Harkham’s Crickets Cancelled

Sammy Harkham reveals on the Family blog that his comic book series Crickets “has been cancelled due to changes made by the major comics distributor that effectively made it impossible to continue in the comic book format.” In the announcement Harkham links to Tom Spurgeon’s reporting about Diamond Comic Distributors‘ recent increase in minimum order threshholds.

Drawn and Quarterly published the first two issues of Harkham’s series. Harkham indicates that the projected third issue “will come out in some [DIY] form in the next couple months…after that, I dont know exactly.” Harkham is also the editor of the Kramers Ergot anthology series, published by Buenaventura Press.

Huizenga Announces Mini-Comic

Kevin Huizenga announces that material previously planned to run in Or Else #6, which he has discontinued as a series, will be available in a new mini-comic titled Rumbling Chapter Two. The twenty-eight page mini-comic “will be available in a few weeks.” Several of Huizenga’s recent books, comics and mini-comics are currently available for sale online via his section of the USS Catastrophe website.

Huizenga Cancels Or Else

Kevin Huizenga announced his discontinuation of his comic book series Or Else, five issues of which have been published by Drawn and Quarterly to date. “It doesn’t make sense to do it this way anymore,” he writes on his blog. “Drawn and Quarterly have been great and I want to thank them. For sure I will still be putting out a lot of books and zines, forever, so save your pennies, and watch this space for more news as it becomes available.” Huizenga’s post includes the cover for the projected sixth issue of the series, which will not be published.

Claude Moliterni, Comics Scholar and FIBD Co-Founder, Dead at 76

Tom Spurgeon reports the death last Tuesday of French comics scholar, comics writer, novelist, editor, curator and event organizer Claude Moliterni. Moliterni “became involved in France’s influential comics-advocacy groups by becoming president of the Societe civile d’etudes et de recherches des litteratures dessinees (SOCERLID) in 1964, and founding the magazine Phenix in 1966.” With Pierre Couperie he curated the early major exhibit “Bande dessinee et figuration narrative” in 1967, also co-authoring a book by the same title. The ISA Style website carries photographs from that exhibit.

Among his many activities, Moliterni wrote and edited several books about comics history and edited comics projects at Dargaud. He was also a co-founder of the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée in Angouleme, France. Among English-language readers he may be best known as a contributor to Pierre Couperie and Maurice Horn’s book A History of the Comic Strip, for which he wrote the chapter on “Narrative Technique.” Molierni was 76 years old at the time of his death.

TCAF Guest List Includes Brunetti, Feuchtenberger, Guibert, Tatsumi

The biennial Toronto Comic Arts Festival has announced its first round of Honored Guests for the 2009 show, including Ivan Brunetti, Anke Feuchtenberger, Emmanuel Guibert, Seth, Adrian Tomine, and Yoshiharo Tatsumi. Tatsumi’s autobiographical graphic novel A Drifting Life will debut at the Festival. Other guest and exhibiting artists will include Shary Boyle, Chester Brown, Jordan Crane, Tom Kaczynski, Frank Santoro, Dash Shaw, Jillian Tamaki, and Mariko Tamaki. The event will take place May 9 and 10 at the Toronto Reference Library.

Comics Exhibit Opens at the Louvre

The International Herald Tribune carries an Associated Press report on the Louvre’s exhibit Le Louvre invite la bande dessinée: Le petit dessein, which opened with a reception on Wednesday, January 21. The exhibit of work draws exclusively from comics about the Museum co-produced by the Louvre and Futuropolis, and features pages and sketches from the three so-far published books by Nicolas de Crécy, Eric Liberge, and Marc-Antoine Mathieu as well as pages and sketches from Bernard Yslaire’s and Hirohiko Araki’s forthcoming volumes in the series. “We wanted to present this art with the goal of showing its … aesthetic quality,” said curator Fabrice Douar, “but also its quality in the sense of the confrontation between the world of the Louvre and this alternate universe, which is that of comics.”

The BoDoï website carries both installation shots from the exhibit and images of pages and artwork selected for inclusion in the show. The exhibit runs through April 13, 2009.

Satrapi and Ware in Conversation with Mouly

Marjane Satrapi and Chris Ware will appear in a live conversation moderated by Françoise Mouly as part of the Festival of New French Writing taking place in New York City this February, Publishers Weekly reports. The event, taking place February 26 through 28, will feature “eleven major French writers, all translated into English… with leading American writers, in dialogues hosted by well known American cultural critics.” The conversation between Satrapi and Ware will take place on Friday, February 27 at 8:15 pm at the Skirball Center. The event is free and open to the public.

Richard McGuire On His Guggenheim Talk

Richard McGuire spoke to Steven Heller about his recent appearance at the Guggenheim Museum as part of the Museum’s “24-Hour Program on the Concept of Time” event, which took place January 6 through 7, 2009. “I talked about ‘time’ in different aspects of my work,” McGuire told Heller. “I started by talking about the Liquid Liquid song ‘Cavern’ and how it’s been sampled and changed and been used over time… A clip from my film Fear(s) of the Dark, of the scene with the guy looking at the photo album, so you see the woman’s life compressed into one minute. Then some New Yorker stuff, like the ‘New Year’s Eve’ cover that rotates and reads both ways, night transforming into day.”

Heller previously interviewed McGuire specifically about the artist’s segment in the Fear(s) of the Dark animated anthology film. An excerpt from McGuire’s short can be seen along with more samples of McGuire’s work at the Prima Linea website.

McGuire is  best known in comics circles for his groundbreaking short story “Here,” which was originally published in RAW vol. 2 no. 1, and was recently republished both in Ivan Brunetti’s An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons and True Stories from Yale University Press and in the eighth issue of Comic Art. That issue cover-featured McGuire and also included an interview with the artist and an appreciation by Françoise Mouly.

McGuire is also well-known as the bassist for the musical group Liquid Liquid. The band’s work has recently been re-issued on CD by Domino Records, and the group recently reunited to play several shows. Via Alvin Buenavantura comes the following video clip of the group performing their signature song “Cavern” at Santos Party House in New York, NY, on November 19, 2008.

Asterios Polyp Preview Images

Comics scholar Paul Gravett posts the first public images from David Mazzucchelli’s Asterios Polyp as part of his 2009 publishing preview. “This story pulls you in from the word go,” writes Gravett, who proceeds to offer a short synopsis of the book’s opening sequence. “I’ll be returning to this and giving a detailed Early Bird Review on this site soon.” As previously reported, Mazzucchelli’s graphic novel is due in June 2009 from Pantheon Books.

Scott McCloud’s TED Presentation

Scott McCloud’s presentation from the 2005 TED Conference has been posted online as a streaming video file. In it, McCloud discusses ideas from his three books about comics as well as his own personal biography and perspective on changing technology.

(Link via Journalista.)

Woodring Working On Long Frank Story

Jim Woodring announced on his blog that he is working on “a 96-page Frank story to be released toward the end of the year.” Although the project will necessitate less frequents online updates, Woodring will “post occasional snippets of this sprawling epic,” such as the above example.

(Link via Fantagraphics.)

Louvre Comics in the Louvre

From January 22 through April 13, 2009, the Louvre will exhibit comics pages by Nicolas de Crécy, Eric Liberge, Marc-Antoine Mathieu, and Bernard Yslaire, BoDoï reports. All four of these artists have created books on the theme of the Louvre as part of a collaborative publishing project between the Museum and the current iteration of Futuropolis Press. Two of those books, de Crécy’s Glacial Period and Mathieu’s The Museum Vaults, have so far been translated into English and published in the U.S. by NBM.

The exhibit will include pages from all four of the jointly published books, accompanied by preliminary sketches. BoDoï’s piece notes that the challenge of exhibiting Yslaire’s artwork – which was produced on a computer – will be overcome by including computer monitors in the show.

Yuichi Yokoyama Draws in Public

The Comics Comics blog points to this Flickr photo-set by Tokyo-based cartoonist Jon Chandler, which documents public appearances by Yuichi Yokoyama in which the artist draws live for his audience. Two of Yokoyama’s books, New Engineering and Travel, are currently in print in the United States.

Herriman Bio Coming, Plus New Website

Jeet Heer notes the launch of a new website devoted to the work of George Herriman. The site, produced by Craig Yoe, so far includes several comic strips and examples of rare art, and promises “lots more” in the future.

The site’s news section carries notice that author and journalist Craig Tisserand is working on “a biography of George Herriman, which is contracted with HarperCollins.” In Tisserand’s words, “the book begins with the extended Herriman clan in New Orleans and then follows George Herriman’s immediate family to California, and continues on with George Herriman’s amazing life and career, as well as examines his great contribution to comics, art, literature and the world.” Tisserand solicits “advice, suggestions, counsel or conversation on this audacious project.” His previous books include Sugarcane Academy and The Kingdom of Zydeco.

ASIFA-Hollywood to Publish Zim’s Cartoon Course

Stephen Worth, Director of the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive, announces that the organization will re-publish Eugene “Zim” Zimmerman’s Correspondence School of Cartooning, Comic Art, and Caricature.

I’ve decided that we will publish the complete ZIM Correspondence School in Cartooning, Comic Art & Caricature in two editions… a deluxe two volume hardback set at 8 1/2 x 11 inches, and a perfect bound paperback edition in four volumes at 6 x 9. I printed out a proof of the first half of the set tonight, and it looks wonderful! The entire course spans over 700 pages with nearly 1000 illustrations by ZIM.

According to a previous post which reproduced copious art samples, dated 1914, the course originally ran twenty volumes and “covered a wide range of subjects, from practical homespun advice to lofty philosophy.” Worth calls Zimmerman’s correspondence course “the most highly regarded cartooning course of its day.”

Eugene Zimmerman (1862 – 1935) was born in Switzerland and immigrated to the United States as a child. He embarked upon a career as a cartoonist, first at Puck and then, until his retirement, at Judge. In 1927, Zimmerman became the first President of the American Association of Cartoonists and Caricaturists. The Strippers Guide website reprints a 1927 article noting the event. The Lambiek website carries additional examples of Zimmerman’s work.