Sally here with Meg Lemke on censorship, the return of Karen Berger, reviews of work by Whit Taylor, Hazel Newlevant, and Daryl Seitchik, Ulli Lust on “drawing as language”, and Sarah Bowie’s adventures in Angouleme.
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On the site we have the first roundup of photos from the Comics Workbook hosted cartoon workshops at the Small Press Expo 2016!
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The last week in September is traditionally Banned Book Week. This annual event put on by the American Library Association brings attention to the books that have received censorship across the years, but more importantly it is a celebration of the freedom to read whatever you want.
Meg Lemke, Editor-and-Chief of MUTHA, wrote a piece for Pen America on Jillian and Mariko Tamaki’s This One Summer, which has been frequently removed from schools and K-12 school libraries for it’s use of “profanity” and “vulgarity”. Comics have always had a close relationship with the firing squad, and Lemke muses on why:
“As with other banned comics (such as Alison Bechdel’s lauded Fun Home), we see how easily images read as obscenity to those unfamiliar with the form. They are seen as more dangerous by their accessibility. It is what makes them attractive to younger readers, and too tempting a mark for censorship.” – Meg Lemke for Pen
Read the rest of the piece HERE.
Read an excerpt from This One Summer HERE.
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Karen Berger is BACK! If that name is unfamiliar, get on the same page quick:
“For three decades, she worked as an editor at mega-publisher DC Comics, and her long list of accomplishments while there can mostly be traced back to one risky venture: creating and running a mature-leaning imprint called Vertigo from 1993 to 2013. In that position she did more than just about anybody else in comics history to get ambitious, avant-garde, serious non-superhero work in front of a mass audience. The Sandman, V for Vendetta, Preacher, iZombie, Y: The Last Man, Transmetropolitan, 100 Bullets, Hellblazer — those are just a few of the better-known titles Vertigo produced during Berger’s tenure.” – via Vulture.com
After a falling out with DC Comics and a silence of 3 years, Karen Berger has returned to the scene, making her return with a new comic she’s edited – Surgeon X – which hit stands on Sept. 28th.
More on this story HERE. (via The Comics Reporter)
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Rob Clough has reviews of Whit Taylor‘s Wallpaper and Hazel Newlevant‘s Tender-Hearted on High-Low this week! Check them out HERE.
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Ulli Lust has a report on the International Comics Festival Boomfest on her blog – check it out HERE and plug into the Russian alternative comics scene for a bit.
Speaking of Ulli Lust, she has a preview on her website of one page from the new book she’s been working on over the last 3 years. Page 333:
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And to continue speaking of Ulli Lust, she was one of several cartoonists who appear in a series of films about “drawing as language”, made by the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Art. Gabrielle Bell, Ben Katchor, Jooste Swart, and Joe Sacco, among others, are also interviewed. Ulli Lust’s film is below:
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The Comics Beat presents a review of Daryl Seitchik‘s Exits (Koyama Press, 2016).
“Moving past something might be the central message of Seitchik’s story, and the idea that even as a healthy endeavor it might not look like we expect it and it might have its own set of issues. Claire moves past the corporeal being that she feels is the center of her problems, but pushing that aside to another state doesn’t really solve anything for her, and reality becomes the result of whatever you make of it.” – John Seven
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Sarah Bowie is in Angouleme, doing a residency in La Maison des Auteurs – and she is keeping a diary of the adventure. Today’s story:
Catch up and keep up with Sarah HERE.
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If you haven’t seen it yet, check out the video of Cameron Weston Nicholson‘s workshop at SPX – he riffs on many of the things that I love about making comics myself. Well worth a watch!
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Help send Connor Willumsen to the UK for The Lakes International Comic Arts Festival in October!
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It’s finally feeling like Fall in Pittsburgh! I have plans to usher October in with some spooky reading and adventures in apple orchards. Have a good weekend folks! – Sally