Category: Books, Comics, Music
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Group Love
Anthologies are often the proving ground for innovation in comics. Comics were birthed in innovation. The newspapers comic strips’ anarchic humor, along with early cinema, synthesized vaudeville, minstrel and photography to create new visual languages. This lasted until the end of the Jazz Age, and the ascension of radio and Talkies as the dominant pop culture mediums. Nonetheless, invention…
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Coming Out of the Refrigerators
From the 20’s through the 40s, both newspaper comics and comic books featured women creators and tough smart female characters. That changed with the 50’s move toward conformity and censorship in all media, but especially comics, deliberately infantilized during the Wertham witch hunt, though the medium had previously appealed to all ages. Women often appeared…
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The World Is a Funny (Book) Place
I read some big, brainy, brick shaped books this summer. A respite was inevitable, and when my eyes want a rest, I very often pick up some comics. Comics, A Global History 1968 to the Present, Dan Mazur and Alexander Danner: The 50’s suppression of comics in America had echoes in Europe and Japan, but…
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Book Porn
A computer crash and a temp job in a shorthanded college bookstore really cramped my writing though I do have plenty of raw first drafts, typed shakily into my phone or tablet on public transit. So I’m posting some summer reading commentary now as I try to catch up: I finished The Novel, A Biography.…
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Lazy Daze
We’ve had a large hatching of dragonflies- possibly brought on by a sudden spell of cool wet weather. Squadrons of them, swarming the neighborhood. It seems like a nice omen for a summer that’s already been pretty enjoyable. I am teaching, and watching a lot of football. I pulled for the USA, then I pulled…
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Get Back, Stack
Month of Printmaking Colorado has been going pretty well. It’s an artist/volunteer run event, and Denver’s getting too big to do a large scale event with out professional organization and promotion, really. But the crowds have been pretty good, and the press has covered it well. I was pretty relieved when all of the first…
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Reading ‘Pretty’
“When I was dreaming of what the future of women in comics could be, I was dreaming of her. I just didn’t know it yet,” -Gail Simone, comics writer and activist ( Women in Refrigerators Blog) on Kelly Sue DeConnick. Pretty Deadly Volume I (Image Comics) makes one of its stronger statements right on…
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Fascination Vacation
Both my daily news cycle and my own personal bathroom are leaking a disgusting slime. While waiting for the plumber, escape is imperative, so I’m moving to my go-to in pleasant subjects- reading. I finished Nick Hornby’s Ten Years in the Tub. It collects his Believer Magazine columns, in which he lists what books he’s bought and…
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Doings and Viewings, Hodgings and Podgings
I’ve had a busy fall, as noted. Here are some of the things I’m working on. Holiday Shows: Most artists here do at least one holiday show because they sell. Small works go well during the holidays, and $2-300 extra cash during the season is never unwelcome. Small, interesting galleries also depend on this yearly…
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A Good Used Bookstore, For the Love of God
Size does matter. Mine is a bit small by most people’s standards I’m sure, but honestly, I’d rather it be a bit small than too large. Because really, it’s what you do with it. And mine does a lot. I don’t often brag about it because I don’t want to attract a crowd, but it’s…
