Cartoon Art Exhibitions

Don't miss digit summer exhibitions from river State's International Museum of Cartoon Art. From the Yellow Kid to Conan: dweller Cartoons from the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection (through August 7) is on analyse at Hopkins Gallery + Corridor, 10:30-4:30 M-F. For assemble tours, call 614-262-6493. The another exhibit is Hogarth and Beyond: Global Cartoons from the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection (though August 31) at the Cartoon Library & Museum Reading Room Gallery, 27 West 17th Avenue Mall, 9-5 M-F. The image above is by Richard Felton Outcault, 1863-1928, Hogan’s Alley, April 4, 1897, ink and picture on paper. Outcault was a autochthonous of Lancaster, Ohio, and is credited with creating Hogan’s Alley, the prototypal commercially successful dweller comic strip.

Notable News

Shakespeare information kicks off! The OSU / Royal dramatist Company partnership starts up in earnest this week when 20 river public schoolteachers travel to Stratford for a week of intensive pedagogue education with the RSC actors and educators. The teachers are a very different assemble — representing grades 3 to 12, and including everything from science, science and English teachers to music instructors, intervention specialists, ESL teachers and more. They module impact with the RSC in Stratford, then with OSU faculty and staff for a week on campus. Throughout the year, they module impact with OSU faculty, researchers and Theatre/English students to embrace the RSC’s “Stand Up for Shakespeare” information in their schools, ultimately impacting hundreds of young students. Participating schools allow Metro High School, Linden-McKinley High School and its branch schools, and Reynoldsburg City Schools. A removed blog module be updated regular patch they participate in the upbringing with the Royal dramatist Company in Stratford.


Through Aug 28, The OSU Faculty Club features Leaders in Glass: Selected Glass Artists from The river State University, curated by book O'Dorisio. Fourteen nationally recognized glass artists present their works in glass, a exhibit designed to offer an examnination of the breadth of talent developed finished river State's glass art program. Artists allow histrion Benefield, Bridgit Boss, Matt Carmean, Martha Croasdale, histrion Darlington, John Drury, Roberta Eichenberg, David King, Tom Kreager, Jonathan Tepperman, Kami Meighan, Ed Schmid, Aimee Sones and book O'Dorisio.

 

Manga Appeal

Japanese manga is a big business right now.  Tweens are not the only ones interested in this form of comic, either.  There are versions for small children, all the way up through adult.  Some are cute and whimsical, some are dark and somber.  What draws people to enjoy this booming art form?

There are so many different things about manga that attract fans.  The story lines can be simple, as in a child's cartoon, or very in depth.  It can be light and funny or dark and scary.  The characters themselves run the same gambit as the story lines.  You can find fluffy animals all the way up to evil doers.  There truly is something for everybody.  Some manga are so engrossing, it's easy to forget that it's basically a comic.

When the craze started in America, the quality was average.  There weren't that many manga available, so you took what you could get.  Now there are entire sections of manga in book stores.  The quality and quantity have both risen to scary proportions.  The average reader can choose a genre, and then browse through many authors to find what suits them best.

Most true lovers of manga try to dabble in the drawing of their favorite characters.  They think that it's got to be so easy.  Many try; more don't ever figure it out.  For those that do manage to draw good characters, or even characters of their own, even fewer manage to ever do anything with it.  The standards, believe it or not, are pretty high.  You have to get the formula just right.

So, what's the appeal of manga?  Well, it seems to be a quick break from the everyday life.  It's not an ordinary book, but a comic with a purpose.  Often you just need a mental break, and manga offers this in droves.  Why not check one out.  You might find yourself hooked.

by: Susan Werry

Sequentially Smart

[June 22, 2009] Emily Ragozzino's "Tom Boy Tara" (http://www.tomboytara.com) is a web comic involving gender stereotypes and college humor as key ingredients in making the comic so readable and enjoyable by both male and female audiences. The comic just began in September 2008 after Ragozzino had published a series of comic books all involving female outcasts entitled Dork Girl (A trilogy of books) and Why I Hate Cheerleaders featured on lulu.com and Amazon.com. These books were sold, along with paraphernalia plastered with art and logos from the books, at The Toronto Paradise Comic Convention two years in a row beginning in 2007 and again in 2008.

This year she hopes to attend the Toronto Fan Expo on the weekend of August 28th 2009 along with three male comic creator friends of hers (Terrence Gordon, Aaron Powers and Dan Wettlaufer) who she believes are extremely talented in their own way. Emily enjoys involving other artistic friends in her comic endeavors, even though she struggles as a cartoonist herself. Along with creating a website as well as numerous products on the site she is also gathering a select group of friends of hers to do a photo shoot involving three people dressed as her cartoon characters. The shoot is supposed to take place in front of a graffiti wall in downtown Toronto on July 5th 2009 and she's hoping the shoot will run smoothly.

"You have to think outside the box as an artist, you'll never get noticed copying what other people do, what worked for them may not work for you, and you have to be able to experiment and not be afraid to fall down in the pursuit of getting what you want." Ragozzino definitely likes to involve others in her ideas even though she is not financially equipped to pay the models and photographer, they all think the idea is a great one and she's provided them with hardcopies of her comics and t-shirts she's made at past conventions as a thank you for helping out.

In addition to her "think outside the box" method (that's been taught to her from the teachers of Georgian College Barrie in her Fine Arts advanced course she graduated from) she is coming up with new and old creative ideas. If she is a part of the Fan Expo (which she is anxiously awaiting to see if the waiting list representatives will wave her and her colleagues in) she hopes to make the usual pins, and stickers for the convention. Plans she has that are a little different than the traditional at the convention tables include: creating temporary tattoos and fortune cookies involving her logo and guidance she's created involving situations that happen in the comic and that can be used as advice for those reading. She also has many products like t-shirts, mugs, and even skateboards featured on her website for those who care to check them out. 

She hopes Artist Alley will increase this year at the convention so that she has an opportunity to exhibit her work and unique products and send people to links of her artist friends to expand their horizons as well. It is the largest convention in Canada, involving Comic books, sci-fi, video games and select celebrities related to these genres and quite possibly the second largest convention in the world next to the San Diego Con. It may be an expensive place to be, however she is hoping to have only a few little things at the table that are inexpensive so those watching their wallets during the recession won't lose too much. If you like A-sexual comics that involve witty, social humor I suggest you check the comic out, and if you catch her at the Fan Expo, go over, say hi, and maybe indulge in a fortune cookie or two.

by: Emily Ragozzino

Tile Style Dragon Picture Computer Mouse Pad

I have found the most unique mouse pad ever. I have used this mouse pad for the last couple of weeks and have found that there is no problem with the mouse traveling over it. I use a Logitech cordless optical mouse. I have not tried the mouse pad with a ball mouse as I do not have one and probably never will.

The mouse pad has a dragon picture on it, lacquered over top of wood, made to look like it is on tile. It is very durable and will retain its finish almost indefinitely.

Most dragon lovers will really appreciate how nice the picture looks and how great it appears sitting on their computer desk. This makes a real nice gift to give the dragon lover who uses his/her computer a lot and would like to have something new, different and special.

I know there are a lot of mouse pads available in the market so I thought I would pass this one on because it is different from anything I have ever seen and is definitely unique.

The company that makes these mouse pads offers a good selection of different dragon pictures available to place on the mouse pads. You can also use a picture of your own if you like, so you can really personalize the mouse pad to your own tastes.

One thing I appreciated about the Dragon Mouse Pads is that they are not mass produced on a piece of foam; each one is made to order. Naturally they do cost a bit more but I do feel they are well worth what I paid for mine and I am even thinking of giving some to my friends for gifts.

If you or someone you know is a dragon lover share this mouse pad with them, I am sure they will thank you for showing them something different.

by: Gord Anten

China grants tax preferential policy to comic and animation industry

China's Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation have jointly issued the taxation policy to support development of comic and animation industry on July 31, 2009, stressing the priority of the supportive policy is given to independent innovation capacity of domestic comic and animation enterprises. According to the policy, starting from 2009, domestic comic and animation companies are granted with preferential tax treatment covering VAT, corporate income tax, business tax, import duties and import linkage VAT.

According to a circular on taxation policy on supporting development of comic and animation industry jointly issued by the above two departments. Before December 31, 2010, China will apply the 17% VAT rate to ordinary tax payers in the industry which sell self-developed and -produced comic and animation software, but the part of actual tax burden which exceeds 3% will be refunded upon collection. At the same time, exports of comic and animation software are exempted of VAT. Self-developed and self-produced comic and animation products of enterprises verified as comic and animation enterprises will also be entitled to apply for the income tax preference. Businesses in the comic and animation production chain, such as script writing, image, background, animation and story board designing, producing, shooting, drawing, coloring, picture synthesizing, dubbing, sound effect synthesizing, subtitling, compressing and code transforming, will enjoy the 3% business tax rate by tax reduction on the temporary basis before December 31, 2010. Enterprises approved by related departments of the State Council as comic and animation enterprises are exempted of import duties and import linkage VAT on products really needed for self-developed and –produced comic and animation direct products.

The verification standards and procedure of comic and animation enterprises granted with preferential tax treatment and self-developed and –produced comic and animation products shall be implemented according to the Administration Measures on Verification of Comic and Animation Enterprises (for trial operation) issued by the Ministry of Culture and other departments concerned in December 2008.

Indicators show that comic and animation industry will be taken as an important part of China's development of cultural industry. China's comic and animation industry has achieved rapid development in recent years. The number of enterprises with comic and animation as main operation and simultaneous business has exceeded 10,000, and quantity of such products increased a lot. Statistics indicate that by the end of 2007, China had more than 5,400 comic and animation research and development institutions, and comic and animation film length surged ten times from 2003 to 2007 to reach 100,000 minutes. China produced 249 comic and animation TV films in 2008 with a total length of 131,042 minutes, rising 28% year on year, and the output value of the comic and animation industry exceeded RMB18.0 billion.

However, there still exist problems which shall not be ignored in development of China's comic and animation industry, mainly including poor quality of comic and animation products, lack of leading enterprises with large scale, high level and complete production chain, small economic scale of the industry, weak development of original works and lack of complete production chain of comic and animation enterprises. At present, China's development mode of comic and animation industry is limited to “policy-booster type” and “financial subsidy type”, comic and animation products have low cognitive ratio, and the fund yield ratio is also low. Among a big number of prize winners at the fourth international comic and animation festival held last year, each had investment costs of more than RMB10 million, but the best box office works amounted to only about RMB6 million. Statistics show that China now has 447 universities having comic and animation major, and 1,200 colleges having majors relating with comic and animation, with students of 100,000. However, the comic and animation industry requires special specialist-type employees with sound theoretic quality and rich operation experience, which need good foundation of literature and overall art expression. The traditional training mode can hardly satisfy the real needs of the country's annual output of 180-odd comic and animation films. Currently, shortage of talents or expertise is a fatal factor restraining the quality upgrading of China's comic and animation products. Chinese enterprises lack core competitiveness in the comic and animation industry which stresses the “content is the king”.

By Li Xin

The Animation Takeover

Everyone knows animation when they see it. Animation is the process of using rapidly moving drawn or computer generated images to give the illusion of motion. Animation is what is used to make the Saturday morning cartoons you see on television and it is what is used to make those holiday specials everyone looks forward to seeing all year. Animation can also be done with 3-Dimensional objects like clay or action figures as in the very popular Christmas specials made back in the 1970's that featured small dolls being filmed using stop motion photography. Animation used to be considered a novelty when it came to movies or prime time television shows. Studios would never think of putting animation in a position where it would be the feature even after the 1930's when Walt Disney proved with Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs that animation could carry a full-length feature film. But over time something changed and now animation is threatening to be the method of choice for not only filmmakers but also prime time television producers as well.

For years the area of the animated feature film was the sole domain of the Walt Disney Company. Other companies would spring up and make the occasional animated feature but the only studio making their living, and reputation, almost solely on their animated feature films was the Walt Disney Company. Warner Brothers opened up an animation studio to compete with the animated short films that Disney was using to dominate the children's market and Warner Brothers also wanted to use their animated short films as an enticement for theater owners to show their regular feature films. If the theater owner agreed to show the Warner Brothers feature film being offered they would get the animated cartoon for free. Since the cartoons from Warner Brothers were becoming breakaway hits, and many people were gladly paying full admission just to see the cartoons, it became an easy way for Warner Brothers to get their movies into theaters. But by the late 1970's things started to change and animation was headed towards respectability in the mainstream media markets.

One of the people usually credited with bringing animation to the forefront is someone who did not deal in animation at all. Jim Henson was a puppet maker and he soon became world famous for his television shows, and movies, that featured his puppets that he called Muppets. In 1979 Henson released The Muppet Movie and while it did not change anyone's mind about animation it did bring an interesting dynamic to the big screen that not many people had seen before. In The Muppet Movie there were puppets interacting with real people and being the main characters in the movie. Many movies before The Muppet Movie had used the idea of puppets, or animated characters, interacting with real people but The Muppet Movie was a sensational hit and it brought the idea to millions of people that had never seen it before. In 1982 Henson released The Dark Crystal, which was a fantasy feature film that used only puppets as characters and featured no actors at all. It wasn't animation, and it was not as big of a hit as The Muppet Movie was, but The Dark Crystal proved that you did not need actors to carry a feature film. Six years later this idea was used to break open animation forever.

In 1988 Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was released and for the first time a feature film that used cartoons as its main characters won multiple Academy Awards. The film was monumental also for the fact that even though Walt Disney Studios made the film it also featured Warner Brothers' characters as well. At the time it was released it was the most expensive movie ever made and it was also one of the most successful movies of the year. Roger Rabbit blew the doors off the animation world and suddenly studios everywhere we clamoring to create their own animated feature film. Animation had hit the big time.

Today two of the longest running prime time shows on television are animated. Family Guy is entering its eighth season on Fox network in the prime time Sunday slot and The Simpsons is entering its record breaking twentieth season on Fox prime time as well. South Park is entering its thirteenth season on Comedy Central and shows no signs of stopping. The Simpsons and South Park have both generated hit feature films during their run and the creators of South Park had a minor hit feature film when they made a movie completely with puppets. Today it is not unusual to find that two or three of the summer blockbusters are animated features and with the help of computers animation is heading into new and exciting directions.

by: adamkasi

Sequentially Smart

[June 22, 2009] Emily Ragozzino's "Tom Boy Tara" (http://www.tomboytara.com) is a web comic involving gender stereotypes and college humor as key ingredients in making the comic so readable and enjoyable by both male and female audiences. The comic just began in September 2008 after Ragozzino had published a series of comic books all involving female outcasts entitled Dork Girl (A trilogy of books) and Why I Hate Cheerleaders featured on lulu.com and Amazon.com. These books were sold, along with paraphernalia plastered with art and logos from the books, at The Toronto Paradise Comic Convention two years in a row beginning in 2007 and again in 2008.

This year she hopes to attend the Toronto Fan Expo on the weekend of August 28th 2009 along with three male comic creator friends of hers (Terrence Gordon, Aaron Powers and Dan Wettlaufer) who she believes are extremely talented in their own way. Emily enjoys involving other artistic friends in her comic endeavors, even though she struggles as a cartoonist herself. Along with creating a website as well as numerous products on the site she is also gathering a select group of friends of hers to do a photo shoot involving three people dressed as her cartoon characters. The shoot is supposed to take place in front of a graffiti wall in downtown Toronto on July 5th 2009 and she's hoping the shoot will run smoothly.

"You have to think outside the box as an artist, you'll never get noticed copying what other people do, what worked for them may not work for you, and you have to be able to experiment and not be afraid to fall down in the pursuit of getting what you want." Ragozzino definitely likes to involve others in her ideas even though she is not financially equipped to pay the models and photographer, they all think the idea is a great one and she's provided them with hardcopies of her comics and t-shirts she's made at past conventions as a thank you for helping out.

In addition to her "think outside the box" method (that's been taught to her from the teachers of Georgian College Barrie in her Fine Arts advanced course she graduated from) she is coming up with new and old creative ideas. If she is a part of the Fan Expo (which she is anxiously awaiting to see if the waiting list representatives will wave her and her colleagues in) she hopes to make the usual pins, and stickers for the convention. Plans she has that are a little different than the traditional at the convention tables include: creating temporary tattoos and fortune cookies involving her logo and guidance she's created involving situations that happen in the comic and that can be used as advice for those reading. She also has many products like t-shirts, mugs, and even skateboards featured on her website for those who care to check them out.

She hopes Artist Alley will increase this year at the convention so that she has an opportunity to exhibit her work and unique products and send people to links of her artist friends to expand their horizons as well. It is the largest convention in Canada, involving Comic books, sci-fi, video games and select celebrities related to these genres and quite possibly the second largest convention in the world next to the San Diego Con. It may be an expensive place to be, however she is hoping to have only a few little things at the table that are inexpensive so those watching their wallets during the recession won't lose too much. If you like A-sexual comics that involve witty, social humor I suggest you check the comic out, and if you catch her at the Fan Expo, go over, say hi, and maybe indulge in a fortune cookie or two.

by: Emily Ragozzino

Manga Appeal

Japanese manga is a big business right now. Tweens are not the only ones interested in this form of comic, either. There are versions for small children, all the way up through adult. Some are cute and whimsical, some are dark and somber. What draws people to enjoy this booming art form?

There are so many different things about manga that attract fans. The story lines can be simple, as in a child's cartoon, or very in depth. It can be light and funny or dark and scary. The characters themselves run the same gambit as the story lines. You can find fluffy animals all the way up to evil doers. There truly is something for everybody. Some manga are so engrossing, it's easy to forget that it's basically a comic.

When the craze started in America, the quality was average. There weren't that many manga available, so you took what you could get. Now there are entire sections of manga in book stores. The quality and quantity have both risen to scary proportions. The average reader can choose a genre, and then browse through many authors to find what suits them best.

Most true lovers of manga try to dabble in the drawing of their favorite characters. They think that it's got to be so easy. Many try; more don't ever figure it out. For those that do manage to draw good characters, or even characters of their own, even fewer manage to ever do anything with it. The standards, believe it or not, are pretty high. You have to get the formula just right.

So, what's the appeal of manga? Well, it seems to be a quick break from the everyday life. It's not an ordinary book, but a comic with a purpose. Often you just need a mental break, and manga offers this in droves. Why not check one out. You might find yourself hooked.

by: Susan Werry