Posted by Tobias Carroll At last year’s Stumptown Comics Convention, I found myself in a room watching a discussion of comics and history. I knew one of the participants, Kate Beaton, from her excellent Hark! A Vagrant. I was less familiar with the other one: a writer and artist named Dylan Meconis. Given the examples of her work that appeared during the panel — smart use of dialogue, an eye for detail, and a sense of pacing that recalls that […]
Zineophilia #1: Womanimalistic and Pins & Needles
Posted by Tobias Carroll [In which I attempt to create a semi-regular review of assorted zines that have crossed my path, of multiple types and disciplines. Here are two.] At a release party at the City Reliquary, I picked up the first issue of Caroline Paquita’s Womanimalistic. (Also celebrated that day: the latest issue of Slice Harvester, which should be reviewed in the next installment of these.) I’m familiar with Paquita primarily because of her music: she’s presently one-third of […]
Obama’s Terrorist Pal is Now a Comic Book
Online Comic Strip Figures Out Zombie-Lit Phenomenon
Turns out, it’s the boys who are to blame! Because the girls totally get it. Unshelved is an online comic book set in a public library. Every Sunday for “Book Club,” they publish a guest post, which features a different book every week. This week, Pride and Prejudice. Are zombies involved? Sea monsters?, one character wonders. No way!, says the other. Vol. 1 has discussed the zombie-lit trend in the past–more than once, in fact–and plans to continue doing so […]
Bites: Woody Allen Drawn, A New Case for American Lit, NYRB on Herta Müller, SXSW, and more
An abstract from Dread and Superficiality: Woody Allen as Comic Strip, a new book to be published next month, is available at the Guardian. Arcade Fire’s a lucky band. Spike Jonze was “thinking of them almost every step of the way” in making his famous film. Rather than insular, is American Literature “borderless”? From the NYRB, a podcast on Herta Müller, the 2009 Nobel laureate in literature. Vol. 1 touched on Müller and her recent win last week. “Is there […]
Bites: Book Review Highlights, Kakutani Two-Step, Required Reading, the Millennials, and Why Our Media is Getting Scolded
Celebrated artist of the female form, Peter Paul Rubens, was “a man of controlled appetites, with a modest disposition and a reputation for tact and discretion.” He was also a diplomat, spy, and peace-maker, according to Mark Lamster’s new book “Master of Shadows.” Other Book Review Highlights: A history, slightly obsessive, of Strunk & White’s little style book.(NYT) Michael Chabon’s new essays: “First Person Masculine”?(NYT) Has anyone else noticed that James Joyce has been tryin’ to change a lot of […]
Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly on WNYC
Bites: Obama reading “Lush Life”,a Dutch girl who just wants to sail, Turkish books, social networking for nerds, and more
A personal hero of mine, Steve Martin, is hitting the road with his banjo in tow. (Thanks Brooklyn Vegan) Obama is sitting on the beach reading Lush Life. Holy crap, I was going to start reading that too! We have so much in common! Damn you Netherlands! Why on earth would you want to stop a 13-year-old girl from experiencing a magical adventure like sailing across the world by herself? (Thanks Boing Boing) Over at Litkicks, Levi Asher picks six […]