Tag: Pop Culture
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Close Your Eyes and Think of Besties
Over their long rich, history, the Besties have established a tradition of… um, being 3 years old and changing in format every time. Of ignoring SEO-building topics such as best-selling novels and important prose non-fiction to concentrate on the best comics. Of not always focussing on the past year’s comics and being mostly about what…
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I Hope You All Enjoyed The Show.
I have a post I didn’t have time to finish and post last week, on the Beatles’ 50th anniversary of the release of the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band LP, June 1. I didn’t post it with the rush to prepare for the annual Summer Art Market show. That went okay, with the main…
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When They Go High…
I like writing about comics because they partially relate to my professional work in graphic arts. How much do they relate? Most people have been conditioned by the conventional wisdom to ignore comics as a relevant art form, high or low. This is getting harder to do. There is starting to be a significant body of…
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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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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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Of Hacks and Boobs
I promised a quick finish to my last books and pop culture post with an installment about current comics. I also promised shorter posts. One out of two ain’t bad. Comics: There has been very little need to marginalize comics over the years; they’ve done a great job of doing that for themselves. This has…
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Read Flag!
It’s Banned Books Week. Though it’s been a busy Summer, I’ve gotten quite a bit of reading in. Evenings and mornings have mostly been spent catching up on my reading on the back porch, thankfully relatively cool this summer. Here is what I’ve been reading. Rather than compile a comprehensive entry, which I’ve identified as a reason…
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Cultured Pop
Shorter, darker days. There’s actually time for reading, and the cat settles in for a lap snooze as I actually watch entire movies on DVD. I get my exercise on trips to the Library, and I’m combing through the PBS listings. I read Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink, which is as thought provoking as you’d expect, and another book,…
