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.

Video Underground: Behind the Counter at MOC

I just got an email from Richard Katterjohn of Video Underground/ Behind the Counter and they want to feature Sunday Comix in some of their upcoming video podcasts about comics. They have six videos from their time at last weekend's Mid-Ohio Con (you can go to their home page or their ComicSpace gallery page or their YouTube page and see what what it's all about). It looks like they've been doing this since 2003 with 133+ podcasts and counting (2003, incidentally, is when this little group began).

If you read this blog regularly, you'll find out how things develop as they happen (more or less).

Who Is Harvey Pekar?

Walrus Comix posted a lengthy interview with the celebrated (and legendary) Ohio comics writer, Harvey Pekar. I love the fact that the Walrus Comix main page (currently) plays a sample of Harvey's voice from the phone interview.

As an added bonus, here's a (much sorter) You Tube video interview:

Making of Glamourpuss Video

Only 5 Days until you can see Dave Sim at SPACE...

...but you can see him in action NOW, tracing, drawing, inking and talking about Al Williamson at www.glamourpusscomic.com! (Link courtesy of the Cerebus Yahoo Group.)

...or just check it out below.

SPACE Panels Announced

We’re pleased to present the schedule of panel discussions, presentations and workshops that will be going on at the 9th Annual S.P.A.C.E. (Small Press & Alternative Comix Expo) on Sat & Sun, March 1-2:

Saturday

12:30PM Howard E. Day Prize
Hosted by Dave Sim
Find out who among the nominees will go home with the coveted Day Prize, "the shortest awards ceremony in the industry."

2:00 PM "The Comics Classroom -- From Kids to College to the Community" Panel
Hosted by Carol Tyler
Join us for a lively discussion about teaching comics to kids and adults. Seasoned professionals Bruce Chrislip, Mike Maydak and Bill Loebs will share their experiences as teachers of the sequential art form. Led by C. Tyler, Professor of Sequential and Graphic Narratives University of Cincinnati, DAAP School of Art

Sunday

11:00PM On-line Comics panel discussion
Hosted by Ray Tomzcak

12:00 Noon Group Think: A method to develop story for artists and writers
Hosted by Jeff Zwirek
Jeff will lead participants through a unique workshop method for developing ideas with minds eye visualization and word association. Everyone is invited! Bring a pen and paper to develop material for your own comics or prose.

1:00 PM Antholo-geez! Anthology publishers vent
Hosted by Matt Dembicki
Mr. Dembicki (Attic Wit) will lead this discussion on what it takes to coordinate and publish a successful comic book anthology. Featuring Dara Naraghi (Panel), Steve Noppenberger (Potlatch Project), Allen Freeman (Slam Bang), Rafer Roberts (Plastic Farm), Mark Innes(Comics Eye), and Bob Corby (Oh,Comics!, Untitled)

2:00 PM SPACE Jam
Hosted by Steve Peters
Steve will perform songs from his Paradox soundtrack CD. He will explain how they fit together with his new comic, Runner's Paradox, which is the companion for the CD. Peters is the creator of Chemistry, a comic which also has a soundtrack CD and which won the 2006 Day Prize.
He will be joined on some songs by Jeff Tundis, bass player for the Jazz Bastards and moderator for the Cerebus Yahoo! group.

3:00 PM Amature Press Association Roundtable
Hosted by Ray Tomczak
If it weren't for APA organizations like The United Fanzine Organization (UFO), the Small Press Syndicate (SPS) the Small Press Association (SPA) and the like, S.P.A.C.E. would not exist. Find out why as Ray Tomczak (former co-chair of SPS) heads this roundtable of APA luminaries, J Kevin Carrier (SPS), Mike Carroll (SPS) and Ian Shires (SPA).

Komics @ Kerouac Video

Finally, I found the time to put together the mass of video I shot at the Komics @ Kerouac opening reception into something resembling a coherent whole. This should give you some idea what it was like:

P.Craig Russell visits OSU Cartoon Resaerch Library

This video is from Wayne Alan Harold's upcoming profile of acclaimed Ohio comics illustrator P. Craig Russell (DR. STRANGE, SANDMAN, THE RING OF THE NIBELUNG).

Mr. Harold notes:

This is just a rough scene that gets us down there and into the place—there will be quite a bit more in the finished profile, including a tour of the library, glimpses at Hal Foster and Winsor McCay originals, an examination of Craig's original CORALINE art, a surprise appearance by one of Craig's previous publishers, plus (as they say) much, much more!"

The World Is Thinking... Comix!

Speaking of forums, I received the following email yesterday:

Hello!

You have a great site and wonderful blog and it is refreshing to know that you are very passionate about the topics you discuss.

Here at FORA.tv we are passionate about bringing the best political, social and cultural content from the world's leading forums.

Today's feature video is titled "Cartoons You’ll Never See in The New Yorker Video" in which Cartoonist Matthew Diffee and New Yorker Cartoon Editor Robert Mankoff discuss the unique sensibility of the New Yorker cartoon and how the magazine's selection process works.

We would love for you to join in on this discussion over at FORA.tv and we can't wait for you to come look at our new site, if you enjoy this type of content.

Keep up the great work!

Thanks,
William Phung

I have embedded the video below (Chapter 4 features some unused cartoons deemed "unworthy" for the New Yorker).

So, What is ‘FORA.tv’? According to the site's FAQ,

The word fora is simply the plural of "forum." The dictionary definition of forum is: the public square or marketplace of an ancient Roman city that was the assembly place for public business.

There's a lot of cool content (archived video & audio podcasts) and features to be found on their site so if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go do some forum hopping.

Mike Peters at OSU Festival of Cartoon Art

Mark Anderson, posted this video of the last 7 minutes of Mike Peters' presentation at the OSU Festival of Cartoon Art last weekend. I was fortunate to see the whole thing live.

Wasted Video

Greetings! Ray Tomczak here.
As you may know, I do a weekly comic called Wasted Potential that appears every Sunday on the web-sites ComicSpace, Drunk Duck, Webcomics Nation, Smackjeeves, and at my Wasted Potential blog.
If you didn't know that, pay close attention to the video below. It's a brief introduction to my strip, giving an overview of the basic concepts and main characters and the web-sites where you can see it, all set to music by Talking Heads.

Sunday Comix' Gallery Debut

Recently, as you might know, we of the Sunday Comix group made our first halting foray into the world of "fine arts" by putting on a gallery show at the Gallery Upstairs above the Surly Girl Saloon the night of the Short North September Gallery Hop (September 1). Even though it wasn't something I ever would have sought out for myself, as I don't really think of myself as an "artist" (there's probably a whole post in that alone), I participated at great personal sacrifice (meaning that I had to put off my monthly poker game for a week) and I'm glad I did, and not just because I somehow managed to con two naive fools into purchasing one of my pieces.

Anyway, I was packing a miniature camera that night and took a few pics which I turnend into the video that follows. I have to apologize to Jennifer for the quality of the pic of her. I assure you that she is not that blurry in real life (whatever that is). I actually think that the weird negative effect caused by the bad lighting kind of works for the shot of John Miller, however.

Our next show will be in December. I'm sure details will be posted here and/or elsewhere as the thing gets nearer.