Today Joe McCulloch brings you the week in comics, as usual.
Elsewhere:
Another new comic fest has launched: The Black Comix Arts Festival in San Francisco.
Inkstuds visits Gary Panter in Brooklyn.
Jed Perl is a great art writer, and here he is on Picasso. Read and learn. I could learn a lot. Perl's new book, Art in America, is a pretty astounding gathering of writing about art that everyone should check out.
I fondly remember these superhero gag cartoons by Kyle Baker, even if they are for hardcore super hero nerds only. Love those colors, too.
Your most important link is naturally to a review of my book, Dorothy and Otis: Designing the American Dream in the New York Times Book Review.
And: This Bill Everett artwork, circa 1940, when the artist was figuring out what his comic book world might look like, is the damndest thing. It popped up on Heritage auctions yesterday, which lately has been auctioning material from the Everett family, most unpublished and easily enough to make a fine little art publication (hint hint, email me if interested, har har) Here is a man in mysterious garb, somewhat SF, somewhat aquatic, halfway mythic. All primary colors. He appear to be controlling some kind of gear-related machine. The woman (in red dress, natch) is holding a helmet as well. It's rendered in the Alex Raymond-influenced style that Everett would refine for the next 30 years, here still loose and sketchy. To me this drawing communicates so much of the invention and excitement these young artists must've felt when giving life to a new form, despite the shitty business conditions, etc. What a clear and ebullient vision he had.
