Sally here with Edwina Dumm, Tove Jansson, Sophia Foster-Dimino, Carol Tyler, and plenty more…!
————————————————————————————————
Once again I am writing from on the road, as the Comics Workbook team is in Columbus, OH, for Cartoon Crossroads Columbus. I really enjoyed this show last year, and look forward to a rewarding and profitable venture again this year.
We pulled into Columbus around 2 PM yesterday and rushed straight to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum to catch Kevin Huizenga‘s “Talk and Teach” (above). He dug into the ideas about deep time in his series Ganges. It was a nice way to kick off the show.
Afterward I went to the BICLM gallery to check out the two shows on display. One is a history of the BICLM itself, detailing the founding acquisitions and how they came about. The other exhibition pulls unique comics from the collection and shares the stories behind them – whether they were groundbreaking strips, or controversial, or by an innovative creator. Everything caught my eye, each comic or strip was totally fascinating and a few brought me to tears (we’re talking original Peanuts strips here, pencil smudges and all).
I’ll just share one thing with you today (all stops will be pulled next week!) I was delighted to find about 5 of Edwina Dumm‘s editorial cartoons on display (pictured below). She was the first woman to work full-time as an editorial cartoonist in the US. Her cartoons ran from Dec. 1916 to July 1917 in the Columbus Monitor. The newspaper folded, and she moved to New York City where she went on to create the nationally syndicated strip Cap Stubbs and Tippie, which ran for 60 years.
An early version of Tippie seems to appear in the comic below – the dog sitting next to the money bag. Tippie morphed into a more terrier-like dog later in the strip, but at the beginning he looked quite a lot like that odd little fellow!
This second strip delighted me due to the glorious “before” picture hanging on the wall. Poor little NEWS!
Okay, I can’t resist, here’s one more thing – a drawing by Hal Foster (of Prince Valiant fame) that he made as a child (below). The BICLM has a bunch of his sketchbooks from 1901-1904, and as any great future cartoonist should, he busied himself copying the comics he enjoyed as well as coming up with his own.
Hilarious.
Today I am zipping out the hotel door to make it back over to the BICLM by 10 AM to catch Leslie Stein talk watercolor techniques, and then hear Signe Wilkinson review her career (she’s the first female Pulitzer prize-winning editorial cartoonist), and Jamaica Dyer discuss autobio comics. The reading room at the BICLM will be full of items from the archive picked out to be displayed by some of the CXC special guests, and tours of the archives themselves will be happening every hour. Oh yes, and around 3 PM the entire Comics Workbook crew at the show will be sure to attend the keynote spotlight on Chris Ware. PHEW! What a day.
Obviously there will be plenty more to report on in the next few days – follow CW on Instagram (@comicsworkbook) and Frank Santoro (@santoro.frank) and my own Instagram feed (@sally_ingraham) for “live” updates. Once again, check out the full CXC schedule of events HERE.
For the moment, however, I’ll turn my eyes to other parts of the world.
—————————————————————————————————
There’s a lovely little article in The Guardian about Tove Jansson and the female characters that populate the world of the Moomins, which were often based on the women in Tove’s own life – her mother, friends, and lovers. She never spoke of herself as a feminist, but she was one in the truest sense.
“In part thanks to the support of these women and the characters they inspired, Tove’s entire life was filled with bold decisions: selling satirical cartoons mocking Hitler; opposing war; choosing not to marry or have children; and turning down Walt Disney’s offer to buy the Moomin brand. She was the writer, illustrator, designer and controlled the business side of her creation, not trusting anyone else to do it justice. “She wasn’t willing to compromise on her beliefs,” says Sophia. “Her work says: ‘This is me. This is who I am. Take it or leave it.’ ” “
—————————————————————————————————
Sophia Foster-Dimino‘s Sex Fantasy (Koyama Press, Sept. 2017) was reviewed on Publishers Weekly.
“Each tale is intimate and mysterious, the fantasy of the title often a denial of the harmful effects of desire. With her deceptively simple line, Foster-Dimino has captured deep, dark places where the conscious mind rarely goes.”
Get a copy of Sex Fantasy HERE.
—————————————————————————————————
Carol Tyler, ladies and gents.
—————————————————————————————————
Okay, what else – let’s see here….
- Vice celebrates Annie Koyama and Koyama Press on the occasion of their 10th anniversary – read the article HERE.
- Sara Lautman has a strip called Spelunking up on Kenyon Review – check it out HERE.
- Hilary Brown takes a look at Tillie Walden‘s Spinning on Paste Magazine – review and interview HERE.
- Over on The Comics Beat Rob Staeger interviews Mimi Pond and talks The Customer is Always Wrong.
- The Comics Journal has a length interview with Brigitte Findakly, who wrote Poppies in Iraq along with her husband Lewis Trondheim, who did the artwork. Read it HERE.
- Rob Clough reviews Meghan Turbitt‘s How to Eat Chips, and Whit Taylor‘s Fizzle #1.
—————————————————————————————————
The fall semester of thee Santoro Correspondence Course for Comic Book Makers starts October 1st 2017. 8 weeks of comics instruction that will bang your practice into shape – 500 bux. Full details about the course and how to apply can be found HERE.
—————————————————————————————————
Frank Santoro made a comic book about his parents and now he needs help making a handbound copy of the book for each of them. It’s a good story. Check out the Indiegogo campaign HERE – or if you want to contribute via PayPal, look at the campaign HERE.
—————————————————————————————————
Suzy and Cecil – 9-29-2017 – by Gabriella Tito