“On Writing” by Jordan Crane

Check out the news that Pope and Kid Robot are teaming up to manufacture a THB line of vinyl toys!

The first figure will be the Masked Karimbah (actually a two piece set based on a character on a children’s TV show in the THB universe), set the debut at SDCC.

Pope notes that the dog is the size of an actual Boston Terrier.

AWESOME

[images swiped from Pope's flickr]

Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan

and…

That baby from Family Guy

In fact, after a quick Google search, I KNOW I’m not the first person to notice this. But still, whoa.

So, please go look at that before you read about the new Secret Invasion tie-ins or whatever.

The cartoons are really quite good, and they make you think:

It also provided the first opportunity for my to try out Wizard Staff Photographer Dylan Brucie’s giant, super-powered Camera Monster 5000 which I was barely able to function with except to snap this shot of Smith, his wife and Cartoon Books publisher Vijaya and Toon Books Publisher Francoise Mouly. See?

HOW DOES SHE DO IT?

P.S. – Yeah, I know it’s kinda a huge photo right now. I haven’t been able to post images in two days for some reason, and when this came through, I figured I’d go with it while I could. I’ll fix later. Promise.

In a shocker, Indie Jones was nominated in zero categories.

At first glance, it seems like a big year for some of Dave and I’s favorite books including Fred Chao’s Johnny Hiro, James Stokoe’s Wonton Soup and the Bá/Cloonan/Moon/Lolos/Grampa cabal’s super bitchin’ 5.

Also, props to Tim and Laura at Comic Foundry for crashing the list of established folks in the Journalism category.

Also, I still think that “Special Recognition” is a way stupider and less classy name for the category that used to be called “Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition.”

Also, I was joking about us getting nominated. Calm down.

– KP

But it’s probably, sadly, just a gag.

But Pancake Lover is not, so scroll down and read it, suckas.

Berberian and Dupuy are a pair of highly acclaimed French cartoonists best known for their character Monsieur Jean and for their singular working practice of entirely writing and drawing all of their comics together. I have to admit, I wasn’t super familiar with their work before going to the event (which was moderated by the always cool Matt Madden), but after hearing the pair speak, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that if their comics are half as engaging and entertaining as the artists are (and from what I’ve read they are) I’m going to be buying everything they’ve had translated to English.

Aside from learning plenty about Berberian and Dupuy’s work and Euro comics in general (I finally know how to pronounce “Angouleme” correctly), I think the best part of the whole event was finding out how funny both artists were. Dupuy (above on the left) was not quite as fluent in English as his partner, but he continually made jokes at his own expense in regards to the language barrier, particularly when performing a silly female voice while reading from their comics. And Berberian had more than a few good zingers about everything from drawing with a giant pencil to endangering babies in film shoots. My favorite bit that didn’t quite fit into my write up was this segment when the partners explained the story behind their Monsieur Jean short Love And The Concierge:

PD: This is a true story. My own concierge, she came with my mail, and she asked me ‘What kind of job are you doing, Mr Dupuy? I don’t understand because you are always at home.’ And you had the same problem at the same time.

CB: I was living with my girlfriend at the time, and she used to have a steady job. She would leave home at 9:00 in the morning. At five past 9:00 or ten past 9:00 Philippe would arrive…

PD: At work! [Laughter]

CB: I could feel that the concierge, she was trying to ask what the hell we were doing upstairs all day long. We never answered. I think she died not knowing.

For anyone wanting to get another take on the event, check out the Satisfactory Comics blog write up, and to purchase some of Berberian and Dupuy’s translated work, visit the home page of their English publisher Drawn & Quareterly. Like now!

– KP