HARKHAM, WOLFGANG IN RED
The website for Jordan Crane's "Reddingk" publishing concern debuts two new, weekly strips by Sammy Harkham and Kurt Wolfgang. Harkham offers "Black Death," a continuing strip that will, according to Crane's website, "eventually be printed in its own booklet." Wolfgang's strip will run on Mondays with "Black Death" running on Wednesdays, according to Crane's announcement on the Comics Journal's message board.
INFO: Reddingk
INFO: The Comics Journal
posted by Egon on Wednesday, November 19, 2003

CALL FOR PAPERS
Gene Kannenberg, Jr. has added a section to his "ComicsResearch.org" website listing comics-related dissertations and theses. Additions and corrections can be submitted via e-mail: genekjr@earthlink.net. Writes Kannenberg: "If submitting your own information, please provide as much as possible: your full name; title of project; level [doctoral, master's, undergraduate; institution and program; abstract; committee members; relevant URLs; and publication information, if all or parts of the work have been published.)"
INFO: ComicsResearch.org
posted by Egon on Wednesday, November 19, 2003

OTHER PEOPLE'S COMICS
The current installment of the weekly "Other People's Stories" website is a comic strip by Dan Zettwoch, relating a story gleaned from Jason Shiga's online journal. "Other People's Stories" recounts stories that "have been overheard and misheard, told and re-told and sometimes refined over time." The website's masthead lists Ganzfeld editor Dan Nadel as its "picture story editor;" additional installments in comics form include pieces by David Rees and Ron Regé, Jr.
INFO: Other People's Stories
posted by Egon on Wednesday, November 19, 2003

ANGOULÊME: ALPH-ART NO MORE
Beginning with this coming year's event, awards presented at the Angoulême BD Festival shall no longer be known as the "Alph-Arts," according to the BD Sélection website. For the time being the prizes will simply be known as the "Prix d'Angoulême," a designation considered by organizers to be more understandable to the general public. Further changes announced by festival director Jean-Marc Thènet include the removal of the "best dialogue" award, the addition of a "best series" prize that will be open to manga and Franco-Belgian comics, and the institution of a "Prix du Patrimoine de la Bande Dessinée," intended to promote the republication of major works that have fallen out of print. The remainder of the festival's prize categories will remain unchanged. Nominated books will be announced December 9, with prizes to be awarded at the festival on Thursday, January 22, 2004. According to the Comic Book Award Almanac, the festival awards were originally called "the Alfred Awards, after a penguin from Alain Saint-Ogan's series Zig et Puce. In 1989, the name was changed to the Alph'art Awards, after the title of Hergé's last, and unfinished, Tintin story."
INFO: BD Sélection
INFO: Comic Book Award Almanac
posted by Egon on Sunday, November 16, 2003

STRIPDAGEN HAARLEM INVITEES
Dutch publisher Oog & Blik reveals the guest list for the 2004 Stripdagen Haarlem, taking place June 5 - 6, 2004 in Haarlem, the Netherlands. Guests announced for the biennial event include Edmond Baudoin, Glen Baxter, Charles Burns, Robert Crumb, Dupuy & Berberian, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Jacques de Loustal, Ever Meulen, Seth, Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware and others.
INFO: Oog & Blik
LINK: Stripdagen Haarlem
posted by Egon on Sunday, November 16, 2003

BY ANY OTHER NAME
A number of recent articles consider the rise of long-form comics, noting both the emergence of viable work and the limitations of "graphic novel" as a descriptive term. The Telegraph surveys several books, including work by Joe Sacco, Art Spiegelman and Chris Ware. Sacco rebuffs the notion that comics have only recently achieved maturity: "I think the journals which are looking at comics have grown up, actually." Time Magazine's online comics columnist Andrew Arnold considers the graphic novel on the 25th anniversary of Will Eisner's "A Contract with God." Arnold speaks with Spiegelman, who articulates the limited viability of the term: "Maybe for a short window it was enough to say 'graphic novel' but soon it won't be... because if you talk about [Chris Ware's] 'Jimmy Corrigan' as a graphic novel you'll have to explain that it's not manga or Marvel. Then you are left saying, 'well it's got a seriousness of purpose' that the phrase 'graphic novel' alone won't offer." An article in the Oregonian anticipating Sacco's upcoming appearance at Portland's Reading Frenzy is only the most recent of several in which Sacco rejects the label: "I don't like the term graphic novelist," says Sacco. "That's a term people in the comics industry latched onto because they think it makes comics seem what they aren't: more adult."
INFO: The Telegraph
INFO: Time
INFO: The Oregonian
posted by Egon on Sunday, November 16, 2003

TCJ SITE UPDATE
The Comics Journal's website has been updated to preview the forthcoming issue #256. The site excerpts Tom Spurgeon's appreciation of the Fort Thunder art collective and his interview with Brian Ralph, as well as Alan Gleason's interview with manga artist Keiji Nakazawa.
INFO: The Comics Journal
posted by Egon on Sunday, November 16, 2003