also put the kibosh on Reagan as president, perhaps afraid of portraying the sitting chief executive in a negative light? Well, I've never heard or read anyone else even speculating about this possibility, and DC's publication of The Dark Knight Returns that same year, which does depict Reagan and not flatteringly, seems to argue against it.
Having Nixon still in office in 1985 does serve to establish that Watchmen is set in an alternate universe. Of course, the presence of a blue, glowing, naked man who can see into the future is enough to do that.
I'll just say that I honestly have no idea why Nixon is still president, especially as it seems to serve no real purpose storywise.
Another thing that bugs me is the business of Dr. Manhattan winning the Vietnam War. If he could do that, why didn't LBJ send him in years earlier?
So, I've worked out an alternate alternate history for the world of Watchmen that makes a little more sense to me, and still makes the story's events of 1985 possible.
In 1968, after the Tet Offensive, with the war going badly and public opinion turning against him at home, president Lyndon Johnson reluctantly orders Dr. Manhattan to 'Nam to end the war. It is precisely this victory, perceived as a grossly unequal use of force and a display of American arrogance, that inflames the left wing of the Democratic party against him and drives Johnson to withdraw his name from consideration for his party's presidential nomination.
As in real life, Nixon defeats Democrat Hubert Horatio Humphrey and independent candidate George Wallace to become the 37th president of the United States. His dirty tricks never come to light and his opening of diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China makes him quite a popular president. Despite Nixon's disdain for domestic affairs, Dr. Manhattan has made electric cars possible, so the US is not dependent on Arab oil, and other innovations and new industries made possible by the good doctor help to keep the economy on track. Nixon serves out his Constitutionally allotted two terms and is still quite popular when he leaves office.
With that popularity, you would think that his vice president would be a shoo-in to succeed him. However, while Watergate never blew up in Nixon's face in this reality, apparently the entirely separate scandal that drove Nixon's first veep, Spiro Agnew, from office did, and Jerry Ford replaced Agnew. I only recently learned that Ford made a promise to the Senate during his vice presidential confirmation hearings that he would not be a candidate for president in 1976. Of course, in our world, by the time '76 rolled around, circumstances had changed. Ford was now president, and he reasoned at the start of his truncated presidency that to announce he wasn't going to run in the next election would make him a lame duck from day one and even more politically ineffective than he ultimately proved to be. In my alternate alternate world of Watchmen, however, Ford, being an honorable man, honors his pledge and sits out the campaign. The public is still in the mood to elect a Republican, however, and former California governor Ronald Reagan's political star had been rising throughout the sixties. With no incumbent in the race, he sails to the nomination and easily defeats Jimmy Carter.
Reagan proves to be as popular with the American people as he was in real life, and his handling of the Iran hostage situation by sending in Doc Manhattan, ending the crisis in about six hours and restoring the Shah to power, makes him even more popular. At the beginning of his second term, it is Reagan who uses his immense popularity to ram through the necessary Constitutional changes to keep him in office as long as the American people will have him. Thus, we find him in 1985, as the story of Watchmen commences, at the beginning of his third term and engaged in a deadly game of nuclear brinkmanship with the Soviet Union.
I haven't seen the film yet, but from what I've heard, Moore's alternate history of the American comics industry did not make it into the movie. This aspect of Moore's alternate history seems a little better thought out , which is only natural, since he worked in the industry, but still doesn't quite ring true. In Moore's version of events, the emergence of real live costumed crime fighters nips the nascent superhero genre in the bud, as no one wants to read about fictional super heroes when they can read about real ones in the newspapers. Thus by the 1950's the dominant genre is pirate comics. As it serves the story, this does make sense, as it sets up the parallel story from the “Tales of the Black Freighter” reprint comic, which also was left out of the film. However, logically, it seems backwards. After all, the existence of real life cops and doctors and lawyers has never dulled the public appetite for books, television shows, movies, and even comics about them. Going to the moon didn't kill science fiction. In fact, it seems to me that the emergence of real super heroes would only increase demand for fictional accounts of super heroic adventure.
None of these petty quibbles detract from the brilliance of what Moore accomplished in Watchmen. After all, when people talk about what makes the book great, they speak of its intricate structure, its deconstruction of the super hero genre, and its realistic portrayal of its characters. The alternate history is merely background detail.

Atomic Indie Art Comix Show

2009-03-11T13:17:00.007-04:00

Here are some pics from the Sunday Comix Atomic Indie Art Comix Show. If you've missed it, it is still going on until March 29, so get out there and take a look.

Behold, indie comics plus coffee, together again!

Max, Mike, Ray & Friends enjoying the coffee, the show, and jammin!

Bob Corby and Ray hanging out.

Art by Rich about the trials and tribulations of a Columbus Ohio mouse

Sue's Onion Adventures

Part of Johnathan's WWII era piece

Max Ink & Family

Max's awesome Blink cartoons

Matt's Beautiful Work

Ray "Wastes his Potential" again

Call for Cartooning Entries

2009-03-07T19:08:00.003-05:00

Attention all of you aspiring comic strip cartoonists and "graphic fiction authors" (aka comic book creators): there's a shin-dig going down in Kirtland, Ohio a month from now and you'll definitely want to check it out! The Lakeland Community College is hosting their 6th annual Comics Symposium on April 4 (which is free and open to the public) and are accepting entries from up-and-coming cartoonists of all ages for a special Comics Contest.

The contest age groups are Middle School, High School and Adult and there are two media categories: comic strips and "graphic fiction" (aka comic book). Organizers note that the Comics Contest is not an art contest. Judging criteria include factors beyond the artwork such as compelling stories, unique characters, innovating storytelling technique, and humor.

This year’s judges, who also will present at the symposium, include Cleveland-area resident Terri Libenson, creator of the syndicated comic strip "The Pajama Diaries," and Californian Justin Thompson, creator of the Web comic "MythTickle" and illustrator for Charles Schulz's Creative Associates Studio.

Last year's prizes totaled more than $1,000 in gift certificates, art supplies and comics treasury collections. Plans also are in the works to feature the winning entries in a gallery show.

Comic strip, graphic-fiction authors of all drawing abilities can submit up to five entries. Advance electronic or mailed entries are $12 for initial submission and $8 for each additional entry. Entries submitted at the symposium are $15 each. The deadline for early entry is March 27.

Jules Feifer in 'Matzo' @ Columbus Jewish FilmFest 3/8

2009-03-06T20:19:00.002-05:00

Matzo & Mistletoe

Directed by Kate Feifer
Documentary
United States, 2007
60 minutes
In English
Rating PG

Filmmaker Kate Feifer was six years old when her father told her she was Jewish. Since she celebrated Christmas and never attended synagogue, this information came as a surprise. "It was like my parents simply forgot to mention it," she notes. In Matzo & Mistletoe, Feiffer interviews a fascinating cast of characters, and uses archival footage, illustration, and clips from television shows and movies to ponder the paradox of American secular Judaism, asking, "What does it mean to be a non-practicing Jew In America?" In her search for answers, Feifer talks with family and friends, including her father (the cartoonist, screenwriter/playwright) Jules Feifer, newsman Mike Wallace, and author Alan Dershowitz.

A discussion on "What does it mean to be a non-practicing Jew In America?" will follow the film.

Showing Sunday, March 8, 3:30 p.m.,
at the Landmark Gateway Theater, 1550 N. High St., at South Campus Gateway

Columbus Jewish Film Festival

Watchmen in Ohio media

2009-03-05T16:30:00.006-05:00

The Other Paper:

It’s safe to say this week’s opening of Watchmen is a big event in Ryan Seymore’s life.

“In fact,” he said, “my wife and I have scheduled the birth of our next child around me being able to watch Watchmen on opening night.”

“I’m a pretty big fan, you could say.”

As owner of the local Comic Town chain, Seymore has made lots of money off the Watchmen saga, which first appeared as a series of comic books in 1986-87 and later was turned into a graphic novel.

Even though the story has been around for nearly a quarter of a century, fans still snap up new versions of the graphic novel that are distinguished from other versions mainly by the artwork on the cover. And now, with the story about to hit the silver screen, Seymore is selling even more.

“We have gone through about 150 of them in the last month or so,” he said.

The Other Paper review

Columbus Alive review

Columbus Alive: How to be awesome at making a superhero costume

Columbus Alive: Best big-screen superheroes

Columbus Dispatch review

ColumbusUnderground.com review

(Cleveland) Plain Dealer review

Metromix Cincinnati review

Metromix Cincinnati interview with Patrick Wilson

Metromix Cincinnati: This one's for the fanboys

Dayton Daily News review

(Youngstown) Vindy.com feature article

PLUS: Watchmen production designer Alex McDowell @ the Wexner April 7

Kirk Walters' Frogtown @ Toledo Blade

2009-02-25T13:36:00.002-05:00

“It’s a strip about dealing with perseverance, dealing with adversity. Yes, you do hit bottom at some point, but you do recover... I’m perpetually optimistic, which is a bad thing to be if you’re an editorial cartoonist. They’re usually dour and crotchety... I tend to look forward to the opportunities that present themselves.”

Kirk Walters

Have A Blast on March 6th

2009-02-23T14:52:00.005-05:00

***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***

EXHIBITION: Atomic Indie Art Comix Show

DATES: March 6 – March 29, 2009

OPENING RECEPTION: March 6, 2009, 6:00pm -9:00pm

LOCATION: Crimson Cup Coffee Shop, 4541 N. High Street

CONTACT: Max Ink, Executive Director, Sunday Comix, (614) 275-4764, mail.max.ink@gmail.com

Atomic Indie Art Comix Show

COLUMBUS, OH —“The Atomic Indie Comix Show,” an exhibition of comic book pages and comic strips by six members of local cartoonists' group Sunday Comix, will be on display throughout the month of March at Clintonville's Crimson Cup Coffee Shop, located at 4541 N. High Street. The show kicks off on Friday, March 6 with a reception with the artists that begins at the Laughing Ogre comic book store at 4258 N. High Street at 4 PM, and then moves to Crimson Cup at 6 PM, continuing until 9 PM. In addition to viewing the artwork on display, those who attend the reception will have the opportunity to contribute panels to an ongoing “jam comic strip”.

“There's an independent-minded, artistic vibe in Columbus and our group has tapped into that,” says Max Ink, Sunday Comix Executive Director. “The writers and artists of our group each have something unique to say and choose to express it through the art of comics. We encourage individuality and artistic discovery over conforming to the standards and norms of American commercial comics.”

The participating Sunday Comix artists express their individuality through a wide range of styles and genres in comics and cartoon art. All have had their work featured in various local publications, including the Short North Gazette and Columbus Alive! Matt Wyatt's editorial cartoons have appeared in area weeklies since 2003. Sue Olcott's “Onion City” is featured every month in the e-magazine Naked Sunfish, and Ray Tomczak's “Wasted Potential” has been appearing weekly on-line for over two years. Columbus College of Art and Design graduate Jonathon Riddle is currently collaborating with Columbus State teacher Terry Eisel on a graphic novel set in World War II era Czechoslovakia. Rich Watson, whose webcomic “City Mouse Goes West” chronicles his move from New York City to Columbus, was recently profiled by the Columbus Dispatch, and Max Ink's comic, “Blink,” has been declared both “charming” and “worth its weight in gold” by Rick Allen of The Other Paper.

Sunday Comix was founded by Max Ink in 2003 in order to create a sense of community among local comics artist and to promote the artform to the general public. The group meets the third Sunday of each month at the Upper Arlington Public Library. In addition, a spin-off group, Wednesday Comix, gathers on Wednesday evenings at Crimson Cup. All are welcome to attend the meetings of the group. Previously, the group has shown its work at Kafé Kerouac, near the OSU campus, and at the Gallery Upstairs, above the Short North's Surly Girl Saloon.

The local opening of “The Atomic Indie Comix Show” coincides with the nationwide release of the movie “Watchmen”, based on the acclaimed graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons named by Time magazine as one of the Top 100 Novels of All Time. “Watchmen” is the latest in a spate of comics inspired films that, along with the increasing visibility of graphic novels in bookstores, have helped to bring comics back into the cultural mainstream.

black Ohio war hero's story whitewashed in old comic

2009-02-19T12:47:00.003-05:00

"Folks in Steubenville, Ohio, were excited to learn that their own hometown hero Frank McGee won not only the Silver Star for his bravery during the Korean War, but that he would be immortalized in a comic book dedicated to war heroes.

"The excitement soured when 'Heroic Comics' #81 came out early in 1953, containing the story about how a wounded Cpl. McGee saved his platoon from machine-gun wielding North Korean soldiers on Hill 528.

"The story was mostly accurate except for one thing – it portrayed McGee as white."

CRL's Lucy Shelton Caswell

2009-02-11T12:46:00.002-05:00

"I know that, in the ‘70s, the Library of Congress had approached [Milton] Caniff for his papers. I don’t know if he came to Novice Fawcett [OSU President, 1956-72] or if Novice Fawcett got wind of that and talked to Caniff. I don’t know which way it went... Somebody had to be responsible to make sure it was all there and all the boxes had my name on it. When funding was made available to work on Caniff, I was offered a six month appointment. I’ve been here ever since."

Lucy Shelton Caswell

Jeff Smith talks Little Mouse

2009-02-05T18:11:00.003-05:00

"Little Mouse is actually a character I created when I was a kid... It's one of the many characters I made up when I was young. It was just a little gray mouse with a little red vest. So I thought, ‘Well, maybe he would be a good character to use in a comic for kids,’ since I used to make up stories with this character when I was a kid."

Little Mouse Gets Ready

Neil Gaiman Discusses "The Graveyard Book"

2009-02-04T17:10:00.003-05:00

At the web-site of the Newshour with Jim Lehrer, acclaimed comics writer and novelist Neil Gaiman discussed his Newbery Medal winning children's novel, The Graveyard Book, with arts correspondant Jeffrey Brown. Follow this link to listen.

Dara Naraghi in Columbus Alive

2009-01-29T17:41:00.004-05:00

Talking mostly about Terminator: Salvation and a little bit on Ferret Press. This picture was taken in the same spot in the Laughing Ogre as me when I had my photo taken for my Dispatch article, but he got more dramatic lighting!

Ohayocon 9 1/31-2/1 (anime/manga)

2009-01-29T11:47:00.001-05:00

Ohayocon will once again be taking place at the luxurious Hyatt Regency Hotel and the Greater Columbus Convention Center, located in the Downtown area of Columbus, Ohio. For special hotel rates, be sure to call and book early!

Hyatt Regency Columbus
350 North High Street
Columbus, Ohio, 43215
Tel: 614-463-1234
Fax: 614-280-3034

Local Online Review Mag to change format

2009-01-25T14:23:00.002-05:00

The new issue is of GutterGeek up, with the following reviews:

Captain America	Fables	House of Mystery	Jamilti

Logicomix	My Brain is Hanging Upside Down	Superman

However, change is afoot, according to their blog,

After three years as a semi-regular review journal, we are going to be morphing over the course of 2009. The biggest change will be a move from publishing complete “issues” to embracing some of the more natural rhythms of electronic publishing by publishing reviews, articles and other features as they arrive.

So, subscribe to their gutterblog feed (http://guttergeek.com/news/files/blog.xml) and stay up-to-date!

Essential Dykes To Watch Out For Reviewed by American Prospect On-Line

2009-01-24T14:12:00.004-05:00

In a post back in '07, I expressed surprise that the liberal political journal The American Prospect would actually devote its cover story to an article on super-hero comics. Alison Bechdel's "Dykes To Watch Out For", on the other hand, seems a more natural fit. Sure enough, a review of the new hardcover collection, The Essential Dykes To Watch Out For, was posted on the mag's web-site yesterday.

new Jeff Smith children's GN

2009-01-23T13:27:00.003-05:00

Little Mouse Gets Ready, out September 7.

Akron-Canton Comic Con 1/25

2009-01-21T19:25:00.003-05:00

AKRON-CANTON COMIC CONVENTION

Sunday, January 25, 2009
10AM - 4PM
Chapparells Community Center
2418 South Arlington Rd
Akron OH 44319
1 mile north of I-77 and Exit 120 (Arlington Rd)

Admission only $3.oo
Age 6 and under free
Free parking
Guest artists
Hourly door prizes
Free Comic to first 50 people

330.499.6056
jeff@harpercomics.com
www.harpercomics.com

COMIX NEWS: Diamond raises order threshold for pubs [UPDATED]

2009-01-21T16:36:00.006-05:00

Diamond Comics Distributors announced this week that they will raise their order minimum from $1500 to $2500, a move that will have an immediate effect on small press publishers. In other words, a given comic (outside of the ones from the corporate publishers) needs to sell $2500 minimum in order for Diamond to carry it and place it in their catalog Previews. Because Diamond is the dominant comics distributor for North America by an overwhelming margin, this will make it much harder for the next Bone or American Splendor to get a fighting chance at success.

Among the many reactions around the Net includes this from Ohio retailer Steve Bennett, in his column at ICv2:

...I never deluded myself into thinking I could make everyone a comic book reader but firmly believed there were comics for everyone, if they’d only give them a chance.

And that’s pretty much over; of course it’s been over for a while now, seeing as how we live in a world where a start up publisher is more interested in publishing (and retailers more interested in ordering) Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes instead of the next American Splendor. And when it comes to self publishing, well, I’ve seen the numbers and heard the horror stories and know just how tough that route can be for someone with a dream but not enough financing to hang in there until there’s enough material to be collected into a trade paperback.

Newsarama has a roundup of other reactions so far.

Bennett offers the internet as a solution for independent publishers, and in this I have to agree. The majority of us here at Sunday Comix publish our work online, either in addition to or in place of print. The rules of the game have changed completely from when I began self-publishing in the mid-90s, and to survive today, one has to learn to adapt.

Speaking for myself here, I think regional distribution is worth pursuing for print publishers. To the right you'll see a list of retailers in the Central Ohio area. If you're a creator, hit them up and talk to them about carrying your book, and think further down the road about going state-wide and even Midwest region-wide. It's a longer road to travel, but if it keeps your book afloat, it's an option worth pursuing.

UPDATE: Diamond's Bill Schanes talks to Newsarama. Highlights:

There will be a lot of vendors, again, “lot” being relative, on the comic book side that we’ll have conversations with about some title reductions – or repackaging or reformatting based on long history of sales where the sales are continuing to decline, so there’s less consumer interest with every issue and they’re already under the old benchmark, so they’ll be under the new benchmark by quite a bit. So maybe have to go to quarterly or bimonthly, or raise the price. Those who are creative can figure out how to continue to exist out there, at least through Diamond...

We’ve always taken a position that there is free access to the marketplace, and we want to help the small guys get bigger and we’ve helped grow many small guys to medium guys and medium guys to beiger guys, and are thrilled when that happens, but it’s not an imminent right to be in the catalog. Not everybody can be on the grocery store shelves with their products. The grocery store has to make some tough choices based on what it thinks the consumer base will want...

...if we see a new comic cross our door that looks promising, with a good concept or a good creative team, we’re going to give it a try. But when we have a brand new creator or a brand new talent team, that’s a judgment call. Hopefully we make the right call based on our years of experience here, but we may occasionally miss one. There are times that some creators have called me and said that they think we missed a good one, and sometimes we agree, and sometimes we don’t. But that’s a healthy dialogue, and we’re very open-minded with that.

So from a small presser's perspective, distribution by Diamond should no longer be looked upon as the automatic next step after completing the book. It's easy to think that way; I know I used to. Pursue alternatives, even if it's only on the local level. Another option is digital distribution. Check out this CBR piece about iVerse Media's plan for putting comics on iPhones and iPods.

Bob Corby's OH Comics

2009-01-19T15:16:00.002-05:00

"I started sending mini-comics out in the late 80's to anybody willing to trade with me. Mostly to small pressers with reviews in Tim Corrigan's Small Press Comics Explosion. It was a pretty isolated experience back then. I did finally start to see some local guys with listings after awhile. Local people like Michael N. Neno, Mike Toth and also regional people like Jim Pack, Larry Blake, Larry Nibert, Ian Shires and Allen Freeman. That's one of the reasons I started Oh,Comics (or Ohio Comics) was because there seemed to be so many people doing the same thing I was attempting alone."

Bob Corby

Pekar talks 'Leave Me Alone' opera

2009-01-12T21:11:00.002-05:00

“I don’t know if a lot of people would call it an opera... But the Real Time Opera Company offered me money to write the libretto for an opera, so I figured ‘why not?’ These days, I hate to turn money down.”

Harvey Pekar

SPACE Prize Winner Announced

2009-01-11T19:03:00.001-05:00

I have just posted on the Official SPACE Blog, Cosmo's Corner, the announcement of the winner of the first annual SPACE Prize, as well as an interview with the winner.
The SPACE Prize, consisting of a plaque and a check for $300, honors excellence in self published small press comics. It was created as a successor to the Day Prize, which was awarded annually at SPACE by Cerebus creator Dave Sim from 2002 to 2008. Shortly after this year's show, Sim decided to stop doing conventions, thus discontinuing the Day Prize. So SPACE organizer Bob Corby stepped in to create the SPACE Prize.
The SPACE Prize will be presented at the 2009 SPACE show, which will take place on April 18th and 19th in beautiful Columbus, Ohio.

Naraghi writes Terminator: Salvation prequel

2009-01-06T12:49:00.003-05:00

5-page preview here.

belated Xmas gift courtesy of James Thurber

2009-01-05T12:10:00.003-05:00

This is an audio file of a reading of Thurber's "A Visit from Saint Nicholas in the Ernest Hemingway Manner."

Phonzie Davis' Left Handed Sophie

2008-12-28T00:49:00.003-05:00

"...Davis’ artwork is a combination of styles, from the dynamic energy of Jack Kirby to the urban neo-expressionism of Basquiat to the playful, cartoonish imagery of Evan Dorkin and Peter Bagge.

"There is also a nod to generations of black popular culture, something that’s seldom reflected on the comic book racks. The iconic, gritty marker drawings on the covers of Funkadelic album covers and the bad-ass attitude of blaxploitation cinema come to mind, especially the latter’s fondness for strong female protagonists.

"Despite such intellectual explorations, the book is a lot of fun to read as well."

Beehive Comics blog for LHS
Newsarama review

Corby's Lump of Coal anthology

2008-12-18T00:08:00.002-05:00

"I'm an adviser for the Art Explorer Post 407 which meets every Saturday at the campus of the Columbus College of Art and Design. 'Lump of Coal' was started last year as a stocking stuffer mini-comic to sell at CCAD’s Student Art Sale which occurs in early December every year. The book is used to help raise money for the post for art supplies and trips. The idea to do a holiday mini-comic for the sale was mine, but one of the students came up with the name, after we saw how most of the strips were heading in the “bad attitude” direction. This year it’s a whopping 32 interior pages with a color cover in the traditional mini-comic format (4-1/4” X 5-1/2”)."

Bob Corby

Harvey Pekar opera!!

2008-12-12T11:23:00.001-05:00

Media Contact:
Charlotte Landrum, Associate Director of Conservatory Media Relations
440-775-5474 (office); charlotte.landrum@oberlin.edu

From Off the Streets of Cleveland Comes ...

Leave Me Alone!, a Jazz Opera by Harvey Pekar and Dan Plonsey, to Premiere at the Oberlin Conservatory Of Music and via Webcast on Jan. 31, 2009

American Splendor Icon Pekar Focuses His Sardonic Wit on the Everyday Struggles of Avant-Garde Artists, with Music from Cleveland-born Composer and Saxophonist Plonsey

Harvey Pekar
Photo by Chris Buck

OBERLIN, OHIO (December 10, 2008) —The iconic underground comic book author Harvey Pekar will make his operatic debut at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Leave Me Alone!, an autobiographical jazz opera. A collaboration by two Cleveland natives, the opera combines a libretto by Pekar with music by saxophonist and composer Dan Plonsey. Leave Me Alone! depicts the lives of its creators in quotidian detail while asking big questions about the place of cutting-edge art in our society. Amidst the demands and interruptions of day-to-day life, Pekar and Plonsey wonder, how can artists carve out time for their creative work? More importantly, they ask, how do we cultivate a society that is receptive to the avant-garde? The opera, which is presented by Oberlin in cooperation with Real Time Opera, will receive its world premiere in a free performance on Saturday, January 31, 2009, at 8 p.m. in Finney Chapel. The performance will also be streamed live to an international audience online at www.LeaveMeAloneOpera.com.

Finney Chapel is located at 90 N. Professor Street in Oberlin, Ohio, just 40 minutes southwest of Cleveland.

“There ought to be a place for cutting edge work,” says Pekar, who believes that many major cultural institutions have shirked their responsibility to support contemporary art and challenge audiences. “I thought there wasn’t much out there being said about this, and I wanted to open up some discussion.”

Called “the blue-collar Mark Twain” by Variety, Pekar is best known for his autobiographical comic book series American Splendor, in which he elevated the mostly mundane details of his life as a working-class Clevelander to the level of art. The series won the American Book Award and a film adaptation took top honors at the Cannes and Sundance film festivals. Composer Plonsey, who was born and raised in Cleveland Heights, has been a lifelong proponent of new music, and has founded several new music series in and around his current home in El Cerrito, California.

“The opera, simply put, is the non-fictional account of its own creation,” says Plonsey. In the story, Pekar and Plonsey engage in discussions about music, the state of the avant-garde, and the creation of the opera itself from their Cleveland and San Francisco Bay Area living rooms. A taped conversation between Pekar and comics illustrator Robert Crumb provides an additional perspective on the opera’s themes. The wives of Plonsey and Pekar, Mantra Ben-ya’akova Plonsey and Joyce Brabner (who portray themselves in the production), enter the plot, as does Josh Smith, the opera’s music director. Oberlin Conservatory students will also be involved in the production; four singers will double the protagonists on stage and an ensemble of six jazz musicians will back them in the pit, playing alongside Plonsey and Smith.

Plonsey and Pekar are deeply committed to the notion that art transcends distinctions of class and hence ought to be available to all. Accordingly, both the live performance and the webcast of the opera will be offered free of charge. Those wishing to support the production may do so by purchasing a comic about the opera, written by Pekar and illustrated by Joseph Remnant, at www.LeaveMeAloneOpera.com. The comic is available as a signed, limited-edition print ($300) or digital download ($5). Visitors may also purchase a cell-phone ring tone featuring Harvey’s inimitable voice ($5) on the site.

Performers and Production Team
Several of the performers in the opera will play themselves, including Dan Plonsey, Harvey Pekar, Mantra Ben-ya’akova Plonsey, and Joyce Brabner. Oberlin Conservatory and College singers Patty Stubel ’09, Kate Rosen ’11, Joanna Lemle ’10, and Christopher Rice ’10 will double the characters on stage; students, including dummer Noah Hecht ’10, trombonist Aaron Salituro ’11, saxophonist David Schwartz ’12, and trumpeter Gregory Zilboorg ’13, will also play in the band.

The production team includes Paul Schick, executive producer for Real Time Opera; Josh Smith, musical director; Associate Professor of Opera Jonathon Field, stage director; Robert Katkowski, set designer; Barry Steele, lighting designer; Victoria Vaughan, stage manager; and Dan Michalak, musical preparation. The webcast will be produced with help from Oberlin professional staff and students, including Associate Dean of Technology and Facilities Michael Lynn, Director of Audio Services Paul Eachus, Director of Networking Barron Hulver, and Technology Consultant Todd Brown.

About the Librettist: Harvey Pekar
Harvey Pekar, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, is best known for his autobiographical comic book series American Splendor. Pekar began self-publishing the series in 1976, at the urging of friend and noted illustrator Robert Crumb. Unique among comic books of the time, Pekar’s stories documented the minutiae of his daily life: working as a file clerk in the VA hospital, grocery shopping, or simply searching for a lost set of keys. In 1987, Pekar was honored with the American Book Award for his work on the series, and in 2003 American Splendor was adapted as a movie to widespread critical acclaim. An avid record collector, Pekar began his writing career as a book and music critic, with a particular interest in jazz. His reviews have been published in the Boston Herald, the Austin Chronicle, Jazz Times, Urban Dialect (Cleveland), and Down Beat magazine. Pekar’s commentary for public radio station WKSU, starting in 1999, won him several journalism awards, including the 2001 Regional Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Writing. Pekar was a frequent guest on Late Night with David Letterman in the late 1980s; his infamous on-air criticism of General Electric got him temporarily banned from the show, although he did make two more appearances in the early 1990s. In 2001, Pekar retired from his job as a file clerk at the local VA Hospital. He lives in Cleveland Heights with his wife Joyce and their foster daughter Danielle.

About the Composer: Dan Plonsey
Saxophonist and composer Dan Plonsey was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. Drawing inspiration from musicians as diverse as Sun Ra and Charles Ives, Plonsey’s music defies easy categorization. “No doubt,” writes All About Jazz, “Plonsey is a creative soul who possesses a Renaissance spirit.” In recent years Plonsey’s instrumental work has focused on large ensembles of mixed instrumentation and ensembles of multiple saxophones. His more than 200 works for large and small ensembles include commissions from Bang on a Can, the Berkeley Symphony, and New Music Works in Santa Cruz. He has written numerous operas, including three collaborations with Paul Schick of Real Time Opera. From 1994-99, he was the resident composer and chief librettist for Disaster Opera Theater in El Cerrito, California, where he currently lives. He also founded the weekly Beanbender’s creative music concert series in Berkeley, which is ongoing on an occasional basis. Plonsey earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in math and music from Yale University and a Master of Arts degree in composition from Mills College. He has studied composition with Martin Bresnick, David Lewin, Anthony Braxton, and, more briefly, Roscoe Mitchell and Terry Riley. He currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife Mantra and their two sons, Cleveland and Mischa.

About the Director: Jonathon Field
Jonathon Field is one of America’s more versatile and popular stage directors, having directed more than 100 productions in all four corners of the United States. He served as artistic director of Lyric Opera Cleveland for six seasons, where he presented the operas of Mozart, Rossini, and Donizetti as well as the Ohio premieres of works by John Adams, Mark Adamo, and Philip Glass. Several of Field’s productions for the Lyric Opera of Chicago were so successful they were repeated at the Illinois Humanities Festival with Stephen Sondheim as keynote speaker. His productions for San Francisco Opera’s Western Opera Theatre and Seattle Opera have played in more than 20 states. Over the past eight years Field has directed 10 productions with the Arizona Opera, being deemed by the press “their most perceptive stage director.” In February 2007, Field directed—at Oberlin and at Miller Theatre in New York City—the critically acclaimed U.S. premiere of Lost Highway, a dramatic music theater work by noted Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth based on the David Lynch film. This is Field’s 11th season as director of Oberlin Opera Theater.

About Real Time Opera: Artistic Director Paul Schick
Under the artistic direction of Paul Schick, Real Time Opera (RTO) has presented world premieres of new operas in New York, San Francisco, and New England, where the company is based. In 2005, RTO premiered Feynman (2005), a chamber opera by composer Jack Vees, with a libretto by Schick, about Nobel Prize-winning physicist and cult figure Richard Feynman, with SO Percussion as the pit orchestra. The opera premiered at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and was reprised in Brattleboro, Vermont at Dartmouth College, in Concord, New Hampshire, and in New York at the Knitting Factory. A future online production of Feynman from Yale is in the planning stages. RTO’s debut production, in 2003, was Korczak’s Orphans by composer Adam Silverman and librettist Susan Gubernat. Based on the life of Polish pediatrician, orphanage director, and Holocaust martyr Janosz Korczak, the opera was also performed by New York City Opera on their VOX Festival of new American works. RTO’s second production, Hawaiian Tan Ratface, a quasi-opera by John Trubee, premiered at San Francisco’s Studio Z in 2004. Schick is librettist and producer of the forthcoming music-dance-theater piece A House in Bali by composer Evan Ziporyn, scheduled to premiere in Bali, Indonesia, followed by an international tour, in 2009. As an administrator, Schick has worked with Opera North, Boston Lyric Opera, the American Gamelan Institute, and the composers’ collective Frog Peak Music. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Hamilton College and a Master of Philosophy degree and PhD in musicology from Yale University.

The Oberlin Conservatory of Music, founded in 1865 and situated amid the intellectual vitality of Oberlin College since 1867, is the oldest continuously operating conservatory in the United States. The Conservatory is renowned internationally as a professional music school of the highest caliber and has been pronounced a “national treasure” by the Washington Post. Oberlin’s alumni have gone on to achieve illustrious careers in all aspects of the serious music world. Many of them have attained stature as solo performers, composers, and conductors, among them Jennifer Koh, Steven Isserlis, Denyce Graves, Franco Farina, Christopher Robertson, Lisa Saffer, George Walker, Christopher Rouse, David Zinman, and Robert Spano. All of the members of the contemporary sextet eighth blackbird, most of the members of the International Contemporary Ensemble, and many of the members of Apollo’s Fire are Oberlin alumni. In chamber music, the Miró, Pacifica, Juillard, and Fry Street quartets, among other small ensembles, include Oberlin-trained musicians, who also can be found in major orchestras and opera companies throughout the world. For more information about Oberlin, please visit www.oberlin.edu/con.

CALENDAR LISTING
Saturday, January 31, 2009, 8 p.m.
The Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Real Time Opera present
Leave Me Alone!
Libretto by Harvey Pekar
Music by Dan Plonsey
Josh Smith, music director
Jonathon Field, stage director
Live on stage:
Finney Chapel
90 North Professor Street
Oberlin, Ohio
Online:
www.LeaveMeAloneOpera.com
FREE
Oberlin Conservatory 24-Hour Concert Hotline: 440-775-6933

###

Visit the Oberlin Conservatory of Music Press Room or subscribe to our RSS feed for more breaking news.

Happy Birthday James Thurber!

2008-12-08T09:48:00.004-05:00

I read this article in yesterday's Dispatch and thought about how wonderful it is to have a such a talented cartoonist (and yes, a very funny author) from Columbus be so celebrated here in the States and internationally.

There are quite a few things going on at the Thurber House over the next year, but this Wednesday (from 6-9p) you can join in the celebration of Mr. Thurber's 114th birthday at the Westin Columbus (310 S. High St.) "featuring the author of My Lucky Star, the 2007 Thurber Prize for American Humor winner, Joe Keenan. He is a five time Emmy Award winner and two time winner of the Writers Guild of America Award for his writing on the hit TV series, Frasier, where he also rose from executive story editor to executive producer. In 2007, he shared an Annie Award for best writing of an animated feature for Flushed Away. He has also written and produced several episodes of Desperate Housewives."

Should be a great evening!

Also, I came across this YouTube vid; once upon a time... it was James Thurber's world and we were all welcome to it.

RW in the Columbus Dispatch

2008-11-18T11:06:00.002-05:00

Several months ago, I decided to start a webcomic about my new life here in Columbus. At first I wasn’t entirely sure how good it would be or how long it would even last. I just felt like it was something I needed to do. Who knew that anyone would even read it, much less want to write about it?

Dispatch article

If It's Comic Related, You'll Find It's Got A New Look

2008-11-17T01:17:00.004-05:00

The Comic Related News & Reviews website has been around for nearly five years now, chugging away in the online salt mines of comics commentary. Founder Chuck Moore has been an ardent supporter of quality comics, from the top-of-the-line mainstream books to the smallest of the small press mini comics, and does all he can to promote & support them (mine included). For the longest time it seemed that CR was a one-man show; but over the past year, it's grown to include over half a dozen contributors and thousands of visitors and as of this past weekend, the site has gotten a serious make-over.

In an email dated November 8, Moore states:

I'm sure you've noticed that we've moved from being a primarily press release driven site to generating more and more original content. We're really coming into our own on this front and I sincerely thank Peter Simeti, all our columnists and all our great reviewers for making this happen. As we move increasingly into the news business, this flow of original content, commentary and discussion will only increase.

Looking ahead, we're going to start playing in the Newsarama / Comic Book Resources sandbox all the while maintaining our goal of a small press first focus. My goal is to transform us from being A destination site to THE destination site and 2009 is the year where we start making that happen.

And he further added,

"I couldn't be happier with the way things turned out now that the site has relaunched. It packs a visual impact to go with the great content provided by our numerous writers. Think you've seen it all? Wait until you see phase two of the redesign as we begin focusing more on the community aspects of the site updating the look of our forum AND integrating more places for readers to comment and take part in the evolution of the site. As I like to say... If you think you know Comic Related, you haven't seen anything yet!"

All that I can add is-- from the looks of things, it is going to be a colorful ride!

DR. SKETCHY'S Anti-Art School Announcement

2008-11-13T01:48:00.004-05:00

Calling all artists, aspiring artists of all skill levels, and girlie gawkers: DR. SKETCHY'S Anti-Art School is in session THIS SATURDAY, November 15 from 5-8:00 p.m. at East Village in the Short North (630 N. High).

WHAT IS DR. SKETCHY'S, YOU ASK? Dr. Sketchy's is the little event that became a movement. Founded in 2005 by artist Molly Crabapple, Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School gives local artists the opportunity to sketch the most beautiful burlesque dancers, the most bizarre circus freaks, the most fabulous drag queens, and other fabulous, beautiful, uber-fantastic models. Every other month or so, we will let you draw them for three hours. Interspersed with posing there will sometimes be performances, ridiculous drawing contests where you can win booze or prizes, and other surprises.

This month's models will be a few of the lovely Velvet Hearts, Calamity Rain and Femme Mystique, and special guest The Reverend Roy Rogers!

SIGN UP for the next Dr. Sketchy's Columbus Anti-Art Class here - $10.00 advance PayPal payment, $15.00 at the door. Don't miss the chance to catch this live figure modeling class! It's a sketching class... with booze!

It's Time For (more) Cartoons!

2008-11-10T21:00:00.004-05:00

Whether you're a wide-eyed kid (or a kid at heart) or a cynical, beaten-down adult, you can always enjoy a good cartoon, right? This Saturday (Nov. 15) at CCAD's Canzani Center, the Columbus International Film & Video Festival is showing a wide array of animated shorts from all around the world. In the morning (10am) is when they'll show "Saturday Morning Cartoons From Around The World" for children of all ages; then, at 7:30pm they'll begin "Animation 4 Adults," featuring the Grand Prix Oberhausen winner "Chainsaw" a stunning story about Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner, chainsaw safety, and bullfighting (for adults of not-quite-all ages). Admission is $5 (free for students) and parking at CCAD is free. (Fun Fact: The Columbus International Film & Video Festival is the oldest film festival in North America, having existed since 1952!)

Creative Columbus survey now up

2008-11-10T11:48:00.004-05:00

The Creative Columbus survey is designed to measure the breadth and depth of the arts community in Central Ohio for the purpose of increasing business opportunities.

This study will identify how the various creative businesses and organizations, workforce and talent are represented and connected in Central Ohio. To help us measure this economy and community, we’re looking for everyone to participate in this "creative census"

- businesses and organizations
- self-employed professionals
- employees
- students

The survey is up from now until the 25th.

The Ten Cent Plague

2008-11-08T11:01:00.004-05:00

The heart of David Hajdu’s The Ten Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America is the story of Janice Valleau Winkleman. We first meet her, in the book’s prologue, living with her husband Ed in a Florida retirement village. But this retiree harbors a secret past that not even her children were aware of: She once made her living drawing comic books. Hers is one of over 800 names listed in the book’s appendix of people who were driven from the medium forever by the backlash against comic books that culminated in the 1954 Senate subcommittee hearings on Juvenile Delinquency and the subsequent adoption by the industry of the draconian Comics Code,the most restrictive set of content restrictions ever enforced on any medium, which drove many publishers, most notably EC Comics, to abandon the field. Throughout the narrative, Hajdu returns to Winkleman’s story, tracing her career from her first job at MLJ Comics (known as Archie Comics these days), obtained at age 19 through connections at the art school she attended, to her final, reluctant, decision more than a decade later to walk away from the industry for good. Though she eventually took up painting as a hobby, Winkleman would never again attempt to make a living as an artist, in comics or anywhere else. When asked why, she responds, “I was scared to death. Don’t you know what they did to us?” Hajdu does indeed know, and in the remainder of this unforgettable book, he lets us know as well.

To be honest, and this isn’t a criticism but merely a caveat, the book doesn’t really live up to its subtitle. This isn’t really a story of how the backlash against comic books changed America, but of how that backlash was an extreme and tragic example of the changes that swept all aspects of American culture and society at the midpoint of the 20th century. The book’s greatest strength is Hajdu’s ability to convey his sweeping social history in starkly human terms. His focus is squarely on the people, from industry giants such as Spirit creator Will Eisner and William Gaines, publisher of EC Comics and a central figure in the controversy, to those like Winkleman, who toiled in relative or even complete obscurity, not even allowed, in most cases, to sign their name to their work, whose lifes were forever altered by the events he details. He also provides insight into the characters and motivations of those who fueled the backlash against comics. These instigators include the infamous Dr. Frederick Wertham, whose sensationalistic book of spurious pseudo-pyschology, Seduction Of The Innocent, provided much of the grist for the anti-comics mill of the Senate subcommitte and other comics detractors, and the ambitious Senator Estes Kefauver, who hoped to use the publicity generated by these hearings to jumpstart his bid for the White House. Aiding them at the grassroots level were the mostly well intentioned, if ultimately misguided, community and religious leaders who took their protests to the extreme of organizing mass burnings of comic books in mostly small towns across the nation, and the children, members of what at the time was the intended audience for comic books, who aided them, sometimes reluctantly and with regret but surprisingly often willingly and with relish, in their crusade by gathering up comic books to fuel the funeral pyres and applying pressure on local merchants, often in the form of a threatened boycott, to stop selling them.

Through striving, and succeeding, to put a human face on this tragic yet, outside of the community of comics professionals and dedicated fans, nearly forgotten episode from our recent history, Hajdu has produced not only one of the most important books of comics and social history yet published, but he has crafted a page turner of a story as involving and compellingly readable as Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize winning novel covering the same historical period, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay, to which I would heartily recommend The Ten Cent Plague as a companion volume.

art-related events for 11/6-11

2008-11-06T13:17:00.004-05:00

- As part of the Andy Warhol exhibit currently playing at the Wexner Center, Andyland will be this Saturday, a party event which recreates the Factory environment and provides a little of the "superstar" experience.

- Here's one I missed from last week: now playing at the Ohio Historical Center: the work of Norman Rockwell and the lithographs of Currier & Ives. (FYI: the Milton Caniff exhibit is still ongoing until March!)

- MadLab Gallery is having a video film fest Saturday night.

- Lot of stuff happening at the OSU Urban Arts Space: The Ohio Watercolor Society opens an exhibit in the Riffe Gallery tonight. Also tonight, one reception for two shows: an exhibit by artist Alan Crockett and a show by the Department of Art faculty.

- The Columbus Film Festival continues Sunday with To Each Her Own, 8PM at Liquid; and Tuesday with The Challenge of Change: In The Melting Heart Of The Alps, 8 PM at Germania.

- I've neglected to mention the Cowtown Film Series, which actually has been going on before I started posting here, but anyway... Tonight's showing is The King of Iron Town (check the website for the trailer) at 7PM.

- Radio station Sunny 95 presents a Rock and Roll Art Show, Friday - Sunday at Polaris.

- The Clintonville Arts Guild has an arts and crafts show and sale Saturday.

Plus:
- The Columbus International Festival is this weekend.

Goodye, Opus and Hello, President Obama

2008-11-05T15:56:00.005-05:00

This past Sunday, November 2, after 28 years (well, 20 if you don't count the 8 year hiatus between Outland and Opus), Berkely Breathed and his bow-tied alter ego departed the pages of the Sunday comics section, with, if I can be honest here, more of a whimper than a bang. The most recent incarnation of the strip never really lived up to Bloom County in its heyday or even Outland at its best, but in all its forms, Breathed's strip has been one of the highlights of the comics section and will be missed. Luckily, I have all of the books, so I shan't be missing Opus too much.
Among Breathed's many accomplishments is his 1987 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning. However, the events of last night throw into serious doubt Breathed's skills as a political fortune teller. In a sequence of strips from 1988 (which I intended to scan on Saturday to accompany this, but I chose instead to have a total emotional meltdown. We won't go into that in a parenthetical phrase. However, if you're reading along at home, said sequence is reprinted on pages three and four of Night of the Mary Kay Commandos and page 148 of Classics of Western Literature.), "deeply Democratic" Tom Binkley is beset with a "liberal Democrat guilt fit" because he thinks "Jesse Jackson is kinda loopy." He goes on to say, "Jesse can give a heck of a sermon...and he rhymes well...But I'm sorry...I...I just don't see him as the leader of the free world."
To assuage his father's anguish, young Mike Binkley calls on Oliver Wendell Jones' father, Frank, who assures Tom, "Speaking for blacks worldwide, we don't hate you!" and goes on to predict that "The first black in the White House will be a conservative."
To be fair to Breathed, given the political climate of the time (a time that extended to about six months ago, in truth), this was a perfectly reasonable assumption. And if Colin Powell had ever chosen to toss his gold star festooned hat into the ring, it most likely would have become reality.
Instead, last night, this nation elected to lead it the man described by his GOP critics as the most liberal member of the United States Senate.
It's funny, though, that four years ago, John Kerry was the most liberal senator. And I'm sure that if the race for the Democratic nomination had gone differently, you can just guess who would have found herself tagged as the Senate's most liberal member.

The Times The Are A Ch-Ch-Changin'

2008-11-05T15:45:00.006-05:00

Since Ray's spent the past two days on the election, I thought I'd round it out with a small sampling of political cartoons from The Cagle Post.

Many people are happy and quite proud...

...playing a part in this historic event...

...the history books are definitely going to remember this day fondly...

Ah, but then there are the others who have a different point of view...

I've got my own thoughts on the matter. But no matter which side of the coin you're on, the coin itself is worth the same amount (unless, of course, there's an economic depression). Hopefully, we can all work together to help make the American Dream worth dreaming again.

Chicks Dig The Shirt

2008-11-04T16:38:00.007-05:00

Back at Mid-Ohio Con last month, I picked up the Barack Obama T-shirt pictured above, featuring an image painted by noted comics artist Alex Ross, best known for his work on Marvels and Kingdom Come. As I said in my last post, I wasn't quite the true believer that I am now, but a cool T-shirt is a cool T-shirt when all is said and done.

I am, in fact, wearing said shirt as I write this, and, it should go without saying, wore it to the rally on Sunday. I figured my chances of getting a bus after the event were about zero, and if I did it would be unbearably crowded, so I set out to walk toward Clintonville. Along the way, I noticed a couple women, and really good looking ones, giving me, as the saying goes, "the eye." Of course, I knew what was going on here. It wasn't me; a tall skinny dork with broken glasses, a football shaped head, a big nose and bad teeth; that caught their eye. The truth is that, as the headline says, chicks dig the shirt.

I wonder if that will still be the case after the election. I guess that depends on the outcome. All the reaction my Michael Dukakis T-shirt gets is pointing and laughing.

By The Time We Got To The Statehouse, We Were 60,000 Strong, And Everywhere Were The Signs Of A Celebration

2008-11-03T16:16:00.005-05:00

Did you know that the next President of the United States of America is only two inches tall?
Or so he appeared to me at the Barack Obama rally at the Ohio Statehouse yesterday. It could be, of course, due to the fact that I was quite far from the speaker's platform. In a crowd of 60,000, however, I suppose I was lucky to have been able to see him at all.
I am, either by nature or due to certain events in my past life, if not a full blown cynic then at least a dedicated skeptic, and while I did vote early for Obama, I didn't quite buy the whole hope and change message. Until yesterday. Perhaps it was because I was surrounded by 60,000 cheering true believers, or maybe it was something about actually hearing what was, to be honest, mostly the standard issue stump speech that he has delivered hundreds of times and I've heard most of on the news, in person and from the man himself. I can't really say, but by the end of the rally, I had, to quote a sketch from Saturdays SNL, "drunk the Obama Kool-Aid." I wish I could vote for him all over again. Hopefully, I will be able to vote to re-elect him in four years.
Anyway, this is supposed to be a comics blog, so I'm going to connect this to comics presently.
The 60,000 attendance figure, more than twice what had been expected, comes from National Public Radio's All Things Considered. The NPR correspondant also noted Obama's muffed attempt to reach out to the geek vote. Challenging his opponents self-styled image as a "maverick," the candidate repeated his charge that John McCain voted with George Bush over 90% of the time on economic issues, saying that McCain was more a sidekick than a maverick, "like Kato with the Green Lantern." The NPR reporter correctly pointed out, and I got as he said it, that Kato was, in fact, the sidekick of the Green Hornet.
This gaffe, is in an odd way, reassuring. After all, the POTUS has more important things to do than read comic books, especially super-hero comics.
I bet Dubya knows the difference between the Green Hornet and the Green Lantern, although I picture him as more of an Image comics reader. I can picture him, in the summer of 2001, poring over every detail of the latest issue of Spawn or The Savage Dragon while the now infamous briefing paper entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike Targets Inside US" languished unread in the bottom drawer of his desk beneath a half-eaten bag of stale Cheetos.
I end this rant with a reminder--no--an admonition to all of you to get out and VOTE! If you're in Franklin County, there's still time to get in line at Vets Memorial to vote today. If you're in line by 7 p.m. they have to let you vote. If you can't get out today, then remember that polls are open tomorrow from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

underground art @ Gallery 83

2008-11-03T12:38:00.002-05:00

The Lantern has a piece about a new gallery that opened on Saturday.

scary art-related events for 10/31-11/1 and news

2008-10-30T18:23:00.004-04:00

- Gallery Hop is Saturday night in the Short North.

- Junctionville Studios is hosting Por Vida!, a Day of the Dead celebration, Saturday night at 10PM.

- The OSU Department of Design celebrates its 40th anniversary this Saturday.

Plus:
- The Highball Halloween parade is tomorrow night beginning at 6pm on High St.

- Not an event but it's an interesting story: there are billboards around town featuring the work of a New York photographer that are causing a stir.

- And while it's not exactly on-topic, it is definitely noteworthy: the Grandview movie theater is coming back!

Scarlet Veronica signings this week

2008-10-29T18:51:00.002-04:00

I just came from the Ogre and there was a signing there today by the creators of a book called Scarlet Veronica, a horror comedy from Ape Entertainment. I haven't read it yet, but it looks like it'll appeal to Buffy fans.

Tomorrow, they'll appear at Hobby Central in Delaware and back at the Ogre on Saturday. Unfortunately, their website doesn't list times, so you'll have to call ahead.

Laughing Ogre: (614) A-MR-OGRE
Hobby Central: (740) 363-0381‎

report on Milai lecture @ CRL

2008-10-29T15:10:00.001-04:00

The Lantern has a piece on the recent lecture at the Cartoon Research Library on Sam Milai, whose work is currently on display.

Cartooning the Campaign

2008-10-28T20:44:00.005-04:00

NPR conducted an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution cartoonist Mike Luckovich and Mike Peters of The Dayton Daily News about the presidential campaign so far. Of note: Mike celebrates his 40th anniversary at The Dayton Daily News this year!

The above cartoon is discussed in the interview.

Want more political cartoons all year long? Check out The Cagle Post for hundreds of comics from all around the world (and you can sign up to get delivery every day)!

Too Much Photography exhibit taking submissions

2008-10-28T11:35:00.001-04:00

Opening: November 29th, 5-7pm
Submission Deadline: November 12th at midnight
Show Dates: November 28th-December 20th

Is there really such a thing as Too Much Photography? We don't think
so and we'd like to show Columbus all of the talented artists working
in photography by showing as many photographic works as we can fit in
our gallery. If you are an artist working in color or
black and white, digital, or every possible other form of photography,
we would love to see your work!

Please send digital images of your work to madlabgallery@madlab.net .
You can obtain the jury card at
www.madlab.net/gallery.htm and send it
with your images so we know who you are and how to contact you.

The deadline for your digital submissions is Saturday, 11/12 at
Midnight. The show will run from 11/28 through 12/20. The gallery
opening is Saturday, 11/29 from 5 pm to 7 pm! All participating
artists will receive one complimentary ticket to the theater show so
you can make a night of it! This season it?s MadLab?s presentation of
Split.

So, hurry and submit your work NOW!

Thank You!

Madlab.Gallery.

Mr. Smith goes to California (for the CBLDF)

2008-10-28T11:19:00.002-04:00

Jeff Smith's only bookstore appearance for this year and next year will be this December 6 in Concord, CA at Flying Colors, as the result of an auction that benefited the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

Harvey visiting Heroes

2008-10-27T18:18:00.004-04:00

I just came across some photos of Cleveland's hometown hero Harvey Pekar (along with the phenomenally talented Alison Bechdel) from a few weeks ago where he made an appearance at Heroes Aren't Hard Find for a book signing and then to the ImaginOn library, where they delivered a dual lecture on comics and graphic novels.

I got the chance to meet Harvey earlier this year and contrary to what you might think (after reading or watching American Splendor), Harvey is a very nice, sweet guy. Also, I got a chance to visit Heroes, and look forward to going down there again next year.

report on comics conference @ Bowling Green

2008-10-27T12:54:00.002-04:00

Scott McCloud and Jamal Igle were among the lecturers at a conference celebrating Superman's 70th anniversary (and comics in general) in Bowling Green. In addition, there's a comics exhibit on display with work by an all-star lineup of creators.

2008-10-27T10:58:00.003-04:00

Over the past few years, I have found so many great comics/graphic novels (at such reasonable prices!) at Columbus' Half Price Books, that I just had to share this...

art-related events for 10/24-29

2008-10-23T11:39:00.004-04:00

- The multimedia art studio Wild Goose Creative will have an opening night party to celebrate their new studio space in Clintonville tomorrow night at 7PM.

- The Columbus Film Festival continues Tuesday the 28th with Murder, Spies, and Voting Lies: The Clint Curtis Story, playing at the Drexel in Bexley at 7:30 PM; followed on Wednesday the 29th by Who Does She Think She Is?, playing at the First Unitarian Universalist Church, 93 W. Weisheimer Rd, at 7PM.