Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Will Eisner: The Spirit of Comics
Words: Christopher Irving . Photo Illustration: Seth Kushner
When Will Eisner spoke on the comics page, it was in a language that was distinctly no one else’s but his own. What Jack Kirby did with visual power, Will did for the art form and language of comics, bringing them on par with film and pushing (sometimes gently, others with force) for the medium to go beyond it’s juvenile beginnings and grow into an actual –
Art.
Form.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Graphic NYC Honors Will Eisner Week
This week, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, The Will and Ann Eisner Family Foundation, and seven locations throughout the country celebrate the life and works of the late, great Will Eisner! This second annual celebration encourages a widespread knowledge of the graphic novel and comic book, in honor of the trailblazing Eisner. Graphic NYC celebrates the father of the graphic novel in our own inimitable way: with a profile on March 9, in honor of the father of the graphic novels' birthday.
To learn more about Will Eisner week, go to www.willeisnerweek.com, as well as www.willeisner.com.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Graphically Speaking: Smile by Raina Telgemeier
Monday, March 1, 2010
Talking Comics with Scott McCloud
“One of the nicest things about predicting the future is you can always say ‘I will be right’,” Scott McCloud elaborates in a Brooklyn café in the present. “If it hasn’t come out the way you wanted it to, you can go ‘It’s still about the future.’ I’ve been wrong about a few things, and I may have been right about a couple of things. Right now, everybody is rewriting that history, that future history. I can just leave it alone. You can never go back and change these things.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Graphically Speaking: On Our Hero by Tom De Haven
When Tom De Haven gave me an advance copy of Our Hero: Superman on Earth,
I wasn’t sure what to expect from what he’d referred to as “the Siegel and Shuster Superman book” for a few years prior. Monday, February 22, 2010
For the Love of Comics #10: Ben McCool's Best Bar Story
Sunday, February 21, 2010
influencing Comics #9: Elizabeth Genco’s Non-Comics Influences
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Graphically Speaking: Loverboy by Irwin Hasen
Words: Christopher Irving
Full disclosure: I love Irwin Hasen. As a cartoonist, he’s still a master craftsman; as a person, he’s a peach of a guy with a wiseguy attitude. When you meet Irwin at shows, he’s always wearing an ever-present ascot, a short guy with bright blue eyes and a huge smile.
The girls love him. He’s sweet. He’s cute. He’s funny. Even my girlfriend has been charmed by Irwin on more than one occasion.
There’s another way Irwin’s still got it: His gutsy autobio graphic novel, Loverboy
, reveals how Irwin’s always had a way with the ladies, and delves into the reasons why Irwin Hasen has always been attracted to women much taller than his short frame.Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Graphically Speaking: The Life and Times of Savior 28
Words: Jared Gniewek
I've been on a rant the last few years about violence in super hero books. Not that I mind it. It is, after all, entertaining and visceral. But, to be aware that it is a fantasy of violence. A fantasy that doesn't translate effectively into our own world. I know that this sounds rather simplistic but I've been troubled by the militarism in comics and, as we do live during wartime, it's been important for me to keep the simple morality of comics simple... as ridiculous as it is. That enough situations merit fisticuffs in the lives of these costumed adventurers is preposterous.
Raina Telgemeier and Her Well-Deserved Smile
One of the first things I noticed about Raina Telgemeier, when I met up with her at St. Mark’s Comics in Greenwich Village, is that she has a beautiful smile.
She’s earned it, as her latest graphic novel, Smile
, attests. The coming-of-age Young Adult graphic novel follows Raina’s several dental visits through her teenage years, all to fix the two front teeth smashed up in a childhood accident.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Heads Up Display music video
Graphic NYC is pleased to present the latest music video directed by our own Seth Kushner and Carlos Molina, Formula Vs. Perfume by Heads Up Display. The band features comics creator and GNYC profile subject Kevin Colden (Fishtown, I Rule the Night) on drums. Also, look for the scene filmed at one of our favorite comic shops, Bergen Street Comics.
Formula VS. Perfume by Heads Up Display from Carlos Molina on Vimeo.
