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Ben Towle

@benzilla.bsky.social

2.8K followers 1.7K following 1.2K posts

Cartoonist, five-time Eisner nominee, programming co-chair Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC), adjunct prof of Comics @ CCAD, intergalactic trader & general nuisance. Four-Fisted Tales, Oyster War, etc. Clintonville - Columbus, OH (Comics City, USA!)

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Reposted by Ben Towle

Chris Berube @chrisberube.bsky.social · 8h

"Oh yeah? You like baseball? What if I make you smoke *an entire pack* of baseball?"

Reposted by Ben Towle

Blue sky nice guy @rajandelman.bsky.social · 8h

Mariners win

Winona ryder heathers cigarette

Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 18h

Ohhhh... This is gonna be fun to dig through!

Reposted by Ben Towle

Dave Kellett @davekellett.bsky.social · 2d

I’ve never seen this before! An *inward-indicating* word-balloon tail (that’s the speaker’s right arm descending below the word balloon).

FASCINATING! Does this tail technique have a name? Have folks seen it used elsewhere?? I have so many questions!!! (From HIRAYASUMI, book 3, pg 37)

Photo of HIRAYASUMI, book 3, pg 37… showing an inward indicating word balloon tail

Reposted by Ben Towle

Matt Alt @mattalt.bsky.social · 1d

“Very few people here in America have the balls to do what anime does,” a veteran Hollywood animation director told me.

blog.pureinventionbook.com/p/why-hollyw...

Why Hollywood stars are saying “F*** anime”

And why they’re right to be scared

blog.pureinventionbook.com

Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 2d

It's time... for nautical comics adventuring!

Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 4d

Indeed. It is, as the bottle says, savored by "two-fisted drinkers".

Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 4d

And, ya know, for when you're traveling:

Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 4d

Hahaha 🤮

Otoh:

Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 4d

Retaliation for the tarifs, I assume. Still... seems unnecessarily cruel.

Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 4d

Are you familiar with Malört?

Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 4d

What is this Cursed Object™️ that's appeared in our fridge??

Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 5d

Took me a minute to figure out what's going on here... but I assume that's white dot pattern zip over the ink drawing.

Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 7d

I don't think dachshunds can do this?

Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 7d

I just backed The Comics Courier, A Comics Criticism Journal [Issue 3] on @kickstarter.com www.kickstarter.com/projects/tif...

The Comics Courier, A Comics Criticism Journal [Issue 3]

A newspaper-format journal dedicated to in-depth comics criticism edited by Tiffany Babb

www.kickstarter.com

Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 7d

Hey, hey... CCAD, where I currently teach comics as an adjunct, is looking for a chair of the comics dept. Full-time gig--health insurance, benefits, etc. Plus yr in Comics City, USA w. CXC, the Billy Ireland, and more cartoonists than you can shake a stick at.

ccad.applicantpro.com/jobs/3871453

Chair of Comics & Narrative Practice, Full-time Faculty (Open Rank) - Columbus, OH

Chair of Comics & Narrative Practice, Full-time Faculty (Open Rank) The Columbus College of Art & Design (CCAD) is seeking a dynamic and visionary faculty member to lead our Comics & Narrative Practic...

ccad.applicantpro.com

Reposted by Ben Towle

Comics in the Spooky Age 🧛🧟‍♀️👻 @comicsinthega.bsky.social · 9d

The first Peanuts strip by Charles M. Schulz was published on October 2, 1950.

Four black and white panels of a boy and girl sitting on steps. 1st panel: Charlie Brown is approaching and the boy says “Well! Here comes ol’ Charlie Brown!” 2nd panel: As Charlie Brown passes, he says “Good ol’ Charlie Brown…yes, sir!” 3rd panel: “Good ol’ Charlie Brown…” 4th panel: Once Charlie is gone, “How I hate him!”

Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 10d

That was one of them anyway (apparently)!

Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 10d

Also, I'm stunned that as ubiquitous as those little cartoons were on the back of baseball cards when we grew up, that until now (when I read those amazing posts) it never occurred to me--as a comics making adult--to wonder who actually drew them!

Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 10d

Absolutely. Stunning research work from this guy. The venn diagram intersection of comics and baseball ppl is pretty big--think both appeal to our collective obsession with details, and trivial nonsense (which is actually really important, dammit!).

Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 10d

Amazing! Links to the three parts of the article by White toward the bottom.

Tiffany Babb @explodingarrow.bsky.social · 10d

Dr. Eric White is a top scholar on the Gutenberg Bible, but in his free time, he's been studying one of baseball’s biggest mysteries – Who are the unnamed artists behind the classic Topps baseball cartoons?

thefanfiles.com/articles/topps-baseball-cards-cartoons-comics-cartoonists

Who drew the comics on the back of Topps baseball cards?

Princeton University’s Dr. Eric White has used a canny eye to solve a decades-long mystery

thefanfiles.com

Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 10d

Damn... this manga exhibit that just went up in SF looks amazing. Gonna have to figure out how to get to it. Probably catch the tail end of it once we're in Palm Springs for the winter!

www.famsf.org/exhibitions/...

Manga — Japanese comics and graphic novels — have become a global phenomenon. Art of Manga showcases the world of manga from the 1970s to today.

Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 11d

Me 24/7

Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 11d

Not sure I've seen this before... Looks like some kinda Craftint-ish thing, but not duoshade? Dot pattern not lines, and just one %age value.

(If you can't tell, I've recently gotten the Neal Adams artists edition haha)

Ben Towle @benzilla.bsky.social · 11d

Never noticed this before, but reasonably certain that Neal Adams must have gotten hand-drawing chops directly from Burne Hogarth's Drawing Dynamic Hands—look at those distinctive "upside-down heart" shapes on the fingers!