Zack Smith ·
2 Oct 2009, 5:10 PM ·
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PERKINS LIBRARY, DUKE UNIVERSITY—Those who maintain that comic books are merely for children would have encountered powerful arguments to the contrary at Duke’s Perkins Library on Tuesday, where a trio of young creators discussed comics covering such topics as teen homosexuality, living with herpes and hooking up with a way-too-young waitress on a business trip.
The library played home to the Punchbuggy Tour, a two-week junket promoting the work of M.K. Reed, Liz Baillie and Ken Dahl.
Each cartoonist read from their work, which amounted to narrating panels projected onto a screen via computer. Reed’s deadpan Cross Country chronicles two guys touring a series of big box stores for work; her illustrations capture the washed-out landscapes of these characters and painfully real observational dialogue (the first chapter is available as a PDF and the complete work can be ordered here).
Baillie read from two of her works. My Brain Hurts is a teenager-queer-punks-in-New York City saga, while Freewheel is the tale of an orphan on a quest to find her brother; though vastly different, both works show an assured visual tone that represents everything from graffiti-riddled streets to a forest refuge for drifters, and an ear for realistic dialogue. Both works can be ordered from her Web site. Continue reading »
Reading Duke University, ken dahl, liz baillie, megan lewis, mk reed, punchbuggy tour, rob clough
David Fellerath ·
16 Mar 2009, 3:52 PM ·
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As posted Friday on our Triangulator blog, and accidentally not posted here at the same time…
Thavisouk Phrasavath, co-director and subject of the Oscar-nominated "The Betrayal-Nerakhoon," at the 2008 festival. (photo by D.L. Anderson)
If there was any doubt about the depth and breadth of the economic crisis in general and the daily newspaper crisis in particular, this afternoon’s announcement from the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival abolishes it.
The New York Times, which has provided sponsorship support for the 12-year-old festival since 2001, has withdrawn its commitment, the festival announced today, less than three weeks away from the start of this year’s event, which is scheduled for April 2-5 in Durham.
The Times was one of two “presenting sponsors” for the festival. Duke University is the other. The threshold for being a presenting sponsor is $100,000, says Peg Palmer, the festival’s executive director, in a phone interview earlier this evening.
“We’re disappointed. We’ve had a good long relationship with the Times,” Palmer says. “All the newspapers are reassessing [their priorities]. They’re slashing budgets and revisiting priorities. We’re one of the many that fell by the wayside.” Continue reading »
Film Duke University, New York Times, Peg Palmer
