Let Them Eat CAKE (Weekend Pattering for June 9th, 2017)

Just a quick reminder, Eisner voting is open for comic professionals through June 16th.  And once again, we're nominated in the Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism and would appreciate your vote.

Previously on Panel Patter

Cover of the Next Week


I love the black-light poster quality of Alexis Ziritt's covers for Space Riders.  This new one for the second issue of Space Riders: Galaxy of Brutality is just chock full of great yellows, oranges and reds.  I've got the first collection of that series and need to catch up with it soon.

Interviews


** A Conversation with Jillian Tamaki (The Comics Journal)-- Panel Patter favorite Eleanor Davis talks to Panel Patter favorite Jillian Tamaki.
Tamaki: Perhaps because often, for more commercial works, the images need be a lot more literal? I feel like images can “lock” an idea. To depict someone specific can be nice sometimes – the books I do with Mariko are always about specificity of time and place and character. But sometimes it’s nice, when reading prose, to have the ideas and concepts more open. They can feel more universal or possibly even symbolic. So I guess this comic was about trying to stretch that word-image relationship. I don’t want to show you what kind of person thinks this way, acts this way, etc.
As a bonus interview, check out Rookie's interview with Tamaki.


** Riding the 'L' with 'Monsters' graphic novelist Emil Ferris (Chicago Tribune)-- Christopher Borrelli ride's Chicago's L trains with My Favorite Thing Is Monsters' Emil Ferris. 
Ferris whispers: "Being seen is important for people. Doesn't happen enough for anyone. We're not here long in this world. Some people, they hate this — I'll just give them the drawing. Some though, they tell me they used to draw, too. I'll offer them a pen and paper and say 'OK, draw.' And they're so surprised. Then they draw! It's like they're children again. It's like they're flattered someone noticed they might have some talent."

This and That


** Thank you! (Chicago Alternative Comics Expo)-- Chicago's alternative comic show CAKE is this weekend.  I plan to be there on Saturday this year and hope to get there on Sunday as well.  The programming at this year's show is great and I really want to hit some of the stuff on Sunday.  I know I'll probably be hitting all three of the panels on Saturday.

This year is particularly fun for me because I got to help out a very small way in offering some feedback earlier this year for their selection process.  For the past couple of years, CAKE has been a comic highpoint for me, reinvigorating my enthusiasm for comics.  I don't expect this year to be anything different.

** Ten Artists To Seek Out At CAKE 2017 (High-Low)-- Speaking of CAKE, Rob Clough has a list of 10 cartoonists that you should check out if you're hitting the show.  A couple of these artists were already on my list of tables I wanted to stop at but, if Rob recommends them, I'll be trying to find all of these artists.



** PANEL x PANEL #1 -- Hass Otsmane-Elhaou of the Youtube show Strip Panel Naked is launching a digital magazine about comic art at the end of June.  It's currently available for preorder on Gumroad for $2.

In his first editorial, Otsmane-Elhaou writes:

What I did know is I wanted a place to talk about the form of comics, the medium itself. I didn’t want to add to the writing about big two superhero books (as a primary focus, at least, because those books will definitely find their way into these pages, if they haven’t already), but I wanted to write about comics. Whatever that might be. There’ll be a heavy slant on American comics, but also hopefully some more talk on European comics, on manga, comics around the world.
I'm always looking for good writing about comics and will be checking this mag out.


** Today’s best superhero comic is a self-published one-person masterwork (Salon)-- Salon highlight's Michel Fiffe's wonderful comic Copra.
To keep blowing away readers, and to keep himself engaged, Fiffe shifts the narrative or visual format of Copra as needed: “I wrote an issue where every panel was its own scene, its own moment in time [“Copra Versus” No. 1]. That had a very specific, acquired rhythm. There was a silent issue, an all-drawn-in-pencil issue . . . it can be the tiniest color choice or a tonal shift in dialogue, I only execute these approaches if it fits the characters I’m writing at the moment.” Without an editor or collaborator to bounce ideas off, it’s remarkable that these approaches always feel rigorous and logical, never self-indulgent or random.

Current Mood