Cartoonists

The Angoulême Festival International de la Bande Dessineé for 2015 has released the schedule of art exhibits, spotlights and other goodies. They attached this...

Although The Beat is a loyal New Yorker subscriber (it's the only thing that holds our attention whilst on the elliptical) just beause you're a subscriber does't mean you get the Cartoons of the Year special edition. However if our email is to be believed, this issue includes several new pieces that may necessitate a trip to the newsstand.

This photo was posted on Marvel.com in a piece commemorating Veteran's Day. Obviously there is no one in comics more suitable for this kind of salute than Kirby who would tell his war stories to all. And

JACK KIRBY ON MARVEL.COM

OH YEAH.

By David Nieves Even though Los Angeles is the entertainment capital of the world, ten years ago, you’d be remiss to find comic conventions, toy...

On Monday, James Sturm, cartoonist and director of the Center for Cartoon Studies, posted a cartoon at The Nib called "The Sponsor". I'm sure if you are a cartoonist you've already read it, since it was the talk of the town for a few days. Basically it concerns cartoonists, jealousy, the low bar for success, anxiety over one's abilities, tumblr hits, Kickstarter and more. All in 24 panels. I'd call that a good job. The basic conceit is that as in various 12-step programs, cartoonists have sponsors they can call in moments of stress. A young cartoonist named Casey calls his sponsor, Alan, in the middle of the night to fret about another cartoonist named Tessa who has a six figure Kickstarter, a line out the door at a Rocketship signing, and a book deal with D&Q. Tessa's success sends Casey into such a tizzy that he has to work things out and consider grad school, despite Alan's insistence that Crumb never thought about hits. And despite his "stay strong" rhetoric to Casey, Alan soon picks up the phone to call his OWN sponsor.

Well, $412 seems absurdly low to us, anyway. Renowned horror/fantasy artist Templesmith has been experimenting with hand-painted covers for several books, and this is an original one of a kind oil painting done on a copy of The Walking Dead Volume 1. The painting was varnished, and I don't know if you can read the book inside, but it seems to me that this is a pretty darned sweet collectible...especially for Halloween. Also...Christmas is coming. More Templesmith stuff at the 78Squid retail website.

Hm let's see, we need an ambassador of comics who can work with schools, educators and more to show how comics can contribute to literacy and learning. We need someone who is smart, distinguished and universally loved... I know! Let's get Dave Gibbons!

by Alexander Jones What would Ben Grimm do? After a few months of truly bizarre speculation across the internet, and denial from the publisher, Marvel confirmed this...

By Kyle Pinion IN REAL LIFE, a graphic novel collaboration between journalist/author Cory Doctorow and comics creator Jen Wang, centers on a young gamer named...

A film has been made about Seth, the single named Autuer of Clyde Fans, It's A Good Life If You Don't Weaken, Palookaville, and countless illustrations. It's called Seth's Dominion, it's directed by Luc Chamberland and it is described as "a hybrid documentary/animation film exploring the life of master cartoonist Seth." Given that Seth is a perfectionist, you'd expect no less of a film about him, so to no one's surprise the film has won the Grand Prize for Best Animated Feature at this year's Ottawa International Animation Festival.

Friday's announcement of a settlement between Jack Kirby's heirs and Marvel seems like good news—but is it? And what does it mean? I'm told Jeff Trexler, whose identification of the "instance and expense" aspect of the lawsuit may have helped get that into the petition to the Supremes, is writing his summary for TCJ.com, so while we all eagerly await that, here's a little of the known knowns and known unknowns: First off, Mark Evanier, a Kirby family confidant, a witness at various Kirby-related trials and filier of an amicus curiae brief is certainly in a position to know more of the Kirby position and this is all he had to say on the matter:

A joint statement has just been released by Marvel and the family of Jack Kirby indicating that a settlement of somekind hs been made: “Marvel and the family of Jack Kirby have amicably resolved their legal disputes, and are looking forward to advancing their shared goal of honoring Mr. Kirby’s significant role in Marvel’s history.”