Kibbles ‘n’ Bits 11/14/16: “All are equal at a comic con”

§ Nice Art: It seems the comics world has come to a standstill for some reason. So here’s a preview of a 2017 graphic novel: Gauguin: The Other World by Fabrizio Dori, part of SelfMadeHero’s Art Masters series – they’ve also published books on Munch, Van Gogh and Picasso. The book comes out in March:

Paul Gauguin: a life of adventure, controversy, and creation

In 1891, Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) arrives on the French Polynesian island of Tahiti. In this lush paradise, he is liberated from the concerns of the city-dwelling European. He is free: to love, to sing, and to create. In Copenhagen, Gauguin’s wife enjoys no such freedom. She would rather forget her odious husband and his degenerate artwork. Instead, in a city resistant to the avant-garde, she is tasked with selling a collection of his extravagantly priced Tahitian paintings. When they finally go on sale—in Paris, shortly after Gauguin’s return—sales are catastrophic. For Monet, Renoir, and the rest of the old guard, nothing indicates that these bizarre, visionary works are of any lasting significance.

 

§ There were comic cons this weekend! The always delightful North Carolina Comicon was expecting to draw 10,000.

Cliff Bumgardner said the convention comes at a perfect time to forget about this week’s past election. “It’s been a stressful time for everybody I think lately with the election and everything else that has been going on,” he said. “You can come here and forget about that and just be around stuff that you love. That’s what I like most about it. It’s about loving things and loving each other. Anyone is welcome. All are equal at a comic con.”

§ And in Providence it was the Rhode Island Comic Con. Here’s a delightful first timer report, although most of the energy was expended standing in line to meet Jeffrey Dean Morgan sp they could get beaten to death with a baseball bat his autograph. Frankly, I would stand in line to meet Jeffrey Dean Morgan, although come to think of it, I met him at a Watchmen junket:

So, we paid our nonrefundable $85 and dutifully got into a line that snaked across the floor of the Dunkin’ Donuts Center, little thinking we would not get to the front for another 6½ hours. But this was our first Comic Con and I, for one, had no idea what to expect other than the costumes. And they really were spectacular, most very witty, many amazingly well-crafted. To be sure, standing in line was tiring, especially when Morgan actually left for photo ops and a panel discussion. As one guy in front of us said at one point, “Well, I’ve stood for my daily 12 hours — and progressed 14 feet.” An exaggeration, but the comment was met with a lot of laughter, which was another unexpected aspect of the experience, the camaraderie that developed on the line. Not surprising, of course; if you are stuck with a number of people for that length of time, you all find the funny side of it.

 

§ At Mumbai’s Comics Con India here’s a story about the guy who managed the NYX booth:

For the first time, NYX, the professional makeup brand got associated with Comic Con and had its presence at the convention on 22nd & 23rd October at Bombay Exhibition Centre, Goregaon, Mumbai. Vibgyor Brand Services was roped in by NYX to set-up the booth at the Comic-Con where NYX products were used to engage attendees in cosplay. To interact with the crowd, a dart game was played wherein the youth who hit the target won NYX merchandise. Professional make-up artist applied the cartoon makeup look – cosplay to the winners.

So thre you have it: a man ran a make-up booth at a con. NYX make-up is awesome, though.

§ On the plus side, the new edition of Ron Wimberly’s masterful Prince of Cats has a nice review at NPR:

A whip-smart up-and-comer — previous Image projects included Slave Punk and Sunset Park — Wimberly unabashedly demands recognition with this nervy work. Prince of Cats is packed with allusions: to Greek myth and Japanese folklore, The Warriors and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, video games and action movies and the ’80s art scene. Of course, the most significant of Wimberly’s grab bag of references is the Bard himself. Wimberly’s characters all speak in a mix of high-flown poetry and gritty, down-to-earth images — just as Shakespeare’s characters did.

Seriously, if you haven’t read Prince of Cats it’s one of the best graphic novels of the last decade

§ Here is a lengthy report on Ta-Nehisi Coates’s talk at Amalgam Comics in Philly. Glad to hear the store is doing well.

§ In the decade+ that I’ve been writing Kibbles ‘n’ Bits, I’ve come across some links that were amazing, but this could be the all time cake taker. Cartoonist, 79, finds inspiration from people all around him

Chuck Stoudt sits at a table inside a Chick-fil-A as people in the drive-thru look in at him. The 79-year-old cartoonist is bent over a sheet of paper drawing. He first sketches the concept in pencil, then inks over it. Next, he erases the pencil marks. Finally, he colors it with color pencils.

The rest of the story describes more of Stoudt’s daily drawing at the Chick-fil-A, sadly, without a single example of his art. So yes, a news story about a man sitting in a fast food restaurant sketching. If only all the news could be like this.