Category Archives: Publications

From the Inbox: The Real Cost of Prisons Comix

Education, General Info, Illustration Industry, Publications, Randomly Intriguing, , ,

Comic artist Kevin Pyle (Blind Spot) sent us the following info recently…

With over 125,000 copies of the comic books printed and more than 100,000 sent to people who are incarcerated, their families, and to organizers and activists throughout the country, The Real Cost of Prisons Comix series is a great example of the comic as an activist and educational tool for social change.

Originally published in a comics pamphlet format, the three issues have now been collected in a perfect bound collection published by PM Press, publisher of Slingshot, the Postcards of Eric Drooker. The three chapters were written and drawn by longtime World War 3 illustrated co-editors Sabrina Jones (Isadora and Girltalk), Kevin Pyle (Blindspot and Lab U.S.A.) and Susan Willmarth (Black History for Beginners) and addresses the war on drugs, the economics of the prison boom, and the effects of incarceration on women and children.

With the U.S.A. now leading the world in incarceration, this thoroughly researched and documented collection seeks to unpack the rhetoric of punishment and expose the impact of a prison system out to control. All in the easily understood and entertaining medium of comics.

If you’re interested, you can get more information here.

Repost and Reminder: Retrospective of Blab!

Events, Exhibitions, Illustration Faculty, Illustration Industry, Publications, , ,

“BLAB!: A Retrospective” opened August 1, 2008 at the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art on the campus of Kansas State University. The exhibition will be on view through November 2, 2008. It is the first American museum exhibition devoted to the work of BLAB!, Monte Beauchamp’s periodic anthology of sequential and comic art, illustration, painting, and printmaking. The exhibition, which focuses on BLAB! #8-18 (1995-2007), features the work of forty-six artists and includes 150 works of art from thirty-nine collections.

This exhibition features an eclectic gathering of stylistically varied work by alternative comics artists, illustrators, graphic designers, printmakers, and painters from BLAB!, the annual anthology of visual art produced by Chicago-based graphic designer and art director Monte Beauchamp.

BLAB! began in 1986 as a self-published fanzine (fan-produced magazine) devoted to MAD magazine and other EC Comics publications. Today it is a significant outlet for a wide variety of contemporary artists. BLAB!‘s influence has cut a broad swath across contemporary visual culture. It has helped launch many artists’ careers. It has introduced American audiences to important contemporary European graphic and comics artists. And, it has contributed meaningfully to the blurring of boundaries between alternative graphics and mainstream illustration. All of the work in this exhibition has been featured in BLAB!.

Artists in exhibition:

Michael Bartalos, Gary Baseman, Richard Beards, Tim Biskup, Stéphane Blanquet, Calef Brown, Greg Clarke, The Clayton Brothers, Sue Coe, Don Colley, Brian Cronin, Nicolas Debon, Douglas Fraser, Drew Friedman, Geoffrey Grahn, Steven Guarnaccia (Illustration Department Chair), Ryan Heshka, Peter Hoey, Tom Huck, Teresa James, Jeffrey Kamberos, Nora Krug (Illustration Department Faculty), Peter Kuper (Illustration Department Alum), Mark Landman, Laura Levine, MATS!?, Walter Minus, Christian Northeast, John Pound, Archer Prewitt, CJ Pyle, Helge Reumann, Xavier Robel, Spain, Jonathon Rosen, Marc Rosenthal, Sergio Ruzzier (Illustration Department Faculty), David Sandlin, Bob Staake, Fred Stonehouse, Mark Todd, Chris Ware, and Esther Pearl Watson.

The accompanying 128-page, full-color catalogue was designed by Monte Beauchamp and contains contributions by David A. Beronä, Mark Frauenfelder, Matt Dukes Jordan, and Bill North.

BLAB! cover

Related Events

Sept. 18 – Gallery talk by Bill North, senior curator, Beach Museum of Art, 5:30 p.m.

Sept. 25 – Lecture, “From Highbrow Comics to Lowbrow Art: The Shifting Contexts of the Comics Art Object” by Bart Beaty, noted comics scholar and associate professor of communications studies, Faculty of Communication and Culture, University of Calgary, 5:30 p.m.

Oct. 23 – Artist talks by Steven Guarnaccia and Nora Krug, associate professors, illustration department, Parsons: The New School for Design, 5:30 p.m.

You can see installation views on Flickr and grab your own Blab! here.

Blab!: A Retrospective
August 1st-November 2nd, 2008
Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art
Kansas State University
701 Beach Lane (14th & Anderson Ave.)
Manhattan, KS 66506
785-532-7718

CMYK Magazine Showcase Call for Entries

Events, General Info, Illustration Industry, Publications, , ,
CMYK Magazine's Call For Aspiring Creatives #41 Art Directors , Copywriters, Photographers, and Illustrators

Enter your portfolio — up to 15 pieces — in the most visible aspiring artist showcase for the opportunity to be discovered by creative decision-makers across the globe.
View More Featured Work
Enter Your Best Work Today.

Represent your school for the opportunity to be rewarded and recognized by the entire industry. Upload as many as 15 pieces per category.

Enter Now
  • FREE Online Portfolio with entry to contest
  • More than 100 entries will be showcased in CMYK 43
  • Priceless exposure for yourself and your school
  • Be seen by over 70,000 CMYK Magazine readers
  • Juried by the most notable creative professionals working today
  • Show the industry you are out there
Enter 15 Pieces for $45
CMYK Magazine’s Call for Aspiring Creatives is open        to all students, recent graduates and those considered self-taught in the areas of Copywriting, Art Direction, Graphic Design, Illustration and Photography.                 U.S. and international residents welcome.
Contest Deadline: Monday, October 20, 2008.
Get published in CMYK and be seen on newsstands across the globe

Blab!: A Retrospective

Events, Exhibitions, Illustration Faculty, Illustration Industry, Publications, , ,

“BLAB!: A Retrospective” opened August 1, 2008 at the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art on the campus of Kansas State University. The exhibition will be on view through November 2, 2008. It is the first American museum exhibition devoted to the work of BLAB!, Monte Beauchamp’s periodic anthology of sequential and comic art, illustration, painting, and printmaking. The exhibition, which focuses on BLAB! #8-18 (1995-2007), features the work of forty-six artists and includes 150 works of art from thirty-nine collections.

This exhibition features an eclectic gathering of stylistically varied work by alternative comics artists, illustrators, graphic designers, printmakers, and painters from BLAB!, the annual anthology of visual art produced by Chicago-based graphic designer and art director Monte Beauchamp.

BLAB! began in 1986 as a self-published fanzine (fan-produced magazine) devoted to MAD magazine and other EC Comics publications. Today it is a significant outlet for a wide variety of contemporary artists. BLAB!‘s influence has cut a broad swath across contemporary visual culture. It has helped launch many artists’ careers. It has introduced American audiences to important contemporary European graphic and comics artists. And, it has contributed meaningfully to the blurring of boundaries between alternative graphics and mainstream illustration. All of the work in this exhibition has been featured in BLAB!.

Artists in exhibition:

Michael Bartalos, Gary Baseman, Richard Beards, Tim Biskup, Stéphane Blanquet, Calef Brown, Greg Clarke, The Clayton Brothers, Sue Coe, Don Colley, Brian Cronin, Nicolas Debon, Douglas Fraser, Drew Friedman, Geoffrey Grahn, Steven Guarnaccia (Illustration Department Chair), Ryan Heshka, Peter Hoey, Tom Huck, Teresa James, Jeffrey Kamberos, Nora Krug (Illustration Department Faculty), Peter Kuper, Mark Landman, Laura Levine, MATS!?, Walter Minus, Christian Northeast, John Pound, Archer Prewitt, CJ Pyle, Helge Reumann, Xavier Robel, Spain, Jonathon Rosen, Marc Rosenthal, Sergio Ruzzier (Illustration Department Faculty), David Sandlin, Bob Staake, Fred Stonehouse, Mark Todd, Chris Ware, and Esther Pearl Watson.

The accompanying 128-page, full-color catalogue was designed by Monte Beauchamp and contains contributions by David A. Beronä, Mark Frauenfelder, Matt Dukes Jordan, and Bill North.

BLAB! cover

Related Events

Sept. 18 – Gallery talk by Bill North, senior curator, Beach Museum of Art, 5:30 p.m.

Sept. 25 – Lecture, “From Highbrow Comics to Lowbrow Art: The Shifting Contexts of the Comics Art Object” by Bart Beaty, noted comics scholar and associate professor of communications studies, Faculty of Communication and Culture, University of Calgary, 5:30 p.m.

Oct. 23 – Artist talks by Steven Guarnaccia and Nora Krug, associate professors, illustration department, Parsons: The New School for Design, 5:30 p.m.

You can see installation views on Flickr and grab your own Blab! here.

Blab!: A Retrospective
August 1st-November 2nd, 2008
Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art
Kansas State University
701 Beach Lane (14th & Anderson Ave.)
Manhattan, KS 66506
785-532-7718

Abby Denson on comics, dessert, and life

Illustration Alumni, Illustration Industry, Interviews, Publications, , ,

Parsons Illustration Alum Abby Denson was recently written up in the New York Daily News.  She talked about her own work, as well as the education value of comics.  Here’s an excerpt:

Daily News: When did you get into comic art and comic writing?

Abby Denson: Well, I’ve been reading comics ever since I was a kid. The early comics I would read were the “X-Men,” and “Alpha Flight”, also “Uncle Scrooge” comics and things like that. When I got into college or when I was in high school getting into college I was more into “Love and Rockets” and reading “Ranma 1/2” by Rumiko Takahashi. Those were some pretty big influences. When I was in college, I pretty much ended up strictly reading black and white comics, whether it was indie comics or manga. I also liked Andy Watson, whose stuff is always great.

At first, I didn’t think I would be into drawing [comics]. I mean, I went to Parsons School of Design for illustration but I really wasn’t into the idea of doing my own comic until I had a concept for a comic that kind of drove me through it. [Creating a] comic is a lot of work since you have to write it and then draw it. It’s double the work of just being a novelist or just being an artist, and usually not as well compensated (laughs). You have to have an idea to propel you to do the work; you really have to be passionate about the concept.

Read the rest of Abby’s great interview here.  Currently, Abby is hard at work, writing a dessert column for L Magazine, illustrating, and getting ready to teach a class here at the New School.  Way to go, Abby!

[art from Abby Denson’s Dolltopia]

Submit your work to The Best American Comics!

Call for Entries, Illustration Industry, Publications, , ,

What is The Best American Comics?
It’s an annual anthology of the best comics short stories and (excerpts of) graphic novels by North American authors each year, published by Houghton Mifflin. It is part of the prestigious Best American series, which also includes The Best American Short Stories, Essays, Non-Required Reading, and so on.

Eligibility
The author must be North American (i.e. from Canada, United States, or Mexico). Work published between September 1, 2007 and August 31, 2008 is eligible for the 2009 volume. The 2010 volume will cover work published from 9/1/08 * 8/31/09, and so on. Individual issues, collections, original graphic novels, and self-published comics (including mini-comics) are eligible for consideration. We must see your comics in order to consider them! Please send one copy of each book you publish to us at the address on the left. Please clearly label each book submitted with contact information and date of publication. Comics published on-line must be submitted in the form of print-outs.

How does it work?
The series editors (that’s us) are responsible for collecting, reviewing, and selecting semi-finalists from all comics published by North American authors in a given year. Each year the editorial team (ourselves and Houghton Mifflin in-house editor Anjali Singh) select an established comics author to act as guest editor. The guest editor is responsible for choosing among the semi-finalists (and adding to the list if he or she sees fit) to create the list of works for inclusion in the book. If your work is on the final list, you will be contacted by us in October or November for permission.

Send Us Your Comics!
We hope you will put the Best American Comics on your finished book mailing list and automatically send in anything that might be eligible. Keep in mind that even if you miss one year’s deadline a book will be eligible for the following year’s volume.

Note that the publishing deadline for the 2009 volume is coming up at the end of this month.  We will only accept books for this volume until mid-September so send your books in sooner rather than later!

Please send your books to us at the address below. If you have questions don’t hesitate to e-mail us at either jabel@jessicaabel.com or matt@mattmadden.com.

Mail all your eligible comics to:
Jessica Abel & Matt Madden
Series Editors
The Best American Comics
Houghton Mifflin
215 Park Avenue South
New York, NY 10003

Good luck!

Brian Wood written up in the Village Voice

Illustration Alumni, Illustration Industry, Interviews, Publications, , , , , , ,

Illustration Alum Brian Wood (’97) was recently interviewed for an article in the Village Voice.  He talked about why San Francisco just isn’t as good as New York (to him), how his artwork has developed, and the critical and social reaction to his art.  Here’s an excerpt:

Comic-book fame is a funny thing: Even as Hollywood pushes the medium further into the mainstream, a sense of geek solidarity remains. Writers and artists feel compelled to stay in touch with their fans; the fans, in turn, continue to treat creators like best friends. “I’m hesitant to compare him to an emo band, but I feel like Brian has that sort of connection to the audience,” says James Lucas Jones, an editor at Oni Press who worked with Wood on Local. “People feel emotionally invested in him.”

Wood’s own fame was cemented in the late ’90s, after the publication of the William Gibson–esque Channel Zero. He now calls it something of “an art student’s rant”—a ” ‘zine where everybody talks about what pisses them off.” But Zero led to a writing stint at Marvel’s Generation X and paved the way for the series Couriers, Couscous Express, and Pounded, about a rock band in New York. Eventually, Wood transitioned from occasionally drawing into writing full-time, mostly because he “had so many ideas, and not enough time to put them to paper.”

Make sure you read the rest of the article here.  Brian also has a list of other articles about his work here on his official website.  You can pick up a copy of his latest book, The New York Four here.

Congrats on your continuing success, Brian!

Ingo Fast–Illustrator and World Traveler

Illustration Alumni, Illustration Industry, Publications, Randomly Intriguing, , , , ,

Friend of the Illustration Department and Parsons Alum–Illustrator Ingo Fast–spent almost a year traveling around the world, illustrating the whole time.  When he got home, he relaxed a little while.  And then set out once again, this time for thirteen months!  Recently, How Magazine featured an article about his journeys and work; you can read the whole article here (just use the small arrows at the bottom to advance pages).  You can also see images from his travel here and here.

Fascinating stuff!

Tara McPherson Coloring Book!

Illustration Faculty, Illustration Industry, News, Publications, ,

Dark Horse Deluxe joins with Tara McPherson to design the Somewhere Under the Rainbow Coloring Kit! This fantastic “kit” comes in an easy-carry heavy-gauge clear vinyl bag with zipper enclosure, and includes: 96-page coloring book featuring 48 pieces of outstanding black and white art by Tara McPherson. This book has concealed spiral binding and stiff covers and includes unique box of 24 crayons in modern colors. But that’s not all! Four color-them-yourself postcards, and a deluxe sticker sheet are included in the spiral bound book.

This is available at cool stores everywhere on August 27, 2008, but you can pre-order your kit here.