Due to a tight budget, City Paper dumped its comics page at the end of 2011, just nine months after bringing it back after a long hiatus. more ›

Written by DCist Contributor Allen Brooks more ›

And another local business bites the dust. Big Monkey Comics on 14th Street announced Monday that it will close its doors for good at the end of the month, blaming the recession.

It wasn't Galactus, Lex Luthor, or Dr. Doom that defeated us, but simple dollars and cents. The economy has adversely affected so many people, and we are the latest casualty. Last year alone Virginia last [sic] 45% of its comic book shops due to the economic downturn and we are sad to say that we now join their number.

This weekend, Bethesda welcomed the Small Press Expo to town. The event has developed into one of the biggest independent comic conventions there is, bringing comic artists and aficionados from all over the continent to the D.C. area. But despite its relatively high profile, it has a remarkably laid-back, D.I.Y. feel. Unlike the bigger, major comic cons, the level of full-scale geekery is scaled back at SPX: a minimum of costumes and dudes you suspect might still live in their parents' basements. Instead, there's just a huge group of friendly people with a shared interest in comic art. And that art comes in a lot of diverse forms here, so that within a few steps you can see slightly skewed super-hero fare, intensely personal and ornately drawn mini-comics, or even graphic novelizations of old Baby-sitter's Club books. You could make a weekend of just perusing all the work on display in the main hall, but SPX had a full schedule of panels, discussions, and workshops to go along with the exhibition. The highly sought-after Ignatz Award was given in ten categories to some of the best comics of the Expo, as rated by the visitors.
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The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund exists to help comics artists and merchants who fall victim to dubious obscenity law prosecutions, like the one that anchors the premise of David Johnson's Busted Jesus Comics. While the Fringe Festival isn't supposed to have an ethos, really, Busted Jesus still feels like an ideal piece of material for it: The show is initially abrasive, almost daring you to form an lazy judgment of both the playwright and his central character. Stick with it, however, and Busted Jesus eventually shows its hand as a classic specimen of redemptive human drama. more ›

Adrian Tomine is not the same person as Ben Tanaka, the main character in his graphic novel, Shortcomings, so please don't get all angry at him. Just because they're both nebbishy, early 30s Japanese-American guys who are a little obsessed with their dealings with the opposite sex, doesn't mean Tomine is anywhere near as cynical, uptight and petulant as Tanaka -- at least as far as we can tell. The similarities between the two men have indeed led to some confusion for Tomine's fans and critics, largely in the form of the author being accused of being a self-hating Asian. The problem, you see, is that Tanaka has a bit of a fetish for white chicks, and his Japanese girlfriend, Miko, can't help but feel hurt when she notices his predilection. more ›

FRIDAY more ›

MONDAY: Peter J. Gomes, pastor of Harvard’s Memorial Church, will be at Politics and Prose to read from his book The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus. Gomes believes Christians should be heeding the messages of Jesus, not objectifying the man. 7 p.m. TUESDAY: Washington Post literary critic Michael Dirda wants you to know it's OK to love Fowler's Modern English Usage. How else would you learn that the "n" in damning, when it means "fatally conclusive,"... more ›

FRIDAY: >> Local comic book store Fantom Comics is celebrating the grand opening of their new Union Station store tonight with a party from 6 to 10:30 p.m. They'll be serving up free pizza on the early side and the comedy stylings of the Geek Comedy Tour during the second half of the night. There will also be a trivia contest with $500 gift certificates up for grabs. The party is inside the Union... more ›

The Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Interim Library branch finally opened on Saturday, a full six months after the trailer first appeared on Rhode Island Ave. NW. Residents and neighborhood blogs had expressed frustration with the series of delays that prevented the temporary branch from opening as scheduled at the end of June, almost three years after the original branch was closed. Delays in getting electricity installed in the structure, and problems with the library's computer... more ›

"Books," wrote the poet Philip Larkin, "are a load of crap." No doubt Larkin, one of the most gifted lyric poets of the 20th century and a career librarian at the University of Hull, was being ironic. But irony or no, the participants and sponsors of this Saturday's National Book Festival vehemently disagree. Held every year for the last six years on the National Mall -- rain or shine -- the festival brings together marquee-name... more ›