Chalk it up to the sophomore jinx, but the Second Annual Astoria Comic Con isn’t going quite so well as I had hoped. Sure there will be naysayers who insist that it has something to do with the fact that once again I stubbornly insisted on holding it the same weekend as the San Diego [...]

Based out of the alternative publishing capital of Portland, Oregon, Sparkplug Books is regularly issuing some of the most exciting work being released in comics today. When he first launched the company, cartoonist Dylan Williams was seeking to expose unsigned talent, while keeping check to make sure that the publishing house largely adhered to his [...]

One of the great things about interviewing the Jules Feiffer, from an editorial standpoint, is the fact that the legendary cartoonist invariably has some new project to speak about, between a seemingly endless parade of comics, plays, and books, all of which the artist thankfully continues to crank out, a mere six months away from [...]

Ralph Bakshi is one of those rare artists who possesses a personality ever bit as colorful as the characters he creates. It’s no surprise then, that the man fit in perfectly amongst the Ren & Stimpy cast, when John Kricfalusi asked him to voice a part in his 2003 sequel to Fire Dogs.
That inspired partnership [...]

While it was the release of Jason Shiga’s Eisner-nominated Bookhunter that brought Sparkplug Books to the attention of cultural critics across the country, without an equally strong roster of subsequent releases, it would have been easy to write the Portland-based publisher’s single book success off as a fluke.
Much to his credit, however, founder Dylan Williams—himself [...]

Ralph Bakshi has never been one for self-censorship, a fact that has readily manifest itself his work, resulting in some of the most ground-breaking and uncompromising films of the 20th century, animated or otherwise. As we discovered in our face-to-face conversation with the 69-year-old Brooklynite, such unfettered expression has a tendency to manifest itself in [...]

[The above image was named from my MoCCA 2008 Flickr set, with apologies to Aaron Renier.]
Though it’s existed for a half-dozen years, it was the publication of Jason Shiga’s Eisner-nominated Bookhunter last May that truly established Sparkplug Comics as an indie comics force to be reckoned with. A labor of love turned career for Dylan [...]

Released in 1972, Ralph Bakshi still considers Fritz the Cat to be the major turning point in his career, the breakthrough film that helped the animator make the blind leap from the Heckle and Jeckle cartoons of his early career at TerryToons to gritty urban underground work like Heavy Traffic and Coonskin, which, to this [...]

While the majority of his most influential films have been relegated to cult-classic status, some three decades after the height of his career few artist have had as strong an impact on their given field as Ralph Bakshi.
The animator spent the first dozen years of his career toiling away at the Terrytoons studios, animating the [...]

Stuart Kolakovic’s ultra-mini-comic Ja Ljubav Te.
Stuart Kolakovic is a young creator of considerable talent. I first came across his postage-sized mini Ja Ljubav Te at my local comic shop, dispensed from its own vending machine. His comic Never Been has been making waves all over the net. Basically, you need him in your life.
I [...]