Michael Dooley, over at PRINT Magazine’s Imprint, provides a fun and informative recap of this year’s Comic-Con International in San Diego. And, of course, here in Seattle we appreciate a shout out to our favorite son, David Lasky, part of the “Fictionalized Non-Fiction” panel moderated by Heidi MacDonald and also featuring Gilbert Hernandez and Mimi Pond.
Filed under Comics, Design, Michael Dooley, Print Magazine
Howard Chaykin is an American original. It was his groundbreaking “American Flagg,” a 50-issue series created in 1983, that paved the way for Frank Miller’s “Dark Knight” and Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s “Watchmen” three years later. You can buy it at Amazon here.
Howard Chaykin has taken the American comics medium in new directions, including erotic adventures, and comics is the better for it. Micahel Dooley caught up with Chaykin for Print Magazine’s Imprint blog about the recent problems with his “Black Kiss II” being considered too lewd for distribution. You can buy it at ComiXology here.
Much lies ahead for this master cartoonist, including his new series for Image Comics, with Matt Fraction, “Satelite Sam.” The first issue is on sale July 3, 2013 and you can check it out here.
You can read Michael Dooley’s interview with Howard Chaykin here.
Mike Dooley of Print Magazine’s Imprint blog has posted an overview of a recent collection of Anarchy Comics, a legendary underground battle cry in comix. We have had (still have?) the Occupy Movement. The call to rebellion has been fueled in various ways over the years. For a punk look at the world, you can turn to Anarchy Comics. Here is Mr. Dooley’s post for your consideration.
Filed under Art, Art books, Comics, Comix, Design, Michael Dooley, Print Magazine
Print Magazine’s Michael Dooley provides a profile on legendary iconoclast, Paul Krassner. If you are looking for the heart and soul of the counterculture in America, the roots of everything from “The Simpsons” to “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” then look to Paul Krassner. As editor of “The Realist,” beginning in 1958, Krassner let loose all manner of refined, and unrefined, rebellion from the likes of such talents as Woody Allen, Norman Mailer, Art Spiegelman, Ken Kesey, Joseph Heller, Timothy Leary and S. Clay Wilson.
With a focus on the art of the offensive cartoon in this profile, you are bound to crack up over these vintage cartoons by Dick Guindon, Robert Gross, Sergio Aragones, B. Kliban, Dan O’Neil, Edward Sorel, and many more. You can read all about it here.
Tis the season to celebrate horror and here is an artist you’ll want to consider: Meaghan O’Keefe. In a special Halloween imPrint interview, Michael Dooley checks in with the comics and FX artist on gore garters, sequential paintings, and the virtues of taste over skill. You can read it here.
And you can check out her new graphic novel, “Identity Thief,” published by Fanboy Comics here. It’s about a couple who move into an apartment that already has supernatural tenants.
Filed under Art, Comics, Design, Imprint, Michael Dooley, Print Magazine
Michael Dooley has a wonderful feature at Imprint on the artist, Eliza Frye. This is the first of a two-part interview. Ms. Frye earned an Eisner nomination in 2009 for her webcomic, Regalia, which is a beautifully drawn and designed graphic narrative involving murder and prostitutes. It has recently been collected into a book. Very tawdry stuff! Wonderfully inventive, erotic and captivating!
Filed under Comics, Eliza Frye, Imprint, Michael Dooley, Webcomics
It’s hard not to like Stan Lee. At 90, he’s an inspiring figure of energy. But, folks, you ought to know, if you don’t already, there’s Stan Lee but there’s also Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby. For anyone versed in comics, they have some idea of how this story goes. Stan Lee collaborated on creating Marvel Comics characters and stories. But, at the end of the day, the payday, it was Stan who got sole credit for writing. Even when you have clear-cut examples of a 50/50 collaboration, Stan Lee got all the credit as writer and creator. Enter Arlen Schumer, who would like to share with you the true history of how things went down. You can read Michael Dooley’s piece on Schumer here. And you’ll want to read carefully and not miss out on these examples of Schumer’s lecture from Comic-Con. Click to expand! Yes, you can easily read them:
In an illustrated lecture, “The Auteur Theory of Comics,” presented at this year’s Comic-Con, Schumer explains the Marvel Method which, as a working method was cool and revolutionary: The artist lays down the art first and then the writer goes back and adds the words! Great. But not so great when it comes to crediting the artist. Schumer expands his argument in favor of Ditko and Kirby by explaining the auteur theory which holds that the artist was in charge of far more than mere illustration of the writer’s words. It’s more like the artist is in charge of all the details in a movie which overlaps into actual storytelling. There are numerous examples, to be sure, where the roles of writer and artist are more fixed but, in the case of Stan Lee working with Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby, Schumer maintains it’s more like the early years of collaboration between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. There’s a wonderful recap of this lecture at the Jack Kirby Museum site.
So, that is not to put a damper of Stan Lee. Just a look at what history has to show us. You can take it any way you like. You can also enjoy more of Arlen Schumer’s explorations into pop culture at his site.
Filed under Arlen Schumer, Jack Kirby, Marvel Comics, Michael Dooley, Stan Lee, Steve Ditko
A Night at the Sorrento and Other Stories
