826LA Adult Writing Seminar Series:

Writing Comics

Tuesday, September 22

7:30 p.m.- 9:00 p.m.

826LA East

1714 W. Sunset Blvd. 
Echo Park, CA 90026

$25

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Join us for a panel discussion featuring some of the most groundbreaking and innovative cartoonists working today. Our guests will discuss ink and pixels, pigments and politics, and how the love of comics mixes with the sticky waters of the business. Panelists will also answer your thought and question bubbles.

Our panelists:

Lalo Alcaraz, is a Los Angeles-based cartoonist and creator of the first nationally syndicated Latino-themed political daily comic strip, “La Cucaracha.” Lalo drew editorial cartoons for the L.A. Weekly from 1992-2009. Lalo illustrated Latino USA: A Cartoon History (text by Ilan Stavans) and produced the book La Cucaracha, La Cucaracha, the first collection from his daily comic strip, and Migra Mouse, a collection of his editorial cartoons on immigration. He is also a screenwriter and a popular speaker on the college circuit. His award winning artwork has appeared across the US and the planet. Lalo also hosts the popular radio program, “The Pocho Hour of Power”, Fridays at 4pm on KPFK 90.7 FM.

Jaime Hernandez is the co-creator of the beloved Love and Rockets series, one of the pioneering alternative comics of the 1980s. Love and Rockets, initially a self published single comic, was picked up by Fantagraphics Books and produced 50 issues before the series went dormant in 1996. In 2001, the run was revived as Love and Rockets Volume 2. In the interim, Jaime’s solo projects included Whoa, Nellie!, Penny Century and Maggie and Hopey Color Fun. Jaime has also worked for The New Yorker, Spin, Hustler, and has done album covers for Michelle Shocked, 7 Year Bitch, The Indigo Girls and Los Lobos. In 2006, he produced a 20 part strip in The New York Times Magazine titled La Maggie La Loca. Jaime was born in Oxnard California and now lives in Pasadena with his wife and daughter.

Keith Knight is a cartoonist, rapper, and media activist. His two weekly comic strips, the K Chronicles and (th)ink appear in various publications throughout the nation and have been collected into six books. His art has appeared in Salon.com, ESPN the Magazine, L.A Weekly, MAD Magazine, the Funny Times, and World War 3 Illustrated. Keith is the recipient of the 2006 & 2007 Glyph Awards for Best Comic Strip and three of his comix were the basis of an award-winning live-action short film, Jetzt Kommt Ein Karton, in Germany. His comic art has appeared in museums and galleries from San Francisco (CA) to Angoulême (France).

Marv Wolfman is a forty-year veteran in the field of comic book writing. After lengthy runs working for Marvel Comics in the 1970s on such titles as Amazing Spiderman and Dr. Strange (and creating the character ofNova), Wolfman moved to competitor DC Comics where he has mostly remained since. There, with penciller George Perez, Wolfman co-created The New Teen Titans, which has seen life beyond the comics page as a Cartoon Network series and whose characters have appeared in the television program Smallville. Also with Perez, Wolfman is responsible for the groundbreaking mini-series Crisis on Infinite Earths. He has won numerous awards for his writing and helped pioneer the receiving of writing credits for for-hire work.

Moderator: Salvador Plascencia was born in Guadalajara, Mexico and raised in El Monte, California. His debut novel, The People of Paper, was named a best book of the year by San Francisco Chronicle and The Los Angeles Times and has been translated into ten languages. He is the recipient of the Bard Fiction Prize and the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for new Americans. Salvador is a Visiting Professor at UC Davis.

– From 826LA

This cell phone photo was taken from in front of my other office in Atwater Village. No news yet on where the fire is or what’s going on, but it almost looks like Forest Lawn is on fire! (It’s not, but just check out the photo from our point of view).

Check out the photo here.

The LAist food section posted a wonderful interactive map marking the best LA places to eat that fill you up without breaking the bank. The only problem? The Echo Park area seems pretty darn empty despite the many places to eat well and cheaply. (Even Atwater Village is lacking the popular Hugo’s Tacos.)

Check out the map here and make sure you add some comments to include your favorite cheap eateries in Echo Park.

Want to support local community services?

Thanks to a couple of fellow Echo Park/Elysian Park Neighborhood Council Discussion Forum contributors, there is an online database for local services that you can rifle through to find anyone from a tree trimmer, to a house sitter or a carpenter. You can also add the information of someone you recommend for any of the services. The best part? You can read the comments posted by your neighbors about each person/business, so no more guessing about which appliance repair business to choose!

Click here to check out the database (you may have to log in to yahoo and sign up for the forum if you aren’t already).