The Anarchist Reading Group in New York City is reading my book Our Enemies in Blue. Their meeting is July 31 at Earth Matters Cafe (177 Ludlow Street).
For more information, visit:
http://anarchistreadinggroup.wordpress.com/
It’s all cartoons lately: New Articles — May and June 2008
I have an interview with the artist Michael Paulus on the Gobshite Quarterly website. We talk about cartoon characters and, specfifically, their skeletons.
To see Paulus’ art, he has a gallery on his website.
Meanwhile, over at Mindbuck.com, I have a review essay on Sandman Mystery Theater: Sleep of Reason.
And I have two pieces in the most recent Comics Journal. One, “Low-Calorie Cheescake,” is a review of Last Gasp’s Clean Cartoonists’ Dirty Drawings. The other, “Repeat Offender,” reviews Aaron McGruder’s latest Boondocks collection, All the Rage. (Sorry, these aren’t on the web.)
Interestingly, in our interview Michael Paulus said, “I think if it was Disney, the tendency would have been to do something profane.”
It seems Wally Wood couldn’t resist the temptation. His main contribution to Clean Cartoonists’ Dirty Drawings, “Disneyland Memorial Orgy,” is very profane indeed. As I wrote in The Comics Journal:
“There’s also something weirdly liberating about some of the images. My favorite of the bunch, Wally Wood’s Disneyland Memorial Orgy, shows — among other things — Goofy fucking Minnie as she leans against a cash register, Tinkerbell performing a strip tease, and the seven dwarves assaulting Snow White, all while dollar signs beam sunnily from the magic kingdom’s trademark castle. It’s all done in that characteristic Disney style, so it takes a minute to really understand what you’re seeing. It’s vulgar and it’s hilarious, and it’s also extremely satisfying to see the subversion of the cheap sentimentality and shallow moralism that has made Disney our most beloved commodifier of childhood. Is Wood meanly corrupting these sacred icons? Or is he merely stripping away the hypocrisy and laying bare the repressed subtext of our corporate fairy tales?”
Decide for yourself: You can see the “Memorial Orgy” (and more from the Clean Cartoonists’ Dirty Drawings collection) at The Realist Archive.
May 2008 Speaking Events
May 6 (Tuesday) 7pm — New York — Bluestockings Books, 172 Allen Street between Stanton and Rivington.
May 10 (Saturday) 7pm — Philadelphia – The A-Space, 4722 Baltimore Avenue.
May 12 (Monday) 7pm — Baltimore — Red Emma’s, 800 St. Paul Street.
May 17 (Saturday) 4pm — Richmond, Virginia — Chop Suey Books, 1317 West Cary Street.
April 2008 Speaking Events
April 6 (Sunday), 2pm — Portland, Oregon — Hollywood Library (3930 NE Hancock) — Speaking with Jules Boykoff, author of Beyond Bullets: The Suppression of Dissent in the United States
April 11 (Friday), 8:30am — Portland, Oregon — Panel discussion of Luis A. Fernandez’s book, Policing Dissent: Social Control and the Anti-Globalization Movement — Pacific Sociological Association Conference
April 23 (Wednesday) — Astoria, Oregon — Cannery Pier Hotel — With other Oregon Book Awards finalists — Sponsored by Literary Arts — http://www.literary-arts.org/
April 24 (Thursday) — Newport, Oregon — Newport Public Library — With other Oregon Book Awards finalists — Sponsored by Literary Arts — http://www.literary-arts.org/