Cartoonists

If you've longed to attend one of those life-defining cartooning schools like CCS, SCAD or SVA but can't travel, why not take Frank Santoro's 8-week Correspondence Course. If you've longed to attend one of those life-defining cartooning schools like CCS, SCAD or SVA but can't travel, why not take Frank Santoro's 8-week Correspondence Course.

While news of great corporate conglomerates headlines the comics world news of late, it must always be remembered this is an industry of people and art, and the vibrancy of the the two coming together. Frank Santoro has been running an awesome series of "Local comics scene" reports at TCJ, and they are welcome reminders that the indie spirit of like-minded souls sitting in diners and sketching and talking over coffee and Strathmore is alive and well. We'd love to visit each and every one of these scenes. It's also of note that in these economic hard times, sometimes creativity thrives where money is scarce.

BY JEN VAUGHN - This Friday, 'Marvel' will face the ghost of Jack Kirby when professor and attorney Oliver Goodenough squares off against creator rights advocate and cartoonist Steve Bissette.

BY JEN VAUGHN - Cartoonist James Sturm wrote an insightful piece on submitting cartoons to the New Yorker posted on The Slate. As a cartoonist or unfortunately termed 'graphic novelist,' Sturm is used to drawing stories in the long term, stretching a few hundred pages, panel upon panel upon panel upon YES, panel. How Sturm spent his summer vacation was a cartoon a day to build up a keeper-portfolio for The New Yorker. Sturm relearned to let go of the beats you find in a long-form comic to sketch loosely and effectively situations right after that something funny, something intangible occurred. He includes many of his cartoons in the article including this close-to-home joke and one of my favorites, when the caption is recycled for a different situation.

New developments in the Atomic bankruptcy and Grant Morrison vs Chris Ware, and a new take on Kirby/Lee.

Now this is a great way to spend your money! Cartoonist Jason Young has spent the last three years slowly commissioning an array of great indie artists to redraw FANTASTIC FOUR #9, the issue co-starring the Sub-Mariner. It's a Coober Skeeber/Strange Tales mash-up that proves the talents of all involved. Young writes:

Last week legendary cartoonist R. Crumb disappointed Australian fans who were looking forward to a rare public appearance, when he withdrew, The cause was incendiary comments in a Sunday Telegraph piece called Smutty show a comic outrage which branded him a pervert. In a letter to the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, Crumb explains himself a length, and to those who have branded him a woman-hating creep, it's mostly to make his wife happy -- she feared for his safety:

A special birthday shout-out to Jimmy Palmiotti, the best friend and advisor of almost everyone in comics--The Beat included--and creator or co-creator of comics from The Pro, Monolith, 21 Down, Painkiller Jane, Back to Brooklyn, and of course a long, acclaimed run on Jonah Hex.

Over on Google+, Meredith Gran, creator of OCTOPUS PIE, somewhat reluctantly weighs in on the women in comics thing:

So that said, here it is. My sincere thoughts on how to promote the presence of women in comics:

Pay them. No, seriously. Pay them with money.

Based on what we know of publishing data, August 8th, 1961 was the day FANTASTIC FOUR #1 arrived on newsstands. Tom Brevoort sent out a birthday tweet. Although there's talk of boycotts and justified anger over Marvel's shoddy treatment of some of its greatest talent over the years, we should still mark this day. Pairing the protean storytelling of Ditko and Kirby with the breezy populism of Stan Lee created some of the greatest adventure comics that have ever been, and we suspect they'll be read for another 50 years.

The must-read from yesterday is Michael Dean's look at the actual court documents ALSO, Spanish cartoonist Pepo Perez has his own comments on creator ownership, here in the Google translation. That's makes for some awkwardness, but also some great stuff.

Spinning out of a Facebook discussion, cartoonist and educator Steve Bissette is making a case for a boycott of Marvel over how shabbily they have treated Jack Kirby and his heirs: