HEY! KIDS! COMICS! : Carl Barks’ Donald Duck : December 15th, 2008

STWALLSKULL'S HEY! KIDS! COMICS!

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“The Good Duck Artist,” Carl Barks excelled at both short humor comics (his ten-pagers in Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories) and longer adventure stories… in fact he did both better than just about anyone else in comics at the time he worked (using the pseudonymn of “Walt Disney”).

I have examples of both types of stories today… on the adventure side of things, Rodney Bowcock’s Comics and Stories brings us the Donald Duck classic The Gilded Man.

On the short humor strip side, courtesy of the Fortress of Fortitude we have Donald Duck in Silent Night, doing battle with his ongoing next-door nemesis in the 10-pagers, Neighbor Jones. Although drawn in 1945, this story was initially rejected for violence, and was not printed until decades later.

INTERESTING LINKS: Seth’s Dominion City at the Drawn and Quarterly Blog: December 15th, 2008

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This report from the Drawn and Quarterly blog on a speaking engagement by Seth and Chris Ware in Waterloo, Ontario includes photos of the gorgeous miniature city that Seth has built (“Dominion City,” not Palookaville)… I would love to see that in person. Click the above image to go see the large photos.

INTERESTING LINKS: Some Twin Cites Cartoonists on KFAI’s Wave Project

Zander Cannon, Kevin Cannon, Danno Klonowski and myself were interviewed by Britt Aamodt this evening (December 14th) on KFAI’s Wave Project about cartooning. The show will be online for the next two weeks. You can hear the interview here.

Note: The broadcast mp3 begins with the Somali Oromo radio show that preceded it… it starts at 1:38 in the file.

HEY! KIDS! COMICS! : Tom Kaczynski’s Transatlantis Blog : December 13th, 2008

STWALLSKULL'S HEY! KIDS! COMICS!

Boy, this has to be my most unwieldy list of links yet… so many links, I actually had to break it into two posts, as WordPress seemingly can’t handle one post that big. So much good stuff, I’m not going to even attempt to summarize the highlights. In fact, I’m going to start dealing with these huge lists of fun comics in a new way… rather than emphasizing the highlights, I’m going to choose one random item to talk about. This should prevent me from talking about Herriman, Wolverton, Kelly and the rest of my ‘usual suspects’ every time I see their work, and hopefully highlight some more obscure treasures.

Tom Kaczynski's Transatlantis Blog
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My friend Tom Kaczynski has been posting a lot of wonderful work from his sketchbook on his Transatlantis blog lately. I’ve been reading and re-reading a lot of back issues of the fantastic MOME anthology from Fantagraphics lately on the bus, and Tom’s work really stands out in there, which is saying a lot, as he is among excellent peers.

Going on a tangent speaking of MOME, boy is it a great anthology, and it keeps getting better… I’ve got to hunt down the issues I’m missing when I have the scratch. I’d put it somewhere in my top five comics anthologies of all time. It really sets a different tone from any other comic anthology series I’ve ever read… it is a rare thing for an anthology to really feel like it has a unique voice and aesthetic of it’s own besides the voice of its individual artists (Weirdo and Raw being two other examples of this), and MOME definitely does. It regularly features wonderful work from Tom, Eleanor Davis, Zak Sally, Jim Woodring, Paul Hornschemeier, Gabrielle Bell, Al Columbia and many, many other excellent cartoonists… and has introduced me to a lot of wonderful artists I was not previously familiar with, which is one of the best things an anthology can do. If you have the cash, it looks like you can get the first ten issues bundled at a deep discount from the Fantagraphics website.

INTERESTING LINKS: The Stuff of Life Trailer :December 12th, 2008

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I just haven’t had time for much blogging lately… so sorry for the lack of updates. I hope you’ll find this blog worth following in spite of the feast or famine nature of the postings.

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My good friends at Big Time Attic and Puny Entertainment recently completed this hilariously wonderful promotional cartoon for Big Time Attic’s new genetics graphic novel, The Stuff of Life (in collaboration with Mark Schultz).

Go here and here to see some interesting “making of” information. I can’t wait to read the book. The pages I’ve seen are stunning. I’m guessing this will probably be the prettiest educational comic ever made… and seeing this video and knowing the work of Big Time Attic, it will probably also be one of the most entertaining ones.

INTERESTING LINKS: Hot Ink: Comic Art in Minnesota Photo Gallery: December 8th, 2008

Here is a big gallery I just posted of images from the previously mentioned Hot Ink: Comic Art show at the Minnesota Museum of American Art, currently showing until January 4th… at which point the Museum’s lease runs out, leaving them with an uncertain future. One can only speculate that this directly had to do with their decision to deface their walls with Soapy the Chicken comic strips. You can read reviews of the show here and here. Click the image to go to the gallery.

The show features the work of:
Big Time Attic
Kevin Cannon
Zander Cannon
Will Dinski
Tom Kaczynski
Reynold Kissling
Lars Martinson
King Mini
Tyler Page
Evan G. Palmer
Brittney Sabo
Zak Sally
Barbara Schulz
Tim Sievert
Andy Singer
Tom Spence
Steven Stwalley

You can visit the gallery here:

Minnesota Museum of American Art
mmaa.org
50 West Kellogg Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55102