Friday, May 20, 2011

Friday Dim Sum

Bite-sized morsels that add up to a light meal. Like tapas. (Thanks, Sherwood!)

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In my opinion, the best newspaper comic strip being published today is "Cul De Sac" by Richard Thompson, so I'm happy to point you to this profile of him in the Washington Post by Michael Cavna. It's the finest "cartoonist's profile" I can recall reading in the mainstream press. Cavna managed to get comment from cartoonists like Pat Oliphant, Art Spiegelman, and the shy Bill Watterson, and I admired it just as a piece of journalism. The piece mentions Thompson's nomination for cartooning's big Reuben Award this year, where he'll be up against my ping-pong nemesis Stephan Pastis (who, I don't think I'm breaking any confidences to report, thinks Thompson deserves to win but maybe he just told me that to be nice). It also touches on Thompson's recent diagnosis of Parkinson's disease. Recommended reading.

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For the three people likely to read this who live in Sonoma County, Calif., a half-hour TV program that includes an interview with me will be broadcast 11 a.m. Sunday on KRCB Channel 22, the local PBS station. It's an episode of "Business with Passion" whose host, Jay Hamilton-Roth, interviewed me an a bunch of other cartoonists during last September's Sketch-a-Thon at the Charles Schulz Museum. I mentioned it when it originally aired elsewhere back in December; there's a preview below. Those of you not in the area can watch it online anytime. Thanks again to Jay. Sorry I'm such a dorky lox on camera.




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The latest issue of InPHOCUS, an online newsletter put out by the pharmaceutical marketing firm Phocus, has a nifty mention of the upcoming "Comics & Medicine" conference in Chicago that I'm helping organize. If you're in the Chicago area June 9 and 10, check it out. If you need more incentive beyond our terrific panelists and keynote speakers (Paul Gravett, Phoebe Gloeckner, David Small and Scott McCloud), I'm planning to give a 90-minute workshop on cartooning (I've already got the first two minutes down; the next 88 are a work in progress) PLUS you'll get a nifty cloth bag with my artwork on it! So . . . who could resist?!

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Memo to those of us still on Earth this Sunday: party at Harold Camping's house! BYOB (bring your own brimstone).

Dot dot dot.

1 comment:

Sherwood Harrington said...

Oh, you're welcome, Brian, you're certainl1y welcome.

HowEVER, I remind you that when I obliquely suggested "dim sum" as an alternate for "tapas," you wrote, and I quote:

Sherwood, I feel like you're trying to tell me something . . . I also find myself with an odd craving for duck feet

Once again you have promised a duck, or at least part of one, and once again you didn't follow through. Sigh.