animation, comics, exhibits, events, etc!

In Strip Search, Jennifer M. Babcock reviews and recommends comic strips available in print and on the web.

I’m such a jet setter this summer! Within a week of coming back from Egypt I was back on the plane to Paris, France- ooh la la.

Now, most of what I was doing in Paris was pure vacation fun time but I did some Egyptological research there as well, and of course… comic hunting. Many Americans don’t realize this but the French are quite fond of comics, or “BDs” (short for bande dessinee) as they call them. Go to the Virgin Megastore on the Champs Elysees and you’ll see an entire floor dedicated to them. Fnac, the French equivalent of a Barnes and Nobles, also carries a tremendous supply of comic book albums, and if you take a stroll through the Latin Quarter, you’ll find numerous shops dedicated to comics and cartoon paraphernalia. While I was in Paris, there was an arts magazine that dedicated its cover to R. Crumb and his latest comic Genesis and another one that came out with its annual “BD issue,” which was all about French comic artists.

The French are often seen as cultural snobs so it may surprise many readers to hear that even adults embrace comics as a genuine and legitimate form of art/literature making, but I think if we look at what Francophone countries have in their comics history, it becomes more understandable. Most famously, Belgium, churned out comic greats like Herge (Tintin) and Peyo (Les Schtroumpfs AKA The Smurfs). More recently Americans have come to know the work of the Iranian-French author Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis).

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On the last Sunday of every month at 12pm, join the Sequential Art Collective for our monthly Get Out and Draw in and around New York City. The meeting will last between 2 to 4 hours (approx). Bring your own drawing pads, pens , pencils, eraser etc. Each month we will be venturing to different locations ranging from zoos to museums, baseball games, parks, etc.

The object is to have fun with fellow artists and like minded individuals — and to take your drawing to the next level by sharing and critiquing your art with your peers. There will be no charge to attend other than whatever fee the locations charge. If we are aware of enough attendees ahead of time, all attempts will be made to book special group admission rates as applicable.

This month’s focus will be getting outside and drawing skylines. We’re heading over to the The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Roof Garden. (They’re currently exhibiting Roxy Paine on Roof: The Maelstrom.)

Date: Sunday, June 28, 2009
Time: 12:00pm – 4:00pm
Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Street: 1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street
City/Town: New York, NY

We will be meeting by the center door.

If you have any questions or comments please email Allan at tellmemore@sacart.org

See You There!

-The Sequential Art Collective

Michael Carlisle examines the world “outside” sequential art to find… more sequential art.

I had the distinct pleasure, during a random walk down the aisles of BookExpo America last May, of finding a preview copy of Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth, which is due for release in the US on September 29, 2009.

First, I’ll say that I am overjoyed that this book exists, as it shows that mathematical content can be relayed, and relayed well, in the comics medium. I am also rather frustrated by the existence of this book, as I did not write it myself.

If I was to sadly be scooped by someone on the comic I wanted to write about mathematicians, logic, infinity, madness, world wars, and self-reference, then I would hope it would be by Apostolos Doxiadis (whose Uncle Petros and Goldbach’s Conjecture I’ve read only a portion of but am awaiting the rest) and Christos Papadimitriou (whose Combinatorial Optimization text I used as an undergrad, and will use again when planning a course I’m teaching in the fall).

(Them, or maybe Neal Stephenson. But he’s already done a few things similar to this, in text, for cryptography, calculus, and religion.)

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