Cartoonists

Before he designed the Thunder God whose movie opens tomorrow, Jack Kirby had designed two previous characters named Thor, and over at the Kirby Museum they look back at the Sandman version and the Tales of the Unexpected version. We've seen THOR btw and will have a full review tomorrow. Short version: entertaining but 3D sucks.

One more for the weekend -- meet the future superstars of comics at FRESH MEAT, SVA's annual comics fair for graduating students. More info on participants in the link, but this is one place where you are sure to find some future superstar in the making.

The PEN World Literary Festival is a pretty big deal, bringing authors and audiences from around the world together for over a week of readings, talks and other events. They've had several cartoon-related events over the years (including a complete day of comics a few years back.) This year they are presenting a single event but it's pretty sweet: Get Super Lit: Comic Books Come Alive on Stage

Illustrator/animator/visual storyteller Shaun Tan gets profiled in the Sunday NY Times Magazine, the traditional anointing of a major creative figure.

As promised, here are more photos of Stumptown: the comics festival and the parties that just won't quit!

What is the greatest convention moment of all time? It might just be described in this post!

BY JEN VAUGHN - This past weekend, The Beat left the wet and mountainous regions of the East Coast for the wet and mountainous regions of the West Coast to revel in the majestic small press show that is Stumptown Comics Festival. Having recently moved from the Doubletree Hotel to the Oregon Convention Center, more artists and cartoonists would be to showcase their work for eager audiences.

The Comics Journal's new cartoonist diary features Pascal Girard's MoCCA journal and we're already severely flattered. In case anyone is wondering, Pascal, you're #1!

As if to prove my thesis of comics supremacy, in what other than a golden age could a summit of great minds like Randall Munroe and Larry Gonick have previously escaped almost all notice? Gonick explained the history of almost everything with cartoons in his History of the Universe book seres, and Munroe is the cubicle-wall hero behind the defining webcomic XKCD. The event took place at Princeton U, and the Daily Princetonian offers a report:

Been too busy with my regular Monday duties for a full MoCCA Festival wrap-up -- look for more photos and observations tomorrow, but in the meantime, as usual, it was a fun filled festival of comics and camaraderie. All of the many social events were great; the turnout at Saturday's Strange Tales/Beat/CBLDF fundraiser party was fantastic and we kept hearing all about what a great time everyone had. The same night there was a Comics Journal party at an LES bar which was also off the hook with great cartoonists, conversation, dancing and carrying on. As for the show itself, the crowd was perhaps a bit lighter than last year and the Law Of The Show came down from the mountain again: people with lots of great new books like D&Q and Fantagraphics did great. People without a lot of new material didn't do as well. More in the full report.

A tiny bit of justice at last. A ton of people this week commented that writing about how hard it is to make a living doing comics while simultaneously not paying your cartoonists is a seriously dick move. And Village Voice editor Tony Ortega has decided to scramble up all that egg on his face and give everyone some breakfast:

Cartoonist Peter Bagge has long had a thriving side career as a member of various garage bands. Now his outift Can You Imagine? has just released a new video for the song "Drive," directed by Mott Todd. Bonus: Artwork by Peter Bagge!