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Just another MoCCA Monday

Just another MoCCA Monday

  • News
  • March 10, 2007

Friends of Lulu has been a visible player in the comics world for about fifteen years now.  Like many organizations, it’s had its share of controversy.  It’s also helped give visibility and voice to a lot of talented writers and artists in an industry where, until very recently, one of the most frequently asked questions seemed to be "where are all the women comics creators?"

In the interest of full disclosure, I was very active in FoL for a number of years, and helped nurture some of its successful ventures dealing with women’s visibility like the Women Doing Comics list on the national website and the Women in Comics discussion series hosted by the New York chapter (see logo at right, created for the FoL/NY t-shirts by my best friend, the late Leah Adezio).  So I feel a bit like a mother hen when noting that the latter is still going strong, currently in association with the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in Manhattan’s SoHo district, which hosts what it calls their "MoCCA Mondays."

This coming Monday, March 12, MoCCA and FoL/NY present a panel called The Big Picture, as artist Marion Vitus moderates a discussion with a group of four diverse professionals — Del Rey Manga’s Trisha Narwani, NYPL Teen Central’s Melissa Jenvey, artist Christine Norrie, and Friends of Lulu cofounder Heidi McDonald — as they look ahead in the comic book world.  The program begins at 6:30 PM and is absolutely free.  Tell them the mother hen sent ya.

How to follow the thread

How to follow the thread

  • News
  • March 10, 2007

It’s no coincidence that The Fates of Greek mythology are female. The sisters sit and spin, each thread the life of a mortal. One sister decides when a thread will start, another adjusts the tension and thickness, and the third cuts it at the end.

Women are frequently storytellers. Sit around a playground and listen to the moms chat, or go to a laundromat, or the communal dressing room at Loehman’s. You’ll hear epic tales of finding a bargain at the designer rack, or intrigue and scandal at the PTA. You’ll hear detailed comparisons of size and technique.

Men tell stories to each other, too, when women aren’t around. Or so I’m told.

Are men’s stories better than women’s? I doubt it. Are they different? Perhaps. Are they told differently? You bet!

In her insightful book You Just Don’t Understand, Deborah Tannen describes the different ways men and women use speech. In general (and Tannen goes into more detail than we have space about the range of individual exceptions), women use conversation to establish common ground; men use it to establish hierarchy. This would suggest that we tell our stories for different reasons.

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600 bare thighs

600 bare thighs

  • News
  • March 9, 2007

Starting off, I want to issue a warning to the readers out there who aren’t fans of scantily clad, bronzed, chiseled goliaths who seem to have leapt from the pages of Men’s Fitness Magazine. If you aren’t, much like this reviewer, you may not enjoy the true essence of the two-hour epic which is 300.

600 bare thighs aside, I wasn’t a huge fan of Zack Snyder’s interpretation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel. I place most of the blame not on Snyder, but on Robert Rodriguez. Their promotion play was established by showing off the “graphic novel” style of filmmaking, which is essentially comparing the comic book pages to the frames of the film, fast-cut, music video-style editing, heavy rock soundtrack, and shooting the majority of the film in front of a green screen. Now I’d hope the majority of you realize at this point that the style I just read off was identical to the style that Robert Rodriguez practically invented for 2005’s Sin City.

Now in playing devil’s advocate, I could say that the reasoning behind the similar styles lies with the fact that they are both done in Miller’s vision, and his artistic didn’t change much between the two graphic novels, and you could be asking at that point “Why should the film style change between the two films?” I’ll tell you why, dear readers. If this film was done with Rodriguez behind the helm once again, or even with his “Troublemaker Studios” at hand (which is where the majority of the green-screen activity was shot) it would have been far more acceptable.

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The Onion on Captain America’s death

  • News
  • March 9, 2007
Captain America, the comic book character created during World War II as a patriotic opponent of the Nazis, was killed by sniper bullets in a recent comic. What do you think?
 
Monica Chan,
Systems Analyst

"But who will avenge him? If only there were a group of ‘avengers,’ if you will, organized for that purpose."

(Copyright 2007 The Onion)

Maybe Cap was lucky

Maybe Cap was lucky

  • News
  • March 9, 2007

One of the more interesting comments on Captain America’s passing was this from blogger Ari Emanuel on the Huffington Post:

"It’s hard to be a star-spangled Super Soldier these days. Given the lip-service-only support this administration gives our troops, the patriotic hero would have to fight evil with a substandard red, white, and blue shield, and be stop-lossed into an endless tour of duty.

"The only upside to the good Captain’s death? If he had survived his wounds, he might have been sent to Walter Reed."

But more to the point, this follows what we saw at the end of Civil War. Cap’s side was winning everything but the argument – and that was more demoralizing to him than anything else, that the people didn’t understand his point of view, and were happy to knuckle down to authority.

Cap’s death is relevant because now we get to have a real debate as to who we want as the symbol of our country. Who picks up the mask? Who gets handed the shield? Who will speak for America – and who should?

Expect a big debate on this, here on ComicMix and in the rest of the world at large.

 

Remembering Yvan Delporte

  • News
  • March 9, 2007

Bibi’s Box has gathered together a number of remembrances of comics writer Yvan Delporte, who died on March 5.  Bibi notes that Delport " was the editor-in-chief of Le Journal de Spirou (Spirou), a Belgian magazine, between 1955 and 1968 during a period considered by many the golden age of Franco-Belgian comics."  Francophones can see lots of nice visual homages to Delporte here – the sentiment certainly comes through even if you can’t read the language.

 

Who killed editorial cartoons?

Who killed editorial cartoons?

  • News
  • March 9, 2007

While visual controversy is said to boost the sales of newspapers just as sensationalism ups the ratings of cable news shows, it’s also true that many people in charge of these institutions tend toward the conservative or timid.

For those of us who’ve often wondered where we can see the cartoons these editors have rejected as being too hot to handle, David Wallis’ new book Killed Cartoons: Casualties from the War on Free Expression presents about a hundred of them all in one place, from creators like Kirk Anderson (above), Garry Trudeau, Ted Rall, Anita Kunz and Doug Marlette, as well as " unearthed gems by legends like David Low, Herblock and Norman Rockwell," complete with the stories behind the rejections.  Guaranteed to get a good discussion going about the fine line between editors doing their jobs and cartoonists answering their calling.

Scribe nominees announced

Scribe nominees announced

  • News
  • March 9, 2007

The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers has announced the nominees for the first annual Scribe Awards, honoring excellence in licensed tie-in writing for books published in 2006. The 2007 Scribe awards will be given out at a ceremony at Comic-Con in San Diego.

Their first annual Grandmaster Award, honoring career achievement in the field, will go to Donald Bain, author of the Murder, She Wrote novels and the ghostwriter behind Coffee, Tea or Me and other bestsellers.

The nominees are:

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Tintin heads to the big screen

Tintin heads to the big screen

  • News
  • March 9, 2007

Tintin, one of the most popular comic book creations on the international scene, is headed to the movie theaters coutesy of Dreamworks and producer Steven Spielberg. The movie has a projected budget near $100 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

George Hermi, better known as Herge, created 23 Tintin graphic novels before he died in 1983. Spielberg has been sitting on the rights since shortly before Herge’s death. Tintin already has appeared in five movies — two live action and three animated — and two animated teevee series. The classic Tintin in Tibet graphic novel was adapted into a London musical last year.

 

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