Venus in Furs in Supertrash in Pittsburg

I saw this posted on Fantagraphics' blog yesterday, and pal Tom Neely also mentioned it today. A picture of mine is in the Supertrash show at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburg, you can see it there in the bottom photo, second from the left, or just below this sentence.

I also echo Tom's sentiments: "I have very little information about what's going on with the show, but it will be up from October 17th through January 30th" and "I stole the above photos from the Fantagraphics blog."

APE Stuff

I brought home a bunch of stuff from APE last weekend and I am starting to read through it. Here's the good stuff so far:

LOSE by Michael Deforge
This is a crazy comic with funny JLA satire strips, famous comic characters who are in hell, and great single-panel dog comics. The drawing is also very beautiful. It looks like this guy also did the cover for the issue #4 of Diamond Comics that was also new at APE, but I haven't read it yet. I think this dude will be as famous as Chris Ware.

STAY AWAY FROM OTHER PEOPLE by Lisa Hanawalt
I got this mini-comic and Lisa's other new regular comic but have only read the mini. There are some real solid laughs in here and good drawings. I guess it won a Ignatz award? That's pretty good. The dude at the table I bought it from told me I could get Lisa Hanawalt to sign it for me, but she was talking to some other people and I am shy around everyone and really unpleasant in general, so I just left. I predict she will be as famous as Chris Ware, too, if it's possible for three people be that famous at the same time.

DOOKIE-BALL JONES by Al Frank
Tim Goodyear gave me this thing and it's pretty good. But it's also extremely dirty and mean. There is poop-eating and Craigslist "encounters" and racism and pedophilia, but it's all in good fun/satire. Tim said people give it back to him after they buy it and don't even want their money back. Rated X for eXtraordinary, and because it's very disgusting and offensive--AND IT REALLY MAKES YOU THINK.

HENRY & GLENN FOREVER #1 & #2 by Igloo Tornado
I actually got these from Tom Neely at San Diego Comic-Con Int'l this summer and I think they were new two years ago, but still funny. Issue one posits that Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig are best buds/lovers/roomies and milks that situation for what it's worth. Number two is more of the same, but now they live next door to Hall & Oates.

That's it for now.

APE This Weekend

I'll be in San Franciso this weekend for the Alternative Press Expo. Above is the cover of a new mini-comic I did, Crime World. It's 12 pages of action-packed fun about a life of crime. Pick one up at the Sparkplug Comics table, along with one of everything else and make all of us really wondrously wealthy and powerful. Click here for more details from Sparkplug's blog.

SPX This Weekend

This weekend is SPX! I bet there will be lots of wonderful comics and people there. Specifically, up-and-coming publisher Sparkplug Comic Books and Books will be in attendance with my two comic books and all their other stuff for sale and exposition (see Dylan's Sparkplug blog post for more). If you go to the show check out my Danny Dutch Comic Book--it's nominated for some Ignatz Awards in case you like it and are inclined to vote for stuff like that.

I'm not going to be at this show. But I will imagine myself being there and seeing you there if you are there.

The Covered Blog

A Jimmy Olsen cover I redrew is on Robert Goodin's Covered blog today.

Comic-Con is Finally Over

Take a gander at my Flickr set of con pics and our comic-con blog, Funny Town Humor Pump.

The Shortest Promo Blog Post

My new comic, The Shortest Interval, is now available! Order today from Sparkplug Comics Books! If you're unsure, take a look at the preview that Jason L. at Arthur Magazine posted the other day.

San Diego Comic-Con Int'l

Beginning this Wednesday night through Sunday evening I will be at San Diego's Comic-Con International. In addition to the continued availablility of the Danny Dutch Comic Book, I have this brand new comic ready to go, The Shortest Interval. I'll be working the crowds at the Sparkplug Comics Books booth (1531) with my pals Dylan Williams, Tom Neely, Chris Cilla, Julia Wertz, Tim Goodyear, Austin English, Damien Jay, Ben Catmull, Minty Lewis, Andrew Smith and maybe more!

Sparkplug's got two other new books, too: Sausage Hand by Andrew Smith and Neptune by Aaron Nels Steinke. All three new books will also be for sale at the Sparkplug table at the Portland Zine Symposium this selfsame weekend!!?! Get the lowdown on the books and shows here. All the new comics should also be for sale on the Sparkplug website sometime soon.

Oh, one more thing: a few of us are going to try to post exciting blog entries during the San Diego show at the highly experimental Funny Town Humor Pump blog. Add it to your feed reader and find out how we're feeling this very second.

I will see you there!

Printing Blog

I came across a new blog the other day, Quality In Print, that has lots of info on professional printing, of course. There's a lot of stuff about the business of printing and calibrating your workflow and saving ink and stuff like that that I don't know anything about, but there's also lots of useful info that people like me and you who make comic books can learn and use to do a better job and get better looking printed books. Specifically, check out these five posts on dot gain that I found very interesting, and another five about LPI and DPI. Even if you only make mini-comics on the sly at work, this stuff is good if one day you hit the "big time" and it's also interesting if you are a production nerd like Sparkplug Comics' Dylan Williams.

Claptrap #2 by Onsmith

Old pal Onsmith sent me a copy of his new mini-comic, Claptrap #2, got it on Friday. If you can get your hands on one you will be impressed. People just don't make mini-comics like this anymore, or if they attempt it they fail in comparison. Production value is off the chart with a nice two color silkscreen cover (I already got a spot of coffee or something on mine, unfortunately--goodbye collectible value), and he must've found the cleanest photocopier drum in town to do the guts of the comic; nice dense black, hi-res scans.

The quality of the cartooning in here is the usual grade of wonderful. Dirty gags, confounding doodles, comments on the miserable human condition--all in all a load of laffs. Also a color centerfold, and mine has an original small drawing taped in the back cover. Try to find a copy if you're near Chicago.

Anyhow, he's a good buddy of mine from way back, and it was real nice of him to send me one of these. It's nice to know I have such friends out there.

Sparkplug at Olympia

Sparkplug Comics will be at the Olympia Comics Festival—TOMORROW ONLY. Also in attendance will be Chris Cilla, Champion of Comics. I'm not going to this show, in fact I didn't even know about it, but I bet it will be a wonderful antidote to the big shows like TCAF and MOCCA. Next up is COMICON INT'L 2009. I'm trying to get a comic finished this weekend for that very show called The Shortest Interval.

SICKENING PROMOTION

I don't know why I post about stuff like this when I'm not going to be there, but some of my pals and Sparkplug Bullpen Buddies are involved in big excitement this weekend at the MOCCA Fest in NYC.

There is the Future Ink Show on Friday:

"Celebrate new releases by cartoonist Minty Lewis who will be debuting her collected Ignatz Award winning PS Comics, along with fellow cartoonists Jesse Moynihan, author of the critically acclaimed Follow Me, Kazimir Strzepek, creator of the Eisner Award-nominated graphic novel The Mourning Star and, last but not least, Olga Volozova and Ignatz nominee Juliacks who will unveil their new collaborative comic book odyssey, Rock That Never Sleeps." more info

And this thing on Saturday:

"Giant Robot is proud to present the Panelists V art show and as well as a reception for three new comic books at the Giant Robot Gallery in the East Village...[the show includes] Alixopulos, Andrice Arp, Shawn Cheng, Tim Hensley, Levon Jihanian, Hellen Jo, Tom Neely, Steven 'Ribs' Weissman...and more!" (I singled out some friends of mine, there's many more people in the show -ed.) more info

Austin E. will be signing his new Windy Corner #3 at Giant Robot on Saturday, also.

Spend all your money while you still have some! Especially on buying Danny Dutch Comic Books to make me really powerfully rich and special. You might also be able to get one of the Danny Dutch/Sparkplug post cards at MOCCA if you look hard or ask.

In the Pipeline

I'm working on a new mini-comic to have a grand unveiling at San Diego COMICON INT'L this summer, published by my friends, the team at Sparkplug Comic Books and Books and Distributors. It'll be an historical essay in comics form. I have to get it turned around pretty fast, it looks like (I might give up, too).

Danny Dutch Postcard

I've been working on this postcard the last couple of evenings. I think it's supposed to go in the same print run as Austin English's Windy Corner #3, coming soon. I posted this to show something that I was working on instead of more dumb promo stuff, but I guess I messed it up. Next I'll get back to work on Strip #40 and maybe other stuff.

TCAF This Weekend

I'll probably be at TCAF this weekend along with Dylan Williams of Sparkplug Comics and Tom Neely of whatever he's of. This will be the Danny Dutch Comic Book's first Canadian comics fest appearance. Still only $5.50!

Free Comic Book Day: Bird Hurdler

HOTT cover by Andrice Arp

Free Comic Book Day is tomorrow! My publisher and pals have produced a a nice looking free comic for the event:

Teenage Dinosaur, Tugboat Press and Sparkplug present the release of Bird Hurdler by Andrice Arp, Theo Ellsworth, Farel Dalrymple, Zack Soto, Lisa Rosalie Eisenberg [doesn't have a website ??] & Julia Gfrörer and printed at Brown Printing.

Follow the link to see the list of participating comic shops where you can score a copy. My guess is that Bird Hurdler will also be offered at convention appearances until all the copies have been given away (with purchase ???). That's what happened with last year's now-classic Nerd Burglar, anyhow

Seattle Stranger Reviews Danny Dutch

The Danny Dutch comic book got a favorable review in the Seattle Stranger.

"New Portland-based comics publisher Sparkplug has produced some exciting work in its short existence, but the most fully formed and hypnotic of all of them is Danny Dutch..."

Take that, Bookhunter!

Stumptown Comics Fest

This weekend in Portland, Oregon is the Stumptown Comics Fest! Sparkplug Comic Books, publisher of the Danny Dutch comic book, will be in attendance. In addition to all their usual great comics they will have three brand new comics releases -- check them out. The Sparkplug blog also lists some other exciting weekend events.

Also, my pal Tom Neely notes on his blog that he contributed the cover to this week's Portland Mercury newspaper which has an article about the comics fest (links are in his blog post). He will have a table at Stumptown, too.

I'm not going to be there, but I'll be thinking of you being there.

Thanks Comics Reporter

Tom Spurgeon, the Comics Reporter, gave Danny Dutch a nice mention over the weekend in his round-up of webcomics that he reads:

"I look at these comics frequently, and while I enjoy them and respect the level of craft involved I have this strange feeling that I'm going to like some future work by King so much that it will force me to go back and re-examine these and I'll like them that much more."

I hope he's right, but there's no reason to hold your breath.

Anyway, be sure to follow the link and take a look at the other things he mentions, there's lots of neat comics on the list. Also, if you came here from there, you might find it easier to follow Danny Dutch on Flickr, or maybe it's just as easy to follow the links from here. SHRUG

PS: There'll be a new strip this week, probably. Watch this space

Danny Dutch and Jin & Jam Reviewed

Rob Clough posted a nice review of Danny Dutch and fellow Sparkplug bullpenner Hellen Jo's Jin & Jam #1.

Gluyas Williams Stuff

There's been a little bit of activity regarding Gluyas Williams lately on the internet: First, a batch of dailies on Ger Apeldoorn's The Fabuleous Fifties blog; Second, on Allan Holtz's Strippers Guide, a 1949 Editor & Publisher write-up about cartoonist Francis Dahl with a quote from Gluyas Williams.

There's unfortunately not been any new activity on gluyaswilliams.com, but maybe I'll do some scanning when I'm too lazy to draw.

Also a H/T to Mike Lynch who beat me to the punch on these same links the other day.

The two drawings here are illustrations from the 1932 book Cut Off My Head by Jasper Whiting.

Danny Dutch Weekly Strip #36

I didn't do anything for a month! Anyhow, I'm a step away from just killing this blog since I never post much of anything anymore...You should bookmark the Danny Dutch Strip RSS Feed or my Flickr photostream since that seems to be where all the big action is. Also keep an eye on reliablecomics.com since I just renewed the domain for another year. And don't forget to buy Danny Dutch's Illiterate Yellow Funny Book from my inestimable pooblisher Sparkplug Comic Books and Stories. That's it, I guess.

Weekly Strip #33

Not much for blogging lately, I guess. I'll post the finished #33 tomorrow or Saturday...

Oh, take a look at my APE photos here. It was a blast; I learned that I speak in a gruesome indifferent monotone, just like Tom Neely.

Panelists 4 show in San Francisco Nov 1

I'll have some things in Giant Robot's upcoming Panelists 4 show, opening on Nov 1st; it will coincide with APE, and the Cartoon Art Museum reading I'm participating in (see post here). With some pretty esteemed company, too! It ought to be pretty good.

I just sent my junk to them this evening, in a goofy oversized box because I wrapped it wrong to start with and Fedex did not like it that way. Thirty minutes hanging around Fedex is bad vibes. Also when I was walking home some crazy driver almost ran over people at each end of the block. I just laughed!

Reading at Cartoon Art Museum Nov. 1

Party and reading on Saturday, November 1, at the Cartoon Art Museum, San Francisco CA to coincide with the Alternative Press Expo that weekend. A bunch of us are reading and having a slide show. I've never done one of these before and I only know a couple of the other people, so I will mess up. SEE IT and donate money to the museum also.

Weekly Strip #25

This is the first panel to strip #25

Comics Reporter Tom Spurgeon linked to the strip today which was pretty neighborly of him. If you came from there thanks for the interest. I've only posted the first panel of the last few strips as a tease for the eventual mini-comic version that I'm planning for APE in November.

You may also want to look at the Flickr set of the strips for an easier reading experience ( I think so, anyway). I tend to get stuff posted there before I put it here--gotta get my money's worth!

Links, News, Updates, Everything

I got linked/recommended by Rick Bradford/Poopsheet and Steve Stwalley/Stwallskull in the last couple of days. Thanks fellas! And hello to visitors from there.

The weekly comic strip is lagging as usual, I'll probably have something by the weekend, or maybe next week? I really only started working on it tonight. Once I get 25 or 30 done i'll make a mini-comic of the best ones. Look for it at SPX or APE, I suppose, if it gets done.

I will also be a COMICON INT'L next week, Thursday thru Sunday. I'll be creeping around the Sparkplug Comic Books table. Also there will be Dylan Williams, Trevor Alixopolous, Jeff LeVine, Tom Neely, Tim Goodyear, Jason Shiga, more ! I'll be wearing this t-shirt:

Gluyaswilliams.com Update

I added three daily strips from 1924 to gluyaswilliams.com. In an effort to get more strips up faster, I didn't go to any trouble cleaning these up, or making black-line versions. They look good either way. With luck there'll be more to come!

For more info on Gluyas Williams don't hesitate to checkout the latest issue of Comic Art Magazine, which includes a nice article by Jeet Heer and published by the estimable Buenaventura Press. This issue also features a cover by pal Tim Hensley and a additional book by other pal Ivan Brunetti. It's been on the stands for over a year, so you've probably bought one already.

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Links to Me

I've gotten a little bit of new traffic in the last few days from Tom Spurgeon and Newsarama's blog--I hope you guys like what I've got here. Unfortunately I don't have anything very new up and I took this week off from my comic strip because I moved. SO check out the old strips here or at my Flickr page, and bookmark, because something new will show up eventually...

Shopping, Prints, BFFs

I took a look in the Family store this past Saturday in L.A. I saw that they have a couple of the litho prints (titled Stamina) that John Hankiewicz made to commemorate our SPX '06 experience. John, Onsmith, Ivan Brunetti and I each did a little drawing and John did the prints, it came out nice!

Up above is the drawing that I contributed, scanned from my sketchbook. The four of us also made a mini-comic for the show that we were handing out free. I'm not sure where you might be able to find one of them now; I don't know if I even have one. But they were neat! Four new drawings apiece, very small size.

Anyway, the print was priced at $20 at Family. They also had more of John's prints for sale, and dozens of other things. Check it out and tell them I sent you. And then tell me that I sent you.

And don't forget to bookmark Hankiewicz's and Onsmith's blogs for a heaping helping of their naive artwork. Hankiewicz is in the new Mome #10; Onsmith is in the new Hotwire Comics #2. If you need help finding Ivan Brunetti comics, you're stupid.

Supertrash: Venus In Furs Poster Redo

I did this for the Supertrash Film Fest / Art Show that's upcoming on February 1-3 in Portland, Ore. I'm not sure if they automatically accept whatever's sent in or if it's juried somehow, but we'll see. Pals Tom Neely, Chris Cilla, Alex Holden and Jim Rugg have also done one, probably others I don't know about.

Anyway, I did Venus in Furs, a terrible movie from the late 60's about a horny jazz musician and a hot naked ghost(?) lady, and a hot jazz singer lady who never gets naked and three murderous jerks. Don't bother watching it.

This is also my excuse for not having a new weekly strip for today. Not the real reason, but it's good enough. I may have a strip for tomorrow. Sorry!

New Gocco Print

Printed on a 4¾" x 2⅜" paper tag, it may be hung from a Christmas tree, rearview mirror, suitcase, or wherever your imagination might suspend it; string included. This particular print is a bit off register so it looks a little blurry. Others are even worse! I dunno, how about $2? Final price TBD.

It's a print gocco print and I made a few of them today to sell at super*MARKET Los Angeles, this Saturday at Meltdown Comics. I'll be at Tom Neely's table, trying to sell these prints and my currently in-print mini-comics.

See you on Saturday.

UPDATE (12/16/07): I DID NOT see you on Saturday

New Mini-Comics for SPX

I won't be there, but my new mini-comic will probably be at SPX in MD, USA. Find it at the Sparkplug Comics table, #F1. It's 24 pages of fun and is called Danny Dutch and the King of Aliens part 1. Sparkplug also had the whole line of David King's Reliable Comics back at Comicon, but may have sold out or discarded them by now.

It's For You

This is a discard print from the batch I made for the Gocco Set, a set of prints made with the Print Gocco pocket silkscreening toy, put together a couple years ago by my friends, and powerful cartoonists, Onsmith and Ivan Brunetti. This particular print suffers from being way off-register and there's some weak spots that didn't get any ink. It was also printed on mylar, which is a little too slick and not porous enough for the ink, so the prints took a week to dry. I'm also interested to see what'll happen, if anything, to these over time if the mylar starts out-gassing or degrading somehow. So far they look the same...

I'm planning another gocco print since I have a lot of time on my hands lately (I'm new in town and unemployed--won't you please help?). And I still have a couple of the Gocco Sets for sale, contact me at david @ reliablecomics . com

Complete Guide to Professional Cartooning

Steve Worth over at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive blog has begun posting pages from Gene Byrnes' Complete Guide to Professional Cartooning! My pal Marc Crisafulli has loaned the Archive his copy of the book. I posted a few pages from the same book in the last couple weeks, but Steve looks like he's able to put them up at a much faster clip than I ever could. So, go over there and check them out, but don't stop looking here!!!

Links to pages I posted:
page 150: F.G. Cooper
page 151: Gluyas Williams
pages 240-249: Fred Quimby / MGM Animation

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Your Favorite Cartoonist

If you're reading this, and you're the type with a favorite cartoonist that nobody else seems to know about, and you've been hoarding stuff by your favorite cartoonist that you haven't shown anyone else, and you know HTML, then you owe it to yourself and all of us to make a website about YOUR FAVORITE CARTOONIST. A domain name costs ten bucks a year. A webhost is free (well, mostly: doteasy.com charges you a one-time $35 domain transfer fee, and after that it's free. Or you could just use a blog, which is entirely free). You probably already have a scanner. There you have it!

Check these grassroots cartoonist sites:
Alex Toth
Mort Meskin
K. Huizenga's Misc. stuff

If you have a good one send me the link, because I can't think of any more, but there's gotta be some.

I'm mentioning this because I've done it, and the product is www.gluyaswilliams.com. There's not a ton of material there at the moment, but I'll add more over time. I've got the stuff, so I might as well share it.