Celebrating Tomorrow
(Comic Strips) The winners of 35th Annual RFK Journalism Awards have just been announced, and look who just won the cartooning award:

"This Modern World by Dan Perkins (alias 'Tom Tomorrow') showcases multilayered satirical commentary on economic inequality in the United States, as well as the inaction of the politicians who have the power to change it. Perkins' body of work also addresses subjects such as access to health care and the gradual erosion of civil liberties in today's post-9/11 world."

The RFK Journalism Awards, founded in 1968 by journalists covering Robert Kennedy's ill-fated run for the Presidency, are one of the few sets of awards whose winners are selected by fellow journalists. The awards will be handed out in a ceremony on May 6th in Arlington, VA. No, it isn't a bad way to close out a week, is it, Dan?
Posted @ 3:00 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Slow news day
(Commentary) There's not a lot of comics news to deliver at the moment, and like many other people I'm utterly glued to the events unfolding in Baghdad as I type this. If you're looking for a break from the war, however, Egon just alerted me to the new second issue of Coconino World amazing online anthology Station Delta, which mixes comics, artwork and commentary to delicious effect. Much of the text is in French, but please don't let that stop you from enjoying the amazing visual displays available at the site (here's a link to the Google translator for you more adventurous types).

I also recommend taking a stroll through the new issue of Sequential Tart, which this month features interviews with everyone from Julius Schwartz to Greg Rucka to Colleen Doran, plus a profile on Art Spiegelman and an overview of what the various publishers are offering up for Free Comic Book Day next month.

One final note: due to a changing roommate situation, I'm about to lose the cable-modem connection in the next day or two and will be switching back to a 56k dial-up for the near future. I have no idea how much of an effect this will have on blogging, but if you notice a sudden drop of activity on this page, this is why.
Posted @ 3:00 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Site update: TCJ #251
(The Comics Journal) The new issue of The Comics Journal, #251, should be hitting the stands in the next week or two (some subscribers have already received their copies in the mail), and we've updated our homepage accordingly. As an enticement, we've also posted an excerpt from Tom Spurgeon's feature interview with cartoonist James Sturm (The Golem's Mighty Swing), which covers his experiences using Scott McCloud's book Understanding Comics as a teaching aid, as well as his thoughts on working with Marvel Comics to produce the new Fantastic Four mini-series, Unstable Molecules.
Posted @ 1:15 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Rudy Florese dies
(Comic Books) I just got sad news from the Philippines. Cartoonist Gerry Alanguilan writes:

"My father-in-law, comics artist Rodolfo 'Rudy' O. Florese Sr., has passed away a little after 1:00pm April 4, 2003 here in San Pablo City, Philippines, after suffering 2 consecutive strokes and a long illness.

"Rudy was known in America for drawing Korak and Tarzan for DC Comics in the late 70's. Rudy also adapted The Mutiny On Board the HMS Bounty by William Bligh and The Scarlet Pimpernel by Barones Orczy for Pendulum Press. In the Philippines, he was known for writing and drawing well received stories like Eskirmuz: Street Warrior, Oras Mo Na and Meridiana.

"He was 56."

You can read an overview of Florese's career and see a sample of his work at Alanguilan's website.
Posted @ 1:15 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Tokyopop empire continues to expand
(Graphic Novels) Building on the astonishing growth they've harvested here in the United States, Toykopop is taking its show on the road. From the press release:

"TOKYOPOP U.K. has partnered with Red Route Distribution Ltd. to extend its manga business into the country s more than 2,000 bookstores. Red Route is the leading supplier of graphic novels to the British book trade and specialized retail market. The two companies solidified their relationship during this year's London Book Fair, at which they featured a joint exhibit."

I've lost track -- are we seeing a facet of the changing face of comics in the 21st century, or merely the Cro-Magnon that's come to replace the current industry's Neandrathal? In any event, I think it's safe to predict that the new market will prove as hospitable to manga as America has.
Posted @ 1:15 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Syrian cartoonist in hot water over anti-Saddam cartoons
(Editorial Cartooning) Aside from being an internationally respected cartoonist, Ali Farzat holds the distinction of running the only independent newspaper in the repressive Middle-Eastern nation of Syria, the satirical weekly Al-Domari (The Lamplighter). A huge success when it first began publication in early 2001, Al-Domari has since been plagued by periodic harassment from the government, which has caused Farzat to temporarily suspend publication at least once. Still, he's held on, determined to lead the way in re-opening his nation to the world. As Farzat told The Pakistan Economist:

"We are trying to teach the people not be afraid of anything and be clear and honest to talk about anything... and we're also trying to teach people in power to know that when they are really at fault they have to admit they are at fault."

Farzat's latest tribulations stem from recent editions of the paper, which have depicted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein as oblivious to the concerns of his people. With Arabic public opinion strongly on Iraq's side in the current Gulf War -- and Syria officially supporting Hussein -- Al-Domari's fearless stance has again brought the paper into conflict, the object of denunciations from state-owned media and even protests at its offices. Britain's Financial Times investigates the controversy:

" 'This is not the time to criticise the Iraqi president or the Iraqi army,' said Reem Samman, a student taking part in the sit-in. 'If you want the Iraqi people to fight, to resist against foreign troops, you cannot make them doubt their leadership. Satire should only be directed at the enemy now.'

"The campaign against Mr Ferzat was started by the state-controlled Tishreen newspaper, which ran, for two consecutive days, a full-page feature condemning Mr Ferzat's cartoons and their publication by a Kuwaiti newspaper."

After a tumultuous two years of publication, Farzat seems resigned to the endless controversy. "I may be a caricaturist but sometimes life is even stranger than a caricature," he told the Times.

(Note: The Financial Times spells both Farzat and his publication's names differently than most of the other media references to them that I've found on the web. I've elected to go with what seems to be the general consensus for the purposes of this entry.)
Posted @ 3:45 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Student paper still weathering controversy over cartoon
(Editorial Cartooning) Two weeks after University of Maryland student newspaper The Diamondback ran a cartoon that depicted pro-Palestinian activist Rachel Corrie as "stupid" for throwing herself in front of a bulldozer in the Gaza Strip, the controversy still has yet to die down. The paper's staff still hasn't apologized; indeed, it even mocked the controversy in an April Fool's Day article. Nonetheless, public opinion still remains more negative than positive, and The Diamondback's editor-in-chief has now announced that his paper will undertake a review of its policies:

"In response to the thousands of e-mails, hundreds of phone calls and two days of protests outside the newsroom denouncing the paper for running what critics called a tasteless cartoon, Diamondback Editor in Chief Jay Parsons said a review and written statement of the newspaper's editorial process were needed for future editors who may find themselves in a similar situation. Protesters gathered outside the newspaper March 19 and demanded The Diamondback state its editorial policy, apologize for printing the cartoon by Daniel J. Friedman and print an article 'honoring the life of Rachel Corrie.' Parsons, a junior journalism major, continues to refuse to apologize for printing the cartoon, reaffirming the newspaper's position of defending Friedman's freedom of speech."

Meanwhile, an impromptu movement to support The Diamondback has begun on student website Terrapins Gone Wild, in the form of a petition to U. of M. president Dan Mote to retract his condemnation of the independently-produced newspaper and reaffirm his support for free speech. Alas, the petition was published on an internet message board, so naturally the ensuing discussion has devolved into accusations over misspellings...
Posted @ 3:45 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

A supreme conundrum
(Copyright Law) In a case that could conceivably have implications for the reprinting of classic comics in the public domain, the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday heard arguments in a dispute between the 20th Century Fox film studio and a small video company, the Dastar Corporation, which had repackaged what had once been one of the studio's World War Two documentaries for re-release. At issue is the repackaging -- Dastar altered the work in question and credited itself as having produced the video, causing Fox to cry foul. The Guardian reports:

" 'This is not a case about copying. It's a case about deception,' Dale Cendali, Fox's attorney, told the court.

"She said that the company violated a trademark law intended to protect consumers from confusion. A federal judge had agreed and ordered the company to pay Fox $1.5 million.

"While some justices seemed bothered by the company's marketing strategy, there was no agreement that it was illegal."

While the case seems to be of limited importance, the alteration and repackaging of works is not unknown in the comics field -- in recent years reprints of old romance comics have been issued in which the editors changed the dialogue for comedic effect, and the age of Photoshop has given rise to similar parodies on the internet, including everything from reworked Hostess ads featuring comics characters to David Rees' popular strip Get Your War On. The ruling resulting from yesterday's hearing could well set the rules of engagement for such detournments for decades to come.
Posted @ 3:45 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Widgets! They're all just widgets!
(Commentary) Finally, is it just my imagination or can virtually everything that seems wrong about Diamond Distributors' 13th Annual Gem Awards be highlighted by the fact that a full ten of their awards have either "manufacturer" or "product" in the award titles?
Posted @ 3:45 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Cartoon censorship 2002
(Editorial Cartooning) The Committee to Protect Journalists has issued its annual list of worldwide attacks on the press for 2002. Where editorial cartoonists are concerned, however, it's by no means complete -- only two cartoonists, Algeria's Ali Dilem and Ahmed Hisham, are mentioned. I thought this might be an opportune time to provide a rundown on the cartoonists (and the people who publish their work) which I know to have faced governmental harrassment and oppression last year:

• Afghanistan: Abdul Ghafur Aiteqad, publisher of the newsweekly Farda, was taken into custody by judicial officials over a cartoon that ran in his paper on December 15th, which depicted Afghan president Karzai and his finance minister dancing for money while the international community watched. He was released several days later.

• Algeria: As the CPJ report notes, Ali Dilem and Ahmed Hisham found themselves facing charges of defamation last year by the government; Dilem was also fined in a seperate case, under a law that informally bears his name due to the suspicion that it was created primarily for his "benefit". This report is actually the first I'd heard of Hisham's plight, but you can read the ¡Journalista entry on Dilem, written back in January, by clicking here.

• Cameroon: On November 30th, Le Messager cartoonist Paul Nyemb Ntoogue (better known as Popoli) was beaten by police at an impromptu checkpoint. A letter-writing campaign organized by the Cartoonists Rights Network prodded the American Embassy in Cameroon to lodge an official protest with the Cameroonian government, as well as request that an official investigation of the incident take place. Criminal charges were filed against the officers, but I don't know if anything has ever come of it; Popoli himself was cynical of the notion that the officers would ever actually go to trial for their crimes.

• Ukraine: While no cartoonists were overtly arrested in 2002 that I'm aware of, some have complained about an atmosphere of official censorship; read more about it by clicking here.

I was tempted to throw in recent developments in the ongoing investigation of the 1999 murder of Indian cartoonist Irfan Hussein, but I'm not confident enough of my command of the facts of the case to engage in anything other than idle speculation. It is interesting to note, however, that a policeman was recently charged with involvement in one of the other murders of journalists that took place around the same period in which Hussein was killed.

I strongly suspect that the above list is by no means complete -- I cobbled it together out of spare parts, so to speak, as there just aren't the same kinds of resources for cartoonists facing repression that journalists enjoy. The closest I can find to an organization devoted to this sort of thing is the Cartoonists Rights Network, but their main homepage is little more than brochureware. The Eastern European chapter had a mildly better website, but it's recently undergone a site redesign, and some of the listings seem to have disappeared. Likewise, WittyWorld serves as an occasional source for such news, but its documentation is a tad haphazard for my tastes. If anyone reading knows of a more comprehensive clearinghouse for information on cartoonists in trouble worldwide, do let me know.
Posted @ 3:45 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Playing the Pulitzer guessing game
(Editorial Cartooning) With just under a week to go before the Pulitzer Prize finalists are announced, Editor and Publisher has obtained what it claims is "a seemingly credible list of finalists". Most important for our purposes, of course, is the short list for Editorial Cartooning, which the magazine claims is likely to be composed of Clay Bennett (Christian Science Monitor), David Horsey (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) and Rex Babin (Sacramento Bee). The actual nominees will be announced April 7th.
Posted @ 3:45 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

ACTOR appoints new boardmember
(Comic Books) A Commitment To Our Roots, better known as ACTOR, has announced that Charlie Nivinskie has been named to the organization's board of directors. Newsarama has the press release:

" 'We are delighted that Charlie is joining ACTOR's Board of Directors on the Disbursement Committee. His experience as volunteer secretary to the Disbursement Committee has primed him well for the job, and his years of working in the industry and his many contacts will be a tremendous asset to ACTOR,' said [ACTOR Comic Fund president Jim] McLauchlin of this appointment.

"Like most long-time comic book fans, Novinskie was active in fandom through the fan press and was one of the more prolific letterhacks during the late 80s and early 90s. Novinskie later joined the ranks of comic book professionals as an editor, and sales and promotions manager for Topps Comics from 1993-1998."

ACTOR is a non-profit organization devoted to providing a safety-net for comic-book cartoonists who find themselves in economic difficulties. The organization is perhaps best known for its recent efforts on behalf of William and Nadine Messner-Loebs.
Posted @ 3:45 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

A clarification
(Commentary) I fielded several emails about this yesterday, so just to have a nice, permanent record to which I can point -- no, the weblog wasn't down yesterday. I had planted a false "404 File Not Found" error at the top of the page, but if you scrolled down a bit, ¡Journalista! was still there. Likewise, Lea Hernandez is not to the best of my knowledge a blade-wielding cocaine fiend, nor is she deceased -- I pulled a punchline from an old Bloom County strip and used it to prank you for April Fools Day, gentle reader. Thanks to Ms. Hernandez, as well as Kris Dresen and Jenn Manley Lee, for being good sports about my shenanegans yesterday.
Posted @ 3:45 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Lea Hernandez slashes four, dies in cocaine brawl
(Comics and the Internet) Few details are available at the moment -- cartoonists Donna Barr, Kris Dresen, and Carla Speed McNeil are said to be in "serious" condition, while Jesse Hamm is reportedly on life support. Jenn Manley Lee has been held by the police, but charges have yet to be filed. More details can be found here.
Posted @ 2:30 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Playing hooky
(Commentary) Not much is happening today (apart from the horrible, horrible news in the entry above), and I've got proofreading to do for the Journal. Hence, April Fool's Day is hereby officially declared to be my day off from the weblog. While I'm on a roll -- having seen what my schedule looks like for the next few days, I've given up on predicting when I'll have time to do the mail. I'll try to get to it by the end of the week; failing that, I'll just make next Monday's reader mail segment a double-length edition. Besides, would you believe anything I told you was reader mail today?

"That's the front page, Mrs. Billsby..."
Posted @ 2:30 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

¡Journalista! gets its war on
(Potpourri) Oh, why not. It seems to be eating up most of the news anyway -- run a Google news search for "comic" and you wind up sifting through sixty Iraq War op-ed pieces. Here's your Comics Go To War news for the day:

• The Pulse made note of a multimedia exhibition occuring this Thursday in New York City, entitled War Culture, which will feature a performance by (among other people) cartoonist Peter Kuper and illustrations by (among other people) artist/cartoonist Sabrina Jones. The event was co-ordinated by (among other people) cartoonist Ward Sutton, and will take place at 7:00 PM at the Judson Memorial Church. Further details can be found here.

• German fansite Comicgate took the time to ask a number of genre-comics writers and artists questions about how they felt the war would affect the world of comic books, and got responses from Chuck Dixon, Steven Grant, James Hudnall, Jimmy Palmiotti, Darick Robertson, Liam Sharp, Pat Mills and Micah Wright. The Q&As are presented in both German and English -- the above link will drop you straight to the English version.

Finally, a request: after Scott McCloud mentioned what has now become a running joke concerning my search for a living pro-war cartoonist, I've been getting deluged with links to same (most of which I've already blogged in one form or another). At this point I've taken the gag about as far as it can possibly go. Thank you very kindly for the effort -- it's always nice when people take the time to write -- but please stop now.
Posted @ 4:00 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Marvel and decease
(Comic Books) Last Thursday I discussed the less-than-upfront press conference Marvel chief high muckymucks Bill Jemas and Joe Quesada threw to announce the relaunch of their Epic line. Over the weekend, Jemas has been haunting the Epic thread on Newsarama, answering questions and encouraging the fans to submit work. After three pages, someone writing under the pseudonym "Omnipotent Omelette" finally asked him the obvious: if you're offering so-called creator-ownership contracts, why do people submitting for them have to fill out work-for-hire agreements, and if things don't work out, will creative people working under such contracts be able to get their work back? Here's Jemas' reply:

"EPIC will publish creator-owned work and the long-form contract will be available for review on the website in the near future.

"The EPIC agreement(s) have provisions for unscrambling the eggs when EPIC stops publishing a particular series; these fall within general publishing-business parameters, and again, no one should sign the deal unless they are comfortable with the terms. Merchandise-licensing rights are also covered by the EPIC agreements."

This sounds a tad less weaselly than his unfortunate performance during the press conference -- but I'll wait until this long-form contract shows up on the website before making further comment.

Of course, the subject has also come up in several other website forums, and I've noted that a number of fans have reacted with the predictable indignation that people might "Marvel-bash" by bringing it up. For those who wonder why cartoonists might be so impudent as to question the terms offered by the company contract, I'll give the last word to two people who know about what happens when you don't. In his latest column for Silver Bullet Comics, Blade creator Marv Wolfman spoke with lifelong friend Len Wein:

"MW: What do you consider your most successful works, and why?

"LW: Well, financially speaking, it would have to be Wolverine and the new X-Men. If I had just a penny out of every dollar that property has generated in comic books, TV series, feature films, trading cards, coloring books, toys, action figures, shampoo, soap, skateboards, bicycle helmets, candy, Pez dispensers, band-aids, and God alone only knows what else, I’d never have to work another day in my or my children’s lives."

'Nuff said.
Posted @ 4:00 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Not the Monday Mailbag
(Excuses, Excuses) All apologies, but this week's edition of the Mailbag is being delayed by a day -- it's four in the morning, and several of the emails received this past week require more of a reply than I'm capable of giving right now. I'll try again tomorrow.
Posted @ 4:00 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

Sunday Scraps
(Potpourri) It's that time again. The following are a series of links that have collected in my notes but for a variety of reasons never made it to this weblog before now:

• Look, I'm glad Grant Morrison's New X-Men is selling well -- it's one of the two Marvel titles I'm actually buying right now (the other being Morales and Baker's Truth miniseries). That said, sometimes I wonder how the series, with its "it's not superheroes, it's sci-fi" formula, has managed to snag a top-ten chart position so consistently. Discovering that issue #118 contains seventeen subliminal references to sex doesn't exactly ease my suspicions, either. (Link courtesy of LinkMachineGo.)

• Via Egon comes this Toronto Star profile of Peter Birkemoe, visionary owner of the Toronto comics shop The Beguiling.

• Also linked by Egon: Canadian cartoonist Michel Rabagliati gets a little good press from online music zine Exclaim.

• Hey classic comic strip buffs: do you have copies of Krazy Kat strips dating from 1931 to 1934? Bill Blackbeard and Kim Thompson could use your help in assembling two upcoming volumes of Krazy & Ignatz.

• With his run as writer on Vertigo series Hunter drawing to a close, Dylan Horrocks is getting back on track with his new artcomics series Atlas. Heidi MacDonald spoke to him about the transition.

• Newsarama's Matt Brady recently spoke with Chris Staros and Brett Warnock about their upcoming anthology volume Top Shelf Asks the Big Questions, which will feature work by everyone from Ivan Brunetti to Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie to Jason.

• He's retired now, but that hasn't stopped longtime comics veteran George Tuska from continuing to work his craft. Florida's Naples Daily News paid him a visit.

• Being something of a Goldwater conservative myself, I've tried reading Colin Hayes' web-strip The Leftersons on several occasions, only to be repulsed by its lack of wit, stereotypical easy shots and incessant preaching to the hardcore choir. Ugh -- does one really require a lobotomy in order to be a right-leaning cartoonist? Oh yeah, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a puff piece on the guy. Whatever.

• I would imagine Hayes is probably in favor of the current war. If you want to see the extreme end of the other side of the argument, Jens Christoffersen of No Sense of Place has a link to this page of editorial cartoons by Arabic artists, courtesy of what appears to be a misleadingly-named clone of Qatar news service Al Jazeera.

• In: Joe Sacco. Out: Ted Rall. So decrees Publishers Weekly.

• I wonder -- would this online manga be any less disturbing and surreal if I could understand the text? (Link courtesy of gmtPlus9.)

• Tennessee's Baptist Press scoffs at the notion that cartoonists are facing censorship for outspokenness on the War on Terror and/or Gulf War II. I suppose I generally agree with the argument, but fair notice is hereby given: the bias comes front-loaded in this one.

• Fresh from rearranging his website, Mark Evanier checks in with an archival essay depicting what happens when bad comics convention panels happen to good pros.

• Pop-culture blogger (and Cramps fan) Bill Sherman takes a look at Walt Kelly's recently re-released Pogo album.

• Meet Lieutenant Michael Moran, semi-official cartoonist for the USS Abraham Lincoln, currently pulling duty in the Iraq war.

• Pro wrestler Rob Van Dam writes a comic book on the insane theory that it'll lead to money. Poor sap.

• He's picky about his comic strips -- he reads Mark Trail!

• Finally, Comic Book Resources peers down the long, slippery slope to The Comics Buyers Guide, as AiT/Planet Lar publisher Larry Young interviews his submissions editor.

See you Monday.
Posted @ 12:55 AM by Dirk Deppey | permalink

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