Cartoonists

Feeling adventurous I journeyed out to an unfamiliar part of Bushwick last night for an opening night party for the new issue of World War 3 Illustrated. Founded in 1980, this comics magazine has been charting politics, struggle, and social causes around the world for more than 30 years. The latest issue's theme is "The Other," surely a propitious one. I've yet to read the whole issue but the parts presented last night were quite striking.

STRIP SEARCH, the reality show about a house full of cartoonists competing for $15K and a year of "being embedded" at Penny Arcade, debuted earlier this week. You can watch the first episode above and the second episode is now up as well. The show is produced by the Penny Arcade crew, with Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins as judges. (They ran a half million dollar Kickstarter to fund the show last year) 12 cartoonists -- six male, six female, are flown to a house in Seattle to compete for the prize, in the classic format. The 12, chosen from a thousand entrants, are mostly webcomickers, but more on that in a bit.

Following yesterday's much quoted post on wanting to be hired, artist Jerry Ordway responded to the outpouring of support with more on the perils of exclusives and the freelancers life:

Anyone who has ever worked with Fernando Ruiz or benefitted from his teaching skills knows what a seriously impressive contributor he is to the...

It's a Monday early in the month, you just paid the rent and you're now wondering how you are going to live on celery for the next 27 days—that must be why so many posts on how to make a living at this here thing are coming out today. We've already seen Jerry Ordway plead to be taken seriously as a creator. But it's not just the old paper and ink crowd that's fretting this day. The webcomickers are at it too.

The gravy train usually has a very short ride.

Miriam Katin is hitting the road with LETTING IT GO , her memoir about coming to terms with her son's move to Germany and her memories of the Holocaust.

The Chicago Weekly profiles cartoonists cartoonist Ivan Brunetti, who talks candidly about his teaching, low comics output of late, depression, and home town. Perhaps best known for his Fantagraphics collection Misery Loves Comedy, Brunetti is a much respected foundational indie cartoonist. His two comics anthologies from Yale Press —Graphic Fiction and Grahpic Fiction Volume II -- are also just about the best introductions to literary and art comics of recent years.

Over on his Tumblr blog, writer/artist/Backstreet Boys maven Bryan Lee O'Malley has explained that - due to a shoulder injury he suffered last year...

Indie and Disney master Don Rosa has posted online the final chapter of a bio intended for a collected edition of his works. after it was rejected by Disney. Rosa explains his decision to retire from drawing comics last year as the result of both the psychological effects years of working, his failing eyesight, and some ongoing difficulties with how Disney deals with it's comics licenses. It's an entertaining read -- especially for ow his early years intersected with those of his hero, Disney artist supreme Carl Barks, but it's also not hard to see why Disney may not have been thrilled to publish it.

Before "meta" was physical, before Modernism became Posted, before Art Popped, cartoonists drew stories about cartoonists and cartooning! Some of it was autobiographical (or possibly...

One of the holy grails of the blogosphere (at least this blogosphere) has been a picture of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby together to...