It's been YEARS since I did my last "Ten Random Kleefeld Facts" so I thought I'd knock out another in lieu of writing an actual blog post.

1. My initial introduction to manga was via the First Comics editions of Lone Wolf & Cub from the late 1980s. I think I had read a dozen issues or so before I went back to read an introduction that noted they'd been brought over from Japan and were not only translated but had the pages mirror-flipped to accomodate left-to-right English.

2. I don't recall exactly when it happened, but sometime towards the end of last year, my personal collection of comics finally made it past 20,000. Currently, if you list them all out in alpha/numeric order, my 20,000^th issue is X-Men #73.
3. My first attempt at making a comic was nothing more than trying to re-create the story from Superman #274. I didn't have anything resembling even the remotest hint of talent relative to Curt Swan, so I did the story in the only style I was able to pull off at the time. It was drawn using the approach I'd learned in various Ed Emberley books, mostly Make a World.
4. One of my good friends in high school and I bonded over an appreciation of Judge Dredd. Except I knew the character primarily from the comics Quality was putting out in the mid-1980s, and he knew the character primarily from the Anthrax song "I Am the Law."
5. After I'd been collecting comics for a few years, I stumbled across a copy of Fantastic Four #76 for a reasonable (but not exactly cheap) price. I knew it was a hole in my collection, so I picked it up. After bringing it home and reading it, I started to file it away in one of my two long boxes... only to discover I already had a copy! But, as I pulled the issue out to stare at the apparent incredulity of having totally forgotten I had it, I found another copy behind that one! It would seem I had bought the issue, read it, forgotten about it, bought it again, (presumably) read it again, forgotten that I'd already bought it twice, and then purchased it a third time! That was the point when I realized I could no longer rely on my memory when hunting through back issue bins, and I had to start carrying a list around in my wallet. (Portable digital devices were still a solid 15-20 years away at that point.)
6. I've appeared as a character in a number of comics over the past ten years or so. Most recently, I showed up as a US Marshal in the first and second issues of The Catch by Steve Bryant and Ismael Canales. I think I'm slated to appear in the third issue as well.
7. The oldest comic in my personal collection is a very poor condition copy of Green Lama #5 from 1945. I found it about 15 years ago in a consignment shop for, like, two bucks.
8. The last time I wore a superhero costume for Halloween, I was five years old. It was a Ben Cooper Batman outfit.
9. I have seveteen Asterix books, about half of which were ones my father had bought in college. The other half were my father's as well, but he purchased those some years later; after I was born, but before I started "formally" collecting comics.
10. I was given a "special thanks" credit in a documentary about the infamous Roger Corman Fantastic Four film. The producer sent me a quick note once it came out saying as much and pointing me to a IMDB page he'd created for me. It struck me as odd, though, because it listed me as "Sean Kleefeld (II)" which I knew to mean there was another "Sean Kleefeld" already in the IMDB database. As far as I was aware, my name was wholly unique, so I went to check out this other Sean Kleefeld. It turns out someone else had created an IMDB page for me prevously, noting some "special thanks" credits I'd received in other comic-related documentaries! (I had IMDB merge the two entries and added a couple other similar credits.)

Jimmy Swinnerton, working for William Randolph Hearst, developed a comic strip called The Little Bears. It was originally based on some spot illustrations that Frank Noble did as a sort of mascot for the San Francisco Examiner in 1893. Although initially drawn in a fairly realistic style, Swinnerton made the character more cute and cartoony as time went on, and he was given a semi-regular spot in the paper to accompany the weather. The character was launched in a strip in 1895. Children were added to the strip in 1896 and it was renamed Little Bears and Tykes.

In 1898, Swinnerton moved to New York and, evidently at the request of Hearst himself, continued a variation of the strip using tigers instead of bears. Eventually, one of the tigers became the star of the strip and was dubbed "Mr. Jack." The character proved popular enough that he was give his own strip in 1903 titled, appropriately enough, Mr. Jack.

Mr. Jack was, in many respects, a typical-of-the-time caricature of a husband. He was always out drinking, carousing, and flirting with women, often at the protest of his wife. Given the frequent adult nature of the strip, it was moved to the sports section (then considered a more mature section of newspaper than children would not be interested in) within its first year. The strip lasted until early 1906 (though the last year, it was somewhat sporadic). Swinnerton brought the strip back in late 1907 and it ran until 1919. It was brought back a third and final time in 1926, lasting until 1935.

The real significance of the strip, however, is that Mr. Jack is generally considered the first truely anthropomorphic character in comics. There were previous animal characters that spoke or wore clothing, but Mr. Jack was the first to really be represented in a human-like manner, walking upright with human appendages. Despite being a common sight in comics and cartoons today, perhaps first popularized through George Herriman's Krazy Kat, this simply was not a convention of any sort before Swinnerton. It was Mr. Jack who broke the notion that comic characters were simply exaggerations of people and animals, and they could blur the line between species. Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, and so many other characters that you've loved owed a huge debt to Swinnerton and Mr. Jack.

I would make a terrible sociologist. I do okay when it comes to armchair psychology if I know the person, but sociology is just like a big black hole for me. I just don't get people in a broad sense. I'm actually rubbish at armchair psychology, but compared to my skills in sociology, I'm amazing there.

I'm speaking from a practical sense here, by the way. I took psychology and sociology classes in both high school and college, and did pretty well in them. But that was all the rote memorization stuff. Who was Sigmund Freud, what was David Berlo’s model of communication, etc. In terms of practical application? Let's just say I can be very socially challenged.

But, I know this about myself, and continue working to improve where I can there. One of the ways I do that is by trying to learn about other cultures and societies that I don't really know very well, in order to understand them and how they do or don't relate to the culture(s) I'm an active part of, which are often difficult to analyze precisely because I'm an active participant.

This I why I'm always on the lookout for new comics that come froma different perspective. I mean, yeah, Jeff Smith turns out some fantastic work and I really enjoy studying what he does, but he's still a cishetero white guy from suburban Ohio and not all that much older than me. He's going to come to the table with a pretty similar perspective as me. Which is fine in and of itself because, as I said, he does some fantastic work, but it's not going to provide any great insights into other cultures.

Manga, of course, is a good source of insights into another culture. Reading through Barefoot Gen or Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san teaches you something about Japan. And we're fortunate that manga is relatively popular in the U.S. right now. Popular enough in fact that we get some manhua and manhwa out the bargain too!

There's also some European work here in the States, but not nearly enough for my tastes. Some British work, and a few French and Belgian pieces but not a whole lot else. Russia and Australia are woefully under-represented, as are pretty much all of South America and Africa.

So I'm generally pleased when I can find something that speaks to a mindset very different from my own. I'm even more please when someone writes a comic specifically to address the cultural differences. I've seen a lot of biographic pieces -- both extended works and short mini-comics -- that speak to individuals' experiences that I might otherwise know nothing about. Whether that's being a Japanese woman living in England or how depression might lead to suicide or simply the history of the Black Panther Party.

It's human nature to surround ourselves with similar individuals. It's more comfortable to be around people who come at life with the same basic perspective as us. But it doesn't help our understanding of people in general; it's just a reflection of our own perceptions.

Maybe because I've never really felt like I belonged to a culture like that, I'm more open to seeing how other people approach the world. But given all the hatred that's been stoked the past few years and continues to be acted upon in a horrible, daily manner, maybe we could all try to pick up a little more understanding of cultures outside our usual comfort zone.

I think that, at some level, most comics readers realize that the comics they read are commercial ventures. It's not about the entertainment, but that you're willing to pay for that entertainment. There's nothing wrong with that, and it almost certainly wouldn't work under a barter type system.

When someone starts a comic, it's often under the goal of telling a story they feel is important, or trying to say something that no one else is saying. That doesn't pay the bills, of course, and so they look towards ways to monetize what they're doing. If they're talented enough, they're able to find enough people to give them enough money to live off. If they're extremely talented, they're able to find enough people to give them enough money to live off month-after-month for years on end.

At what point, though, does it stop being about the art? For Martin Goodman, it never really was. But he wasn't the one actually crafting the stories he published. For Jack Kirby, it wasn't until he was in his late 60s and early 70s that he really started concerning himself about much besides the stories. Jim Davis? He was thinking in terms of commercialization at least as early as 1978 when he launched Garfield, and likely much earlier. (Check out my analysis of a 1979 photo of him that I did last year.)

On the flip side, look at some of the webcomic artists who aren't making a living off their art yet. Their stories might not be crafted as well, or look as polished, but they're passionate about them and will certainly tell you all about it if you show the slightest interest.

So when does that flip take place? When does an artist start thinking about their work at a financial level instead of capital-A Art?

More to the point, is it necessarily bad when they do so?

Obviously, that flip occurs at different times for different people. But my guess is that it's generally around when they start viewing individual readers as unimportant, that's when it's worth noting. When they're pleased and touched by every fan letter they get, they're still looking at their work as Art and the pleasure comes from having connected with someone via that Art. When they get to a point where "your comments are appreciated" and they're more impressed by the volume of messages overall without much concern for individual notes, that's when the business switch has occurred.

And while there's nothing wrong with that per se, I think it's important, as readers, to recognize when that occurs. When Stan Lee and Don Heck were working on Tales of Suspense #52, I'm pretty sure they still cared about readers thought and paid attention to the letters fans wrote it. That's part of how/why the direction of the book proceeded forward the way it did. As to whether or not your opinion matters on the (perpetually?) upcoming Black Widow movie--I think it's safe to say Marvel doesn't care all that much. Because whether you see it or not, whether you're interested in it or not, there are going to be hundreds of thousands of others who happily plunk down some of their hard-earned cash to see it.

So let me ask you this: is it worth complaining about an MCU movie where your opinion doesn't really matter to the people making the movie? On the flip side, how much impact do you suppose you have when you tell a largely unknown artist how you really like the webcomic they just started, and how you're interested in seeing it develop along certain lines?

Something to consider as you decided where you focus your critiquing energies.

I expect many comic fans, if they're familiar with The Electric Company, are most familiar with the regular appearances of Spider-Man. As a Gen Xer, I grew up on the show and watched it regularly; while I still recall bits besides the Spider-Man sequences, those are definitely the ones that are most prominent in my memories.

I happened across the first episode where Spider-Man appears (full video here) and I was surprised to see it wasn't actually until Season 4, meaning he appeared in at most half of the shows. And, if you watch that clip I just linked to, you'll see that it's actually a Spider-Man comic that actually appears before Spidey himself. Unlike the custom-made comics often used for the Spidey intros, this was a published issue -- Amazing Spider-Man #132. The specific comic has nothing to do with the episode, so they probably just grabbed the latest one off the newsstand shortly before filming.

Which got me to thinking about timing.

Amazing Spider-Man #132 has a cover date of May 1974, and was on the stands a few months before that, as was the standard practice at the time. In fact, the Library of Congress has record of the issue shipping out on January 8, 1974 and Comic Reader #103 lists an on-sale date of February 8. So the opening sequence was likely filmed in February/March of that year. The episode then aired later in the year -- specifically on October 21. No major surprises there.

But here's the interesting bit. As you might know, Marvel published a Spidey Super Stories comic to coordinate with the show. You'll note The Electric Company logo featured prominently in the upper right corner of every cover. Spidey Super Stories #1 has a cover date of October 1974 and was so successful in its own right that it continued to be published for several years after the show itself was canceled!

But recall what I said about cover dates tending to be a couple months after the issue was actually available? Again, we can look at Library of Congress records to see the issue was shipped on June 18 and Comic Reader #108 lists a July 16 on-sale date. By the time Spider-Man was actually appearing on The Electric Company, there were already three issues of Spidey Super Stories out, with a fourth coming out literally days later.

So from an audience's perspective, J. Arthur Crank's disbelief at Spidey's appearance on The Electric Company is three months out of date! He'd already been seen in conjunction with the show -- via the brand new comic -- since the summer!

Here are this week's links to what I've had published recently...

Kleefeld on Comics: Who Drew the Bat Lady?
https://ift.tt/39I5uKx

Kleefeld on Comics: Biographic Music Comics
https://ift.tt/3dCMwGh

Kleefeld on Comics: Artist Self-Portraits
https://ift.tt/3uyJCcj

Kleefeld on Comics: The Hulk Comic Strip/Coloring Book
https://ift.tt/3fTZkem

Kleefeld on Comics: Upcoming Comics Calendar
https://ift.tt/3s5eFLe

Some of the online comics events in the coming weeks. As usual, please check the time zones noted below and adjust to your location as appropriate.

• April 9, 11:00am (GMT?)
  Manga
  Japanese comics are drawn in many different styles, so we’ll be trying a few of the most popular, creating our own character, and then featuring them in a page of manga artwork. Workshop will be held via zoom and led by a professional cartoon tutor from The Cartoon Museum. Suitable for ages 8 and up. Registration: £12 UK.
• April 9, 1:30pm (GMT?)
  Let's Draw The Beano!
  The longest-running weekly comic in the world has given us loads of classic comic characters. Learn how to draw some favourites and then design your own Beano front cover. Workshop will be held via zoom and led by a professional cartoon tutor from The Cartoon Museum. Suitable for ages 8 and up. Registration: £12 UK.
• April 9, 4:00pm (CET?)
  Henry Kreklow | Comic drawing basics
  The course is primarily about showing you how to start and teaching you the manual skills. First geometric shapes are drawn, then the shapes are combined to create characters and find the right proportions for your own comic book hero. In German.
• April 9, 6:30pm (CET?)
  Henry Kreklow | Basics of Comic Book Design
  "At one point, I understood what is important when it comes to drawing: Comics don't have to be pretty — you can practice drawing comics. Drawing comics is easy to learn — there are no rules. I started to draw every day! It was clear to me that I could never learn comic book characters just by reading you have to practice and not be ashamed to start from scratch." In French.
• April 9, 2:20pm (EST?)
  Global Comics Lecture Series: The Making of Tales of the Orishas with Hugo Canuto
  University Libraries’ International and Area Studies Global Comics Lecture Series, in partnership with the Center for Latin American Studies’ Afro-Brazilian Arts and Activism Lecture Series, presents an invited talk by Brazilian comics artist Hugo Canuto titled “The Making of Tales of the Orishas.” Hugo Canuto is an illustrator, comics author and architect. His works seeks to explore the relationship between art, culture and the mythology of Brazil and Latin America. He is the author of the Contos dos Orixás, a comic series adaptation of the epic stories of the Yorubá and their descendants. Contos dos Orixásis the winner of the Angelo Agostini award and nominated as a finalist for the Jabuti award in the Comic Book category. He is currently working on writing and illustrating A Canção de Mayrube and the second volume of the Contos dos Orixás series. This event will offer English/Portuguese simultaneous translation, provided by Raquel Luciana de Souza and made possible by the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum.
• April 10, 3:00pm EST
  Hands On: ADVICE
  Critically acclaimed cartoonists, Cara Bean, Sheika Lugtu, and Jarod Roselló will give you advice on making comics! Use their linked form to receive a zoom link, and to submit a question for our panelists. (Submitting a question does not guarantee the question will be asked, but we'll try our best to include as many submitted questions as possible.)
• April 10, 8:00pm ET
  Matt Wagner: Q-and-A and Original Art
  Your purchase of this Talk gets you access to a limited, private 45-minute Q&A session with Matt! Matt is happy to answer questions about the process, his experiences in comics, or art in general! Your purchase includes an original bust sketch by Matt of a character of your choice on a special, high-quality, 6.5-by-10 inch 3-ply illustration board provided by TalentTalk! Registration: $275 US.
• April 12, 2:00 pm EST
  MoCCA Arts Fest Comic and Cartoon Art Week: Megascope
  Join John Jennings, the New York Times bestselling illustrator of Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, as he introduces the world to MEGASCOPE: a new line of graphic novels from Abrams ComicArts dedicated to showcasing speculative and non-fiction works by and about people of color, with a focus on science fiction, fantasy, horror, history, and stories of magical realism. John is joined by creators and editors from Megascope’s debut list, including illustrator David Brame (After the Rain), writer Eric Anthony Glover (Black Star), illustrator Arielle Jovellanos (Black Star), and Jazmine Joyner (assistant editor) as they discuss the creative process and vision behind the line. Moderated by Dr. Stanford Carpenter, cultural anthropologist and member of Megascope’s advisory board.
• April 12, 6:00pm CDT
  Jackie Davis + Huda Fahmy: Vulnerability Is My Superpower
  Join Jackie Davis as she presents her newest book Vulnerability Is My Superpower: An Underpants and Overbites Collection. Joining Jackie in conversation is fellow published comic artist Huda Fahmy. Vulnerability Is My Superpower features Davis's relatable diary comics about self-discovery, mental health, relationships, and childhood. Registration: $5 – $39.99 US.
• April 12, 6:00 pm EST
  MoCCA Arts Fest Comic and Cartoon Art Week: Controlled Chaos: Simon Hanselmann with Nathan Cowdry
  Join alternative cartoonists Simon Hanselmann (Crisis Zone) and Nathan Cowdry (Crash Site) for a friendly chat about their respective bodies of work. Their comics share many common themes: anthropomorphised animals, violence done to and by undergarments, drug-fueled escapades, and the value of loyalty, friendship and lust… er, love! We meant love!
• April 13, 2:00 pm EST
  MoCCA Arts Fest Comic and Cartoon Art Week: Making Autobiographical Comics with Meghan Parker
  Join artist and educator Meghan Parker for an introduction to her new comic Teaching Artfully and a hands-on workshop. Teaching Artfully is an autobiographical comic that chronicles Meghan Parker's explorations as a new art teacher in a public high school. Created as a thesis for a Master of Arts at Simon Fraser University, Teaching Artfully uses the comic form to investigate art, education and what matters. Workshop participants will be guided along in creating their very own own autobiographical comic. Have a paper and pencil ready! Meghan Parker is an artist and educator based in North Vancouver, Canada. Her recently published book, Teaching Artfully, is an autobiographical comic exploring her questions and experiences as a high school visual arts teacher. Created as a groundbreaking thesis in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University, Teaching Artfully argues for comics in scholarship and celebrates and advocates for the arts in education.
• April 13, 2:00 pm EST
  MoCCA Arts Fest Comic and Cartoon Art Week: The Dairy Restaurant with Ben Katchor
  Online discussion of The Dairy Restaurant with Ben Katchor. Hosted on Zoom. Meeting ID: 817 5564 9622 Passcode: 766926
• April 13, 6:00 pm EST
  MoCCA Arts Fest Comic and Cartoon Art Week: Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio with Derf Backderf
  Join acclaimed comics creator Derf Backderf as he discusses his newest, award-winning graphic novel Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio. Described by The New Yorker as "deeply researched and gut-wrenching,” Kent State explores the events that lead up to May 4, 1970, when the Ohio National Guard gunned down unarmed college students protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State University. Using the journalism skills he employed on My Friend Dahmer and Trashed, Backderf has conducted extensive interviews and research to explore the lives of these four young people and the events of those four days in May, when the country seemed on the brink of tearing apart. Kent State is a moving and troubling story about the bitter price of dissent—as relevant today as it was in 1970.
• April 13, 7:00 pm EST
  MoCCA Arts Fest Comic and Cartoon Art Week: THE BACKUPS Launch Event
  Join Alex de Campi—New York-based writer of critically-acclaimed graphic novels including Eisner-nominated heist noir Bad Girls and Twisted Romance —as she launches The Backups, a young adult graphic novel about crushes, confidence, and catchy choruses!
• April 13, 7:00 pm EST
  MoCCA Arts Fest Comic and Cartoon Art Week: Ryan Holmberg: Manga 4.5: Building Comics with Mats and Stones
  Historian Ryan Homberg focuses on tropes of bohemian poverty in Haoan 50s and 60s. Hosted by NY Comics & Picture-Story Symposium.
• April 13, 8:00pm EST
  Spiny Orb Weaver No. 2 Release Event
  Celebrate the release of Spiny Orb Weaver No. 2, a publication about comics in South Florida! Comics critic Rob Clough will interview cartoonists Drew Lerman and Chris López.
• April 14, 8:00am EDT
  AE Global Comic Webinar: Hocus Pocus Focus on Literacy and Creativity with Dwight MacPherson
  In January of 2017 his idea of an independent publishing company became a reality with the launch of Hocus Pocus Comics. Dwight and Rebecca MacPherson are passionate about the value of comic books in the classroom and with Hocus Pocus Comics, they can equip educators to discover this rich and unique resource to add to their classroom curriculum and libraries.
• April 14, 2:00 pm EST
  MoCCA Arts Fest Comic and Cartoon Art Week: Live Drawing- Uncensored! John Cuneo and Joe Ciardiello
  In celebration of his upcoming book of collected drawings, Coping Skills, cartoonist John Cuneo (known for his New Yorker covers, illustrations, and a prodigious output of NSFW drawings) gives us a glimpse into his unique creative process with a virtual live drawing session. He’s joined in conversation by the equally talented and acclaimed illustrator Joe Ciardiello.
• April 14, 6:00 pm EST
  MoCCA Arts Fest Comic and Cartoon Art Week: Shawn Martinbrough: Telling A Story
  A discussion on how to create a story starting from words to art. Shawn Martinbrough is the author of How to Draw Noir Comics: The Art and Technique of Visual Storytelling, published by PenguinRandom House. He is a creator/artist whose DC Comics, Marvel and Dark Horse Comics projects include Batman: Detective Comics, DMZ, Luke Cage Noir, The Black Panther and Hellboy.
• April 14, 8:30pm CST
  'The Art of Comic Books: Fine Art at Our Fingertips' Webinar
  Join the New York Adventure Club as they embark on a fascinating art journey that examines the great artists within the fine art and comic book art worlds, and how similar — or different — their artworks really are. Led by Arlen Schumer. Registration: $10 US.
• April 15, 11:00am (GMT?)
  Create A Comic
  Learn how to design your own cartoon characters and then draw them in a one-page comic strip story. Great for beginners, and fun for those with a little more experience. Workshop will be held via zoom and led by a professional cartoon tutor from The Cartoon Museum. Suitable for ages 8 and up. Registration: £12 UK.
• April 15, 1:30pm (GMT?)
  Let's Draw Superheroes!
  Superheroes have never been more popular, so here’s where you can learn how to draw a few favourites and invent a brand new one of your own. Workshop will be held via zoom and led by a professional cartoon tutor from The Cartoon Museum. Suitable for ages 8 and up. Registration: £12 UK.
• April 15, 11:10am (EST?)
  Spotlight on Jacques Ferrandez
  You are invited to join us for a discussion with the French author, illustrator, and graphic novelist, JACQUES FERRANDEZ, on 15 April 2021. He will be visiting Professor Danielle Marx-Scouras’s two French classes: French 5403: “Albert Camus: A Writer for Our Time” (11:10-12:30) and French Honors 2101 (Introduction to French and Francophone Studies (2:20-3:40). Ferrandez will be discussing his work on Camus and his personal and artistic position “between two shores”. All discussions will be in French.
• April 15, 2:00 pm EST
  MoCCA Arts Fest Comic and Cartoon Art Week: Let’s Make Comics with Mika Song!
  Do you love cute animals? Delicious foods? Drawing? Then join author and artist Mika Song for a fun-filled hour of reading and drawing, featuring her awesome kids graphic novel, Donut Feed the Squirrels! This workshop is great for families and young artists ages 5+.
• April 15, 6:00pm ET
  MoCCA Arts Fest Comic and Cartoon Art Week: Storytelling++
  Join award winning artist/educators Maëlle Doliveux, Tim Hamilton, Aaron Meshon and Anna Raff as they discuss, debate and analyze how to further develop the sequential instincts of comic book artists and illustrators on their quest to tell better stories. Moderated by Viktor Koen, founder of the Summer Illustration Residency program at SVA, the presentation will share advise, methods and teaching experiences with a Q&A session to follow.
• April 16, 11:00am (GMT?)
  Manga
  Japanese comics are drawn in many different styles, so we’ll be trying a few of the most popular, creating our own character, and then featuring them in a page of manga artwork. Workshop will be held via zoom and led by a professional cartoon tutor from The Cartoon Museum. Suitable for ages 8 and up. Registration: £12 UK.
• April 16, 1:30pm (GMT?)
  Let's Draw The Beano!
  The longest-running weekly comic in the world has given us loads of classic comic characters. Learn how to draw some favourites and then design your own Beano front cover. Workshop will be held via zoom and led by a professional cartoon tutor from The Cartoon Museum. Suitable for ages 8 and up. Registration: £12 UK.
• April 16, noon ET
  MoCCA Arts Fest Comic and Cartoon Art Week: Gilbert & Jaime Hernandez in Conversation with Adrian Tomine
  Jaime Hernandez, Gilbert Hernandez and Adrian Tomine sit down for an informal discussion of their methods, influences, some alternative comics history and more. This meeting of three of the most accomplished and influential alternative cartoonists working today is not to be missed!
• April 16, 6:00pm ET
  MoCCA Arts Fest Comic and Cartoon Art Week: Drink & Draw Comics
  Join us to celebrate the comic and cartoon art week with our virtual Cosplay themed Drink and Draw! This event will be Hosted by Ted Michalowski and Cosplay Model Ariel Krupnik. Attendees are encouraged to dress up as their favorite comic characters and participate as Models as well as share the artwork.

• April 17, 11:00am (KST?)
  Scholastic Author Invitation Event
  Heather Ayris Burnell and Norm Feuti will be doing an Instagram Live event with Scholastic Korea. They will talk about Unicorn and Yeti and Hello Hedgehog and do a live drawing for the kids! It will be in English, but with live text translation into Korean.
• April 17, 10:30am ET
  MoCCA Arts Fest Comic and Cartoon Art Week: Saturday Stories
  Join, acclaimed illustrator Libby VanderPloeg for an exciting workshop and reading of Brooklyn Bailey, The Missing Dog. Libby will share her approach to creating fun, colorful maps and then show participants how to make a map of their own that highlights one of their favorite places. For this workshop, participants will need: markers, colorful paper scraps (or construction paper), scissors, one 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper (any color or white), and a glue stick. Good for all ages 5 and up!
• April 17, 7:00pm ET
  MoCCA Arts Fest Comic and Cartoon Art Week: The Adventure Zone Virtual Fan Meetup
  You won't want to miss :01's The Adventure Zone graphic novel virtual fan meetup on Saturday, April 17th at 7pm ET. Come dressed in your best TAZ-inspired cosplay for a chance to be featured in a cosplay fashion show, submit a trivia question to stump Travis and Clint, and get excited for an art reveal from The Adventure Zone: The Crystal Kingdom PLUS our preorder item announcement (trust us, you don’t want to miss this)! Space is limited and will be granted on a first-come-first-serve basis. The event will also be live streamed! The first 15 people who register will have the opportunity to participate in our TAZ scavenger hunt AND win a $25 gift card to the McElroy merch store.
• April 17, 9:00am CDT
  Authors Unlimited Online
  Authors Unlimited 2021 is a free program that celebrates reading by connecting teens and authors. Attendees will get the chance to meet Kristen Gudsnuk, Jen Calonita, and Arvin Ahmadi first at an author panel and then in smaller breakout sessions afterward.
• April 18, 5:00pm EST
  Cartoonist Coffee
  Using Zoom's break-out rooms, we'll randomly split participants up into small groups to have 15-minute conversations. Get to know new cartoonists, spend time with friends you haven't seen in a minute! When the 15 minutes is up, we'll reshuffle participants for another small group conversation! No jerks! Bring your own coffee/tea/water/etc.
• April 19, 2:00pm (EST?)
  Global Comics Lecture Series: Comics and the Humanization of the Middle Eastern Experience
  In the world of Middle Eastern cartoons and graphic novels, the artists often focus their discussions on politics, government, war, protesters, etc., which are all important topics. Very few artists, however, address the actual people who are living these experiences. Join International and Area Studies at The Ohio State University Libraries for our next installment of the Global Comics Lecture Series featuring Iasmin, a Middle Eastern, Muslim, queer and trans comics artist, who will address:
  • Humanizing Middle Eastern people and our stories in a world that politicizes us, and how we can convey these things through comics
  • The intersection of queer, trans and Middle Eastern identities past, present and future, and the importance of representation in art
  • Healing trauma through comics (and art in general)
• April 20, 8:00pm ET
  Howard Chaykin + Mark Waid
  Comics is ultimately a collaborative medium (Chaykin will tell you about the SIX participants). Now, Chaykin and Waid will take you inside that collaborative process with BOTH some informal shop talk and philosophy AND some very hands-on examples of how a writer writes, and how an artist transforms written direction into a visual narrative. Waid and Chaykin will pull from their shared experience and show you what matches up, what gets BETTER, and WHY. Registration: $150 US.
• April 21, 3:30pm (EST?)
  Global Comics Lecture Series: The Real and Serial in Zhang Leping’s The Wandering Life of Sanmao
  Sanmao, or “Three Hairs,” has entertained and educated readers in China and beyond from 1935 to the present, ranking him among the world’s longest-lived comics characters. Sanmao’s creator, Zhang Leping (1910-1992) adapted the wordless escapades of this gangly, pumpkin-headed orphan boy across more than fifty years of a changing historical landscape, from the mass entertainment of 1930s Shanghai and brutal wars of invasion and civil strife in the 1940s to Mao’s mass campaigns of the 1950s and on into the post-Mao era of economic reform. Sanmao lives on today in comics reprints in multiple languages, as well as a huge range of transmedia productions from live-action and animated films to stage plays, propaganda exhibits and even museums. Sanmao became a household name between the years 1947 and 1948, when Zhang Leping published The Wandering Life of Sanmao (Sanmao liulangji) across 250 installments in the Shanghai newspaper Dagong bao (L’Impartial). Wandering Life resonated with the realities of historical crisis during those years, a time of disastrous economic collapse and civil war on the eve of the 1949 Chinese communist revolution. Just as, if not more, important to the strip’s impact and lasting fame, however, was its form: an open-ended, serial comic strip embedded within the pages of another open-ended serial, the daily paper. How these two globalized serial forms, one fictional and the other factual, worked in symbiosis to engage the imagination of readers on the eve of a revolution is the topic of this lecture.
• April 22, 8:00pm ET
  Mark Waid: Comic Writing
  This is a highly intensive, learning-focused session in which Mark will layout the ins-and-outs of plot structure, and creating riveting stories and memorable characters! Owing to the highly personal and instructive nature of this course, only 10 seats are available for this exclusive session! Proceeds from this talk benefit Hero Initiative, the charity that helps comic book creators in medical or financial need! Registration: $125 US.
• April 23, 8:00pm ET
  Dan DiDio
  Now YOU can talk to Dan and find out about the ins-and-outs of the comic business, how cartoons get on the air, and more! Dan is happy to answer questions about the business, or just talk comics or animation in general! Your purchase of this Talk gets you access to a private 55-minute Q-and-A session with longtime comic writer/editor/historian and animation executive Dan DiDio! Proceeds from this talk benefit Hero Initiative, the charity that helps comic book creators in medical or financial need! Registration: $50 US.
• April 24, 3:00pm EST
  Hands On: More Than Breaking Even with Sage Coffey
  Join Sage Coffey as they walk through the psychology behind sales, their approach to convention etiquette, and pricing self-published mini-comics to maintain accessibility without going broke in the process.
• April 24-25, May 1-2
  DOING THE IMPOSSIBLE ON A DEADLINE: Comics and Graphic Novels Editing Workshop
  Enroll in this workshop to learn comics editing, an important aspect of making comics that is often considered a mystery. Whether you’re working for a publishing company or creating your own comics, editing is a major part of the creative and business process. Learn from legendary editor Danny Fingeroth’s decades of experience and success—and his stumbles, too—how to be the best possible editor you can be in a wide variety of situations. Experience editing decisions and conflicts through in-class and at-home editing challenges. You’ll look at classic published stories, raw scripts, problematic art, where you’ll have the chance to see what you would have done with it—and what ended up in the printed comics! Registration: $699.99 US.
• April 27, 6:00pm ET
  Howard Chaykin – Paradigm: BEYOND
  Whether you’re a beginner trying to find your artistic voice or seasoned artist looking to hone your visual language skills, comic book artist/writer Howard Chaykin’s Paradigm art classes exclusively on TalentTalk teaches aspiring artists what shapes, distance, and movement tell us about time and journey. In this visual exploration, Chaykin takes you inside storytelling to walk you through page layout and show you WHAT works and WHY. Registration: $30 US.
• April 27, 8:00pm EST
  The Future of Comics: Building The Community We Want to See
  Join Leila Abdelrazaq, Zach Clemente, Lawrence Lindell, and Carta Monir as they discuss their visions for the future of small press comics. Moderated by Neil Brideau.
• May 2, 5:00pm EST
  Cartoonist Coffee
  Using Zoom's break-out rooms, we'll randomly split participants up into small groups to have 15-minute conversations. Get to know new cartoonists, spend time with friends you haven't seen in a minute! When the 15 minutes is up, we'll reshuffle participants for another small group conversation! No jerks! Bring your own coffee/tea/water/etc.