Featuring Bianca Xunise, Chip Beck, Alan Hardman, Eli Valley, Patrick McDonnell, Herblock, Larry Todd, Matt Wuerker, Ann Telnaes, Michael Ramirez, Pedro Molina, Vladimir Kazanevsky and Rachita Taneja.
Bianca Xunise is the Ignatz Award-winning author of comics including GothThrob, Imaginary Boyfriends, Keep Out, and Say Her Name. She is one of the authors of the daily comics strip Six Chix, and has contributed to The Believer and The Nib.
Her new book Punk Rock Karaoke is the story of Ariel Grace Jones, who is determined to make it big with their garage punk band. But in this coming-of-age story, life has some other ideas of where Ariel’s post-high school summer will be going. . . .
Bianca Xunise spoke to interviewer Gina Gagliano earlier this year (“her new book” was released in the Spring of 2024) and The Comics Journal published the wide-ranging interview yesterday.
How has Six Chix been since then?
Six Chix has been great. It’s wonder to work with such iconic women in comics and then me! Unfortunately there hasn’t been as much hate mail, kind of miss it. It fueled me. This love stuff I’ve been receiving lately…feels wrong. But I’m working it out in therapy.
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Also from earlier this year is a profile of the very interesting career of cartoonist Chip Beck.
In addition to being retired from the U.S. Navy (Commander), the CIA (clandestine Service), and the State Department (Foreign Affairs Officer), Beck is also retired from both the National Cartoonist Society and the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. In 2023 he volunteered to resurface to create the weekly editorial series on a pro bono basis for Loudoun Now as his contribution to community service.
Perhaps unique among the WLAST slate of artists, Beck has been an official “Combat Artist” for the U.S. Navy in Operation Desert Storm; operated undercover as an artist for the CIA; and was an award-winning cartoonist in both the State Department and the Pentagon for his long-running cartoon features SUPERCRAT the Super Bureaucrat and KILJOY.
Loundon Now profiles cartoonist Chip Beck.
For the past year, Beck has created and produced the weekly ChipShots [link added] on the newspaper’s editorial page, highlighting issues of concern to county residents, taking local politicians and developers to task when needed, and engaging in a heartfelt effort to protect the history and rural aspects of western Loudoun County.
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Book launch of Militant & Socialist Party cartoonist Alan Hardman’s works.
Alan Hardman was the first printer of the Militant (the Socialist’s predecessor) and produced hundreds of political cartoons for publication in our party publications. Sadly, Alan passed away in January (see ‘Obituary: Alan Hardman 1936-2024 Militant cartoonist and printer’). A book, ‘Need Not Greed’, has been published of his cartoons and artwork and is available at 1854.photo/SocParty.
Socialist Party proudly heralds the release of an Alan Hardman biography.
His cartoons were an outstanding feature of the [Socialist] newspaper. They were part and parcel of the paper, they added a powerful visual impact not only to the arguments and policies against greedy capitalism that we waged, but also against the mistaken ideas of the right wing, who are still with us today, and even some on the left where we have occasional arguments.
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Booking Events
NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium presents Eli Valley, Oct. 29, 2024 at 7pm EDT on his new book Museum of Degenerates: Portraits of the American Grotesque [link added].
Eli Valley is a writer and artist whose work has been featured in The Nation, The New Republic, The Village Voice, The Nib, The Guardian, The Daily Beast, Gawker and elsewhere. The 2011 – 2013 Artist in Residence at The Forward newspaper, his art has been labeled “ferociously repugnant” by Commentary and “hilarious” by The Comics Journal.
From Christopher Chiu-Tabet and Comics Beat:
Beginning on Saturday, November 7, The Arts Council of Princeton, New Jersey will host a gallery show celebrating the art of renowned cartoonist and Mutts creator Patrick McDonnell. The exhibit will feature hand-colored, one-of-a-kind prints from McDonnell’s recent nationally best-selling book Breaking the Chain: The Guard Dog Story and his paintings from 2023’s The Super Hero’s Journey.
From the Arts Council of Princeton and Patrick McDonnell:
These paintings, of acrylic latex, oil stick, ink, and collage are a continuation of the story of self-discovery told in my graphic novel, The Super Hero’s Journey, which I created for Marvel and Abrams Books.
I’ve always loved the raw beauty and kinetic energy of both comic art and abstract expressionism…
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Herblock Looks at 1974
During the last year of Richard M. Nixon’s tumultuous presidency and the succession by his vice president, Gerald R. Ford, on August 9, 1974, Herblock had an unrelenting focus on the Watergate investigation. Other topics that stood out for Herblock in 1974 were the effects of inflation on consumers and aftermath of the Vietnam War.
The Library of Congess’ virtual Herblock Gallery presents a new exhibition.
While the physical Herblock Gallery is closed, we’re offering ten new cartoons online every six months to highlight topics that filled the news 50 years ago. We also have display cases with original drawings by Herblock to visit in person on the Jefferson Building mezzanine.
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Larry Todd, a multifaceted and talented artist whose work included wondrous science fiction paintings and trippy underground comix, died on Sept. 28 following a long illness. The cause of death was testicular cancer, according to Pepper Alexandria, a longtime friend of Todd’s. He was 76.
John Kelly for The Comics Journal writes an obituary for Larry Todd, with remembrances by friends.
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MAGA Memes and Momala Mimicry Reprise
Political cartoonists discussed the 2024 election and global affairs at an event hosted by the Syracuse University Institute for Democracy, Journalism, and Citizenship (IDJC) in Washington, D.C. Topics included surprises in the 2024 election, how satire is perceived as news, and cartooning during times of war.
A few days ago we noted the editorial cartoon panel with Matt Wuerker, Ann Telneas, Michael Ramirez, and Pedro Molina. Now C-Span has released the 90 minute video of the event which includes video appearances by cartoonists Vladimir Kazanevsky and Rachita Taneja.
As far as I know, Herblock made at least two cartoons featuring Trump near the end of his career. In the beginning, he did at least one of Calvin Coolidge.
Six Chix is one of the worst comic strips in history.