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Joined: 06 Nov 1998 Posts: 1769 Location: Dallas, TX.
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Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2002 5:53 pm Post subject: Alternative Comics Great Moments in Rock 'n' Roll |
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NEWS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Alternative Comics announces February 2003 release of Joel Orff's Strum and Drang: Great Moments in Rock 'n' Roll
Gainesville, Florida, October 30, 2002: Great moments in rock 'n' roll. Everyone has at least one. Alternative Comics announced that February 2003 will see the release of Joel Orff's Strum and Drang: Great Moments in Rock 'n' Roll comic book trade paperback (ISBN 1-891867-27-X). For the past three years, Joel Orff has been collecting people's stories, illustrating them, and posting them on his web site. Though several of these comics feature well-known musicians, they aren't necessarily about music. They may be life-defining experiences, or they may be small and sublime occurrences that the narrator has never forgotten, or moments that they would have liked to have forgotten, but couldn't, because they made too good of a story. These are funny and sometimes poignant comics about people struggling with and celebrating their circumstances, often through unlikely forms of self-expression.
"Like Lynda Barry with Ernie Pook's Comeek, Joel Orff's Great Moments In Rock 'n' Roll strike at the heart of some deep emotional truths about adolescent longing and the power of dreams in Nowheresville, U.S.A.," said Jim DeRogatis, pop music critic, Chicago Sun-Times, "Orff understands that rock (like cartooning?) is no mere "hobby," but a way of life. And like an unforgettable melancholy pop tune or a timeless, enervating rocker--think Brian Wilson's "God Only Knows"; think Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"--he taps into a soulfulness that is all too rare today in any medium."
"My goal with the Great Moments in Rock 'n' Roll series has always been to entertain, and to present people's stories in a respectful way," said cartoonist Joel Orff, "My favorites are the ones that someone may have never thought was worth telling, but for some reason has stayed with them as a favorite memory. I've consciously kept the drawing loose and spontaneous, to reflect what I believe are qualities of the best rock 'n' roll."
Stapling cast-off newsprint from the local small-town newspaper into little books, Joel Orff churned out a thirty-two page comic once a month for most of his childhood. After his first year of college he threw them all out; a decision that he's still not sure if he regrets. More recently he's been published in several books and magazines around the world, including the Artisti Allibratori Associati publication 'Tattoo Comix' (Italy), Fahrenheit Magazine, (Denmark), 'The Comix Compendium' from Mangijin Books, 'The Stranger' weekly newspaper in Seattle, and 'Heroes of Invention', which was created for the Minnesota Children's Museum. His drawings were included in an exhibition at the National Comic Library in Copenhagen in 1994. In 2001 they were featured at both the Somerville Comix Fest and Curious Brain exhibit in Boston. In 2002 he was a finalist for the McKnight Screenwriters Fellowship, and had his first play produced as part of the Minnesota Fringe Festival.
Strum and Drang: Great Moments in Rock 'n' Roll By Joel Orff, February 2003 from Alternative Comics, All ages, 72 pages, B&W, Oversized (square "LP format" trade paperback), full color covers; $6.95 US. ISBN: 1-891867-27-X |
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