Monday, January 15, 2018
Sunday, January 14, 2018
DC in D.C. in photos (UPDATED)
http://www.bguthriephotos.com/graphlib.nsf/keys/2018_01_13A_DC_In_DC
http://www.bguthriephotos.com/graphlib.nsf/keys/2018_01_13B_Art_Matter
http://www.bguthriephotos.com/graphlib.nsf/keys/2018_01_13C_Shades
http://www.bguthriephotos.com/graphlib.nsf/keys/2018_01_13D_Wonder
http://www.bguthriephotos.com/graphlib.nsf/keys/2018_01_13E_Pride
http://www.bguthriephotos.com/graphlib.nsf/keys/2018_01_13F1_Aftermath
Sarah Schechter (executive producer, Arrow, Black Lightning, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash, Supergirl, upcoming Titans) - [who was very impressive to listen to] |
Saturday, January 13, 2018
DC in D.C. panels today
DC in D.C. day 2 begins now... But first, last night
D.C. in DC - DC President Diane Nelson
DC in DC continues today at the Newseum
SATURDAY, JANUARY 13 — NEWSEUM
10:00–10:45 a.m. The Art of the Matter: From Sketch to Screen — Just how do our favorite DC Super Heroes fly from the page to the screen? This behind-the-scenes look at the creative process provides an "origin story" of how some of DC's greatest Super Heroes on the page have evolved into some of TV's hottest Super Heroes on screens all over the world. Join executive producers Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter (Arrow, Black Lightning, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash, Supergirl, upcoming Titans), DC Entertainment's Geoff Johns (Arrow, The Flash, Titans) and others as they trace the explosion of DC's heroes — from ink panels to television and film screens worldwide. Additional panelists to be announced. Newseum
11:00–11:45 a.m. The Many Shades of Heroism: DC Heroes Through the African-American Lens — 2018 will not only bring Black Lightning, a new African-American DC Super Hero to television screens (40 years after the electrifying hero was created), but also a new DC comic book from Oscar®-winning screenwriter John Ridley (12 Years a Slave) and more exciting storytelling featuring African-American characters. In this panel, Black Lightning star Cress Williams and executive producers Salim Akil & Mara Brock Akil will join the acclaimed John Ridley, author and comic book writer Alice Randall (The Wind Done Gone, Earth M), and Black Girl Nerds Editor-in-Chief Jamie Broadnax as they look beyond the super suit to the African-American men and women who are heroes to their community. Black Lightning premieres Tuesday, January 16, 2018, at 9/8c on The CW. Follow Black Lightning on Twitter at @blacklightning. Additional panelists to be announced. Newseum
12:00 p.m.–12:45 p.m. Wonder Women — DC and Warner Bros. Pictures' Wonder Woman took charge of screens in an unprecedented way last summer, toppling the cinematic patriarchy and paving the way for even more super women. DC has been flexing its power with female heroes on television screens for years, including kickass characters on Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow, Gotham and DC's Legends of Tomorrow. Join DC's Legends of Tomorrow star Caity Lotz, The Flash stars Candice Patton and Danielle Panabaker, Berlanti Productions President Sarah Schechter (Arrow, Black Lightning, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash, Supergirl, upcoming Titans) plus DC writers and artists Julie Benson (Batgirl and the Birds of Prey), Shawna Benson (Batgirl and the Birds of Prey), Shea Fontana (Wonder Woman, DC Super Heroes), Agnes Garbowska (DC Super Hero Girls) and Mariko Tamaki (Supergirl: Being Super) for this super-powered panel. Supergirl and DC's Legends of Tomorrow will rotate through The CW's Monday 8/7c time period in 2018, offering fans 23 consecutive weeks of original episodes. Supergirl returns January 15 for four original episodes, after which DC's Legends of Tomorrow runs from February 12–April 9. Supergirl then resumes April 16–June 18. Additional panelists to be announced. Newseum
2:00–2:45 p.m. The Pride of DC: The Art of LGBTQ Inclusion — On December 8, history was made with the debut of Freedom Fighters: The Ray, a new animated series on CW Seed, the digital channel of The CW Network, that features the first gay Super Hero to lead a show. The series is produced by Berlanti Productions in association with Warner Bros. Animation and Blue Ribbon Content, the digital studio of the Warner Bros. Television Group. Join The Ray executive producer Greg Berlanti and voice star Russell Tovey for a wide-ranging discussion with DC writers Marguerite Bennett (Batwoman), Steve Orlando (Midnighter and Apollo) and Mark Russell (Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles) about inclusion for LGBTQ characters. Watch Freedom Fighters: The Ray here: www.cwseed.com/freedom-fighters-the-ray. Additional panelists to be announced. Newseum
3:00–3:45 p.m. The Aftermath: Battle & Trauma in Comics — DC's Batman author and former CIA counter-terrorism operations officer Tom King takes on Jack Kirby's Mister Miracle in a new monthly comic book which focuses on a Super Hero who grapples with post-traumatic stress disorder, an issue not often seen in comics and tragically overlooked in the real world. King will be joined by Gotham recurring guest star J.W. Cortes (a 13-year Marine combat veteran and a police officer with New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority), additional comic book writer/artists and thought leaders for a candid conversation about the lasting effects of battlefield trauma. Additional panelists to be announced. Newseum
6:30–8:15 p.m. Black Lightning Sneak Peek Screening — Cress Williams (Hart of Dixie, Friday Night Lights) stars as the title character in Black Lightning, a new television series based on the first African-American DC Super Hero to have his own stand-alone comic title. The series debuts Tuesday, January 16, 2018, at 9/8c on The CW, but fans can get a sneak peek during this public screening at the Newseum, preceded by a reception. In addition to Williams, China Anne McClain (House of Payne), Nafessa Williams (Twin Peaks), Christine Adams (Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Marvin "Krondon" Jones III (Harry's Law), Damon Gupton (Bates Motel, Criminal Minds) and James Remar (Gotham, Sex and the City) star. Based on the characters from DC, Black Lightning is from Berlanti Productions and Akil Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television, with executive producers Greg Berlanti (Arrow, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash, Supergirl), Salim & Mara Brock Akil (Being Mary Jane, The Game, Girlfriends), and Sarah Schechter (Arrow, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash, Supergirl). The Black Lightning character was created by Tony Isabella with Trevor Von Eeden. Newseum
For additional info on "DC in D.C.," please visit www.DCinDC2018.com, and follow us on Twitter at @warnerbrostv and @DCComics, hashtag: #DCinDC
Friday, January 12, 2018
New ReDistricted story online
The world and all that is in it
Story by Cathy Hunter,
art by Sean Hill and
colors by Evan Keeling
https://www.redistrictedcomics.com/nat-geo
Many of the men who met on January 13, 1888, to consider forming a geographical society were scientists who roamed far and wide but returned to Washington, D.C., in the autumn to resume their posts at various government agencies, such as the U.S. Geological Society, the Coast and Geodetic Survey and the Navy Hydrographic Office. And although the man who became the newly formed National Geographic Society's first president, Gardiner Greene Hubbard, was not a scientist himself, he proclaimed that "The members of our Society will not be confined to professional geographers, but will include that large number who, like myself, desire to promote special researches by others, and to diffuse the knowledge... so that we may all know more of the world upon which we live."
Jan 26: Animezing!: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
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Feb 25: Disney Live! Mickey & Minnie's Doorway to Magic
https://www.disneylive.com/mickey-and-minnies-doorway-to-magic
Open the door to reveal mesmerizing worlds of unforgettable Disney moments and grand illusions with Disney Live! Mickey and Minnie's Doorway to Magic. Join Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and the comical duo of Donald and Goofy as 25 of your favorite Disney characters surprise and captivate at every turn of the knob! See the Fairy Godmother transform Cinderella's rags into a beautiful ball gown in a split second; the Toy Story gang defy the dimensions of Andy's toy box with the help of the green army men; and the spectacular stage debut of Rapunzel and Flynn Rider as they rise into the sky amidst the floating lanterns. With special appearances by Snow White, Tinker Bell and Aladdin's Genie, you never know what to expect or who might join in the fun. In Disney Live! Mickey and Minnie's Doorway to Magic you hold the ultimate key to unlocking your imagination.
*Please note, as part of the magical experience a safe theatrical smoke will be used and there will be brief periods of darkness. Please do not take photographs, videos, or use recording devices of any kind.
Smithsonian.com on LOC's exhibit on women cartoonists
How Women Broke Into the Male-Dominated World of Cartoons and Illustrations
A new exhibition at the Library of Congress highlights female artists and their contributions to comic strips, magazine covers and political cartoons
Jan 20: Indie Comics Meet-up at Beyond Comics in Frederick
Indie Comics Meet-up
Feb 10: Adrian Tomine at Politics and Prose at Wharf
Cartoonist Adrian Tomine appears at Politics and Prose at The Wharf on Saturday, February 10, 2018 at 6:00 PM to present his New York Times bestselling graphic novel, Killing and Dying, with his stories acting as a stunning showcase of the possibilities of the graphic novel medium, exploring loss, creative ambition, identity, and family dynamics.
Politics and Prose at The Wharf
70 District Square SW, Washington, DC 20002
(202) 488-3867
Thursday, January 11, 2018
Flugennock's Latest'n'Greatest: "Jaws 2: This Time, It's Personal"
http://sinkers.org/stage/?p=23
Just when Jeff Sessions thought it was safe to go back into the water...
As you'll recall a week or two back, AG Jeff Sessions rescinded the Cole Memo, which prevented Federal authorities from interfering with the policies of states which had legalized marijuana.
Much to most everyone's delight, Sessions' action seems to have the opposite effect; Vermont passed a legalization law this week, and Massachusetts is continuing with its plans to begin commercial sales after legalizing this past year.
If the sonofabitch wants a war, he's got one. Bring it.
Free the heads, jail the feds -- as we used to say in the Yippies.
Comic Riffs reviews Cartoon County
'Cartoon County' looks back at when the newspaper comic strip held sway
Comic Riffs on this weekend's DC in D.C. events
DC in D.C.: The stars of 'Black Lightning' and other DC projects are coming to Washington
By David Betancourt
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog January 10 2018
Tuesday, January 09, 2018
Touring the LoC's Drawn to Purpose exhibit with curator Martha Kennedy
Anita Kunz |
Last November, the Library of Congress opened a new show in the historic Jefferson building on women cartoonists and illustrators, curated by Martha Kennedy of the Prints & Photographs Division. Martha has a long-standing interest in the subject, and works in the division that collects original art (in spite of its name). She’s previously curated a show and book of Ann Telnaes’ work, but this is the first exhibit to look at the wide world of women artists. The online description of the show reads:
Features the rich collections of the Library of Congress and brings to light remarkable but little-known contributions made by North American women to the art forms of illustration and cartooning. Spanning the late 1800s to the present, the exhibition highlights the gradual broadening in both the private and public spheres of women’s roles and interests, and demonstrates that women once constrained by social conditions and convention, have gained immense new opportunities for self-expression and discovery.
Martha was kind enough to give me a tour of the exhibit one day recently. The exhibit is in the Swann Gallery of the Jefferson Building, and will have two rotations of artwork, and an accompanying book.
We have in the Themes and Genres introduction examples of the six different kinds of illustration and cartooning that we’re featuring in the exhibition. The types are Golden Age illustration, early comics, new voices in comics, editorial illustration, magazine covers and cartoons, and political cartoons. This grouping overall also shows the two main threads running through the exhibition: 1.) how imagery of women and gender roles and relations changes over time; and 2.) how the subject matter broadens and quickens especially near the end of the 20th century and into the 21st century. These threads you’ll see in the groupings to various degrees.
Mike Rhode: How did you decide to do an exhibit on women cartoonists and illustrators?
Martha Kennedy: I’ve been working on this project for quite a while. When I first started, I remember being really impressed by the quality of work by women in different parts of the collection in Prints & Photographs. And also amazed and saddened by the fact that a lot of these women aren’t known. They’ve been overlooked in the histories of both art forms. I could see that there was collection development work and acquisitions to be done in both of those areas, and I have worked to build up those areas.
Mike Rhode: So the Telnaes art came in during your time, as you did an exhibit of her work. I remember when you brought Anita Kunz in to speak.
Mike Rhode: How did you decide who to include in the show and the book? Was it women represented in the collection of the Library?
Martha Kennedy: Yes, it’s entirely collection-based. What we have in the collections is what inspired me to do a project of this kind and scope. I worked on it for years. This has been a special focus for me, even though previous curators had built up wonderful holdings of some of these artists. I have worked hard to add to and strengthen the holdings of work by women.
Martha Kennedy: She’s also recognized as an incredible silhouette artist. We have some of those too, which are fairly newly acquired.
Mike Rhode: Even though the work is 100 years old, she wasn’t in the collection before?
Martha Kennedy: No, and we have a stunning piece of advertising art by her that will be in the second rotation. There will be two rotations of this show; the second one will go up in May. We will end up having about 40 artists represented overall with 70 works which is just a fraction of what we have.
Mike Rhode: She’s working very large and is using two pages of paper to make one page of artwork.
Martha Kennedy: It’s incredible to see her at the height of her powers and her drawing technique is so accomplished and amazing. This piece is an amusing story about the Kewpies trying to convince people that ghosts really exist, but what’s really striking is the incredibly detailed notes to her colorist Miss Hess along the margins. She goes through frame by frame.
Mike Rhode: It looks like it would have been faster for her to do a color guide and color parts of it herself.
Martha Kennedy: Yes, you’re right. Why she did it this way is unknown.
Other famous characters are Grace Drayton’s Campbell Soup Kids. She’s best known for this creation, although she created successful strips, several of which featured cute kids who looked like the Campbell Kids. The Kids were created in 1904 and appeared in the Lady’s Home Journal.
Virginia Huget’s flapper strip, Molly the Manicure Girl is one of the few comics featuring a flapper who is also ostensibly a working girl. It’s very light-hearted. Her work is really rare. In the book that’s going to come out in March, there are bullet point biographies for all these cartoonists and illustrators and more. There are about 123.
Mike Rhode: Is it a catalog of the show in addition to a book about women cartoonists?
Martha Kennedy: It’s not a catalog of the show, but there are six chapters that correspond to the sections of the exhibit.
Mollie the Manicure Girl by Huget |
Martha Kennedy: For me, this era ends on a triumphant note, with Dale Messick winning syndication for Brenda Starr in 1940 which is a big deal because it was one of the first adventure strips with a female heroine. Starr would go off in search of news stories as a reporter. It was less of a romance strip in the early days.
I also want to note three years prior to that, Jackie Ormes, one of the few African-American cartoonists, published her first strip called Torchy Brown – From Dixie to Harlem in 1937 in the Pittsburgh Courier. Her strip featured a young heroine in an adventurous life as she moved north in search of a career. It ran initially only two years, but she revived the strip later on. We have no original work by her unfortunately, and this is a tearsheet on exhibit. We’ve tried to get some, but it is very rare. She did two other comic features, and engages with broader issues such as environment, race… and paper dolls. Paper dolls frequently appear in women’s strips including Trina Robbins, Grace Drayton…
The next group is New Narratives, New Voices which includes recent comics. We have an example of a beautiful silk-screened example of a mini-comic by Lille Carre collected from the Small Press Expo (SPX).
We have Trina Robbins represented by an example of a cover for Wimmen’s Comix. She’s such an important figure in the whole history of comics and the chronicling of comics’ history. She did both writing and art in underground and mainstream comic books, and then became a ‘herstorian.”
Since the 1940s, one of the distinctions between the comics in this section and the earlier ones, is that the creators have turned to their own lives and are drawing on their own experiences and the experiences of people they know well.
Mike Rhode: On display here is original art by Allison Bechdel, Hilary Price, Lynn Johnston and Lynda Barry, in addition to the printed works we’ve already discussed. I’m wondering about the absence of Cathy Guisewite?
I would like to point out the Lynda Barry piece as really interesting. It’s from one of the stories in 100 Demons, her breakout book from 2002. In this piece, she’s resurrecting and transforming her childhood memories of smell, when she noticed that every single house in her neighborhood had a different smell, including her own. She’s very funny as she describes the smells and ascribes significance to them.
Mike Rhode: Under the strip is a collage…
Martha Kennedy: All her title pages in the book are double-page spreads and they’re amazing multi-media works with ink, water color, photographs, dried flowers… She refers to her approach as autobiofictionalography.
Mike Rhode: I don’t think that term is going to catch on with anyone else. She’s a great creator though.
Martha Kennedy: Yes, we’re seeing some later Little Lulu strips by Ward Kimball. Marge was very entrepreneurial. And there are other examples of Brenda Starr and art by Marie Severin. It has some art from every section of pieces I wished we could include, but weren’t able to.
The next section is Editorial Illustrators as exemplified by Anita Kunz. Especially interesting is this pairing of Sue Coe and Frances Jetter. They’re both commenting on the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and have created very strong statements. Jetter’s may look like fine art, but it was published in Time Magazine and that’s the way she works. She chooses to work in linocut. She does more fine art now, and works mostly in sculpture, but she went through a period when she published a lot of illustrations. This very strong statement about the enemy war dead was published in Time, whereas Coe’s piece was commissioned by The Progressive, a strongly pacifist magazine, and is a universal indictment of war. It’s a powerful, haunting piece showing her drawing technique and the influence of German Expressionist Kathe Kollwitz. Whitney Sherman’s piece is an editorial illustration for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s annual report about the easy availability of drugs at schools and really hits hard on this. She’s in charge of the graduate illustration program at MICA.
Bernarda Shahn |
Martha Kennedy: She claimed she didn’t know about his painting at the time.
Anita Kunz |
Mike Rhode The next section is Magazine Covers andCartoons. I see a Roz Chast cartoon, and another Anita Kunz – you snuck two in…
Helen Hokinson |
Helen Hokinson is next. She’s a magazine cartoonist for the New Yorker who died in the 1949.
Mike Rhode: I think she’s their most famous woman cartoonist until Roz Chast arrived in the 1970s.
Martha Kennedy: They used other women cartoonists such as Barbara Shermund. Roberta MacDonald did 100 cartoons and then they accepted less and less. In her book, Liza Donnelly traces the history of women cartoonists in the magazine.
Two magazine cover designs we exhibit show the change in gender relations. The 1920s Vanity Fair by Ann Harriet Fish shows dancers moving with great freedom, and she designed over thirty covers for them. She published in other magazines such as Cosmopolitan.
Mike Rhode: I think part of the reason some of these people have ‘disappeared’ is that their magazines failed, whereas the New Yorker has continued publishing, and publishing cartoon collections, and raiding their back stock, while other publications are gone.
Martha Kennedy: The Golden Age of magazines is over.
Mike Rhode: The next section is Political Cartoons, and you’ve chosen some of the usual suspects such as Signe Wilkinson (one of the two Pulitzer Prize winners) and alternative cartoonist and Herblock prize-winner Jen Sorenson. Lisa Benson is less familiar, working in a smaller market.
Martha Kennedy: Space was limited. We did use some supporting material, and more is in the book. I would have liked to show more of how multi-faceted some of these women were, doing different kinds of illustrations, cartoons and book illustration and some doing book design as well. My book is intended to spotlight the great diversity and the range of inventiveness and innovation that these artists were capable of. So many of these women had to earn a living; they had talent and they wanted to use it and they moved in directions that offered them outlets.
Hilary Price |
Martha Kennedy: Several who come to mind are cartoonists Martha Orr and Alice Harvey and illustrators Violet Oakley and Florence Scovel Shinn.
I have a whole section on caricatures in the book that I wasn’t able to include in the exhibit due to lack of space. Some are on the video screen in the exhibit. And we don’t have a lot of work by women animators. The book will be a co-publication between the Library of Congress and the University Press of Mississippi. There will about 230 illustrations and it comes out in March. We are planning some public programs too.
There are probably less than ten books on women cartoonists, so I’m hoping this exhibit will spur further research and more acquisitions, and generally more recognition of what women have contributed.
Jen Sorenson |
Martha Kennedy: Yes, definitely. Some types of illustration and comics that my colleagues and I would like to acquire for the Library include excellent examples of original comic book, graphic narrative, and children’s book illustration art. Acquiring excellent examples of original drawings by Kate Carew, other female cartoonists and illustrators commenting on the woman suffrage movement, Fay King, and editorial cartoons by Edwina Dumm would also be of strong interest.
Drawn to Purpose
November 18, 2017–October 20, 2018, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Graphic Arts Galleries, Ground Floor, Thomas Jefferson Building
Washington, DC
https://www.loc.gov/exhibitions/drawn-to-purpose/about-this-exhibition/