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Showing posts with label Washington City Paper. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Washington City Paper. Show all posts

Saturday, April 4, 2015

joyner_bw

Check it out at:

Maryland's Ronnie Joyner May be America's Last Sports Cartoonist


And here's some minor clips of material that didn't make it into the City Paper, just for the record:

Why are you in the Washington area now?  What neighborhood or area do you live in?

My wife and I had three kids and stayed in Accokeek until moving to Charlotte Hall, MD, in 2001. We're still in Charlotte Hall. It's about fifty minutes south of DC, right on the Charles County-St. Mary's County line.

What local cons do you attend? The Small Press Expo, Intervention, or others? Any comments about attending them?

To be honest, I've never been to a con, so I'm not too clued in on them. I think I need to get to one and see what's up. I'll report back!

Least favorite thing about DC?

This is probably not a very original answer, but I hate the DC traffic.

What monument or museum do like to take visitors to?

I never get tired of visiting the Air and Space museum. I spent a year as a graphic artist at the US Senate in 2012, and I went down to Air and Space three times. The Apollo program was such a big deal when I was growing up that I'm still in awe of the astronauts of the 60s and 70s. To go to Air and Space and look into John Glenn's Friendship 7 capsule is pretty awesome.

What's the background on being an artist for the Senate?

After working at the same graphics firm in Old Town for 25 years, I took a job at the Senate graphics department (PGDM — Printing, Graphics and Direct Mail) down at the Dirksen Building next to the Capitol. Basically, there are two 5-team shifts of designers there that work to fill any of the graphic needs of the Senators and their support staff. Things like posters to support floor speeches, brochures, newsletters, direct mail letters and postcards, etc. It was interesting work and a neat atmosphere to work in. I stayed there a year, but I left to join a shop that was more local to me where I could work alongside a longtime friend of mine.

How about a favorite local restaurant?

I worked in Alexandria for 25 years, so I never really did much dining in DC. I'm pretty easy to please (and low brow) when it comes to food, though, so I'm happy just to eat at Chipotle in Chinatown!

Wednesday, September 7, 2011


Rob Ullman should be familiar to Washington readers of the City Paper because he illustrated Dan Savage's Savage Love sex advice column for years with both humor and hot babes. I believe I may have one of DC's largest collections of original sketches by Rob...

CDC: What type of comic work or cartooning do you do?

RU: I'm kind of all over the place...I started doing auto-biographical comics and strips about 15 years ago, and have continued to do them in various forms over the years. I also have recently been doing hockey comics: biographies of players (usually those who've met untimely deaths...I have a thing for tragedy), strips about odd events and funny incidents in the sport's colorful history. I also have managed to make a bit of a name for myself as a drawer of pretty cartoon ladies...pin-ups and whatnot. It's a label I embrace wholeheartedly.

CDC: What work are you best-known for?

RU: In DC, I'm probably best known for doing the spot illustrations for Dan Savage's Savage Love column in the City Paper from 1999-2008. It's the one thing I've done that everybody in Washington has seen, and was instrumental in my discovery that I could draw naked people pretty well.

CDC: How do you do it? Traditional pen and ink, computer or a combination?

RU: Traditional for pencilling and inking, then all computer for coloring and layout. The computer is just another tool, like a brush or a bottle of ink. I'm not adamantly anti-drawing-on-the-computer, but I haven't found/invested in a method of doing so that doesn't end up making the process more difficult and slow rather than less.

CDC: Can you tell us a little about your books that you'll have with you at SPX?

RU: As far as new books, I'll have the brand new issue of Old-Timey Hockey Tales, which has stories by Jeffrey Brown and I. I'm really proud of it, and I can't wait to show it off. I'll also have all my other books...a hardcover artbook of all my Savage spots and pin-up work called Atom-Bomb Bikini, two collections of my autobiographical strip Traffic & Weather, Grand Gestures from a bunch of years back, and about a dozen other mini-comics. I'll have a ton of prints and original art as well.

CDC: You've attended the Small Press Expo in the past - do you have any thoughts about your experience?

RU: This will be my 14th SPX...I haven't missed one since 1997. It's the closest I have to a "local" show, and it's always my favorite weekend of the year.

CDC: What are you looking forward to buying or seeing or doing for this year's event? Or who do you want to see, to catch up on old times, or to have a fanboy experience?

RU: Hoo, boy...we had a baby back in May, and I've been so busy with him and my other kid that I haven't even been able to even find out what'll be there! SPX for me is like a yearly class reunion, catching up with old pals and having a drink or five.

CDC: What's your favorite thing about the DC area? Least favorite?

RU: Favorite thing? So much to choose from. Great vibe, amazing restaurants. Least favorite has gotta be the traffic. Or maybe the Capitals.

CDC: What monument or museum do you like or wish to visit when you're in town?

Always like to visit the Hirshhorn when I have time.

CDC: What do you think will be the future of your field?

RU: I can't speak for the larger comics "industry", but I think type of people who exhibit at SPX will always make comics, whether it's in print or on a screen, whether there's money in it or not, because they're compelled to, against all common sense. It is nice to make a few bucks, though.

CDC: Do you have a website or blog?

RU: Both! My oft-neglected "professional" website is robullman.com, but it's mostly for Fancy-Dan illustration clients and whatnot. The real fun is over at my blog, atombombbikini.net. Updated a few times a week. Usually. I promise.
Meet an SPX Cartoonist: A Chat With Jen Sorensen
by Mike Rhode on Sep. 7, 2011 http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/books/2011/09/07/meet-an-spx-cartoonist-a-chat-with-jen-sorenson/

I was fortunate to be in the PR queue for Craig Thompson's Habibi book, so I got to read it (I recommend it) and talk to him for a half hour.

Check it out at

Meet an SPX Cartoonist: An Interview With Craig Thompson

Posted by Mike Rhode on Sep. 7, 2011 at 9:15 am

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/books/2011/09/07/meet-an-spx-cartoonist-an-interview-with-craig-thompson/

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Meet an SPX Cartoonist: A Chat with Mike Dawson
by Mike Rhode on Sep. 6, 2011

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Meet a Visiting SPX Cartoonist: A Chat With Keith Knight

 by Mike Rhode on Sep. 1, 2011

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/visual-arts/2011/09/01/meet-a-visiting-cartoonist-a-chat-with-keith-knight/
 
The first of the SPX-specific interviews launches...

Sunday, March 13, 2011

The Score discovers that Taiwan's Next Media Animation has done a 'news' animation, apparently titled "Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder is an asshole" which ends with his lawsuit against the (unnamed in the cartoon) Washington City Paper.

Washington City Paper brings back Comics
For Immediate Release
Contact: Jandos Rothstein


With its March 11 issue, Washington City Paper debuts a comics page, once again making funnies a significant part of the paper’s editorial mix.

The new line up will include two long-time contributors to City Paper, Derf and Shawn Belschwender with The City and Clowntime respectively and two strips new to City Paper readers: Up All Night by Michael Kupperman and Wondermark by David Malki.

“We’re thrilled to have comics back,” says creative director Jandos Rothstein “I know a lot of our readers missed them—and we did too, especially Ad Director David Walker who really rallied for the page when we were planning our redesign. It felt especially good to get Derf’s The City back in the paper—it ran for nearly 20 years before the cuts, and we’d used Derf as an illustrator—it really felt like his work was part of who we were visually and editorially.”

The paper had stopped running comics in 2008 as part of a cost cutting move. “When the paper was purchased by Creative Loafing, they were asking for cuts, and it was a visible thing we could do” says City Paper publisher Amy Austin “but they’re really not that expensive, and it’s a nice bonus for our readers.”

Editor Michael Schaffer adds, “we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the various platforms we publish on. City Paper does so much vital stuff online, and we’re taking on more and more ambitious projects there, but part of the print redesign involves embracing those things where paper still offers a unique advantage--like with a beautifully designed narrative feature story, or with comics.”

“The comics page is really part of an overarching effort to meet the needs of different kinds of readers that is manifest across our just-launched redesign,” says Rothstein. “While we continue to provide the sort of long-form, serious journalism Washington City Paper is famous for, we are also serving grazers and commuters with shorter features, more graphics-dominated items, and what we’ve been calling ‘toppers,’ which are little news bites that appear above longer pieces. I don’t think anything we’ve done changes our fundamental relationship with our readers, but I think we have created a paper that serves those readers in new ways and in new places.”

It’s still early, but community reaction to the return of comics has been positive in the community, with a lot of positive comments about the new line up on the ComicsDC blog.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Before the City Paper's great (blood-)shedding of comics a couple of years back, they ran a strip called Thingpart close to the front. Here's an interview with the cartoonist - Joey Alison Sayers Interview, Dan Copulsky, Question Riot blog March 25th, 2010.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

I haven't looked at this yet, but the City Paper (for whom I now freelance) is running their annual Best Of poll. I was a surprised winner of Best Comics Blog in 2008, especially since that wasn't a category.

Thursday, December 3, 2009


Emily Flake illustrates an article on Costco, and Rob Ullman's got a full-page ad later in the current issue.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009


Rob Ullman has the cover of this week's City Paper - a bit of a change as he's doing cute gay guys rather than cute girls.

Monday, July 27, 2009

The Straight Dope column in the July 24th City Paper is on whether or not Superman could make diamonds by squeezing coal. It's also online.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

See "The Future Is Closer than You Think: A Review of Nanoman: The Post-Human Prometheus," by Mike Riggs, Washington City Paper's City Desk blog Feb. 26, 2009. We had a press release of this here earlier, Riggs says the editor of the graphic novel, Arthur Delaney, also writes for the City Paper which is cool to know. The first issue is online or for sale as print on demand, but it's planned to be a 144-page graphic novel.

Friday, February 13, 2009

See "Comics Stripped: As alt-weeklies drop their funnies, is the end of a genre near?" By Michael Miner, Chicago Reader February 12, 2009, which reports on how much money the City Paper saved by dropping all its comics except Dirtfarm. Tip from Spurgeon.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Amanda Hess of the Washington City Paper sent a note saying that she'd interviewed Richard Thompson in the current issue and I'd missed it, although I did catch the "cartoonist with an odd theme" as I prefer to put it. I've got to stop reading the paper after going to the dentist.

I just read her article - it's good one. People aren't paying enough attention to Richard's caricature although that's how he made his name. Recently I was at his house and saw the sketches for his Palin finger puppet in the recycling, along with a bunch of photos of her he'd printed from the web. It was a fascinating look at how caricature works (I'm not a cartoonist and can't draw). For those who are interested, Richard runs a lot of his caricatures on his blog.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Unsurprisingly it's Mark Athitakis who notes Richard's blog on his blog. See "Local Cartoonist Injured by Untenable Malcolm Gladwell Thesis." The City Paper's headline today is about their bankruptcy, but I haven't had a chance to read it yet.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Read "City Paper's parent files for bankruptcy," By Bill Myers, Examiner Staff Writer 9/30/08. This would be Creative Loafing, the Florida chain that took over the City Paper last year and immediately slashed budgets, forcing the laying off of freelance cartoonists Rob Ullman and Shawn Belschwender. All of the strips in the paper were also dropped including Derf's The City, Cannon's Red Meat and Lynda Barry's Marilys.

Friday, September 19, 2008

One of the things I miss the most (besides Rob Ullman) from Creative (HAH!) Loafing's takeover of the City Paper is Derf's strip, The City. Here's an article about his new book - "DERF HOPES FOR A HIT WITH PUNK ROCK & TRAILER PARKS," Jennifer M. Contino, Comicon's The Pulse 09-18-2008.

Thursday, June 12, 2008


The Washington City Paper has a cover by Danny Hellman, who's also still doing regular illos for the Sunday Source in the Post. It's also got a review of the Incredible Hulk movie, which I guess opens tomorrow. See "The latest Hulk is smartly big and stupid, while Savage Grace keeps its horrors pretty," By Tricia Olszewski, Washington City Paper June 12, 2008.

Meanwhile, Keith Phipps in The Onion also reviewed the Hulk fairly positively. Donna Bowman has a good review of The Pixar Touch book by David Price.

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