October 4th, 2006
The august Harvey Pekar introduced me at my reading last night. That felt a little wrong, sort of like the Grateful Dead opening for Phish. But it was very lovely. Harvey’s wife Joyce Brabner came too. There wasn’t a huge crowd, but the bookstore had an amazing technical setup, with a nice big screen so everyone could see. That’s often such a problem. I’m getting a little travel-worn, I’m afraid, and spaced out about taking any photos. But fortunately Christine Hahn of the Cleveland Gay People’s Chronicle came to the rescue and supplied me with this shot of Harvey and me. Check out Christine’s blog and sketch diary. She’s apparently as fascinated with drawing Crocs as I am.
October 3rd, 2006
Cool. From the Marshall Democrat-News:
Louise Mills of Marshall (Missouri) is requesting that two graphic novels — “Fun Home,” by Alison Bechdel and “Blankets,” by Craig Thompson — be removed from the library because she feels that the books are inappropriate. Mills has filed forms with the library to request the removal of the books. Mills could not be reached for comment Tuesday, Oct. 3.
October 3rd, 2006
Here ya go. Read the rest of this entry »
October 3rd, 2006
Politics and Prose is an amazing bookstore. I entered through the buzzing café, passed a room where a big book group was meeting, then went upstairs to the large and well-stocked store proper. It was kind of like a reading factory.
Here I am with Virginia Harabin, who works there. She gave me an introduction that almost made me weep, and which perhaps set the tone for the audience, who were so attentive it was disconcerting. I worked hard to try and live up to their expectations.
It was a great crowd. A whole mess of women from off our backs showed up. My comic strip has been running in that paper continuously since 1985. And there were lots of regular people who’d never read a graphic novel before. And a professor who’s teaching Fun Home in his class, and some of his students. A lovely evening.
Now I’m trying to finish the presentation I have to do at Oberlin College tomorrow. Soon I leave DC for Cleveland. I’m so psyched because I just found out Harvey Pekar is introducing me tonight at Joseph-Beth Booksellers. 7pm. Come!
October 2nd, 2006
Thanks again to Pam Isherwood for keeping me apprised of what’s going on with the UK release of Fun Home. (If you ever tire of photography, P, you should consider becoming a publicist.)
I’ll be doing a reading at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, (which is right on the Mall) Monday the 23rd of October. At 6:45pm.
Also on the London front, Fun Home got a nice review on BBC Collective.
October 1st, 2006
I just had a lovely reunion with my old college pal Kathleen Finneran, who I haven’t had any contact with for the past 27 years. I recently found out she’d written a memoir, The Tender Land, and read it in preparation for our visit. It’s a remarkable book, one of the most moving things I’ve ever read. You should go get it this moment.
Anyhow, it was delightful to find myself hanging out with her again, all these years later. We pretty much just picked up the conversation where we’d left off. While she drove me around St. Louis and I did my laundry at her sister’s house in the suburbs. Here we are with Kris Kleindienst at Left Bank Books.
(Me, Kathleen, Kris.) And here’s a portion of the lovely audience at Left Bank Books.
What a great bookstore. I’m very glad I finally got to come to it. And to St. Louis, where I’d never been before. After my reading, Kathleen and some friends and bookstore people took me to visit a local oddity, the City Museum. I can’t really describe it. It’s sort of like a cross between an art installation and a fun house. It was filled with people climbing on all these bizarre structures, sitting around a campfire outside, sliding down tubes and crawling through tunnels. Someone apparently got stuck in one while we were there—the fire department had to come to the rescue.
Here I am next to the giant underpants. Over them is a Latin inscription, Semper ubi sub ubi. Can you translate?
