Pop on over to ComicsWorthReading for Part I of  my coverage of R. Crumb and Françoise Mouly’s recent appearance in Richmond, Virgina.  On the fence about whether you want to read my rambling diatribe about some lecture in Richmond?  How’s about this: the article includes a picture of my dog dressed up as R. Crumb.  Check it out:

If you’re a cartoonist and you hear that Robert Crumb will be making a rare stateside appearance a few short hours drive from your hometown, you don’t ask “How much?” you just get thee to Ticketmaster.com as quickly as possible and buy tickets. And that’s exactly what I did a few weeks back when (after a Bob Clampett-style double take) I saw this very announcement posted online. R. Crumb, godfather of underground comics (and more circuitously, pretty much everything else you’ve read since the late sixties that doesn’t involve guys in tights fighting crime) would be appearing along with Françoise Mouly at Richmond’s Carpenter Center to discuss his most recent book, a fully illustrated version of Genesis, based largely on Robert Alter’s 2004 translation. [more….]

And, closely-related, there’s this:  Hey, I’m in a comic strip!

I’m apparently making an appearance in pal Rob Ullman‘s most recent Traffic and Weather strip for Richmond Magazine.  Rob graciously offered me his couch for the evening of the Crumb talk and we wound up, on a lark, meeting up with what I thought would just be some local Richmond comics folk for late dinner and/or drinks.  You can read the rest for yourself starting here.  I’ll link to the second parts of both my Crumb article at ComicsWorthReading and the second part of Rob’s strip as they appear (with some commentary on the latter, most likely).

“R. Crumb MOCKS book of Genesis”?!  I’m only about half-way through this book right now, but I’ve yet to encounter any “mocking.”  Yeah, sure, there’s a lot of brutal fighting, sexual violence, etc. but such is the Old Testament.  I think the only way you could read this word-for-word illustrated version of Genesis and think there was any “mocking” going on would be if you’d not actually ever read Genesis (which–given that it’s FOX News–may actually be the case here).

It’s a good thing Crumb didn’t tackle any of the books of the New Testament, what with all the “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matthew 24:40) and “a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:23) stuff.  OMG SOCIALISM!!!!!

Crumb this… Genesis that… Yadda, yadda, yadda…. Where’s the hoopla for The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga?!

It officially came out yesterday and I had mine pre-ordered, so it arrived on my doorstep today.  (Curiously, Amazon appears to be out of them already.)  It’s a truly beautiful book.  I’ve not really even looked at the the interior yet, but here are a few pics of the exterior:

As you can see, it comes with a plastic dust jacket.  The title is actually printed on the dust jacket iteself, so if you remove it, it’s just Astro Boy on the cover.  It’s hard to see from the picture, but Astro Boy there is actually a raised eighth-inch thick die cut piece of board that’s attached to the cover.  (I’ve got to figure out a way to git rid of that DVD sticker thing, though.)

As you can see, it does indeed come with a DVD documentary about Tezuka, apparently made just to go along with the book.  It’s mounted into the back cover.

… And here’s how you get at the DVD: the inside back cover.  I dig those endpapers.  They’re schematic diagrams of Astro Boy.

Thanks inlaws-who-gave-me-an-Amazon-gift-code-for-my-birthday!