The Time Has Come …To Speak of Many Things

King Features’ Classic Comics for Middle Graders

© King Features Syndicate; Studio MDHR; King Features Syndicate

King Features, owner and licensor of a library of classic comic strips, is expanding its global book publishing activities beyond reprint collections, including into original YA and middle grade titles featuring contemporary characters spun off from the originals.

Publishers Weekly reports on King Features expansion into licensed books. 

One such initiative coming up is an original YA graphic novel series from Macmillan inspired by Flash Gordon. Details are not yet forthcoming, except that the characters are reimagined as young adults.

 

Cleveland PAC Runs a Campaign Against Dennis (the Menace) Kucinich

 

This week, a full-color, eight-page comic booklet arrived at the doorsteps of thousands of Cleveland voters. Paid for by something called the “Citizens for Change” Political Action Committee, the booklet parodied the “Dennis the Menace” comic strip in its attempts to persuade voters not to vote for Dennis Kucinich in the upcoming Cleveland mayoral primary on Sept. 14.

Cleve Scene covers the political mailers. The “comic book is here.

“Yes, I am a menace,” [Kucinich] said, “I’m a menace to violent criminals who are running in the streets; I’m a menace to banks who redline, I’m a menace to utilities which price gouge people; I’m a menace to crooked politicians who steal from the taxpayers and to those who look the other way.”

 

NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium Fall 2021 schedule

All events are free and open to the public. 

Here’s a couple events that stood out to me:

 

Funny Ladies: A Portrait of Women Cartoonists

So I’m watching this DVD because it has Lynda Barry (on topic) and Nicole Hollander (somewhat on topic) for this blog series.

The other two here are less on topic.

Just to get my prejudices up front: I don’t like documentaries in general, and I loathe sound byte editing documentaries with a sound bed…

Lars Ingebrigtsen reviews the 2012 edition of a 30 year old film.

The first two bits were OK (Messick and Guisewite), and then it got interesting with Hollander, but it really took off with the Barry bits. I was totally riveted.

 

Copyright Infraction Leads to Pepe the Frog NFT Delisting

© Matt Furie

An Ethereum based non-fungible token project named Sad Frogs District, based on the controversial Pepe the Frog meme, has been delisted from the OpenSea marketplace after a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice was filed by the character’s creator, Matt Furie.

OpenSea announced the delisting of the 7,000 minted images in the project on its Discord channel yesterday, much to the anger of many in the community who had already invested US$4 million in the project. 

Forkast explains about NFTs in general and this in particular.

The Sad Frogs District case differs, however. The 7,000 images were officially verified by OpenSea prior to their minting, as the individual works were created by artists who put their names to them. But in this instance, Furie was able to prove to the DCMA office he was the original creator, a fact he has had to prove time and again as he tries to reclaim the image from being one of hate.

District Chronicles reports on the sad Sad Frog investors. 

“Dude, you don’t know the impact this has on people’s life’s. The collection was verified?! I lost 4K $, and I bet a lot of other people lost a lot more. I’m officially out of the NFT game now. This is really horrible, don’t know how I’m gonna deal with this,” a Twitter user, who identifies as “Crypto Gambling Addict [money bag emoji]”, tweeted at Furie.

While Furie’s lawyer seems to understand this concern, he remains unable to contact Sad Frogs. “In a normal circumstance…you would then reach out to them…and figure out whether this is something that could be resolved,” Tompros said. “[But] we can’t do that because we’re dealing here with somebody who claims to be Vladimir Vladimirovich.”

 

Ten Graphic Tales of Inspiring Women Artists

© respective copyright owners

Drawn to Art illuminates the stories of ten women artists, some of whom may not have received the attention they deserved in their lifetimes. Each has artwork represented in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Inspired by graphic novels, these short takes on artists’ lives were drawn by ten women student-illustrators from the Ringling College of Art and Design.

Smithsonian Institution presents ten short (mostly 4 or 5 page) graphic biographies
of ten women artists by ten female comic artists. Free and Online!

   
Illustrated by Lauren Lamb; Illustrated by Emily Fromhage

  
Illustrated by Madeline Kneubheul; Illustrated by Ezra Gaeta

    
Illustrated by Mica Borovinsky; Illustrated by Rachel Bivens

     
Illustrated by Emily Ehlen; Illustrated by Kippy Sage

   
Illustrated by Shayna Cohen; Illustrated by Abigail Rajunov