Today on the site we have we a pre-TCAF special: Cartoonist Est Em, who is a guest at the festival, interviewed by translator Joceylne Allen.
ja: That’s great. …So why the pen name “est em”?
ee: (Laughs) Well, I came up from Boys’ Love, so I was against using my real name, and there’s actually another manga artist named Maki Sato. The kanji’s different, of course, it’s spelled differently.
ja: Sure, but the pronunciation is the same.
ee: The pronunciation’s the same, and both Sato and Maki are incredibly common names, so I figured my real name wouldn’t have any real impact. And I was playing around a little when I made my BL debut, I thought est em worked somehow.
ci: I said she should use “Sugar Roll”.
ee: “Sato” is “sugar” and “Maki” is “roll”, right?
ja: (laughs) I love it!
ee: Sugar Roll.
ja: So I’d be calling you “Roll” now.
ee: Yeah, “Roll”.
ja: I can’t even imagine! Roll, tell me about your career!
Elsewhere... here in New York the city is battening down the hatches for a massive amount of art fairs this weekend. Why, you can even find me slinging books at Frieze from Friday to Monday. Come talk to me about Atlas-era Gene Colan and watch as my co-workers stare in disbelief.
There have a few tributes to Dick Ayers. Michael Cavna has one at the Washington Post. And here is Ayers in conversation with Mark Evanier and Joe Sinnott.
One of my favorite periods of his work can be seen here and here.
And:
Paul Gravett on curating the largest show of British comics ever mounted.
Tim O'Neil has begun writing comic book reviews for the AV Club, and starts off nicely.
Here is some news about the upcoming Columbus, Ohio Clowes invasion.
