Seattle Twist

“Now Serving Cheesecake: The Classic Art of Cartoon Pin-up,” organized by Los Angeles author and archivist Alex Chun, highlights stunning original artwork and artifacts by Jack Cole, Dan DeCarlo, Don Flowers, Bill Ward and Bill Wenzel. Chun is the author of no fewer than six books featuring the work of these artists and examining their contributions to American popular culture. Many of these artists enjoyed success in the field of mainstream comics, creating memorable characters like Plastic Man, Josie & the Pussycats, and Torchy Todd, working in newspaper syndication and comics publishers including Archie and Timely Comics - the predecessor to Marvel Comics. The publication of Dr. Fredric Wertham’s sensational tirade Seduction of the Innocent, and subsequent Senate hearings on Wertham’s suggestion that comic books led to juvenile delinquency and social deviancy, forced these artists onto the pages of men’s magazines. These popular digests, published primarily by Humorama, featured photos of 50s icons like Bettie Page and gag cartoons with scantily clad women. While mild by today’s standards, these anachronistic depictions of blonde bombshells, silly secretaries and gold-digging seductresses are emblematic of their era.

The exhibition opens to the public on Saturday, June 28 and continues through July 25 at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, located at 1201 S. Vale St. The opening reception from 6:00 to 9:00 PM features a live pin-up cartooning demonstration and a performance of 50s torch songs by the Fraus. Author Alex Chun will attend to sign his many pin-up books, published by Seattle-based Fantagraphics Books. The opening coincides with the colorful “Artopia” Georgetown arts festival featuring art, music, dance, performance art, film, and the ever-popular Hazard Factory power tool races throughout the neighborhood.

www.fantagraphics.com

Great Cause! Great Art! Great Music! Great Cafe! I will also have a piece in the show and will be tatoo-ing and palm reading all night for the cause! See you on Friday. Ruby

 http://www.animaltalkrescue.org/

SHAG (Josh Agle), of Santa Ana, CA, is the Andy Warhol of the new millennium. His distinctive artwork is characterized by a deceptively simple fluid line quality and contemporary interpretations of mid-century Americana. His work is simultaneously fresh and familiar, drawing on oddities of American popular culture both past and present. SHAG’s imagery resonates with audiences worldwide, and over the course of the last decade he has become a cottage industry – certainly one of the most prolific and successful artists working today. For good reason. The exhibition opening and book signing on Saturday, May 24 from 6:00 – 9:00 PM will feature work from his new book, SHAG: A to Z, published by Fantagraphics Books, natch. The book is comprised of 26 original paintings corresponding to the letters of the alphabet. Each piece is accompanied by a short verse extolling the pleasures of a hedonistic lifestyle and the virtues of overindulgence. Join us in welcoming this extraordinary artist.
 
Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is located at 1201 S. Vale Street in Seattle’s Georgetown district. Open daily, 11:30 – 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM. Phone: 206.658.0110.

http://www.fantagraphics.com/

2nd Featured Artist Coming This Saturday at Fantagraphics!

 THREE BRILLIANT ART STARS SHINE ON CONSECUTIVE SATURDAYS IN MAY AT FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKSTORE & GALLERY!
 
Jordan Crane on May 10, Peter Bagge on May 17, and SHAG on May 24
 
Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery springs into action in May with a succession of events featuring three of the country’s most celebrated cartoonists and remarkable illustrators. The public of all ages is invited to join us in an exciting series of exhibitions featuring Jordan Crane on May 10,                 Peter Bagge on May 17, and SHAG on May 24.

 May 17

Seattle’s Peter Bagge is one of the most accomplished and admired cartoonists in the world. On Saturday, May 17 from 6:00 – 9:00 PM, Fantagraphics Bookstore will host the launch party for a line of skateboards and related product produced by Seattle-based Manik Skateboards. On display will be the debut of skateboard decks drawn from the pages of his landmark comic HATE. Bagge’s grunge-era imagery is ideally suited to the skateboarding subculture. At once hilarious and poignant, Bagge’s work of this era went beyond satire, and helped fashion both the attitudes and aesthetics of Seattle’s only significant indigenous youth movement. In the opinion of Fantagraphics Books’ resident curator Larry Reid, “Peter Bagge’s HATE is the most fully conceived and executed comic book series ever published.” These delightful boards remain as funny and compelling as his comics of the 1990s.

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is located at 1201 S. Vale Street in Seattle’s Georgetown district. Open daily, 11:30 – 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM. Phone: 206.658.0110.

Jordan Crane on May 10, Peter Bagge on May 17, and SHAG on May 24

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery springs into action in May with a succession of events featuring three of the country’s most celebrated cartoonists and remarkable illustrators. The public of all ages is invited to join us in an exciting series of exhibitions featuring Jordan Crane on May 10, Peter Bagge on May 17, and SHAG on May 24.

For this coming Saturday:
 
Los Angles artist Jordan Crane’s evocative and bittersweet meditations on the human condition in comics and illustration have gained him an enthusiastic following among art aficionados of all ages. His economical narrative observations have been published by Seattle-based Fantagraphics Books, including two issues of the comic book series Uptight, and graphic novels The Last Lonely Saturday and The Clouds Above, recently issued in trade paperback. His exhibition opening Saturday, May 10 includes exquisite limited edition prints and original artwork from his comics.

The reception, from 6:00 to 9:00 PM, serves as the after-party for exhibitors and guests of the Emerald City Comicon, where Crane is among the featured artists. The opening also coincides with the lively Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack, featuring art, music and more at over 30 locations throughout the enchanting Georgetown neighborhood.

 Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is located at 1201 S. Vale Street in Seattle’s Georgetown district. Open daily, 11:30 – 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM. Phone: 206.658.0110.

www.fantagraphics.com

Look for posts regarding the next two shows over the next two weeks

“Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack” Spring Offensive Continues with a Blast on Saturday, May10 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM

Seattle’s liveliest cultural adventure continues with the May 10 installment of the Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack. This monthly event, a production of the Georgetown Merchants’ Association, is intended to draw attention to the creative industrial arts district of Georgetown in an effort to foment public sentiment in favor of preserving this historic civic asset. More than 50 galleries, nightclubs, boutiques, studios, and individual artists participate in this colorful celebration of aesthetic diversity.

Coinciding with the Art Attack is the first exhibition of Georgetown Independent Artists in the Engine Room of the enchanting old brewery building. Organized by painter John Ohannesian, the show features recent work by Augie Pagan, Doug Parry, Diana Pharoah, Angielena Chamberlain, Dave Mazak, Steve Wright, Mike Poetzel, Dave McGranaghan, Lance Mercer and many others. While these artists frequently exhibit throughout the region, this exhibition acknowledges the fierce independence of Georgetown’s working artists, who largely reject the stifling restrictions imposed by traditional gallery representation. Other highlights include: “We Make Our Own Luck,” mixed media encaustic paintings by Joseph Wackerman at Georgetown Tile Works; an exhibition of illustrations and prints by Los Angeles artist Jordan Crane at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery; Georgetown artist Sherri Scott at George; musician Anna Coogan performing at Full Throttle Bottles; free musical performances at neighborhood n
ightclubs; exotic dining, drinking and shopping experiences in the charming Bohemian enclave of Georgetown.

www.georgetownartattack.com

The public is invited to join a stellar group of accomplished cartoonists in the “Friends of the Nib Comics Jam” at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on Saturday, March 8 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. Celebrated cartoonist and visual artist Jim Woodring will preside over the activities, which will include a guest appearance by New York underground comix legend Kim Deitch. Aspiring cartoonists of all ages are encouraged to participate in this lively session, which will include a rare screening of Deitch’s 1960 short film “Dial M for Monster.”

Friends of the Nib is an informal cartoonists’ solon formed by Woodring that meets weekly at Café Racer in Seattle’s Ravenna neighborhood. Acclaimed artists such as Ellen Forney, David Lasky and animator Bruce Bickford regularly attend to mentor emerging cartoonists and network with their peers. The “Comics Jam” on March 8 will feature more than a dozen artists cartooning on-site while offering casual encouragement to public participants.

Kim Deitch is among America’s most prominent and influential alternative cartoonists. The astonishingly sophisticated animated and live-action film short “Dial M for Monster” he created as a teenager with his friend Tony Eastman has become legendary among Deitch fans; it was never released, and has only been shown a handful of times in small venues. Prior to the 7:30 screening, he will introduce the film with a brief media presentation. Deitch’s work has been featured in Art Spiegelman’s RAW and R. Crumb’s Weirdo anthologies. In a recent review of Deitch’s Shadowland graphic novel, New York Times book critic John Hodgman observed, “Few underground cartoonists deserve that subterranean title so fully as Kim Deitch. He was there at the beginning of the movement, drawing for The East Village Other in 1967, and his work retains much of that psychedelic, R. Crumb-like earthiness.” In addition to Shadowland, Fantagraphics Books has collected Deitch’s work in Beyond the Pale and published
comic book series including The Stuff of Dreams, Mishkin File, and Waldo World.

Admission is free to the public of all ages. Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is located at 1201 S. Vale St. in Seattle’s Georgetown industrial arts district. Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM. Phone 206.658.0110. The “Comics Jam” coincides with the monthly “Georgetown Second Saturday Art Attack.” Over twenty-five galleries, studios, nightclubs, boutiques, and cafes participate in this lively showcase of Georgetown’s creative diversity.