Between the Lines: Derf Backderf

My next appearance! This Week.

This Wednesday, May 18 at 7 pm, Literary Cleveland hosts an author talk with graphic novelist Derf Backderf, in conversation with fellow comics creator John G. The event will take place at the legendary Happy Dog at the Euclid Tavern. Admission is free.

Join Derf and John as they discuss the creative process and the nuts and bolts of writing 

comics. Macs Backs will be selling Derf's books. Signing to follow the talk.              

Signing & Talk this Weds in Cleveland!

Baron of Prospect Ave. update

My webcomic experiment is chugging along here. I have 24 pages up and am starting to post several pages a week. The plan is to knock the shit out of this over the summer. The opening scene is completed and I'm starting in on the next.

I'm having fun with it, and I'm happy with it so far. This isn't something I really view as a commercial work. It's a labor of love. I just want to keep busy and stay productive. Of course, that's how Trashed began, too, as a just-for-fun webcomic. And look what happened there!

As I explained earlier, this project is funded by a year-long grant from the Cultural Workforce, a taxpayer-funded arts organization here in greater Cleveland. How cool is THAT? Art grants for comics! So I can afford to give it away for free, because I am getting paid for it. My plan is to deliver a complete 100-page (or so) story this year. After that, I'll take down the pages and add to the story to make it a proper book and, yeah, it'll eventually be published.

I'm posting these pages in simple b&w. No shading, no color. I didn't want to get bogged down with that. Eventually, I will, and the finished book will have one or the other. Besides the original PR&TP was just b&w line and everyone seems to enjoy it just fine.

Fear not, this tale will be every bit as bawdy and grungy as the original. The first sex scene is just around the corner!

Read it all HERE

The War on Political Cartoons Continues

Not satisfied with the almost total extinction of the daily political cartoonist, the Corporate Master of Media are now turning their attention to niche publications and their cartoonists.

Rick Friday has been penning political cartoons on farm issues for the Farm News in Iowa for 21 years. Last week, he wrote a cartoon that was mildly critical of the salaries of AgriBiz CEOs. 

The editor of Farm News emailed him the next day with the news that higher ups had ordered the editor fire Friday immediately. Apparently, an advertiser, presumably one of the AgriBiz's in the cartoon, had yanked its ads in protest and the newspaper decided to buckle and throw itself at the feet of the offended corporate entity and plead for mercy.

Farm News is owned by Ogden Newspapers Inc. of Wheeling, West Virginia. The family-owned chain owns several dozen daily, weekly and niche newspapers, mostly in small markets and most are total shit.

This is how bad its gotten for the once-storied profession of political cartooning. Our Masters don't like being made fun of in cartoons, no matter how small the publication.

Wrote Friday in a facebook post: "Hopefully my children and my grandchildren will see that this last cartoon ... will shine light on how fragile our rights to free speech and free press really are in the country."