Frank Santoro is here with advice for cartoonists struggling to find their way in (and out of) the convention circuit. A sample:
One of the things I’ve heard younger makers talking about is how they can’t get in to certain shows. SPX. CAB. TCAF. Then they talk about how they “did” a certain show because they could get in. Or they talk about shows they are going to “do” (some of which I haven’t even heard of) because that’s a show they could probably get in to if they apply early enough. However, many of these shows are in smaller, out of the way markets and often the expense involved – travel, hotel, table fee, etc. – to set up there is not proportionate to the social benefits and sales that come from attending; perhaps that money could be better spent fostering and/or bolstering your local scene. Just saying.
And that's not all. We also have the great comics writer Bob Levin on the great cartoonist S. Clay Wilson, by way of reviewing Patrick Rosenkranz's new Pirates in the Heartland. Here he goes:
Wilson had come to prominence as one of the underground cartoonists of the late 1960s, who transformed comic books into a medium where artists could express themselves without limitation. Among these boundary breakers, Wilson was the most destructive. Among these taboo defiers, he was the most unabashed. Sex’n’violence – always grotesque and always comic – was his metier.
He "liberated underground comix," his colleague Robert Williams said. He "blew the doors off the church," according to Victor Moscoso. Spain Rodriguez felt "pushed" by Wilson’s example to reach for "things that were on the edge of my consciousness." And Robert Crumb said Wilson possessed "a nightmare vision of hell on earth never so graphically illustrated in the history of art.... (After him) I no longer saw any reason to hold back my own deranged id."
Kathy Acker, William Burroughs, and Ken Kesey sought Wilson to illustrate books. Robert Hughes was a fan. Sir Kenneth Clark compared him to Hogarth. Museums displayed his work beside Hieronymous Bosch. If Giotto deserves acclaim for opening Renaissance art to naturalism and Edouard Manet the Paris Salon to modernism, Wilson deserves it for opening graphic art to... Everything.
Meanwhile, elsewhere:
—Dan Vado of Slave Labor Graphics is trying to raise money to keep his business afloat via GoFundMe.
—Shaenon Garrity writes about the return to public life of Bill Watterson.
—Sean Rogers reviews Gabrielle Bell, Julie Delporte, and Roz Chast.
—This isn't really news per se, but I'm proud of Joe McCulloch.
—And finally, tomorrow is Independence Day, which means we'll see you on Monday.
