§ Nice Art: THR revealed all of Oni’s Fall  2019 Line up and they all look great but we’ll spotlight Unplugged & Unpopular by Mat Heagerty, Tintin Pantoja and Mike Amante because we’re big Tintin Pantoja fans around here.

§ A couple of mentorship opportunities came across our desk. Cartoonist Anders Nilsen (Big Questions) writes to say that he’ll be a mentor this year with Forecast in Berlin, Germany.

Forecast is a unique and remarkable program that pairs established artists in a variety of media with young and emerging artists to work together for a year, internationally. Find out about the program at their site, and apply here by March 1st. Scroll down for a video I made to give a sense of my approach (or click here – thanks to Thom Mirem).

I am looking for a mentee who tells stories, or unfolds ideas with pictures – maybe this means making comics, maybe not; who is interested in the possibilities of books as both a container for stories and as objects in and of themselves. The ideal candidate is probably someone who draws a lot and has some thoughts about the weird, ever-mutating relationship of artists and audiences. I’m looking forward to conversations about what the whole point of telling stories and making art is about in general, but I don’t expect a mentee to have all this stuff figured out, or even to necessarily know what they are doing (I don’t, usually, and like it that way), only to be interested, curious, and engaged. And if you don’t think any of the above applies to you, but are interested, please apply anyway, I’m hoping I’ll get some applications that will surprise me in some way.

The winner will be flown to Berlin and there’s a €18,000 prize involved.

§ Also, Portland’s famed Helioscope Studios is also offering a Mentorship

Since 2005, Helioscope has provided over 70 up-and-coming cartoonists with hands-on instruction, professional development, and career coaching through our Mentorship Program. This four-month opportunity gives cartoonists with burgeoning careers the chance to work in our Portland studio alongside over 25 fully-fledged artists and writers from across the industry. Our alumni have gone on to work with companies like Image, Disney, Dark Horse, Oni Press, Marvel, and others. Mentorship programs run May-August and September-December, with potential flexibility for those working around term schedules while still in school. Application windows open twice a year. Applications for our Spring session (May-August, 2019) are now OPEN and will close on January 31st. Please read this page carefully for information about the program and our application requirements. Submissions can be sent via the button at the bottom of the page.

§ Tom King was tweeting about a new project in the Vision/Mister Miracle vein, which sounds promising.

For the kind people who have been asking what my next new project will be, the sort of next Mister Miracle/Vision ambitions hopefully cool limited series thing, there’s a big hint/clue in Heroes in Crisis 5, which is out this Wednesday.

— Tom King (@TomKingTK) January 28, 2019

§ A few Angoulême notes as we wrap up: It seems that Emil Ferris’s win in the top book prize wasn’t just cool for an American – she was the first woman to win this prize since Marjane Satrapi in 2005, a mere 14 year gap.

§ Also while I was surfing around I found this French interview with Joan Sfar about Richard Corben. I don’t really get why the French love Corben so much, but a little Google Translate helps explain:

Joann SFAR. – It is difficult to talk about Corben without talking about his method of work, he has a relationship to drawing very particular. He usually makes sculptures before drawing. He models his characters in earth, he illuminates them himself with his small desk lamps and draws from nature. This explains the exaggerated volume of his characters, absolutely unique in comics. The sensuality that emerges from his creations, both in eroticism and in horror, is extreme. He was very far in the printing technique, in BD he multiplies the experiences, especially on the color, tests the limits. He is a mad scientist. His work is totally singular. Besides, he did not go to school.

§ If you’re out an about in NYC for Fashion Week there’s going to be a display of costumes by Black Panther designer Ruth E. Carter 

IMG and Harlem’s Fashion Row have teamed with British fashion stylist Ibrahim Kamara to innovatively showcase costumes from 13 of Carter’s films. The Hollywood Reporter has learned exclusive details about the IMG and Harlem’s Fashion Row event (to be held Feb. 6, during New York Fashion Week) that will present a curation and reimagination of the work of renowned costume designer Ruth E. Carter. A 2019 Oscar nominee and Critics’ Choice award winner for her work on Black Panther, Carter will also be honored with the Career Achievement Award at the Costume Designers Guild Awards next month. She has worked on over 50 films and is a longtime collaborator with iconic filmmaker Spike Lee.

§ Rosie Marx supplied a list of 8 Movies and TV Shows About Comics, which is a little hobby of mine, and some of these I never heard of!

BLUE DESERT

This ’90s oddity stars Courteney Cox as a comic book illustrator who draws Rob Liefeld-esque EXXXTREEME comics about a sexy heroine called Iron Medusa. After a vicious assault in New York, she moves to the titular locale to focus on creating her next book, but is set upon by two strange men, neither of whom can be trusted. This is one of the interesting relics of the ’80s/’90s comics boom which saw a spate of stories featuring comic book creators as protagonists without being focused specifically on their art form. It also happens to be a solid low budget thriller.

§ Z2 Comics new niche is comics about musicians gets a PW profile:

 “Murder Ballads sold about 6,000 copies and lost a little money, but it was the best thing we ever did,” Frankel said. “It opened doors and taught us the ropes of producing books like this.” The house followed Murder Ballads with Instrumental, a supernatural tale by musician and comics artist Dave Chisholm, featuring a jazz trumpeter with an otherworldly instrument; The Wonderful World of Perfecto by Paul Oakenfold, a graphic autobiography of the Grammy-winning DJ; and Apocrypha: The Legend of Babymetal, an epic fantasy narrative based on the performers and the music of Babymetal, a theatrical Japanese heavy metal band featuring a trio of young women. Z2 released 40,000 copies of Apocrypha in October (the press’s biggest print run yet), and so far it has sold more than half.

§ I know it’s a brutal, brutal time for online media, and we all write clickbaity headlines from time to time, so here’s one: Hawkgirl Makes DC Comic History This Valentine’s Day

What is her historic act? She spends the holiday…ALONE. WELL, it’s for the first time in thousands of years and the story is by Cecil Castellucci, Elena Casagrande, Jordie Bellaire and Steve Wands so…ok I changed my mind., This is totally cool. The story appears in  Mysteries of Love in Space #1 next month. The “Sexy Lois” trend continues.

§ Some reacted with shock to the news that Warner Bros. is developing a Funko movie, but my first thought was “They haven’t already???” Honestly, there have been dumber ideas.

Warner Bros. has reportedly begun development on a Funko! movie, based on the Funko Pop vinyl figurines and bobbleheads that depict everything from popular superheroes, to directors, to obscure TV procedural characters. So not only will these figurines invade Barnes and Nobles stores across the nation, they’ll begin to invade the movie theaters, too. SuperBroMovies writer Daniel Richtman reports that Warner Bros. Animation, spurred on by the success of its LEGO Movie franchise, has set its sights on another toy line. According to Richtman, Warner Bros. Animation is currently developing a live action/animated hybrid based on the popular toy and action figure line, Funko! While this all sounds a little dubious, we were able to confirm independently that a Funko! movie is in development at Warner Bros.’ animation wing.

§ If, like me, you’ve totally lost track of what comics like TV shows are in development, here’s a long list of some of them, and its just the ones at Netflix. I had forgotten about things like Flutter and American Flagg! It could be just how the article was written but 2017 seems to have been the gold rush year for comics options.

§ I guess professional arsonist Bill Maher was so successful with his screed against Stan Lee, that he doubled down, and picked on comics fans at length, insinuating that their mother must pin their mittens to their coats, a devastating insult right out of It’s a Wonderful Life. Maher was completely successful because everyone gave him lots of attention – like this very item – and that’s all it was ever about.

Rob Liefeld did pipe up with some reading suggestions though

Hey @billmaher appreciate your point of view, I’d like to suggest comics written by Alan Moore or Frank Miller. The writing and storytelling is outstanding.

Watchmen, Swamp Thing, Dark Knight Returns and any Frank Miller Daredevil are gold standards of illustrated literature.

— robliefeld (@robertliefeld) January 26, 2019

I’d throw in My Favorite Thing is Monsters and move on.

 

§ The end of an era. Bedrock City, a Flintstones themed amusement park in Arizona, has closed after 50 years:

Reported by KJZZ, the roadside attraction, which was located on Arizona State Route 64 about half an hour from the Grand Canyon’s South Rim, closed down for good over the weekend. The park, which sat on 30-acres, had been up for sale for a number of years. A new owner will take over the land on Friday.

With its garish, sun drenched crude stone dwellings, this was always a stop on any “cartoon themed” road trip. But no more. An attraction is planned for the property but no word on what it will be. Photo via Wikiepdia.