Alison Bechdel
shaenon @ 2008-08-14T18:27:00
Submitted by Shaenon Garrity on August 14, 2008 - 22:18
Food is what you put in children's books instead of sex.
Facial Expressions: Babies To Teens; A Visual Reference For Artists
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I have a lot of reviews of how-to books on tap for August but Facial Expressions: Babies To Teens; A Visual Reference For Artists by Mark Simon is probably the most unique and possibly the most valuable. It's a big book, 256 pages (with a free Internet supplement available), and entirely filled with reference pictures of, you got it, babies to teens. Each model tends to get between 2 to 4 pages of 2 1/4 inch to 2 1/2 inch square head shots with a tremendous variety of expressions and poses. Other chapters include a skull gallery, hats and headgear, a phonemes gallery (mouth shapes for various sounds), and an age-progression gallery (shots of the same model over a wide range of years).
Graphic Novel Panel: Lynda Barry, Alison Bechdel and Chris Ware
WHAT: Lynda Barry, Alison Bechdel and Chris Ware discuss the graphic novel -- moderated by Daniel Raeburn.
WHERE: Washington DC Jewish Community Center’s Aaron and Cecile Goldman Theater at 16th and Q, beginning at 8PM.
WEB: Details here.
Wikipedia-Free News & Views For Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on March 7, 2007 - 11:13
Before I get to today's news & views -- don't forget we had three new articles published in the magazine this week:
- Terrence Marks interviews married creators, Dave Roman and Raina Telgemeier. This is actually the first in a series of five such interviews we'll be publishing this month.
- New columnist Brigid Alverson covers five short story web manga this month in Small Packages.
- Bryant Paul Johnson returns with another installment of his historically accurate series at Comixpedia: The Antecedent.
- And of course a big thanks to Meghan Murphy of Kawaii Not for doing this month's cover art.
HEADLINES
- Here's a great opportunity (and a clever idea for a book): Howard Tayler is planning to publish the 2000-01 run of Schlock Mercenary in a book and he's put out a public call for guest art to include in the book. I hope he gets a wide range of interest on this - I'd love to see some of the Schlock characters done well in different styles.
- Scott Kurtz and Kris Straub announce a more formal creative relationship (including Straub relocating to Dallas, TX). Help them pick a name for their new partnership here. (Also I missed that PvP character Skull has a blog now...)
- Good question from R. Stevens and a good discussion in the comments there: "In a webcomic, each page of comics read is a 'pageview'. In a comic book, each page of comics read is a 'pageview'.... Has the webcomics readership outgrown the American comic book market?"
INTERVIEWS
- Daily Cross Hatch blog interviews Perry Bible Fellowship creator Nicholas Gurewitch.
- Bookslut interviews Fun Home creator Alison Bechdel. (both interviews caught by Journalista!)
JUSTIFY MY HYPE
- Mike Russell is rerunning his CulturePulp comics at his WebcomicsNation site. Most of these have appeared before in the newspaper, but not on the web in one convenient location like this - worth checking out - funny, insightful journalism in comic form.
- The Comics Reporter likes Lukewarm Tales.
- The Webcomicker likes the second episode of the animated PvP series. In contrast to pre-premeire complaints from PvP fans, Gilead says the voice actor behind the character Skull is the star of the production.
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
- FLEEN reports that You Damn Kid! creator Owen Dunne has redone his website(s) and created a video based on his Beevnicks comic.
- The For Better or For Worse "Hybrid" idea apparently came from Universal Press Synidicate which convinced creator Lynn Johnston to go with it rather than simply hanging it up later this year.
- FLIGHT reports on the lineup for Flight, Vol. 4. Also, Kazu Kibuishi posted cover art for the series at his website.
- The Comics Reporter points to a discussion at Comics Worth Reading on this year's Free Comic Book Day (May 5th).
- Over at TalkAboutComics is a post about a movie coming out with the same name (and apparently very similar content) as an existing Serializer comic. Creator Scott Ewen (the comic is Flight of the Living Dead) seems pretty stoic about it.
Thursday, December 28th News & Views
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 28, 2006 - 11:07
HEADLINES
- Entertainment Weekly posts its "best of" graphic novels for 2006.
- An interview with Alison Bechdel who received a high honor in the December 17 issue of Time magazine: her graphic memoir Fun Home was named the best book of 2006.
DEAD TREES
- John Allison shows how he reworked some strips from Scary Go Round for inclusion in the next book collection.
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS
- Ambrosia Digicomics founder Wesley Green wrote a couple of posts on digital distribution of comics earlier this month: the first one covers file formats and the second one covers making the file available on the internets.
- Kris Straub ponders the path of politeness on the intertubes.
- Drawn! flags the latest interwebs meme: redoing the redesign of the Archie characters.
- Drawn! also has a link to Chris Butcher's interesting review of the covers to various editions of Jeff Smith's Bone series.
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National
PolitboroPublic Radio interviews Stupendous Stan Lee. - Fi-Sci science fiction website is running webcomics - apply for it here if you're interested. They are already posting GAAK there.
News For Tuesday December 19, 2006 (UPDATED)
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 19, 2006 - 12:54
MAGAZINE
- A smaller December issue then years past but still full of great webcomic recommendations and plenty of opinions to discuss. There's a slight chance we'll have a few more pieces, but I may hold those until January.
- I just wanted to say thanks and congrats to Kris Straub who has contributed to Comixpedia for a couple years - first with Modern Humor Authority and this year with Checkerboard Nightmare. Kris' plate has gotten considerably more full lately so he won't have time to contribute next year.
- If you have a minute please vote for the Roundtable and People of Webcomics articles over at ComicNe.ws - it's a different crowd at CBR and having Comixpedia articles on the front page over there has helped bring some of their readers over here to check out Comixpedia. At this point it only takes about 6 votes to get something on the front page over there so click that little "c" below your posts if you think it might be of interest.
BUSINESS
A warning to those using google ads and placing images near the ads themselves - that appears to be against Google Adsense's new policy:
Can I place small images next to my Google ads?
We ask that publishers not line up images and ads in a way that suggests arelationship between the images and the ads. If your visitors believe that the images and the ads are directly associated, or that the advertiser is offering the exact item found in the neighboring image, they may click the ad expecting to find something that isn't actually being offered. That's nota good experience for users or advertisers.
Let's All Go To The Movies
Journalista has a significant section today on Scott Rosenberg and Platinum Studios called "Meet the new Scott Rosenberg, the same as the old Scott Rosenberg." (A side note: Rosenberg was included in our People Of Webcomics list this year.) Obviously anyone who has followed Rosenberg in the news this year knows at this point he's been around comics in various ventures for quite some time. A chief, recurring, criticism seems to be that Rosenberg is interesting in comics properties solely for their potential to be licensed to filmmakers and that he does not actual perform the basic publishing function of a comics publisher.
I can't comment too much because I haven't done my homework on this subject, but it does strike me as odd that when numerous creators are abandoning the monthly comic book format for webcomics (albeit with a goal to collection in a graphic novel) that there is an expectation that Platinum would want to vigorously compete in the direct market. It also seems odd to criticize Platinum for using a creator-for-hire approach on its first comic book, Cowboy & Aliens -- isn't that the standard model for the majority of the industry (you know, DC and Marvel)? Deppey reports that a deal from 2004 may require Platinum to put out comic books in order to comply with the deal - to the extent that Platinum is treating such publication as an expense rather than a profit center, I'd think the most obvious question is what does that say about the health of the direct market?
If this is of interest, there's lot more on the topic at Journalista! today.
NEWS ABOUT COMICS NEWS SITES
I didn't realize that it was a common practice for comics publishers to own comics journalists, but today's Journalista! also alerted me to the fact that Platinum Studios bought the comics news site Broken Frontiers earlier this month. (Similarly, Journalista! and TCJ are owned by publisher Fantagraphics.) I'm sincere in asking how do such journalists deal with the obvious conflict of interest this presents? Is there a corporate separation that protects the ability of the journalists to cover the news without interference or does the journalist just not cover their owners?
JUSTIFY MY HYPE
If you haven't been reading ICE by Faith Erin Hicks get over there and check it out (the archives aren't that long). I'm not sure I like the black & white as much as the earlier coloring but that's only as a comparative matter - both periods of the comic are amazing. If you have been reading, the current scene is getting particularly tense as major plots points are revealed.
NOT COMICS
Joe Barbera passed away. I thought this guy's name meant animation when I was a kid.
Around The World in 80 BLOGS
- Speaking of Kris Straub, I assume this PvP guest comic is his comment on Rich Stevens' newspaper gig for Diesel Sweeties.
- Journalista! catches that Alison Bechdel's autobiography, Fun Home, is Time Magazine’s book of the year.
- All of the movie comics creators did a live podcast together yesterday - you can catch the recording still.
- Clay Yount ended his Saturdays-only strip Bikini Frisbee Days at Sluggy Freelance with a plug for his forthcoming webcomic, Cosmobear. I wonder if that means Pete Abrams has an opening for that Saturday gig?
- Ali Graham is doing a radio show (internet-only) based on his Housd webcomic.
- Shaenon Garrity tees off on Anthony, the character you love to hate from For Better Or For Worse.
- A whole lot of art tutorials - link from the Drawn! blog.
Bunch of Great Videos Having Something To Do With Comics
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on May 12, 2006 - 22:29
NEW**Interview with Jeff Smith, creator of Bone.
- Interview with Dan Clowes, creator of Eightball.
- Two videos from Kris Straub on drawing Starslip Crisis: short one and long one.
- Evan Dorkin's pilot for the never made cartoon series Welcome to Eltingville. This gets fandom so right it's funny and uncomfortable to watch!
- Alison Bechdel working on a graphic novel. Bechdel uses a digital camera on herself to create references for what she draws. Interesting technique. (There's a link to a better version of the video in the comments)
- Adam Hughes sketching at a convention.
- Raina Telegemeier, creator of Smile, is going to be huge this year when her graphic novel adaptation of the young-adult prose novel The Babysitter’s Club comes out. You can catch an interview with her from March here.
- A documentary on Chris Ware from last year. (There are features on other comic artists here but they may all be in french - not sure. Okay at least the one with Art Spiegelman is in english.) More recently Tom Spurgeon caught this Chicago tv station's report on Chris Ware. (The link to the video is on that page - there's a 10 second commercial on the video before the report starts)
- And nothing to do with comics is the trailer for PAC MAN: The Movie. Very funny.
Dykes To Subscribe To?
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on April 28, 2006 - 10:42
Alison Bechdel, creator of Dykes To Watch Out For posts in her blog about the possibility of charging readers a modest subscription fee to receive the comics via email as soon as they're done. Bechdel would delay posting them on the web for a month or so. And if that's not enough she offers an alternative idea:
Hey, and what about this? The email version could be like HBO. I could leave all the swear words in, and perhaps even have occasional frontal nudity. Instead of the #@&*'s and artful drapery that I employ in the newspaper version.
There was a lot of discussion from fans in the comments there. I wonder what Comixpedia readers think of this idea. Surely someone has tried this already - has it worked for anyone?
No Straight Lines: Queer Culture and the Comics
Submitted by EricMillikin on April 3, 2006 - 15:08
"SAN FRANCISCO, CA.--Twenty cartoonists join forces at the Cartoon Art Museum for No Straight Lines: Queer Culture and the Comics, the first museum exhibition devoted entirely to queer comics. ... [including] Alison Bechdel, creator of the nationally-syndicated strip Dykes to Watch Out For and Howard Cruse, creator of the series Wendel and the award-winning graphic novel Stuck Rubber Baby."
FiF Postscripts by John Barber
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For the last installment of Form is Function: Postscripts, John Barber is back with the conclusion of his conversation with Justine Shaw, creator of the acclaimed—and wonderful—Nowhere Girl.
