RIVERFRONT CATASTROPHE
St. Louis' weekly Riverfront Times profiles Kevin Huizenga, Ted May and Dan Zettwoch in anticipation of the upcoming St. Louis Comics Art Show. The paper garnered nine original strips from the trio, some in full color, which follow a recurring character on a tour of historical comic art styles. The strips can be seen on the paper's website.
INFO: Riverfront Times
posted by Egon on Thursday, September 18, 2003

THE CHET AND SETH SHOW
The Drawn and Quarterly website reports: "Chester Brown and Seth will be interviewed on Saturday, September 20th on the CBC radio show Definitely Not The Opera, between 3 and 4 pm EST." CBC radio broadcasts are available live via the internet.
INFO: Drawn and Quarterly
INFO: CBC Radio
posted by Egon on Thursday, September 18, 2003

KIDD'S COMIC CUTS
Jeet Heer reviews "Chip Kidd," a recent monograph about the designer by Véronique Vienne, for Canada's National Post. Heer draws a strong comparison between Kidd's design method and comics' formal aspects: "This subtle combination of words and images, calling upon readers to use a magpie intelligence, is the essence of comics. It is also the key to Kidd's own aesthetic."
INFO: The National Post
posted by Egon on Thursday, September 18, 2003

EYE ON WARE
Guy Leshinski's regular comics-themed "Panelist" column for Toronto's "Eye" weekly considers Chris Ware's "Acme Novelty Datebook." "The sheer volume of work that results is the real secret to Ware's mastery. The ambition and variety of his sketches climbs stoutly over nearly a decade of constant practice -- what begins mostly in pen and gouache ends in full-page watercolour, lushly reproduced on board-thick stock."
INFO: The Eye
posted by Egon on Thursday, September 18, 2003

FORECAST: FROST
Les Éditions de l'An 2 will soon release "L'Anthologie A.B. Frost," a bilingual French- and English-language volume published in association with Fantagraphics Books. The hardcover volume, due this month, will reproduce in full three albums of pictorial stories by the noted illustrator: "Stuff and Nonsense," "The Bull Calf," and "Carlo." The edition is produced in co-operation with Coconino World, who will shortly launch a dedicated A. B. Frost website. A. B. Frost illustrated work by Lewis Carroll and was of Winsor McCay's major influences, according to the French publisher. Sample work by Frost is currently available on the Coconino Classics website.
INFO: Les Éditions de l'An 2
LINK: A. B. Frost
LINK: Coconino Classics
posted by Egon on Wednesday, September 17, 2003

A DARK AND SILLY BEE
The Sacramento Bee chats with Françoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman about the recent release of "Little Lit 3: It Was a Dark and Silly Night." Mouly articulates a social motivation behind the childrens' comics anthology series: "There are many kids out there who are being shortchanged with what is being offered to them. They're targeted mercilessly by advertisements and consumer goods, but in terms of real sustaining stories, I think they are being neglected. This is about more than just our kids."
INFO: The Sacramento Bee
posted by Egon on Wednesday, September 17, 2003

SIMMONDS STRIP COLLECTED
British book industry website The Bookseller talks with Posy Simmonds about "Literary Life," an upcoming collection of her weekly book-themed strips from the pages of the Guardian. The hardcover collection is due November 6 from Jonathon Cape, and is, according to the Amazon retail website, a 96-page book collecting "approximately 50 'Literary Life' cartoons... and a selection of short stories." In the Bookseller piece, Simmonds discusses her work's value as a pictorial social record and also notes plans to develop another graphic novel for an adult audience. "Gemma Bovery took so long to do. People kept saying, 'What are you doing?' After a bit, they stopped asking, or they went, 'Are you still doing that?'"
INFO: The Bookseller
INFO: Amazon
LINK: Literary Life
posted by Egon on Sunday, September 14, 2003

SPIEGELMAN: LOOKING AHEAD
The Independent interviewed Art Spiegelman regarding the completion of "In the Shadow of No Towers," his recent series of full-page comic strips. Spiegelman describes difficutly encountered in communicating his views via traditional press outlets since September 11, 2001 as well as his desire to react specifically in comics form. "He is now considering ways of pulling together the unusually formatted series in a single publication, and is working - at last - towards a new full-length graphic novel." West Michigan University's news service further profiles Spiegelman in anticipation of the artist's September 22 lecture appearance at the university in Kalamazoo, MI. "The lecture is part of the Centennial Scholar and Artist Series and is free and open to the public."
INFO: The Independent
INFO: West Michigan University
posted by Egon on Sunday, September 14, 2003

MADDEN CLASS AT SVA
Matt Madden will teach "Experimental Comics," a course at the School of Visual Arts' School of Continuing Education. "Employing various avant-garde approaches, this class will serve as an exploration of non-traditional perspectives to narrative content and structure of the comics medium. We will examine how to push the boundaries of narratives through the manipulation of text and image as well as panel and page. Each student will have the opportunity to complete several comics projects." The class begins Wednesday, September 17, meeting weekly through December 12; registration costs $375.
[Update: Madden's "Experimental Comics" class has been cancelled. (9/17)]
INFO: School of Visual Arts
posted by Egon on Sunday, September 14, 2003

OPUS No. 2
The Washington Post was the first of innumerable news sources to report that Berkeley Breathed will revive Bloom County's Opus the Penguin in a weekly full-color comic strip called "Opus," due to begin running November 23. In a conversation with MSNBC's "Newsmakers" department, Breathed elaborates that Opus will be "a Sunday feature hand-painted by me," and that he insists upon the strip's publication at full half-page size. "The curious should contact their local paper’s editors and suggest they give the heave-ho to all the comic strips that (a) outlived Strom Thurmond or (b) are produced by people that are either hired lackeys, distant relatives to the creators or (c) dead. Then fill the space with comics drawn by still-breathing artists."
INFO: The Washington Post
INFO: MSNBC
posted by Egon on Sunday, September 14, 2003

CLEAR LINE ONLINE
Andy Konky Kru has added a selection of artwork representative of the "Clear Line" or "Ligne Claire" style of comics art to his "Dachshund" subsection of the British "Bupowder" complex of websites. Additionally, Konky Kru continues to develop the website's budding Encyclopedia of British Comics Creators, having recently added entries for Hunt Emerson and Woodrow Phoenix, among others.
INFO: 'Ligne Claire' Comics
INFO: Bugpowder Encyclopedia of British Comics Creators
posted by Egon on Sunday, September 14, 2003

COMIC ART MAG 4
Comic Art Magazine's website previews the upcoming fourth issue, including feature articles on Carl Barks, Charles Schulz, and Basil Wolverton; a lengthy piece by Harvey Pekar; and an "In the Studio" pictorial on Charles Burns. The issue's one-sheet insert comic is drawn by Kaz.
INFO: Comic Art Magazine
posted by Egon on Sunday, September 14, 2003

MC BRUNETTI
Flak Magazine covers Eels frontman E's solo side project, M.C. Honky, reproducing "I Am the Messiah" cover art by Ivan Brunetti, as spotted by the Comics Journal's "iJournalista!" website. Flak also links to an animated video for the song "Sonnet No. 3 (Like a Duck)," which brings motion to Brunetti's drawings.
INFO: Flak Magazine
posted by Egon on Sunday, September 14, 2003

NEW YORK GETS BOOKISH
Two concurrent literary festivals in New York City will feature cartoonists and related persons among their participants. The New Yorker Festival, running September 19 - 21, offers a sold-out "Cartoon Master Class" with Robert Mankoff on Sunday the 21st. That same day Mankoff will also be available to sign his book "The Naked Cartoonist" at the Union Square Barnes & Noble, where Roz Chast will also give a children's storytelling and drawing class. The "New York is Book Country" festival runs September 17 - 21, with a full-color event poster by Maurice Sendak. Neil Gaiman will make a presentation on September 20 and will appear at the festival's Fifth Avenue Street Fair on the 21st, along with cartoonists including Peter Kuper, Joe Sacco, Art Spiegelman and Adrian Tomine.
INFO: The New Yorker Festival
INFO: New York is Book Country
posted by Egon on Sunday, September 14, 2003

PEKAR'S ONION
Harvey Pekar is the feature interview subject for the September 10-dated edition of the Onion's A.V. Club. Pekar comments on a number of topics including his recent personal research into stream-of-consciousness writing. "I followed it back past earlier than James Joyce. I've never read a study exactly like the kind I've done, where I take out examples in 1898 and 1904 of writers writing stream-of-consciousness passages. Joyce's Ulysses came out in 1922, so a lot of stuff had happened before then, and I was really excited to make these discoveries that apparently even academic scholars weren't aware of. At least I hadn't found them in their work."
INFO: The Onion
posted by Egon on Sunday, September 14, 2003

THE JEWS OF NEW YORK
The Fall 2003 issue of Reform Judaism Magazine cover-features the first part of a story on Jewish roots of the American comic book industry, as spotted by the Comics Journal's "iJournalista!" website. The piece offers an in-depth survey of the early industry and includes specific commentary from Will Eisner.
INFO: Reform Judaism Magazine
posted by Egon on Sunday, September 14, 2003