Would you wear a shirt with jellyfish printed all over it? Well, I bought a shirt with jellyfish printed all over it! It's a sort of exposure therapy, in the most cowardly way. I've always hated going in the ocean (human beings don't belong in there in the first place, don't @ me) — everything floating in saltwater feels like a tentacle ready to sting my big toe. And the worst is when, seemingly out of nowhere, gobs of the glob-heads do indeed begin swimming your way...no, nope, not for Flanders. So if you see me, or another person, in a jellyfish shirt, don't be so quick to judge. You don't know our hardships, dang it.
I will now mete out links.
• Perhaps you're heard: longtime (co-)publisher of DC Comics, Dan DiDio, is no longer with the company.
• Beloved comics creator Nick Cuti has died. Steve Ringgenberg wrote Cuti's obituary for TCJ.
• Massively important comic archivist and historian Russ Cochran has also died. He and his contributions were remembered at Bleeding Cool and The Daily Cartoonist, and by MAD cartoonist Tom Richmond. (Cochran famously published collections of the MAD comics and other E.C. titles.)
• Tonight in NYC: the MoMA is paying tribute to Jason Polan with a get-together called "The World's Biggest Drawing Club."
• New Yorker cartoonist Liz Montague was profiled on NBC's Today and ABC News.
• Gabby Schulz (who you might know as Ken Dahl) opened an online store, selling his books. Support indie cartoonists.
• Patrick McDonnell of Mutts fame will receive the Elzie Segar award at the National Cartoonist Society's Reuben Awards weekend this June. The honor is " presented to a person who has made a unique and outstanding contribution to the profession of cartooning."
• This is how it's done! (Or used to be.) Babs Tarr scraping away screentones with an X-ACTO knife (click for vid):
https://www.instagram.com/p/B88Sa5DH6tJ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
•••••
REVIEWS UPON WHICH YOU SHAN'T SNOOZE
TCJ
• David Heatley's Qualification by Austin Price
• Simon Hanselmann's Bad Gateway by Oliver Ristau
• Gina Siciliano's I Know What I Am: The Life and Times of Artemisia Gentileschi by Amy Chalmers
• Paul Levitz, MJ Kim & Diego Rodriguez's The Visitor #1 by Tegan O'Neil
Polygon
• Amy Reeder's Amethyst #1 by Petrana Radulovic and Susana Polo
Women Write about Comics
• Moto Hagio's The Poe Clan Vol. 1 by Kayleigh Hearn
PopMatters
• David Jesus Vignolli's New World by Hans Rollmann
Solrad
• Ben Passmore’s Sports is Hell by Ryan Carey
• Woshibai's Games by Krish Raghav
Multiversity
• Gerry Duggan and Ron Garney's Fantastic Four: Grimm Noir #1 by Joe Skonce
• Rafael Scavone and Rafael Albuquerque's Hidden Society #1 by Rowan Grover
The Beat
• Disa Wallander's Becoming Horses by John Seven
• Roxanne Moreil and Cyril Pedrosa's The Golden Age Book One by John S.
Broken Frontier
• Hervé Bourhis and Rudy Spiessert's Alas by Rebecca Burke
• Claude TC’s Seller on the Threshold by Andy Oliver
•••••
• In case you forgot Jesse Jacobs is that kind of genius:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9FA7shDItV/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
• Who knew Screaming Females guitarist/singer Marissa Paternoster was drawing a comic?
• I feel like I've been waiting half my life for this: 13th Dimension ranks the 13 best Norm Breyfogle comic book covers. (#2 wuz robbed!)
• The Smithsonian has released over 2.8 million images online and into the public domain, including work by Winsor McCay and Thomas Nast.
• Would you like to know which books are "the most expensive comic books seen on Pawn Stars"? Don't pretend you don't!
• Maybe Not What You Think-Thing, by Farel Dalrymple (it actually kinda looks like a mossy Zoidberg):
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9ARDL7gSHT/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
• Liana Finck drew up a bunch of new Food Pyramids for Bon Appétit.
• Beijing-based cartoonist Krish Raghav tells the story of how a number of Chinese citizens, unable to travel and socialize normally due to COVID-19, are "sharing meals" with each other in unique ways online.
• February 28, 2020 would have been illustrator — and, yes, political cartoonist — Sir John Tenniel's 200th birthday. (He only made it to 93.) Google honored him with a Doodle.
• Columbia University's Rare Book & Manuscript Library has acquired a trove of comics fanzines and convention programs.
• Someone is selling the first Flash Gordon comic strip. Starting bid: $400k.
• Moebius' “La Planète Encore" got animated.
• Siobhán G. in TNY!
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9DEgJNHYhj/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
•••••
INTERVIEWS TO CLEAR THE FLUES
Vulture
• Cartoonist Charles "Snake Oil" Forsman, talking about his latest book-turned-Netflix show, by Oliver Sava.
TCJ
• Artist Jon J. Muth by Alex Dueben
Blockhead! Podcast
• Fowl Language cartoonist Brian Gordon (Part 1) by Geoff Grogan
Word Balloon podcast
• Artist Dave Gibbons by John Siuntres
Solrad
• Cartoonist Lawrence Lindell by Whit Taylor
The Beat
• Writer-artist Amy Reeder by Nancy Powell
The Drawl
• The Walking Dead writer/co-creator Robert Kirkman (Part 1) by Jason Latour
Off-Panel podcast
• Artist Sanford Greene by David Harper
SyFy Wire
• Artist Nikolas Draper-Ivey by Karama Horne
Money Moves (an investment podcast!)
• Publisher Annie Koyama
Newsarama
• Writer Sam Humphries, upon the conclusion of his Dial H for Hero miniseries, by Kat Calamia
• Artist Russell Dauterman by Chris Arrant & George Marston
Publishers Weekly
• Cartoonist Liana Finck by John Maher
Multiversity
• Finger Guns writer Justin Richards by Elias Rosner
•••••
• Graham Annable, after my own heart:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B84Tzl-nyKb/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
• Rick Marschall recalls a visit with Carl Barks.
• Turns out Al Pacino was an Archie "fanatic" as a young youth.
• Publishers Weekly recaps the Savannah College of Art and Design's recent "Comics Forum."
• At The Beat, Heidi MacDonald recaps the ComicsPRO 2020 retailer seminar.
• Toronto Comic Arts Festival has announced artist Kamome Shirahama as a 2020 featured guest.
• Here at TCJ, Rob Clough highlights several mini-comics he's picked up.
• The Daily Cartoonist (with some help from Michael Maslin) shared James Thurber's first and last cartoons to appear in The New Yorker.
• The American Library Association is accepting applications for Artist's Alley at its Annual Conference.
• That's one crazy-lookin' comic, Michael Hacker:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B81tvQfFN9j/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
• Oh, why not:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9Fi4E-Bfhu/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
You're still reading? Go home!
And a very happy Leap Day to you and yours.
