By: Michael Dooley Forget about who’ll walk away with Eisner Awards on Friday at San Diego’s Comic-Con. Sure, there’ll be worthy winners. In my feature on Emil Ferris’s My Favorite Thing is Monsters, which garnered multiple well-deserved nominations, I wrote that it would easily top any comics and design “best of” award. More on that notion momentarily. But honestly, the Eisners are much more a popularity contest among comics industry professionals than it is any real gauge o

Ten years ago, Rick Poynor pointed out in Print that “One thing illustration has always lacked, compared to graphic design, is a strong critical framework by which to assess it.” He went on to note that, “Apart from Steven Heller … one would be hard pressed to name a single highly active writer, an expert, primarily identified with illustration as a subject.” Well, all that’s about to change, in a major way. Enter the Douglas B. Dowd Modern Graphic History Library. Mac Conner

God exists differently for each of us, which means there are hundreds upon thousands of interpretations. At 86, R.O. Blechman is still trying to figure it all out. In God: 48 Famous and Fascinating Minds Talk About God, compiled by Jennifer Berne and illustrated by Blechman (Running Press), the artist writes: “I’m not really a believer, so I may be the wrong artist. But then I thought, well, art, when it’s honest, has something to say to people, has a spiritual aspect. And wh

It is great news to know that R.O. Blechman’s Ink Tank archive will have a home within the D.B. Dowd Modern Graphic History Library at Washington University. R.O. Blechman I asked Douglas Dowd: How did this come about? As it turns out, The Daily Heller had a hand in it! As you know, last fall the MGHL was renamed in my honor by a wonderful endowing gift from Ken and Nancy Kranzberg of St. Louis. The Daily Heller ran a great story on the D.B. Dowd Modern Graphic History Librar

You survived 2016 without having your head explode. So congratulations: You deserve at least one book by and about artists of comic strips, comic books and graphic novels. And here are some recommendations for designers who may also be animation addicts, history and/or biography fans, the politically and/or satirically oriented, the internationally inclined, eggheads, and/or just oddballs. And again: This was the oddest of oddball years, wasn’t it? See you in the funny papers

By: Michael Dooley Photographer Greg Preston is a good-natured, low-key guy. There’s an ease about him that enhances his subjects’ comfort amidst their already-familiar surroundings. It’s visible enough in The Artist Within, a handsome, generously-sized hardcover from 2007 with roughly a hundred “portraits of cartoonists, comic book artists, animators, and others,” as the book’s subtitle has it. He’s captured a broad spectrum of extraordinary talents, from Al Hirschfeld, Jule

When Vice President Joseph Biden said,“When people harm Americans, we don’t retreat. We don’t forget. We take care of those who are grieving, and when that’s finished, they should know, we will follow them to the gates of hell until they are brought to justice. Because hell is where they will reside. Hell is where they will reside,” he raised a few eyebrows with his punishing rhetoric and literary references. Dante’s Gates, as described below, have tickled image-makers and wo

R.O. Blechman‘s life’s work is on view in “The Masters Series: R.O Blechman” at SVA’s Chelsea Gallery, the most recent major retrospective representing illustrations and editorial cartoons, animations and graphic novels. The exhibition, which is open from October 2 through November 2 at 601 West 26th Street, New York City. This is a must see, and this is a must read. Blechman’s trademark squiggly line has given nervous energy, charm and understated humor to his art for the pa