Daniel Boone Regional Library currently has a comics and graphic novels display up at the library, but they are also giving out blank comic templates for people to draw on and turn back in for the library to display. At this month’s midmococo meeting we completed a jam using one of the blank templates:
Last weekend was the True/False documentary film fest in Columbia and a couple of comic related things by director Nathan Truesdell caught my eye. One was this video featuring MU professor of veterinary medicine Tim Evans dressed as his alter ego The Antidote. The short was an entry to the Gimme Truth competition where judges had to guess whether the video was true or false. (Two out of three judges thought it was false.) On March 1st, Mizzou Wire honored Evans by giving him the Nerd of the Year award.
Truesdell’s second contribution to the fest was a bumper video shown before every movie at the festival. It happens to feature underground comic artist Frank Stack as the guy with the mop.
According to a news story at the Warrensburg Missouri Digital Burg site, a University of Central Missouri student has won a contest started by famous writer Stan Lee. The contest was to create a new character for Stan Lee’s Time Jumper series, and freshman illustration major Matt Reynolds answered the call with a character called Backdraft. Reynolds and a friend traveled to Los Angeles for a lunch with Stan Lee as part of winning the contest.
How did comic books go from being trash in the 1950s to treasure in the ’70s? Peter Coogan, director of the Institute for Comics Studies, delves into the depths of the ’60s to discover how fan clubs and comic book conventions provided a marketplace in which old comics became valuable. Please join us on the closing day of the Treasure! exhibition for this informative program.
Local comic artist Jeremy Burt has a feature story in the Columbia Tribune today. The story focuses on his strip Jeremy And Tim, which made it to the top 5% of Amazon.com’s Comic Strip Superstar contest as we reported last month. The Tribune also showcased some of his new art on their blog last Thursday too.
Here are some jams from the November 1st Midmococo meeting. The first jam is a thank you card for Lisa Bartlett for hosting last month’s 24 hour comics day event at her Artlandish Gallery. (The design was based on my poster for the 24 hour comic day event.)
I’m a little late to announce this, but William “Bill” Hume passed away on June 27th, 2009. Hume was a multi-talented artist, born and raised in Columbia, Mo., and living here most of his life. He was 93 years old at the time of his death.
Several people have been working hard on their comics for the anthology, so I’ve got a quick update on the Mid-Missouri Comics Anthology and info about a work night.
The State Historical Society of Missouri has just opened a new exhibit: The Golden Age of the Comic Strip. The show runs November 9th 2009 to May 2010, and a reception for the exhibit will be held from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday, November 13th.. Here’s the show description from the website:
The 1930s–1950s were vibrant years for the production of newspaper comics, and this exhibition will showcase the Society’s rarely seen examples, many of which were collected by the well–known former editor of the Mexico Ledger, L. Mitchell White, and his son, Robert M. Works by some of the greatest artists of the genre will be displayed, with original pen and ink drawings for classic strips such as Mutt and Jeff, Little Orphan Annie, and Blondie, and cartoons from the workshop of Walt Disney.
Please note that the State Historical Society hours have been recently cut back due to state budget cuts. They are now open Monday to Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.
When he’s not busy being a graphic designer/illustrator, Gary Lister is churning out the panels for his Web comic Morganna of the Borgs. We got a chance to interview Gary to find out what it’s been like starting a new Web comic.
What are you working on now comics-wise?
I am working on my own webcomic — Morganna of the Borgs Its a story of a young woman who finds herself suddenly and very unexpectedly the only person capable of saving Earth from an alien invasion.
How’s your comic output been the last year? What’s helped or hindered your output?
Being the first year, its still kind of in development — trying to get a stable schedule going. I’ve had a couple of format changes from single panel black & white posts to full page, full color posts. I’m in need of a new computer/design setup so this past month MOTB has been on hold while I knock out some pay illustration work. MOTB will be back on track the first week of November as I make the transition from pencil/ink/scan to 100% digitally created comics. Read the rest of this entry »
Cartoonist Dan Zettwoch has curated an art show featuring many St. Louis comic artists. The show is called Famous Fictional and runs at the Mad Art Gallery November 6th to December 1st. It features “characters ripped from the headlines of ancient texts, traditional folk tales, and modern films.” Participating artists include: Anchovy, Jenny Cimino, Katie Frisbee-O’malley, John Hendrix, Kevin Huizenga, Mardou, Scott Matthews, Thomas Plunk, Peter Pranschke, Jason Robards, Chris Roettger, Jessica Russo, Max Vento, Ron Weaver, Jeff Worm, Brian Yap, & Dan Zettwoch. Check out how Dan Zettwoch made the poster for the show.
The press is all over a story about an auction of 3,000 well preserved comics found in an Arnold Missouri home by an heir. Mound City Auctions held the auction Sunday and Monday in the Ameristar Casino of St. Charles, and entertained bids from collectors worldwide. As of Sunday, the highest item sold was X-Men #1 for $101,000. According to Mound City Auctions, the preliminary sales figures for both days were around $1,000,000. If you’re interested to see what some of the items went for, you can view some through a St. Louis Examiner’s slideshow. There’s some more information in this Fox 2 news segment about the auction:
For 24 Hour Comics Day, J.B. Winter had a unique spin on the event. Instead of creating a 24-page comic, he created a huge, 24-panel sidewalk chalk strip. How he came up with the idea:
I got the idea for sidewalk comics one day when I was, of course, walking on a sidewalk. Sidewalks are already broken up into panels, so it seemed to me like an intuitive place to make comics. I also liked the idea that it can thrust a comic artist out into public view for immediate feedback and visibility.
Local Columbia Access Television has uploaded a presentation by David Mowder, an illustrator for Hallmark. This is the second of several presentations that CAT recorded at Toonfest 2009 in Marceline MO. You can watch the presentation online, or check the broadcast air times to see when you can catch it via Mediacom (channel 85), Charter (channel 21) or the CAT online stream.