Who is this friendly looking fellow? Why that’s Timmy Williams, Portland resident, chicken farmer, and Daily Cross Hatch contributor. I’m told that he also appears on television from time to time.
Williams is enjoying Kim Deitch’s The Stuff of Dreams on a bench on the outskirts of beautiful Court Square Park in scenic Long Island City, New York. Also, is that a faded image of Batman on his shirt? You bet your bat-ass it is!
You can read Williams’s comic columns over here. And you can catch the latest season of his sketch comedy program, The Whitest Kids U Know Fridays at 10PM on IFC.
Here’s a piece of the official Read Comics in Public poster, designed by Robert Sergel, the Cambridge, MA-based artist behind the Sparkplug series, Eschew. We gave Sergel the words, and he spun them into something really exquisite — a single sheet instruction pamphlet of sorts, aimed at driving home the purpose of our annual event in a way that no single blog post ever truly could.
You can find a full-sized downloadable PDF of the poster here. We’re encouraging everyone to print out a copy — or ten — and hang it in your place of business (we’re looking at you, comic shop owners), school, or home. Anywhere, really, without “Do Not Post” signs.
And hey, if you’re still looking for some titles to read in public, why not consider the fine work of Mr. Sergel?
Surely you recognize that lad, second from the right, reading a copy of The Beano on the cover of this John Mayall and the Blues Breakers record. Yep, that’s a young Eric Clapton. The blues guitar legend is too invested in his issue of the popular British kids comic to make eye contact with the photographer.
Thanks to Clapton’s choice of reading material, 1966′s Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton also came to be affectionately known as “The Beano Album.” Clapton left the band in mid-1966.
We’re not sure what ever became of old slowhand, but The Beano continues to this day.
This is Anita Pallenberg. She’s an actress, a former-model, and a fashion designer. Once upon a time, she was also married to Rolling Stones Guitarist, Keith Richards. When we first mentioned this project to Fantagraphics Comics? Eric Reynolds, he sent us this image, a screen cap he pulled from the new documentary, Stones in Exile.
The image of Pallenberg was taken during the recording of the Stones’ 1972 masterpiece, Exile on Mainstreet. That book she?s cradling is L’Ile Noire (The Black Island), one of Herge’s Tin Tin books.
Still think you’re too cool to read comics in public?
This is Jack Kirby. On August 28th, 2010, he would have been 93. Who is this old fellow, you ask? Why, he’s one of the most celebrated artists in all of comics. He had a hand in creating some of the medium’s most beloved and longest lasting heroes, including Captain America, Fantastic Four, the Hulk, and the X-Men. In the 70s, he reinvented the genre once again with the epic, otherworldly, and borderline-psychedelic Fourth World.
Welcome, friends, to the official site for Read Comics in Public Day, a new — and hopefully annual — celebration of sequential art. On August 28th (the birthday of comics legend Jack Kirby), we’re asking you, the local comics reader, to take to the streets and show the world that you are a proud comics reader.
Take an hour out of your Saturday to read a comic on a plane, on a train, on a boat or with a goat. Celebrate your love of one of today’s most vibrant art forms, and maybe make a few friends along the way.
For more information, please check out our About page and The Daily Cross Hatch. There will be plenty more information to come in the weeks leading up to the very first Read Comics in Public Day. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to drop us a line at readcomicsinpublic@gmail.com.
