– Over at his blog, Scott Saavedra notes that he is rather ill and could use financial help, either via donations or by purchasing his some of his art work. (hat tip: Tom Spurgeon)

– Bloggers Paul O’Brian and Alistair Kennedy have started a new podcast, titled House to Astonish. It’s going to be an every-other-week affair, and focus on comics news and reviews. The premiere episode looks at recent Batman books, Dark Horse’s Gigantic and other books.

– Chris Butcher has more to say on the Bat-Manga! controversy.

– Tom Spurgeon tells us what comics he’s reading online these days.

– David Baille emailed us to let us know what a busy beaver he is these days. He’s got his first ever story in 2000AD this week, animator David Hailwood has animated a couple of his Zombies Interviews strips, and, perhaps most significantly, he’s started a new Webcomic, the Belly Button Bubble Chronicles.

– The work of cartoonists Josh Neufeld and David Rees can currently be seen at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Library through January 10, 2009. From the press release: “Neufeld will show material from his true-life graphic novel A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, and Rees will exhibit a collection of his “Clip-Art Comics.” Neufeld will be showing original pages, oversized giclée prints, and an example of the creative process from script to final art.”

– The Windy City Times talks to Alison Bechdel about the release of the new Dykes to Watch Out For collection.

– A quick reminder: Quentin Blake is awesome.

– For your Monday enjoyment: Ten years of New Yorker covers.

• Toy company Mattel, which creates numerous lines of toys for DC Comics, has posted images of its DCU Classics Wave 8 on their collector’s site. Wave 8 of the toy line will include Dr. Fate, Gentleman Ghost, Hawkgirl and Vigilante, among others.

• Former Marvel editor Carl Potts shares memories of working with artist Steve Ditko and trying to convince the artist to let him see two Dr. Strange stories that never saw print. “I told him that I’d be happy to look over his shoulder as he flipped through the pages,” Potts says. “That way the pages would never leave his hands, but he still declined to bring them in. Since then I’ve fantasized about what those pages look like and what the story was about. I wonder if I’ll ever find out!”

• Comics retailer Rocketship has an interview with Raina Telgemeier, the artist of the Baby-Sitters Club graphic novel adaptations, up on their blog. On her own site, the artist reveals her webcomic Smile! will be come to print courtesy of Scholastic. She’ll be at Rocketship this Sunday, along with Dave Roman and Matt Loux. Details on the event can be found here.

• Sparkplug Comics posted a video they made at the Alternative Press Expo last weekend.

• Zippy the Pinhead creator Bill Griffith will be at the Fantagraphics store in Seattle this weekend. Details here.

• The Comic Book Club in New York will host Matt Fraction, Ed Brubaker, Brian Michael Bendis and Jeff Katz next Tuesday. Details here.

• Via Drawn comes news that United Features is offering its comics content, including years of archives, for free.

• Kevin stole my headline for this one earlier this week: Salman Rushdie says he’s “a world expert on superhero comics.” He also says he’s been approached about doing a graphic novel, but hasn’t said yes yet.

• Here’s two names that might look familiar … Tim O’Shea talks to Frank Santoro, and Chris Mautner talks to Art Spiegelman.

• Colleen Doran shares more agents who work with comics folks.

• Jim Rugg adds to Kevin Church’s J. Jonah Jameson sketch collection.

• This weekend’s Wordstock Book Fair in Portland, Ore. will feature several comic creators, including Mike Mignola, Alison Bechdel and Lynda Barry. Oni Press, Dark Horse Comics and other comic companies will also be there.

Neil Gaiman, voice actor Tom Wayland and several others will attend a reading from Gaiman’s Sandman series to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. The event will take place at the Helen Mills Theater in New York City on Saturday, Nov. 8 at 7:30 p.m. More details are available here.

– Van Jensen hangs out with Paul Pope to find out about the new reprint edition of Heavy Liquid, which Pope initiated when he discovered out of print copies selling on eBay for as much as $200: ” ‘That was disgusting to me,’ he said. ‘That was money those fans could’ve spent on other books.’ ”

– Kai-Ming Cha talks to Yen Press’ Kurt Hassler about the imprint’s absorption into Hachette’s Orbit imprint.

– Tom Richmond looks at how Mad Magazine has covered close elections in the past.

– Alan Gardner critiques the revamped Comics.com site.

– Erin Finnegan reports on the MangaNext show in Somerset, NJ.

– Apparently Famous Monsters of Filmland‘s Forrest J. Ackerman is not doing well.

– Doug Wolk reports on last weekend’s APE convention.

– Noah Berlatsky doesn’t care for S. Clay Wilson’s work.

– Jen de Guzman wonders why Slave Labor isn’t getting that many submissions anymore and decides to blame the Internet.

– Because you don’t have enough to read: Here’s Graphic Novel Reporter.

Things were all a-twitter in the Features Department where I work last Friday. Why? Because Gary Trudeau had decided to predict a victory for Barack Obama in Tuesday’s election:

Wednesday’s strip is set in Iraq and features military characters huddled around a television that proclaims “And it’s official — Barack Obama has won. . . .”

In an e-mail to The Times, Trudeau said newspapers should run the strip because “. . . polling data gives McCain a 3.7% chance of victory. There’s a greater risk that their presses will break down on election day. So I’ve been encouraging editors to choose hope over fear. And reminding them that if I’m wrong, it’ll be my face that’ll be covered with egg, not theirs.”

As a result, a number of daily newspapers that carry Trudeau’s strip had to quickly decide whether to run the strip or substitute it for reruns (from this past summer). And no, I’m not telling you what the Patriot-News decided. Go buy a copy of the paper.

Meanwhile, the John McCain camp responded by stating “We hope the strip proves to be as predictive as it is consistently lame.”

You can read more on the story here, here, here, here and here. Oh, and be sure to read this post by News & Record’s John Robinson, where he wonders what all the fuss is about anyway.

Ochre Ellipse by Jonas Madden-Conner won the 2008 Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics. The book was also nominated for an Ignatz Award earlier this year.

For more information on the book and its creator, check out his blog.

Via Johanna, one of this year’s judges in the competition

The Will Eisner Spirit of Comic Retailing-winning Brave New World Comics will host an art show starting this Saturday:

This Saturday, November 1, at 7pm, in the Gallery Loft of Brave New World Comics on Lyons Avenue in Newhall, California, a new kind of gallery show will be opening.

“When you tell people that you have an art gallery in your pop culture store, they tend to have a certain kind of art in mind. Usually involving capes and tights,” says Portlyn, Brave New World Comics proprietress of pretty proportions. “But this time around, we wanted to give artists a chance to speak their mind on the election season, our sitting elected officials, and the issues that face them.”

Out of that desire, the NO THIRD TERM Gallery Show was born. Featuring the works of Llyn Hunter and Matt Silady, NO THIRD TERM has also been opened up to the artistic public to make their voices heard. “Nothing’s more democratic than our First Amendment rights and we’re looking forward to seeing how the artists of our community use that right, and this show, to speak up,” Portlyn went on to say.

The opening on Saturday, November 1st will feature the works of these artists and an all American theme

Stuart Moore, Joe Harris and Bill Sienkiewicz are signing copies of the Nightmare Factory this week in New York. More details can be found here.

• The webcomic Bellen! by Box Brown has been dressing up as other webcomics for Halloween. The first week included homages to Pictures for Sad Children, Octopus Pie, Cat and Girl, Diesel Sweeties and American Elf (above).

• A Thomas Weisel Partners analyst upped Marvel’s rating to “overweight,” saying the company’s unexpectedly strong performances have been undervalued.

While Marvel’s stock is doing about as well as any other company’s stock right now, the analyst said the sell-off “discounts its strong movie performance this summer and an improved film distribution deal.” He also said that Marvel Chairman David Maisel has said there will be no disruptions to the company’s 2010 film slate as a result of the crisis in the credit markets.

• Colleen Doran provides a list of agents currently accepting graphic novel submissions.

• A Space Ghost episode is turned into a puppet show. Brilliant.

• Not comics: Rest in peace, Tony Hillerman.

• Hey, look: a free David Heatley comic strip. Via Bully.

• BuddyTV’s John Kubicek chats with Cassidy Freeman, who plays the female Lex Luthor replacement on Smallville.

In celebration of the ongoing, career-spanning exhibit of his work going on at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in New York City, Kim Deitch will host a special “Cartoon Movie Night” at the Museum this Thursday at 7 p.m.

Deitch will show a number of rarely-seen animated cartoons from the 1920s and 30s during the event, and as a special Halloween treat, will also display for one night only selected specimens from his and his wife’s  extensive collection of antique toy cats. Anyone who’s read Alias the Cat (or, really, any of Deitch’s work) should be well aware of how large these types of early 20th-century American pop culture play into the artist’s work.

Then, on Thursday, Nov. 13, Deitch will return to the museum for an extensive Q&A session with exhibit curator Bill Kartalopoulos. During this event, Deitch will show examples of his recent work and also preview some of his upcoming projects.

Both events are free to the public. You can read the full press release after the jump. (more…)

– The Festival International de la BD Angouleme, one of the premiere comics events in Europe, announced their official selections list last week. And hey, Wanted is one of the nominees! Over at Comics Reporter, Eurocomic expert Bart Beaty handicaps the list: “In all honesty, the fact that Wanted has been nominated for this prize made me throw up in my mouth a little bit.”

– The Daily Cross Hatch talks to Beanworld creator Larry Marder and Capacity creator Theo Ellsworth.

– Joshua Dysart takes you behind the scenes of the new Vertigo series Unknown Soldier: “Once a month, on the same Wed. that the new issue of Unknown Soldier hits, we’ll post a segment of the book here, separating each stage of the creative process, from script to breakdowns to inks to lettering to coloring. It’s the closest you’re going to get to looking over Alberto’s shoulder while he works.”

– “Brandon” responds to Spurious’ essay about Charles Crumb that everyone linked to last week.

– Brian Briggs is having a “name that trick or treater” contest over on his blog.

– Richard Sala was sharing scary stories on Weekend America the other day.

Like when I came across this editorial cartoon by one Gordon Campbell, which compared Colin Powell to Benedict Arnold. Why? Because of the former Secretary of State’s recent endorsement of Barack Obama. Because, of course, Powell would never in a million years endorse Obama because of his policies. It has to be about race. Here, let Campbell tell you himself:

“The only reasonable explanation for such a public political “about-face” in the midst of this important election is that Colin Powell, perhaps understandably, wishes to see someone who looks like himself in the White House,” Campbell said.

“It’s my opinion that General Powell has based his endorsement of Barack Obama on the color of his skin, not his qualifications, his experience or the content of his character.”

Understandably, a number of editorial cartoonists and other folk have come out decrying the cartoon. Matt Bors goes so far as to dub it “top ten worst political cartoons ever created. Since time began. Hands down.”

Alan Gardner at The Daily Cartoonist (the first link) has more choice quotes, along with reactions by the blogosphere at large.

Comics retailer and future wrestling superstar James Sime dropped us a reminder about the deadline for entries for the Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics — entries are due on Oct. 24. Check out the complete press release after the jump.

(more…)

Kat from Surabaya shares a short comic about 24 Hour Comics Day. The event is scheduled for this weekend; check out their official website to find a store near you that’s participating.

Don’t want to watch tonight’s presidental debate on your lonesome? Molly Crabapple will be at the Museum of Sex in New York City tonight from 8-10:30 p.m. for the free unveilling of her four-foot tall pen and ink, satirical cartoon entitled Politics (and which you can see in full, uncensored glory here). After which, you can watch the debate, drink cider and engage in one of her Dr. Sketchy’s cabaret drawing sessions.

Full press release can be downloaded here.

More details here.

The third annual Wonder Woman Day, a benefit to raise money in New Jersey and Oregon for domestic violence shelters, will be held Oct. 26 in Portland, Ore. and Fleminton, N.J. The event is organized by Andy Mangels.

The events include silent art auctions featuring a variety of artists, including Adam Hughes, Matt Wagner, Phil Jimenez, Terry Dodson, Joëlle Jones (who did the painting at the top of this post) and many more. Bidding will be conducted on site and online. More details are available at the link above.

A few weeks back I mentioned the Endless Reflections art show at Nucleus in Alhambra, Calif., an exhibit featuring artwork inspired by Neil Gaiman’s classic Sandman series running this October.

Well, if you aren’t close enough to Alhambra to check out the exhibit, you can now view and buy the artwork online, by creators like Jill Thompson, Colleen Doran, Barron Storey, Bryan Talbot, Dave McKean, John Watkiss, Marc Hempel, Mike Dringenberg, Mike Allred (who did the really cool Beatles homage at the top of this post) and many more. Many of the pieces have already sold.

If anyone’s looking for a belated birthday present for me, that Allred piece would like nice over my mantle (if it hasn’t sold yet).