Congratulations, Gordon!

comics and cartooning, journal

salon2.jpg
Finally, the stupid-ass lawsuit against comics retailer Gordon Lee, for having available a free comic in which Picasso’s limp dong is shown for two and a half panels in a completely non-sexual situation where a kid could pick it up (oh, the horror!), has been finally and conclusively dismissed. Shame on whichever idiot “concerned parent” and assorted “well-meaning citizens” it was that brought this ridiculous thing into the world to cause Lee anguish for several years and cost both him, the CBLDF and the Georgia taxpayers way too much money.

Cartoonist and Dickasso illustrator Nick Bertozzi on the case, in his Bunker interview.

Continuous Creation — Titian’s Nuova Natura

articles and essays, pictorial arts

kromeriz_marsyas_t.jpg

This 2006 essay, posted here to supplement the review of the Spring 2008 Titian show in Venice, is an attempt, firstly, to analyze the loose finish of Titian’s late pictures as a natural development in his art with roots as far back as the beginning of his career, and, secondly, to provide a contemporary theoretical framework for it in order to assess its aesthetic implications for the cinquecento beholder.

Picks of the Week

comics and cartooning, film, tv, video, hype & linkage, music

The picks of the week from around the web.

  • Winsor McCay’s 1911 Little Nemo cartoon (above). For no other reason that it’s bloody awesome. McCay’s all the rage again, here’s a good article by Jeet Heer.
  • Great DJ Shadow breaks mix. Kinda the Cliff’s notes to a bunch of Shadow classics, but first and foremost a bunch of good music.
  • Inkstuds: Gary Panter podcast. Three hours worth of interview with one of the greatest cartoonists working today.
  • David Bordwell on There will be Blood and the Long Shot in contemporary film. Great analysis of a scene from P. T. Anderson’s movie and of the current trend for fast editing.

    • Vil I til MoCCA?

    comics and cartooning, hype & linkage

    Hermed videregives besked fra det danske konsulat i New York vedrørende årets MoCCA-festival. Sidste år var Danmark velrepræsenteret — er I på igen i år?

    Kære danske tegneseriefolk

    Tak for jeres deltagelse i Mocca 2007. Vi har fået mulighed for i alt 8 nordiske borde endnu et år og ved godt at det er en sen udmelding, da festivalen allerede finder sted 7.-8. juni. Men I skal alligevel have tilbudt to borde til danske forlag og tegnere, som måtte have lyst til at benytte sig af dem. Så vi har tilladt os hurtigt at gribe chancen og booke dem. Vi dækker udgiften til leje af de to borde men kan ikke tilbyde at dække andre udgifter. Hvis ingen fra dansk side kan bruge dem, vil de blive givet til de øvrige nordiske lande, så de kan brede sig noget mere. Det vil komme til at fungere meget lavpraktisk i forhold til sidste år: Er der nogen af jer, som gerne vil deltage, vil I selv skulle koordinere jeres deltagelse og brug af bordet. Vores kulturkontor her på Generalkonsulatet er nemlig lukket fra 1. maj og frem til 1. september på grund af en vacance, da jeg forlader jobbet som kulturattaché. Men assistent Louise Yung Nielsen vil kunne kontaktes for tilmelding og vil have kontakten til de to nordiske koordinatorer, Mats Silberg fra det norske generalkonsulat og Johan Brunkvist fra det svenske generalkonsulat.

    Så tilkendegiv om I er interesseret i at deltage ved at sende en email til Louise på louini@um.dk. Hendes telefon nummer her på det danske Generalkonsulat i New York er 001 212 705 4958. Louise vil også være den, som fremsender de praktiske informationer i forhold til indregistrering, hvor bordene er etc.

    I er meget velkomne til at give følgende tilbud videre til kollegaer indenfor branchen, som ikke har fået denne email. Henrik Rehr her i New York har spurgt om vi vil garantere et år eller to mere : det kan vi godt melde ud at vi gerne vil : såfremt den fællesnordiske oplevelse er lige så positiv som sidste år. Mocca er altså ikke noget det danske Generalkonsulat vil gå ind i alene, men vi vil følge en fælles nordiske beslutning om at gentage projektet. Og det ser sådan ud i øjeblikket.

    Mange hilsener

    Irene Krarup

    Imagined Communities

    commentary and criticism, film, tv, video

    du_levande_2.jpg
    One of the fifty vignettes in Roy Andersson’s new film, Du Levande — or You, the Living in English — takes place in a basement-level office of what looks like a small-time service-provider, run in the old school fashion, on coffee and danish with dirty shirtsleeves, junk in the corners. A portly man sits at a small table in the foreground, leafing through a binder without paying much attention, punching a calculator with his pen. In the offices behind him two other men can be seen at their desks. One of them, in the office to the right, suddenly gets up, slightly startled, comes to the door and asks: “Did anyone call for me?”

    The Calculator lethargically replies in the negative, but turns obligingly to the other office, behind him and to the left, and asks the man we see in there. He doesn’t recall having called either, but perhaps their colleague, whose head now peeks into the frame like a glove puppet, might’ve? No, he hasn’t. Someone’s feet park a bike outside, at the upper edge of the office windows. Shrug. Nobody called.

    Hype: ZaMZaM Arts: Figurine

    hype & linkage, pictorial arts

    super-east-west-woman_small.jpg
    You in Washington DC? Have time this evening? Go to the opening of ZaMZaM Arts’ latest show, featuring work by Laura Falzon, Sangbin Im, Richard Jochum, Kevork Mourad, Aphrodite Desiree Navab, and Sarah Siddiqui, at the Touchstone Gallery. Prime mover of the project, Siddiqui, is a good friend and a firebrand organiser — her project is interesting. Go check it out.

    The opening is from 6-8.30, and the show runs till May 4.

    Picks of the Week

    comics and cartooning, hype & linkage, letters, pictorial arts

    lego_legion.jpg
    The picks of the week from around the web.

    Been busy this week, so not much of a selection this time around. However check these out:

  • Get your Rusty Brown on with the Legion of Lego Superheroes (above). How many of them do you recognize, without looking at the Cliff’s notes?
  • The Comic Book scare contd. Following last week’s links to Jeet Heer and Bart Beaty’s discussion of psychologist Frederic Wertham and the great comic book scare of the 1950s, here’s novelist Michael Chabon defending his portrayal of Wertham in his novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and both Heer and Beaty responding. For completeness sake: The New Republic is running a discussion between comics critic Douglas Wolk and the author of the book that started all this in the first place, David Hajdu, but it is not particularly interesting unfortunately.
  • Nico and Warhol as the Dynamic Duo.

    • Om defekte dikotomier og andet dansk tegneserievås

    comics and cartooning, debate

    mouche.jpgMan må sige, at vores bette debatindlæg i seneste nummer af Strip! har været en succes, i hvert fald i forhold til Danmarks største (og eneste) tegneserieportal. Det har tydeligvis ført til både selvransagelse, nye initiativer og så selvfølgelig de sædvanlige automatreaktioner fra visses hold.

    Det er til sidstnævnte jeg her lige ville knytte en kommentar. Jeg vil antage at den tavshed garneret med personlige fornærmelser, Bestyreren har mødt vores kritik med betyder at samme var på sin plads og er taget til efterretning. I stedet vil jeg kigge på noget mere generelt og i sidste ende væsentligt. Lad os tage et eksempel. En bruger skriver:

    “Hvad Rackham angår, rammer Carsten Søndergaard i mine øjne hovedet på sømmet, når han i sin glimrende Strip!-artikel beskriver Thorhauge og Wivels gøren og laden med udgangspunkt i tegneseriens mange fanboy-fraktioner. D’herrer er lidt simpelt sagt højt begavede indie-fanboys – med alt, hvad det indebærer af smittende og fint formidlet entusiasme for de artefakter, der falder indenfor rammerne af deres personlige definition af god smag, men også med et væld af “blinde vinkler”, de ikke virker ret reflekterede omkring. At de insisterer på at begrunde deres lejrs æstetiske og værdimæssige idealer i hensynet til selveste tegneseriens fremtid reflekterer i mine øjne en selvhøjtidelighed, der er en anelse uklædelig …”

    From His Cold Dead Hands

    commentary and criticism, film, tv, video

    colddeadhands.jpg
    So Charlton Heston died yesterday. A major figure in the 50s and 60s Hollywood blockbuster tradition, serving up some of the most bombastic and histrionic moments in American film. He deserves some kind of respect for that, even if his role in the powerful and destructive American gun lobby will forever tarnish his reputation in the eyes of many, and if his depressingly hilarious part in Michael Moore’s satirical documentary on same, Bowling for Columbine (2002), will perhaps stand as one of his most memorable performances.

    Picks of the Week

    comics and cartooning, hype & linkage, pictorial arts

    The picks of the week from around the web.

  • The clip above and this one are pretty neat examples of ingenuous street art, I must say. Delightful. (Thanks, Eddie Campbell).

    • Otherwise: Lots of great comics links this week!

  • CBR — Steve Grant on the Superman ruling. The best summary article and analysis so far on the historic ruling on the rights to Superman. Also, read Dirk Deppey’s fine analysis.
  • Jeet Heer and Bart Beaty on Frederic Wertham and the comic book crackdown of the 1950s, on the occasion of David Hajdu’s new book The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How it Changed America. A great read for anyone interested in this important part of American comic book history. The New Yorker has a good essay on the subject as well. UPDATE: Heer summarises and follows up.
  • London Review of Books — “Into the Eisenshpritz”: Excellent, if somewhat sprawling and meandering article on graphic novels by Elif Batuman. She covers a lot of ground and hardly misses a beat in her geek-lore.