News 
Posted by Winter on May 14, 2008
St. Louis is having a big cartooning exhibit based around Dan Martin’s new book: See You in the Funny Papers: The Rich Tradition of St. Louis Cartooning. The exhibit will be up May 17 to August 30 and is being held at the Bellwether Gallery of St. Louis Artists, which is a division of The Sheldon. There will be an opening reception Friday May 16, with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres served from 5-7 p.m. as part of the Grand Center Gallery walk. There will also be a gallery talk and book signing with Dan Marin Saturday, May 31 at 11:00 a.m.
Here’s more about the exhibit from the Grand Center website:
Curated by Dan Martin, designer and illustrator at the St. Louis Post Dispatch, this exhibition chronicles the history of cartooning in the St. Louis area from its historically obscure foundations to the legendary works of Robert Minor, Al Frueh, Harry Tuthill and Chic Young of Blondie fame, among many others. The exhibit also features some of today’s most popular cartoonists like Mike Peters of Mother Goose and Grimm fame and others working in graphic novels and underground ‘zines today. All of the artists included here were either born in or have lived and worked in the St. Louis region, and this exhibit reveals the rich contribution of these talented internationally recognized artists to the history of the medium. It will delight audiences young and old!
The Post-Dispatch has an editorial which talks about the exhibit and it’s origins. This exhibit also has a Columbia tie because the exhibition was made possible in part by MU alumnus Mort Walker.
Dan Martin, in case you didn’t know, draws the Weatherbird for the front page of the St. Louis Post Dispatch. He even wrote a book about the character: The Story of the First 100 Years of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Weatherbird: The Oldest Continuously Running Daily Cartoon in American Journalism.
Posted in: Uncategorized
Posted by Winter on May 3, 2008
The Maneater student newspaper has a review of Peter Bagge’s Apocalypse Nerd collection.
Posted in: Uncategorized
Posted by Winter on May 3, 2008
Movies coming to a theater near you:
Update:
- Wanted (Release date June 27, 2008; Top Cow)
Posted in: Uncategorized
Posted by Winter on April 30, 2008
It’s time for the annual Free Comic Book Day on Saturday, May 3rd. There are two locations in Mid-Missouri who are participating:
Rock Bottom Comics, 1013 E Walnut St, Columbia, MO
Hastings, 2233 Missouri Blvd, Jefferson City, MO
Posted in: Uncategorized
Posted by Winter on April 30, 2008
A bicycle store in downtown Columbia named KLUNK has a website with a couple of cartoons on it.
Posted in: Uncategorized
Posted by Winter on April 28, 2008
This week’s Vox magazine is all about gay life in Columbia and they have a story about LGBT comic book characters included in the issue.
Posted in: Uncategorized
Posted by Winter on April 21, 2008
Local artist/educator Bob Hartzell has his thesis show up at the Orr Street Studios now through May 3rd. The name of the show is Polite Conversations: Provoking Dialogue Through Community Interaction, Recent Books and Ephemera. It showcases his artist books, which are kind of like an experimental comic or zine done with his unique screen printing techniques. You can literally flip through some of his books up on his Polite Conversations website. A reception for the show will be Friday April 25th during Artrageous Friday. (Special Musical Guest: Casey Reeves 6 to 8 PM)
Update: Vox Magazine has a story on the show and Bob was also interviewed on Kevin Walsh’s radio show on April 16th.
Posted in: Uncategorized
Posted by Winter on April 20, 2008
We churned out some jams last night’s pitchers and pictures event at Gumbys. Jam participants include: Andrew, Fading Aura, Winter, Dan & K. Major. The second to last jam pictured is something that Fading Aura came up with where he and Dan each wrote out phrases for the other one to interpret in pictures as they saw fit. The last jam here is something Dan came up with where he drew a picture of supes and we all had other heroes talk about him.
Posted in: Comic jams
Posted by Winter on April 16, 2008
According to a post at the Orr Street Studio’s blog, Frank Stack’s book, The New Adventures of Jesus is getting a French translation. Frank has studio space at Orr Street Studios, in case you didn’t know.
I also just stumbled upon a video of Stack talking a little about the ideas behind The New Adventures of Jesus. The video was taken at the opening of a 2004 comic themed St. Louis art show called The Rubber Frame.
Posted in: Uncategorized
Posted by Winter on April 16, 2008
The Maneater student newspaper has a review of the new Batman/Grendel collection from Dark Horse Comics.
Posted in: Uncategorized
Posted by Josh on April 8, 2008
Local comic creator, Zac Crockett, currently has his comic Opey the Warhead up as a Featured Webcomic at DrunkDuck.com. Congratulations, Zac!
Posted in: Local comics
Posted by Josh on April 6, 2008
Our next Midmococo featured creator is Ladydark who’s been hard at work redrawing early issues of her book Broken Glass.
What are you working on now comics-wise?
“The same thing we do every night, Pinky … try to take over the world.” ^.^ Well, the webcomic world, anyway. I’ve been telling the same story, Broken Glass, since I first put it on the web in 2003. While I have the storyline completely plotted, graphic art is a very slow medium to work in! Unfortunately, as I become a better artist, it seems to take longer and longer to finish each page as well. But I have over 300 pages of story up and growing.
How’s your comic output been the last year? What’s helped or hindered your output?
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in: Featured creators
Posted by Winter on April 5, 2008
Have you heard of the new comic magazine Comic Foundry? Issue #2 just came out this week and KC creator Matt Fraction is on the cover. However I’m noting it on this blog because the creator of the magazine is former MU grad Tim Leong. Here’s how the magazine is described on the website:
The market already has comic magazines talking to the two very opposite ends of fandom, but no one is speaking to the wide and growing number of fans who find themselves somewhere in between. Personally, I read a mix of superhero comics, indie comics, and manga. My reading isn’t limited to just one category—I like to mix it up, and I think most readers do too.
You should be able to pick up the magazine at a comic store, or order it (sometime soon) on their website.
And speaking of comic magazines, you might already know that the online devision of Wizard Magazine got MU grad Jim Gibbons as an editor a few months back. However, you might not know that Jim started a blog up on the Wizard Universe website in February called The Loudest Monkey. In yet another tie in to a KC creator, you can check out his review of B. Clay Moore’s JSA Classified #35. (Jim also interviewed Moore and Fraction for a Missourian story when he lived in Columbia.)
Update: Jim posted some kind words about the midmococo on his Wizard blog.
Posted in: Uncategorized
Posted by Winter on March 21, 2008
According to a MU Journalism School press release, New Yorker cartoonist Michael Shaw will serve as contributing cartoonist to the centennial of the Missouri School of Journalism and dedication of the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute.
The MU alumnus will draft a series of cartoons around the theme of “J-School Epiphanies.” The cartoons will be on display Sept. 10-12, 2008 for the centennial/dedication celebration.
A few months ago I wrote a post about his interview in Mizzou Magazine (pictured right), where he also ran a caption contest.
Posted in: Uncategorized
Posted by Winter on March 21, 2008
In support of the new Batman movie The Dark Knight, a marketing campaign for I Believe in Harvey Dent is underway. The Dentmobile visited Columbia on Thursday, March 20th: 2-3:30pm - Memorial Union South 518 Hitt Street, 4-5:30pm - Hitt Street Market 111 Hitt Street, 6-8pm - Shakespeare’s Pizza 225 S. 9th St.
If you missed the promotion, you can follow the Dentmobile online. It’s making three stops in Kansas City later today (March 21st).
Update: Photo courtesy of Unitzoid.
Posted in: Uncategorized
Posted by Winter on March 20, 2008
Columbia’s Rock Bottom Comics has moved this month to 1013 East Walnut Street, just a few doors west of their previous location. The recently renovated building (which once housed the Columbia Art League) will be home to Rock Bottom, and some other “office users” according to a Tribune article. Rock Bottom had been at their previous location at 1029 East Walnut Street since 2000, but they’ve been in business in Columbia Mo. since 1973.
Posted in: Uncategorized
Posted by Winter on March 20, 2008
The Friends of the Columbia Public Library is having their monthly book sale on Tuesday April 1st from 12 p.m. - 7 p.m. This month the theme of the sale is Biography, Science Fiction and Comics.
In their major spring sale earlier this month, they had several boxes of comics that they were selling (which is pretty unusual for a book sale). From what they told me, the plan is to put what wasn’t sold at the last sale up for sale next month. The comics were selling for 10 cents, so it’d be a good place to pick up some good deals!
Posted in: Uncategorized
Posted by Winter on March 20, 2008
The pulp hero Doc Savage is 75 years old this year. Mid-Missouri blogger Mercurie has written a post all about the character:
Doc Savage #1 was dated March 1933 and went on sale on February 15, 1933. This means that whether one goes by the magazine’s cover date or when it hit the newsstands, Doc Savage has entered his 75th year of existence. Regardless of which date one relies upon as Doc’s official “birthday,” it would seem to be reason to celebrate. Doc Savage was not only one of the most successful pulp characters with his own magazine, but he also proved to be one of the most influential as well.
Doc Savage was mainly written by Mid-Missourian Lester Dent, who was born in La Plata Missouri lived there for a great deal of his life. The character had a big impact on the superhero genre, including Superman and Batman.
Posted in: History
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