The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival has announced all its programming and several satellite events, including a showing of rare films and two art openings. In addition Françoise Mouly has joined as a guest and will speak. How on earth are you supposed to run around and buy comics AND go to all these interesting panels?
BCGF takes place Saturday, December 4th in Williamsburg, NY
In addition to the day’s programming, the Festival is pleased to announce a suite of satellite events taking place over five days, including a very special program of rare comics-related film curated by Mark Newgarden screening on Sunday, December 5 at the Knitting Factory and exhibit openings at Secret Project Robot on Friday, December 3 and the Adam Baumgold Gallery on Tuesday, December 7.
Admission to the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival and all associated events is free and open to the public.
BROOKLYN COMICS AND GRAPHICS FESTIVAL PROGRAMMING EVENTS Downstairs at Our Lady of Mount Carmel | 275 North 8th Street, Brooklyn All panels moderated by Bill Kartalopoulos unless otherwise indicated
1:00 | LYNDA BARRY AND CHARLES BURNS IN CONVERSATION Lynda Barry drew the syndicated weekly comic strip Ernie Pook’s Comeek for more than two decades, and has authored books including Cruddy, One Hundred Demons, What It Is, and this year’s Picture This. Charles Burns is the author of acclaimed graphic novel Black Hole and the recent full color book X’ed Out. Join us for this conversation between two extraordinary artists who also share a personal history as former classmates.
2:00 | THE ART OF EDITING In 1980, Françoise Mouly co-founded, with Art Spiegelman, the ground-breaking comics anthology RAW. She is also the Art Editor of The New Yorker and the Editorial Director of the TOON Books line of children’s comics. Sammy Harkham is the editor of the Kramers Ergot series, which has articulated a new aesthetic for comics – and comics anthologies – with each monumental volume. Harkham and Mouly will discuss the pleasures and problems of editing.
3:00 | TAKING INVENTORY: THE STORY OF THINGS In their most conventionally narrative form, comics develop a storyboard-like continuity from panel to panel. But how isolated can a panel be? Renée French, James McShane, Jungyeon Roh and Leanne Shapton will discuss the ways in which they construct or suggest narratives by assembling images of objects and moments that retain their individual integrity.
4:00 | IRWIN HASEN: WHEN COMIC BOOKS WERE NEW Comic books came into their own with the success of Superman’s 1938 debut. By 1940, Irwin Hasen was working in this new field, drawing early comics featuring Green Lantern and Wildcat before co-creating the comic strip Dondi and, recently, the 2009 graphic novel Loverboy. Evan Dorkin and Paul Pope will join moderator Dan Nadel for a special conversation with an artist who has been working in comics for seventy years.
5:00 | ANDERS NILSEN Q+A Anders Nilsen’s fine line, radical graphic experimentation, and humane philosophical investigations distinguish him as one of the most notable cartoonists of his generation. This winter sees the conclusion of his series Big Questions, an epic epistemological adventure featuring several cartoon birds (some of them dead) and one disoriented fighter pilot. Anders will discuss his art and career in this spotlight conversation.
6:00 | HOW NANCY IS: THE SEMIOTICS OF THE GAG Ernie Bushmiller’s iconic comic strip Nancy has been described as “a mini-algebra equation masquerading as a comic strip” drawn by “a moron on an acid trip.” Bill Griffith (Zippy the Pinhead), Mark Newgarden (How To Read Nancy), and Johnny Ryan (Angry Youth Comix) will discuss the unshakeable appeal of Nancy and the essence of gag humor in their comics.
7:00 | CHAOS AND PATTERN Artwork that is dense with compositional detail, line, pattern and texture encourages a lingering, wandering eye. How does this kind of drawing work in comics? Brian Chippendale, Jordan Crane, Keith Jones and Mark Alan Stamaty will consider the relationship between densely made drawing and the propulsive concerns of visual narrative.
SATELLITE EVENTS AND EXHIBITS
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3 “Nazi Knife” Exhibit Opening Location: Secret Project Robot | 210 Kent Ave, Brooklyn Time: 8:00 – 10:00 pm
A collection of images curated by the French collective Nazi Knife, whose eponymous anthology has become a post-millennial clearing house for the psyche-grotesque and other non-narrative drawing in the transgressive post-punk French tradition. Artists include: C.F., Mat Brinkman, Hendrik Hegray, Jonas Delaborde, Andy Bolus, Leon Sadler, Massimiliano Bomba, Stephane Prigent.
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 5 The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival presents: Cartoonists and Comics On Camera, 1916-1962 Location: The Knitting Factory | 361 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn Time: 3:00 – 5:00 pm
A once-in-a-lifetime presentation of rare footage featuring 20th century comics greats and some unusual animated adaptations of their work, curated by Mark Newgarden. See Rube Goldberg, Otto Soglow, Chester Gould, Frank King, Harold Grey, Hal Foster (and many more) at the drawing board! See Jefferson “Gags And Gals” Machamer act! See a drawing lesson from Fred C. Cooper! Plus Krazy Kat, Al Capp, Jacky’s Diary and many more surprises! And join us afterwards for drinks at the Knitting Factory’s front-room bar.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7 “Renée French: Drawings” Exhibit Opening Location: Adam Baumgold Gallery | 60 East 66th Street, NY, NY Time: 7:00 pm
Adam Baumgold Gallery presents a selection of Renée French’s exquisite graphite-on-paper drawings from 2007 to the present. Included here are sequences from her acclaimed new graphic novel, H Day, as well as a series of metaphorical “portraits” — uncanny visages made up of microscopic details.
