Frank McLaughlin to Teach Cartooning in Connecticut
ComicMix’s Frank McLaughlin is profiled in today’s Connecticut Post, talking about his career and new role as professor of cartooning at the Sterling House Community Center.
In discussing his long career, McLaughlin noted the change of emphasis from newspparer comic strips to comic books to the Internet. "Comics and newspaper comic strips have been on the decline for years now," McLaughlin said. "The days of light-hearted comic strips are over. Now, the movies have made characters like Batman very dark and serious."
That allowed him a chance to plug White Viper, which ran here in 2008 and can still be read in case you missed out. The serial was written by his daughter, Erin Holroyd, and pencilled by McLaughlin’s long-time art partner Dick Giordano.
Here's a quote from the Post article which doesn't mention ComicMix at all:What's giving McLaughlin the most fun these days is drawing a new comic/cartoon character "The White Viper" over the Internet with his daughter, Erin Holroyd, of Stratford, who is the writer."Comics and newspaper comic strips have been on the decline for years now," McLaughlin said. "The days of light-hearted comic strips are over. Now, the movies have made characters like Batman very dark and serious." He said the future for comics is the Internet and Web.He describes "The White Viper" has a character born of tragedy, but saved by a group of monks in the Himalayan Mountains just before she was about to be killed. As she is raised by the monks her super powers become evident as she takes the form of a white snake to fight evil.Here was my response to their article I posted to their site:Frank McLaughlin's "White Viper" can be read for FREE at ComicMix.comhttp://www.comicmix.com/title/white-viper/The article makes this comic sound like a hobby project that Frank McLaughlin did with his daughter to pass the time over the Internet.It's actually a professional comic done along with Comics Legend, Dick Giordano.This article also makes "White Viper" sound like it's about some kind of shape-changing Were-Snake. It's not. I know it's hard to summarize a story in a sentence, but "her super powers become evident as she takes the form of a white snake to fight evil," makes the comic sound really silly and stupid."White Viper" is a martial arts comic. Think, "Bruce Lee Movie with a sexy blond girl in the lead role." Think "Kung Fu" with Hayden Panettiere in the David Carradine lead role. It's just a great action/adventure comic! If you like comics, check out "White Viper" at ComicMix.com. It will be worth your time. And again, it's FREE!
Thanks for responding to the Post Russ. I am not surprised by the article missing the point and failing to say where the comic is on line. The paper really sucks in general.
It's hard to blame the paper. They have an audience that is better served by the info that Bill O'Brien and other Stratford locals have had a cameos in "Gil Thorp." They certainly gave that a lot of space.But, seriously, what does it take to mention WHERE the audience can find "White Viper"! Especially when it's FREE! And "White Viper" doesn't "take the form of a white snake to fight evil! That's just pathetically WRONG! You can just see that the article's author didn't even bother to look at "White Viper." He just interviewed Frank McLaughlin and went with what he thought he knew.