Cartoonists

Here.

Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko is mostly known these days as a cranky recluse who refuses to talk about any of his Marvel experiences, but he's actually an active cartoonist who has an apartment full of art. Jog brings you up to speed with his recent output.

While Beat pal and cartoonist Batton Lash probably wouldn't mind being on MSNBC, this may not have been the context he'd have preferred. MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell attempted to go Olbermann last night on Obama Nation, the cartoon by James Hudnall and Lash that runs regularly on the right-wing Big Hollywood website. O'Donnell is not a fan of Lash's cartoon stylings in a comic that mocked Michelle Obama's ongoing battles against American obesity, which some think have gone too far by banning the kind of unhealthy crap that makes life worth living:

TwoMorrows has been publishing its series of artists spotlights, Modern Masters, for some time, and they're up to volume #25 and Jeff Smith by...

David Brothers is blogging Black History Month, spotlighting great cartoonists George Herriman and Jackie Ormes, thus far.

No wonder that creators are getting a little more vocal about the importance of creator-owned material. Eric Powell's controversial video got things going, but itself was a response to a week-long tweet storm by writer Steve Niles who blogged recently What’s all this Creator-Owned Talk?

Just to send you off on your weekend, here's Eric Powell of THE GOON with a hilarious and yet sobering video on what is really going on in the comics industry.

Gabrielle Bell is cartooning about her experiences with bedbugs in a strip called "Nocturnal Guests" and it's funny and creepy. Here in NYC, the herpes of furniture is an ever present threat hanging over the heads of even decent folks. For a packrat like us, bedbugs would be the end of life itself. It's getting so you just cross the street when you see a mattress on the sidewalk.

In light of yesterday's announcement of James Kochalka being appointed "country's first ever" Cartoonist Laureate in Vermont, it appears that one other state has previously named a cartoonist laureate, Chad Carpenter. And what state would that be? Alaska. That's right, the 50th state in terms of population density per square mile named a Cartoonist Laureate before states like Oregon, Washington, California, New York and the ever-burgeoning Vermont. These states are pregnant with cartoonists, illustrators, animators and graphic novelists. When asked about the erroneous credit The Center For Cartoon Studies co-founder, James Sturm, stated, "I should have known. Alaska is the only state in the country that has a longer cartooning season than Vermont." For those down south, cartooning season lasts as long as there is snow on the ground and whiskey in your mug.

Of late, Tumblr has become quite a hotbed of discussion over perennial issues of women in comics, and the Ladies Making Comics run by Alexa D. has been in the forefront of the talk. Now LWA has started something incredibly cool and much needed: a wiki for all the unsung women of Golden Age comics. And it's a lot more than you probably thought.

I'm home for the holidays, and spending some time digging around my parent's basement, delving into my assorted and sordid collection of ephemera. The above...

The late Joel Beck was a pioneer of the Bay Area Underground comics revolution, illustrating Lenny of Laredo, a satirical bio of Lenny Bruce, and a naughty poster of Daisy Duck among other things. The SF Chronicle reports that he's also part of a family mystery his survivors are trying to crack: