The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival 2011
December 10th, 2011 by chocko
The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Fest, a celebration of cartoon and graphic art took place last week at the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church. The gym and basement were packed with exhibitors from the underground to the more established Drawn & Quarterly, Fantagraphics and Top Shelf crews. The place was buzzing with art and creativity and every year it is an inspiring place to be. The BCGF has been a free event and this year they included programming at a nearby venue, Union Pool and a film series at Spectacle Theater. Going to this festival has become a yearly tradition and hopefully there are many more BCGF’s to come.
Jack Davis. This guy is the man…an American master of cartoons and illustration since the 1950’s, drawing for EC Comics, MAD Magazine, and Humbug. We went to the Q+A panel where Mr. Davis talked about his early days in his career and how he later got jobs illustrating movie posters, album covers and drawing for publications such as Time Magazine and TV Guide. He spoke with a slow, charming southern drawl and treated the packed room to many recollections and stories. He is a humble gentleman with amazing work ethic and endless talent. Fantagraphics just released a book titled Jack Davis: Drawing American Pop Culture – A Career Retrospective. I need that on my book shelf!
After his Q+A, Jack Davis hung out signed books, posters, and record albums at the Fantagraphics table. I got my Humbug Box Set signed!
Box Brown of Everything Dies was at the Retrofit Comics table along with Josh Bayer and Pat Aulisio. I picked up Josh and Pat’s recent insane collaboration, The Unforgiving Blade of Conon. I also bought a copy of Box Brown’s Roussimoff which is about the life of Andre The Giant.
Fort Thunder’s C.F. and underground legend Gary Panther sketch at the debut of Kramers Ergot 8 released by PictureBox. I saw Gary sketch with his eyes closed. It came out better than what I could ever draw.
Gabrielle Bell and Dash Snow keep their head down, busily drawing while Frank Santoro demonstrates his comic book kung fu skills.
Panels and Q+A’s took place a couple of blocks away at Union Pool and were also free and open to the public. We got to see Jack Davis in a rare public appearance, Phoebe Gloeckner talk about her new project about the unsolved murders of women in Ciudad Juárez and C.F. and Brian Ralph from the Providence, RI art scene talk about comics and their start at the now defunct art space, Fort Thunder. Pictured above is David Sandlin, John Porcellino and Garbrielle Bell discussing their writing techniques.
Tags: bcgf, gabrielle bell, gary panther, jack davis, kramers ergot 8, retrofit comics
Posted in art, comic books | Comments (0)
