Frank at MoCCA Arts and Comics Fest 2008

Tis that time again: MoCCA Arts and Comics Fest. It's cool, it's inexpensive, and it's sooooo much fun.

I'll be there with copies of Buenas Noches, Wish, and high quality prints of my watercolor paintings.

You can find me at booth B39.

B39 .B39.
Such a pretty, pretty rhyme.
B39. B39.
Gotta go while I still have time.
B39. B39.
Man, I can't believe this line.
B39. B39.
Wow, these comics are so fine.

© Frank Reynoso June 2008, All Rights Reserved

The Indypendent #118: Down and Out - Your pain is Wall Street's gain

The latest issue of The Indypendent is out. Below are the two main stories on the economy.

Bailing Out the Billionaires

By Max Fraad Wolff

Posted in National

House prices need to continue to fall and will. This will place increasing pressure on household balance sheets. To begin to address the situation, we need to concentrate on elevating earnings and reducing debt levels. read more »

Inflation Nation: A Guide to Your Pocketbook Blues

By A.K. Gupta

Posted in National

Unless you live in a bubble, like George Bush, who expressed total surprise in February when a reporter told him gas was nearing $4 a gallon, you've been socked hard in the pocketbook by rising prices. read more>>

The Indypendent's Arun Gupta on Democracy Now!

Respected Indypendent journalist, Iraq War specialist and my good friend Arun Gupta was in a three-way debate on General Petraeus' role in the Iraq War. There are video and audio streams.

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/4/9/as_petraeus_urges_delay_of_troop

(Photos from Democracy Now!)

Funny short short by Barrett Brown

Bush Writes a Novel

http://www.antimuse.org/cgi-bin/pageserver.cgi?page=04100112

Recommended Reading/Viewing List

Rather than barraging you with a list of the films and books I've read, I'll post a monthly recommended reading/viewing list. The list will comprise of stuff I've read or seen the previous month. Let's get cranking:

Films
Scanners, written and directed by David Cronenberg
Le Temps De Loup, written and directed by Michael Haneke
No Country for Old Men, screenplay and directed by Ethan and Joel Coen, based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy

Books
Blindness by Jose Saramago
Strange Wine by Harlan Ellison

Comics/Graphic Novels
Making Comics by Scott McCloud

Review of World War 3 Illustrated: Facts on the Ground

Review of World War 3 Illustrated: Facts on the Ground

(panel from Seth Tobocman's Disaster and Resistance)

The Indypendent printed Hueso Taveras' review of the World War 3 Illustrated Collective's latest anthology.

Here's an excerpt:

While most comics anthologies like Mome and Drawn and Quarterly aim for diverse and multicultural content, World War 3 Illustrated has consistently provided a breadth unmatched even by contemporary publishers. For their latest anthology, Facts on the Ground, the collective culled stories from around the world, including Baghdad, Johannesburg and El Salvador. As the title suggests, most are first-hand accounts, featuring everyday folks up against institutionalized corruption.

The first comic, by writer and Voices in the Wilderness activist Cathy Breen with artist Edowyn Vazkez, illustrates a letter by an Iraqi woman and the daily perils she faces in occupied Baghdad. Peter Kuper captures the complicated and sordid story of last year’s Oaxaca teachers’ strike and their battle with the state’s murderous, corrupt governor — which ended with the death of numerous people, including journalist Brad Will — in his firsthand mixed-media account “Oaxaca.”

Other comics take a look at familiar locales. Standouts include Seth Tobocman’s excerpt from his new book Disaster and Resistance (AK Press), about the struggle of residents of a NOLA housing project to return home after the devastation of Katrina and authorities. Mac McGill’s “Hurricane Katrina” is a meticulously rendered expressionist pantomime about life, loss and hope of New Orleans residents. Fly’s interview with Bill DiPaola serves as the basis for her rollicking, illustrated history of radical environmentalist group Times Up! “NYC Cyclists Memorial” is Christopher Cardinale’s lyrical and poignant mixed-media comic about the bicyclists killed by motorists and the city’s inhospitability to bicyclists.


Read the full review.

Comics Great Steve Gerber, RIP

(Photo from: http://www.stevegerber.com/sgblog/)

Comics creator Steve Gerber (Howard the Duck; Man-Thing; Omega the Unknown; Thundarr, The Barbarian) died earlier this week. I never read any of his comics but recently I read an interview with him and his intelligence and wit came shining through, encouraging me to look at his work.

Feeling incredibly inadequate talking about him, I'd rather let you read about him from people who knew him a hell of a lot better.

http://comiccritique.com/columns/gcolSt499.html (where I heard the news)
http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2008_02_11.html#014809 (from Steve's longtime friend Mark Evanier)
http://www.stevegerber.com/sgblog/ (Steve's blog)

Peace,
Frank