by matthias wivel & friends
I denne sommerepisode af Radio Rackham snakker vi med Mads Bluhm, Anthony Vernière og Arni Beck Gunnarsson om tegneseriefestivaler og frivillighedskulturens velsignelser og faldgruber. Vi kommer ind bag kulisserne hos Copenhagen Comics, Art Bubble, Copenhell Con, Pingprisen og Bogforum Comics. Det er en lytter, den her! Læs mere på Nummer9.
Jeg er denne gang gæst i mit eget medie, Radio Rackham, nemlig i egenskab af ny formand i Dansk Tegneserieråd. Og jeg har tre andre bestyrelsesmedlemmer med: Marie Raasthøj Hansen, Anders Brønserud og Andreas Nordkild Poulsen. Thomas og Frederik udspørger os om vores planer og ambitioner, samt konkret om håbet om at etablere et tegneseriemuseum, samt om Nummer9 og Pingprisens fremtid. Dertil kommer vi kort omkring problemerne med flare hatte og nepotisme i det danske tegneseriemiljø. Lyt her og læs mere på Nummer9.
Det her er akut: Dansk Tegneserieråd er truet af opløsning, fordi den nuværende bestyrelse har besluttet sig at gå af i flok. Det betyder overhængende fare for de projekter, rådet trods alt har dannet bagkant for i en årrække: Pingprisen, Nummer9, Tegneseriemuseet i Danmark og meget mere. OK, disse var allerede plaget af problemer, men uden Dansk Tegneserieråd, står de uden en officiel instans til at bakke dem op og forhandle på deres vegne.
Vi opridser situationen på Radio Rackham i en episode, hvor jeg i øvrigt annoncerer mit kandidatur til den ny bestyrelse, der forhåbentlig vil blive valgt ind til Rådets generalforsamling nu på torsdag d. 2 september i Litteraturhaus i København. Meld dig ind i Rådet, mød op, stil op og stem! Jeg har forhørt mig og er blevet forsikret om, at man kan deltage over nettet, så check med arrangørerne, hvis du ønsker det.
Det har alt sammen været lidt trist, men jeg håber vi sammen kan være med til at skabe noget smukt fremover!
Hør mere her og læs også på Nummer9.
Yes, the Ping awards, and I was there. In part because I still sit on the jury for this set of Danish comics award (named after the great Storm P.; more info here), and in part because I had the honour of presenting the lifetime achievement Ping to editor extraordinaire and comics writer Henning Kure for forty years of seminal work in Danish comics (great write-up in Danish by Henry Sørensen here). Alas, he couldn’t be there to accept the award, which was a real bummer. But anyway, it was a great evening, which saw one of Denmark’s greatest cartoonist, Peter Kielland, take the award for Best Danish comic and my buddy Thomas Thorhauge the one for Best editorial cartoonist (an award I had no influence on, nota bene!). Here’s the full list of awardees:
Best Danish Comic: Peter Kielland, Hr. Gris My review (in Danish)
Best International Comic in Danish translation: Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki, Den her sommer (This One Summer)
Best International Comic: Adrian Tomine, Killing and Dying
Best Comic for Young Readers: Thomas Wellmann, Pimo og Rex 1: Den magiske muse
Best Danish Online Comic: Søren Mosdal, Nastrand – Beach of the Dead
Best Danish Debut: Karoline Stjernfelt, Kongen (I morgen bliver bedre 1) My review (in Danish)
Best Editorial Cartoonist: Thomas Thorhauge
The Lifetime Achievement Award: Henning Kure
Thomas Mikkelsen's poster for this year's Ping awards
As always, the programme is wide-ranging, offering something for almost every taste profile, but this year with a special focus on children’s comics. The international headliner is Art Spiegelman who will be there along with his equally high-profile wife Francoise Mouly. Among the other international guests are Mathias Adolfsson, Simon Hanselmann, André Juillard, Steffen Kverneland, David Lloyd, Rutu Modan, Tommi Musturi, Herr Seele, and Thomas Wellmann.
Additionally, Saturday night sees the Ping awards ceremony, now in its fourth year since the revamp of the storied Danish comics award. It takes place at Lille Vega and will be as big, grand, and festive as ever. Do secure yourself a ticket before they sell out (as they invariably do).
Notably, the Ping group has already announced the recipient of this year’s grand, hall-of-fame type award, which goes to the historically crucial editor and publisher behind the publishing company Interpresse, Arne Stenby. A little-appreciated key person in Danish comics, without whom the culture would be immeasurably poorer. This recognition of his importance is long overdue and I’m happy to be part of it.
If you’re in town and have the slightest interest in comics, you cannot miss this. And look me up: I’ll be around most of the time both days, plus of course at the Ping ceremony (for which I had the pleasure once again of being part of the Jury). On Sunday I’m moderating a panel on comics, art and drawing featuring the above-mentioned Hanselmann, Kverneland, and Wellmann, as well as two excellent and outspoken Danish cartoonists: Rasmus Bregnhøi and Rikke Villadsen (at 11.00), as well as conducting an on-stage interview with the great Herr Seele, on his and Kamagurka’s hilarious strip Cowboy Henk (at 13.00).
See you?
Nikoline Werdelin for the win!
The Ping awards is an annual set of awards given to comics in Denmark in the manner of the Angoulême Fauves or the American Eisners. Founded by the Danish Comics Council, the awards are a revivification of a differently conceived, hall of fame-type award of the same name which was bestowed on single creators through the early nineties, as well as of the awards programme hosted by the comics biennial Komiks.dk from 2004-2010. The Pings are named after one of the best known characters created by one of the greatest Danish cartoonists, Robert Storm Petersen, aka. Storm P. (1882-1949). Continue reading ‘Boom PING PING’
You may remember me writing about the Ping Awards in this space. But briefly: the Ping Awards are awards given annually to comics in Denmark at an annual gala show. There was an older award of the same name, a reference to one of the great Danish cartoonist Storm P.’s (1882-1949) most famous characters, but the present incarnation was founded in 2012 by the comics website Nummer9 in collaboration with the Danish Comics Council, the international comics festival Copenhagen Comics, and the comics magazine Strip!
Works are nominated in six categories by comics critics from Nummer9 and Strip! and the winners are selected by a jury comprising representatives from each of the founding bodies, as well as a number of independent critics, writers, artists and comics professionals. You can read much more on the Ping website, albeit only in Danish. (Sorry).
Anyway, this year’s Ping Awards were given out at a show at Lille Vega held in conjunction with Copenhagen Comics on 1 June in Lille Vega Copenhagen. It featured appearances from such international luminaries as Jaime Hernandez and Jill Thompson, as well as hilarious acceptance letters from awards winners Chris Ware and David Mazzucchelli. A sampling of the event has now been made available by the Ping team in the video above. Enjoy, and get in touch if you would like to know more about the Ping Awards.
Raphael’s Portrait of Lorenzo de’Medici
The Metabunker summarizes the problems of attribution surrounding the Raphael portrait sold at Christie’s in 2007
Interview: El-P & Aesop Rock
Click here to read our 2003 in-depth interview with two of New York’s finest.
Continuous Creation — Titian’s Nuova Natura
On Titian’s aesthetic of the unfinished and Renaissance notions of the subjective.
Bleed Runner
On Blade Runner: The Final Cut. Also, read producer Charles de Lauzirika’s comments here.
Hergé and the Order of Things
Hooded Utilitarian column on Hergé’s vision and the necessity of comics criticism that engages deep form
Bruegel, Rembrandt, Crumb and Cartooning
Extended Hooded Utilitarian piece on R. Crumb’s Genesis and the cartoon tradition.
New Yorker Cartoons: A Legacy of Mediocrity
A deadening force at the heart of the art form, smothering the field in bourgeois mediocrity
Hogarth’s Chicken Fat
An analysis of Hogarth’s rich imagery as both support and counterpoint to his storytelling
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Radio Rackham: Pingprisen
Denne gang diskuterer vi Pingprisen! Vi kigger bag kulisserne med Erik Barkman, formand for prisens jury, redaktør på Nummer9 og og adjunkt på Grafisk Fortælling, The Animation Workshop. Der bliver plads til historie, struktur og anekdoter. Lytndenfor, læs mere på Nummer9 og duk op til dette års uddeling d. 27 maj kl 19.30 i Islands Brygge Kulturhus.