Culture

Before there was an internet, they put it all in one magazine!

Before there was an internet, they put it all in one magazine!

From the comments of our "Saving Comics" post, Tim Stoltzfus went back to this Milennium Eve 1999 post by Warren Ellis that had the same message, and a call to arms on other matters:

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:

YOU KNOW YOU WANT IT! Please help with photo IDs!

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.

Chester Brown's PAYING FOR IT is destined to be one of the most talked about graphic novels of the year -- we'd suspect it may be THE most talked about. It's a great work of comics that is nonetheless problematic for the views it espouses about human relationships and commerce. Just in case you aren't sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for the book to come out, PAYING FOR IT is a memoir by Chester Brown about his experiences employing prostitutes. Brown's previous works include such masterworks as I NEVER LIKED YOU, ED THE HAPPY CLOWN and the historical narrative LOUIS RIEL, which is considered an important political work in Brown's native Canada. As one of the pioneers of the most successful schools of autobiographical comics, Brown is a major figure of the art comix era.

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:

Coming to this year's MoCCA-fest and wondering where to grab a quick lunch to eat in between selling your mini-comics? Look no further! Although considered drab by New York standards, the Rose Hill/Gramercy/Flatiron area surrounding the the Sixty-Ninth Regiment Armory, setting for MoCCA Fest, still offers a colorful array of authentic, delicious and affordable cuisine from around the world within a radius of only a couple of blocks. (It IS New York City, after all.) Bearing in mind the small budgets of most MoCCA attendees/indie cartoonists, we're going to highlight places where, for $10 or under, you can still get a decent meal -- some of them even prepared by Iron Chef level celebrities. At a few places, if $10 isn't enough for a meal it is still enough for some rare treat that will make your trip one to remember. For dinner you will want to grab some friends and a subway or cab and head to one of the great restaurants of the city, but your lunchtime is definitely covered right here.

As we predicted last week, the Rob Granito team is attempting to get their second act rolling with a round of tell-all interviews. You may recall (it was all so long ago and little noted) that Granito is a person of dubious artistic skill who has been going around to comics shows for 15 years selling copied art that he's passed off as his own. Now, Comics Cube reports a letter is making the rounds:

Dov Torbin and Asher Berman

are two Americans who happened to be in Egypt when the recent revolution broke out. The Revolution Will Be Televised is Torbin's comics account of two American travelers who, through clouds of tear gas, watch a country evolve and find themselves altered by the experience. It's launching today on ACT-I-VATE.

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!