STUMPTOWN 2011: righteous and rainy
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.
Pascal Girard's cartoonist diary
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!
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This is what they did before there was an internet
Before there was an internet, they put it all in one magazine!
This is what they did before there was an internet
Before there was an internet, they put it all in one magazine!
Flashback: Saving comics one year at a time
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:
Report on Gonick/Munroe summit on Life, the Universe and Nothing
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:
Super MoCCA Laff Times
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.
What the critics are saying about Paying For It
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.
Village Voice decides to pay cartoonists after all
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:
