PW ON PANTHEON, PALOMAR, MORE
The current issue of Publishers Weekly features a suite of articles on the comics industry, talking with various publishers and creators about current and upcoming projects. Pantheon Books plans to translate and compile the remaining two volumes of Marjane Satrapi's "Persepolis," "tentatively scheduled for August 2004, and has recently acquired the French cartoonist Joann Sfar's 'The Rabbi's Cat,' an anthropomorphic tale of a philosophical cat in Algeria... tentatively set for a spring 2005 release." Pantheon editor Anjali Singh indicates that these books signal a particular interest in foreign material. "Other upcoming releases for 2004 include Chris Ware's 'Big Book of Jokes' (possibly fall), a collection of Art Spiegelman's New Yorker covers and a collection of Amy and Jordan comic strips by underground comics legend Mark Beyer (spring 2004)." A piece about Drawn & Quarterly surveys the publisher's recent anthologies and notes that the second volume of Drawn & Quarterly Showcase, "due in spring 2004, will feature Jeffrey Brown and Pentti Otsamo." The publication also includes an interview with Gilbert Hernandez, discussing "Palomar: The Complete Heartbreak Soup," upcoming from Fantagraphics. An article about NBM notes Christophe Blain's "Isaac the Pirate," due later this month, as well as upcoming "graphic novel versions" of Lewis Trondheim's "Dungeon."
INFO: Publishers Weekly
posted by Egon on Thursday, October 23, 2003

JOE SACCO, UNGUARDED
The Guardian interviews Joe Sacco upon the forthcoming UK publication of "Notes from a Defeatist." "I have no problem with the term 'comics', but now we're saddled with the term 'graphic novel' and what I do I don't see as a novel," says Sacco. Sacco is currently at work on two separate books, the Guardian reports: "one about Chechen refugees in Ingushetia and the other about the embattled Palestinian refugee camp, Rafah. With a friend from the Miracle Workers, the now disbanded band with whom he toured, he is also engaged in what is provisionally titled The Gentleman's Guide to the Rolling Stones."
INFO: The Guardian
posted by Egon on Thursday, October 23, 2003

AGE OF REASON
The October issue of Reason Magazine includes a review of Marjane Satrapi's "Persepolis," considered alongside Azar Nafisi's "Reading Lolita in Tehran." The same issue includes a full-color strip by Peter Bagge about the recent opening of an Indian casino in Washington State.
INFO: Reason: Persepolis
INFO: Reason: Bagge
posted by Egon on Thursday, October 23, 2003

PLATINUM AGE BRAZIL
Bob Beerbohm forwards to the Platinum Age Comics mailing list a message from Rodrigo Zeidan announcing "As Aventuras de Nhô-Quim & Zé Caipora," a volume collecting "the first Brazilian comics ever published." Brazilian website Universo HQ reproduces images from the picture stories by Angelo Agostini, dating from 1869-1883. The 198-page volume incorporates an illustrated introduction, a glossary of terms and a bibliography.
INFO: Universo HQ
INFO: Yahoo Groups: Platinum Age Comics
posted by Egon on Thursday, October 23, 2003

PEACE IN OUR TIME
In These Times magazine reviews the latest installment of World War 3 Illustrated, subtitled "Taking Liberties." "What we have here, in historical terms, is a recuperation of the 1910s Masses magazine’s Ash Can artists interacting with another war threat (the approach of the World War I, during which the magazine was suppressed) and a social promise (something of Greenwich Village and the Industrial Workers of the World)," Paul Buhle writes.
INFO: In These Times
posted by Egon on Thursday, October 23, 2003

KATCHOR HAUNTS SIDEWALKS, STAGE
The New York Times' "Region" section spoke with Ben Katchor on October 19, discussing the cartoonist's fascination with the city's theater district around showtime. "I always feel I am getting a show equally as good, out here waiting... They are just watching some silly Broadway show. Out here there is real drama. Men hustling to make a living. Men waiting for their wives." Katchor will participate in "The New Yorkers," a series of three performances staged by the Bang on a Can collective and covered in a separate piece in the Times. Katchor will contribute projected comic strips "that will be read by John Turturro, Bill Irwin and Mr. Katchor" in a multimedia program that also includes film and musical compositions. "Mr. Katchor, who methodically recorded voice-overs for his comic strips, heard a version read by an actor a week before showtime. It was not quite what he expected. 'It's a little theatrical for my taste,' he said." "The New Yorkers" runs at the Brooklyn Academy of Music October 22, 24 and 25.
INFO: The New York Times: Ben Katchor
INFO: The New York Times: The New Yorkers
INFO: Brooklyn Academy of Music
posted by Egon on Wednesday, October 22, 2003

KRAMERS IN L.A.
The L.A. Weekly names "Kramers Ergot 4" as the year's "Best Comics Collection" in its annual "Best of L.A." issue, dated October 17 - 23, 2003. The paper reviews the anthology's contents and speaks with editor Sammy Harkham.
INFO: L.A. Weekly
posted by Egon on Wednesday, October 22, 2003

SAIRO: IN THE MIDDLE
The Chosun Ilbo briefly profiles South Korean cartoonist Sairo upon the release of a new book called "Sairo Travel Journal." "The selected works are not superfluous," Sairo tells the paper. "They say something in just one picture. It is the world that I have pursued all my life as a cartoonist." The book includes essays in which Sairo discusses his life as a cartoonist. "Realistic restrictions may dishearten my juniors, but I hope my cartoon book gives them courage," said Sairo.
INFO: Chosun Ilbo
posted by Egon on Wednesday, October 22, 2003

ALAIN BIGNON DEAD AT 56
Fumetti.org reports the October 19 death of French cartoonist Alain Bignon at the age of 56. According to Lambiek.net's Comiclopedia, Bignon studied with George Pichard and contributed to numerous BD magazines including Pilote and Circus. He also drew various comic albums in collaboration with writers including Guy Vidal, Rodolphe and Barbarella creator Jean-Claude Forest.
INFO: Fumetti.org
INFO: Lambiek.net
posted by Egon on Wednesday, October 22, 2003

LE MONDE DE MARJANE
Marjane Satrapi illustrates a series of articles called "Les Défis du Foulard" ("The Challenges of the Veil") for Le Monde, French comics website BD Sélection reports. BD Sélection reproduces in full a strip Satrapi drew for the newspaper.
INFO: BD Sélection
posted by Egon on Tuesday, October 21, 2003

IMAGE [&] NARRATIVE'S COMICS SPECIAL
Online visual narrative journal Image [&] Narrative has posted a new issue on "History and Theory of the Graphic Novel," featuring pieces taken from the International Association of Word and Image Studies' 2002 conference in Hamburg. Articles on the theme include "Comic strips and constrained writing;" "Too much is too much. The never innocent laughter of the Comics;" and "Ally Sloper: The First Comics Superstar?"
INFO: Image [&] Narrative
INFO: IAWIS
posted by Egon on Tuesday, October 21, 2003

LOUIS RIEL IN THE GLOBE & MAIL
The Globe and Mail offers a review of Chester Brown's "Louis Riel: A Comic-strip Biography," upcoming in a collected hardcover edition from Drawn & Quarterly. "The character of Riel comes alive and his story finds its visual vocabulary on these pages, taking the reader from the Red River Rebellion of 1869 to Riel's hanging in 1885," writes the paper's reviewer. "His pen breathes life into a character drawn with an oversized body and a head of hair that is suggestive of the fever of his visions."
INFO: The Globe and Mail
posted by Egon on Tuesday, October 21, 2003

TOMORROW, TODAY
Progressive news site BuzzFlash interviews "This Modern World" cartoonist Dan "Tom Tomorrow" Perkins. Perkins discusses topics including politics and the particular format he's developed for his strip. "[What] you're trying to do is entice the reader as an active participant. I think in cartooning the reader is a far more active participant than they realize. And you're trying to entice them so that they hear this in their head, and they read it in their head as if they were watching a comedy sketch on television. And there are various ways of conveying this -- by using boldface type, and pauses, and by having that reaction panel where characters just stare at each other and don't say anything."
INFO: BuzzFlash
posted by Egon on Tuesday, October 21, 2003

TONI MORRISON'S COMICS & STORIES
Simon & Schuster has published two in a series of three hardcover children's comics co-written by Toni Morrison and Slade Morrison and illustrated by Pascal Lemaitre. "Who's Got Game?" presents in comics form individual stories based upon Aesop's Fables. "Who's Got Game? The Ant or the Grasshopper?" and "Who's Got Game? The Lion or the Mouse?" are currently available; "Who's Got Game? Poppy or the Snake" is due for January 2004 publication.
INFO: Simon & Schuster
posted by Egon on Sunday, October 19, 2003

MAUS IN THE UK
Writer Philip Pullman expands upon a previously written essay about Art Spiegelman's "Maus" for the Guardian. "A comic is not exactly a novel in pictures - it's something else," writes Pullman. "But if the notion of a canon means anything, Maus is there at the heart of it." Spiegelman will join Pullman for a public conversation at London's Institute for Contemporary Arts on November 4. Penguin Books recently published the first UK edition of "The Complete Maus" as a single volume.
INFO: The Guardian
posted by Egon on Sunday, October 19, 2003

ON TEZUKA'S BUDDHA
Time Magazine's online comics columnist Andrew Arnold reviews the first volume of Osamu Tezuka's "Buddha," forthcoming from Vertical, Inc. "Deeply moral but never moralistic, 'Buddha' merges the delight of cartooning with the epic seriousness of one of the great religions, becoming a thing wholly unto itself," writes Arnold. "Buddha Volume 1: Kapilavastu" is the first in a series of eight hardcovers Vertical, Inc. plans to publish over the coming year.
INFO: Time
posted by Egon on Sunday, October 19, 2003

GANZFELD'S STEIG TRIBUTE
The Ganzfeld's website runs a special online tribute to William Steig: "Since he was a master of the swift doodle and the evocative line, we asked some of our favorite artists to do a quick tribute to the man and his work," write the journal's editors. Contributors include R. O. Blechman, Milton Glaser, Sam Henderson and R. Sikoryak.
INFO: The Ganzfeld
posted by Egon on Sunday, October 19, 2003