ANNIE'S LITTLE BROTHER JOE
Merlin Haas announces the February 1, 2003 release of "Little Joe Sundays 1933-1941," a CD-ROM collecting a little-known strip created in part by "Annie" cartoonist Harold Gray. "Harold Gray was involved in the writing and art of the Little Joe Sunday strip in the 1930s and early 1940s, which was credited to Ed and Robert Leffingwell, Gray's cousins and art assistants," says Haas. The disc includes "over 420 Sundays from the start of the strip in 1933 until the end of December, 1941" and was compiled with the assistance of cartoon historian Bill Blackbeard, who provides an introduction. "These strips have not been reprinted since the early 1940s and are so hard to find that even the [San Francisco Academy of Comic Art] doesn't have the July 25, 1937, strip on hand. (The comic book reprint version of this page is included instead.)" The disc is available for pre-order before February 1; inquiries can be directed to Haas at mvhaas@elpaso.net. Sample "Little Joe" Sunday strips can be seen on his website.
INFO: Little Joe Samples
posted by Egon on Saturday, December 28, 2002

POWERED BY BUGPOWDER
Pete Ashton, coordinator of the BugPowder system of websites, has relaunched TRS2, an online review of UK small-press and self-published work. BugPowder initially grew out of a review zine founded by Ashton called "TRS - The Review Sheet," and functioned as a full service distro before being reinvented as a network of inter-related comics websites. On his own site, Ashton has posted complete digital copies of the Guardian's Summer and Winter cartoon specials. The tabloid-sized sections feature full-color cartoons and strips by Guardian cartoonists, including multi-page sequences by Steve Bell, Posy Simmonds and David Austin. "I'm not sure how long they'll be up there due to space / legal issues but it'll be a month or so," says Ashton.
INFO: TRS2
INFO: Guardian G2 Specials
posted by Egon on Saturday, December 28, 2002

NYU BULLETIN'S CONTINUOUS LINE
Al Hirschfeld provides the cover art for the New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies' Spring 2003 Bulletin. The image, available online, centers various academic disciplines and city scenes around Washington Arch in a lush, full-color composition. Copies of the oversized Bulletin can be requested via the school's website.
INFO: NYU School of Continuing and Professional Studies
posted by Egon on Thursday, December 26, 2002

ON DANCER
In slightly dated news, Jules Feiffer copiously illustrated the December 8 holiday edition of the Sunday New York Times Book Review. In addition to top-hatted spot illustrations, the Review included a special edition of Feiffer's "Dancer" strip: "A Dance to Books." The strip and Feiffer's various illustrations are displayed on the artist's web site.
INFO: Jules Feiffer
posted by Egon on Thursday, December 26, 2002

DEMONS & DIARIES GET MORE INK
A cabal of substantial graphic novels continues to crash critics' holiday parties, chief among them Phoebe Gloeckner's "Diary of a Teenage Girl" and Lynda Barry's "One Hundred Demons." In addition to previously covered placement in Time Magazine's 2002 "Best Comics" list, Barry's book appeared simultaneously on Time's unqualified "Best Books" list, which, unlike the comics column, made the magazine's print edition (as spotted by the Comics Journal's "iJournalista!" website). Time's reviewers picked "Demons" as the third-best non-fiction book of 2002: "Barry writes like an angel and draws like one of her titular demons." The Utne Reader's "Utne Arts Extra 2003" includes cartoonists Gloeckner and John Porcellino in its list of "40 Exciting & soulful artists to watch for in 2003." Gloeckner's write-up is reproduced on "Diary" publisher North Atlantic Books' website, as is a favorable review from Bust Magazine's Winter 2002 edition. Gloeckner currently commands the "Author Spotlight" section of her publisher's website.
INFO: Time
INFO: North Atlantic Books: Utne Arts Extra 2003
INFO: North Atlantic Books: Bust Magazine
posted by Egon on Thursday, December 26, 2002

PHOEBE GLOECKNER'S DIARY CHRONICLED
The December 22 San Francisco Chronicle runs a lengthy review of Phoebe Gloeckner's latest book, the text/comics hybrid "The Diary of a Teenage Girl." Writer Dodie Bellamy praises the book's formal inventiveness and examines its status as fictionalized diary, challenging the "sharp distinction between author and narrator taught in graduate fiction workshops ... [and calling] into question the easy categories of victim and perpetrator." Narrative elements describing protagonist Minnie's nascent cartooning inspire Bellamy to categorize "Diary" as "a classic bildungsroman, an account of the growth of the artist and her craft." Gloeckner will appear at Million Year Picnic's Cambridge, MA and Providence, RI locations on February 8 and 9, respectively, according to her website. Shortly thereafter she expects to commence a west coast book tour, details of which have yet to be determined.
INFO: San Francisco Chronicle
LINK: Phoebe Gloeckner
posted by Egon on Sunday, December 22, 2002

COMICS MEET THE PRESS
As previously reported, this week's New York Times Book Review runs writer Nick Hornby's cover-featured survey of six graphic novels from the past year. The piece, now online with a slideshow of representative images, runs the gamut from snarky to stunned to mystified as Hornby comes to grip with work by Lynda Barry, Baru & Jean-Marc Thevenet, Kim & Simon Deitch, Eric Drooker, Jason Little and Adrian Tomine. Hornby admits his inability to adequately critique a wordless graphic novel like Drooker's "Blood Song:" "I ended up feeling that I'd shortchanged Drooker's impassioned tale... maybe we need lessons in how to read books like this." Hornby appreciates the themes and aesthetics of Baru & Thevenet's graphic style and calls Deitch's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" masterful but "occasionally baffling." He reserves his highest praise for Lynda Barry: "Barry seems to me almost single-handedly to justify the form; she's one of America's very best contemporary writers." The Book Review's "On Writers and Writing" column additionally spotlights unconventional picture books, beginning with Margo Jefferson's gushing appreciation of "Love & Rockets:" "Jaime Hernandez draws with starker, leaner lines than Gilbert. He gives us more close-ups and more psychological detail; we see both text and subtext instantly. I'm not stating a preference; I'm making a distinction. Both of them are brilliant." Meanwhile, on the internet, columnist Andrew Arnold offers his picks for the 2002's ten best graphic novels as part of Time Magazine's annual critical review, naming David B.'s "Epileptic vol. 1" as book of the year.
INFO: The New York Times
INFO: Time
posted by Egon on Sunday, December 22, 2002