GAIMAN, SPIEGELMAN HIT THE Y
Neil Gaiman and Art Spiegelman will discuss "Writing for Children & Adults" on September 21 at Manhattan's 92nd Street Y. WNYC radio host Leonard Lopate will moderate. Tickets to the event cost $25 and can be purchased online.
INFO: 92nd Street Y
posted by Egon on Thursday, August 21, 2003

BUCKEYES AND BLACKBEARD
Ohio's "This Week" community newspaper profiles Ohio State University's Cartoon Research Library, speaking with curator Lucy Shelton Caswell and scholars including Bill Blackbeard, Gene Kannenberg, Jr. and John Lent. The paper also includes a sidebar focusing on Blackbeard and his dedicated effort to archive American comic strips.
INFO: This Week
posted by Egon on Monday, August 18, 2003

HIRSCHFELD ON VIEW, BLOCK
More than one hundred drawings by Al Hirschfeld will be auctioned off at Manhattan's Swann Galleries, Playbill reports. "The artworks on display are all gathered from private collections in Cleveland and New York." The work can be previewed at the Galleries September 20 and September 20-24; the auction will take place September 25. Illustrated catalogs will be available from the gallery for $35; selected pieces can be previewed online. Meanwhile, in California, the San Francisco Performing Arts Library & Museum shows "Hirschfeld: A Centennial Celebration," a retrospective of the artist's work on view through December 19. The San Francisco Chronicle speaks with David Leopold, the archivist "who assembled and cataloged Hirschfeld's work over the past 13 years" and organized the current show, featuring "a collection of 39 drawings, paintings and lithographs that span nine decades of American creative life."
INFO: Playbill
INFO: Swann Galleries
INFO: San Francisco Performing Arts Library & Museum
INFO: San Francisco Chronicle
posted by Egon on Sunday, August 17, 2003

LOUIS LOUIS
Canada's Globe and Mail profiles Chester Brown in light of his recently completed and soon to be collected historical graphic novel, "Louis Riel." Among other topics, the piece notes revisions Brown has undertaken since the publication of the serial's tenth issue: "Brown's technique developed as he worked on the series, and by the end he had increased his caricature of Riel, drawing him with an almost monstrously inflated body. So when he had finished the 10th issue, he went back to the first issues and redrew many of the panels that included Riel's skinnier version to make the Métis leader's appearance more consistent. He also added more background art. The result is a graphic novel that will be a subtly different experience for readers than the original series, one that more firmly places the reader in Brown's cartoon setting."
INFO: The Globe and Mail
posted by Egon on Sunday, August 17, 2003

ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES
Salon.com interviews Dan "Tom Tomorrow" Perkins upon the publication of his latest collection of "This Modern World" comic strips, "The Great Big Book of Tomorrow." On the difference between the current Bush administration and the Clinton administration, Perkins observes: "The stakes weren't as high. The civil liberties situation is terrifying. And the foreign policy situation ... this is the most radical presidential administration probably in a century. And unfortunately, it's trite to say it, but Sept. 11 really did change everything in one important way: It unleashed this administration to pursue its most radical agenda."
INFO: Salon
posted by Egon on Sunday, August 17, 2003

PERSEPOLIS PRESS PERSISTS
Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis garners a lengthy piece from Reuters in Paris, as carried by Swisspolitics.org. The piece includes commentary from Satrapi and details the artist's current projects: "Satrapi is still recovering from a marathon dash to complete the fourth and final volume of 'Persepolis', including two sleepless days and nights hunched over the drawing boards at the slightly dilapidated studio which she shares with five others. Among her new projects are children's books, commissions for magazines including The New Yorker and possibly a film script." The American Prospect's online edition spoke with Satrapi in a lengthy piece published in June.
INFO: Swisspolitics.org
INFO: The American Prospect
posted by Egon on Sunday, August 17, 2003

PEKAR PICTURE LAUDED
The film adaptation of Harvey Pekar's "American Splendor" continues to be a popular subject for film critics, from the New York Times to Slate. USA Today speaks with Pekar about the film and runs an additional feature in which Joyce Brabner, Pekar and Toby Radloff rate the performances of their on-screen counterparts. In the USA Today piece, Pekar notes: "I got money from the movie, but that's not going to keep going for the rest of my life."
INFO: The New York Times
INFO: Slate
INFO: USA Today
INFO: USA Today
posted by Egon on Sunday, August 17, 2003

SOPHIE CRUMB COMICS
Release the Reality features several comics by Sophie Crumb, as spotted by the Comics Journal's "iJournalista!" website. Release the Reality is a monthly webzine covering "subjects in different domains from Spiritual Enthusiasm to Pharmacological Modification of Consciousness."
INFO: Release the Reality: Sophie Crumb
posted by Egon on Sunday, August 17, 2003