Women in Comics: Eisners and Other Good News!

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Several artists participating in our Women in Comics show have gotten some much-deserved recognition recently.

The annual Eisner Award nominations have been announced and I am pleased to congratulate five artists in our Women in Comics show for being selected: Ebony Flowers, Colleen Doran, Emil Ferris, Tillie Walden, and Lynda Barry. Trinidad Escobar and Lee Marrs are showing their complete 4-page stories from the nominated anthology Drawing Power: Women’s Stories of Sexual Violence, Harassment, and Survival (Abrams, 2019). Emil Ferris, Mary Fleener, Ebony Flowers, Noel Franklin, and Carol Tyler also contributed to this important project.  

Nell Brinkley, one of the superstars of Trina Robbin’s collection, will be inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame. Lily Renee has also received a Hall of Fame nomination.

Afua Richardson and Alitha Martinez are included in CBR.com’s list 15 Black Comics Artists Whose Work You Need to Read. 

Congratulations to everyone!

Complete List of 2020 Eisner Nominations:

Best Short Story

Best Single Issue/One-Shot

  • Coin-Op No. 8: Infatuation, by Peter and Maria Hoey (Coin-Op Books)

  • The Freak, by Matt Lesniewski (AdHouse)

  • Minotäar, by Lissa Treiman (Shortbox)

  • Our Favorite Thing Is My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, by Emil Ferris (Fantagraphics)

  • Sobek, by James Stokoe (Shortbox)

Best Continuing Series

  • Bitter Root, by David Walker, Chuck Brown, and Sanford Greene (Image)

  • Criminal, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Image)

  • Crowded, by Christopher Sebela, Ro Stein, and Ted Brandt (Image)

  • Daredevil, by Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto (Marvel)

  • The Dreaming, by Simon Spurrier, Bilquis Evely et al. (DC)

  • Immortal Hulk, by Al Ewing, Joe Bennett, and Ruy José et al. (Marvel)

Best Limited Series

  • Ascender, by Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen (Image)

  • Ghost Tree, by Bobby Curnow and Simon Gane (IDW)

  • Little Bird by Darcy Van Poelgeest and Ian Bertram (Image)

  • Naomi by Brian Michael Bendis, David Walker, and Jamal Campbell (DC)

  • Sentient, by Jeff Lemire and Gabriel Walta (TKO)

Best New Series

  • Doctor Doom, by Christopher Cantwell and Salvador Larocca (Marvel)

  • Invisible Kingdom, by G. Willow Wilson and Christian Ward (Berger Books/Dark Horse)

  • Once & Future, by Kieron Gillen and Dan Mora (BOOM! Studios)

  • Something Is Killing the Children, by James Tynion IV and Werther Dell’Edera (BOOM! Studios)

  • Undiscovered Country, by Scott Snyder, Charles Soule, Giuseppe Camuncoli, and Daniele Orlandini (Image)

Best Publication for Early Readers

  • Comics: Easy as ABC, by Ivan Brunetti (TOON)

  • Kitten Construction Company: A Bridge Too Fur, by John Patrick Green (First Second/Macmillan)

  • The Pigeon HAS to Go to School! by Mo Willems (Hyperion Books)

  • A Trip to the Top of the Volcano with Mouse, by Frank Viva (TOON)

  • ¡Vamos! Let's Go to the Market, by Raúl the Third (Versify/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

  • Who Wet My Pants? by Bob Shea and Zachariah Ohora (Little, Brown)

Best Publication for Kids

  • Akissi: More Tales of Mischief, by Marguerite Abouet and Mathieu Sapin (Flying Eye/Nobrow)

  • Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls, by Dav Pilkey (Scholastic Graphix)

  • Guts, by Raina Telgemeier (Scholastic Graphix)

  • New Kid, by Jerry Craft (Quill Tree/HarperCollins)

  • This Was Our Pact, by Ryan Andrews (First Second/Macmillan)

  • The Wolf in Underpants, by Wilfrid Lupano, Mayana Itoïz, and Paul Cauuet (Graphic Universe/Lerner Publishing Group)

Best Publication for Teens

  • Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass, by Mariko Tamaki and Steve Pugh (DC)

  • Hot Comb, by Ebony Flowers (Drawn & Quarterly)

  • Kiss Number 8, by Colleen AF Venable and Ellen T. Crenshaw (First Second/Macmillan)

  • Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me, by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O'Connell (First Second/Macmillan)

  • Penny Nichols, by MK Reed, Greg Means, and Matt Wiegle (Top Shelf)

Best Humor Publication  

  • Anatomy of Authors, by Dave Kellett (SheldonComics.com)

  • Death Wins a Goldfish, by Brian Rea (Chronicle Books)

  • Minotäar, by Lissa Treiman (Shortbox)

  • Sobek, by James Stokoe (Shortbox)

  • The Way of the Househusband, vol. 1, by Kousuke Oono, translation by Sheldon Drzka (VIZ Media)

  • Wondermark: Friends You Can Ride On, by David Malki (Wondermark)

Best Anthology

  • ABC of Typography, by David Rault (SelfMade Hero)

  • Baltic Comics Anthology š! #34-37, edited by David Schilter, Sanita Muižniece et al. (kuš!)

  • Drawing Power: Women’s Stories of Sexual Violence, Harassment, and Survival, edited by Diane Noomin (Abrams)

  • Kramer’s Ergot #10, edited by Sammy Harkham (Fantagraphics)

  • The Nib #2–4, edited by Matt Bors (Nib)

Best Reality-Based Work

  • Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations, by Mira Jacob (One World/Random House)

  • Grass, by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, translation by Janet Hong (Drawn & Quarterly)

  • Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos, by Lucy Knisley (First Second/Macmillan)

  • Moonbound: Apollo 11 and the Dream of Spaceflight, by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm (Hill & Wang)

  • My Solo Exchange Diary, vol. 2 (sequel to My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness), by Nagata Kabi, translation by Jocelyne Allen (Seven Seas)

  • They Called Us Enemy, by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, and Harmony Becker (Top Shelf)

Best Graphic Album—New

  • Are You Listening? by Tillie Walden (First Second/Macmillan)

  • Bezimena, by Nina Bunjevac (Fantagraphics)

  • BTTM FDRS, by Ezra Claytan Daniels and Ben Passmore (Fantagraphics)

  • Life on the Moon, by Robert Grossman (Yoe Books/IDW)

  • New World, by David Jesus Vignolli (Archaia/BOOM!)

  • Reincarnation Stories, by Kim Deitch (Fantagraphics)

Best Graphic Album—Reprint

  • Bad Weekend by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (Image)

  • Clyde Fans, by Seth (Drawn & Quarterly)

  • Cover, vol. 1, by Brian Michael Bendis and David Mack (DC/Jinxworld)

  • Glenn Ganges: The River at Night, by Kevin Huizenga (Drawn & Quarterly)

  • LaGuardia, by Nnedi Okorafor and Tana Ford (Berger Books/Dark Horse)

  • Rusty Brown, by Chris Ware (Pantheon)

Best Adaptation from Another Medium

  • Giraffes on Horseback Salad: Salvador Dali, the Marx Brothers, and the Strangest Movie Never Made, by Josh Frank, Tim Hedecker, and Manuela Pertega (Quirk Books)

  • The Giver, by Lois Lowry, adapted by P. Craig Russell, (HMH Books for Young Readers)

  • The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel, by Margaret Atwood, adapted by Renee Nault (Nan A. Talese)

  • HP Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness, vols. 1–2, adapted by Gou Tanabe, translation by Zack Davisson (Dark Horse Manga)

  • The Seventh Voyage, by Stanislaw Lem, adapted by Jon J Muth, translation by Michael Kandel (Scholastic Graphix)

  • Snow, Glass, Apples, by Neil Gaiman and Colleen Doran (Dark Horse Books)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material

  • Diabolical Summer, by Thierry Smolderen and Alexandre Clerisse, translation by Edward Gauvin (IDW)

  • Gramercy Park, by Timothée de Fombelle and Christian Cailleaux, translation by Edward Gauvin (EuroComics/IDW)

  • The House, by Paco Roca, translation by Andrea Rosenberg (Fantagraphics)

  • Maggy Garrisson, by Lewis Trondheim and Stéphane Oiry, translation by Emma Wilson (SelfMadeHero)

  • Stay, by Lewis Trondheim and Hubert Chevillard, translation by Mike Kennedy (Magnetic Press)

  • Wrath of Fantômas, by Olivier Bocquet and Julie Rocheleau, translation by Edward Gauvin (Titan)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia

  • BEASTARS, by Paru Itagaki, translation by Tomo Kimura (VIZ Media)

  • Cats of the Louvre, by Taiyo Matsumoto, translation by Michael Arias (VIZ Media)

  • Grass, by Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, translation by Janet Hong (Drawn & Quarterly)

  • Magic Knight Rayearth 25th Anniversary Edition, by CLAMP, translation by Melissa Tanaka (Kodansha)

  • The Poe Clan, by Moto Hagio, translation by Rachel Thorn (Fantagraphics)

  • Witch Hat Atelier, by Kamome Shirahama, translation by Stephen Kohler (Kodansha)

Best Archival Collection/Project—Strips

  • Cham: The Best Comic Strips and Graphic Novelettes, 1839–1862, by David Kunzle (University Press of Mississippi)

  • Ed Leffingwell’s Little Joe, by Harold Gray, edited by Peter Maresca and Sammy Harkham (Sunday Press Books)

  • The George Herriman Library: Krazy & Ignatz 1916–1918, edited by R.J. Casey (Fantagraphics)

  • Krazy Kat: The Complete Color Sundays, by George Herriman, edited by Alexander Braun (TASCHEN)

  • Madness in Crowds: The Teeming Mind of Harrison Cady, by Violet and Denis Kitchen (Beehive Books)

  • Pogo, Vol. 6: Clean as a Weasel, by Walt Kelly, edited by Mark Evanier and Eric Reynolds (Fantagraphics)

Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Books

  • Alay-Oop, by William Gropper (New York Review Comics)

  • The Complete Crepax, vol. 5: American Stories, edited by Kristy Valenti (Fantagraphics)

  • Jack Kirby’s Dingbat Love, edited by John Morrow (TwoMorrows)

  • Moonshadow: The Definitive Edition, by J. M. DeMatteis, Jon J Muth, George Pratt, Kent Williams, and others (Dark Horse Books)

  • Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo: The Complete Grasscutter Artist Select, by Stan Sakai, edited by Scott Dunbier (IDW)

  • That Miyoko Asagaya Feeling, by Shinichi Abe, translation by Ryan Holmberg, edited by Mitsuhiro Asakawa (Black Hook Press)

Best Writer

  • Bobby Curnow, Ghost Tree (IDW)

  • MK Reed and Greg Means, Penny Nichols (Top Shelf)

  • Mariko Tamaki, Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass (DC); Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me (First Second/Macmillan); Archie (Archie)

  • Lewis Trondheim, Stay (Magnetic Press); Maggy Garrisson (SelfMadeHero)

  • G. Willow Wilson, Invisible Kingdom (Berger Books/Dark Horse); Ms. Marvel (Marvel)

  • Chip Zdarsky, White Trees (Image); Daredevil, Spider-Man: Life Story (Marvel); Afterlift (comiXology Originals)

Best Writer/Artist

  • Nina Bunjevac, Bezimena (Fantagraphics)

  • Mira Jacob, Good Talk (Random House); “The Menopause” in The Believer (June 1, 2019)

  • Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, Grass (Drawn & Quarterly)

  • James Stokoe, Sobek (Shortbox)

  • Raina Telgemeier, Guts (Scholastic Graphix)

  • Tillie Walden, Are You Listening? (First Second/Macmillan)

Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team

  • Ian Bertram, Little Bird (Image)

  • Colleen Doran, Snow, Glass, Apples (Dark Horse)

  • Bilquis Evely, The Dreaming (DC)

  • Simon Gane, Ghost Tree (IDW)

  • Steve Pugh, Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass (DC)

  • Rosemary Valero-O'Connell, Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me (First Second/Macmillan)

Best Painter/Digital Artist

  • Didier Cassegrain, Black Water Lilies (Europe Comics)

  • Alexandre Clarisse, Diabolical Summer (IDW)

  • David Mack, Cover (DC)

  • Léa Mazé, Elma, A Bear’s Life, vol. 1: The Great Journey (Europe Comics)

  • Julie Rocheleau, Wrath of Fantômas (Titan)

  • Christian Ward, Invisible Kingdom (Berger Books/Dark Horse)

Best Cover Artist

  • Jen Bartel, Blackbird  (Image Comics)

  • Francesco Francavilla, Archie, Archie 1955, Archie Vs. Predator II, Cosmo (Archie)

  • David Mack, American Gods, Fight Club 3 (Dark Horse); Cover (DC)

  • Emma Rios, Pretty Deadly (Image)

  • Julian Totino Tedesco, Daredevil (Marvel)

  • Christian Ward, Machine Gun Wizards (Dark Horse), Invisible Kingdom (Berger Books/Dark Horse)

Best Coloring

  • Lorena Alvarez, Hicotea (Nobrow)

  • Jean-Francois Beaulieu, Middlewest, Outpost Zero (Image)

  • Matt Hollingsworth, Batman: Curse of the White Knight, Batman White Knight Presents Von Freeze (DC); Little Bird, November (Image)

  • Molly Mendoza, Skip (Nobrow)

  • Dave Stewart, Black Hammer, B.P.R.D.: The Devil You Know, Hellboy and the BPRD (Dark Horse); Gideon Falls (Image); Silver Surfer Black, Spider-Man (Marvel)

Best Lettering

  • Deron Bennett, Batgirl, Green Arrow, Justice League, Martian Manhunter (DC); Canto (IDW); Assassin Nation, Excellence (Skybound/Image); To Drink and To Eat, vol. 1 (Lion Forge); Resonant (Vault)

  • Jim Campbell, Black Badge, Coda (BOOM Studios); Giant Days, Lumberjanes: The Shape of Friendship (BOOM Box!); Rocko’s Modern Afterlife  (KaBOOM!); At the End of Your Tether (Lion Forge); Blade Runner 2019 (Titan); Mall, The Plot, Wasted Space (Vault)

  • Clayton Cowles, Aquaman, Batman, Batman and the Outsiders, Heroes in Crisis, Superman: Up in the Sky, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen (DC); Bitter Root, Pretty Deadly, Moonstruck, Redlands, The Wicked + The Divine (Image); Reaver  (Skybound/Image); Daredevil, Ghost-Spider, Silver Surfer Black, Superior Spider-Man, Venom (Marvel)

  • Emilie Plateau, Colored: The Unsung Life of Claudette Colvin (Europe Comics)

  • Stan Sakai, Usagi Yojimbo (IDW)

  • Tillie Walden, Are You Listening? (First Second/Macmillan)

Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism

  • Comic Riffs blog, by Michael Cavna with David Betancourt, www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/comics/

  • The Comics Journal, edited by Gary Groth, RJ Casey, and Kristy Valenti (Fantagraphics)

  • Hogan’s Alley, edited by Tom Heintjes (Hogan’s Alley)

  • Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society, edited by Qiana Whitted (Ohio State University Press)

  • LAAB Magazine, vol. 4: This Was Your Life, edited by Ronald Wimberly and Josh O’Neill (Beehive Books)

  • Women Write About Comics, edited by Nola Pfau and Wendy Browne, www.WomenWriteAboutComics.com

Best Comics-Related Book

  • The Art of Nothing: 25 Years of Mutts and the Art of Patrick McDonnell (Abrams)

  • The Book of Weirdo, by Jon B. Cooke (Last Gasp)

  • Grunt: The Art and Unpublished Comics of James Stokoe (Dark Horse)

  • Logo a Gogo: Branding Pop Culture, by Rian Hughes (Korero Press)

  • Making Comics, by Lynda Barry (Drawn & Quarterly)

  • Screwball! The Cartoonists Who Made the Funnies Funny, by Paul Tumey (Library of American Comics/IDW)

Best Academic/Scholarly Work

  • The Art of Pere Joan: Space, Landscape, and Comics Form, by Benjamin Fraser (University of Texas Press)

  • The Comics of Rutu Modan: War, Love, and Secrets, by Kevin Haworth (University Press of Mississippi)

  • EC Comics: Race, Shock, and Social Protest, by Qiana Whitted (Rutgers University Press)

  • The Peanuts Papers: Writers and Cartoonists on Charlie Brown, Snoopy & the Gang, and the Meaning of Life, edited by Andrew Blauner (Library of America)

  • Producing Mass Entertainment: The Serial Life of the Yellow Kid, by Christina Meyer (Ohio State University Press)

  • Women’s Manga in Asia and Beyond: Uniting Different Cultures and Identities, edited by Fusami Ogi et al. (Palgrave Macmillan)

Best Publication Design

  • Grunt: The Art and Unpublished Comics of James Stokoe, designed by Ethan Kimberling (Dark Horse)

  • Krazy Kat: The Complete Color Sundays, by George Herriman, designed by Anna-Tina Kessler (TASCHEN)

  • Logo a Gogo, designed by Rian Hughes (Korero Press)

  • Madness in Crowds: The Teeming Mind of Harrison Cady, designed by Paul Kopple and Alex Bruce (Beehive Books)

  • Making Comics, designed by Lynda Barry (Drawn & Quarterly)

  • Rusty Brown, designed by Chris Ware (Pantheon)

Best Digital Comic

  • Afterlift, by Chip Zdarsky and Jason Loo (comiXology Originals)

  • Black Water Lilies, by Michel Bussi, adapted by Frédéric Duval and Didier Cassegrain, translated by Edward Gauvin (Europe Comics)

  • Colored: The Unsung Life of Claudette Colvin, by Tania de Montaigne, adapted by Emilie Plateau, translated by Montana Kane (Europe Comics)

  • Elma, A Bear’s Life, vol. 1: The Great Journey, by Ingrid Chabbert and Léa Mazé, translated by Jenny Aufiery (Europe Comics)

  • Mare Internum, by Der-shing Helmer (comiXology; gumroad.com/l/MIPDF)

  • Tales from Behind the Window, by Edanur Kuntman, translated by Cem Ulgen (Europe Comics)

Best Webcomic

 

Women in Comics Photo Grid

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Society of Illustrators Museum of Illustration, 128 East 63rd Street, New York, NY 10065. March 11 - October 24, 2020. Entry Mural image by Collen Doran. Poster image by Afua Richardson. Downstairs mural image by Ramona Fradon. Photos by Steve Compton, courtesy of Society of Illustrators.

See the Women in Comics page for contextual information and artist bios. Exhibition curated by Kim Munson and Trina Robbins with special thanks to Karen Green and John Lind.

UPM book about R. Crumb in Museums

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I was happy to hear that The Comics of R. Crumb: Underground in the Art Museum has been submitted to the University Press of Mississippi by the Editor, Daniel Worden. It looks to be a great collection of different views on the way Crumb is represented in exhibitions.

My own contribution, Viewing Crumb: Representations of R. Crumb in Art Museums, discusses what role Crumb plays in contemporary art and in a wide range of museum exhibitions, such as High & Low (MoMA, 1990), Masters of American Comics (Hammer & MoCA LA, 2005), Compass in Hand: Selections from the Judith Rothschild Contemporary Drawings Collection (MoMA, 2009), The Phonus Balonus Show of Really Heavy Stuff (Corcoran Museum, 1969) Underground Classics (Chazen Museum, 2009), and Graphic Masters: Dürer, Rembrandt, Hogarth, Goya, Picasso, R. Crumb (Seattle Art Museum, 2016). The chapter also explores Crumb’s influence on contemporary feminist artists both negative (Trina Robbins) and positive (British artists Margaret Harrison and Rebecca Warren).

R. Crumb. God Wants me to Draw. Ink drawing on placemat. (2003). Collection of MoMA. Displayed with a Fritz the Cat book cover in the exhibition Compass in Hand:Selections from the Judith Rothschild Contemporary Drawings Collection .

R. Crumb. God Wants me to Draw. Ink drawing on placemat. (2003). Collection of MoMA. Displayed with a Fritz the Cat book cover in the exhibition Compass in Hand:Selections from the Judith Rothschild Contemporary Drawings Collection .

[Update 12/2020] In July, 2019 I participated in a roundtable discussion of this book at the Comics Studies Society’s annual conference at Ryerson University in Toronto, July 25 -28. The book includes contributions from José Alaniz, Ian Blechschmidt, Paul Fisher Davies, Zanne Domoney-Lyttle, David Huxley, Lynn Marie Kutch, Julian Lawrence, Liliana Milkova, Stiliana Milkova, Kim A. Munson, Jason S. Polley, Paul Sheehan, Clarence Burton Sheffield Jr. , and Daniel Worden. Preorder now for May 2021 release.

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Art & Museums draw a crowd at SDCF and Comic-Con Museum

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Kim Munson, Adam Smith, Rob Salkowitz, and Mark Schultz on the Splashing Ink on Museum Walls panel at San Diego Comics Fest, March 2019. Photo by Eunice Verstegen.

Kim Munson, Adam Smith, Rob Salkowitz, and Mark Schultz on the Splashing Ink on Museum Walls panel at San Diego Comics Fest, March 2019. Photo by Eunice Verstegen.

The Museum Panel

Had a great time at San Diego Comic Fest this year. Our panel Splashing Ink on Museum Walls with Rob Salkowitz (moderator), cartoonist/illustrator Mark Schultz, SDCC Museum Executive Director Adam Smith, and myself was well-attended. We had a great discussion on several topics. After a brief intro, Rob led a discussion of recent shows that combined old master fine art and comics, like Botticelli and graphic novelist Karl Stevens in Botticelli: Heroines + Heroes at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston).

We had a lengthy conversation about the issue of narrative, and different techniques used by artists and curators to display art and still pay attention to the storytelling function of comics. This was a special concern of Mark’s as his books contain complex stories. We talked about shows that display entire books, like Speigelman’s Co-Mix and Crumb’s Genesis, as well as shows that focused on shorter stories, covers, and a sequence of pages that show a story arc within a larger story.

Adam talked a bit about how the museum is developing and his excitement about having the museum’s first official opening night party for Cover Story just two nights prior to the panel (photos below). He also spoke about about the museum’s experiments with the concept of fan sourced exhibits, and about the strong grassroots support the museum is getting.

I talked a bit about history. Although we had a agreed to talk mostly about recent shows from the last five or six years, I made a quick detour into the 1930s and 40s, because people still think of comics shows as a new thing that has just appeared over the last decade. I also talked about the importance of seeing the original artwork with all the notes and marking for the viewing audience and for other artists.

In audience questions, one audience member accused us of dismissing the important MOMA show High & Low, which eventually led to Masters of American Comics, which was organized in response. The panel touched on it briefly. To me, High & Low and Masters are part of a two decade story that is hard to tell in a couple of sentences (I dedicate an entire section of my book to the dialog between these two shows).

Another audience member wondered if there had ever been a show of pop art style photographic blow-ups of comics panels. I told him that this was tried back in 1967 at the Louvre and no one has done a show exclusively of blow-ups since. Bande dessinee et figuration narrative , was organized by SOCCERLID, group of French intellectuals who loved American comics of the 30s and 40s, They used pop art style blow-ups of comics panels (Caniff, Hogarth, etc) in response to the comics based paintings of Roy Lichtenstein, whom they despised. After the show closed in Paris, it toured to several European capitals in the late 1960s. The Institute of Contemporary Art in London originally planned to have this show, but opted instead to assemble an exhibit of original art. By the mid-1970s, museums, curators, and artists decided that the blow-ups were inauthentic, were kind of insulting (a different way of turning comics into Pop Art), and missed all the elements that made comics unique, like layout and narrative. Audiences valued the aura of authenticity seen in the originals and they appreciated learning about the creative process through all the markings, white-out and other notations. Many shows use blow-ups to show detail or as a design element, but no one has ever done a show of nothing but Pop Art style blow-ups since. Even Masters of American Comics, which specifically focused on visual form, did not do this.

We were all grateful to the audience, who were intellectually engaged and curious throughout the panel.

Barbara “Willy” Mendes, Mark Bode, and Trina Robbins hold up copies of the “East Village Other” during the “Gothic Blimp Works” panel.

Barbara “Willy” Mendes, Mark Bode, and Trina Robbins hold up copies of the “East Village Other” during the “Gothic Blimp Works” panel.

Other Great Panels!

All attendees I spoke with were impressed with the selection of panels scheduled, as well as a robust dealer room and artist’s alley. I particularly enjoyed Urban Geography and Comics, led by Dr. Lisa Chaddock; The Beginnings of Modern Mythology, Pop Culture and Modern Superheroes and Villains an overview by David Lemmo; The 1950s Made Kurtzman MAD with Michael Dooley and Bill Schelly; Pioneers of Comix with Mary Gleener, Lee Marrs, Willy Mendes, and Trina Robbins; Ditko: An Arlen Schumer VisuaLecture; Mary Fleener’s First Graphic Novel “Billy the Bee” (one of my favorite panels) with Fleener, Mark Habegger, and James Nieh, PhD (a bee specialist); a special remembrance of Batton Lash, a pillar of SDCC, who was lost to us earlier this year, with Anina Bennett, Jackie Estrada, Mark Evenier, Paul Guinan, Rob Salkowitz, Artlen Schumer, and Scott Shaw!; Comics, Space Travels, to the Moon & Beyond with Michael Dooley and Benjamin Dickow; and spotlights on Vaughn Bode, Willy Mendes, and Mark Schultz. I wish I could have cloned myself to get to more!

Cover Story at the San Diego Comic-Con Museum

2019 marks 50 years of SDCC, making it the longest continuously run comics and pop culture convention in North America. This show displayed sketches, paintings, and finished versions for yearly souvenir books pulled from Comic-Con’s archives and private collections. The opening night party, open to Charter Members, included an Eisner Week panel in the Museum’s theatre with Jackie Estrada, IDW’s Scott Dunbier, moderated by Charles Brownstein of CBLDF. Aside from the theatre and the gallery set up for Cover Story, the museum is a cavernous, three story space awaiting a top to bottom remodel.