If you're in New York, or will be in New York for the big New York Comicon, you won't want to miss this:
If you've never heard Mark or Paul speak, you'll be hard-pressed to find two guys who can talk comics any better. And if you haven't checked out Desert Island yet, by all accounts you should.
Book Signing and "Show and Tell" with Garbage Pail Kids creator Mark Newgarden and cartoonist/archivist Paul Karasik at Williamsburg's newest comic and book store, Desert Island
Desert Island is pleased to announce its inaugural event, a book signing and "show and tell" featuring Garbage Pail Kids creator Mark Newgarden and Fletcher Hanks archivist Paul Karaik on Friday, April 18th from 8:00 to 10:00 PM. Desert Island is located at 540 Metropolitan Avenue between Union and Lorimer.
Having just opened in late February of this year, Desert Island is Williamsburg's newest comic and book store, and a local resource for fans of independent publishing and artist books. Owned and run by artist Gabriel Fowler, Desert Island will host a series of similar events throughout the year.
Mark Newgarden will be signing his popular Bow-Wow series of children's books created with Megan Montague Cash, as well as his 2006 collection We All Die Alone and other works.
Paul Karasik will be signing I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets: The Comics of Fletcher Hanks, his compilation of 15 of Hank's "best" stories published last year by Fantagraphics. Karasik spent years tracking down these obscure and hard to find stories buried in the back of long-forgotten comic book titles. Through his research, he also uncovered the dark secret of why Hanks disappeared from the comics scene.
In addition to signing books, Paul and Mark will be exhibiting relics including Fletcher Hanks' earliest known work plus censored and rejected Garbage Pail Kids artwork!
Comic archaeologist and cartoonist Paul Karasik studied at the School of Visual Arts with cartoonists Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, and Art Spiegelman. He was Associate Editor of Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly's avant-garde international comics and graphics review, RAW. In addition he published his own magazine, Bad News, which was among the first to run the work of cartoonists Ben Katchor, Gary Panter, and others.
In collaboration with artist David Mazzucchelli, he adapted Paul Auster's novel City of Glass as a graphic novel, which was named one of the best 100 comics of the century by The Comics Journal.
Mr. Karasik's cartoons have appeared in The New Yorker and Nickelodeon magazines. He has taught cartooning at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, Packer Collegiate in Brooklyn, and, for the past three years, at the Scuola de Comics in Florence, Italy.
Cartoonist and author Mark Newgarden is the co-creator of the 1980's non-PC icon Garbage Pail Kids. He has long championed cheap junk as the 20th century's great art form & has subsequently unleashed a torrent of warped & weird entertainments in a multitude of forms.
Newgarden's work has appeared in a diverse array of venues from the pivotal avant-garde comics album Raw to the NY Times op-ed page. His work has also graced the walls (and screens) of the Smithsonian Institute, the Cooper-Hewitt, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Television and Radio and the ICA in London.
In 1999 he completed writing and directing 4 episodes of "B. Happy" the first of the experimental " Web Premiere Toons" for Cartoonnetwork.com. and subsequently established an award-winning studio, Laffpix Inc.
His picture history of the practical joke and novelty industry; Cheap Laffs; was published by Harry S. Abrams in 2004 and We All Die Alone; a monograph collection of his comics and stories was released from Fantagraphics Books in 2005. His first children's book Bow-Wow Bugs a Bug (with collaborator Megan Montague Cash) was released in 2007 by Harcourt and has won numerous awards and honors including a gold medal from the Society of Illustrators.
This will be the first in a series of "show and tell" events at Desert Island, which will serve to encourage the appreciation of the odd and quirky.
LISTING INFO:
WHO: Paul Karasik & Mark Newgarden
WHAT: Book signing, curiosities, and discussion
WHERE: Desert Island
WHEN: Friday, April 18, 7PM
WHY: Because we care
Desert Island Comics
540 Metropolitan Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11211