Cartoonists killed in France

If you've been listening to the news, then you know that twelve people at the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo were killed today. They included five cartoonists, including the magazine's editor. At least eleven others were wounded.

The cartoonists were Charb (editor Stéphane Charbonnier), Cabu (Jean Cabut), Georges Wolinski, Tignous (Bernard Verlhac), and Honoré (Philippe Honoré).

Wolinski received the Grand Prix of Angoulême in 2005. There's a great article about him, and about cartooning in France, here. I didn't know about him. According to a quick Google search, his cartoons seem to be mostly just really racy.

The always-edgy magazine took pride in knocking over revered figures of all stripes, but its treatment of Islam is probably the most controversial. In 2012, the magazine courted outrage among Muslims by publishing cartoons of Muhammad, causing France to close embassies and schools in over 20 countries out of fear of reprisals (and causing the editor to be guarded by a police officer, who was also killed today). The cartoons were derisive, insulting and in at least one case obscene. And even if they hadn't been, just depicting the face of Muhammad is not done by observant Muslims.

But injunctions like that are to Charlie Hebdo like a red rag to a bull -- particularly where Islam is concerned. France (the white part, that is) has a long and problematic relationship with Islam and Muslims (see "The Battle of Algiers" and the entire 20th century).

The shooting has done little to stir sympathy for anyone offended by the cartoons. Both the French and American governments have condemned the shooting as an act of terrorism and as a doomed attempt to stifle free speech. Thousands of people have chanted or posted "Je suis Charlie!" ("I am Charlie!") in solidarity.

There's a big conversation we could have about the role of cartoonists in liberal democracies. Is a cartoonist meant to knock down anything that someone else puts on a pedestal, out of spite for pedestals? Or does there need to be more to it than that? If a cartoonist doesn't take a swing when she sees an opening, even or especially when it would cause an outcry, is she allowing herself to be censored?

Without excusing the slaughter in any way, I think that Charlie Hebdo (and before them, the Dutch magazine Jyllands-Posten) acted in a childish and oppositional way. Someone said "Don't draw Muhammad," and so they drew the most disgusting cartoons of Muhammad they could think of. Yeah, it's their right, but it's happening in a larger context of French people saying Muslims suck, and that French Muslims aren't altogether French. You don't have to hurl insults in someone's face to establish your freedom of expression. And publishing the cartoons didn't exactly advance the conversation between moderates and extremists -- in France or anywhere else.

But that's academic now. Now, things have gone tragic. Now, twelve people are dead -- including four cartoonists. The world is poorer without them.

"PANELS IN PINK"--New Comic Art Exhibit At Wild Goose Creative

"Panels In Pink: A Celebration of Female Comics Creators" is a new exhibition  spotlighting the work of several female comics artists and writers, mostly from in and around the Central Ohio area.  The exhibit, produced in co-operation with Sunday Comix and curated by SC member Canada Keck, will be adorning the walls of local arts space Wild Goose Creative, located at 2491 Summit Street, from now until the end of the month.  

Among the creators represented are:

• Lora Innes
• Mari Naomi
• Katherine Wirick
• Suzanne Bauman
• Bianca Alu-Marr
• Katie Valeska
• Alex Heberling
• Maryanne Rose Papke
• Molly Durst
• Crystal Ash
• Brandy Foster
• Sue Olcott
• Caitlin McGurk
• Meg Syverud
• Erin Ash
• KT Swartz
• Lis Huey
• JL Smither
• Kira Keck
• Canada Keck

 An artists' reception, sure to be attended by many of the talented women listed above, is scheduled for April 29 from 6 until 9 p.m.

Neno Curates Album Cover Exhibit At Wild Goose Creative

Michael Neno, creator of the just released The Signifiers, will be curating a new exhibit of classic album covers from the 60's and 70's at the Summit Street headquarters of local arts community Wild Goose Creative.
I just wrote about this on my blog Gutter Talk, so you can read more about it there.

Genghis Con Invades Cleveland November 28

GENGHIS CON CELEBRATES RICHES OF MIDWEST INDEPENDENT PUBLISHING

Comic Show Features the Unknown Work of Local Graphic Storytellers

You won’t find Superman, expensive back issues or fading Hollywood celebrities at Genghis Con, a comic book convention organized to showcase the work of independent artists and writers from the Midwest. The event will be held at the Beachland Ballroom on Saturday, November 28, 2009 from 12:00 noon to 6:00 pm. The convention will feature the talent of approximately 50 graphic storytellers from around the Midwest whose work does not fit into the normal perception of what a comic book should be.

For 70 years the part of the country known as the “rust belt” has provided the world with an incredible abundance of creative talent in the art of telling stories with pictures. This form of communication has reached its pinnacle of popularity in the form of the beloved comic book. Many of the biggest names in comics today hail from the Midwest.

Comic readers are familiar with such Ohio natives as Brian Bendis, Brian Vaughn, Fred Van Lente, Harvey Pekar and Jeff Smith. These and many others from around the Great Lakes are the modern personalities shaping graphic storytelling as we know it today. The common thread through each of these current and rising stars of the industry is they began their careers creating and publishing their own material.

Like their famous brethren, the participants of Genghis Con use skill, imagination and craftsmanship to create engaging, original graphic storytelling art. Their work, however, remains largely unpublished outside of the creator’s own trips to the local copy center. Genghis Con exists to bring this creative talent together in one place and to provide a venue for interaction with potential readers who may not have any other opportunity to see this work.

The organizers of Genghis Con are committed to creating an event which is unique in many ways. Early in the planning stages, the convention organizers decided to break most of the rules of a normal comic convention. These changes include eliminating the dealer’s room and the endless rows of fading TV celebrities. Perhaps the most radical difference is participants will not be charged for table space as they are at other comic conventions. The organizers feel this will free the artists from feeling the pressure to “make up their costs” and allow them to focus on promoting their work.

"We are not doing this to make money,” says Scott Rudge, one of the Genghis Con organizers and owner of Astound Comics in Westlake, Ohio. “We want the creators to use the money they save on renting space to offer inexpensive copies of their work. This benefits both the artist and the audience in a way not seen at a typical comic con. We want those attending the convention to feel comfortable interacting meaningfully with the creators and we hope to do that by making the communication of ideas as inexpensive as possible.”

To further break down the barriers between the artists and readers, Genghis Con attendees will be able to build their own comic book containing the work of each artist at the show. This book will be included at no additional charge with normal admission of $5.00.

“We are looking for creators who use a comic book style format to tell their stories, but we also have accepted some ‘zine and poster artists,” says Rudge. “While we may have some of the next generation of mainstream stars displaying their work, we are also looking forward to offering the work of those who have no interest in promoting their material beyond the desire to simply tell a story.”

The call is out for artists wishing to participate in Genghis Con. Artists are welcome to submit samples of their work for consideration. The organizers of Genghis Con will be accepting submissions until November 15th. For complete details and submission guidelines, creators should go to the event website.

(There was also recently a write up on the show in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.  Read that here. )

Local Online Review Mag to change format

The new issue is of GutterGeek up, with the following reviews:

Captain America	Fables	House of Mystery	Jamilti
Logicomix	My Brain is Hanging Upside Down	Superman

However, change is afoot, according to their blog, 

After three years as a semi-regular review journal, we are going to be morphing over the course of 2009. The biggest change will be a move from publishing complete “issues” to embracing some of the more natural rhythms of electronic publishing by publishing reviews, articles and other features as they arrive.

So, subscribe to their gutterblog feed (http://guttergeek.com/news/files/blog.xml) and stay up-to-date!

COMIX NEWS: Diamond raises order threshold for pubs [UPDATED]

Diamond Comics Distributors announced this week that they will raise their order minimum from $1500 to $2500, a move that will have an immediate effect on small press publishers. In other words, a given comic (outside of the ones from the corporate publishers) needs to sell $2500 minimum in order for Diamond to carry it and place it in their catalog Previews. Because Diamond is the dominant comics distributor for North America by an overwhelming margin, this will make it much harder for the next Bone or American Splendor to get a fighting chance at success.

Among the many reactions around the Net includes this from Ohio retailer Steve Bennett, in his column at ICv2:

...I never deluded myself into thinking I could make everyone a comic book reader but firmly believed there were comics for everyone, if they’d only give them a chance.

And that’s pretty much over; of course it’s been over for a while now, seeing as how we live in a world where a start up publisher is more interested in publishing (and retailers more interested in ordering) Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes instead of the next American Splendor. And when it comes to self publishing, well, I’ve seen the numbers and heard the horror stories and know just how tough that route can be for someone with a dream but not enough financing to hang in there until there’s enough material to be collected into a trade paperback.

Newsarama has a roundup of other reactions so far.

Bennett offers the internet as a solution for independent publishers, and in this I have to agree. The majority of us here at Sunday Comix publish our work online, either in addition to or in place of print. The rules of the game have changed completely from when I began self-publishing in the mid-90s, and to survive today, one has to learn to adapt.

Speaking for myself here, I think regional distribution is worth pursuing for print publishers. To the right you'll see a list of retailers in the Central Ohio area. If you're a creator, hit them up and talk to them about carrying your book, and think further down the road about going state-wide and even Midwest region-wide. It's a longer road to travel, but if it keeps your book afloat, it's an option worth pursuing.

UPDATE: Diamond's Bill Schanes talks to Newsarama. Highlights:

There will be a lot of vendors, again, “lot” being relative, on the comic book side that we’ll have conversations with about some title reductions – or repackaging or reformatting based on long history of sales where the sales are continuing to decline, so there’s less consumer interest with every issue and they’re already under the old benchmark, so they’ll be under the new benchmark by quite a bit. So maybe have to go to quarterly or bimonthly, or raise the price. Those who are creative can figure out how to continue to exist out there, at least through Diamond...

We’ve always taken a position that there is free access to the marketplace, and we want to help the small guys get bigger and we’ve helped grow many small guys to medium guys and medium guys to beiger guys, and are thrilled when that happens, but it’s not an imminent right to be in the catalog. Not everybody can be on the grocery store shelves with their products. The grocery store has to make some tough choices based on what it thinks the consumer base will want...

...if we see a new comic cross our door that looks promising, with a good concept or a good creative team, we’re going to give it a try. But when we have a brand new creator or a brand new talent team, that’s a judgment call. Hopefully we make the right call based on our years of experience here, but we may occasionally miss one. There are times that some creators have called me and said that they think we missed a good one, and sometimes we agree, and sometimes we don’t. But that’s a healthy dialogue, and we’re very open-minded with that.

So from a small presser's perspective, distribution by Diamond should no longer be looked upon as the automatic next step after completing the book. It's easy to think that way; I know I used to. Pursue alternatives, even if it's only on the local level. Another option is digital distribution. Check out this CBR piece about iVerse Media's plan for putting comics on iPhones and iPods.

SPACE Prize Winner Announced

I have just posted on the Official SPACE Blog, Cosmo's Corner, the announcement of the winner of the first annual SPACE Prize, as well as an interview with the winner.
The SPACE Prize, consisting of a plaque and a check for $300, honors excellence in self published small press comics. It was created as a successor to the Day Prize, which was awarded annually at SPACE by Cerebus creator Dave Sim from 2002 to 2008. Shortly after this year's show, Sim decided to stop doing conventions, thus discontinuing the Day Prize. So SPACE organizer Bob Corby stepped in to create the SPACE Prize.
The SPACE Prize will be presented at the 2009 SPACE show, which will take place on April 18th and 19th in beautiful Columbus, Ohio.

Goodye, Opus and Hello, President Obama

This past Sunday, November 2, after 28 years (well, 20 if you don't count the 8 year hiatus between Outland and Opus), Berkely Breathed and his bow-tied alter ego departed the pages of the Sunday comics section, with, if I can be honest here, more of a whimper than a bang. The most recent incarnation of the strip never really lived up to Bloom County in its heyday or even Outland at its best, but in all its forms, Breathed's strip has been one of the highlights of the comics section and will be missed. Luckily, I have all of the books, so I shan't be missing Opus too much.
Among Breathed's many accomplishments is his 1987 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning. However, the events of last night throw into serious doubt Breathed's skills as a political fortune teller. In a sequence of strips from 1988 (which I intended to scan on Saturday to accompany this, but I chose instead to have a total emotional meltdown. We won't go into that in a parenthetical phrase. However, if you're reading along at home, said sequence is reprinted on pages three and four of Night of the Mary Kay Commandos and page 148 of Classics of Western Literature.), "deeply Democratic" Tom Binkley is beset with a "liberal Democrat guilt fit" because he thinks "Jesse Jackson is kinda loopy." He goes on to say, "Jesse can give a heck of a sermon...and he rhymes well...But I'm sorry...I...I just don't see him as the leader of the free world."
To assuage his father's anguish, young Mike Binkley calls on Oliver Wendell Jones' father, Frank, who assures Tom, "Speaking for blacks worldwide, we don't hate you!" and goes on to predict that "The first black in the White House will be a conservative."
To be fair to Breathed, given the political climate of the time (a time that extended to about six months ago, in truth), this was a perfectly reasonable assumption. And if Colin Powell had ever chosen to toss his gold star festooned hat into the ring, it most likely would have become reality.
Instead, last night, this nation elected to lead it the man described by his GOP critics as the most liberal member of the United States Senate.
It's funny, though, that four years ago, John Kerry was the most liberal senator. And I'm sure that if the race for the Democratic nomination had gone differently, you can just guess who would have found herself tagged as the Senate's most liberal member.

By The Time We Got To The Statehouse, We Were 60,000 Strong, And Everywhere Were The Signs Of A Celebration

Did you know that the next President of the United States of America is only two inches tall?
Or so he appeared to me at the Barack Obama rally at the Ohio Statehouse yesterday. It could be, of course, due to the fact that I was quite far from the speaker's platform. In a crowd of 60,000, however, I suppose I was lucky to have been able to see him at all.
I am, either by nature or due to certain events in my past life, if not a full blown cynic then at least a dedicated skeptic, and while I did vote early for Obama, I didn't quite buy the whole hope and change message. Until yesterday. Perhaps it was because I was surrounded by 60,000 cheering true believers, or maybe it was something about actually hearing what was, to be honest, mostly the standard issue stump speech that he has delivered hundreds of times and I've heard most of on the news, in person and from the man himself. I can't really say, but by the end of the rally, I had, to quote a sketch from Saturdays SNL, "drunk the Obama Kool-Aid." I wish I could vote for him all over again. Hopefully, I will be able to vote to re-elect him in four years.
Anyway, this is supposed to be a comics blog, so I'm going to connect this to comics presently.
The 60,000 attendance figure, more than twice what had been expected, comes from National Public Radio's All Things Considered. The NPR correspondant also noted Obama's muffed attempt to reach out to the geek vote. Challenging his opponents self-styled image as a "maverick," the candidate repeated his charge that John McCain voted with George Bush over 90% of the time on economic issues, saying that McCain was more a sidekick than a maverick, "like Kato with the Green Lantern." The NPR reporter correctly pointed out, and I got as he said it, that Kato was, in fact, the sidekick of the Green Hornet.
This gaffe, is in an odd way, reassuring. After all, the POTUS has more important things to do than read comic books, especially super-hero comics.
I bet Dubya knows the difference between the Green Hornet and the Green Lantern, although I picture him as more of an Image comics reader. I can picture him, in the summer of 2001, poring over every detail of the latest issue of Spawn or The Savage Dragon while the now infamous briefing paper entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike Targets Inside US" languished unread in the bottom drawer of his desk beneath a half-eaten bag of stale Cheetos.
I end this rant with a reminder--no--an admonition to all of you to get out and VOTE! If you're in Franklin County, there's still time to get in line at Vets Memorial to vote today. If you're in line by 7 p.m. they have to let you vote. If you can't get out today, then remember that polls are open tomorrow from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Happy Birthday Chevy Chase

Today is Chevy Chase's 65th birthday.
So, what the heck does that have to do with comics, you are probably asking yourself. (If you're in public, best not to do it aloud.)
And it's not the Marvel Team-Up issue from the late 70's that teamed Spider-Man with Saturday Night Live's original Not Ready For Primetime Players. Chase had already left the show by that time.
Well, it turns out, as revealed in a Comics Journal interview with one of my favorite comics writers, Bob Haney, writer of the Batman team-ups in The Brave and The Bold and creator of the Teen Titans, Metamorpho, Eclipso and a host of other off-beat characters from the height of the Silver Age, that Chase's father, Ned, was Haney's brother-in-law. (I suppose this means Haney's sister is Chevy's mother, though that isn't explicitly stated.)
Do you remember the SNL 25th anniversary special where Bill Murray, in his lounge singer persona, goes up to Michael Douglas in the audience and says "I am a huge fan....of your father." If I ever met Chevy Chase, I don't know if I could resist the urge to say, "I am a huge fan...of your uncle Bob."
For more about Bob Haney and The Brave and The Bold, check out this five part series that I posted on my blog The Word From On High a couple of years ago.

It Just Keeps Growing!

As if what's going on at the Library isn't enough as it is, I just got this press release (which is pretty damn awesome-- especially the fourth paragraph)...

The collection of the International Museum of Cartoon Art (IMCA) is moving to The Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library. The union of these two institutions will create the largest collection of original cartoon art in the world.

IMCA was established in 1973 by Mort Walker, the creative force behind Beetle Bailey, as the first museum dedicated to collecting and exhibiting cartoons. The museum opened in 1974 in a converted mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut. Two years later, the museum relocated to a renovated castle in Rye Brook, New York, where the collection was displayed until 1992. At that time the city of Boca Raton, Florida invited the museum to construct a 52,000 square foot facility as part of an effort to attract cultural institutions to Palm Beach County. The museum was a very popular attraction with highly acclaimed exhibits, events and functions for the public. It was still paying off the cost of its construction when two of its financial backers went bankrupt creating a $5 million loss and causing the museum to close.

IMCA’s collection consists of approximately 200,000 works, including original drawings from all genres of cartoon art (comic strips, comic books, animation, editorial, advertising, sport, caricature, greeting cards, graphic novels, and illustrations), display figures, toys and collectibles, and works on film and tape, CDs, and DVDs.

Lucy Shelton Caswell, professor and curator of the Cartoon Research Library, said, “We are honored that the IMCA’s board has placed its treasures in our care.” Efforts are underway to provide increased space for the Cartoon Research Library that will include museum-quality galleries. “It is critical that we have state-of-the-art gallery space to display IMCA’s collection appropriately,” notes Caswell. A gallery in the new facility will be named in honor of IMCA founder Mort Walker.

Joe Branin, Director of The Ohio State University Libraries, issued the following statement: “Special Collections, original manuscripts, photographs, and other rare or unique items so necessary for scholarship, are one of the critical identifiers of any research library. Universities point to their special collections as distinctive points of pride, those things that make their libraries unique. In receiving the collection of the International Museum of Cartoon Art, the Cartoon Research Library has substantially enhanced its standing as one of the premier research libraries. We are excited to make this outstanding collection available for scholarly study and for general appreciation in exhibits and other public programs.”

About the Cartoon Research Library: The Cartoon Research Library's primary mission is to develop a comprehensive research collection of materials documenting American printed cartoon art (editorial cartoons, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, sports cartoons, and magazine cartoons) and to provide access to these collections. The library is open Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Weekend Hangover

This post is very late...

I don't drink, but boy oh boy, did I get drunk last weekend! Not on alcohol but on comics. On Friday night, I hung out with a hundred or so people at the Wexner Center to celebrate Jeff Smith's Bone and Beyond show there. I got the chance to chat with the likes of Scott McCloud and Harvey Pekar (who was in town for the Ohioana Book Festival). I was telling my friends Chuck & Sam, who were with me, that it was the first time (in a long time) that I've been giddy about loving comic books. The party continued on Saturday afternoon with a "public conversation" between Scott McCloud (who acted more like an interviewer) and Jeff Smith at the Mershon Auditorium. The conversation was great and the Q&A session was fantastic. There was a book signing afterwards. and I ended up being close to the end of the line and had some great conversations with the other McCloud & Smith readers.


I scoured the internets to find some well-written and informative articles about the event(s) and came up with the following:

• From the horse's mouth-- Boneville's photo journal of Smith & Co. setting up the gallery at the Wex (part one & two).
• Local newspaper The Columbus Dispatch published a nice article in their Arts section.
• Local writer J. Caleb Mozzocco wrote two far superior, more in depth articles about the exhibitSmith/McCloud conversation on his blog, Every Day Is Like Wednesday.
• A great Comic Related Recap of the weekend. There's loads of pictures on the Comic Related website: here, here, here, here and here.
• Yours truly took a few snapshots, too.
  

I'm sure there's more to be found, but I'm still recovering.

Free Comic Book Day

If you don't know already, then call your local comic shop today to find out if they are one of the thousands of shops around the country participating in Free Comic Book Day-- this Saturday, May 3rd!

If you don't the history of FCBD, let me fill you in: Free Comic Book Day is an annual promotional effort by the North American comic book industry to help bring new readers into independent comic book stores. Brainstormed by retailer Joe Field of Flying Colors Comics in Concord CA in his "Big Picture" column in the August 2001 issue of Comics & Games Retailer magazine (which no longer being published), it was started in 2002 and is coordinated by the industry's single large distributor, Diamond Comic Distributors.

On Free Comic Book Day, participating comic book store retailers give away specially printed copies of free comic books, and some offer cheaper back issues and other items to anyone who visits their establishments. Just to let you know, retailers do not receive the issues for free; they pay 12-50 cents per copy for the comics they will give away for free. So get there early to get what freebies you can and show your gratitude by buying a graphic novel for your mother (it's Mother's Day in just two weeks, y'know!).

Interview with Sci-Fi Smith

As posted on PW Comics Week:

After taking a successful plunge into mainstream comics with last year’s Shazam: The Monster Society of project for DC Comics, Jeff Smith is returning to the world of self publishing with his new series, RASL, which debuts in February. But fans of Smith’s long-running and internationally acclaimed independent series Bone be warned: RASL is a departure from kid-friendly material. Planned as a quarterly series, RASL is a blend of science fiction and noir, following an art thief who jumps dimensions to steal famed paintings. Read the "Let’s get ready to RASL" interview here.

Hmmm... It seems the Spring of `08 is the Trifecta of Self Publishing. Mr. Smith's new book is being published in February. Terry Moore returns to self publishing with his comic, Echo, available in March and Dave Sim will be merging onto the road he helped to pave with his "secret project" (which is not so secret anymore), Glamourpuss, to be launched in April.

Also of note, all three of these artists will be appearing in Columbus this Spring: Dave Sim will be at S.P.A.C.E. on March 1, and Jeff Smith & Terry Moore will speaking at the Wex Center in conjunction with Mr. Smith's Bone art exhibit. (More announcement to come regarding the Bone Exhibit.)

Mid Ohio Con: For Sale

I just found out that Mid-Ohio-Con promoter Roger Price has announced that, after 27 years, he’s retiring and looking for a new owner for the Columbus, Ohio, convention. I've been either an attendee or an exhibitor at Roger's show nearly every year since 1986. I hope to read the good news someday soon that a buyer is found and the torch is passed to someone who can keep this Central Ohio convention alive and well.