Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: "Every one of Giandelli’s surfaces -- walls, windows, bedspreads, books -- seems alive. Her colors almost wriggle. The darkness she draws is so black it’s wet. She approaches long corridors like David Lynch does in his films: not something you walk down, but something you’re swallowed by. Interiorae is engulfing.... In restored and essential color, this collected edition gives the mood the necessary space to simmer and boil -- just like poetry has the white of the page around it to slow you down and give it weight. Even before you notice the chapter titles are counting down to zero, you can feel that something about to happen. The men and women who live there can’t see it, but everything’s about to change.... In the end, Interiorae isn’t about either mundane, everyday reality or the vivid, symbolic realm of dreams. Its power’s in the precarious space between the two." – Martyn Pedler, Bookslut

• Review: "While Athos in America is as widely varied as the author's most recent collection, 2009's Low Moon, its stories employ less deadpan humor. In addition, this new volume presents some of Jason's most experimental comics yet.... One thing that hasn't changed is the ways in which Jason conjures up a kind of understated humor from his somber protagonists that serves to lighten up the serious situations they find themselves in. Athos in America may be darker and relatively more straight-faced than Jason's other work, but it shows that one of the more unique cartoonists today is continuing to evolve." – Phil Guie, CriticalMob

• Review: "The Big Town evokes a lost era through language and flamboyant characters reminiscent of Fitzgerald, Dos Passos, Ring Lardner, etc. Yet it’s also eerily relevant to our own time with its study of the role of business, crime, morality, and love in our lives." – Jack Eidt, Wilder Utopia

• Interview: The San Francisco Chronicle's Julian Guthrie talks to Pat Thomas about Listen Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975: "The image of the Panther became something even Hollywood playfully played with. You had Tom Wolfe's book Radical Chic, and you had folks like Leonard Bernstein hanging out with the Panthers. Everyone wanted to get close to the heat."

• Feature: Junglecity, a website for Japanese visitors and residents of Seattle, spotlights Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery

• Scene: Paul Karasik has a report from his recent jaunt to DeKalb, IL — "The Museum at the University asked me to curate an exhibition that I had originally titled, 'Hey, Stoopid! Comix R Cool!', but which is now called, 'Graphic Novel Realism: Backstage at the Comics' (whatever that means!)." — with a video tour of the exhibit

Just beginning to catch up on Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Profile: With his big new art book out and his museum retrospective on the way, Daniel Clowes gets the New York Times profile treatment from Carol Kino: "Mr. Clowes can create a striking face with a few deftly placed lines or brush strokes, often seizing on some specific characteristic that summons up an indelible personality. Think of Enid Coleslaw, the snarky teenage anti-heroine of Ghost World, and her big, black nerdy-hip glasses; they cover most of her face, but they can’t conceal the tiny shifts in expression that loudly telegraph her mood."

• List: Daniel Clowes may be headed for a museum retrospective, but he is neither dead nor retired — but that doesn't stop Flavorwire's Elona Jones from naming 10 candidates to carry the torch of "his storytelling skills, interest in surrealism, and eye for biting observations," including Jason, who "receives international acclaim for his brilliant storytelling." 

• Preview/Review: Boing Boing previews 2 stories from The Sincerest Form of Parody: The Best 1950s MAD-Inspired Satirical Comics, with Cory Doctorow saying "Today marks the publication of Fantagraphics' magnificent archaeological comicsology… Many of these are racier, grosser, and meaner than even MAD dared. There’s also an engrossing appendix of annotations from editor John Benson…"

• Review: "The John Benson-edited anthology The Sincerest Form of Parody: The Best 1950s MAD-Inspired Satirical Comics assembles largely forgotten work by the likes of Jack Davis, Will Elder, Ross Andru, and Jack Kirby, parodying everything from Mickey Spillane novels to Rex Morgan, M.D. Some of these pieces can stand up to the best of Mad (or at least match the magazine’s average), but even the stories that are clunky and unfunny are fascinating for the way they rip off Mad shamelessly, including all the asides and mini-gags that Will Elder once labeled Mad’s 'chicken fat.' It’s a testament to how quickly the innovative and subversive can become mainstream." – Noel Murray, The A.V. Club

• Review: "Next to Pogo, the newspaper comics collection that fans have been most anticipating would be Ernie Bushmiller’s Nancy, which over the past few decades has garnered a reputation as the purest distillation of the gag cartoon, a triumph of minimalism... Nancy Is Happy: Dailies 1943-1945 joins Bushmiller’s magnum opus in full swing ... Bushmiller’s genius [was] to make everything in his strip so basic that anyone, anywhere, at any time, could get the joke." – Noel Murray, The A.V. Club

• Review (Video): Video blogger Robert Crayola looks at Nancy Is Happy: "If you like comics or comic strips especially and you haven't read Nancy or if you have and you just want more, I think you'll enjoy this.... Hopefully we can get many more volumes of this. I hope you support it. It's a great book."

• Review: "One of the signature achievements of ’80s alt-comics, Drew and Josh Alan Freidman’s Any Similarity to Persons Living or Dead Is Purely Coincidental: An Anthology of Comic Art, 1979-1985 is now back in print in a spiffy new edition that doesn’t really add anything to the original, but is still a necessary addition to any library that doesn’t already have a copy.... Drew Friedman’s stipple-heavy photo-realism and his brother Josh’s gleefully cruel humor combine to craft an alternate history of American entertainment that’s preposterous and yet feels true. Even now, decades after other cartoonists and comedians have tapped this well, the Friedmans’ pioneering work in the field of 'brattily dicking around with icons' remains unparalleled." – Noel Murray, The A.V. Club

• Plug: Boing Boing's Mark Frauenfelder gives Drew Friedman a platform to hype his upcoming NYC art show at Scott Eder Gallery in Brooklyn and re-release of Any Similarity to Persons Living or Dead Is Purely Coincidental

• Review: "Folly... serve[s] as a good introduction to Rickheit’s beautifully ugly visions, of a world where cute girls and humanoid stuffed animals commit atrocities against oozing flesh. With a drawing style that resembles Jason Lutes and Charles Burns, and a storytelling style similar to Jim Woodring and Al Columbia, Rickheit excels in making nightmares lucid. Some characters recur from story to story in Folly, but really this book is just page after page of beautiful images juxtaposed with wounds and excreta. The single-mindedness of Rickheit’s approach — and the level of detail he applies to it — is impressively horrifying." – Noel Murray, The A.V. Club

• Review: "...[A] heck of a ride... Jason might not be to everyone’s taste, but those who have acquired it will find Isle of 100,000 Graves to be a small but satisfying banquet." – No Flying No Tights

• Reviews: Chris Spector's Midwest Record rounds up reviews of new & recent Fantagraphics releases by Carl Barks, Jack Davis, Gahan Wilson, Pat Thomas, Johnny Gruelle, Ernie Bushmiller and E.C. Segar

• Plugs: The Los Angeles Times Hero Complex's Emily Rome and Geoff Boucher spotlight the L.A. Times Book Prizes graphic novel nominees, including Celluloid by Dave McKean and Congress of the Animals by Jim Woodring

• Profile: The Salt Lake Tribune's Ben Fulton introduces Kevin Avery and his books on Paul Nelson, including Everything Is an Afterthought, which Avery will be signing at two events in Utah next week

• Interview (Audio): Pat Thomas appears on the Wax Poetics "Bad Data" podcast to discuss Listen Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975

• Interview (Video): Monte Schulz sits down to discuss his new novel The Big Town with host Fred Klein on the Literary Gumbo video podcast

• Commentary: Monte Schulz is writing a new blog at The Huffington Post, and for his first entry he tells you "What the 1920s Was Really Like" based on his research of the decade for his novel The Big Town

• Analysis: More from The Hooded Utilitarian critical roundtable on Jaime Hernandez's "Locas" stories — Corey Creekmur on the role of memory and Jason Michelitch on the gaps in the stories

• Contest: At Design Observer Rob Walker writes more about the Studio 360 Significant Objects writing contest

• Scene: Ashley Cook of Giant Fire Breathing Robot reports from our "Northwest Noir: Seattle's Legacy of Counterculture Comix" panel at Emerald City Comicon

Monday, April 2nd

• Los Angeles, CA: Join editor Pat Thomas at the Norman Lear Center for a presentation on Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power, 1965-1975. (more info)

Tuesday, April 3rd

• Santa Barbara, CA: Author Monte Schulz will be making a hometown appearance for The Big Town, at Chaucer's Books. (more info)

 Wednesday, April 4th

• Los Angeles, CA: Monte Schulz will return to Skylight Books to launch the last book in his Jazz Age trilogy, The Big Town! (more info) 

• Los Angeles, CA:  Editor/curator Pat Thomas will be giving a presentation at BookSoup on Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975! (more info)

• Kyoto, Japan: The exhibit Three Sides Chicago: Squares, Squirrels & Dots, featuring Archer Prewitt, alongside Sam Prekop and Eric Claridge, will be opening at the Trancepop Gallery. All three artists will make an appearance at the opening reception. (more info)   

Thursday, April 5th

 • Los Angeles, CA:  Meet Daniel Clowes at Meltdown in Los Angeles!  The evening will be hosted by Blair Butler (of G4's Fresh Ink), and there will be an interview conducted by Mark Frauenfelder of BoingBoing, followed by a Q&A.  Also, it's the First Annual "Enid Coleslaw" Meet-Up at Nerdmelt. (more info)

• Los Angeles, CA:  Pat Thomas will be giving a presentation on Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975 at Amoeba Records. (more info)

• Columbus, OH:  Join Paul Hornschemeier at the Columbus Museum of Art as he speaks with Jared Gardner, a professor of English and Film Studies at Ohio State University. In conjunction with his talk, the museum will display a selection of Hornschemeier’s scripts, storyboards, and sketches highlighting his creative process. (more info) 

Saturday, April 7th

• Santa Barbara, CA:  Pat Thomas will be giving a presentation on Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975 at Warbler Records & Goods. (more info)

• Tokyo, Japan:  Three Sides Chicago: Squares, Squirrels & Dots spotlights the work of Archer Prewitt, alongside Sam Prekop and Eric Claridge, and they'll make an appearance at the Shibuya Parco B1F LIBRO on this final day of the exhibit. (more info)

Fantagraphics Books and Light in the Attic Records are excited to announce that author, lecturer, and music-man Pat Thomas is hitting the road with Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975. Meet the mofo behind the book that pays tribute to the Black Power Movement of the '60s-'70s. Heading up the West Coast and then across the pond to England, Thomas will be giving talks, signing books, and playing tracks at both bookstores and record shops.

While researching this book project in Oakland, Thomas discovered rare recordings of speeches, interviews, and music by noted activists Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Elaine Brown, and others that form the framework of this definitive retrospective. Listen, Whitey! chronicles the forgotten history of Motown Records' Black Power subsidiary label, Black Forum, which released politically charged albums by Stokely Carmichael, Langston Hughes, Bill Cosby, and Ossie Davis, among others. Obscure records produced by African-American sociopolitical organizations of the period are examined, along with the Isley Brothers, Nina Simone, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Watts Prophets, Roland Kirk, Horace Silver, Angela Davis, H. Rap Brown, Stanley Crouch, and many more.

Thomas will give a slide and music presentation, and then sign copies of Listen, Whitey! and the companion CD of the same title from Seattle-based Light in the Attic Records. The album features rare tracks from African-American activists like Dick Gregory, Eldridge Cleaver, and the Last Poets, with protest music by Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Gil Scott-Heron, Roy Harper, and more.

Listen, Whitey! features nearly 200 pages of text accompanied by over 250 large sized, full-color reproductions of album covers and 45 rpm singles -- most of which readers will have never seen before. The book creates a cultural context for the iconic images and the accompanying album.

Tour Schedule:

Wednesday, April 4, 7pm
Book Soup
8818 Sunset Blvd.
W. HOLLYWOOD, CA 90069
310.659.3110

Thursday, April 5, 7-8PM
AMOEBA Records
6400 Sunset Blvd.
LOS ANGELES, CA 90028
323.245.6400

Saturday, April 7, TBA
Warbler Records & Goods
131 E De La Guerra St
SANTA BARBARA, CA 93101
805.845.5862

Tuesday, April 10, 7:30PM
The Booksmith
1644 Haight St.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117
415.863.8688

Wednesday, April 11, 7:30 pm
Pegasus Books
2349 Shattuck Ave.
BERKELEY, CA 94704
510.649.1320

Sunday, April 22, 7:30 PM
Powell's City of Books
1005 W Burnside
PORTLAND, OR 97209
503.228.4651

Wednesday, May 9, TBA
University of Southampton
University Road, SOUTHAMPTON SO17 1BJ
+44 (0)23.8059.5000

Thursday, May 10, TBA
SPONSORED AND PRESENTED BY
THE WIRE MAGAZINE
Cafe OTO
18 - 22 Ashwin St.
Dalston, LONDON E8 3DL

Friday, May 11, TBA
Rough Trade East "Dray Walk"
Old Truman Brewery
91 Brick Lane, LONDON
E1 6QL
+44 (0)207.392.7788

Tuesday, May 15, TBA
Durham University
Lecture Room of the Music Department
The University Office
Old Elvet, DURHAM
DH1 3HP
+44 (0)191.334.6305

I have to confess... at first, I confused Norman Lear with this guy.  I was like, "They gave him a Center? Well, I guess Mr. Roper was a nuanced characterization of a Santa Monica landlord..." Oops. At least they're both veterans of late 70's sitcoms, right?!

ANYWAY.

Join editor Pat Thomas at the Norman Lear Center tomorrow, Monday, April 2nd, for a presentation on Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power, 1965-1975.

He'll be discussing this impressive tribute to the Black Power Movement of the '60s-'70s, and playing tracks from the companion soundtrack album on Light in the Attic Records!

The event starts at Noon, and hey, lunch will be served!  The talk takes place in the Geoffrey Cowan Forum (Annenberg Room 207) at the Norman Lear Center [ Ronald Tutor Campus Center, USC Annenberg School for Communication, 3607 Trousdale Pkwy, Los Angeles ].  This event is co-sponsored by the Lear Center's Popular Music Project.

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review: Pitchfork gives the Listen, Whitey! companion album an 8.0, with Stephen M. Deusner writing "Perhaps the most powerful aspect of Listen, Whitey! The Sound of Black Power 1967-1974 -- the album and the book, both representing many years' research by historian Pat Thomas -- is how they portray a music in flux: Artists such as the Watts Prophets, the Original Last Poets, Shahid Quintet, and Marlena Shaw were only just realizing the potential for cross-genre synthesis and for radical political statement through music.... Thomas is interested in depicting Black Power music at street level rather than playlisting the most popular songs of the era. ...[B]y focusing on the range of music inspired by this movement, Listen, Whitey! allows so much of the confusion, outrage, anger, emotion, humor, and even optimism of this music to resonate anew."

• Review: "I had always meant to read Love and Rockets, but it might be possible that I've given myself a gift by waiting until I'm at this point in my life. My reading now, in my 40s might be more nuanced, and less surface than having read them 20 years ago. I'm going to recommend the series. There is an element of sexuality, but not sexism. And there's an element of Bohemianism as well. However, I guess Love and Rockets is like a complicated wine: what you taste at first isn't the taste that lingers as you look a little closer." – Catherine Schaff-Stump, Writer Tamago

• Analysis: More from The Hooded Utilitarian's critical roundtable on Jaime Hernandez, with Jenny Gonzalez-Blitz discussing her personal history with the Locas stories

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Interview: AlterNet's Emily Wilson talks to Pat Thomas about writing Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975: "I was trying to write a book that was pro-Panthers, but not with an agenda as to what I wanted to say other than to sort of humanize these people. To me they were more than just statues frozen in time; they were people I was hanging out with in current day. I just wanted to capture their humanity in some way. Militancy or their strident side was just one part of it. I wanted to focus on how their legacy crossed paths with pop culture. You know, I talk about this wacky 'Partridge Family' episode where they meet the Black Panthers. It’s not a dogmatic book.... It’s meant to be, for lack of a better word, fun."

• Interview: On the Penny Ante Editions blog author James Tracy also talks with Pat Thomas: "I don’t know if it’s a danger [when white people take an interest in Black culture], unless it’s KKK member or some twisted 'White Power' kook… otherwise, there will always be a reason (good or bad or misguided) for Whites to explore Black culture. Frankly, America needs to have more dialogue between races, embracing their differences as well as what they have in common. I didn’t try to pretend to be Black - and that was something that Elaine Brown liked about me. I didn’t put on a 'mask' and start to talk Black or pull that kind of shit."

• Review (Audio): The March 11 episode of Easy Rider, the radio show for "rock, punk rock, country, power pop, garage and comics" from Radio PFM out of Arras in northern France, features Bill Griffith: Lost and Found: Comics 1969-2003 among their Comics of the Week

• Analysis: In the new entry in The Hooded Ultilitarian's critical roundtable on Jaime Hernandez, Noah Berlatsky examines nostalgia in the Locas stories, especially "Browntown" and "The Love Bunglers," from his trademark contrarian standpoint

• Scene: Michael Upchurch of the Seattle Times reports on our Real Comet Press Retrospective exhibit at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Review (Video): On G4's Fresh Ink Online video podcast, host Blair Butler and guest Sam Humphries look at Is That All There Is? by Joost Swarte; at the 7:50 mark Humphries makes it his #2 pick of the week, saying "I've literally been waiting for this book for 20 years... so my hopes were pretty high and this book does not disappoint at all.... You gotta pick up this book."

• Review: "While [Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975] looks like a typical coffee table book, this book does not have the coffee table lightness when it comes to content. It is dense.... The imagery in this book is fantastic with a ton of photos of old album jackets, flyers and magazine advertisements and of course the record itself. I admit, I want to blow up a lot of the posters and frame them. You will too.... You should buy this book. Fantagraphics outdid themselves this time." – David Baker, 410 Media

• Review: "Undead pirates roam the seas. They want to die and find eternal peace. But when that doesn’t work, they pray for a living creature to torment. They find a baby boy amidst the wreckage of a ship and decide to raise him until he’s ten. Then they plan to kill him so they can have a cabin-boy.... David B.’s Epileptic made me a fan of his work. But the cover [of The Littlest Pirate King], featuring ghastly pirates behind a little boy, would have caught my attention anyway.... It’s a kid’s book with an edge." – Gene Ambaum, The Unshelved Book Club

• Review: "Originally published in 1974, ...[The Arctic Marauder] finds social criticism wrapped up in sarcastic satire, but outfitted in some great designs of Victorian science.... Tardi’s story is one thing, but his beautiful renderings give it a depth that brings it far beyond satire. The attention given to the Victoriana -- in technology, fashion and graphic layout -- functions as a love letter to that bygone world, which keeps the book from ever seeming cartoonish, and that [is] its major strength." – John Seven, North Adams Transcript

• Plug: The Pulp Reader spotlights our upcoming Basil Wolverton collections Creeping Death from Neptune and Spacehawk

• Tunes: Michael Kupperman is among the cartoonists who put together a playlist of music that inspires their process for Huffington Post columnist Dave Scheidt — a taste: "'Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep,' Middle of the Road: This is just the oddest song. It's upbeat, and bubblegum, and catchy, and sad, and kind of incomprehensible. It was written by a French composer and recorded by a Scottish group, and was one of the highest-selling singles worldwide of all time." (That song's popular with funny cartoonists: Peter Bagge's band Can You Imagine? covers it)

Head on over to the Light in the Attic Records website right now to enter to win a prize pack including Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975 and the companion album Listen, Whitey! The Sounds of Black Power 1967-1974 in CD or 2xLP format!

One of the nice things about working with Light in the Attic is that they're also practitioners of the first-person preview video. Here are their "What's Inside" looks at both formats of the album:

Today's Online Commentary & Diversions:

• Awards: Hey, The Comics Journal picked up a nomination for "Favourite Magazine About Comics" in the 2012 edition of the long-running UK-based Eagle Awards, reports The Comics Reporter and also Robot 6

• Interview (Audio): Inkstuds radio programme host Robin McConnell chats with Diane Noomin about her new book Glitz-2-Go

• Plug: "Listen, Whitey! is the largest collection of Black Power recordings, and the only book of its kind. Even if you’re not that much into social history or political music, the rock and soul rabble rousing and poetic preachers and extrapolative urban players here are exciting to listen to, and the artwork accompanying it in both the CD booklet and the full book is extraordinary." – The KEXP Blog