ELECTRIC ANT ZINE BLOG

Thanks to GR2 clerk and cool dude Seth Nemec for the nice mention! Giant Robot has been super supportive of Electric Ant since the beginning (and Eric Nakamura even contributed a great piece for the inside back cover of Issue #1!)

   

Electric Ant Issue 2: Exquisite Corpses

Edited by Ryan Sands

This book is good but it’s no GFTG3. It has a pretty good crew of artists in it. Calvin Wong, Hellen Jo, Ted May, Michael Deforge, Lisa Hanawalt, Kazimir Strzepek, and Harvey James are in there. I’m in there too at some point.  Electric Ant is a perfect-bound zine with articles and photos in it but I only care about the drawings and the comics. If there were more drawings and comics it might have beat Lobo. Sidenote to Zine makers: Stop runnig low contrast photos in your black-and-white zine; they turn into a greyish sludge and look boring.

There’s a comic in here called “Planet X Rises” in which each cartoonist wrote and drew a page before handing it off to the next one. My contribution was to a series by various artists drawing their favorite scenes of violence from popculture. Harvey James drew the riot scene from early in Akira. I drew the scene from Road Warrior where Wez’s blonde boyfriend catches the metal boomerang in his forehead. Ted May drew Iron Maiden fighting the guy in the Eddie suit onstage. Then Hellen Jo, Calvin Wong and some other dudes collaborated on a drawing of Tom Hanks looking at his adult dong in Big while the skyscraper transfomer toy dances around in the background on fire.

Scott Green, the manga/anime reviewer for Ain't It Cool News posted about Electric Ant #2.

He said (among other things):

From the attention seizing Hellen Jo cover to the work throughout, Electric Ant features of a searing collection of exceptional artists who, if you don't know, you should.

Read the write-up here!

As a promotion for the movie, Vice and Where the Wild Things Are have put together a collection of indie comics/manga creators covering WTWTA imagery. The pamphlet was edited by our friend Johnny Ryan, and features a ton of our favorites (Electric Ant contributors in bold!):
Jordan Crane
Frederic Fleury
Ben Jones
Josh Simmons
Esther Pearl Watson
Mark Todd
Dan Zettwoch
Matthew Thurber
Benjamin Marra
Hellen Jo
Lar Merde
Lisa Hanawalt
Martin Ontiveros
Matt Furie
Nick Gazin
Ray Sohn
Ron Rege Jr.
Imiri Sakabashira
Sammy Harkham
Shintaro Kago
Skinner Davis
Ted May
Vanessa Davis
Tony Millionaire

Details on a new movie blog site,  or you can grab the whole PDF here .

I saw this news via Elio, looks like they are shutting down Nickeloedeon Magazine and laying off its staff of 30.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2009/06/my-entry.html

       

It's always a bummer when a good magazine goes down, but this is especially sad because Nickelodeon Mag published a LOT of indie cartoonists. This includes: Kim Deitch, R. Sikoryak, Karl Kerschl, Richard Thompson, Johnny Ryan, Laura Park, Michael Kupperman, Paul Hornschemeier, Sara Varon, Tom Gauld, Aaron Renier, Jason Shiga, James Sturm, and Mike Mignola. Probably lots others too...

As a last hurrah (perhaps?), they've just put out a 3d Comic Book featuring a cover by Laura Park and comics by a bunch of folks (including Kupperman). The 3d was done by that dude Ray Zone. I'm gonna try to get my hands on this.

So where are the remaining print venues for gags and cartoonists? Seems like... Vice, Arthur, and Giant Robot?

I'm so proud I could cry!

The good people at the Chicago Tribune (and the South Florida Sun Sentenial?) have bestowed upon Germart perhaps the greatest of honors.

Don't let us lose against the likes of "Songs for Gay Dogs".

Vote now for #4!

Hey Team! It just came to my attention today that two of our friends (and Electric Ant contributors!) have been nominated for the 2009 Kukoc Award: Calvin Wong & Lisa Hanawalt!

The Kukoc Award recognizes a self-publisher of small-press, hand-made comics (sometimes called “mini-comics”), on the basis of merit and financial need. It will be awarded at Stumptown Comics Fest in Portland next weekend.

• Ken Dahl   Monsters #3
• Vanessa Davis   Spaniel Rage 2008
• Lisa Hanawalt   Stay Away from Other People
• Mardou   Manhole #3
• Onsmith   Fine Tooth Comics, Claptrap #2
• Calvin Wong   Ramble On! #1

     

Both of their books (Ramble On! #1 and Stay Away from Other People) were on my Best of 2008 list at Same Hat, and are great achievements.

Here are the steps to get a ballot and vote:

1. Email Jesse Reklaw and ask for a ballot at: reklaw@slowwave.com .

2. Jesse will email you a login and password.

3. Sign in and vote: The 2009 Maisie Kukoc Award .

Holy frijoles. Woke up this morning to a major spike in traffic to the EAZ site today. After some digging, it appears completely due to the blog/press explosion surrounding our buddy (and EA#1 contributor) Justine Lai's site and her Join or Die series of paintings. Seems her ordered presidential take-down fest got picked up on Drawn!, Journalista, bOINGbOING and Jezebel -- all at once!

Here's what the traffic looked like today, posted first predominantly to slightly obscure the handful of examples of NSFW paintings that she has been working on. Click above to her site to see more!

         

Last week Hellen and me ate bean dip and gabbed on the Comics Claptrap with our friends Rina and Thien, ostensibly about comics but mostly about random stuff like cheese filled hot dogs and mongolian hot pot.

http://comixclaptrap.blogspot.com/2009/03/episode-10-hellen-jo-and-calvin-wong.html

listen if you wanna, there's some shoutouts to EAZ contribs Derek and Jenn somewhere in there.

If you need more evidence that I am a geek, my college bff Dan Redding just posted an interview with me in the blog department of his new and lovely design site Magnetic State.