COCONINO TAKES "THE PICTURE"
The latest Coconino Webdo includes several selections from "The Picture Magazine," a late nineteenth century British publication. Coconino World co-editor Thierry Smolderen offered background information in a November 2 post to the Platinum Age Comics mailing list: "The Picture Magazine gives a very interesting 'slice' of pictorial material at the time (1893-1896), in England. Picture stories of all kind are compiled here, the range going from contemporary French (Caran d'Ache and others), German (stories from Fliegende B.), American (pages from Puck: Opper, Zim etc.) and English. Plus monthly articles reproducing 'chap books' stories , 'old prints' sent by readers (Cruikshank, Crowquill etc.), and even Japanese and Chinese picture stories. The magazine was able to exploit this large range of material because of the photographic process. Here's its 'declaration of intention' from the advertising page: 'Picture Books are always welcome in a house, especially a country house in a wet day, and THE PICTURE MAGAZINE fulfils every requirement of the ideal illustrated album - there are plenty of pictures and no tiresome, long-winded descriptions. The pictures for the most part explain themselves, and the explanations, when necessary, are of the briefest.' 'Comics' were clearly considered an integral part of this editorial niche, but it is interesting to note (again) that the form was not categorised in term of sequentiality, that it was mixed, under different sections of the magazine, with isolated cartoons, illustrative works, old prints, and thematic pages of jokes, like Opper's, which regrouped different gags around a same theme." The Coconino Webdo also runs a nineteenth century picture story by Thomas Onwhyn, along with artwork and comics by contemporary artists.
INFO: Coconino World
INFO: Yahoo Groups: Platinum Age Comics
posted by Egon on Friday, November 14, 2003

ON THE BLOCK
The Illustration House's "Autumn Premier Auction" will take place Saturday, November 15 at the gallery's West 25th St. location in New York, NY. The auction's 168 lots include editorial cartoons by Herbert Block, Winsor McCay and Thomas S. Sullivant, a ten-panel picture story by A. B. Frost, two early sketchbooks by Robert Crumb, comic strips by Billy DeBeck, Hal Foster, Floyd Gottfredson, George Herriman, Charles Schulz, Otto Soglow and Murat "Chic" Young, gag cartoons by Charles Addams, Peter Arno and James Thurber, and artwork by Nell Brinkley, Edward Gorey, John Held, Jr., Al Hirschfeld and Lynd Ward, among many others. The Crumb sketchbooks, dated June - October 1962, "also feature drawings by Charles Crumb and stories by Maxon Crumb, as well as transcriptions of letters written by their sister, Sandra. The first sketchbook consists of twenty-eight leaves (none of which are single-sided), while the second consists of eighteen leaves (none of which are single-sided). The highest point of the first sketchbook is a collaboration between Charles and Robert, a ten-page comicbook format story featuring their signature characters, Fuzzy Bunny and Fritz the Cat. The second sketchbook features a lengthy narrative by Robert written on his bus trip from Philadelphia to Cleveland and on his impressions of looking for work in Ohio, along with his list of what to take with him on the trip." Items up for auction are currently on view at the Illustration House and can also be previewed via the gallery's website.
INFO: Illustration House
posted by Egon on Friday, November 14, 2003

THE LIBERATION OF DAVID B.
France's Libération interviews David B. upon the recent completion of his six-volume "L'Ascension du Haut Mal," the first three volumes of which have been translated into English as "Epileptic Vol. 1." David B. tells the paper that one of the challenges of his graphic memoir was to continually find new ways to depict his brother's epileptic seizures; he offers that doing so may even be the subject of the book. David B. relates this representational effort to his life-long fascination with esoteric symbolism: he still strives to create a recognizable diagram of his brother's disease.
INFO: Libération
posted by Egon on Thursday, November 13, 2003

FEIFFER'S LIFE, IN SLIDES
The Port Washington News recounts at length Jules Feiffer's recent presentation at the Port Washington Library in Long Island, NY, dubbed "The Story of My Life Slide Show." Feiffer discussed the inspiration he drew early on from cartoonists such as Winsor McCay, Elzie Segar and Will Eisner: "I gave up whatever style I had to steal from the 'big guys.' I was 35 before I got to be as good as I was at 7." Feiffer went on to describe the primary theme he sought to articulate as an adult cartoonist: "How authority uses words not for what they mean, but to have the effect that they want to get the results that they want." Finally, he spoke to the role of art: "Art is a way of dealing with a sense of chaos. The most therapeutic thing an artist can do is to turn chaos into art. Our lives are out of control most of the time; when you do your art you are more in control than ever... There are enough people who will censor you. The worst censor is in your head."
INFO: Port Washington News
posted by Egon on Thursday, November 13, 2003

DUPUY & BERBERIAN IN ENGLISH
Posts to the Comics Journal's message board by representatives of Drawn & Quarterly and Highwater Books report upcoming English-language books by Dupuy & Berberian from both of those publishers. D&Q's Peggy Burns reports plans to publish "Get a Life," "a 160-page GN that collects the early stories of Dupuy & Berberian's Monsieur John series," some of which have previously appeared in the company's anthologies. "Get a Life" is due in Spring 2004. Highwater's Tom Devlin announces plans to publish an English-language edition of "Journal D'un Album," a book by Dupuy & Berberian about the making of a Monsieur Jean album. "We've decided to hold the D/B book to coincide with the D&Q collection considering that 'Journal' is about one of the albums collected in 'Get a Life.'" Devlin also notes that Brian Chippendale's "Maggots" will be published at about the same time.
INFO: The Comics Journal
posted by Egon on Wednesday, November 12, 2003

BLUE LIGHT SPECIAL
The November issue of Metropolis Magazine runs a full-color one-page strip by Ben Katchor. "Television Light" is available on the magazine's website.
INFO: Metropolis Magazine
posted by Egon on Wednesday, November 12, 2003

WILL EISNER: MAN ON THE STREET
The Miami Herald's Street Magazine features Will Eisner in a lengthy career overview, including commentary by the artist, as spotted by the Comics Journal's "iJournalista!" website. "'The year 2003 I regard as a watershed year,'' Eisner told the Street's reporter. "I think this is the year comics have come of age. It's almost like a Bar Mitzvah. The broad content of this material is greater than ever. The superheroes remain and they're satisfying on a certain level. And then you have horror comics, which are satisfying another level, and then you have the more sophisticated comics, which are trying to deal with life itself and addressing themselves to adults."
INFO: Street Miami
posted by Egon on Wednesday, November 12, 2003

THE LIVING PROJECT
The MirandaNet fellowship carries a report about "Living," a 28-page comic about homelessness created by students of Hermitage Primary School in Wapping, England. Participating students received guidance from various cartoonists over a period of roughly seven weeks. "The young people were clearly excited by the project, and picked up the basic drawing skills quickly, even going so far as producing their own 'How to Draw' leaflets in another lesson, reflecting what they'd learned." A script for the project was developed based around real case histories of homeless individuals. "Each pupil then worked on a single panel of the storyline, drawing a picture to go with their part of the script, thinking carefully about how they might best illustrate that part of the story, and about how the characters might be feeling. This process was repeated until the whole story was done, so that the pupils each have several illustrations throughout the finished stories." "Living" is available for download as a pdf file from the MirandaNet website.
INFO: MirandaNet
posted by Egon on Wednesday, November 12, 2003

A MAUS IN THE DAIRY
The University of Wisconsin's Badger Herald chronicles Art Spiegelman's November 10 lecture at the Wisconsin Union Theater. "We think in ... cartoons," Spiegelman told his audience, noting that text-image combination "is the way we store a lot of information in our head."
INFO: The Badger Herald
posted by Egon on Wednesday, November 12, 2003

MANKOFF IN MICHIGAN
The Michigan Daily covers the first in a series of lectures given by New Yorker cartoon editor Robert Mankoff at the University of Michigan, as spotted by the Comics Journal's "iJournalista!" website. "Seeking to forge an academic relationship between the University and the weekly publication, the Psychology Department invited Mankoff to give a series of five lectures on cartoons and the art and science of humor," the paper reports.
INFO: The Michigan Daily
posted by Egon on Wednesday, November 12, 2003

A PANEL ON THE PANEL
In light of the magazine's current "cartoon issue," the New Yorker's website runs a flash-animated slideshow featuring magazine cartoonists Matthew Diffee and Sam Gross, with selected cartoons and running audio commentary from the pair. The issue sits beneath a cover by Gary Larson.
INFO: The New Yorker
posted by Egon on Monday, November 10, 2003

JOE SACCO TREADS THE GLOBE
The Globe and Mail talks to Joe Sacco about "The Fixer," his latest work of comics reportage. The piece discusses Sacco's choice of subject matter, his artistic influences and his near-decision to quit comics. Sacco's next book will tell a story "set in Gaza that's a mixture of what's going on there now and an examination of a historical episode that occurred in 1956."
INFO: The Globe and Mail
posted by Egon on Monday, November 10, 2003

A POCKET FULL OF POSY
The Guardian speaks with Posy Simmonds in anticipation of "Literary Life," a volume collecting Simmonds' weekly book-themed strip from the pages of that paper. Simmonds' next project will be a long-form story: "Graphic novels are becoming more popular here, but I think cartoons are still associated with childish things," says Simmonds. "But in France and Belgium, the graphic novel is a huge phenomenon." "Literary Life" is due November 27 from Jonathan Cape, according to parent company Random House's website.
INFO: The Guardian
INFO: The Guardian: Literary Life
INFO: Random House
posted by Egon on Monday, November 10, 2003

FROST FORMS ON COCONINO WORLD
Coconino World has launched a dedicated A. B. Frost website called "A. B. Frost: Forgotten Master of the Comic Strip." The website is launched in anticipation of "L'Anthologie A. B. Frost," a bilingual book collecting Frost's three major albums of picture stories and published jointly by Les Éditions de l'An 2 and Fantagraphics Books. The website reproduces — with background information — samples from the three books of picture stories collected in the upcoming volume: "Stuff and Nonsense," "The Bull Calf," and "Carlo." In addition to supplemental biographical information, picture stories and illustrations, the site also runs the introduction to a forthcoming essay by Thierry Smolderen titled "A. B. Frost: Early Comics and the Photographic Dimension." The website's contents are available in French and in English.
INFO: A. B. Frost
posted by Egon on Sunday, November 09, 2003

REISER REMEMBERED
BDNews reports the November 6 release of "Reiser For Ever," a tribute album commemorating the twentieth anniversary of Jean-Marc Reiser's death. Reiser was a co-founder of "Hara Kiri" magazine and contributed to magazines including Pilote and Charlie Hebdomaire. "Reiser For Ever" includes work by Baru, Edmond Baudoin, Stéphane Blanquet, Julie Doucet, Moebius, Marjane Satrapi, and Joann Sfar, among others. Reiser is the subject of an exhibit running at the Centre Pompidou from November 19 through January 19, 2004.
INFO: BDNews.net
INFO: Centre Pompidou
INFO: Lambiek.net: Jean-Marc Reiser
posted by Egon on Sunday, November 09, 2003

PETTIBON/STEINBERG ON VIEW
The Miami Herald covers "American Short Stories: Saul Steinberg / Raymond Pettibon," a joint exhibit of the two artists' work at North Miami's Museum of Contemporary Art. "Pairing these artists offers visitors an unusual visual pleasure, especially timely since drawings are especially topical and expressive these days among contemporary artists," writes the Herald's art critic. The paper's website carries a short slideshow of work by the two artists. The exhibit runs through November 16.
INFO: The Miami Herald
INFO: Museum of Contemporary Art
posted by Egon on Sunday, November 09, 2003

XERIC GRANTS GIVEN
The Xeric Foundation announces the latest recipients of the organization's biannually-awarded self-publishing grants in a press release carried by Comicon.com's "Pulse" website:

Alex Fellows, "Canvas"

Jay Hacker, "Headstatic"

Jon "Bean" Hastings (ed.), "Spark Generators II"

Neil Kleid, "Ninety Candles"

Joel Rivers, "Along the Canadian"

Leslie Stein, "Yeah, It Is!"

Michael Zittel, "Master Catfish"
"A total of $26,960 was awarded to seven comic book creators. The Foundation has awarded in excess of $1,245,000 to comic book creators and non-profit organizations since its first grant cycle in September 1992... The next deadline and review dates are January 31, 2004 and March 1, 2004, respectively."
INFO: Comicon.com
LINK: The Xeric Foundation
posted by Egon on Sunday, November 09, 2003

AFRICAN-AMERICAN SPLENDOR
Jimi Izrael writes about "American Splendor" for the Africana website, detailing his own encounter with Pekar in the early nineties. "I confronted him about his use of language, the way the black workmates he wrote about read as ghetto-style and under-educated." Pekar invited Izrael to his workplace to meet the co-workers depicted in his comics. "Off to his gig we went, and as it turns out, the people he wrote about were exactly as he wrote them, and the writer in me tuned my ears to the music in their voices. I began to hear people in a whole other way — Pekar was taking risk with the written language I hadn't seen or heard before. Where had I been?" The incident was later recounted by Pekar with art by Frank Stack in American Splendor #16.
INFO: Africana
posted by Egon on Sunday, November 09, 2003

BETO'S BURDEN
Heidi MacDonald interviews Gilbert Hernandez for Comicon.com's "Pulse" website, discussing the recent release of "Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories." "The reason I chose to go with Palomar was that I could put enough of my own experiences and observations in a comic strip in a simple and direct way, using a small village, originally small cast of characters," says Hernandez. "I was just able to tell stories that came to me from things I experienced when I was young. And things that the people around me experienced as well."
INFO: Comicon.com
posted by Egon on Sunday, November 09, 2003

MAKING HISTORY
Fictionalized comics biographies continue to garner attention as Jeet Heer examines Chester Brown's "Louis Riel" for Canada's National Post. Heer particularly discusses Brown's visual debt to Harold Gray. Meanwhile, Tom Westin reviews the first volume of Vertical, Inc.'s English-language translation of Osamu Tezuka's biography of Buddha for Japan's Daily Yomiuri. "The English translation, while generally adequate, is a little rough in places, especially in the speech of Tatta, the animal-loving outcast; the wilderness creatures are his 'peeps,' and Chapra's mother his adopted 'moms.' Though this may be a case of 'keeping it real' to the slang of the Japanese original, if the story is to last another 30 years, the flavor-of-the-moment vernacular will certainly seem dated."
INFO: National Post
INFO: Daily Yomiuri
posted by Egon on Sunday, November 09, 2003