COMICS' CONVERGENCES COVERED
The Cambridge Chronicle covers the Cambridge Comix Festival, a series of exhibits running in association with today's convention at Hannum Hall in the town's YWCA. Meanwhile, Detroit's Metro Times spotlights regular meetings of Suzanne Baumann, Sean Bieri and Matt Feazell, "all Hamtramck residents, all contributors to the comic section of the local weekly, the Hamtramck Citizen," and all appearing at Detroit's Motor City Comic Con this weekend.
INFO: Cambridge Chronicle
INFO: Metro Times
posted by Egon on Saturday, May 17, 2003

HANG THE WEEKLIES
San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum announces "Alternative to What? Comic Art of the Free Weeklies," an exhibit running June 14 to October 5. The show will include work from Jules Feiffer, Ben Katchor, Carol Lay, Tony Millionaire and others.
INFO: Cartoon Art Museum
posted by Egon on Saturday, May 17, 2003

SATRAPI: GUARDED DIALOGUE
Manchester's Guardian offers its own review of Marjane Satrapi's "Persepolis," due in England May 22 from Jonathan Cape with the variant subtitle, "The Story of an Iranian Childhood." In the piece, writer Esther Addley talks with Satrapi about life after her initial departure from Iran and about acts of personal rebellion within that country, particularly reactions against the scarf or hijab.
INFO: The Guardian
posted by Egon on Thursday, May 15, 2003

MOCCA DUCKS AROUND
The budding Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art has launched "DUCK!", an online exhibit of illustrations from more than fifty artists interpreting the stated theme. Contributors include Ruben Bolling, Howard Cruse, Renée French, Kaz, Peter Kuper, Art Spiegelman and Jim Woodring.
INFO: MoCCA
posted by Egon on Thursday, May 15, 2003

PERSEPOLIS CALLING
Marjane Satrapi numbers among guests scheduled for the Thursday, May 15 episode of the Leonard Lopate show on WNYC public radio. WNYC broadcasts are available online as streaming audio files.
INFO: WNYC
posted by Egon on Wednesday, May 14, 2003

THE MAUS THAT ROARED
Art Spiegelman and David Rees will join Janeane Garofalo and others on Wednesday, May 14 for the New York City iteration of "Operation Strangelove." "Operation Strangelove," an offshoot of the Lysistrata Project, is a nationwide, coordinated mass screening of Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb," organized as a protest against "cowboy diplomacy, unilateral preemptive strikes and wars fought for precious fluids." The 7:00 screening at Battery Park, "overlooking Ground Zero," will be followed by a panel discussion on "The Art of Dissent: Satire and Protest."
INFO: Operation Strangelove
posted by Egon on Tuesday, May 13, 2003

COMICS SCHOLARS CHRONICLED
Brown University's Paul Buhle briefly reviews recent comics-related volumes and offers a cursory history of the American comic book as commentary on the state of comics scholarship for the Chronicle of Higher Education. Buhle reads comics as cultural items promoted by scholars "arguably engaging in an exercise in nostalgia," but praises their function as "a running commentary... on the look and feel of daily life." Comics, he concludes, offer educators, "at least potentially, a way...to connect, without condescending, to the life of the student mind."
INFO: Chronicle of Higher Education
posted by Egon on Tuesday, May 13, 2003

BRITANNIA RULES THE STRIPS
Sixteen British cartoonists will labor for the next several days in an effort to create the "world's largest ever cartoon strip," the BBC reports in a piece spotted by the Comics Journal's "iJournalista!" website. The event takes place as part of the London Comedy Festival, running May 15 - 25. "The cartoon strip will be 90 metres wide and two metres tall and each artist will complete a five metre wide panel influenced by London's history."
INFO: BBC
posted by Egon on Tuesday, May 13, 2003

BD MEETS MANGA
The Japan Times reports on "Perception of Manga in Europe," a symposium taking place May 25 as part of EU-Japan Friendship Week at the International House, Osaka. The free event "will include a panel discussion among four European manga experts: Julien Bastide, a comic critic from France; Jens Balzer, a critic from Germany; Roger Sabin, a lecturer in cultural studies from Britain; and Marc Bernabe, a manga translator from Spain. Japanese manga critic Tomofusa Kure will also take part, and the discussion will be in Japanese."
INFO: Japan Times
posted by Egon on Monday, May 12, 2003

SPX ANTHOLOGY LINEUP
Small Press Expo organizers, in association with the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, announce 48 contributors whose work has been selected to appear in the 2003 Expo anthology. A complete listing of artists and story titles is available at the SPX website. The 296-page travel-themed anthology will be available in July.
INFO: SPX
posted by Egon on Monday, May 12, 2003

TIMES ON PERSEPOLIS
The New York Times' May 11 Book Review includes the latest review of Marjane Satrapi's "Persepolis." Novelist Fernanda Eberstadt praises the book's "drama and insouciant wit."
INFO: The New York Times
posted by Egon on Monday, May 12, 2003

KAZUO: LONE WOLF
New California Media carries an interview with "Lone Wolf & Cub" creator Koike Kazuo, as spotted by the Comics Journal's "iJournalista!" website. Kazuo is at work on a sequel to the popular series; "Lone Wolf," due next year, tells "what happens when Daigoro grows up." Kazuo holds forth on American military and political dominance and laments Japan's cultural development since World War II. "I sometimes feel as if I might be the last person in Japan who writes about the samurai moral and ethics in Japan."
INFO: New California Media
posted by Egon on Monday, May 12, 2003