Courtesy of the Comics Reporter.

hey everyone, zak sally here.

you know i send out on of these “press releases” every so often when i uh, think something stupendously awesome is hitting minneapolis: this one’s a little late, but here it is– underground comics legend Kim Deitch will be in town next week, on the 19th & 20th.

i wrote a piece on Kim for the city pages a couple years back for the city pages, upon the release of his acclaimed book “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” (Pantheon).

Kim is pretty much a living legend, and certainly the “cartoonists’ cartoonist”: having begun his cartooning career damn near 40 years ago, back in the underground comics explosion of the late 60’s, Kim has consistently honed his craft to the point that he’s in the running for the title of “America’s greatest living cartoonist” (i read an interview with none other than Chris Ware where he said that he and Dan Clowes often wonder if they don’t like Kim’s work more than R. Crumb’s…).

There’s been a renaissance in reprinting Kim’s work lately, with another long novel from Pantheon (“Alias The Cat”), and a collection of his amazing mid 80’s/ 90’s work called “Shadowland”, both released in 2006. you should buy them and read them, and THEN you should write, blog, promote, or whateverthehell the fact that Kim (and his wife Pam), will be doing a signing at Minneapolis’ own Big Brain comics on wednesday sept 19, from 5-7 pm. and then the next day (thursday), giving a presentation/ talk/ slideshow at MCAD (auditorium 15) from 1 to 2:30 pm, and it’s open to the public. i haven’t seen the presentation myself, but knowing Kim (and having heard rave reviews from pals who HAVE seen it), it’s going to be multi-media and WILDLY entertaining.

so, spread the word or come on down to one or both.

if you got any questions, email me (or Barbara Schulz at mcad, barbara_schulz@mcad.edu)

hope yer all good.
best, zak sally

I thought some of you might be interested in this MNSiggraph event coming up this Thursday:

An Open Studio Tour at Puny Entertainment — 9/20/07 – starting at 6:00 pm

Puny Entertainment
1618 Central Ave. NE, Suite 130
Minneapolis, MN
612-216-3924
punyentertainment.com