Graphic Policy‘s Brett has been nominated as one of D.C.’s Top Tweeps of 2010. Please head to the Washington Post and make sure to vote for bhschenker for “Favorite Social Media Geek.”
Show that comic and video game geeks represent!
Voting ends on December 31, 2010.
The Washington, DC magazine appropriately entitled DC has Michelle Obama on the cover as a super hero. The art is done by Frank Cho, who has an article on the inside about his plans to unveil his oil painting work.
Official Press Release
D+Q at SPX in Bethesda: Bell, Davis, Huizenga, Sikoryak and Sturm |
Advance copies of Acme Novelty Library 20 |
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D+Q Creative Director Tom Devlin (above image courtesy Ron Rege, Jr) will be manning ye old booth this weekend at SPX at the Marriott North in Bethesda, MD. The show is open from 11-7 on Saturday and from 12-6 on Sunday. Friday night Tom will be at Politics & Prose in Washington DC with James Sturm presenting MARKET DAY while in Baltimore at Atomic Books, you’ll find R. Sikoryak and Vanessa Davis with friends presenting respectively Masterpiece Comics and Make Me A Woman. At the show new books with authors signing include Vanessa Davis’s Make Me A Woman, and Kevin Huizenaga’s Wild Kingdom along with Gabrielle Bell, James Sturm, and R. Sikoryak. |
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Is that not good enough for you, do you need something more? Well, get to the booth quickly then, so you can get your hot little hands on the 20th volume of the Acme Novelty Library.
SATURDAY SPX HOURS 11-7
12:00-1:00 PM R.SIKORYAK SIGNING AT THE DQ TABLE
1:00-2:00 PM KEVIN HUIZENGA & GABRIELLE BELL SIGNING AT THE DQ TABLE
Spotlight: James Sturm
1:30 | White Flint Amphitheater
James Sturm is the author of several comics and graphic novels
including The Golem’s Mighty Swing, Unstable Molecules, James Sturm’s
America, and Market Day. He is also the founder of the Center for
Cartoon Studies, a unique two-year degree granting institution
dedicated to cartooning. In this spotlight presentation, Sturm will
discuss his work and answer questions from moderator Chris Mautner.
2:00-3:00 PM VANESSA DAVIS SIGNING AT THE DQ TABLE
A Conversation About Daniel Clowes
2:00 | Brookside Conference Room
Daniel Clowes has long been one of America’s premier cartoonists, and
his work has caught the public eye again with the 2010 publication of
his graphic novel Wilson. Ken Parille and Isaac Cates, co-editors of
the recent anthology Daniel Clowes: Conversations (University Press of
Mississippi) will discuss Clowes’s art and career with moderator Bill
Kartalopoulos. (DAN CLOWES WILL NOT BE HERE.)
Carousel at SPX
2:30 | White Flint Amphitheater
The long running slide show series, Carousel, returns with some of
today’s finest comics artists, graphic novelists, and pencil pushers
reading and presenting their work. Hosted by R. Sikoryak, this special
SPX edition of Carousel will feature Kate Beaton, Dean Haspiel, Lizz
Hickey, and more!
3:00-5:00 PM JAMES STURM SIGNING AT THE DQ TABLE
Remembering Harvey Pekar
4:00 | Brookside Conference Room
When comics writer Harvey Pekar died in July 2010, he left behind an
influential legacy of independent autobiographical comics that
highlighted the forgotten moments and ignored people of everyday life.
In this special panel event, a group of Pekar’s former collaborators
will discuss their experiences of working with the creator of American
Splendor. Heidi MacDonald will moderate this conversation with Vanessa
Davis, Dean Haspiel, Jeff Newelt, Rick Parker, Ed Piskor, and Sean
Pryor.
4:00 -5:00 PM KEVIN HUZIENGA SIGNING AT THE DQ TABLE
5:00-6:00 PM VANESSA DAVIS SIGNING SIGNING AT THE DQ TABLE
Return of the Monster: The Fort Thunder Legacy
5:30 | White Flint Amphitheater
From 1995 to 2001, the Fort Thunder artists’ and performance space in
Providence, Rhode Island was a fertile creative center. Work produced
by artists living at the Fort – both at the time and in the years
since it was shut down – has been enormously influential in the worlds
of fine art, music, and comics. A new issue of the de facto Fort
Thunder anthology Monster debuts at this year’s SPX. To mark the
occasion, Bill Kartalopoulos will moderate a discussion with artists
and former Fort Thunder residents Brian Ralph and Paul Lyons and
publisher/editors Tom Devlin and Dan Nadel.
SUNDAY SPX HOURS 12-6
12:00-1:00 PM R. SIKORYAK SIGNING AT THE DQ TABLE
1:00-2:00 PM GABRIELLE BELL SIGNING AT THE DQ TABLE
2:00-3:00 PM VANESSA DAVIS SIGNING AT THE DQ TABLE
Developing Iconographies
2:30 | White Flint Amphitheater
Distinct from drawing as an art discipline with its own self-ratifying
purpose, artists in comics create pictures as part of a visual
language. Moderator Ken Parille will investigate the ways in which
comics artists develop visual iconographies in individual works and
throughout bodies of work. Cartoonists Eamon Espey, Kevin Huizenga,
and Tom Kaczynski will participate in this discussion, illustrated
with slides of the artists’ work.
Autobiography in Pieces
3:00 | Brookside Conference Room
How do you tell the story of a life that’s still in progress? Is
“story” even the right way to think about it? How do you winnow down
the manifold details and data of your life? Cartoonists Sarah Becan,
Gabrielle Bell, Vanessa Davis, and Jesse Reklaw will discuss
alternatives to the memoir with moderator Isaac Cates.
R. Sikoryak: Adaptation and Parody
3:30 | White Flint Amphitheater
Comics chameleon R. Sikoryak inventively adapts canonical Western
literature using the visual styles and characters of historical
American comic books and comic strips. These works have been collected
in his 2009 book Masterpiece Comics (Drawn and Quarterly). Sikoryak
will reveal his intensive working process and will discuss the history
of parody and adaptation in comics in a discussion with Bill
Kartalopoulos, curator of the recent exhibit “R. Sikoryak: How
Classics and Cartoons Collide.”
4:00-5:00 PM KEVIN HUIZENGA AND VANESSA DAVIS SIGNING AT THE DQ TABLE
If you’re in the Washington DC area, or feel like taking a bit of a trip, this weekend is the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD. The show runs Saturday from 11am to 7pm and Sunday from noon to 6pm at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center. One day will cost you $10 while both days is $15.
SPX 2010 will be held the weekend of September 10 and 11, 2010 at the Marriott Bethesda North Hotel & Conference Center in Bethesda, MD, just one mile outside the nation’s capital, Washington DC. In its fifteenth year SPX now serves as the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comic books and the discovery of new creative talent.
SPX will bring together over 400 artists and publishers to meet their readers, booksellers, distributors, and each other. SPX will be open to the public September 10th from 11am Saturday, and run through 7pm that evening. The celebration continues Sunday from noon to 6pm. In addition, expect great programming all weekend long for you to enjoy!
SPX 2010 marks the fourteenth annual presentation of The Ignatz Awards for outstanding achievement in comics and cartooning. The Ignatz, named after George Herriman’s brick-wielding mouse, recognizes outstanding work that challenges popular notions of what comics can achieve, both as an artform and as a means of personal expression. The Ignatz is a festival prize, the first such of the United States comic book industry. Winners will be determined by ballot during SPX and presented at the gala Ignatz Awards ceremony.
As with every year profits from SPX will go to support the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, protecting the First Amendment rights of comic book readers and professionals.
In Cairo last year President Obama promised to help deepen ties between business leaders, foundations and entrepreneurs in the United States and Muslim communities around the world. Yesterday he kicked off a two-day Entrepreneurship Summit in Washington, DC.
Announced were new partnerships and initiatives:
We will bring business and social entrepreneurs from Muslim-majority countries to the United States and send their American counterparts to learn from your countries. Women in technology fields will have the opportunity to come to the United States for internships and professional development. And since innovation is central to entrepreneurship, we’re creating new exchanges for science teachers
The president cited Dr. Naif al-Mutawa of Kuwait as an example of the progress that’s been made.
His comic books have captured the imagination of so many young people with superheroes who embody the teachings and tolerance of Islam. After my speech in Cairo, he had a similar idea. In his comic books, Superman and Batman reached out to their Muslim counterparts. And I hear they’re making progress, too.
Dr. Al-Mutawa is the creator of THE 99-the first group of superheroes born of an Islamic archetype. The series follows a nonreligious group of 99 heroes who each personify one of Islam’s attributes of God.
From a 2006 Washington Post article covering the series:
We are creating a pop culture that has an Islamic underpinning or archetype. It is really global, or universal, an amalgam of everything that’s out there,” Al-Mutawa said. None of the characters carries weapons, and they are split evenly between men and women, only a handful of whom cover their hair, he said.
Dr. Al-Mutawa says the series goal is to “save save the children from embracing a culture of violence and death.”
Washington DC will be hosting two comic related events this Friday. Politics and Prose will be hosting Craig Yoe this Friday at 7pm.
Yoe, a historian of cartoons, has assembled a vast array of anti-war comics that span the globe and date back to the 1600s. These comics run the gamut of emotions, from Bill Mauldin’s humor to Francisque Poulbot’s sorrow. Yoe’s presentation will include source material from Warren Bernard’s private collection.
Yoe’s collection of anti-war political cartoons was published by Fantagraphics in 2009. The Great Anti-war Cartoons covers items from throughout the years and mixes Yoe’s passion for cartoons with his liberal leanings. According to the Express newspaper, Yoe hopes it will “radicalize antiwar activists.”
Politics and Prose – 5015 Connecticut Ave. – Fri. 7pm – Free
The second event focuses on French art. Starting from April 16 and ending April 24th, Festival Imagé is “bringing some of the best and brightest animators, comic artist, and publishers to D.C. and Baltimore.”
The event is a collaboration between the Maryland Institute College of Art and D.C.’s Alliance Francaise.
The opening night festivities are at Alliance Francaise and begin at 7:30pm on Friday.
Alliance Francaise – 2142 Wyoming Ave. NW – $8
If you’re in Washington DC and a political and comic geek (good chances if you’re reading this) local comic shop Fantom Comics will be hosting their first ever monthly Comic Book Happy Hour. The event will be held at Laughing Man Tavern and run from 6-8pm (you’ll be home just in time for Lost and Glee).
This first event will be entitled Politics in Comics featuring Spencer Ackerman (Washington Independent), Tom McClusky (FRCAction), Mike O’Sullivan (Marvel Comics) and Julian Sanchez (CATO Institute).
The panel will run for 20 to 30 minutes and have a Q&A session. This is a great idea and way to meet fellow comic geeks in the DC area.
You can learn more about the event at the Fantom Comics website and you don’t need to be 21 to attend. We’ll be there covering the action and hopefully will have photos and video.
