DEPPEY NAMED NEW JOURNAL ED
Dirk Deppey announced in today's "iJournalista!" column that Milo George has been fired as Managing Editor of The Comics Journal and that Deppey will assume editorial duties for the magazine. Comics Journal Editor-in-Chief and Fantagraphics co-publisher Gary Groth fired George over what Deppey terms "professional and interpersonal differences with management." Deppey previously served as the Journal's webmaster, instituting the Journal's monthly online audio archive, Dan Holloway's "Dogsbody" online review column, and Deppey's own daily "iJournalista!" news and commentary website. As part of the transition, Deppey announces that "iJournalista!" will go on temporary hiatus. "As things stand, I cannot imagine returning to the weblog for at least a month, and it wouldn't surprise me if it took longer. Given a choice between the two, there's no two ways around the fact that the magazine would have to come first -- but that's a decision I'm not prepared to make right now."
INFO: iJournalista!
posted by Egon on Friday, February 13, 2004

COCONINO UPDATE: TWO BY FROST
The Coconino World website has been updated with new material including websites dedicated to contemporary artists Tulio Caetano and Marion Girerd, as well as two new A. B. Frost picture stories: "The Story of a Glutton" and "He Was a Tenderfoot."
INFO: Coconino World
posted by Egon on Friday, February 13, 2004

POGO PENS PASSIONATE PROSE
The official "Walt Kelly's Pogo" website runs a sequence of four romance-themed strips, timed to co-incide with the "Valentine's Day" holiday. Valentine's Day is believed to mark the death or burial of a particular Christian martyr in third-century Rome.
INFO: Walt Kelly's Pogo
INFO: The History Channel
posted by Egon on Friday, February 13, 2004

JAMES SIMPKINS DEAD AT 93
Canadian Cartoonist James Simpkins died February 1 at the age of 93, and is remembered in a fond eulogy by Seth that ran in yesterday's National Post. Simpkins is best known for creating Jasper the bear, who Seth calls " the most recognizable Canadian cartoon character of the 20th century." The character "first appeared in the pages of Maclean's magazine on Nov. 15, 1948, and ran weekly there for more than 30 years." Seth recalls "Chopper," another strip by Simpkins that appeared in the pages of Canadian Boy magazine. "I copied those drawings of his over and over again and this was a big part of my early education as a cartoonist." Further, Seth warmly recounts a visit he and writer Brad MacKay paid Simpkins last year, as part of research for a book on historical Canadian cartoonists. "Simpkins was part of a small group of cartoonists who helped define the young pop-culture of Canada in the early 1950s," writes Seth. "Peter Whalley, Doug Wright, Len Norris and Jimmy Frise -- these names are fading, as their work grows dusty on the shelves of neglected second-hand humour sections."
INFO: The National Post
posted by Egon on Thursday, February 12, 2004

COMIC.DE PROFILES ANGOULÊME 2004
Comic.de runs a thorough, illustrated account of last month's Festival International de la Bande Dessinée in Angoulême, France. The dossier includes multiple photo-galleries, depicting personalities and events as well as artwork on display in the Festival's various exhibits. Comic.de also runs a special page chronicling the annual meeting of the Platinum Age Comics mailing list, including examples of full-color artwork by Hans Memling.
INFO: Comic.de
INFO: Comic.de: Platinum
posted by Egon on Thursday, February 12, 2004

(A SUIVRE), CONTINUED...
Casterman publishes "(A Suivre) 1978-1997", a book detailing the history of the defunct French comics magazine. According to solicitation copy, the book includes interviews, archival material and new artwork by artists including Jacques de Loustal, François Schuiten, Jacques Tardi and others.
INFO: Casterman
posted by Egon on Thursday, February 12, 2004

DRAWINGS ON THE SALON
"Comic Art: The Paris Salon in Caricature" is in its final days at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California. The exhibit features 19th- and early 20th-century artwork from Parisian weeklies caricaturing the Salon, "the annual juried art exhibition, sponsored by the French government... These Salon reviews in pictorial form poked fun at the yearly exhibition, from its dizzying display of thousands of paintings and sculptures, to the self-importance of viewers, to the prevailing mediocrity of the works." The exhibit features work by Honoré Daumier and others, from the pages of satirical weeklies including "La Caricature." Several full-color images are available via the Getty's website. "Comic Art" runs at the Getty Museum through February 15, 2004.
INFO: J. Paul Getty Museum
posted by Egon on Thursday, February 12, 2004

SOME WARE IN NEW YORK
The current, February 16 & 23, 2004-dated issue of the New Yorker includes "What's Left," a two-page full-color strip by Chris Ware. The strip features characters from his serialized story "Building," which appears regularly in Nest Magazine. The New Yorker's anniversary issue comes packaged with "Cover Stories: The Big City," a 32-page portfolio of New York-themed covers from the magazine's history. The booklet features text by Ben Greenman and Françoise Mouly and covers by artists including Charles Addams, Peter Arno, Eric Drooker, Richard McGuire, Edward Sorel, Art Spiegelman, Saul Steinberg, and others. "Cover Stories: The Big City" supplements "The New Yorker: Cover Stories," a travelling exhibition of New Yorker covers that will open in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York over the next several months.
LINK: The New Yorker
posted by Egon on Tuesday, February 10, 2004

CFP: CAC 2004
Peter Coogan reminds interested parties that 100- to 200-word abstract submissions for the Comics Arts Conference are due by March 1. The Conference takes place July 22-25, 2004 as part of the Comic-Con International in San Diego, California. "We seek proposals from a broad range of disciplinary and theoretical perspectives, and welcome the participation of academic, independent, and fan scholars," writes Coogan. "We welcome professionals from all areas of the comics industry, including creators, editors, publishers, retailers, distributors, and journalists... Papers and poster sessions may take a critical or historical perspective on comics (juxtaposed images in sequence)." Abstracts can be submitted via e-mail to: coomics@hotmail.com.
INFO: Comics Arts Conference
posted by Egon on Tuesday, February 10, 2004

WEST LIMNS WEST COAST WASP
Richard Samuel West has written "The San Francisco Wasp: An Illustrated History," a book self-published through the author's Periodyssey Press. "Though The Wasp was a fixture on San Francisco newsstands for sixty-five years, it is best remembered for its glory days during the 19th century when, as a chromolithographic weekly devoted to politics and satire, it was the most widely read magazine on the West Coast," the Press's website explains. The Wasp was edited at one time by Ambrose Bierce and featured full-color satirical artwork, samples of which are available online. West's 330-page book includes "100 cartoons from the magazine, nearly all of them as they first appeared — in full color." West's print run is limited to 400 hardcover copies, available March 30, 2004 for $90 each. Ordering information is given on the Periodyssey website. West has previously written "Satire on Stone: The Political Cartoons of Joseph Keppler" and was editor and publisher of "Target: The Political Cartoon Quarterly."
INFO: Periodyssey Press
posted by Egon on Monday, February 09, 2004

BD-SIERRE AND THE SWISS SCENE
Swissinfo covers this past weekend's "BD-Sierre" comics festival in Sierre, Switzerland. "Unlike the other main Swiss comic book gathering, the more alternative Fumetto festival in Lucerne, Sierre reflected the fact that this field is a very broad church, whose congregation includes fans of sci-fi, manga, fantasy or childish humour." Swissinfo reports selected festival prize winners, including Denis Lapière and Ruben Pellejero's "Un Peu de Fumée Bleue," a book about "a woman recounting to a stranger her relationship with a political prisoner." Another prize was given to Ceppi's "l'Or Bleu," which "deals with the fate of the Kurds and the battle to control water resources in the Middle East." The piece places Geneva as "the current centre of the Swiss comic book scene," tracing the contemporary Swiss comics movement to Zurich's "youth revolution" of the early 1980s.
INFO: Swissinfo
posted by Egon on Monday, February 09, 2004

NINE SPEAKS IN CODE
The Italian comics online magazine "Comics Code" features an interview with Carlos Nine, available in Italian and Spanish and illustrated with several pieces of Nine's artwork.
INFO: Comics Code
posted by Egon on Monday, February 09, 2004

NORMAN THELWELL DEAD AT 80
Veteran Punch cartoonist Norman Thelwell died February 7, 2004, as reported by numerous news sources including The Independent. Thelwell died in a nursing home "after a period of prolonged illness," the paper reports. "He had also been suffering from Alzheimer's disease." According to Lambiek.net's Comiclopedia, Thelwell was born in Birkenhead, England in 1923. "Birkenhead was a small industrial town, which may explain Thelwell's devotion to the English countryside." Thelwell began his assocation with Punch in 1952, and "continued to work for the magazine for 25 years, producing more than 1,500 cartoons, including 60 front covers," reports the Independent. Beginning with a 1953 drawing, Thelwell became most strongly associated with images of "little girls astride barrel-shaped ponies." Lambiek.net carries sample images of Thelwell's work; Thelwell was 80 at the time of his death.
INFO: The Independent
INFO: Lambiek.net: Norman Thelwell
posted by Egon on Sunday, February 08, 2004

JULIUS SCHWARTZ DEAD AT 88
Long-time DC Comics editor Julius "Julie" Schwartz died the morning of February 8, 2004, according to a eulogy on Mark Evanier's website. Schwartz had recently been hospitalized for pneumonia, according to previous posts by Evanier. Don Markstein's "Toonopedia" website (unavailable at press time, but cached by the Yahoo website) offers a general biography: Schwartz, born in 1915, edited an early science fiction fanzine called "The Time Traveler" in the 1930s. He went on to become a literary agent, with clients including Ray Bradbury and H. P. Lovecraft. He began editing for DC in the mid-1940s, oversaw the relaunch of the company's line of superhero comics in the 1960s, and maintained an active career through his gradual retirement in the 1980s. The "Chicon 2000" convention website lists Schwartz's birthday as June 19, 1915; Schwartz was 88 at the time of his death.
INFO: News from ME
INFO: Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Julius Schwartz (cached)
INFO: Chicon 2000
posted by Egon on Sunday, February 08, 2004

THE SPIRIT OF THE LAW
The "Adventure Strips" website runs the first in a series of essays by Tom Heintjes about Will Eisner's "The Spirit," serializing material that originally ran in "The Spirit" and "The Spirit: The Origin Years" from Kitchen Sink Press. The first essay, "The Real Beginning," details Eisner's youth and early career through the founding of the Eisner-Iger studio and features extensive commentary by Eisner.
INFO: Adventure Strips
posted by Egon on Sunday, February 08, 2004