Today on the site, Kevin Huizenga interviews the inimitable Ben Katchor.
I’ve heard you are running a good comics department over there at Parsons. How is that going?
We teach comics and animation within the Illustration program at Parsons. A student can minor in Comics and Graphic Narrative. We have many people on our faculty who work with text and image: Matthew Thurber, Bob Sikoryak, Lauren Redniss, Nora Krug, Steven Guarnaccia, Mark Newgarden, Josh Bayer, Henrik Drescher, Lale Westvind, Neill Swaab, James Romberger and some interesting animators: Ted Wiggins, Ana Mouyis, Motomichi Nakamura, Gary Leib and others. We’d like students to think of themselves as artist/authors working on self-initiated projects.
Parsons is unionized, right?
Only the part-time faculty are unionized at Parsons (SEIU); the full-time faculty are considered part of the administration and are not unionized. The part-time faculty union contract forbids them from striking.
Meanwhile, elsewhere:
—For Print, Michael Dooley talks to four artists participating in a tribute exhibition to Osamu Tezuka, currently showing at Gallery Nucleus in Los Angeles.
Michael Dooley: How did this exhibition originate?
Chogrin: Osamu Tezuka’s artwork is one of the biggest influences in my art style and work ethic. Any time I do an interview I always cite Tezuka. Tezuka was very prolific and kept working until his last breath. I think that says a lot about somebody, and it is amazing how much of a legacy he’s left behind. His art style has a very innocent aura, while his storylines are sometimes very grounded by the realities of life, which I think is a rare combination. He was never afraid to explore new themes and subject matters. Really a true artist that the world will talk about, analyze, and pay tribute to for centuries to come.
—For Thrillist, Sean T. Collins reveals the 33 books he thinks are the best graphic novels of all time. It's a strong, obviously personal list that will provoke plenty of argument, and doesn't lean on too many of the usual suspects. Phoebe Gloeckner makes the list twice.
A work of such profound empathy that it almost feels like a hole in the world, [Carol Swain's] Gast is a gentle yet ultimately unforgiving look at the ways in which the world can break down those who cannot quite bring themselves to fit in. It follows an 11-year-old girl named Helen on a trip to the Welsh countryside, during which she discovers she can talk with the wild and domesticated animals that populate its rolling landscape -- all of whom speak to her of the death of a "rare bird" who lived near by. This turns out to be a farmer named Emrys, whose gender dysphoria (he wore women's clothing and ostentatiously dyed his hair, but kept to himself out of fear of reprisal and continued to identify as male) and failing fortunes led him to suicide. Gast functions like a murder mystery with no real killer and no real victim; the investigation itself is the point, as Helen learns about this sad and secretly much-loved person's life, and about life and death themselves in the process. Swain’s soft charcoal artwork, the unusual and descriptive angles of her drawings, and her willingness to take things slowly make for an utterly unique reading experience.
—Bob Heer looks back at Dylan in the comics.
When I first read WATCHMEN, I thought the most unrealistic thing was that Bob Dylan licensed one of his most iconic protest songs to a perfume company. But then, decades later, Dylan licensed that very song for a bank commercial. And then he appeared in a lingerie ad with another of his songs. And I think the song even appears in the movie which shares a name with the book.
Alan Moore does, indeed, know the score.
