World Comics

When you think of Scandinavia you think of cliches like austere and laconic and fatalism -- all words which apply to the work of Norwegian cartoonist Jason. The cliches happen to be true but in the happiest, freshest way. As you can tell by reading his blog, Jason is a big fan of classic films and their pacing, and his work mashes up funny animals, ligne claire, noir thrillers, introspective indie movies where people talk in diners for hours and horror icons into his own marvelous style -- tightly plotted stories where tall rangy birds and dogs talk without smiling of life, love and death, the very essentials of human existence. Jason characters are unsmiling because they know how deadly serious are the machinations of human heart; love is a matter of life and death (sometimes undeath) in every Jason story.

An article in The Gauntlet, the University of Calgary's student magazine, boldly proclaimsThe beginning of a new comic era -- and Calgary's Maad Sheep Productions are just the guys to do it. What the article does not mention is that in order to flourish, comics creators must dress like a NASCAR pit crew.

The long on-again, off-again life action Akira movie is decidedly on again at Warners, with Jaume Collet-Serra to direct the Steve Kloves script. Given that AKIRA is a worldwide classic of anime and Japanese film in general that hugely influenced both animation and the cyberpunk movement, it seems ripe for reinvention in that Hollywood way. And of course, also in that Hollywood way, despite the story being set in and infused with Japanese culture, because American moviegoers are all white and cannot be persuaded to pay money to watch Asian people on the screen, the film is being moved from New Tokyo to "New Manhattan " (essentially New New York) and replacing all the Asian characters with white people if casting rumors are true.

Comics and related cartoons continue to cause problems in the Middle East. Tunisia, the country widely credited with setting off the "Arab Spring" in a relatively peaceful fashion earlier this year, is in an uproar after Marjane Satrapi's animated film was shown last month and immediately set off a huge controversy for a scene which shows God -- which, as you may have realized by now, is forbidden by some branches of Islam. Nessma, the station which ran the film, is being sued for showing it -- and the trial erupted in angry confrontations yesterday:

This weekend is Portfolio Day at The Center for Cartoon Studies. Prospective students cram into the Colodny for a day of tours, faculty talks and portfolio reviews. Their age range is all over the place, fourteen years of age to fifty. Some don't want to come to the school but know that they are on the right track with comics.

Isabel Greenberg's "Love in a Very Cold Climate" -- the story of lovers repelled by polar magnetism -- has won the 2011 Graphic Short Story prize given out by the Observer/Comica/Vintage Books. London-Based Greenberg has contributed previously to Nobrow and Solipsistic Pop. The story is part of a larger work called The Encyclopaedia of Early Earth.

Imagine a cartoonist-centric comic convention, held in a city that is equal parts Kiki’s Delivery Service and the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and you get a small taste of what it’s like to attend Quai des Bulles. You would have to consume many delicious butter-filled pastries to get the full taste!

The importance of this story will be self-evident to anyone familiar with L'Asso's work but here's a few reasons for those now in the know: 1) They published some of the best comics ever by major creators like Trondheim, Sfar and David B., to name a few. 2) L'Association was the original publisher of PERSEPOLIS, the work which more than any other legitimized graphic novels in the mainstream US publishing world of the Aughts 3) The story of the controversial Jean-Christophe Menu reveals one of the great paradoxes of the creative endeavor, in how the same character trait can often be both the doorway to greatness and its downfall.

Only yesterday word that Charlie Hebdo, a satirical French magazine, was planning to run a a special "Sharia issue" guest edited by the prophet Mohammed. "What could possibly go wrong?" we were planning to write.

French cartoonist Joann Sfar is making the interview rounds this week to promote his directing debut: GAINSBOURG: A HEROIC LIFE, a French language film which has already won two Cesar awards (the French Oscar), including best debut film. With a lyrical portrait of the skinny pants icon of a zillion emo hipsters, this film should quickly become a classic from Williamsburg to Portlandia. Sfar was previously know here for his vibrant, humanist comics, like The Rabbi's Cat and Little Vampire, but like his fellow L"Association alums Marjane Satrapi and Riad Sattouf, he's made the jump to film direction with distinction.

Reported worldwide today, Syrian political cartoonist Ali Ferzat was abducted early Thursday morning by pro-Assad forces. Beaten near the airport, his hands were broken "as a warning", and then abandoned on the highway.

We kinda missed the fact that the Singapore Toy Game and Comic Convention jsut wrapped up; it's of note as the second year the show was run by Reed, the same gang that puts on C2E2 and NYCC. Luckily, the Jakarta Globe has a very thorough report: