Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "…[T]he newer crop of contributors [in Mome Vols. 17, 18 & 19 is] a rough and tumble bunch who are bringing some fierce and hard-edged work to the table. …[T]he balance is definitely in favor of the strong stuff, because it is strong stuff — well drawn in a variety of styles, and potentially troubling without cloaking itself in shopworn tropes. … Once again, you're getting your bang for your buck." – Sean T. Collins, Attentiondeficitdisorderly • Review: "And when you’re drawn into the world [of It Was the War of the Trenches] it’s…
Megan Kelso at Seattle’s Third Place Books Tuesday, July 20th
MEGAN KELSO CELEBRATES NEW GRAPHIC NOVEL AT THE THIRD PLACE BOOKS ON JULY 20
Suffering from Comicon separation anxiety? Fantagraphics Books and Seattle's Third Place Books are proud to present an evening with acclaimed graphic novelist Megan Kelso on Tuesday, July 20, talking about and signing her new graphic novel, ARTICHOKE TALES, which the NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW recently hailed as "surprising and wonderful,” and about which STRANGER Books Editor Paul Constant declared, “[it] feels like a series of expansions. The characters and their world grow to envelop the reader in a singular, charming way.”
Kelso will be making a rare appearance in her hometown of Seattle, WA, giving a multimedia talk called "Big and Small": How do you construct a story that includes the big wide world, history, culture, sweeping events like war and political change, but that also includes personal, intimate character-driven things like friendship, family relationships, love, sex, babies and dying? How do you meld the two together into a believable whole? How do you humanize important historical players, kings, queens and presidents, and also show how the personal lives of ordinary people are affected by grand events that take place outside their doors? These are the essential questions that Kelso asked herself throughout the creation of Artichoke Tales, and she answers them through examples of her own work, as well as other artists who are engaged with similar issues, from Joe Sacco to Lynda Barry.
This lively talk will be followed by a question and answer session with the audience and book signing.
Listing information:
WHO: Megan Kelso
WHAT: Multimedia talk and book signing
WHERE: Ravenna Third Place Books, 6504 20th Ave. NE, Seattle, WA 98115
WHEN: Tuesday, July 20, 7PM
Daily OCD: 7/15/10
Online Commentary & Diversions: • Review: "In Weathercraft, his first foray into graphic-novel territory, Seattle denizen Jim Woodring employs his repertory troupe of ambiguous, liminal characters — Frank, Manhog, Pupshaw, and Pushpaw — to tell the kind of Pilgrim's Progress tale that David Lynch might have conjured up if he were a cartoonist. … Impermanence, the conundrum of physical senses that guide and ensnare at the same time, the challenge of a rational response to an irrational universe — all this and more await the returning fan or the open-minded acolyte in Woodring's best work yet. And for an artist…
Johnny Ryan covers the Portland Mercury
Johnny Ryan takes you to the Planet of the ALFs on the cover of this week's Portland Mercury.
Fantagraphics Comic-Con 2010 Pocket Guide
Here's a handy-dandy guide to our Comic-Con 2010 author apprearances and panels which you can download (PDF format), print out and bring with you! You can also pick one up at our booth (#1718 — jot that down on your printout) but this way you can come prepared!
Tattoo of Jason’s The Last Musketeer
Jason brought our attention to this fan's tattoo based on the cover of The Last Musketeer, by Brazilian tattoo artist Marlon Miná. Nice work!
Video: Kim Deitch talks Smilin’ Ed
From filmmaker John Kinhart comes this excellent short video interview with Kim Deitch about The Search for Smilin' Ed.
Jim Woodring’s Giant Steel Dip Pen Project
THIS is one of my most favorite things I've ever seen. Please click through and support this project. If Jim Woodring pulls this off, he will be the cock of the cartoonist block for all eternity, short of Charles Burns building a 2 story-tall Winsor Newton Series 7 and inking the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Watch the video. If anyone else outside of possibly Chris Ware proposed this, you would laugh at them. But in Jim's able hands, you can't help but BELIEVE. I am sold. Just listen to him. If you are a cartoonist, especially, I implore you: click the above…
Two more Jordan Crane prints
Jordan Crane is a silkscreening fool in the runup to Comic-Con, just having released two new editions, Flutter to Fly and Leave Taken, on his Reddingk site, following the zombie print from a couple of days ago. Gorgeous as always.
Daily OCD: 7/14/10
Online Commentary & Diversions: • Plug: "Based on reviews, [Werewolves of Montpellier] sounds really good. The art reminds me of Chris Ware or Chris Onstad, and I’m a fan of deadpan, sardonic humour. Do want!" – Werewolf News • Plug: Joe Gordon of the Forbidden Planet International Blog recommends the works of Jacques Tardi for your Bastille Day reading: "…[W]ith the always fine folks at Fantagraphics translating and publishing Tardi’s work in English several of his works are now easily accessible even to anyone who doesn’t read a word of French. A long-standing interest in the history of World War…
