Intruder Comics

Our latest video sample features Intruder Comics. This is a monthly, or semi-monthly, comic on newsprint created by an artist collective in the Seattle area. The participants pool their resources to publish a newspaper format and distribute it for free.  Keep tabs on the Intruder! They're up to something and it wouldn't surprise me if another era of Northwest cartooning stems in part from what they are doing.

While it is not actually a newspaper, in that it doesn't actually report on news events, Intruder does remind me of The Helix. The Helix was Seattle's first underground newspaper published in 1967. It too seems to have had a similar collective spirit. It is great to see that print publishing, by a generation of cartoonists who are mostly under 35 by the way, is not dead at all!

More information about Intruder Comics and the artists behind the paper: http://intrudercomics.tumblr.com/

Logging Footage Continues

I guess this is what happens when both filmmakers are working full time while trying to make an intensive full length documentary. We continue to watch everything we've filmed, and we work to transcribe it. We have at least another month of interviews too. We hope to integrate Frank and Jim into parts of the narration (see earlier post about Jim and Frank at The Hugo House), and soon, with his blessing, we'll be capturing more of Steve Willis. Onward....

Interview with John Ohannesian

We had the pleasure today of interviewing John Ohannesian. He's an amazing artist that paints cartoons as his specialty.

 We will be featuring some of his paintings, as well as ink drawings in the film.

 

Check out his artwork at www.paintoon.com

Logging Footage

We're winding down production for Bezango, WA.  and we hope to be completed with all interviews by end of April. It is likely there will be some pick up footage a week or two after that. Last Sunday we started the long process of logging the video. Basically this means re-watching everything we've filmed and transcribing it. After watching footage of Brian Basset, David Horsey, Charles Burns, and Mark Monlux we realized that we have about 70 minutes of very usable content already. Editing will be a good challenge.

Guest Lecturers: Seattle Central Community College

Several days ago we had the opportunity to guest speak at Seattle Central Community College for a comic course taught by Leonard Rifas. We were invited to talk about our Bezango film and the process of documenting local Pacific Northwest cartoonists. We were able to show some excerpts of the project as well as talk about our recent successful Kickstarter campaign.  The majority of the students were under 25 and it was a good reminder to include information about new and upcoming artists in the film, along with historical cartooning information.  BTW-The image is not from the college class we spoke to, but is one I found on the web of Leonard teaching a comic workshop for K-12 students a while back.  

Leonard is a comic scholar as well as a comic creator. In 1976 he started Educomics. He also made All-Atomic Comics, about the use of nuclear energy, as well as Corproate Crime Comics, Tobacco Comics, and many others. Sine 1986 he has taught cartooning to all ages, and currently is an adjunct professor at Seattle Central Community College. In a few weeks we will be interviewing Leonard for the Bezango film.

Jim & Frank at The Hugo House

Frank Young and James Gill sat down with us at the Richard Hugo House in Seattle, WA to talk about Northwest cartooning. They also spoke about the Hugo House zine collection (ZAPP), and their own creative work they've done over the years. Both Frank and Jim are comic creators, as well as improv artists, and they've hosted the Frank and Jim Podcast at TrickCoin.net since 2008.

In this short clip they speak with us about the importance of the zine archive at the Hugo House. The Carter Family graphic novel, by David Lasky and Frank Young, makes a cameo appearance.



The Richard Hugo House is famous for offering resources to writers, poets, comic creators, and filmmakers. Their Zapp collection consists of "more than 20,000 zines, comics, chapbooks, and other small press periodicals, making it one of the largest zine collections in the world."

The Richard Hugo House

Jim and Frank's Podcast: Trickcoin.net

Cartoon Simple

Jim Woodring at Fantagraphics

Jim Woodring made an appearance at Fantagraphics in Seattle on Saturday, January 12, 2013. This was a book launch for his new book, Problematic. The book consists of sketches and individual images from Woodring's sketchbooks. Over the last few months the cartoon scene in the Northwest has been truly alive with a bunch of local artists making appearances at the bookstore.

As it says on the Amazon Book website: "If you are one of the fortunate thousands who enjoy untangling the enigmatic images that fill Jim Woodring’s comics and drawings, Problematic is just the book for you to put under your pillow and dream on."

Fantagraphics wrote on their Facebook page: "An exhibition of imagery not included in the book was displayed, as well as the artist’s original sketchbooks, including examples of Woodring’s inventive pop-up drawing constructions." There is still time to get a glimpse inside the creative process of this iconoclastic master of modern cartooning." His work will be on display at Fantagraphics for the next couple of weeks.