08/25/2016

Sally here, bringing you a look at some of Pittsburgh’s born or borrowed cartoonists (Ed Piskor, Yona Harvey, Ben Sears) as well as another read through that Trevor Von Eeden interview. 

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Yona Harvey – pic by Theo Schwarz

Yona Harvey is a Professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh – and Marvel’s first black female writer. She is working on a 10-page story for the upcoming Black Panther spin-off series, World of Wakanda.

Harvey says, as a poet, she’s always considered herself a visual thinker, and explained how poets, like comic writers, have to condense life into as few words as possible.

“I think it’s more in the thinking, like when you’re a poet you do sort of shrink moments,” she said. “A lot can happen across the day, from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed. There’s something about when you’re a poet, you’re able to sort of zero in on very specific moments, maybe the most tense or terse moments of the day, and I like putting that way of thinking to use for a comic. Because you do have to be super precise.”

Though the writing shares some craft elements, the audience crossover between poetry and comics isn’t one-to-one, according to Harvey.

“I’ve had friends who have said, ‘Man, it’s been years since I’ve read a comic book,’ or ‘I’ve never read a comic book and this’ll be the first time that I’m reading a comic,’ and that’s really exciting to think about poets who are reading comics for the first time,” she said.

Read the rest of the article HERE and keep an eye out for this series soon (the bulk of which has been written Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxane Gay, with artwork by Alitha Martinez and Afua Richardson.)

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Ed Piskor‘s Hip Hop Family Tree Vol. 4 was featured on NPR recently – Etelka Lehoczky wrote about the “bubbles” in the work, “phenomena that inexorably head skyward, pop suddenly and create a roiling surface“, or the numerous artists who kept the stew at the boil throughout ’84 and ’85. She revels in Piskor’s use of color, always part of the wonder of these books.

Check out the whole thing HERE.

Another Piskor-related thing that’s been on my mind is this picture that showed up on his Instagram a few weeks ago. What gives?!

Giant HHFT cover burner on the wall at the Smithsonian in DC.

A photo posted by Ed Piskor (@ed_piskor) on

I know where I’ll be headed in the summer of 2018…!

Ed Piskor has always been an unstoppable force, quietly conquering the world, and now with the announcement last week that Hip Hop Family Tree will soon be an animated TV series (yes you heard me right! – check it out HERE) – it seems like the world has noticed and won’t soon be forgetting.

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Ben Sears at Copacetic Comics, Pittsburgh, PA

Ben Sears is in Pittsburgh this week for a Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency – which of course includes field trips to Copacetic Comics to look for treasures with Frank. Check out Ben’s book Night Air (Koyama Press, May 2016) and stay tuned for more of his Rowhouse adventures!

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Last week we mentioned the incredible interview with Trevor Von Eeden, and if you haven’t gotten a chance to read it yet, here’s your reminder. There was one detail from the interview that’s worth another look. There’s a yet unpublished –

“…Black Lightning/Superman comic book called Sources commissioned by DC Comics, written by new Batman writer Tom King especially for Von Eeden to draw when he was both undergoing and recovering from cancer surgery.” – Rich Johnson via Bleeding Cool

Find more of Von Eeden’s artwork (below) for this future project  HERE.

Also be sure to give Trevor Von Eeden’s Kickstarer campaign for the series The Hard Code (with Ramon Gil) a look!

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Trevor Von Eeden pencils – notes from the script: “PANEL 3: Big panel. Black lightning lying in the street. He’s been shot three times in the chest and stomach as he’s bleeding all over the place.”

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This is Sally signing off – Harrison will be back with your Thursday music choices next week!

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