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Posted by Jason Urban on August 8th, 2009 | 
I saw this on Facebook (it pays to be connected) and thought it would be worth a quick post. I don’t have images of work from the show but it’s called Big Funny and it’s a celebration of the newspaper comic strip. The comic strip is another of the many peripheral casualties of the dying print-newspaper industry. The show is up at Altered Esthetics in Minneapolis and features 47 artists. While the majority of the artists primarily work in the comic strip form, the show also includes non comic strip artists like Jenny Schmid.
Read Henry Chamberlain’s review of the show here.
And if you’re really disappointed that you can’t make it to Minneapolis to see it (BTW, the opening is tonight), you can always buy the show catalog. True to the comic strip form, the 2000-run newsprint edition looks like a newspaper. The format is 16″ wide by 22-3/4″ tall with an image area of 15″ wide by 21-1/2″ which is a the same size as newspapers from the 1910-30’s eras…
Even the ads in Big Funny are cool! The ads for sponsors on the back of the paper were hand-drawn by editor Kevin Cannon, with the words for “the Source” ad penned by editor Steven Stwalley. The classifieds feature a mix of original limericks, artist bios, vintage ads from old comics and more.
The comic strip form itself, the ramifications it’s had on our cultural life, and its uncertain future are worthy of future Printeresting musings.
Posted by RL Tillman on May 14th, 2009 | 
The thing that grabbed my attention when I saw these “COMICS” T-Shirts at Target the other day was this remarkable tag, attached to the shirts:
Variable Edition T-Shirts! And Green Lantern too!! Have I died and gone to Geek Heaven?!
…Or is this just another print-related scam from the comics industry?
Posted by Jason Urban on May 14th, 2009 | Rummaging through the Printeresting archive the other day, I stumbled across this old copy of “Journeys in Printing with Inkster.” It’s issue 118– the rare first appearance of the Mechanical Pressman!
If you recall back in the sixties and seventies, Inkster, arguably America’s most well-known printmaker/viking/superhero, was battling a lot of technology-inspired villains. In addition to the Mechanical Pressman some of the most noteable were Compu-Tor, Doc Xerox (and his Copy Shop), and CMYKNine the Four-Color Werewolf. Even in the eighties there was no shortage of anti-technology sentiment… over a year’s worth of issues were dedicated to the DOS Monster Saga story arc.
It’s interesting, and perhaps reflective of changing attitudes in the printmaking community, that by the late nineties Robo-Pressman (as the reprogrammed Mechanical Pressman came to be known) actually had evolved into one of Inkster’s closest allies in his battle against evil. Hopefully, we can all learn a bit from Inkster comics: every once in a while, technology can be our friend.
While we’re on the subject of comic books, you should visit Robert Goodin’s Covered blog. The site is dedicated to artist reinterpretations of previously published comic book covers. Some of the re-covers stray more from the originals than others but even the most straight-forward copies manage to function as unique works.
Posted by Jason Urban on February 21st, 2009 | RL’s yellow dot conspiracy theory reminded me of this…
David Malki !’s Wondermark is a great comic strip that repurposes old illustrations (often engravings) with hilarious results. From the website…
The images used to create Wondermark are culled largely from David’s collection of 19th-century books and periodicals, supplemented by primary sources from the Rare Books Dept. at the Los Angeles Central Library, as well as (in a shrinking number of cases) material from commercial clip-art collections.
In my mind, Wondermark is like a step-grandchild to Max Ernst’s collage novel Une Semaine de Bonté (currently on view at the Albertina Museum in Vienna). There are plenty of differences but both manage to breathe life into forgotten visual ephemera by repurposing it for a new audience. And maybe it goes without saying but both are dark and funny.
Posted by RL Tillman on December 4th, 2008 | My very first post at Printeresting was about a new character in the comic strip Apartment 3-G: a dashing but rakish printmaker named Jack Davis. About a month later, readers had a brief glimpse of Jack’s handiwork. Since then we haven’t seen much of the only printmaker in comics history. But wait! It seems that Margo Magee is having some trouble with her art gallery:
Don’t you understand, Doris? Those damned prints will never pay the rent! Nonetheless, Doris obviously has great faith in the printmaking community, because guess who she calls for advice?
Money? Romance? What’s this guy’s endgame, anyway? He may seem like your knight in shining armor, but never trust a printmaker, Margo.
Posted by Jason Urban on October 12th, 2008 | So if you’re heading to the newsstand to grab that Special Emmons Edition of Dwell, there’s something else to add to your list.
We’ve dedicated a lot of posts to the Graphic Phenomenon that is the Barack Obama Campaign for the Presidency. We’ve covered posters and posters and posters and pins and posters… many of the hand-made variety though some commercially produced. This post definitely falls into the latter category… introducing Presidential Comics.
I’m pretty sure this is an industry first- two comic books, one dedicated to Barack Obama and the other dedicated to John McCain. Both comics aspire to be non-partisan biographies of the men who would be president. Neither campaign had any input on the books though I don’t think they would object to the candidates’ portrayal. In classic comic book tradition, there is a certain glossiness to the stories and idealization of the candidates. Though to be fair, how easy is it to pack any biography into 28 pages? You can argue some of the specifics (like why Obama looks so young or why McCain looks so healthy), but you can’t really argue with getting more fact-based (and seemingly fact-checked) information into hands that might not be getting it otherwise.
UPDATE (10/17): This just keeps getting better. Here are Obama/McCain paper dolls. they’re designed by Tom Tierney and are available through Dover.
Posted by RL Tillman on August 28th, 2008 | 
WHAT THE–?!
Let’s assume you’re in charge of the U.S. government while the country wages the war of the century. Let’s also assume your side has an invulnerable flying man with the strength to move planets. From a national security perspective, what’s the best use for this Man of Tomorrow?
…Maybe he should print up some racist caricatures? Sell some bonds?
Posted by RL Tillman on May 31st, 2008 | Since my initial post about the print-related storyline at Apartment 3-G, Lu Ann’s foray into collaborative print publishing has taken a back seat to more gripping events. Her drug-addicted boyfriend has taken to selling crack, for one thing. Her gallerist is visiting Tibet with some kind of albino Sherpa. Usually I only read comic strips about printmaking, but this has been dramatic stuff!
Last week LuAnn’s prints briefly reclaimed center stage.
Tommie, the dullest roommate in Apartment 3-G, is the only person who feigns interest in Lu Ann’s print. The other characters react more realistically: with boredom, or even startled dismay.
…To be continued, unless King Features editors decide to drop this lame storyline altogether.
Posted by RL Tillman on April 24th, 2008 | 
The widely syndicated comic strip Apartment 3-G currently features a printmaking-related storyline. If (by chance) you don’t follow the strip, you’re missing out on a glorious showcase of popular misconceptions about printmaking. I’ll bring you up to date after the jump:
Continue reading Printmaking in the News(paper)
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