World Comics

We've lost another great one: news spread today that Italian art master Sergio Toppi had passed away at age 80. Toppi got his start in advertising (and his sketchy, geometric styleed the way for the familiar the mid-century advertising look) but contributed comics to such magazines as Linus, Corto Maltese, Un uomo un’avventura, and Il Giornalino in Italy and l’Histoire de France en bandes dessinées and La Découverte du Monde in France. Best known for single stories rather than series characters, in recent years he worked exclusively with the French publisher Editions Mosquito. Archaia is bringing out a US edition of his retelling of the Arabian Knights, Sharaz-De later this year. A selection is below.

As you may know, the metro Manila area has been hit by severe flooding of late, due to monsoon season, and hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced as a result. Local bookstore Fullybooked is organizing a fundraiser for the flood victims.

It's an obscure title here in the US, but in the UK, The Dandy is akin to Sesame Street and Peanuts all rolled into one. It's the UK's longest running comic, but it's 75 year run might just be at an end, the Guardian reports. With sales that have slipped from 2 million a week to in 50s to 8000 today, you can see why. The Dandy was launched in 1937 as a children's magazine, and featured such much-loved (and mocked) characters as Desperate Dan and Korky the Cat—and came packaged with a whistle. If these characters aren't usually mentioned among the medium's shining stars they were still reliable friends for kids from the 30s on. However the market for kids comics magazines just isn't what it used to be.

Now here's a nice example of "comics across the world." TCAF, the Toronto Arts Festival, has taken a booth at Tokyo's Kagai Manga Festa on November 18th, and will allow certain Canadian cartoonists to exhibit at the booth for free.

Add the UK's 2000 Ad -- home of Judge Dredd -- to the list of publishers going day and date. They're even getting their own app, via the Apple Newsstand, which is offering a free introductory 69-page sampler with pages from Judge Dredd: Day of Chaos, Zombo, and Ichabod Azrael. Subscribers get up to a 24% discount and a selection of free back issues. Single issues are $2.99/£1.99.

Already Oscar-nominated for the PERSEPOLIS film she co-directed with Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi is mostly sticking to the film medium for now. The trailer and poster for a film based on her graphic novel CHICKEN WITH PLUMS is now out. Once again co-directed by Satrapi and Paronnaud (aka Winschluss), this time, instead of animation, the duo are using live action to tell the story of a violinist in 1958 Tehran:

For all you stay at homes who are sick and tired of endless San Diego talk, we hope to provide a distraction or two. Like KUTIKUTI, a Finnish comics anthology. You can download all the issues as pdfs. We've always found Finnish humor to be equally fatalistic and merry, and so is KutiKuti.

It's not exactly a classic comic in that it ponders the meaning of life and death....but Jean Claude Forest's BARBARELLA is still one of those iconic Franco-Belgian titles that brings a smile to the face. If the Mad Men-era politics of the original strip won't do it, young Jane Fonda as the original movie version is guaranteed to do the same.

Note to Europeans: I am available to go to your comics festivals. Cry cry cry....

Angoulême. San Diego. Tokyo. Barcelona. New York. Erlangen? A comics show... in Germany? In a small city most people haven't heard of? Held every other year since 1984? It can't be worthy of a post, can it? Ah... read on and discover!

Every two years, the Max und Moritz Preis Gala takes place at the International Comics Salon in Erlangen, Germany. Who won? Who was nominated? And what was Marc-Oliver Frisch's involvement?

Artist Sara Pichelli won Best Artist and Best Newcomer awards at last night's Stan Lee Awards, which are presented at the Kapow! to recognize achievements in superhero comics or something. Pichelli was on hand to accept her awards, as you can see, which is a good thing because originally there were no women in comics to go to the show. Luckily, some were found.