BIG FUN COMICS
American Comic Archives announces the upcoming debut of "Big Fun Comics Magazine," a quarterly dedicated to reprinting adventure strips. The first issue will feature "Captain Easy" strips drawn by Leslie Turner and Noel Sickles' "Scorchy Smith," among other material. Sample pages from the magazine are available online.
INFO: American Comic Archive
posted by Egon on Tuesday, April 13, 2004

COCONINO: KRAZY, KLEY, ETC.
The latest Coconino World update concludes that website's run of 1919 Krazy Kat dailies by George Herriman and launches a website dedicated to illustrator Heinrich Kley (1863 - 1945). With a background in painting, "Kley changed his approach and started using modern industrial life as a subject for his art. In 1908 he moved to Munich, and began to concentrate almost entirely on pen line drawing. Mixing themes from Antiquity with industrial backgrounds, he loaded his fantasmagorical drawings with a bizarre vein of sarcastic erotism. They were published mostly in the great satirical magazines of the time, Simplicissimus and Jugend, and brought Kley immediate fame." The website also features contemporary comics by Anne Simon and work by the painter Soluto.
INFO: Coconino World
posted by Egon on Tuesday, April 13, 2004

ARNOLD CHATS WITH CHET
Time Magazine's online comics columnist Andrew Arnold interviews Chester Brown about "Louis Riel." Brown tells Arnold: "Harold Gray [the original creator of 'Little Orphan Annie'] was a big visual influence on the book, including blank eyeballs, de-emphasized emotional reactions the overall size of the figures. I initially started out drawing Riel with a big head and a smaller body then by the end of the book I was drawing him with a big body and a small head with massive hands. That's very much the way Gray drew his heroic figures." Brown further reveals that he is assembling a "new, definitive edition of 'Ed the Happy Clown'... There will be yet another ending to the book along with some editing to the work and a few redrawn panels. Just trying to improve it overall. It will probably have a different title this time around." Brown further notes that he plans to finish his Gospel adaptations "at some point."
INFO: Time Magazine
posted by Egon on Tuesday, April 13, 2004

SETH ON PEANUTS
The "Cultural Gutter" website runs in unexpurgated form Guy Leshinski's recent interview with Seth on the subject of "Peanuts." Seth comments on "Peanuts" various creative periods: "I think even the last 20 years, which people generally look down on, is a very interesting strip. It's an old-man strip. I think even the characters are old in those last 20 years, they're not children anymore. Take a good look at Lucy. I always think of Lucy because Lucy transforms from a little girl into an old woman. She's dumpy, she's walking around in sweatpants all the time, it doesn't look anything like Lucy in the '60s. And she's very complaining." An edited version of the interview appeared in Toronto's weekly "Eye Magazine."
INFO: The Cultural Gutter
posted by Egon on Tuesday, April 13, 2004

BOOKSLUT: DAME DARCY, LOUIS RIEL
The April issue of the "Bookslut" online magazine interviews Dame Darcy and reviews Chester Brown's "Louis Riel." Says Darcy: "I just finished my graphic novel, Gasoline, and I gave it to my agent so I can get an advance and work on the illustrations for it without having to worry about money... It's about a witch-cult that lives after the apocalypse, and they're in a rock band, and they own the only car. My band, Death by Doll, does all the music. I'd like a CD to go with the book, but also I'd like my band to do all the music for the movie, and I want to make it into a feature film."
INFO: Bookslut
posted by Egon on Tuesday, April 13, 2004

THE NEW YORKER VISITS BOONDOCKS
The New Yorker runs a lengthy piece on "Boondocks" cartoonist Aaron McGruder. The piece discusses the evolution and reception of McGruder's strip and describes the cartoonist's attempts to branch out into television and film. "Amid all this, the comic strip has suffered. For one thing, McGruder doesn't draw 'The Boondocks' anymore. He passed the sketching and inking duties to a Boston-based artist, Jennifer Seng, around the time of the Condoleezza Rice flap, last fall." The piece also reveals that "[director Reggie] Hudlin and McGruder have written a couple of scripts and a graphic novel together. The book, called 'Birth of a Nation,' reimagines the 2000 Florida election fiasco in East St. Louis, Illinois, and has the city seceding from the union to form its own country, Blackland. (In Blackland, Denzel Washington is on the twenty-dollar bill.) It will be published this summer."
INFO: The New Yorker
posted by Egon on Tuesday, April 13, 2004

BDNEWS UPDATES NO MORE
BDNews.net webmaster Gilles (no last name give) announces the end of comics coverage on the website, citing time constraints, waning enthusiasm, and a desire to write more in-depth pieces instead of short reportage. Gilles will continue to update his weblog, "Neuvième Art," which currently features commentary on new releases, among other material. The BDNews.net archives will remain online for the forseeable future.
INFO: BDNews.net
INFO: Neuvième Art
posted by Egon on Tuesday, April 13, 2004

COMICS ON RWANDAN GENOICDE
CBC News covers "Sourire Malgré Tout," a comic book about the Rwandan genoicide by Montreal-based cartoonist Rupert Bazambanza. The book "tells the story of the Rwanga family -- his friends who were killed in Rwanda a decade ago. Creating the book, which he began two years ago, has been a way for the artist to honour their memory... The English version, 'Smile Through the Tears,' will be available through Chapters stores across Canada starting in May." Univers BD covers a recent presentation at Paris's Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine by cartoonist Jean-Philippe Stassen, whose graphic albums "Deogratias" and "Les Enfants" also document the atrocities in Rwanda.
INFO: CBC News
INFO: Univers BD
posted by Egon on Tuesday, April 13, 2004

DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF'S GRAPHIC NOVEL
In June, Disinfo Press will publish "Club Zero G," a full-color graphic novel written by Douglas Rushkoff with art by Steph Dumais, according to the writer's website. The roughly 150-page story began as a serial in BPM Magazine.
INFO: Douglas Rushkoff
posted by Egon on Tuesday, April 13, 2004