When I embed Instagram and Twitter posts in "This Week's Links," and you're into 'em, I hope you're clicking through and liking (and subscribing, you guys.) Are you? Will you? It would mean a lot to me.
Get your appreciation thumbs ready — today's list is bottom heavy that way.
• Koyama Press and its publisher Annie Koyama have launched a new initiative, Koyama Press Provides, "a monthly program of giving." Also, a profile of KP (and its impending closure) appeared on TVO.org, the website of Ontario's public educational media organization.
• Mike Lynch dug up a 1980s video interview about W*TCHM*N with Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons! There's a good bit of talk in here about the nine panel grid, which is always oddly amusing. Towards the end the interviewing host reveals that Moore has recommended some comics to read...Chester Brown, Julie Doucet and two more. (You wanna know, you better watch!) And then the host discusses a Watchmen movie that's been optioned, and even casts it with 1980s stars. And THEN you get to the end and you see it's a production of TVO — as in the TVO that ran the piece up there about Koyama! The whole thing is a real trip.
• In a few weeks, Daniel Clowes will have a party and public conversation (talking with cartoonist Rina Ayuyang) in San Francisco to celebrate his big ol' Original Art book.
• But before that, Nick Drnaso will be giving a lecture about the creation of his book Sabrina in Chicago.
• For TCJ, Gary Panter annotated 29 of his most Panterish drawings, all of which were recently on display in an exhibit of his work.
• Here are the top 100 comic books and top 100 graphic novels ordered through the North American direct market from 2010 to 2019. You gotta be impressed with the staying power of some of those GNs.
• Tony Millionaire drew the cover and chapter headers for the final, posthumous Anthony Bourdain book.
• At The A.V. Club, graphic designer Tom Muller shows his process for creating the new Best of 2000AD logo. I eat this kind of stuff right up. We also get to see variant covers for the series' first issue from the no-joke lineup of Becky Cloonan, Charlie Adlard, Erica Henderson, Annie Wu and Glenn Fabry.
• At The New Yorker, cartoonist Summer Pierre created a comic strip review/appreciation/personal memoir about musician Patti Smith and her books.
• Kim Deitch was profiled on amNewYork, and they even got a few quotes from him.
• Speaking of K.D., get a load of this from Columbia U's Karen Green:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7W0EPgBond/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
•••••
INTERVIEWSAMUNDO
Art Zone with Nancy Guppy
• Artist Gina Siciliano (creator of I Know What I Am)
TCJ
• Daniel Clowes by Bill Kartalopoulos (from 2014, but published outside of France for the first time)
• Grease Bats creator Archie Bongiovanni by Annie Mok
7.30 with Leigh Sales
• Editorial cartoonist Pat Oliphant
Blockhead! podcast
• Cartoonist Rick Stromoski (creator of Soup to Nutz, former National Cartoonist Society president)
Word Balloon podcast
• Comic book writer Jim Zub
Smash Pages
• Writer Danny Fingeroth by Alex Dueben
•••••
• This is certainly something different: new comics site Solrad has spent this week publishing "The Hard Tomorrow Book Club" — five different critics diving into Eleanor Davis' latest book.
• Y'all like Liana Finck, yeah? Here's a video of how she lives her life and makes her art.
• It's the prequel you didn't know you definitely didn't want: The Bristol Board shared a Stan Lee/Steve Ditko story from 1962's Strange Tales #97 featuring Peter Parker's Aunt May and Uncle Ben and their "niece" — a full two months before Spidey-Mane debuted!
• Well, here's a fine thing: BookRiot lists five "must-read" comics from the Philippines.
• Fantagraphics honcho Gary Groth wrote about publishing the work of writer Stephen Dixon.
• The New York Times used an Evan Cohen comic to introduce/illustrate an op-ed piece on climate change.
• Bluestockings Bookstore in New York is launching "In the Gutter," a monthly comics reading event showcasing the work of queer and trans creators.
• Siobhán Gallagher has a new piece at The New Yorker: "Lessons I’ve Learned in My First Six Months of Freelancing." All too relatable!
• Drawn & Quarterly shared a preview of Tian Veasna's Year of the Rabbit.
•••••
REVIEWSARUNDO
The Washington Times
• Paul C. Tumey's Screwball!: The Cartoonists Who Made the Funnies Funny by Michael Taube
Pop Matters
• Yoshiharu Tsuge's The Man Without Talent by Chris Gavaler
The Beat
• GG's Constantly by John Seven
• Owen D. Pomery's British Ice, also reviewed by Mr. Seven
• Yoshiharu Tsuge's The Man Without Talent by Morgana Santilli
Ryan C.'s Four Color Apocalypse
• Elise Dietrich’s Making Time
• Diana Chu’s Rodin Du Jour
Broken Frontier
• Best of 2000AD #1 by Andy Oliver
Multiversity Comics
• Dan Slott, Christos N. Gage and Pete Woods' Iron Man 2020 #1 by Alexander Jones
•••••
• The Mickey Mouse comic strip debuted 90 years ago; The Daily Cartoonist has the first week's worth.
• Canadian graphic novels are now eligible for The Great White North's $100,000 Scotia Bank Giller Prize.
• Broken Frontier would like you to know about "Six Small Press Creators to Watch in 2020." Some cool work featured here.
• Image publisher Eric Stephenson thinks there are too many new comics on sale each week.
• Recently on Cartoonist Kayfabe: flipping through the DVD booklets for the Criterion Collection editions of Ghost World and the Crumb documentary, and a recap of the 1989 Bill Watterson interview in The Comics Journal.
By the way, CK has a newsletter. I didn't even know.
• Daryl Seitchik started a new IG comic: "there are bunnies on the moon and their stories must be told."
• Paste made a list of 100 of the Best Horror Comics of All Time.
• Cartoonist Sam Spina let us know what it's like in the trenches of animation storyboarding, with a 12-part comic on Twitter:
I few years ago I made a comic detailing what it was like to be a storyboard artist on #RegularShow. Today, I, Sam Spina, present to you:
"What It's Like to be a Storyboard Artist on #InfinityTrain"
a 12 page twitter comic thread! Enjoy! pic.twitter.com/k5hNb59T7C— Sam Spina (@Spinadoodles) January 13, 2020
• Meanwhile, the mighty Jeremy Sorese has posted a new comic on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7ThCwbjS1V/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
• Jilliam Tamaki is also posting fantastic comics on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7ST-0onXVR/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
• And so is Gabby Schulz:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7R5DC2DgGa/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
• Jesse Jacobs is posting parts of comics, you know where:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7RhxqsBgem/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
And finally, probably about as perfect a comic strip as I've seen in the post-newspaper era, below from Alex Norris.
Don't forget to lurk and circumscribe!
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7QsiQsHvX2/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
