Graphic Novel and Comic Book Creators in New York City

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

CulturePOP Season 2 starts 10/4 on ACT-I-VATE.com

Seth Kushner's CulturePOP:
"Photocomix Profiles of Real-Life Characters"
Season 2 starts 10/4 on ACT-I-VATE.com, FREE
All 12 episodes of Season 1 available free:
http://www.act-i-vate.com/104-1-1.comic

Seth Kushner loves comics and loves taking photos of interesting people. Over the past year, Seth began combining the two passions, in the form of photocomix, AKA fumetti, first popularized in the U.S. with Harvey Kurtzman's Help and later in Robert Crumb's Weirdo. In those cases the experiment was played for laughs, but Seth's doing something different: fusing photojournalism, personality profile, and comix. His first photocomix profile was of the late, great Harvey Pekar, for GRAPHIC NYC, the comics journalism site he co-edits. CulturePOP is his new ongoing series of photocomix profiles on ACT-I-VATE.com.

"What Seth achieved with that initial Pekar interview-cum-comic was a triumph," said Jeff Newelt, Harvey's editor on The Pekar Project. "He took key moments of an interview, matched the words with photos he took, and sequentially arranged the results so as to read as smoothly as an American Splendor comic."

In CulturePOP Season 1, Seth's shined his flash on the lives of subjects including poet Caits Meissner, sousaphonist/producer Clark Gayton, singer/songwriter Elyssa Loveless, designer John D'Aponte, graffiti artist/sculptor Carlos "Mare 139" Rodriguez, yoga instructor Melisa Winitzsky, former US champion rhythmic gymnast Olga Karmansky, toy designer Super Sucklord, author Douglas Rushkoff, VJ Jonny Wilson of Eclectic Method, burlesque performer Jennie Fiske and artist Jen Ferguson.

"Seth Kushner's omniscient lens distills NYC's brave and bold into graphic time capsules," says Dean Haspiel, creator of Billy Dogma, & The Alcoholic.

CulturePOP Season 2 launches Tuesday 10/5 with a photocomix profile on Bronx Flavor TV host Baron Ambrosia. Episodes run every other Tuesday and will include such scintillating subjects as writer / erotic editor Rachel Kramer Bussel, cartoonist Dean Haspiel, illustrator / designer Dave Franzese of Dark Igloo, aerialist Lisa Natoli, hip hop performer Akim The Funk Buddha, comedian/musician Reggie Watts and more TBA.

“Working on CulturePOP has been a dream come true,” says Kushner. “It’s the melding of my life-long love of comics and my photography into a new form of profile for me. Working on the first twelve was such a challenging and rewarding experience that I can’t wait for viewers to see some of the new tricks I’ve incorporated into the next twelve.”

CulturePOP is co-curated by Jeff Newelt, and edited by Dean Haspiel.

Join CulturePOP's Facebook fan page - http://www.facebook.com/CulturePOPphotocomix

Seth Kushner — shoots portraits of celebrity-types for such publications The New York Times Magazine, Time, Newsweek, Businessweek, L'Uomo Vogue and others. Seth's first book, The Brooklynites, (with Anthony LaSala) was published by powerHouse Books in 2007 and was) considered ”a terrific coffee table photo/interview book” by The New York Times. Currently, he's co-editing the comics journalism site Graphic NYC (www.NYCGraphicNovelists.com) (with Christopher Irving) and working on his next book on comic book creators. Seth first comics work was Schmuck (with artist Kevin Colden) and can be seen on ACT-I-VATE.com

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Dean Haspiel: Fully Clothed and with Guests

Photo by Ryan Roman

To celebrate the upcoming Graphic NYC Presents: Dean Haspiel the Early Years, Christopher and Dean will have a New York Comic Con panel on Dean's life and career, with an amazing guest list!

With the release of Graphic NYC Presents: Dean Haspiel, The Early Years, a hybrid of journalism and comics reprint book from IDW/Desperado, writer/editor Christopher Irving (nycgraphicnovelists.com) moderates a panel on Dean’s career; past and present. Panelists include Dean Haspiel (Cuba: My Revolution, American Splendor, Billy Dogma), Walter Simonson (Thor, The Judas Coin), Nick Bertozzi (The Salon, Stuffed!), Joan Hilty (DC/Vertigo editor, tentative), and Jonathan Ames (The Alcoholic, HBO’s Bored to Death). Get the dirt on comics’ own shirtless wonder, as his collaborators, mentors, and friends dish it out.

The panel is Saturday, October 9th from 2:45 to 3:45 in Room 1A23. We'll see you there!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

James Sturm: Modern Storytelling in a Period Setting

Words: Christopher Irving . Pictures: Seth Kushner

“I love teaching but I hate working for big institutions and bureaucracies,” James Sturm candidly states in a Manhattan coffee shop. He’s out of his usual element of White River Junction, Vermont, where his groundbreaking Center for Cartoon Studies is headquartered. “It’s hard enough to be a good teacher but then when you have to manage upwards and be constantly fighting for resources—I’ve been through that and I don’t enjoy it. I knew it would be a lot of work to start a school, but the rewards are greater, because you can have a lot more autonomy.”

Where Superman Was Born: A Visit to Jerry Siegel's House

Words & Pictures: Seth Kushner

"I grew up watching Superman, but I didn't have any idea he was born here in Cleveland. All I ever thought was he was born in Kansas."

Jefferson Gray and his wife, Hattie Mae are the current owners of the house located at 10622 Kimberley Avenue in the Glenville section of Cleveland, Ohio. When the Grays bought the home in 1983, they had no idea they had purchased a a piece of history.

It wasn't until three years later, when they received a letter from the city of Cleveland looking to make it a landmark, that they discovered the truth; It was in that house that Jerry Siegel created one of the most recognizable and enduring figures in western civilization--Superman.

"When I found out about the history of the house, I though, well, that's amazing!"

CUBA: My Revolution, A Graphically Speaking Review

Words: Jeffrey Burandt

Cuba: My Revolution is a superb, new graphic novel from Vertigo Press, written by Inverna Lockpez, illustrated by Dean Haspiel, colored by José Villarrubia, and lettered by Pat Brosseau. A sort of historical-memoir-as-novel, Cuba: My Revolution is a moving, oftentimes chilling, and sometimes outright horrifying, dramatic work. The author’s note intimates that this is a true story, and knowing that these events are as real as memory and art can achieve adds to the story’s impact. My Revolution is comic books as Literature, avoiding the genre confines of typical adventure stories on one hand, or slice of life indy comics on the other.