From Dan Piraro: I successfully raised two children to adulthood who, until recently, I called my daughters. But in the past year, one of them has asked that I not refer to her with terms associated with females. She doesn’t feel that words like “her,” “ma’am,” or “daughter” describe her. In fact, she doesn’t think […]
When most comic strip animals talk, they don’t exactly scream “realism.” But the animals that populate “They Can Talk,” the wry, brilliant weekly webtoon by local cartoonist Jimmy Craig, don’t just sound authoritative — they’re downright relatable. Jimmy Craig is interviewed by Peter Chianca of Boston.com in anticipation “a Q&A session at Harvard Book Store in […]
One of the feature panels at last weekend’s MoCCA Art Fest was Derf Backderf discussing researching his non-fiction graphic novel Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio. Research was the reigning topic of discussion during the talk. The Kent State shooting carries such an overwhelming amount of trauma, politics, culture, and activistic identity in its narrative that […]
Knight’s talk was both autobiographical and a chance to comment on society through his art. Knight, who grew up in Boston, remarked that he had only one black teacher in school – and that was a substitute who, as a comic artist, at least modeled a career that appealed to Knight. It wasn’t until Knight […]
Lectures, Conversations, and Exhibits. Mark Dery on Nursery Crimes: Edward Gorey’s Morbid Nonsense. In [an] illustrated lecture, cultural critic Mark Dery, author of Born to Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey, reveals the surprisingly serious themes woven through his oeuvre: death, sexuality, the human condition, the meaning (or meaninglessness?) of life, […]
So – there I am reading about book deals on the Publishers Weekly site, specifically to read about forthcoming Will McPhail projects: Rosenthal’s second big deal of the week was a preempt for two books from writer and cartoonist Will McPhail, whose work for the New Yorker has earned him the National Cartoonist Society’s Reuben […]
Back in the day, Phil Donahue was the king of day-time talk shows. If I remember right his show, and competing shows, were topical and dealt with mostly social issues. I’m not sure which show first decided to introduce or change their format to “freak,” but for several years day-time talk shows all raced to […]
Stephen Silver is releasing a video series entitled “The Master’s Series” this month which features Stephen visiting the homes and studios of famous cartoonists to talk about their careers, film their techniques as they draw, ink and color. The series is sold through Schoolism.com for $39. Have you ever wanted to sit in the studio […]
Wiley Miller made an interesting comment on the open discussion about using gag writers and how he handles blind submission from gag writers. He said, So without ever looking at the index cards (as I didn’t want to be unduly influenced by their material), I’d stick them right into the return envelope. I’ve heard variations […]
Jon Stewart talks to Walter Isaacson author of the Time cover story “How to Save Your Newspaper.”
1981 report on newspapers online is a story from KRON in San Francisco about The San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle’s forays into online news in 1981.
David Malki, the self proclaimed comic strip doctor, has tired of his snarky ways and has decided to stop writing his columns. Continuing commitments with my own ongoing comic, writing, and film projects have precluded my spending further time on faux criticism, and frankly, I don’t even read newspaper comics anymore. So it’s been a […]
Last week, I enjoyed an email exchange with Rebecca Nappi of the The Spokesman Review. She’s renewed her interest in the funny pages after losing interest in them when she went away for college 34 years ago. She’s written a commentary about why the funnies have beaconed her return. The adult world is pretty scary […]
Back in the mid-90’s I was watching a video that Tribune Media Services distributed to newspapers to promote Jeff MacNelly. Half way through I noticed Jeff was using some kind of pen that made thin and narrow strokes like it was a brush – but it definitely was a pen. I did slow-mo several times trying to figure out what he was using. I finally emailed Chris Cassatt who was Jeff’s assistant at the time and asked him what he was using. He wrote back telling me it was a brush pen that could only be purchased from an art store in Canada and also gave me contact information on how to order one – which I immediately did. Since then, that brush pen (I still use the original) has been irreplaceable. I love the freedom of being able to work away from my desk and not have to carry around an ink bottle and cup of water to clean the brush.