ON WARE'S McSWEENEY'S ISSUE
McSweeney's online store has been updated with information about McSweeney's #13, the upcoming "comics issue" guest-edited by Chris Ware. The issue will be a clothbound hardcover "with an enormous dust jacket," featuring work by "R. Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Daniel Clowes, Lynda Barry, Los Bros Hernandez, Adrian Tomine, Julie Doucet" and others. In a post to the Comics Journal's message board, Eric Reynolds says that the work will be "a mix of new and old, though mostly new. I believe Ware tried to commission new work wherever he could, but in some cases he really wanted a cartoonist who wasn't able to do something in time, so an existing piece was chosen. I know, for example, that Chris and Clowes and Crumb each did new work for the book, while Tomine, [Charles] Burns and Los Bros were unable to." The McSweeney's website previews Ware's full-color cover artwork.
INFO: McSweeney's
INFO: The Comics Journal
posted by Egon on Thursday, January 15, 2004

NINE TIMES TWENTY-FOUR
About Comics announces "24 Hour Comics," an anthology edited by Scott McCloud and due in April 2004. The book features nine selected twenty-four hour comics, by Steve Bisette, Neil Gaiman, David Lasky, Matt Madden and others. "Each entry will have a new introduction by McCloud, who will also explain the history and rules of his 24 hour comic challenge."
INFO: About Comics
posted by Egon on Thursday, January 15, 2004

MADDEN: A TO Z
Matt Madden's "The Prisoner of Zembla" runs in the January 16 - 22 dated edition of the L.A. Weekly. The oversize, full-page strip is available online as a Macromedia "Flash" file.
INFO: L.A. Weekly
posted by Egon on Thursday, January 15, 2004

McCAY: ELEVEN VOLUMES, MINUS NEMO
The Checker Book Publishing Group announces via press release that the "Winsor McCay: Early Works" series of comic strip collections will eventually comprise eleven volumes, with the second through fifth seeing release in 2004. "Checker's goal is to gather in one series all of McCay's work other than Little Nemo," reads the release. "Besides the first-time-ever complete reprintings of better know fixtures in the McCay canon like Hungry Henrietta, Little Sammy Sneeze and A Pilgrim's Progress, Checker is gathering short-lived rarities from his earliest days as a newspaper illustator at the Cincinnati Enquirer, and briefer Herald/Telegram/American experiments like Phoolish Phillip, Sister's Little Sister's Beau, Poor Jake, Mr. Goodenough and several others. Also to be published in future Checker volumes will be sundry examples of McCay's advertising and spot illustration, animation drawings, and architectural renderings."
LINK: Checker Book Publishing Group
posted by Egon on Tuesday, January 13, 2004

EISNER: FREE AT LAST
The Rocky Mountain News profiles Will Eisner, who will appear in Denver on Thursday, January 15 as part of "No Joke: The Spirit of American Comic Books," an art exhibit with associated programming at the Mizel Center for Arts and Culture. "Slowly but surely it's become all right to read comic books," Eisner told the paper from his Florida studio. "I feel like Martin Luther King. Free at last."
INFO: Rocky Mountain News
posted by Egon on Tuesday, January 13, 2004

NEL ON SEUSS
The Wichita Eagle speaks with Philip Nel upon the publication of Nel's "Dr. Seuss: American Icon," a critical appraisal of Theodor Seuss Geisel's work. "Seuss' art was a very distinctive feature of his work," Nel told the paper. "He has what I call an energetic cartoon surrealism. Look at the energy of his line. It always looks like it is going somewhere. It has a lot of verve to it, makes you want to follow it along. You want to see where it is going. And there's a loopy, drippy quality to his landscape that is reminiscent of Tanguy and Dali." Nel, an Assistant Professor of English at Kansas State University, is also the proprietor of the comprehensive "Crockett Johnson Homepage," and is working on a biography of Johnson and his collaborator Ruth Krauss.
INFO: The Witchita Eagle
LINK: The Crockett Johnson Homepage
posted by Egon on Tuesday, January 13, 2004

UPCOMING FROM D+Q
Drawn & Quarterly's Spring 2004 catalogue lists a number of books upcoming from the Montreal-based publisher. "Way to Go," a collection of Harry Mayerovitch's cartoons, is due in March, as is "Bannock, Beans and Black Tea," a memoir by John Gallant illustrated by his son Seth. April will see the release of the Monseiur Jean collection "Get a Life" by Dupuy & Berberian, as well as "Drawn & Quarterly Showcase" Vol. 2, featuring Jeffrey Brown and Pentti Otsamo. Also expected that month: "Clyde Fans: Book One," a 160-page book compiling Seth's continuing serial, and a new edition of Julie Doucet's "My New York Diary" with new cover art. In May the company will publish "Scrapbook" by Adrian Tomine, collecting the cartoonist's body of illustration work and other material including comic strips drawn for various publications. June will see the release of Sue Coe's "Bully" and the first volume of Frank King's "Gasoline Alley" dailies. The company's previously announced reprint of R. O. Blechman's "The Juggler of Our Lady" is "at this time on the back burner, with no release date," according to marketing and publicity representative Peggy Burns.
LINK: Drawn & Quarterly
posted by Egon on Monday, January 12, 2004

TINTIN AT 75
A number of news sources have reported the 75th anniversary of Hergé's Tintin character on January 10, 2004, commemorated by the Belgian Royal Mint with a specially-minted ten Euro coin. Hergé introduced Tintin on January 10, 1929 in Belgium's "Le Petit Vingtième," the children's supplement to "Le Vingtième Siècle." The character's debut serial was "Tintin au Pays des Soviets." According to the BBC, two Belgian papers ran special Tintin editions this past weekend, and "France's Le Figaro [printed] a special 114-page Tintin issue." The New Zealand Herald quotes Hergé: "I consider my stories as movies. No narration, no descriptions, emphasis is given to images." The Scotsman quotes Andy Warhol: "Hergé has influenced my work the same way as Walt Disney." Warhol's portrait of Hergé will appear in the upcoming "The Adventures of Tintin at Sea" exhibit at the Greenwich National Maritime Museum.
INFO: BBC
INFO: The Scotsman
INFO: New Zealand Herald
INFO: Lambiek.net: Hergé
posted by Egon on Monday, January 12, 2004

PREVIEW: COMIC ART #5
Comic Art Magazine's website has been updated to preview the upcoming fifth issue, featuring a cover by "In the Studio" subject Art Spiegelman. The issue also includes pieces on Johnny Craig, Kim Deitch and Crockett Johnson, among other material.
INFO: Comic Art Magazine
posted by Egon on Monday, January 12, 2004