I see that Ted Rall is putting together another trip to Central Asia, for next summer. If you’ve got 15 grand, five weeks vacation time, and an appetite for some adventure traveling under the guidance of a brilliant cartoonist, travel writer, war correspondent and beer consumer, you’re going to have to consider this. Make sure your life insurance is paid up.
(I don’t see a way to permalink this, so this link will expire at some point. Meanwhile, scroll down to "Stan Trek 2009?").
I present startling proof of the existence of extraterrestrial visitors. I can only reveal one image of the amazing evidence I have obtained at this time:
This weekend in NYC, the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art is putting on its annual Art Festival, which is kind of like a comic book convention, but with a more alternative vibe. It’s truly one of the best events on the comics calendar.
Many "Cartoonists With ‘Attitude’" will be there.
I’ll be there on Saturday, 3-5pm, at the Featured Artist Sketch Table, where you can come by, say hi and get a sketch. But I have to warn you: like law-making and sausage-making, watching the process of how a Tom the Dancing Bug drawing gets made is not a pretty sight.
ArtFest info: Saturday 6/7 and Sunday 6/8, 11am – 6pm, at the Puck Building, 295 Lafayette St at Houston St. Admission is $10 each day / $15 weekend pass (weekend pass $10 for MoCCA members)
This week’s comic
If there’s a person who wouldn’t want a new book containing all the Wacky Packages trading cards (from the 1973 and 1974 series), I don’t want to know who that is.
I hope they somehow made the book smell like that piece of bubble gum that came with the stickers. It wouldn’t be right reading those cards without that sweet-stale odor wafting around.
The secret of the Passive Aggressor’s power!
Stay tuned!
Sharp-eyed readers of Tom the Dancing Bug will glean that I’m not particularly keen on awards in the arts, and among the gazillions of such awards, I think the National Cartoonists Society’s annual cartooning awards are particularly egregious. But I’m glad to see that one of my favorite comic strips won an NCS award this year, the underrated Monty, by Jim Meddick. And I’m delighted that the Cartoonist of the Year award, which despite its name is really a lifetime achievement award, went to the wholly deserving Al Jaffee.
The comedy genii behind Mr. Show, David Cross and Bob Odenkirk, have shot a new pilot for HBO! Let’s all hope this gets "picked up" (as we say in show-biz).
This week’s comic, The League of Public Domain Properties, is not only a comment on copyright extensions, but also a reference to Alan Moore and Kevin O’Niell’s excellent book The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Their tinkering with various literary properties would not have been possible without those properties at some point lapsing into the public domain. Constitutional and Property arguments aside, don’t Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde at some point, decades after their author’s death, become part of our common ethereal culture? At this point, aren’t we all better off with artists like Moore and O’Neill being able to engage in a literary exploration of these characters?