ALPH-ARTS AWARDED
The French Associated Press reports winners of this year's "Alph-Art" awards at the Festival BD d'Angoulême, with the award for best album going to Chris Ware for the French edition of "Jimmy Corrigan." Prizes were selected by a jury including festival president and 2002 Grand Prix winner François Schuiten, who announced the awards at the Angoulême Theatre earlier today:

Best Album: "Jimmy Corrigan" by Chris Ware
Best Art: "Le Dérisoire" by Eric Omond with art by Olivier Supiot
Best Story: "Quartier lointain T1" by Jirô Taniguchi
Best Dialogue: "Quelques mois à l’Amélie" by Claude Denis
Best First Album: "L’âge de raison" by Mathieu Bonhomme

Additional prizes reported by French comics website BD Sélection include the Critics' Award, also given to Ware for "Jimmy Corrigan." The 2003 "Grand Prix" award will be announced Saturday, January 25. The winner will serve as next year's festival president.
INFO: Yahoo! Actualités
INFO: BD Sélection
INFO: labd.com
posted by Egon on Thursday, January 23, 2003

MAULDIN DEAD AT 81
Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Bill Mauldin died today at the age of 81, the Associated Press reports. Mauldin first gained fame during World War II with "Willie and Joe," wry, downtrodden cartoon infantrymen through whom Mauldin darkly satirized the dull fatalism of the front-line. Mauldin received a Pulitzer Prize for his war-era work, which appeared in Stars and Stripes and other military publications before being collected in his book "Up Front." He continued as a syndicated editorial cartoonist, receiving a second Pulitzer in 1959 for his editorial cartoon about Boris Pasternak's political persecution. Mauldin wrote and drew several books, appeared in feature films and ran for Congress in 1956. In recent years, Mauldin suffered greatly from Alzheimer's disease and gained cheer from a dedicated effort led by veteran Jay Gruenfeld to organize letters and cards of thanks from veterans who fondly recalled Willie and Joe. The New York Times runs a three page obituary.
INFO: New York Times: A.P. Report
INFO: New York Times: Obituary
posted by Egon on Wednesday, January 22, 2003

HIRSCHFELD, SPIEGELMAN "TALK" RERUN
"Drawing the Essence," a 2001 episode of "Theater Talk" featuring Al Hirschfeld in conversation with Art Spiegelman, will be rebroadcast on various east coast public television stations over the next several days. New York's Channel 13 will air the half-hour special, taped at Hirschfeld's studio, on Friday, January 24 at 10pm and again at midnight. Airtimes elsewhere are available on the Theater Talk website.
INFO: Theater Talk
posted by Egon on Wednesday, January 22, 2003

BICUSPID
Alternative Comics publisher Jeff Mason announces a printing error in Thomas Herpich's "Cusp," which ships to comic shops today. In a post to the Comics Journal message board, Mason explained, "Two pages in Thomas Herpich’s Cusp have been switched at our mistake." A book insert explaining the error is available for download as a pdf file from Alternative Comics' website. "We have also indicated to our distributors that we will be accepting Cusp as a returnable book because of our error," said Mason.
INFO: The Comics Journal
LINK: Alternative Comics: Cusp PDF File
posted by Egon on Wednesday, January 22, 2003

SHIGA IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Jason Shiga will be the first San Francisco-area cartoonist showcased in "Small Press Spotlight," a series of solo exhibits at the Cartoon Art Museum of San Francisco. Shiga's show opens with a reception on February 1, held in conjunction with the "She Draws Comics" opening reception and CBLDF fundraising event at the Museum. The exhibit will include "Shiga's 'Meanwhile...' matrix, a massive choose-your-own-adventure story measuring six feet by six feet," according to a Museum press release. "A new artist's work will be on display at the Cartoon Art Museum every 10-12 weeks." Upcoming installations are planned to feature Ben Catmull, Derek Kirk Kim and Lark Pien.
INFO: Cartoon Art Museum of San Francisco
posted by Egon on Wednesday, January 22, 2003

KRAFT, VELVEEDA SETTLE
A settlement has been reached in the legal dispute between Kraft Foods and Stuart "King VelVeeda" Helm, creating "a permanent injunction that prohibits Helm from using the name 'King VelVeeda' on any future web, comics, or illustration work," Newsarama reports. The terms of settlement, reached in November, grant Helm a five-year grace period during which time he may sell off artwork and merchandise using the "VelVeeda" pseudonym and require Kraft to donate $10,000 to a charity of Helm's choice. The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund represented Helm throughout the bulk of the proceedings.
INFO: Newsarama
LINK: Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
posted by Egon on Wednesday, January 22, 2003

HIRSCHFELD DEAD AT 99
American caricaturist Al Hirschfield died in his sleep today at the age of 99, the New York Times reports. The artist is most closely associated with the Times' theater pages, having regularly contributed caricatures of stage personalities to the paper on a freelance basis since the late 1920s. Hirschfeld "won a special Tony — an Antoinette Perry award" in 1975. In 1996 he was named "one of six New York City Landmarks;" that same year saw the release of "The Line King," a documentary of Hirschfeld's life and career. In September 2002, owners announced plans to rename the Martin Beck Theater in Hirschfeld's honor. The Times runs a lengthy four-page obituary of the artist, including an image gallery of Hirschfeld's work. The Margo Feiden Galleries estimated at one point that there were "more than 7,000 Hirschfeld originals in existence." In a 1998 interview with Ron Jacobs for the Comics Journal, Hirschfeld encapsulated his -- and every -- creative process: "The process remains the same, pretty much... you take a blank piece of paper and create a problem that didn't exist before, and you solve it to your own satisfaction."
INFO: New York Times
posted by Egon on Monday, January 20, 2003

ANGOULEME FOR ANGLOPHONES
Cartoonist, comics art historian and BugPowder contributer Andy Konky Kru has posted an English translation of information from the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d’Angoulême's website. The document is a complete guide to the festival, running January 23 to 26, and includes program information, award nominations, a list of guests and exhibitors, travel information and a brief history of the festival.
INFO: BugPowder
posted by Egon on Monday, January 20, 2003

BOOKSELLERS DISTINGUISH FORM, GENRE
A coalition of publishers' representatives led by Drawn & Quarterly's Chris Oliveros and including Art Spiegelman has persuaded the Book Industry Systems Advisory Committee to adopt a standardized "graphic novels" category, reports Comicon.com's "Pulse" website. BISAC, a committee of the Book Industry Study Group, Inc., administers standardized book categories for American bookstores. The graphic novels category will be further broken down into as-yet undesignated genres and subcategories, with children's graphic novels being racked near children's literature, according to the article.
INFO: Comicon.com: The Pulse
posted by Egon on Monday, January 20, 2003

ARNOLD ROTH IN THE NEWS
Today's New York Daily News chats with cartoonist Arnold Roth, currently the subject of an exhibit presented by the Society of Illustrators. "Someone once asked me why I put so many jokes in a drawing rather than use them in their own drawings," Roth comments to the News' reporter. "I said I don't want to leave my office, get hit by a bus and be lying in the street, wishing I had used that gag." "Arnold Roth, Free Lance: A Fifty Year Retro-spective" runs through February 1.
INFO: New York Daily News
posted by Egon on Monday, January 20, 2003

CRUMB'S CHUNNEL
Robert Crumb will appear at the Prince's Foundation on February 19 as part of the Foundation's "Artists on Film" series. The event will include a screening of "Robert Crumb," a 1987 BBC Arena documentary about the artist.
INFO: The Prince's Foundation
posted by Egon on Monday, January 20, 2003

DUDLEY DO-GOODER
Canadian customs has seized a copy of "Rebel Visions: The Underground Comix Revolution 1963-1975," reports Boing Boing's Mark Frauenfelder in a piece spotted by the Comics Journal's "iJournalista!" website. Author Patrick Rosenkranz notified Frauenfelder of the seizure of "a contributor's copy [sent] to cartoonist George Metzger, who called me to say he got a letter from Customs & Revenue that stated the book was obscene, and that it contained sex with mutilation, bestiality, and incest. I guess the bestiality must refer to Wonder Wart-Hog and Lois Lamebrain." Metzger "plans to protest the seizure" to Canadian authorities.
INFO: Boing Boing
INFO: The Comics Journal: iJournalista!
posted by Egon on Monday, January 20, 2003