UF UNDERGROUND
John Ronan has announced the University of Florida's second annual academic conference on comics, to be held in Gainseville, Florida February 7th and 8th, 2003. The 2003 UF Conference on Comics: Underground(s), will focus on the American "Underground Comix" movement and will include cartoonists Bill Griffith, Kim Deitch, Diane Noomin, Art Spiegelman, and Robert Williams as featured guests. Says Ronan, "This Conference will focus on the material history, contemporary production, and critical reception of underground comics. Artists and academic critics will explore what underground comix were, what material and technological changes they created within the medium, and what avenues of narrative and visual expression they opened up for artists following in their wake." The conference has issued a concomitant call for papers, with abstracts due to Ronan or Professor Donald Ault by December 15, 2002. Further inquiries can be directed to Ronan at ronan@ufl.edu or Professor Ault at ault@ufl.edu.
INFO: Comics at Florida
posted by Egon on Saturday, November 16, 2002

DESTINATION ANGOULEME
The extensive French comics site labd.com now offers program information for the 30th annual Festival International de la bande dessinée in Angoulême, France. The Festival, running January 23 - 26, is chaired by last year's Grand Prix winner François Schuiten, who seeks to incorporate animation and other multimedia presentations into the Festival's schedule of events. This year's international focus will be on South Korea, highlighting distinctions between South Korean and other Asian comics. International guests of the Festival will include Katsuhiro Otomo, Art Spiegelman, Neil Gaiman, José Muñoz, Carlos Sampayo, Jiro Taniguchi, Dave McKean, Benoît Sokal, Todd McFarlane and Miguelanxo Prado. The site offers a wealth of further information on the Festival and coordinated events to interested Francophones.
INFO: labd.com
posted by Egon on Wednesday, November 13, 2002

ACME NOVELTY BUILDING
A mural designed by Chris Ware now adorns the facade of San Francisco's 826 Valencia, as reported to the Comics Journal's message board by Kim Thompson. Located in the city's Mission District, 826 Valencia is the community writing center for school aged children founded by McSweeney's editor-in-chief Dave Eggers. Rendered in Ware's intricate, diagrammatic style, the mural "depicts the parallel development of humans and their efforts at and motivations for communication, spoken and written," and "was applied by skilled artisans according to Ware’s specifications." An image of the stunning mural can be found at 826 Valencia's website.
INFO/IMAGE: 826 Valencia
posted by Egon on Tuesday, November 12, 2002

DISPATCH FROM HICKSVILLE
A Dylan Horrocks interview on Comicon.com's "Pulse" website covers the New Zealander's upcoming gig writing three issues of "Batgirl" and his ongoing job writing "Hunter: the Age of Magic" for DC/Vertigo. At the article's close, Horrocks offers a quick update on his other, more personal projects. Regarding "Atlas," he says, "I'm hoping to finally get that onto a twice-yearly regular schedule next year. That's a story I really care about - and I feel like I'm exploring the act of drawing more deeply than I have before. Issue two is currently on my drawing board, and includes some sudden shifts in tone - sex, politics, violence and of course, comics." Other projects Horrocks is working on include "an erotic graphic novel for Top Shelf... and a collection of my short comics" for Drawn & Quarterly. Spanish and Italian translations of "Hicksville" -- and a new English-language edition -- are also in the works.
INFO: Comicon.com
posted by Egon on Tuesday, November 12, 2002

CRYSTAL EIGHTBALL UPDATE
Now hitting mailboxes, the sixteenth Fantagraphics Ultimate Catalog offers sometimes scant but always tantalizing information about upcoming releases:
Robert Crumb: In addition to more "Complete Crumb" volumes, Art & Beauty #2 is on schedule for Spring, 2003.
Dan Clowes: Eightball #23 is also scheduled for Spring, 2003 release. As previously reported, the issue will be identical in format to Eightball #22 but will measure 9" x 12."
Los Bros Hernandez: Luba's Comics & Stories #3, featuring "Ofelia and the Little Ones," and Love & Rockets vol. II #6 are planned for release before year's end. Next year will see Jaime's "Dicks and Deedees," collecting stories from Penny Century and Love & Rockets, and "the complete Palomar hardcover."
Joe Sacco: Sacco's next original comic will be "The Fixer," published by Drawn & Quarterly, and "centering around events in Sarajavo."
Chris Ware: "Acme Novelty Library #16... beginning Ware's second graphic novel, Rusty Brown, will premiere in the Spring of 2003."
Jim Woodring: "The Frank Book" will be a hardcover collecting all Frank stories to date, "including the never-before-published conclusion to 'Frank's High Horse.'" No release date is indicated.
Also in 2003: The first compilation of Dame Darcy's "Meat Cake," "The Wipeout," by Francesca Ghermandi, "The Iron Wagon" by Jason, Johnny Ryan's "Portajohnny" and "Cat on a Hot Thin Groove" by Gene Deitch.
LINK: Fantagraphics
posted by Egon on Monday, November 11, 2002

PERCY CROSBY'S FINAL DAYS
Today's Newsday runs a detailed article sketching the life of "Skippy" creator Percy Crosby, focusing on his final years in a mental institution and including quotes from his daughter, Joan Tibbetts, now 69. The piece covers his early work as a cartoonist for the Socialist "New York Daily Call," the heyday of "Skippy," and Crosby's turbulent personal life. Crosby "was hospitalized in the psychiatric ward of Bellevue Hospital after apparently slashing his wrists and stabbing himself in the chest" shortly after his 57th birthday; the cartoonist was then transferred to Kings Park mental hospital. During his 16 year confinement, Crosby produced "Short stories, essays, poems, political analyses, journal entries and a series of books on the arts he called his opus. Instead of horses and dancers, his drawings now were of fellow inmates, pathetic men with catatonic stares." Tibbets considers her father to have been a political prisoner at Kings Park. "His only companion, Tibbetts said, was Skippy, whom he referred to as 'the child of my soul.'"
INFO: Newsday
posted by Egon on Sunday, November 10, 2002