R. Crumb Illustrates The Book of Genesis literally

From the President's Desk

Here at the Comic Book College Weeklies, we recently got word from long time friend, Jay Lynch, that Robert Crumb was working on illustrating the Bible..."Holy Scriptural Interpretations, Batman, that would be colossal if true"?
"Yes, Robin, I can see the All Time Best Seller actually make the NY Times best seller list for the first time..... if it is true, Robin"? Well, folks it is true. We asked Denis Kitchen if he was handling it for Crumb and here is what Denis wrote back......

I agented the book. But it’s not the entire Bible. It’s called The Book of Genesis According to R. Crumb. Done straight (that is literally,......) Coming from W. W. Norton probably late 2009. ---Denis

Denis Kitchen Publishing Announcement

From the President's Desk

Just want to mention we got further word from Denis Kitchen Publishing about the upcoming new book about Harvey Kurtzman.
Denis writes us an email today saying he is swamped with deadlines but....
Can’t complain about promotion.

The book comes out next spring from Harry N. Abrams new ComicArts imprint. Covers Harvey’s entire life and career. Hardcover, 256 pages. Around 300 illustrations, many published for the first time.

We emailed back that we would keep posting here. Check out www.deniskitchen.com to see the other great products they have available.
Thanks again to Denis Kitchen and his partners for their wonderful publications.

Garry Trudeau and the NOW Amazon woman

from the Back in the day Archives

Ok. recently Garry Trudeau, creator of Doonesbury cartoon strip, read around the world, has been in the news, you may have heard, you may not care, you may not even know who Garry Trudeau is? (which is hard to phantom). But, no matter, older white dude cartoonists know, and young African/American cartoonists could find out soon enough. But for the sake of white folk hipness and a little abstract honky humor here is my one and only Garry Trudeau personal encounter story.
I can't remember the exact date in 1978, but it had to have been around the time that Dick Randall and myself were busy interviewing top names in the Comic Book industry for an Interview article spread in Cornerstone Magazine Vol.6 issue no. 39. Dick was the main cartoonist at the time and I was doing story lines and the color for him. We had recently spent a full hour with Marvel Comic's mastermind, Stan Lee, at the second annual Chicago Comic Con, from there we went to interview "Brenda Starr" creator Dale Messick at her near North Side's Gold Coast apartment, from there we went to see Playboy Cartoonist and Art Director, Skip Williamson at the Playboy Building office and now we were headed to some Feminist fundraiser with Christie Hefner and the N.O.W. folks who were hosting the event with "Doonsbury" cartoonist/creator Garry Trudeau down on Michigan ave, in some swank Hotel . We were on a roll as Elvis would say.
Dick Randall somehow talked Christie Hefner into granting us an interview, while we were at the Playboy building for the Skip Williamson interview and she invited us to meet her and Garry Trudeau the following week at this NOW fund raiser. So hot diggety dog, we thought that would round off our interviews nicely. Although I never understood the Christie Hefner angle with the Stan Lee interview, maybe we were just meant to be at the Crossroads that fateful afternoon? God only knows.
Ok so we get there, and we are about the only two guys there except for Garry. I felt a little strange, like out of our element but ok we are young and we can handle it, we are on assignment for Cornerstone magazine to get an interview with the nation's top Cartoonist and besides we have a personal invite from Hugh Hefner's daughter. So we are there, in this hotel, with Christie Hefner and all the big wig National Organization of Women leadership and Garry Trudeau, the Doonesbury cartoonist plus some "others"........
The one "other" that stood out the most was a 6ft 7 Amazon, dressed up in a American Indian outfit complete with headband, Indian beads, buckskin mini skirt with war paint on her face. I kid you not. This chick could easily have played left Tackle for the Chicago Bears, she was that big. She was LOUD, and she had Garry Trudeau cornered and pinned down in some cosmic, revelation, conversation that sounded like a late 70's Saturday Night Live skit featuring Abbie Hoffman and the ConeHeads on Acid. All of sudden Garry grabbed my arm and said, "Can I talk to you guys right now, back here"? We said sure, that is why we came, to interview you, so lets go, I am thinking wow this is easy.........He rushed us into this side room and slammed the door in the face of Ms. Amazon Indian Chick trying to follow us in. The look of horror on Trudeau's face was worth a thousand original Doonesbury strips on Ebay. He started thanking us profusely for saving his butt back there from Ms. Amazoness Indian Chick. I think Randall said something that we did not save him but Jesus could?!?!?!? Oh NO, Look of Horror number two suddenly appeared on Garry's face. Everything happened so fast there was no time to react...... out of the frying pan and into the fire, "Holy Jesus Freaks and Amazon Acid ladies, Batman", Trudeau is thinking to himself, get me out of here, God. I could be off a little on that quote but it was something to that affect. Garry was just stunned, we probably did say something offensive concerning the Gospel in our youthful exuberance that afternoon, but it was nothing compared to Amazon Indian Woman's Acid rap. As best as I can recall we did not get that interview on tape. Dick Randall ended up arguing against Roe V. Wade with some N.O.W. ladies, probably not a good idea looking back at it. But not half as dangerous as Blues Hall of Famer, Gerry Glombecki arguing pro Roe V Wade with a Bar full of drunken conservatives in Tuscon Arizona recently. Whoa, dude, slow down, we want you to stick around a few more years.
As for me, I was just glad to get out of the Commune that day back in '78 and do something that no one else I knew, would ever do, meet and talk with Garry Trudeau and Wonder Woman at the same time? It was definitely not as cool as actually interviewing Stan Lee, Skip Williamson inside the Playboy Building and Dale Messick but it was truly comical and you can't fake real comical adventures, they just happen along the way.
So Garry, if you are out there and someone sends you an email to check this out, I want to personally thank you for putting up with us that day. We probably should not have been there but we did save your ass from Mrs Ponchahontas who probably was not on the guest list either..................God bless and if you are ever in Alaska, stop in, and say hello to the Governor Sarah for us .
Read Doonesbury for a complete up to the minute historical look at where we have been and how we got here, Best Damn Liberal Political Daily Syndicated Cartoon Strip Ever. Comic Book College (sorry for typos thanks Alan)

The Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont

SCHULZ LIBRARYat The Center for Cartoon Studies
Located in the historic Bridge Street firehouse, on the edge of the White River, is CCS's own Schulz Library. Thanks for generous donations from publishers, artists, and collectors the world over, our collection is abundant and unique. From our selection of contemporary graphic novels, to our out-of-print and rare collections of gag cartoons and classic newspaper strips, the Schulz Library is a dream come true for the cartoonist bibliophile.

In addition to comic books and graphic novels, the library holds an extensive collection of books about cartooning – both academic and instructional. Our reference section is a great resource on a variety of fine arts including design, illustration, animation, and photography. Our periodical section contains a near-complete run of The Comics Journal.

Unique to the Schulz library is our zine and mini-comic library, a one-of-a-kind collection of handmade publications. Students can browse through comics' untold history, and draw on this collection when making their own publications. And of course, in honor of our namesake, the Schulz library has an admirable collection of rare Peanuts books which span Schulz's career. The Schulz library is open to CCS students and is equipped with high speed wireless internet.

SCHULZ LIBRARY online catalog:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=CartoonStudies

Location:
58 Bridge Street, White River Junction, Vermont
Located adjacent to the Main Street Museum
Open to students, faculty, and staff of CCS.

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The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics

Denis Kitchen and his friends have done it again, publishing a new book called The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics. According to Amazon.com the Hardcover will be available April 1st 2009. Pre-orders are at a discounted price of $26.50. There can be no doubt that this book will be an awesome insight into Harvey's genius and his overwhelming influence on a whole new generation of American Cartoonists who were destined to break all the rules. To read about Harvey Kurtzman in short go to www.deniskitchen.com and click or search Harvey Kurtzman.

Corrections to Kurtzman post

dear Readers,

Due to the constraints of the page format on Comic Book College Weeklies blog, the right margin cuts off some of the article about Harvey Kurtzman from Denis Kitchen Publishing's website, please visit www.deniskitchen.com and click on Harvey Kurtzman to read the article without interruption. Thank You and look for DKP's new book The Art of HarveyKurtzman available April 1 2009 on Amazon pre-order for $26.40 hardcover. Authors Denis Kitchen, Paul Buhle and Harry Shearer

Denis Kitchen Press to release a new book about Harvey Kurtzman

HARVEY KURTZMAN (1924-1993) was a cartoonist, writer and editor with enormous influence on several generations of cartoonists and readers. He broke into the comic book field working on second and third-rate super hero comics in the early '40s. After military service, Kurtzman returned to the field with a distinctive new style, creating humorous one-shot fillers called "Hey Look!" for Stan Lee at Timely (Marvel) Comics and Elliot Caplin at Toby Comics. Kurtzman is probably best known as the comic genius who created MAD in the early 1950s at Entertaining Comics (E.C.), first as a wild color comic book, then as a black & white magazine. MAD, under Kurtzman, vigorously and fearlessly lampooned American institutions, including other comic strips and television, a medium then in its infancy. He rediscovered and developed Alfred E. Neuman, MAD's moronic gap-toothed mascot, created the distinctive logos, drew many early covers and wrote most of the material for the historic first 28 issues, leaving abruptly in a bitter dispute over equity with E.C. publisher William M. Gaines. While at E.C. Kurtzman also wrote, edited and contributed to two other ground-breaking comic book series, Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat, war comics that refused to glorify war. In 1957, after departing MAD, Kurtzman created Trump, a glossy high-budget satire magazine for Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner, who pulled the plug after only two glorious issues. Kurtzman then partnered with Harry Chester and fellow cartoonists Jack Davis, Will Elder, Arnold Roth and Al Jaffee in 1957, creating Humbug. The innovative but ill-fated publication lasted eleven issues. In 1959 Kurtzman on his own created the first pocketbook of all-new comics, Jungle Book. Its impact was profound but it too was a commercially unsuccessful venture. During this period Kurtzman created some of his best solo work, such as The Grasshopper and The Ant and other features for magazines like Esquire and Pageant. He tried in vain to sell newspaper strip concepts to various syndicates. He then partnered with publisher James Warren to create his final satire publication, Help! While at Help! in the early '60s Kurtzman discovered and gave first national exposure to young cartoonists Robert Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, Jay Lynch and Skip Williamson, all later integral to the "underground" comix movement. Another discovery, Gloria Steinem was a Kurtzman assistant and contributor at Help! before becoming the founder of Ms. and a feminist icon. Steinem's replacement was an equally unknown college drop-out Terry Gilliam. By selecting an obscure British actor named John Cleese to appear in a fumetti (story using panels of captioned photos) and introducing him to Gilliam, Kurtzman planted the seed for what would become Monty Python's Flying Circus. R. Crumb was on his way to New York to replace Gilliam when Help! folded. While at Help! Kurtzman created a hilarious Candide-like feature called "Goodman Beaver" with collaborator Will Elder. Kurtzman took the Goodman concept to a then more financially secure Hefner, who approved a sex change to the character. The resulting "Little Annie Fanny," premiering in Playboy in 1962, was the most lavish comic strip ever created. "Annie" continued as a Playboy mainstay until 1988. reprinted from www.deniskitchenpublishing.com without written permission, sorry denis " bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" bordercolor="" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" width="100%">

Comic Book College Weeklies

Hey there fans, we here at the Comic Book College are happy to announce the creation of our newest time waster, the Comic Book College Weeklies blog. As the title suggests but not to be believed of course, is the weeklies thing. Well that is so we dont have to waste a lot of time screwing around here in cyber space. But if this thing for some odd reason takes off, and quite frankly we hope it is only minorly successful, (that way we dont have to pay some new college graduate $40k a year to edit the damn thing..............) then I guess it will turn into a dailies thing.
If you are a comic artist and or a cartoonist, you might find it amusing. You might even get involved somehow, like I have no idea how, but then again remember when the laser beam was created? No you don't remember because you were not even born yet, well, be that as it may, no one knew what that was for either, now, imagine a smart bomb w/o a laser? talk about collateral damage, holy blown up Afghan villages Batman, that was close!!!!!!! Yes Robin, but not half as close as the Taliban's attack on the Ancient Buddha Statue in the mountainside????????????????? You are dead on, Batman, why did we not see it coming, holy prophetic oversights, Batman.
Hey, like we said in the beginning whatever, join us if the notion strikes you. Maybe you too can improve your artistic talent in just 8 weeks with the new improved CBC Art course for Stay at Home Dads.
Here at the Comic Book College Not For Profit Corp. we are accepting donations, ideas, strips, comic characters, comic stories . If you are interested in registering for a class or two, that is cool, but since we just started this fall, you may have to wait till the spring semester.........We are currently working on a Graphic Novel called RESISTANCE: the Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Basically he was a German Theologian who turned into a German Resistance fighter inside Hitler's Germany beginning in 1933 and was hanged for his involvement in the failed attempts to assassinate Hitler. It will be available soon on www.lulu.com or you could order a first edition from us directly, signed copies will be available. Originally the comic was published in Black and White, how else do you do the Nazis justice? in 1983 and 1984 in a two part series published in a magazine called Cornerstone out of Chicago Il by underground artist Robert W. Cox (Bob Cox).
The extreme political content was partly responsible for Cox's removal from the position of staff comic artist, a position he held for only three short years. However within that brief period of time he was able to create a unique body of politically incorrect works that allowed him limited access to that very exclusive and elusive group known as the United Cartoon Workers of America. Well, actually Cox had been invited to become a member of this most important Labor Union in America, by his friends Bijou Funnies Publisher, Jay Lynch and Skip Williamson, Conspiracy Capers Publisher, back in 1972-3. But having completed only one comic book for children back then, it was not till later in the early 1980's that Cox had any street cred with his peers as the cartoonist for the radical politically incorrect Left wing/Right wing Christian avant garde magazine known as Cornerstone (published every two to three months from1972 - 2003) of which Cox had been a staff artist since 1974 till 1985. By that time the whole Underground Comics Movement in America was literally under ground as in dead. But of course you cant keep a good man down and artists like Robert Crumb were still rolling along stronger than ever. Cornerstone always loved Crumb's style though embarassed by his porn/political content, none the less, when Crumb did a satire of Cox's own comical satire of about the Cornerstone Rock Star interviews , well let's just say, all Hell broke loose on Cox. In a personal phone conversation with Crumb, Cox had to come to grips with something Crumb said to him and mainly it was that Bob's days at Cornerstone were numbered, that the die was cast and he would be out soon enough. Cox moved down South shortly afterwards taking all his copyrights and comics with him, in short surrendering to fight another day........But hey we are ramblin here gettin off message, lets post this little sucker and see what happens...........From the President's Desk @ the Comic book College. contact us at comicbookcollege@gmail.com