Re: Danmark hægtet af III: Komiks.dk

comics and cartooning, debate


Matthias Wivels og overtegnedes indlæg i Strip!, Danmark hægtet af, har afstedkommet endnu en reaktion (som efterfølgende besvares behørigt af yours truly) – denne gang fra Komiks.dk’s formand Mads Bluhm, der skriver:

Vi har fra Komiks.dks side fulgt den omfattende debat, som er opblomstret på henholdsvis metabunker.dk og Seriejournalen.dk som følge af en række artikler i magasinet Strip!

Vi synes langt hen ad vejen, at det har været en god og konstruktiv debat, men vi kan ikke sige os fri for at være lidt forundrede over påstanden om, at Komiks.dk ikke skulle have nogen klar vision.

Komiks.dks vision er at vise alle facetter af tegneseriekulturen, både det kommercielle og vidtfavnende samt avantgarden og det mere nicheprægede. Vi ønsker at afspejle alle aspekter af kunstformen og vise, at tegneserier spænder lige fra underholdende striber og hæfter til tankevækkende fortællinger, grafiske romaner og skæve kunstneriske rammebrydere. Men hvis man forstår “vision” som en målsætning om at presse tegneserien i en bestemt retning, så er det ikke vores bord.

Hype: Komiks.dk

comics and cartooning, hype & linkage

teddy_plakat_lille.jpgBetween May 31st and June 1st, the third installment of the International Danish Comics Festival, Komiks.dk, will take place in Copenhagen. Its programme is broad and truly international in scope, with guests ranging from the French veterans Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières (Valerian) and a couple of the more interesting names in American mainstream comics, Duncan Fegredo (Hellboy) and Sean Phillips (Criminal), to such modern masters as David B. (Epileptic) and Martin tom Dieck (Hundert Ansichten der Speicherstadt). And just announced: two mangaka, Kouhei Nishino and Tsugumi Nishino (Cybermanga) — the first time Japanese cartoonists visit Denmark in an official context.

After the successful first festival, in 2004, this event quickly became THE comics event in Denmark, and the second time around only served to consolidate that position, despite a certain amount of criticism for lack of focus and critical attention to contemporary comics from certain parts of the comics community, including ourselves (ie. Rackham). This time around, the organisers have attempted to address the problems of the earlier festivals as best they could and the result is an impressive programme, remarkably inclusive, while still generally maintaining a high level of quality.

Full disclosure: yours truly is on the festival jury and will be participating in the programming. Still, don’t let that hinder you from going. It’s going to be a great time, and — I’m sure — proof that Danish comics culture is still alive, despite what one might otherwise think. I’m psyched already!

Komiks.dk 2008: Full guest list. Rackham‘s reports from the 2004 and 2006 festivals (in Danish), pictures from 2004 and 2006. Poster by Teddy Kristiansen.

Hype: Portfolio Review på Komiks.dk

comics and cartooning, hype & linkage

portrevlogogg3.gifHenrik Rehr har sendt mig denne meddelelse om et af de nye, konstruktive tiltag på den kommende danske tegneseriefestival Komiks.dk, om hvilken der kommer mere senere:

Få en professionel vurdering af dine evner som tegneserietegner!
En lang række af Danmarks førende udgivere og udførende inden for tegneseriemediet, står parat til at give DIG et ord med på vejen. Inspiration, konstruktiv kritik, ideer og forslag til hvordan du kommer videre og om du har en chance på markedet. I hvert fald får du nu en enestående chance for at go one-on-one med folk der ved hvad de taler om : og om hvad DU har af muligheder.

Du kan se hvem du har mulighed for at snakke med på oversigten herunder. Du SKAL bestille tid i forvejen : ellers er der gode chancer for at gå forgæves. Medmindre andet er angivet får man 10 minutter : så find ud af PRÆCIS hvornår du har tid. Tænk bl.a. på om der er andre ting på Komiks.dk-programmet du ikke vil gå glip af. Du bestiller tid ved at sende en mail til: drk@idworks.dk, emne: Port Rev. Skriv dit navn, og hvem du vil tale med og PRÆCIS hvornår du kommer. Efterhånden som tiderne bliver optaget vil oversigten blive opdateret.

Picks of the Week

comics and cartooning, current affairs, hype & linkage

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The picks of the week from around the web.

  • Q & A with David Barstow. The journalist behind this week’s contender for the Pulitzer answers FAQs about his piece on the Pentagon’s propaganda campaign at the major American networks.
  • Bart Beaty on David Hajdu on Frederic Wertham (parts one, two, three). The discussion of the 50s comics clampdown continues. Comics and media historian Bart Beaty criticises the book that reignited the debate and paints a more nuanced picture of the psychiatrist who became the number one boogeyman of comics fandom.
  • Will Eisner’s Joe Dope. Check out this selection of scans from Will Eisner and his studio’s instructional comics for the US Army. The interface sucks, but it’s worth it (hat tip: Dirk Deppey).

    • Bleed Runner — Updated!

    commentary and criticism, film, tv, video

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    The long-awaited Blade Runner — The Final Cut, which was released last autumn in a new transfer in digital format, is in many ways a model example of how to restore and update a classic film. It contains none of the ill-advised anachronisms seen in such projects as the remastered Star Wars movies, and neither has the director tampered insensitively with his assertive yet delicate masterpiece the way Francis Ford Coppola did with Apocalypse Now: Redux. The tweaks to the edit mostly enhance rather than impair the movie, while the corrections of continuity gaffes and shots deemed inadequate have been carried out with care and do not disrupt the experience of the film.

    Unfortunately, however, the director and restorers have been unable to resist the temptation of adjusting the picture to fit what one presumes is their 21st-century notion of what an edgy SF film should look like. The vivid colour of the original, that glorious early 80s pastel and neon-sheen overseen by the late, great director of photography Jordan Cronenweth, has been bled from of the Final Cut to leave us with the bleak, desaturated ‘blue steel’ look pioneered by James Cameron in the 90s and now ubiquitous in contemporary Hollywood action films, including those of Blade Runner director Ridley Scott.

    The First Victim of War

    commentary and criticism, current affairs, hype & linkage

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    “The strategic target remains our population… We can lose people day in and day out, but they’re never going to beat our military. What they can and will do if they can is strip away our support. And you guys can help us not let that happen.”

    — General Conway, Director of Operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff

    If you only read one news article this week, make it this exposé on the Pentagon propaganda programme in support of the war in Iraq, written by David Barstow and just published by the New York Times. It brilliantly details how “Internal Pentagon documents repeatedly refer to the military analysts as “message force multipliers” or “surrogates” who could be counted on to deliver administration “themes and messages” to millions of Americans “in the form of their own opinions”, relying amongst other things on surprisingly candid accounts by many of these analysts themselves. It especially focuses on the Government countermeasures undertaken to discredit the 2006 so-called “Generals Revolt” for then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to step down.

    This is simply shocking reading. Not only for the utterly cynical, callous and irresponsible approach to public office of Rumsfeld evidenced by his handling of this insidious propaganda programme, but for the major American media’s apparent utter lack of critical vetting of by these “independent analysts”, several of whom doubled as military contractors with the government, consistently relying on them for information about the war effort for years on end. We all know that Fox News has basically acted as the Fourth Branch of the Bush Government over the last 7 years, but the success of this propaganda effort reaches way beyond that, extending to all the major networks. A bleak picture.

    Photo montage from the New York Times.

    Congratulations, Gordon!

    comics and cartooning, journal

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    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

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    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.