TEZUKA'S BUDDHA BIO TK
Vertical, Inc. has announced an English-language translation of Osamu Tezuka's "Life of Buddha," the ICv2 retail website reports. The 400-page first volume, "Life of Buddha, Kapilavastu," is due for hardcover release in October with the second volume following in November. The eight-volume series is being designed by Chip Kidd. Vertical is "a new publisher specializing in translating contemporary Japanese fiction."
INFO: ICv2
LINK: Vertical, Inc.
posted by Egon on Thursday, July 31, 2003

GUIDO CREPAX DEAD AT 70
Italian erotic cartoonist Guido Crepax died today at the age of 70, Fumetti.org reports. Crepax is well known for his "Valentina" character and "illustrated classic erotic stories like De Sade's 'Justine', Pauline Réage's 'Histoire d'O' and Sacher-Masoch's 'Venus in Furs,'" according to his entry in Lambiek.net's Comiclopedia.
INFO: Fumetti.org
INFO: Lambiek.net: Guido Crepax
LINK: Guido Crepax
posted by Egon on Thursday, July 31, 2003

WARREN KREMER DEAD AT 82
Fumetti.org reports the July 24 death of Harvey cartoonist Warren Kremer. Mark Evanier eulogizes Kremer at length on his website: "Some said the Kremer style was the Harvey style." According to an obituary in the Newark Star-Ledger, Kremer was "a professional cartoonist for Harvey Comics in New York City for 35 years, he was the company's primary cover illustrator and the artist for Richie Rich, Casper and Hot Stuff Comics before retiring in 1989." After Harvey Comics' demise in the mid-1980s Kremer drew children's comics for Marvel Comics' "Star" line.
INFO: Fumetti.org
INFO: News from ME
INFO: Newark Star-Ledger
INFO: Lambiek.net: Warren Kremer
posted by Egon on Wednesday, July 30, 2003

BAXENDALE ON THE BEANO
Beano cartoonist Leo Baxendale reflects on the publication's 65th birthday in the pages of the Guardian, as spotted by the Comics Journal's "iJournalista!" website. Baxendale discusses his famous Bash Street Kids: "With Bash Street, I was very conscious of creating a world of uncertainty from two sources - the modern concept of cause and effect, and the medieval concept of things coming from a blue sky. The characters would set disasters in train unknowingly, and the constant factor was that they never twigged why; despite going in with such high hopes, they always blundered into disaster."
INFO: The Guardian
posted by Egon on Wednesday, July 30, 2003

ONION TEARS
The Onion's A.V. Club celebrates Chris Ware's "Quimby the Mouse" collection. "The cumulative effect of scanning page after page of drawings of the same old house is like submerging into an artist's inescapable mourning," writes reviewer Noel Murray.
INFO: The Onion
posted by Egon on Tuesday, July 29, 2003

BUENAVENTURA'S ONLINE GALLERY
Alvin Buenaventura has established a website featuring photographs from the "Original Comic Art" show that ran at his Buenaventura Gallery in San Diego July 7 - 28. The gallery displayed original artwork from twenty artists including Max Andersson, Ivan Brunetti, Charles Burns, Daniel Clowes, Julie Doucet, Phoebe Gloeckner, Archer Prewitt, Ron Rege and Chris Ware. The website also includes images from the show's catalog, copies of which can be ordered for $25 a piece. "Each comes with 'Authentic Trash' from one of the 20 artists in the show... Printed letterpress with 3 colors and hand sewn. Edition of 350."
INFO: Buenaventura Gallery
posted by Egon on Tuesday, July 29, 2003

THE VOICE ON PEKAR'S VOICE
The Village Voice runs Ed Park's lengthy appreciation of Harvey Pekar in light of the upcoming "American Splendor" feature film. Park explores Pekar's wide-ranging literary influences and examines the transformation of Frank Stack's character for the film's narrative purposes. Park concludes by wryly questioning whether Pekar's famously unforgiving point of view has been reigned in by the requirments of film marketing. "The conceit is strangely fitting and obviously ironic — Pekar's working-class-steeped voice of the people suppressed by those ostensibly promoting it."
INFO: Village Voice
posted by Egon on Tuesday, July 29, 2003

LUC'S COMICS IN PRINT
In his latest "Time.comix" column for Time magazine's website, Andrew Arnold reports on a print volume of Luc Leplae's memoir comics, previously only available online. The hardcover edition, titled "War Time and Play Time," is published by Leplae's family. According to the biography on his website "Luc Leplae (1930-2000) was born in Belgium and spent his youth under the German occupation. He became a physicist and moved to the US in 1957. In 1993 he got a liver transplant and was forced to retire. After that, he decided to write his autobiography in the form of comics."
INFO: Time.comix
INFO: Luc's Comics
posted by Egon on Monday, July 28, 2003