World War 3 Illustrated Release Party
Thursday, April 30, 2009 7-9PM

Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art -MoCCA
594 Broadway, Suite 401 (Between Houston and Prince st.)
New York, NY 10012

Admission: Donation Suggested / Free for MoCCA Members

Featuring multi-media presentation of art by:

PETER KUPER
MAC McGILL
SETH TOBOCMAN
PAULA HEWITT AMRAM
SABRINA JONES
ERIC DROOKER
KEVIN PYLE
CHUCK SPERRY
REBECCA MIGDAL
and many others!

with an animated film by Onur Tukel

live music by
Eric Blitz, Steve Wishnia, Andy Laties, Breeze and more!

World War 3 Illustrated #39
Edited by Peter Kuper and Kevin Pyle
With all this talk about a picture being worth a thousand words and so much chatter in the news, but little being said, World War 3 illustrated presents our first wordless comics issue.  It features comics and illustrations by Eric Drooker, Mats!?, Geoffrey Grahn, Rebecca Migdal, Matt Mahurin, Carlo Quispe, Ryan Inzana, Seth Tobocman, Peter Kuper, Felipe Galindo, Mac McGill, David Sandlin, Barron Storey, Onur Tukel, Sabrina Jones, Andy Singer, Santiago Cohen, Kevin Pyle, Gerard Conte, Paula Hewitt , Edwin Vasquez, Terry Laban, and an article on picture novels by scholar David Berona.

This new issue leaps beyond language barriers — sort of a Tower of a Babel, minus the babble.  All of us speaking one language again — through pictures.

Peter Kuper was interviewed awhile back for Newsarama–he talked about the collaborative nature of the project and his challenges as an editor.  Here’s a taste:

“Every time I try to stop doing it, something happens that pulls me back in … it’s like the Mafia, there’s no escape!” Kuper observed of working on the magazine, which is in its 28th year of publication. “Over the years when my enthusiasm for dedicating the enormous amount of time and energy it takes to put out an issue starts to wane, there’s a riot in Tompkins Square park, a war in Iraq (the first one) or 9/11, and I rediscover the importance of maintaining a forum that doesn’t rely on outside financing or exert some form of censorship.

“To be clear, World War 3 is very much a group effort (I certainly haven’t edited every other issue) and wouldn’t exist if a large number of people didn’t keep pulling together to make it happen. If there hadn’t been we would have burned out by now.”

The artist further explained the need for WW3, adding, “There have been many points when WW3 was the only place to publish certain ideas. This was true during Reagan’s presidency, but especially true after 9/11 when even artists like Art Spiegelman found the mainstream press completely closed to work like what ended up being In The Shadow of No Towers and turned to WW3 to get it published. Last issue I did an eleven-page piece on my experience in Mexico during a teachers strike. WW3 was the only place I could find for a piece of that length.”

As issue 39 will be entirely wordless, Kuper was asked about the reasons for publishing an all-silent issue. “I have always been a fan of wordless storytelling from Lynd Ward to Eric Drooker, and after eight years of Bush I’m speechless!” he laughed. “Also I had the kooky notion that it would be easier to edit a wordless issue. I had it completely backwards; it has taken twice as long and required much more hands-on editing with each piece, down to sketching out suggestions. Thankfully I was able to hoodwink Kevin Pyle (Blind Spots) into helping me with the editing duty.”

WW3 Illustrated #39 will be “90% comics, 5% fat-free illustrations and a great article on Wordless books by the #1 scholar on the subject, David A. Beronä,” Kuper explained. Previous issues of the magazine have made room for political and social essays to run alongside the magazine’s cartoon commentaries.

You can read the complete interview here.  And to see more art, animation and info about World War 3 illustrated visit the official site.