CRN MAKES A LIST
The Cartoonists Rights Network has established a Yahoo! Groups mailing list for discussion of the organization's activities and related topics of cartooning and free speech worldwide. "In this forum we can open a dialogue about editorial and social cartoonists and the issues they have with human rights abuses," writes CRN International Director Robert Russell.
INFO: Yahoo! Groups: Cartoonists Rights Network
LINK: Cartoonists Rights Network
posted by Egon on Saturday, March 15, 2003

SALON DE L'ARTISTE
Salon joins Phoebe Gloeckner in her Long Island studio to discuss her recent prose-comics hybrid, "The Diary of a Teenage Girl." The piece incorporates commentary from Diane Noomin, Bill Griffith and Kim Deitch and includes a three-page comics excerpt from Gloeckner's book.
INFO: Salon
posted by Egon on Saturday, March 15, 2003

SPXAIME
Jaime Hernandez has drawn the cover for the SPX 2003 anthology book, Jeff Mason reveals via press release. The image, which can be previewed via Mason's Indyworld website, depicts Love & Rockets' Maggie in a scenario reflecting this year's travel theme.
IMAGE: Indyworld
posted by Egon on Saturday, March 15, 2003

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT
The German-American Cultural Center in Gretna, LA hosts a lecture on the Katzenjammer Kids on Saturday, March 15, reports the New Orleans Times-Picayune. The talk by Lester Hopper opens an exhibit at the Center examining Rudolph Dirks' "Kids" and the strip's prototype, "Max und Moritz" by Wilhelm Busch.
INFO: Times-Picayune
LINK: German-American Cultural Center
posted by Egon on Thursday, March 13, 2003

EISNER'S CONGRESSIONAL METTLE
The Library of Congress hosts Will Eisner for an April 1 discussion of the graphic novel. "In the lecture, Eisner will discuss his own approach to writing and illustrating graphic novels and explore his views on the evolution of popular visual media. Images from early wordless books and a variety of recent graphic novels will be shown, along with a selection of Eisner's own drawings." The event, to be held at the James Madison Building's Mumford Room, will be free and open to the public.
INFO: Library of Congress
posted by Egon on Thursday, March 13, 2003

JULES' NEW PLAY LIMNS BAD FRIEND
The Villager speaks with Jules Feiffer about the genesis of his upcoming stage show, "A Bad Friend," set to debut at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater on June 12. The show marks Feiffer's first new play since 1990 and tells the story of Emil, a hyprocritical activist operating within the post-war left. "I always wanted to write about this long ago rite of passage of mine, the time when I and others of my generation were trying to emerge with some system of values and some system of beliefs, and got undercut in every direction," says Feiffer.
INFO: The Villager
posted by Egon on Thursday, March 13, 2003

WEIRD, EXTREME, TOP NOTCH
The South by Southwest Web Award for "Weird/Extreme" website was awarded to Ethan Persoff for the second year in a row, this time for his online strip "A Dog and His Elephant." Persoff's strip runs on the subscription comics website Serializer.net; the first chapter is available for preview via Persoff's website.
INFO: SXSW
LINK: A Dog and His Elephant
posted by Egon on Thursday, March 13, 2003

HERBLOCK GIVES
The Herb Block foundation announced the donation of the late cartoonists' archive of editorial cartoon art and ancillary material to the Library of Congress in a statement released by the Library. As per Block's wishes, the Library of Congress receives more than 14,000 editorial cartoons, a portion of which are on display at the Swann Gallery through June 28. The foundation, with its multi-million dollar endowment, further "plans to dispense grant money, help with Herblock-related books, start a political cartooning prize (which might honor Web work, too), and give college scholarships to needy two- and four-year students in various subject areas," according to a separate piece in Editor and Publisher magazine.
INFO: Library of Congress
INFO: Editor and Publisher
posted by Egon on Thursday, March 13, 2003

POSTCARD FROM PERSEPOLIS
The Iranian runs an 8-page excerpt from the English-language edition of Marjane Satrapi's "Persepolis," due in May from Pantheon Books. The online preview, spotted by the Ninth Art's Chris Ekman, also includes Satrapi's introduction to the book. In "Persepolis," originally published by L'Association, Satrapi tells the story of her adolescence in Iran during the country's 1979 revolution and subsequent war with Iraq.
INFO: The Iranian
posted by Egon on Monday, March 10, 2003

A TRIUMPH OF HATE OVER REASON
Peter Bagge's latest comic strip for Reason Magazine is online, using the travails of a hypothetical one-time underground cartoonist to illustrate a libertarian perspective on intellectual property rights.
INFO: Reason
posted by Egon on Monday, March 10, 2003

KOREAN ART COMICS IN EEEK
The Korea Times reports the launch of Sai Comics' "Eeek" magazine, a new quarterly focusing on alternative Korean comics and comics criticism. The roughly 160-page inaugural edition, "due out later this month, will present 25 short comics as well as 20 essays concerning the comic publishing industry and aesthetic trends." A lengthy feature on the BD Festival in Angouleme is also slated for the issue's premier. Sai Comics, run by publisher/editor Cho Kyung-sook and artist Kim Dae-joong has so far published two original graphic novels and a Korean edition of Jason's "Hey Wait..." Future releases will include a collection of Robert Crumb's comics titled "America." Sai Comics is supported by the Seoul Animation Center.
INFO: Korea Times
posted by Egon on Sunday, March 09, 2003