Ali Ferzat after his attack (via the Washington Post/Facebook)

Look, I’m not even going to pretend to be familiar with the work of Ali Ferzat, a Syrian political cartoonist who has emerged as an outspoken critic of dictator Bashar al-Assad and his bloody crackdown against anti-government protestors over the past several months. But you can bet Assad and his regime know his work, and hate it, because their security forces abducted Ferzat, beat him, made a point of breaking his hands, and dumped him on the side of the road. This Washington Post article lays out the details as they are known right now, and included the terrifying Facebook picture above. The news comes via Tom Spurgeon of The Comics Reporter, generally your best source for information on the pressures faced by political cartoonists worldwide.

Though people like Mike Diana, Jesus Castillo, and Christopher Handley provide us with sad exceptions to this rule, in general, no one in America is subject to legal (or extralegal) punishment for the comics they draw, sell, or consume. We’re lucky. And while it’s impossible not to be gobsmacked by not just the brutality but the arrogance of a government that would punish a cartoonist critic in such an overtly symbolic manner, it’s just as impossible not to be awed by the bravery of an artist who knows he’s up against a government that would do a thing like that, but goes up against them anyway.

You can express your support for Ferzat at this Facebook page. And why not take your wallet out and donate to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund while you’re at it?

C2E2

Conventions | On the eve of the inaugural Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, the Chicago Reader examines the escalating competition between convention owner Reed Exhibitions and longtime Chicago Comic Con organizer Wizard Entertainment: “It’s but one battleground in a war the two powers are waging across the country — an epic struggle that some observers see as a contest between the forces of good and, well, not so good.”

Writer Deanna Isaacs touches upon the rise of Wizard’s Rosemont event to the second-largest comics convention in North America, and its more recent decline. She quotes a couple of local retailers who have become “disenchanted” with the show. But Wizard CEO Gareb Shamus shrugs off the complaints: “Everybody’s going to tell you this or that. You’re talking about one person. We have 1,000 vendors at our show in Chicago, and they make a lot of money.”

The Daily Herald interviews C2E2 show-runner Lance Fensterman, who says he expects between 35,000 and 40,000 attendees this weekend. The Chicago Tribune, meanwhile, offers its own preview, with eight “must-see” convention events, and brief Q&As with Alex Ross and Jeff Smith. [C2E2]

Mark Fiore cartoon

Digital comics | Mark Fiore, who earlier this week became the first editorial cartoonist to win the Pulitzer Prize exclusively for animated work, had his iPhone app rejected in December. Apple told Fiore that his NewsToons app, with its Flash-animated political satire, “contains content that ridicules public figures,” a violation of its iPhone Developer Program License Agreement.

As Laura McGann notes in her article, Fiore isn’t the first cartoonist to have difficulties with Apple: The Bobble Rep app, which uses caricatures by Tom Richmond, and Daryl Cagle both initially were rejected by Apple on the same grounds. [Nieman Journalism Labs, via Romenesko]

Digital comics | Brian Heater considers what Apple’s iPad could mean to independent comics. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Publishing | Tom Spurgeon, Sean T. Collins and Alan David Doane comment on March’s comics-price milestone as, for the first time, more comics in Diamond’s Top 300 were priced at $3.99 than at $2.99. [The Comics Reporter, Attentiondeficitdisorderly, Trouble with Comics]

Conventions | Rob Clough and Frank Santoro file reports from the MoCCA Festival, while Graphic NYC and Indie Spinner Rack team up for audio, transcript and photos from the panel “The Art of the Superhero: When Singular Vision Meets Popular Mythology.” [MoCCA Festival]

Conventions | A writer with Suffolk University’s student newspaper offers a dreary assessment of last weekend’s Boston Comic Con. [The Suffolk Voice]

Kick-Ass #1

Creators | Keith Phipps chats briefly with Mark Millar about Kick-Ass, creating his own properties, and his “knack for writing troubled, sensitive teens”: “The funny thing, actually, is that it seems to have become a little thing, like the way Stephen King always writes about writers from Maine. I think it’s totally a lack of imagination on my part. When I stop and look back, I think, ‘Shit, I’ve just done the same thing each time.’ [Laughs.] People say ‘Write what you know.’ And I suppose at that age, I was a kid obsessed with comic books. I just wrote from the heart, I suppose, what things were like for me at that point. I mean, Kick-Ass in particular is massively autobiographical, right down to things like Dave’s mom dying at the same age my mom died. Same name, same reason, all this kind of stuff. I didn’t even plan it out like that, I just found it pouring out once I was starting to write it. So yeah, I suppose I have to think up some new themes for new work.” [The A.V. Club]

G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #156

Creators | Brian Truitt spotlights writer Larry Hama, who returns to the G.I. Joe franchise with a Free Comic Book Day issue and ongoing series from IDW Publishing: “It’s like coming home again. It’s comfortable and it’s like, hey, I know these guys. I don’t have to do tons of research and read tons of back issues.” [USA Today]

Creators | Grant Morrison launches an interview tour focusing on Batman and Robin and Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne. [Comics Alliance, io9.com, Splash Page]

Creators | Matthew Meylikhov posts a video interview with artist Cameron Stewart from last weekend’s Boston Comic Con. [Multiversity Comics]

Education | A spotlight on Stanford University’s English 190G, known as “The Graphic Novel Class.” [The Stanford Daily]

Thrilling Tom the Dancing Bug Stories

Cartoonist Ruben Bolling took to his blog today to reveal that the online magazine Salon has canceled his long-running political/editorial comic strip Tom the Dancing Bug.

According to Bolling, the comic was canceled due to “severe budget constraints” rather than lack of traffic — indeed, as Bolling points out, Tom is frequently one of the site’s most-read features. He later added that Salon, which had hosted the strip since the site’s 1995 inception, seems unlikely to reverse the decision regardless of reader outcry.

I’m sure Tom Spurgeon will have further analysis, but even for someone with my casual dislike and distrust of all political cartooning, the cancellation seems notable for two reasons. First, Bolling is an obvious talent whose imaginative end-runs around the cliché-ridden visual vocabulary of your average political cartoonist made his comics that much more entertaining and his points that much more hard-hitting. Second, it’s almost creepy to think that editorial cartoonists may have just as hard a time making a go of things online as they do amid the staggering carcasses of America’s newspaper industry.

At least he’ll have an easier time getting health care.

(via Greg Pak)

Bill Kartalopoulos emailed me to let everyone know about a panel he’ll be moderating tomorrow, Nov. 3, at the The New York Center for Independent Publishing, 20 W. 44th St., New York.

The panel will discuss the history and current challenges facing political cartoonists in The Big Apple and features Eric Drooker, Tom Hart, Tim Kreider and Peter Kuper.The full press release is below the jump.

The New York Center for Independent Publishing presents: Comics History/ New York History

Political Cartooning in New York City
Tuesday, November 3rd, 6:30 p.m.

Boss Tweed may have been the most powerful man in the city, but he was still tormented by Thomas Nast’s biting parodies of him as a cartoon. Decades later, Jules Feiffer took on Presidents from Eisenhower to Clinton in the pages of The Village Voice. Parsons faculty member Bill Kartalopoulos will lead a panel exploring the historical – and ongoing
- interaction between political cartoons, New York City, and the public. Panel members will include: graphic novelist and illustrator Eric Drooker, whose work regularly appears on the cover of The New Yorker; cartoonist and SVA faculty member Tom Hart, whose Hutch Owen has appeared in two book collections and a daily comic strip in the Metro; New York Times contributor and cartoonist Tim Kreider, whose cartoon, The Pain – When Will It End?, has been collected in two books; and World War 3 Illustrated co-founder, graphic novelist, and Spy vs. Spy artist Peter Kuper, whose “Eye of the Beholder” was the first comic strip to regularly appear in The New York Times.

Join us at our historic building at 20 West 44th Street as we explore New York City through comics. Visit our website at www.nycip.org for more information!

Admission is $15 for adults, $10 for members, and $5 for students, and can be paid in advance online or at the door on the day of the event.

This program is supported, in part, by NYSCA (New York States Council on the Arts) and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

NYCIP is an educational program of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen.

Tommorrow's art for 'Back Spacer'

The ever acerbic political cartoonist Tom Tomorrow was picked by Pearl Jam to create the cover for  upcoming album, Back Spacer. To promote the release, the band is doing an “Internet Easter Egg hunt.” Find images from the album that have been scattered across the Net, and win a free downloadable mp3 of a track from the album.

Back Spacer hits stores on Sept. 20.