tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65304578788769528672024-03-05T16:57:39.221-05:00derfcityblogCranky rants from America's favorite scribbling, post-punk dweeb, Derf BackderfDerf Backderfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650799247027927063noreply@blogger.comBlogger227125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530457878876952867.post-25146022897589761682021-12-15T10:11:00.002-05:002022-09-26T09:53:42.563-04:00A recap<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7onqVAqcvSRRgeNetOTuwnY8ZwT3bIKizMYanyxIjhwpCdTfgLQe933BZ8kJmi16lsEOgChRS2ukY0phBkfuanC9eaxTNGbQpH6zsVvRH9RpBUHFitO18dgl2-pbvhggvHnj6DeXoYFXV/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="843" data-original-width="843" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7onqVAqcvSRRgeNetOTuwnY8ZwT3bIKizMYanyxIjhwpCdTfgLQe933BZ8kJmi16lsEOgChRS2ukY0phBkfuanC9eaxTNGbQpH6zsVvRH9RpBUHFitO18dgl2-pbvhggvHnj6DeXoYFXV/w400-h400/image.png" width="400" /></a><br /><br /><br /></div><div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Well, awards season is now a wrap. Here’s the final tally for KENT STATE:
</span></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: arial;">EISNER AWARD, Best Non-fiction Book</span></b></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: arial;">ALEX AWARD, for YA literature, The American Library Association.</span></b></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: arial;">ACBD CRITICS AWARD, France</span></b></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: arial;">RINGO AWARD, Best Non-fiction Book
</span></b></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Nominated for two Angloulême Prizes, Harvey Award Book-of-the-Year, two other Ringo Awards, and a couple other awards I’m forgetting off the top of my head.</span></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It’s all I could have hoped for when I launched this book into the Covid void a year ago. The mix is different, but it’s garnered as much hardware as MY FRIEND DAHMER. Never dreamed I’d have another book like that! The Eisner is the big prize. I'll be buried with that at my Viking funeral!</span></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Thanksgiving week seems a fitting time to look back at the past year and of tossing KENT STATE out into the world. I’ve very grateful for the reception it got… but it was THE most challenging book release I hope I’ll ever have. </span></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I feel an odd mix of satisfied pride and loss. The book was originally slated to come out in April 2020. It was timed to piggyback onto the 50th commemoration of the Kent State Massacre in May 1970. That sounds crassly commercial, but I think the book speaks for itself in that regard, and we in the book biz routinely tie releases to anniversaries of events. It was a great plan, draft behind the big media coverage of the 50th and get attention a mere comic book would not normally get, not in the US anyways. Then I’d springboard into a promotional tour of cons and fests that would last the rest of the year.</span></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The buzz was building as the launch approached. I never thought KENT STATE would be the sales and critical hit MY FRIEND DAHMER was, but it felt like it was going to be a big one. I was pretty excited. So was Abrams, my publisher, who were pushing it as one of their big Spring releases.</span></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Then, of course, it all went to hell. </span></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Covid hit, and the book business basically shut down for 3 months. The week-long May 4 commemoration at Kent State was cancelled, and the media barely noted it and moved on. No one gave a crap about anything but Covid and the Bloated Orange Buffoon’s rantings. Faced with nothing but bad choices, we delayed the release until September. The most ambitious tour of my career, which would have seen me crisscross the US and Europe, went up in a puff of smoke in a matter of days. </span></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In September, we started again from scratch. Despite the lost momentum, the book sold briskly out of the gate. The first printing of MY FRIEND DAHMER sold out in its first week. KENT STATE’s first printing took about a month. All things considered, that ain’t bad. Then MORE challenges. The 2nd printing got held up in the supply chain clog. The book was on backorder everywhere when holiday shopping started. What can you do? I just had to shrug and laugh. Copies eventually arrived. KENT STATE is now in its 4th printing.</span></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It also sold well in Europe. In France, where I enjoy an inexplicably large following, it was a smash hit! The coverage in French media was incredible: press, radio, podcast, television. Translations in Dutch, Swedish, Portuguese (out of Brazil) and Finnish (!) followed, and a Spanish edition is on the way. Again this trails MFD, which is currently in 18 languages, and TRASHED, which is in 14. I think Covid definitely affected the number of foreign translations. Publishers were being cautious. I doubt KENT STATE will ever make up that ground, so that's a loss.</span></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">All “touring” was done via Zoom, and MAN am I sick of Zoom! The cons and fests, where I would have sold thousands of copies and talked to thousands of fans, still haven’t returned. <a href="https://www.macsbacks.com/derf-signed-books"><b>The signed-book mailorder service I set up with MacsBacks</b></a> here in Cleveland was a rousing success. KENT STATE is their #1 selling book EVER. That’s been a great innovation that I’ll use with future books, so chalk that up as something good to come from the Lockdown. </span></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">My publisher made the absolute best of an impossible situation… but I certainly feel as if much was lost, especially the experience and joy of a book tour. I don’t have that many of these left, frankly, and I’m loathe to lose a single one, especially with a book as important to me as KENT STATE.</span></div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I hope I never have to go through another launch like this one again!</span></div></div><p></p>Derf Backderfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650799247027927063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530457878876952867.post-15875584684633309992021-09-08T17:49:00.002-04:002021-09-08T17:49:48.452-04:00A Kent State Artifact<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLaGInzEAkhY-Bxwp3LiJHB-PMR9Ms_hKklaQCqQsHpjZ8qxnb_UTceSNV4AT4Sncn-ZmSgrQnUo2aKQ0xDuJUz-qSOP-45SyAHzu8j7ETXb3xXOMAHuGJo1hkcgG8ADU0-yNSZdqm3w03/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="960" data-original-width="821" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLaGInzEAkhY-Bxwp3LiJHB-PMR9Ms_hKklaQCqQsHpjZ8qxnb_UTceSNV4AT4Sncn-ZmSgrQnUo2aKQ0xDuJUz-qSOP-45SyAHzu8j7ETXb3xXOMAHuGJo1hkcgG8ADU0-yNSZdqm3w03/w342-h400/image.png" width="342" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
Here’s a gift I recently received.</span></span><p></p><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">This is an original printed copy of the Scranton Report, officially titled The Report of the President’s Commission on Campus Unrest, issued in September 1970, following June hearings. Produced by the US Government Printing Office. The report looks at all campus unrest during the 1969-70 school year, specifically the fatal confrontations at Kent State and Jackson State.</span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Although the Report naively believes a few of the many false narratives put forth by state and local authorities, and doesn’t follow up on what were later revelations, it was the original go-to document for the massacre. It is based largely on the earlier FBI Report on Kent State, which was remarkably blunt considering it was J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI, and was in 1970 employing the wildly unconstitutional, and still secret, COINTELpro against the antiwar movement.</span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The Scranton Commission was convened by Nixon, part of his Machiavellian scheme to deflect the political blowback coming his way from the Kent State massacre. The Report clearly puts the blame on the Guard leaders and strongman Gov. James Rhodes, describing the actions of the Guard on May 4 as “highly questionable” and “a disaster” and calls the shootings “unjustified.”</span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Rhodes, who had been a key ally of Nixon in the 1968 election, was furious and refused to accept the report or enter it officially into the state record. He was an oaf, but Rhodes was a shrewd politician who ruled Ohio with an iron fist. He was completely undercut by Tricky Dick, who had no more use for the governor, since he was to be term-limited out of power at year’s end and couldn’t run for reelection until after the 1972 presidential election. So Nixon shoved him in front of the bus. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.</span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">This copy came to me from my pals at MacsBacks Books, who do my mailorder of signed copies. I had a pdf I used as source material.</span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">“This should be with you,” Suzanne, the owner, told me.</span></div></div>Derf Backderfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650799247027927063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530457878876952867.post-21633162168645283342021-09-01T12:50:00.007-04:002021-09-01T12:56:51.307-04:00Kent State and Comics, a look back. Part 4<p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsRu1HNtXph2yVZqq_EHs4rAfpdBNCqaCI4BDA1ZQG6fCmj9C47fhblpJqjHMmLeYyIr0ZM2uwiY7_JcPOse3haRBhNwsmyKo_4JL5stnfNtrOTChkHyTvOwdnyZry1DoJSH4lfDeqUlzT/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsRu1HNtXph2yVZqq_EHs4rAfpdBNCqaCI4BDA1ZQG6fCmj9C47fhblpJqjHMmLeYyIr0ZM2uwiY7_JcPOse3haRBhNwsmyKo_4JL5stnfNtrOTChkHyTvOwdnyZry1DoJSH4lfDeqUlzT/w300-h400/image.png" width="300" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 15px; text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Continuing my look at how the Kent State era played out in comics and cartoons.</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 15px; text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Finally picked up a nice copy of this issue of <i>Mad #139</i>, from December 1970. It’s pretty remarkable. <i>Mad</i> wasn’t known for daring political statements, but this cover is positively incendiary. <i>Mad</i> was fat and profitable in 1970, with a circulation approaching 2M a month, making it the most successful cartoon magazine ever. Warner Bros. Inc acquired <i>Mad</i> (and DC Comics) in 1969, and along with the film studio, formed the largest entertainment corporation in the world, so <i>Mad </i>was hardly the scruffy counter-culture publication it had once been. As insanely successful and profitable as it was, however, a formulaic lethargy had definitely settled in. This issue shakes things up a bit.<br /><br />Publisher Bill Gaines had editorial autonomy, and he waded into <i>the </i>hot-button topic of the year here, unruly student radicals. Older Middle America wanted them all rounded up and shot. Literally. That was a common refrain after Kent State, one that Nixon gleefully exploited. This issue must've make the corner-office squares at WB awfully queasy, I’m sure. Good for Gaines and his editors.</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 15px; text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: justify;">The cover— and WHAT a cover!— is drawn by the brilliant Jack Davis, a superstar illustrator by this time, a guy who drew more <i>Time</i> magazine and <i>TV Guide</i> covers than any other artist ever. Davis, of course, was one of the original stable of <i>Mad</i> artists assembled by the visionary Harvey Kurtzman back in the EC Comics days.</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 15px; text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: justify;">What made this cover so subversive is you really have to take your time and study it to pick up on everything in the background. At first glance, it's just another benign Alfred E. Neuman cover, but then the radical mob behind him comes into focus, and you realize Holy Crap this was quite a risky image!</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 15px; text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Look at the signs. “Pigs off Campus” and “Escape to Canada,” and "1-2-3-4, we don't want your fucking war!", the chant that so unsettled older middle America (with the "fucking" blocked out, of course, but it's still there and would be apparent to anyone in 1970). There are signs referencing draft resistance and "Free Bobby," meaning Bobby Seale, who had been given a 4-year sentence on contempt by Judge Julius Hoffman during the Chicago 7 Trial! <br /><br />Not to mention the cop bludgeoned to the ground and out cold. I'll call "bullshit" on this one, because it's the opposite of reality. Police had been pummeling student protestors for years, without restraint or accountability.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWvBpI5ugXUrTnZ29q5PdB2PIlPItty5oqpjbcYRFkOVhTp9lpI8RYZD1-XTxSMsypVKqfm-pWlrA8u_2XghAQHOGxmklFuaOoHPaODAG8AZE-F6J515QMreNqoLCYYoaqSwlRI6jJaLek/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWvBpI5ugXUrTnZ29q5PdB2PIlPItty5oqpjbcYRFkOVhTp9lpI8RYZD1-XTxSMsypVKqfm-pWlrA8u_2XghAQHOGxmklFuaOoHPaODAG8AZE-F6J515QMreNqoLCYYoaqSwlRI6jJaLek/" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><br />Edgy stuff for a kids mag! But the way Davis renders the scene, it all blends together and obviously slipped right by conservative news dealers. Brilliant!</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 15px; text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: justify;">It's also a cover that's uncharacteristically edgy for <i>Mad</i> in 1970, as they had mostly abandoned the (mild) political satire that was once its staple in favor of silly kid gags and endless pop-culture spoofs. <i>National Lampoon</i> had just debuted in April 1970 and was quickly finding its legs. It was elbowing <i>Mad</i> aside by this time.</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 15px; text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Published in December 1970, this issue of <i>Mad</i> wraps up the “Year that Trembled,” one of the worst years we've ever suffered. It hit the stands just seven months after Kent State and Jackson State, and the massive <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_strike_of_1970"><b>Student Strike</b></a> that resulted in campus uprisings, and brutal government crackdowns, from coast to coast. The summer brought the infamous <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/11/nyregion/hard-hat-riot.html"><b>Hard Hat Riot</b></a> in New York and the Weathermen bombing campaign that sent the Feds into a frenzy and dominated headlines. It truly felt like the nation was teetering on the edge of mass revolt.</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 15px; text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: justify;">But when classes started again in Fall 1970, the air had gone out of the student antiwar movement. Nixon gloated about the “salutary effect” of Kent State. That’s true, combined with the cutbacks in the military draft and the total meltdown of SDS at the hands of the Weathermen. The Antiwar Movement moved off the campuses and into the streets.</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: justify;">So <i>Mad</i> is a bit late to the game here, following the culture rather than out front, but we can chalk some of that up to production deadlines. Hard for a magazine like this to keep pace with breaking news. This magazine was being written and drawn starting in September 1970, probably, just four months after the Kent State Massacre and in anticipation of campuses exploding again in the Fall. But the much-feared mass uprisings didn't occur. <br /></div></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"><br /><div style="color: #050505; font-size: 15px; text-align: justify;">There are more goodies inside on the same theme. The great Don Martin weighs in on the Hard Hat Riot! Again this is the opposite of what happened– the hard hats demolished antiwar protestors and sent dozens to the hospital.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Pp8KMxqzOhnXur_EHmMuADjXCm210TVgFSRKz2HlZg3m7fdqhJbFaU9MYAzwIQzBWuEPda_0XMO05oz5DJMhYLfHKGUxQQhTI3v1ZVtuUG2seKiF76U7_kikPkGhyZRonDU9ImC6Z1D-/" style="color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Pp8KMxqzOhnXur_EHmMuADjXCm210TVgFSRKz2HlZg3m7fdqhJbFaU9MYAzwIQzBWuEPda_0XMO05oz5DJMhYLfHKGUxQQhTI3v1ZVtuUG2seKiF76U7_kikPkGhyZRonDU9ImC6Z1D-/w300-h400/image.png" width="300" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 15px;">The biggest WTF in this issue is Dave Berg's "The Lighter Side of the Revolutionary Movement." Un-friggin-believable. </span><span style="font-size: 15px;">Presumably, Berg was still working on the "Lighter Side of the </span><span style="font-size: 14px;">Fred Hampton Assassination</span><span style="font-size: 15px;">."</span></div><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="color: #050505; font-size: 15px;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT6ebsQTRsKS3I9oIJ9OwGDTEdyDi0SnAUOMVxmfv6wi675fEgrHrAvn0gIVcHf4k9kgc_b8jYAtts-pgZ-QSgDqdg0xaijgg2zyxl5pwXKdm3dtwdxOauQSQGraHv-mCq9y-kNxrgs7Hl/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT6ebsQTRsKS3I9oIJ9OwGDTEdyDi0SnAUOMVxmfv6wi675fEgrHrAvn0gIVcHf4k9kgc_b8jYAtts-pgZ-QSgDqdg0xaijgg2zyxl5pwXKdm3dtwdxOauQSQGraHv-mCq9y-kNxrgs7Hl/w400-h300/image.png" width="400" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">It's four pages of the signature Berg lazy gags. Yeah, <i>Mad</i> is really getting "down with the kids" here.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWfBUY3QbQAqEdLqYHclc_VuTHMVFKCmFlgqDtF315RwyKK4niSgfrpF_uEEuFUx_HhEmUTYfFtC8-T8TGSK0w_PUJDbSWbkHX-x4mqZrT3rYKmF2NnNPydRvJos6qAT6Hac4V8uORe_km/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1430" data-original-width="2048" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWfBUY3QbQAqEdLqYHclc_VuTHMVFKCmFlgqDtF315RwyKK4niSgfrpF_uEEuFUx_HhEmUTYfFtC8-T8TGSK0w_PUJDbSWbkHX-x4mqZrT3rYKmF2NnNPydRvJos6qAT6Hac4V8uORe_km/" width="320" /></a><br /><br /><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Overall, <i>Mad #139</i> is a fascinating artifact. </span></div></div><br /><br /></div></div><br /><br /></span></div></div><br /><br /></div></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p></p>Derf Backderfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650799247027927063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530457878876952867.post-3964393400458274612021-08-17T11:33:00.002-04:002021-08-17T11:44:04.642-04:00<p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI-YAZqnZXjmEslSsikkdpMp85o4JKjsbZS7ukJ_2kHxzzPYvgm2ad-oSsJYfv25VZsKaU-KeDsS5CnwiX32yCT0DkN9BVSAVQMMaTT3FPqd1Ip75jyji4s9lDjQF14NiVPom4WZa9XUsb/s1124/239321289_2704679956498366_3916901414479945437_n.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1124" data-original-width="843" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI-YAZqnZXjmEslSsikkdpMp85o4JKjsbZS7ukJ_2kHxzzPYvgm2ad-oSsJYfv25VZsKaU-KeDsS5CnwiX32yCT0DkN9BVSAVQMMaTT3FPqd1Ip75jyji4s9lDjQF14NiVPom4WZa9XUsb/w300-h400/239321289_2704679956498366_3916901414479945437_n.jpeg" width="300" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">For the first time since my book was released, I paid a visit to Kent State.</span></p><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Since it’s the break between Summer and Fall semesters, I had the campus completely to myself. I can count the people I encountered on just two hands, which would hardly be the case in another week when 25,000 students flood back onto campus. </span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Last time I was here was in February 2020. I had just returned from the Angoulême Comics Festival in France and a subsequent tour, and was gearing for to the looming release of the book, originally scheduled In April. I had <a href="https://www.wksu.org/arts-culture/2020-09-08/derfs-graphic-novel-about-may-4th-delivers-an-emotional-wallop"><b>an interview with the university’s NPR station, WKSU,</b></a> to kick off the promotion blitz. The reporter and I walked around the campus and talked about the events of 1970. </span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Two weeks later the pandemic hit like a hurricane. The release of the book was pushed back to Fall 2020, my 6-month-long book tour went up in a puff of smoke, and the whole world went into lockdown.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;">
Seems like a thousand years ago.</span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: arial;">So I spent an hour or so wandering the site and reflecting. It’s a very moving experience to trace the footsteps of the people whose stories I recount. They felt very close by.</span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;">The pylons here mark the spot where Jeff Miller fell. At the top of the hill, way in the distance, is the Pagoda, where the Guardsmen wheeled and opened fire. The distance you see here completely erases the Guard's lie that they "feared for their lives." There was no one near them when they opened fire. Jeff was the closest of the four killed to the soldiers!
</span><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB4LZJCSWugFGMhnZtRLmGaQEFOUEfqx2HNySiS7wQsCnwGrKBWHb9r7i6awZ8NT-ixZeVstl_ECzAjTYhrq-9oyZi_dAKwjJkJNYZVogaO0lwKxnewd1mfyY_gZD3EQKzbRexHletNiHT/s2048/239283319_2704682426498119_7159121401451897184_n.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB4LZJCSWugFGMhnZtRLmGaQEFOUEfqx2HNySiS7wQsCnwGrKBWHb9r7i6awZ8NT-ixZeVstl_ECzAjTYhrq-9oyZi_dAKwjJkJNYZVogaO0lwKxnewd1mfyY_gZD3EQKzbRexHletNiHT/s320/239283319_2704682426498119_7159121401451897184_n.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="color: #1c1e21; font-size: 12px; text-align: left; white-space: normal;"><div class="q9uorilb bvz0fpym c1et5uql sf5mxxl7" style="display: inline-block; max-width: calc(100% - 26px); overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: middle;"><div class="b3i9ofy5 e72ty7fz qlfml3jp inkptoze qmr60zad rq0escxv oo9gr5id q9uorilb kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x d2edcug0 jm1wdb64 l9j0dhe7 l3itjdph qv66sw1b" style="border-radius: 18px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--primary-text); display: inline-block; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; overflow-wrap: break-word; position: relative; word-break: break-word;"><div class="tw6a2znq sj5x9vvc d1544ag0 cxgpxx05" style="padding: 8px 12px;"><div class="ecm0bbzt e5nlhep0 a8c37x1j" style="padding-bottom: 4px; padding-top: 4px;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql oi732d6d ik7dh3pa ht8s03o8 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d9wwppkn fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id" color="var(--primary-text)" dir="auto" lang="en" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; display: block; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql" style="background-color: var(--comment-background); margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;">Just in front of Jeff's marker is that of Alan Canfora (below), shot and wounded in the arm. The tree here, which was obviously much smaller 51 years ago, likely saved his life. It took a couple slugs as Alan hid behind it.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql" style="background-color: var(--comment-background); margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto">Markers have been added to the site for all the nine wounded students.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="background-color: var(--comment-background); text-align: justify;">Alan passed away last Fall. He was a force. The black flag here replicates the larger black flag he famously waved at Guardsmen on May 4, fashioned from some drapes in his student hovel, and was probably the reason he was targeted by the shooters.</div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: var(--comment-background); text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: var(--comment-background); clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG4KuwileUTcXTb0CCz0cgg3b_Yh9nufAzOKMRDTqTZgkq3TW-H4GJqdyqTItd4yXvoh87IPDHzwIINdcw_teNODSGT5AVIcljRiKIpY3cnji8wHePKPr1Dm6MVampRUulhGKYPwH79sa2/s2048/239475545_2704682873164741_4790195366613844258_n.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG4KuwileUTcXTb0CCz0cgg3b_Yh9nufAzOKMRDTqTZgkq3TW-H4GJqdyqTItd4yXvoh87IPDHzwIINdcw_teNODSGT5AVIcljRiKIpY3cnji8wHePKPr1Dm6MVampRUulhGKYPwH79sa2/w400-h300/239475545_2704682873164741_4790195366613844258_n.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: var(--comment-background); clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; text-align: start;">Atop Blanket Hill (below), looking down at the Victory Bell and the Commons. <br /><br />Bill Schroeder stood here, watching the Guard move against 400 protestors chanting around the victory bell, and several thousands students up on the rim, most with books in their hands, as they paused to watch the unfolding drama between classes. The guard marched across the Commons from the buildings in the distance, then up the hill, bayonets drawn and indiscriminately fired tear gas at any and all students in their path. <br /><br /><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlhr9ibzrlFI7xYTi6oS3XPHVXxHdBipj4Ys_bFLkA0XGxFsT_3DWGAPyNYtLRtoi4t808SfQ_QxAaQ9ctXX-lcgKw7cYSt8qoGf8cZQ4jp6L11ChrhpWj5YhE_RdLfuzMgjjzdviJk2lz/s2048/239404400_2704687263164302_1565798125316941838_n.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlhr9ibzrlFI7xYTi6oS3XPHVXxHdBipj4Ys_bFLkA0XGxFsT_3DWGAPyNYtLRtoi4t808SfQ_QxAaQ9ctXX-lcgKw7cYSt8qoGf8cZQ4jp6L11ChrhpWj5YhE_RdLfuzMgjjzdviJk2lz/w400-h300/239404400_2704687263164302_1565798125316941838_n.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; text-align: start;"><br /></span></div><br /><div dir="auto" style="background-color: var(--comment-background); text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: var(--comment-background);"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: var(--comment-background);"><br /></div></div></span></div></div></div></div><div class="q9uorilb sf5mxxl7 pgctjfs5" style="background-color: white; display: inline-block; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;"><div class="no6464jc pedkr2u6" style="margin-left: 11px; opacity: 1;"><span class="tojvnm2t a6sixzi8 abs2jz4q a8s20v7p t1p8iaqh k5wvi7nf q3lfd5jv pk4s997a bipmatt0 cebpdrjk qowsmv63 owwhemhu dp1hu0rb dhp61c6y iyyx5f41" style="align-items: inherit; align-self: inherit; display: inherit; flex-direction: inherit; flex: inherit; height: inherit; max-height: inherit; max-width: inherit; min-height: inherit; min-width: inherit; place-content: inherit; width: inherit;"><div aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="menu" aria-label="Edit or delete this" class="oajrlxb2 gs1a9yip g5ia77u1 mtkw9kbi tlpljxtp qensuy8j ppp5ayq2 goun2846 ccm00jje s44p3ltw mk2mc5f4 rt8b4zig n8ej3o3l agehan2d sk4xxmp2 rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 pq6dq46d mg4g778l btwxx1t3 pfnyh3mw p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x tgvbjcpo hpfvmrgz jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso l9j0dhe7 i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of du4w35lb lzcic4wl abiwlrkh p8dawk7l dwo3fsh8 pzggbiyp pkj7ub1o bqnlxs5p kkg9azqs c24pa1uk ln9iyx3p fe6kdd0r ar1oviwq l10q8mi9 sq40qgkc s8quxz6p pdjglbur" role="button" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; align-items: stretch; appearance: none; background-color: transparent; border-bottom-color: var(--always-dark-overlay); border-left-color: var(--always-dark-overlay); border-right-color: var(--always-dark-overlay); border-style: solid; border-top-color: var(--always-dark-overlay); border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: row; flex-shrink: 0; list-style: none; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: none; vertical-align: bottom; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><i class="hu5pjgll m6k467ps" data-visualcompletion="css-img" style="background-image: url("https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v3/yc/r/2s8IGhA0x0G.png"); background-position: -72px -176px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 190px 212px; display: inline-block; filter: var(--filter-secondary-icon); height: 16px; vertical-align: -0.25em; width: 16px;"></i><div class="s45kfl79 emlxlaya bkmhp75w spb7xbtv i09qtzwb n7fi1qx3 b5wmifdl hzruof5a pmk7jnqg j9ispegn kr520xx4 c5ndavph art1omkt ot9fgl3s" data-visualcompletion="ignore" style="border-radius: 50%; inset: -8px; opacity: 0; pointer-events: none; position: absolute; transition-duration: var(--fds-duration-extra-extra-short-out); transition-property: opacity; transition-timing-function: var(--fds-animation-fade-out);"></div></div></span></div></div></div><div class="j83agx80 bvz0fpym c1et5uql" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; display: flex; font-size: 12px; max-width: calc(100% - 26px); overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: left; white-space: normal;"><div class="_680y" style="display: inline-flex; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 404.02px;"><div class="_6cuy" style="flex: 1 1 auto; min-width: 0px; width: 404.02px;"><div class="e72ty7fz qlfml3jp inkptoze qmr60zad q9uorilb tvmbv18p d2edcug0 ni8dbmo4 stjgntxs l9j0dhe7 sf5mxxl7 kvgmc6g5" style="border-radius: 18px; display: inline-block; margin-bottom: 4px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 100%; overflow: hidden; position: relative; vertical-align: middle;"></div></div></div></div></div><span style="background-color: white;"><br />
</span></span></div></div>Derf Backderfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650799247027927063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530457878876952867.post-86478201080889077042021-07-25T13:16:00.007-04:002021-07-27T14:08:19.323-04:00KENT STATE wins an Eisner!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit3DVxJK3zMM7exMynzZRuIQF8umsN1ENvImt17BC0tmyVvsYLP8qUxcp40vjJabTiUFXvVFwaLeCVvBdQ5sMyy6B1w3eC78TmFQUWlfuYn74Jg0o26rZqleBPbcUkj4OqCA8LHi6rHyPO/s958/Screen+Shot+2021-07-25+at+12.47.27+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="913" data-original-width="958" height="381" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit3DVxJK3zMM7exMynzZRuIQF8umsN1ENvImt17BC0tmyVvsYLP8qUxcp40vjJabTiUFXvVFwaLeCVvBdQ5sMyy6B1w3eC78TmFQUWlfuYn74Jg0o26rZqleBPbcUkj4OqCA8LHi6rHyPO/w400-h381/Screen+Shot+2021-07-25+at+12.47.27+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">KENT STATE won an Eisner Award, for Best Reality-based Book. This is the big one, and I'm over the moon about it.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">Disclosure: that's not the actual trophy. Haven't received it yet. I'm using an old Eisner here as a prop. Full disclosure: I fell asleep! It was a remote ceremony because of the plague, Pacific Time, and I dozed off and awoke with a start at 2 am. Only then did I see the first congratulatory texts. Classic. My big moment and zzzzzz.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">Honestly, my first reaction was relief. I can’t make a better book than this one. It was a daunting challenge that took four hard years and left me completely spent. I wanted this win bad, I freely admit. </div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;">This Eisner, yeah, this one is special. As fond as I am of my TRASHED Eisner, for Best Lettering— In fact, I’m using that Eisner as a prop, since obviously, I won’t get the 2021 trophy for a bit— </span><span style="background-color: white;">THIS Eisner is in one of the major categories, one of the big boys, the award FUN HOME and MARCH won, and it was a KILLER list of nominees. Absolutely brutal. Stone-cold classics all:
</span><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: left; white-space: normal;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b><a href="https://bookshop.org/books/big-black-stand-at-attica/9781684154791" target="_blank"><i>Big Black: Stand at Attica</i> </a></b></span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;">by Frank "Big Black" Smith, Jared Reinmuth, and Améziane (Archaia/BOOM!)</span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: left; white-space: normal;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b><a href="https://bookshop.org/books/dragon-hoops/9781626720794" target="_blank"><i>Dragon Hoops</i> </a></b></span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;">by Gene Luen Yang </span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;">(</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">First Second/Macmillan)</span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: left; white-space: normal;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="https://bookshop.org/books/invisible-differences/9781620107669" target="_blank"><b><i>Invisible Differences: A Story of Asperger's, Adulting, and Living a Life in Full Color</i></b> </a></span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;">by Mme Caroline and Julie Dachez, translation by Edward Gauvin </span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;">(Oni Press)</span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: left; white-space: normal;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b><a href="https://bookshop.org/books/paying-the-land/9781627799034" target="_blank"><i>Paying the Land</i> </a></b></span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;">by Joe Sacco </span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;">(Metropolitan/Henry Holt)</span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: left; white-space: normal;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b><a href="https://bookshop.org/books/year-of-the-rabbit/9781770463769" target="_blank"><i>Year of the Rabbit</i> </a></b></span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;">by Tian Veasna, translation by Helge Dascher </span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;">(Drawn & Quarterly)</span></div></div><span style="background-color: white;">
</span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To win against such formidable competition, with a book that has been an obsession and a labor of love for a long time, is beyond gratifying. </span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; text-align: justify;">It’s a bit anticlimactic, too. I’m typing this on my couch, instead of whooping it up at Comicon. You only get so many of these moments in life, and this cursed plague has snatched this one away, as it has stolen so much else. It is what it is. My first Eisner Award win was such an amazing experience. I just basked in it. I’m thankful I had that experience, because I’m thinking of it now.</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: 15px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi497yoxY8-OvCywojew4Z_uu_-kKsG6Pr1UrfwSuiAccRPCcXY98wYz0tG1m_vUPl9m0AIX8U_KyGQX8_8VwOH3rnTguuh6bmRZJQ-EPPMqpctzkNfHrYklVRFpApO6gjnpuT5G-tbe4mN/s1011/13737576_1593885560911150_3313967464657468702_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="1011" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi497yoxY8-OvCywojew4Z_uu_-kKsG6Pr1UrfwSuiAccRPCcXY98wYz0tG1m_vUPl9m0AIX8U_KyGQX8_8VwOH3rnTguuh6bmRZJQ-EPPMqpctzkNfHrYklVRFpApO6gjnpuT5G-tbe4mN/w400-h299/13737576_1593885560911150_3313967464657468702_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-size: 15px;"><br /></span><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Above: giving my acceptance speech at the 2016 Eisner Awards ceremony.</span></i></b></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’d like to thank my beloved editor Charlie Kochman, who enthusiastically jumped on this project the moment I pitched it. Pam Notarantonio provided beautiful art direction. Chad Beckerman did the color on the cover, which I love. Maya Bradford, my publicist, faced daunting challenges in the weirdest year of book promotion ever. And all my colleagues at Abrams who made this book better, through wave after wave of copyediting and fact checking, to last minute tinkers and tweaks. I am SO grateful to you all.</span></div></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">My lovely wife Sheryl played a crucial role, first as a “comics widow” who gamely held the house together during that final year of me locked in my studio for long hours. She also whipped the footnotes into shape. How many comics authors can boast of a Pulitzer winner serving as a personal copy editor? Sheryl cried when she read the first draft. I knew I was onto something at that moment. </div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; text-align: justify;">I’d like to especially thank the Students of 1970. Thank you for sharing your stories with such honesty. Thank you for so enthusiastically embracing this project. You are an inspiration. You were in 1970, for courageously standing up to forces of the state, and paying a bitter price for doing so. You’re still an inspiration, looking back on decades of activism and productive lives well lived. </div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid9IQ_MmhIrfs_FyoO5WnUCXM4QFa80GiL5TnKqEkZysz1_M8L3T8RSeyFxpKpfOFWD7fv0omjnNKIEH5qtUIqqSxiFYd9evTRgH3irRKTMWcF5cdyFli9s_3MyVSOsbOnQ1J1JQgyJPL8/s797/Screen+Shot+2021-07-25+at+1.28.19+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 15px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="528" data-original-width="797" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid9IQ_MmhIrfs_FyoO5WnUCXM4QFa80GiL5TnKqEkZysz1_M8L3T8RSeyFxpKpfOFWD7fv0omjnNKIEH5qtUIqqSxiFYd9evTRgH3irRKTMWcF5cdyFli9s_3MyVSOsbOnQ1J1JQgyJPL8/w400-h265/Screen+Shot+2021-07-25+at+1.28.19+PM.png" width="400" /></a><span style="font-size: 15px;">
</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><b>Above: Canfora (L) in 1970, behind the tree that took the bullet meant for him, </b></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><b>and the Alan I knew (R).</b></i></span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">Last Fall, we lost longtime activist Alan Canfora, one of the nine students who were shot and wounded on that fateful day. Alan could be a tough customer, and did not suffer fools. He was an invaluable resource and I’m deeply in his debt. Honestly, I have no idea what he thought of the book! I sent him a copy, but his health was failing and I never heard back. What an indomitable force he was, and we are lesser for his passing. </div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; text-align: justify;">Most of all, I’d like to thank Bill, Sandy, Allison and Jeff, murdered on May 4, 1970. This is their story, and I felt them nearby throughout the four years it took to make this book. Getting to “know” them, through their friends and classmates, was a joy and an honor. Jeff, in particular, was always at my elbow. He was a young guy looking for his path in life and having a great time while doing so, much as I was at that age. I feel him now, as I write this. </div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVl4TUj8g1icRHM4zvY9KrhTpoxo846vBBxouhK4FFKqhryFx-bklI0TF5FciqHXhlTKs8Q3DGom3WvlY_tLLALhOcKLYa6Lw5R5t_K2E3tHGeORqu6QVWf3pfH2f4x67cewl_ZlVDzMhY/s647/Jeff-car.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 15px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="647" data-original-width="640" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVl4TUj8g1icRHM4zvY9KrhTpoxo846vBBxouhK4FFKqhryFx-bklI0TF5FciqHXhlTKs8Q3DGom3WvlY_tLLALhOcKLYa6Lw5R5t_K2E3tHGeORqu6QVWf3pfH2f4x67cewl_ZlVDzMhY/w396-h400/Jeff-car.jpeg" width="396" /></a><span style="font-size: 15px;">
</span><b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Above: a newly-surfaced photo of Jeff, a week before he was murdered on May 4.</span></i></b></div><br /><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And finally, this one is for you, Mom. As many of you know, I lost her last Fall to Covid. One of my favorite memories of her was when my 4th grade teacher was fed up with me drawing in class during her lessons. She’d take away my notebook. I’d draw on my desk. She’d scold me for drawing on my desk. I’d draw on my pants! Finally, she summoned my mother to discuss this problem. After a long monologue detailing my crimes, with me slumped glumly in a chair, my mother shrugged. “So? Let him draw. He’s still listening.” My teacher could only stammer in disbelief. My mother would have none of it. She knew that drawing comics was like breathing or eating to me. </span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">“Just let him draw.”</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Thanks for always letting me draw, Ma. I miss you.</div></div><p><br /></p>Derf Backderfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650799247027927063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530457878876952867.post-17345662856275781822021-07-09T14:32:00.003-04:002021-07-12T09:25:53.804-04:00A "politicized" Captain America? Sorry, rightwingers, this is nothing new.<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Here's a recent Twitter thread that I'm archiving here.<br /><br /></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So out of nowhere, FoxNews had a segment on the latest storyline in <i>Captain America</i>, which they apparently find too "woke."</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">They wheeled in some unknown rightwing "comedian," whose name I have already forgotten and is not worth looking up, as a guest to comment on this outrage. Like all rightwing comedians, he was completely unfunny, and launched into an extended rant about how the diabolical Libs at Marvel have changed HIS Capt. America into something unrecognizable with this "recent politicization." Gone is our patriotic ass-kicker and in his place is a lefty do-gooder.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;">“It’s so sad when Captain America is like Captain Woke or Captain Propaganda… I’m done with Captain America. He’s dead!"
Then conservo-bore superdude actor Dean Cain jumped in, babbled something about "kissing the dirt" every time he returned to American soil, babbled some more about Cap, then admitted he hadn't read the new storyline and was only recounting what he heard on FoxNews. Needless to say, Twitter was not kind.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixg7zAwEOOG72jgl39GKZqKuWg7f8s6WJzxJxFEr49LjvzSt0ZQOYonuzMfk4XutCNzDATeiXY7htRL5H29C9bpIvfEDD6CS0q9UmprRY7_Td91WFYTiLpqDG-cSSmIWyRkgrXkRZquNDH/s900/E5soLunXwAI6T8m.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="593" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixg7zAwEOOG72jgl39GKZqKuWg7f8s6WJzxJxFEr49LjvzSt0ZQOYonuzMfk4XutCNzDATeiXY7htRL5H29C9bpIvfEDD6CS0q9UmprRY7_Td91WFYTiLpqDG-cSSmIWyRkgrXkRZquNDH/w264-h400/E5soLunXwAI6T8m.jpeg" width="264" /></a></div><br />
The big problem here is that Cap has ALWAYS been political. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is a character who PUNCHED HITLER IN THE FACE on the cover of his debut issue in 1941... 80 FRIGGIN' YEARS AGO!!</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;">
In March 1941, when Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created this cover, America was not yet at war with Germany. Pearl Harbor was nine months away and the country was divided over whether to go to war or stay out. In fact, there was a sizable number of Nazi sympathizers here in the US who greatly admired Hitler and Nazism. </span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.95)" style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.5px; text-align: left;">The </span>German American Bund held big rallies in New York City (you've no doubt seen <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq9yst4W-6c"><b>the film footage</b></a>). Charles Lindbergh and Henry Ford were both great admirers, and, history has revealed, collaborators of Adolf (and were also both raging antisemites and white supremacists). <br /><br />So the stunning cover of Cap #1 was, in fact, a powerful political cartoon by a pair of Jewish kids from New York, maybe THE most influential political cartoon of WW2... and it was aimed at America's youth!<br /><br />It's obvious neither of these FoxNews nitwits know shit about Cap's history. But I do.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSzpuKisJJua0hrpuKCH_wLFxPszrannQHYcWZ1iXl3L6jpiPK9uAgM6TUnqEfVBBHMy5HkB-8hVAW89Mwm2nFAT4l7sjoh1AVAN8-LejXF6h3yc1CKvIoHfhPsVEtPZ8CR4tFpJ0VqsXJ/s592/E5spnBmXEAIGdLY.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="592" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSzpuKisJJua0hrpuKCH_wLFxPszrannQHYcWZ1iXl3L6jpiPK9uAgM6TUnqEfVBBHMy5HkB-8hVAW89Mwm2nFAT4l7sjoh1AVAN8-LejXF6h3yc1CKvIoHfhPsVEtPZ8CR4tFpJ0VqsXJ/s320/E5spnBmXEAIGdLY.jpeg" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.008); color: #0f1419; text-align: start; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here's the first issue I read (above), when I was 10 in 1970. In it Cap goes on TV to preach tolerance, and is attacked by Nazi Baron Zemo's supergoons in an attempt to silence him. Note also the use of "Up Against the Wall!" as the title, the favorite battlecry of leftist protestors in 1970.
Yeah, nothing political there, 51 years ago.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;">In reality, almost every issue of Cap from 1969 to 1975 dealt with some political issue. Stan was getting heat from the college audiences to which he often spoke </span><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); white-space: pre-wrap;">(See </span><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/612238/true-believer-the-rise-and-fall-of-stan-lee-by-abraham-riesman/"><b>Abraham </b></a></span><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/612238/true-believer-the-rise-and-fall-of-stan-lee-by-abraham-riesman/"><b>Riesman's Stan Lee biography</b></a> for details). Stan chose Cap as the title to make "relevant," a full year before DC did so to <i>Green Lantern/ Green Arrow</i>, to much greater acclaim. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03);"><span style="color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03);">
<span style="color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtlh3P7iHYU-C59ysY-lcYLCBv_TQWRs11hVqkGb6bd-HWJCmEGLtZs4ZlW2nqTsokEkK8dWvBInpTgtmFhnbs10-LVEhnR1KCzTbTeu1Lyzz6EK6868dU_5ijry1dphPQygXbwZH6pIM-/s680/E5sp0pbXMAI47Ca.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="453" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtlh3P7iHYU-C59ysY-lcYLCBv_TQWRs11hVqkGb6bd-HWJCmEGLtZs4ZlW2nqTsokEkK8dWvBInpTgtmFhnbs10-LVEhnR1KCzTbTeu1Lyzz6EK6868dU_5ijry1dphPQygXbwZH6pIM-/w266-h400/E5sp0pbXMAI47Ca.jpeg" width="266" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">Need more proof? Here's (above) the 2nd Cap I bought (in a Whitman back-issue 3-pack!), where Cap wades into a campus protest. This issue is from 1969, when the nation teetered on mass insurrection and near civil war.</div></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03);"><span style="color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03);"><span style="color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijgapcnxewwqBYJ-KRGK5PYMHfsCMzQkdbYVpP2lckz1v7j-IMwJ8iw2VXpl-0LArCNqpRG8Ex8dx95OZDBKAvyLqPA9U1oxEU9wDErk0zWWUt92ndOi-I7fonTWf9L2QwtXcAQSME-ahb/s900/E5sqK_yXoAA_8BC.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="585" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijgapcnxewwqBYJ-KRGK5PYMHfsCMzQkdbYVpP2lckz1v7j-IMwJ8iw2VXpl-0LArCNqpRG8Ex8dx95OZDBKAvyLqPA9U1oxEU9wDErk0zWWUt92ndOi-I7fonTWf9L2QwtXcAQSME-ahb/w260-h400/E5sqK_yXoAA_8BC.jpeg" width="260" /></a></div><br />
</span></span><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><span style="color: #0f1419;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit; white-space: inherit;">The 3rd issue of Cap I bought featured a giant robot who tried to demolish NYC's ghetto (Harlem or the South Bronx) to "free the oppressed." He is cheered on by African-American residents of the slum. Turns out was all a diabolical scheme by AIM to start a race war. Apparently, AIM later formed the Boogaloo Boys, who've been trying to do the same at BLM uprisings recently!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit; white-space: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilrMhQgxSYadCy28CUv9POap3fFEysvbOyjFOpfxuqHWMHPS33GMJz_u781t8yL050d-6QHtd78XNQ7ZZJlz0WU5uqbkbDaKj2ljAzuwH3cgp-AWHWv7bSNG8t8nLjRuX-vjrbfzNgjY2S/s680/E5sq864WQAEANTm.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="459" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilrMhQgxSYadCy28CUv9POap3fFEysvbOyjFOpfxuqHWMHPS33GMJz_u781t8yL050d-6QHtd78XNQ7ZZJlz0WU5uqbkbDaKj2ljAzuwH3cgp-AWHWv7bSNG8t8nLjRuX-vjrbfzNgjY2S/w270-h400/E5sq864WQAEANTm.jpeg" width="270" /></a></div><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.004); text-align: start;">
Horrors! Here's all kind of "woke" dialogue, FoxNews! From 50 years ago.</span></div></span></span></span><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.004); color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;">
Shall I go on? Oh, why not...</span></span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.004); color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.004); color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBpDCUfRc8-gZ1K6WParBTCmeIsmj1j6tTAjasCarJoXfu-3vt5NwiNpV7uXYNQgLJ78hb-z4G_HAKz4jy6ALPXe_jhv0Bj-kGGhulZwq7fbDEphImtRHsD9TFT7X0xZ0E4O_buOhQrdBv/s680/E5srOFnWEAostQY.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="467" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBpDCUfRc8-gZ1K6WParBTCmeIsmj1j6tTAjasCarJoXfu-3vt5NwiNpV7uXYNQgLJ78hb-z4G_HAKz4jy6ALPXe_jhv0Bj-kGGhulZwq7fbDEphImtRHsD9TFT7X0xZ0E4O_buOhQrdBv/s320/E5srOFnWEAostQY.jpeg" /></a></div><br />
</span><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><span style="white-space: inherit;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.01); color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;">A few issues later, Leila Taylor (above) is introduced. She's described as a "militant," and is obviously a Black Panther. Not exactly an uncontroversial storyline in 1972, at the height of the bloody FBI war on black nationalism.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.01); color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8ChgCu3E4oF-kh3zJaoYN-Th-FgUCH188h1ToxFeiUBIjfefpeKYyUxKZNhrEbvJ1zYRQpKJYPRuVXM7w-G-yPw8bwiaE8cjMRBVd9ZQKvUxB1JnkRxQ8UMVMY5UMdV01433e4Zbbx_VN/s680/E5ssY0UXwAQq3LR.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="457" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8ChgCu3E4oF-kh3zJaoYN-Th-FgUCH188h1ToxFeiUBIjfefpeKYyUxKZNhrEbvJ1zYRQpKJYPRuVXM7w-G-yPw8bwiaE8cjMRBVd9ZQKvUxB1JnkRxQ8UMVMY5UMdV01433e4Zbbx_VN/w269-h400/E5ssY0UXwAQq3LR.jpeg" width="269" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.01); color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span></span><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.004); color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then in #143, Cap finds himself in the middle of a fullblown black uprising, with a club-wielding African-american throng facing off against NYPD. Turns out it's all a plot by the Red Skull, yet another Nazi. This story is a real head-shaker, but yeah, no politics here.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.004); color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.004); color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfhpK3LT8aOqul8p2oWDEjzrCpr1fRq88Ua-TTh3x3uqUwNDEitribD5vsQlSW73fUSZJlJ8yP_FA74uYMNG9rOp0hDrGuMkAOauJw6tGwli9xTuIQHEEmSFHyddPbH8y6COd7ruXmS3Bm/s680/E5s0w3XXwAAlyRl.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="459" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfhpK3LT8aOqul8p2oWDEjzrCpr1fRq88Ua-TTh3x3uqUwNDEitribD5vsQlSW73fUSZJlJ8yP_FA74uYMNG9rOp0hDrGuMkAOauJw6tGwli9xTuIQHEEmSFHyddPbH8y6COd7ruXmS3Bm/w270-h400/E5s0w3XXwAAlyRl.jpeg" width="270" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span color="inherit" style="background-color: white; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit; white-space: inherit;">Then there's THIS storyline from 1972 (above)! The real Cap faces off against the commie-hating Cap of the 1950s (the real Cap was frozen in ice, remember? Even amateur Marvel fans who only watch the films know THAT). Fake Cap is revealed as a far-right, white-supremacist creep! Let's call him Capt. MAGA. </span></div></span></span></div></div><p></p><div class="css-1dbjc4n" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 0; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-901oao r-18jsvk2 r-37j5jr r-a023e6 r-16dba41 r-rjixqe r-bcqeeo r-bnwqim r-qvutc0" dir="auto" id="id__7d2c9bz16do" lang="en" style="background-color: white; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" color="inherit" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #0f1419; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit; white-space: inherit;">What do y'all think of THIS one, FoxNews?? </span>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #0f1419; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit; text-align: right; white-space: inherit;"><br /></div></span></span></div><div class="css-901oao r-18jsvk2 r-37j5jr r-a023e6 r-16dba41 r-rjixqe r-bcqeeo r-bnwqim r-qvutc0" dir="auto" id="id__7d2c9bz16do" lang="en" style="background-color: white; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWhGOVXW3yum_pOys2jkX7fhQemvJKTHldQCI48UwgBHDfaf2kxaskaNMqdQI7FzLkJkZfUYpBBHBB9p5LgPRUgOSbTkV3N1M8J29dvs5e-Tx7Ce0lgwW9NBQDB-sRhzEMosDK_EYFRXj5/s599/cap78.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="412" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWhGOVXW3yum_pOys2jkX7fhQemvJKTHldQCI48UwgBHDfaf2kxaskaNMqdQI7FzLkJkZfUYpBBHBB9p5LgPRUgOSbTkV3N1M8J29dvs5e-Tx7Ce0lgwW9NBQDB-sRhzEMosDK_EYFRXj5/w275-h400/cap78.jpeg" width="275" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="color: #0f1419; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Let's jump back to 1954 (above) and the Cap that had to be retrofitted into the Seventies character history. In the Fifties, he apparently joined up with Joe McCarthy and Roy Coen and became a rightwing avenger. FoxNews WOULD approve of this era, but it was certainly a political one, further blowing holes in their current complaint. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></span></div><div class="css-901oao r-18jsvk2 r-37j5jr r-a023e6 r-16dba41 r-rjixqe r-bcqeeo r-bnwqim r-qvutc0" dir="auto" id="id__7d2c9bz16do" lang="en" style="background-color: white; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" color="inherit" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: inherit;"><span style="font-family: arial;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8IGEnAfgqArgF4pxv7IKDrJRppfiXmLqHnZ639eCxmZfgKEUe_QOU_S7DdZKsNcPV2muvA4MMiqcj3Q0-SqPPaRmj1zIwRW0SHzlhY3ZqrXaqACTgZDGMsw5yDWnuqEwLWqLElNJMngLd/s680/E5stAZYXoAUZDud.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="465" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8IGEnAfgqArgF4pxv7IKDrJRppfiXmLqHnZ639eCxmZfgKEUe_QOU_S7DdZKsNcPV2muvA4MMiqcj3Q0-SqPPaRmj1zIwRW0SHzlhY3ZqrXaqACTgZDGMsw5yDWnuqEwLWqLElNJMngLd/w274-h400/E5stAZYXoAUZDud.jpeg" width="274" /></a></div><br />
</span></span></div><div class="css-901oao r-18jsvk2 r-37j5jr r-a023e6 r-16dba41 r-rjixqe r-bcqeeo r-bnwqim r-qvutc0" dir="auto" id="id__7d2c9bz16do" lang="en" style="background-color: white; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.008); font-family: arial;">Oh hey, let's not forget in 1974, Cap rejects nationalism and "America first" and throws away his Capt. America identity to become Nomad, the Man Without a Country.</span></div><div class="css-901oao r-18jsvk2 r-37j5jr r-a023e6 r-16dba41 r-rjixqe r-bcqeeo r-bnwqim r-qvutc0" dir="auto" id="id__7d2c9bz16do" lang="en" style="background-color: white; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.008); font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="css-901oao r-18jsvk2 r-37j5jr r-a023e6 r-16dba41 r-rjixqe r-bcqeeo r-bnwqim r-qvutc0" dir="auto" id="id__7d2c9bz16do" lang="en" style="background-color: white; border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu6Sw86WBh8GyYNFaD97-2DUY-oD0ujuXIARLy0ue2SZ4Q5AA7SAvorECKLegUcxvoz6EkkwO_iKq-sBb7retJwvnDVPqC5AARdBSlN2XdjRxwhjVvD9uOACOHj3QezT9RwbqhYNEyFKll/s586/E5st80CWUAMjqSB.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="569" data-original-width="586" height="389" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu6Sw86WBh8GyYNFaD97-2DUY-oD0ujuXIARLy0ue2SZ4Q5AA7SAvorECKLegUcxvoz6EkkwO_iKq-sBb7retJwvnDVPqC5AARdBSlN2XdjRxwhjVvD9uOACOHj3QezT9RwbqhYNEyFKll/w400-h389/E5st80CWUAMjqSB.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><span color="inherit" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.02); font-family: arial; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit; white-space: inherit;">
Haha. Wonder what FoxNews would make of THIS dialogue?</span></div><div class="css-901oao r-18jsvk2 r-37j5jr r-a023e6 r-16dba41 r-rjixqe r-bcqeeo r-bnwqim r-qvutc0" dir="auto" id="id__7d2c9bz16do" lang="en" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span color="inherit" style="font-family: arial; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit; white-space: inherit;"><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.02);"><br /></span></span></div><div class="css-901oao r-18jsvk2 r-37j5jr r-a023e6 r-16dba41 r-rjixqe r-bcqeeo r-bnwqim r-qvutc0" dir="auto" id="id__7d2c9bz16do" lang="en" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span color="inherit" style="font-family: arial; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit; white-space: inherit;"><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.02);"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2OxFqn3mtu-BKhH9DtgMWYEGUHrA2o3WAJoSRloFEdwyHd7W_oflFZn9ltrMrvjCZw56K-OwmgANdL7_lc5ca54MTtkx-IPNTvb6w0JwnN3R9dV29hsGbxRvweEPhiT-UMlM95HXrgWmj/s680/E5suJmpWYAAWN8v.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="494" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2OxFqn3mtu-BKhH9DtgMWYEGUHrA2o3WAJoSRloFEdwyHd7W_oflFZn9ltrMrvjCZw56K-OwmgANdL7_lc5ca54MTtkx-IPNTvb6w0JwnN3R9dV29hsGbxRvweEPhiT-UMlM95HXrgWmj/w290-h400/E5suJmpWYAAWN8v.jpeg" width="290" /></a></div><br />
</span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.02); font-style: inherit;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">And then there's </span><i style="font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">Bicentennial Battles</i><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">, a late Kirby masterpiece, where Jack ruminates on what it means to be an American, in ways FoxNews would NOT approve. You remember Jack Kirby, right, FoxNews? He's the guy who co-created the character back in 1941.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwsWF5pLmWkpEq7hiDDCA4CkyQG8fUhgj9zp_M2kIfqZnw7yA9hc4h4443iH4T-W88q-LzZKqruP7ekctbvvk_go53LhHqQe5gvRZlWM4RvvpYyZN00a3S9gBdz90EMLwLLBaFlDpxoKxx/s680/E5sucx1WUAI9zYT.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="496" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwsWF5pLmWkpEq7hiDDCA4CkyQG8fUhgj9zp_M2kIfqZnw7yA9hc4h4443iH4T-W88q-LzZKqruP7ekctbvvk_go53LhHqQe5gvRZlWM4RvvpYyZN00a3S9gBdz90EMLwLLBaFlDpxoKxx/w291-h400/E5sucx1WUAI9zYT.jpeg" width="291" /></a></div><span color="inherit" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.024); font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit; white-space: inherit;">
GASP! Cap is teaching Critical Race Theory to kid comics readers of 1976! Alert Sean Hannity! Dispatch the Oath-Keepers!</span></div></span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="css-1dbjc4n" style="-webkit-box-align: stretch; -webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; align-items: stretch; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.024); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: column; flex-shrink: 0; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: start; z-index: 0;"><div class="css-901oao r-18jsvk2 r-37j5jr r-a023e6 r-16dba41 r-rjixqe r-bcqeeo r-bnwqim r-qvutc0" dir="auto" id="id__j3e7ii9mq6f" lang="en" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" color="inherit" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: inherit;">
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" color="inherit" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: inherit;">All this is just from MY years of superdude readership. </span><span style="background-color: white;">So outside of 80 FUCKING YEARS of stories, yes, Capt. America has NEVER been politicized.</span></div></span></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">
I hate people who don't know shit about comics.</span></span></div></div><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><br /></span><p></p>Derf Backderfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650799247027927063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530457878876952867.post-26678105349552136552021-07-08T09:41:00.002-04:002021-07-08T11:45:07.618-04:00A fun milestone for KENT STATE<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was informed today that KENT STATE is the top-selling book in the entire 39-year history of Macs Backs, my indie bookstore HQ here in Cleveland that has been handling all my mailorder signed copies. </span></span></p><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Their inventory software only goes to 999, and KENT STATE blew right past that number some time ago. "You flipped the odometer," I was told.</span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In fact, my pals from Macs just picked up 5 boxes of signed copies this morning. If you want one, the order link is below. All come with nifty title page sketches like this one here. With this batch I drew all protestors. Previous batches I drew Guardsmen. If you have a preference, I'm sure Macs can accommodate you.</span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Macs has been a real lifesaver, what with my long book tour going up in a puff of COVID, and all signings and cons cancelled. And I'm happy I could funnel sales their way, during a pretty challenging time for them, too.</span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl py34i1dx gpro0wi8" href="https://www.macsbacks.com/derf-signed-books" rel="nofollow noopener" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: arial;">https://www.macsbacks.com/derf-signed-books</span></a>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.macsbacks.com/derf-signed-books" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="810" data-original-width="1080" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOF96v77xduIOnv8_MALg9u7HIodyLGi9mKjtqN7clPHntf0pZhc55FpKE_YPCy4eK8oiJc0nmdXb4fbIfYhlnwJ70POg3MZyDjOSFYLteTtA69zCn8uobTlhNHKkfYWSKPkyDxiTgH8s_/w400-h300/image.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />
</div></div>Derf Backderfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650799247027927063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530457878876952867.post-64187734712557961812021-07-07T16:12:00.007-04:002021-07-08T09:48:45.701-04:00Kent State and Comics, a look back. Part 3<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjwE9g4kQGfQl038YSYr1O_U4Yv5QJtgtozgvB_IpyWsaZsp-4kO_D8qy_P7jbuMVvDZ13kk34eKMsvfpYw71GVwqFHjCtLRUjlXsdkVxNXfq5MYl9CAJPxblsI5fkkz1pbZHRoTGo5uwt/s2048/NatLamp.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1445" data-original-width="2048" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjwE9g4kQGfQl038YSYr1O_U4Yv5QJtgtozgvB_IpyWsaZsp-4kO_D8qy_P7jbuMVvDZ13kk34eKMsvfpYw71GVwqFHjCtLRUjlXsdkVxNXfq5MYl9CAJPxblsI5fkkz1pbZHRoTGo5uwt/w400-h283/NatLamp.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Of all the political cartoons about the Kent State Massacre that I've found, this one (above) is head and shoulders above the rest. It's from <i>National Lampoon</i>, the great satire mag of the Seventies, October 1973. It appeared just three years after the events of May 4, 1970, and when the pitched political battles over the shootings were still being hotly contested. The indicted 25 students (and one faculty member) had their cases abandoned by state prosecutors in late 1971. The six Guardsmen who the FBI identified as shooting into the crowd of students would be indicted and put on trial in 1974, and were quickly exonerated when charges were thrown out of court. So this satire falls right in the middle of all this.<br /><br />It's not terribly well drawn, but is brutally hilarious. It was conceived by writers Marc Rubin and Chris Miller (who later co-wrote <i>Animal House)</i> and drawn by Francis Hollidge, a pseudonym of veteran comics artist Frank Springer. Frank took over for Jim Steranko on Marvel's <i>Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD. </i></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Guess Frank felt he needed to use a fake name, to avoid trouble.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><br /></i><br />The Kent State piece is a comic book ad that spoofs the cheap Army Playsets that were always advertised in comic books. There were sets for World War 2, the Revolutionary War, the Roman legion, etc. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaLaie63w1riV_ECeVFD1IIGV4CTsJ7Mytt6gAXH066CyihN3GMN1xf1KUf3eIOW4lT_rER9Us-xyQvsq7eBKRvBrqD2O84CBa1fgHEt3s13wKp6s1-KO32MFrxFqFsbsKvARAyZxTn1B0/s691/3f5ee6260c96e40b0be161bf9fe4bbc1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="458" data-original-width="691" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaLaie63w1riV_ECeVFD1IIGV4CTsJ7Mytt6gAXH066CyihN3GMN1xf1KUf3eIOW4lT_rER9Us-xyQvsq7eBKRvBrqD2O84CBa1fgHEt3s13wKp6s1-KO32MFrxFqFsbsKvARAyZxTn1B0/s320/3f5ee6260c96e40b0be161bf9fe4bbc1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">The Kent State ad ran </span><span style="font-family: arial;">on the inside cover of a larger spoof comic book, </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>G. Gordon Liddy, Agent of CREEP, </i>a highlight of </span><span style="font-family: arial;">this </span><span style="font-family: arial;">issue of</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial;">NatLamp. </i><span style="font-family: arial;">CREEP was Nixon's infamous Committee to Re-elect the President... and creeps they were, being responsible for a long list of illegal "dirty tricks," as well as the bungled Watergate break-in, which was blowing up in 1973 and would bring down Nixon less than a year later. That operation was led by Liddy, who was uncooperative and unrepentant. He was sentenced to 20 years (commuted by Jimmy Carter, for some reason). he was released after 4 1/2 years in the pen, the last of the seven convicted Watergate conspirators to be freed.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI6eyhuN4g1-TBEtEHeTWpge1eLtjKDI2XXE7nlMKy9Jcdh86WJGDuzB0YK_V9lcG3aGebDub7s62F3twob4iiCm_VuDIj9Fjh1O6wlmP3KgN1bQJrWdV4xmHJL2cUNor7HWgbFI0r5B1D/s2048/AgentCREEP.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1501" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI6eyhuN4g1-TBEtEHeTWpge1eLtjKDI2XXE7nlMKy9Jcdh86WJGDuzB0YK_V9lcG3aGebDub7s62F3twob4iiCm_VuDIj9Fjh1O6wlmP3KgN1bQJrWdV4xmHJL2cUNor7HWgbFI0r5B1D/w294-h400/AgentCREEP.jpeg" width="294" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The best part of the satire is the Kent State ad. That one packs a wallop! So much so, I've never shared it on social media. Too many of the Students of 1970 follow me there. I think this piece would hit WAY to close to home for them, but... man!... as a political cartoon, it's absolutely great.</span></div></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><br /> <p></p>Derf Backderfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650799247027927063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530457878876952867.post-18365837966405534832021-07-06T14:09:00.007-04:002021-07-08T10:09:42.617-04:00A Kent State artifact, a yearbook like no other<p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This is a copy of the 1971 Kent State yearbook, </span><i style="font-family: arial;">The Chestnut Burr. </i><span style="font-family: arial;">It's the edition that documents the events of May 4, 1970. A crucial piece of source material for me.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">It's a remarkable book, and the only university publication that documented the tragedy. Immediately after the massacre, the university was closed, and all students were ordered to be off campus (and, in fact, across the city limits!) by 5 pm or face arrest. This order also closed the <i>Daily Kent Stater,</i> the school newspaper, which had been been closely following the escalating protests at Kent. Since the <i>Stater</i> only published Tuesday through Friday, it didn't publish a word of its reporting on the unrest, which began Friday afternoon. <br /><br />As a result, all the on-the-ground reporting, all the incredible photos, had no place to be published! The Ohio governor effectively muzzled The<i> Kent Stater.</i> Some of the photos found their way to mainstream publications, be it the wire services or magazines like <i>Life</i> and <i>Time, </i>but much of it would have never seen the light of day, if not for the yearbook.</div></span><br /><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9zRKezqL8iv37rpv7W2bjm4RcGiaedNKOUbWSAk_9V2afyXCtQAx50shfDjhqaIEH-qta9-WpJPEH7kBGapUE9czQhQIj-3_KmThOV2DxAtBT5b2kpD1TVb_F95YcNit1GNQzxvf5PD3c/s2048/fullsizeoutput_19f6.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1154" data-original-width="2048" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9zRKezqL8iv37rpv7W2bjm4RcGiaedNKOUbWSAk_9V2afyXCtQAx50shfDjhqaIEH-qta9-WpJPEH7kBGapUE9czQhQIj-3_KmThOV2DxAtBT5b2kpD1TVb_F95YcNit1GNQzxvf5PD3c/w400-h225/fullsizeoutput_19f6.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Above: the Guard moves on students, driving them up Blanket Hill, even though most weren't protestors at all, merely kids on their way to and from class who stopped to watch. This contingent of soldiers are the ones who inexplicably opened fire. Note the man in the bottom right, following the Guard as they move up Blanket Hill and taking photos. That is the student FBI informer, Terry Norman, whose full role on that day is still unknown.</span></div><p></p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifmeNXnH9WQWUh8oRyL4M0w-IIcinZ-L1fjZXgs1d44L8FLrMg9NTHHELa9-HoT5IBZln_O_TZOGjlCmB7hvCc4ogF2SnuilJOwXIwNY2k0gBsXZUJj_cb7vS_2RzAxZVGYKwnocGnmhzo/s2048/IMG_8838.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifmeNXnH9WQWUh8oRyL4M0w-IIcinZ-L1fjZXgs1d44L8FLrMg9NTHHELa9-HoT5IBZln_O_TZOGjlCmB7hvCc4ogF2SnuilJOwXIwNY2k0gBsXZUJj_cb7vS_2RzAxZVGYKwnocGnmhzo/s320/IMG_8838.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Above: included in the yearbook is a flexidisc, with "The Sounds of May 4." On it are various news reports from that tragic day and the events that preceded it.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjHgaw8EwHgth1RwMpoe8tzL04Wf14NBQ3JZD7yKMeRwopQdvyp8AGhlxcBpEFYIgY7Z0l2QuJpeqHw-2eyEYY3JGWMLKaWSkCjL2Av2iQ0NqgY8DqGo6pJICRbL65hyphenhyphen5r1S2GVmC8EHD9/s2048/fullsizeoutput_19f2.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1169" data-original-width="2048" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjHgaw8EwHgth1RwMpoe8tzL04Wf14NBQ3JZD7yKMeRwopQdvyp8AGhlxcBpEFYIgY7Z0l2QuJpeqHw-2eyEYY3JGWMLKaWSkCjL2Av2iQ0NqgY8DqGo6pJICRbL65hyphenhyphen5r1S2GVmC8EHD9/w400-h229/fullsizeoutput_19f2.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Above: the events of Friday, May 1, that kicked off the conflict on campus. Students burying a copy of the Constitution (left page) is the opening scene in my book. On the right is one of the few photos from the riot on Water Street that night. There just weren't many photogs present, and, of course, no cellphone images or video as we have today. The photo technology of the day made shooting at night, with harsh lighting conditions, and from a distance, damn near impossible. It's hard to understand, for those who didn't shoot photos in the film era, how challenging (and expensive!) that technology was, compared to the super-computer cellphone cameras we all have now.</span></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnDhnM5hBI88yYEzPuFbYX-LCoTMZWaUeMwaJvM3kVVTTl34sD6-Gc-nsZEEUaoYSra3EEAlfwt1YqRL9whCI5opup0kRTw7_bao9awadSkErWmdbTPLr7JITEcKy5SnEL3O1-XZ4uK3oB/s2048/fullsizeoutput_19f3.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1144" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnDhnM5hBI88yYEzPuFbYX-LCoTMZWaUeMwaJvM3kVVTTl34sD6-Gc-nsZEEUaoYSra3EEAlfwt1YqRL9whCI5opup0kRTw7_bao9awadSkErWmdbTPLr7JITEcKy5SnEL3O1-XZ4uK3oB/s320/fullsizeoutput_19f3.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Above: the tense events of May 3, when Ohio Gov. Jim Rhodes arrives on campus and grandstands for his base. His fiery, table-pounding press conference ratcheted paranoia up to a fever pitch.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyWR5NDLK3IgC5FvBnrtFfelXvfG6DHDdTs0rmD0x5NS0J9MlIwkdF-wX7WTCGDUnxJaoAiomumtrD_l6HMardWH7JiqEoLidfOpmQys4vwY_JrN7LTyI7uQ_gsLs-bEg3k_trpNp3e1as/s2048/fullsizeoutput_19f4.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1568" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyWR5NDLK3IgC5FvBnrtFfelXvfG6DHDdTs0rmD0x5NS0J9MlIwkdF-wX7WTCGDUnxJaoAiomumtrD_l6HMardWH7JiqEoLidfOpmQys4vwY_JrN7LTyI7uQ_gsLs-bEg3k_trpNp3e1as/s320/fullsizeoutput_19f4.jpeg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Above: the Guardsman with flowers in his gun barrel, which Allison Krause immortalized, a few minutes after this photo was taken, with "Flowers are better than bullets!"</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis0zUY10ItxLeU360unckO7nz5xH2Xa3D1B8KtpHHRhwwXSr-Aq7AKnT6IYw_F3SZG05vkjp89eNNoZcdUZ4Jywov58_8QaCQaD_nYD3uYRxb_AL1g-54jPqpWc3nVZ3GvvpVFhxf5WPeR/s2048/fullsizeoutput_19f7.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1638" data-original-width="2048" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis0zUY10ItxLeU360unckO7nz5xH2Xa3D1B8KtpHHRhwwXSr-Aq7AKnT6IYw_F3SZG05vkjp89eNNoZcdUZ4Jywov58_8QaCQaD_nYD3uYRxb_AL1g-54jPqpWc3nVZ3GvvpVFhxf5WPeR/w400-h320/fullsizeoutput_19f7.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Above: The grim carnage. Has any other yearbook in American history included such images? I doubt it. Student photog John Filo's iconic photo of Mary Ann Vecchio wailing over Jeff Miller's body (top center) </span><span style="font-family: arial;">won</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">him the Pulitzer Prize. It's curiously downplayed in this layout.</span></div><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM9yr0wIfVrHTR_sK3t3asPKwprmJn13NZTs_TltwenisxRulcFJ-BzHl7P32rVdJiNYerlVxqV37r8pYt8wURnZ9aSyNJ5n7jlJEMI4Kw3ocMbdok2Z7pcHD5N36Y6g_MQT01HzL87CfO/s2048/fullsizeoutput_1a02.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1967" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM9yr0wIfVrHTR_sK3t3asPKwprmJn13NZTs_TltwenisxRulcFJ-BzHl7P32rVdJiNYerlVxqV37r8pYt8wURnZ9aSyNJ5n7jlJEMI4Kw3ocMbdok2Z7pcHD5N36Y6g_MQT01HzL87CfO/s320/fullsizeoutput_1a02.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Above: the understated cover of the yearbook.</span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhei8jIbUkLAF9hsVE-wCcvSkPSxmPtQVRtwZUbHgEt-ZZDAsAyVNg1pYMNVRBeXt3kYMd7upI3gEU1ZuDu3C58JDltTFxTz7DdSn1zzE44LjqQTsnPPLj4GMeF0xkc21zu0boX28vNpBLh/s2048/fullsizeoutput_1a01.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1172" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhei8jIbUkLAF9hsVE-wCcvSkPSxmPtQVRtwZUbHgEt-ZZDAsAyVNg1pYMNVRBeXt3kYMd7upI3gEU1ZuDu3C58JDltTFxTz7DdSn1zzE44LjqQTsnPPLj4GMeF0xkc21zu0boX28vNpBLh/s320/fullsizeoutput_1a01.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Above: the rest of the yearbook offers a positively bizarre contrast of typical college events. Here's a spread on Kent State's rotten 3-7 football team, as if anyone cares.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiMuCWoZiBovGxBL_pIu8oBaco0J7sv_vBPzvis1SciBkHkcGwndTodYqMCBdxbs0kevTHxMBMh6Hzs78MdrXn5FczfDndJyfA9BUpdGNHbaCka_SfQrSD2DFFFfnyITd3h2yp1MNKTlMp/s2048/fullsizeoutput_19f8.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1259" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiMuCWoZiBovGxBL_pIu8oBaco0J7sv_vBPzvis1SciBkHkcGwndTodYqMCBdxbs0kevTHxMBMh6Hzs78MdrXn5FczfDndJyfA9BUpdGNHbaCka_SfQrSD2DFFFfnyITd3h2yp1MNKTlMp/s320/fullsizeoutput_19f8.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Above: even more bizarre are the requisite photos of Greek life. Here the ladies of Delta Zeta beam</span> <span style="font-family: arial;">for the camera, as if the massacre documented a few dozen pages previous hadn't happened at all.</span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5f1A79qB0g3rSBjkh8ndU8mq4HTcQkzYUR7b-cm0gwHkqD2qYsPBSww-Yvu9J6x8gtzHQ281UkLM7Ae2C54YK7-JMUq7SkKmQuQZ1nMgNKf98wrXSQlSkCsEAFMbUa5JCRUDOMqhZgLjk/s2048/fullsizeoutput_19ff.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1164" data-original-width="2048" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5f1A79qB0g3rSBjkh8ndU8mq4HTcQkzYUR7b-cm0gwHkqD2qYsPBSww-Yvu9J6x8gtzHQ281UkLM7Ae2C54YK7-JMUq7SkKmQuQZ1nMgNKf98wrXSQlSkCsEAFMbUa5JCRUDOMqhZgLjk/w400-h228/fullsizeoutput_19ff.jpeg" width="400" /></a><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Above: the men of Phi Gamma Delta, posing proudly in their frathouse rec room, with their bar glasses neatly displayed, is a real eye-roller, too. At least they had the sense to not pose hoisting full beer mugs!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7kIjzMkY87WptBakliiJDvhcXFcC1IQnjhPhEQpNcCXd_xMRH4uzzRRMNqVUmoHNJ1ahBm3WXzGnDwboLlhqWRYYF6p1TqR5Y5YHrkD7GIddN1lO1KW1DM5AFSoPUGjHaErxeAycCbQ6Y/s2048/fullsizeoutput_1a00.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1852" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7kIjzMkY87WptBakliiJDvhcXFcC1IQnjhPhEQpNcCXd_xMRH4uzzRRMNqVUmoHNJ1ahBm3WXzGnDwboLlhqWRYYF6p1TqR5Y5YHrkD7GIddN1lO1KW1DM5AFSoPUGjHaErxeAycCbQ6Y/s320/fullsizeoutput_1a00.jpeg" width="320" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Above: the yearbook ends with a reprint of the complete investigative report that ran in the <i>Akron Beacon Journal</i> three weeks after the massacre. The <i>ABJ</i> won a Pulitzer prize for its breaking news coverage of May 4. <br /><br />This special report was produced by a Knight-Ridder Newspapers team working out of the <i>Beacon</i> newsroom. Knight-Ridder was the parent company of the <i>ABJ, </i>Akron press baron John Knight being the owner of both the <i>ABJ </i>and of Knight-Ridder. The team was mostly reporters and editors from the <i>Detroit Free Press</i>, another Knight-Ridder paper, although they relied heavily on the <i>Beacon</i> reporting. They were not exactly welcomed with open arms in the Akron newsroom, where staff felt they were elbowing in on the <i>Beacon's</i> story, but it's an excellent report. It ran in all Knight-Ridder papers, a dozen or so, on May 23, 1970. It was a Pulitzer finalist. <br /><br />The special report was met with fury by Akron readers, because it blows holes in most of the National Guard's excuses for opening fire on a parking lot full of students, most of whom were not protestors. Jack Knight later joked that this report cost him $1 million in lost subscriptions and advertising. </div></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>Derf Backderfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650799247027927063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530457878876952867.post-43553527588963291792021-07-04T14:08:00.006-04:002021-07-08T11:47:58.274-04:00Kent State and Comics, a look back. Part 2<p><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7x6PXW7Pkl0gXd12BtISmem3LcvHI6Enh4gTiZqhMZLS9SYJAI1NLHdIWQW-AuN0u6E9BHPu08Oyap-5L2Z-iQQwLb2G_08j3SK8XejDEtVB2z0KBjQieyXt1gFsKvyyDyXaUWFAbXb0M/s2048/204801275_2666579693641726_1817256856596300014_n.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1570" data-original-width="2048" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7x6PXW7Pkl0gXd12BtISmem3LcvHI6Enh4gTiZqhMZLS9SYJAI1NLHdIWQW-AuN0u6E9BHPu08Oyap-5L2Z-iQQwLb2G_08j3SK8XejDEtVB2z0KBjQieyXt1gFsKvyyDyXaUWFAbXb0M/w400-h306/204801275_2666579693641726_1817256856596300014_n.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Continuing my examination of how student protests were depicted in mainstream comics during the Kent State Era, here’s two examples from DC Comics, Flash #185 and Teen Titans #31.</span></span></div></div><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The Flash has a pub date of February 1969, just before the mass campus unrest in the Spring of that year, including the events at Kent State that led directly to the Guard moving in to crush dissent a year later. The Titans has a pub date of February 1971, so it was on the stands in Fall 1970, just six months after the Kent State Massacre. So what we have here is an interesting before/after Kent State comparison.</span></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;" /></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">On both covers, student protestors are depicted as a violent mob, using a predictable image of the hero getting whacked with a “Make Peace, Not War” sign. How many times did rightwing political cartoonists use THAT tired gag? The editorial leadership at DC Comics in 1969 was pretty reactionary. Some, like the infamous Mort Weisinger, loathed 1960s youth and submarined any attempt to portray them sympathetically!</span></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;" /></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;">DC was also notorious for dreaming up provocative covers FIRST, then writing a story to play off the cover. Usually this resulted in a pretty shitty book, and Flash #185 is certainly an example of that. The story? It has nothing to do with student antiwar protests at all! </span><span color="var(--primary-text)" style="font-size: 0.9375rem;"> </span><span color="var(--primary-text)" style="font-size: 0.9375rem;">Instead, it’s a goofball tale of aliens stealing the Earth’s tallest buildings, including the Eiffel Tower! It’s total nonsense. Written by comics veteran Frank Robbins, too, who penned many classic Batman stories in this era. This one is a real turd. Oh well.</span></span></div><span color="var(--primary-text)" style="font-size: 0.9375rem;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4KBp8YiX6a9CKhIT9zfKk0Bc4kjMZ06oGjnruB2tVG-z-EK_07_2nkNBpCyVMTMdxaB-F6EUlj5TS9ARN6oFo8H1Mq8-I9-OPSZHovgMiZVZyq4pz10lRXHx5Nhb22JWMo7h4DtICS1A_/s2048/204475530_2666580646974964_3931405047573608105_n.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4KBp8YiX6a9CKhIT9zfKk0Bc4kjMZ06oGjnruB2tVG-z-EK_07_2nkNBpCyVMTMdxaB-F6EUlj5TS9ARN6oFo8H1Mq8-I9-OPSZHovgMiZVZyq4pz10lRXHx5Nhb22JWMo7h4DtICS1A_/w300-h400/204475530_2666580646974964_3931405047573608105_n.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><br /></span></span><div style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><div class="q9uorilb sf5mxxl7 pgctjfs5" style="display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;"><div class="no6464jc b5wmifdl" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 11px; opacity: 0;"><span class="tojvnm2t a6sixzi8 abs2jz4q a8s20v7p t1p8iaqh k5wvi7nf q3lfd5jv pk4s997a bipmatt0 cebpdrjk qowsmv63 owwhemhu dp1hu0rb dhp61c6y iyyx5f41" style="align-items: inherit; align-self: inherit; display: inherit; flex-direction: inherit; flex: inherit; font-family: inherit; height: inherit; max-height: inherit; max-width: inherit; min-height: inherit; min-width: inherit; place-content: inherit; width: inherit;"><div aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="menu" aria-label="Edit or delete this" class="oajrlxb2 gs1a9yip g5ia77u1 mtkw9kbi tlpljxtp qensuy8j ppp5ayq2 goun2846 ccm00jje s44p3ltw mk2mc5f4 rt8b4zig n8ej3o3l agehan2d sk4xxmp2 rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 pq6dq46d mg4g778l btwxx1t3 pfnyh3mw p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x tgvbjcpo hpfvmrgz jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso l9j0dhe7 i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of du4w35lb lzcic4wl abiwlrkh p8dawk7l dwo3fsh8 pzggbiyp pkj7ub1o bqnlxs5p kkg9azqs c24pa1uk ln9iyx3p fe6kdd0r ar1oviwq l10q8mi9 sq40qgkc s8quxz6p pdjglbur" role="button" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; align-items: stretch; appearance: none; background-color: transparent; border-bottom-color: var(--always-dark-overlay); border-left-color: var(--always-dark-overlay); border-right-color: var(--always-dark-overlay); border-style: solid; border-top-color: var(--always-dark-overlay); border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-flex; flex-basis: auto; flex-direction: row; flex-shrink: 0; font-family: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; min-height: 0px; min-width: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: none; vertical-align: bottom; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><i class="hu5pjgll m6k467ps" data-visualcompletion="css-img" style="background-image: url("https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v3/y-/r/eXgvMkYJyh-.png"); background-position: 0px -1196px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 34px 1268px; display: inline-block; filter: var(--filter-secondary-icon); height: 16px; vertical-align: -0.25em; width: 16px;"></i><div class="s45kfl79 emlxlaya bkmhp75w spb7xbtv i09qtzwb n7fi1qx3 b5wmifdl hzruof5a pmk7jnqg j9ispegn kr520xx4 c5ndavph art1omkt ot9fgl3s" data-visualcompletion="ignore" style="border-radius: 50%; font-family: inherit; inset: -8px; opacity: 0; pointer-events: none; position: absolute; transition-duration: var(--fds-duration-extra-extra-short-out); transition-property: opacity; transition-timing-function: var(--fds-animation-fade-out);"></div></div></span></div></div></div><div class="j83agx80 bvz0fpym c1et5uql" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; display: flex; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 12px; max-width: calc(100% - 26px); overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div class="_680y" style="display: inline-flex; font-family: inherit; max-width: 100%; position: relative; vertical-align: middle;"><div class="_6cuy" style="flex: 1 1 auto; font-family: inherit; min-width: 0px; width: 156.989px;"><div class="e72ty7fz qlfml3jp inkptoze qmr60zad q9uorilb tvmbv18p d2edcug0 ni8dbmo4 stjgntxs l9j0dhe7 sf5mxxl7 kvgmc6g5" style="border-radius: 18px; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 4px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 100%; overflow: hidden; position: relative; vertical-align: middle;"></div></div></div></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;">Since antiwar protestors are present only on the cover, so let’s file this one under WTF.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;" /></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Teen Titans #31 is also a crazy book, but at least the cover is related to the story. The Titans visit a college, where an evil university president is forcing students to undergo brain operations to make them compliant and thus control campus unrest.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk6sobyZT71IHwXVKmr2rdjVjtQGGZcHQs1NGn0vqzbbYlVlFZvwNhfpzGKf7HEgyCPeGwJ0z9kLeA829DnXx9bub5X9puVbQ0Ayvp2nZ2I4jGVqb5bTZQZiNsmnQ5u100d7qyk3MS0X7O/s2048/204188381_2666581200308242_8693011069733398307_n.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1404" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk6sobyZT71IHwXVKmr2rdjVjtQGGZcHQs1NGn0vqzbbYlVlFZvwNhfpzGKf7HEgyCPeGwJ0z9kLeA829DnXx9bub5X9puVbQ0Ayvp2nZ2I4jGVqb5bTZQZiNsmnQ5u100d7qyk3MS0X7O/w274-h400/204188381_2666581200308242_8693011069733398307_n.jpeg" width="274" /></a></div><br /><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span></div><br style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;">No. really.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;" /></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This story, however, portrays students as innocent victims, and the authorities as the bad guys! This is the first time THAT happened in a mainstream comic book. Over at Marvel, Stan Lee always made his stories about student protests politically ambivalent. Students were well-intentioned, the authorities were reasonable, why can’t we all get along blah blah.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUqu_Jcg-64SdDKMUlHPsJ5jndpDiQLayGrwg1Cogyed7eQpAOhCWNNdgxEhL5-6sQYpWfGNkK0VqNtHlCdquYyQjbhzf5jjm3_3gxD-QFZ0zI7AQ8HaDBfm2JLc-3UdN_ouCyZ703de5d/s2048/204450220_2666582206974808_5422563365035715419_n.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1840" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUqu_Jcg-64SdDKMUlHPsJ5jndpDiQLayGrwg1Cogyed7eQpAOhCWNNdgxEhL5-6sQYpWfGNkK0VqNtHlCdquYyQjbhzf5jjm3_3gxD-QFZ0zI7AQ8HaDBfm2JLc-3UdN_ouCyZ703de5d/s320/204450220_2666582206974808_5422563365035715419_n.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span></div><br style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;">There was no way in hell DC would have allowed this book to see print a year earlier, but a lot had changed in the space of 12 months at DC. Old conservatives like Weisinger retired (or were shoved out the door). Publisher Carmine Infantino cleaned house. A big influx of young creators was brought in, with a desire to tell stories that mattered to them. Is Titans #31 a reaction to Kent State and the mass campus unrest of Spring 1970? Sure seems that way.<br /><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; text-align: start;">The author of Titans #31 is Steve Skeates, one of youngest DC writers, only 28 here. The Titans were one of DC’s “relevant” titles, tailored to appeal to progressive youth. Skeates also wrote Aquaman at this time, who became an environmental crusader, and Hawk & Dove, a wacky concept about the country’s political divide. He wrote a lot for DC’s wonderful gothic horror line and then became one of Warren’s busiest writers in the 1970s, penning dozens of stories in Eerie, Creepy and Vampirella, before burning out and leaving the biz.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In any case, this is a pretty daring story to put on the spinner rack at the height of Nixonian paranoia about the student left.<br /></span><br /><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJz12u9aOjjKq1sc7ZPWZDEgGof8ZyHKzl7Ghz5XdZk6JJFloAdTOtbahT93-_hlyJ3UIHmCOFphobQ3b3SrcC2iUU3nIBtPhq9P9BG-BQJhZ1P0CudR9XJws_uXHmtk0VxP3wGkqjW8CC/s2048/204450074_2666582026974826_1268530293941362242_n.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1856" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJz12u9aOjjKq1sc7ZPWZDEgGof8ZyHKzl7Ghz5XdZk6JJFloAdTOtbahT93-_hlyJ3UIHmCOFphobQ3b3SrcC2iUU3nIBtPhq9P9BG-BQJhZ1P0CudR9XJws_uXHmtk0VxP3wGkqjW8CC/s320/204450074_2666582026974826_1268530293941362242_n.jpeg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">"Just what parents would want us to do"... lobotmizing their children! Honestly, that sentiment probably wasn't that outlandish in 1970!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdFBNu9uG6hJ9e39BJCPLAciGbmQsMHbMlqId7u2uvhFYJ8yOy07DaPf2qIkMwaocAyvQn6WppB5bGTcyp8bSpJyG-cnD-udPdNXA2eBEO4to2h0O2tlHVK2fAhZlZaN1eS3zCoXObnCwB/s2048/204709941_2666582406974788_5197436999264640787_n.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1507" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdFBNu9uG6hJ9e39BJCPLAciGbmQsMHbMlqId7u2uvhFYJ8yOy07DaPf2qIkMwaocAyvQn6WppB5bGTcyp8bSpJyG-cnD-udPdNXA2eBEO4to2h0O2tlHVK2fAhZlZaN1eS3zCoXObnCwB/w294-h400/204709941_2666582406974788_5197436999264640787_n.jpeg" width="294" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This dialogue is chilling, because "outside agitators" were cited by Ohio Gov. Rhodes as one of the reasons for sending in the Guard to crush protests at Kent State. It was a common theme by reactionaries. A large secret cabal of "professional radicals" was going from campus to campus, stirring up the otherwise docile local youth, and creating chaos. It's spooky seeing this stuff filter down into pop culture, knowing how deadly serious it was in real life.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOrw5Cl-HOf0M-GSG2KCAFRuNNK6NrLl0RqiZxFtO7wYdDGZnRGl4DuF3UylMECcR3TSAYg4hbUgvTVoRAVXqNJUdFSG7f9fhnGuc8KJDvKhg8AdOlzZ7PWJPl1Kww1Hp1wYGKHSwaqSUH/s2048/204967014_2666582983641397_7089624320619436100_n.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1846" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOrw5Cl-HOf0M-GSG2KCAFRuNNK6NrLl0RqiZxFtO7wYdDGZnRGl4DuF3UylMECcR3TSAYg4hbUgvTVoRAVXqNJUdFSG7f9fhnGuc8KJDvKhg8AdOlzZ7PWJPl1Kww1Hp1wYGKHSwaqSUH/w288-h320/204967014_2666582983641397_7089624320619436100_n.jpeg" width="288" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This (above) is very much still a question. After Trump and the past several years, I fear a large segment of the population IS that easily subverted. Prescient stuff from 50 years ago.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505;"><br />Note, however, that the plot in all these comics stories I’ve been examining is always the same, no matter the publisher, Marvel or DC. It’s never a portrayal of legitimate protest over the Vietnam War. It’s always misguided students being manipulated, or mind controlled, by insidious villains. Over and over comic book writers use that cheap plot device, because God knows no student in 1970 could have a REAL beef with the government, right?</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505;"> </span></span></div></div></div>Derf Backderfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650799247027927063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530457878876952867.post-27777392597832023372021-07-02T14:07:00.004-04:002021-07-08T11:55:24.623-04:00Kent State and Comics, a look back. Part 1<p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I'm fascinated by how the Kent State Massacre, and student antiwar protests in general, were dealt with in comics back in 1969 and 70. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Today I'll look at the political cartoonists. The Kent State Massacre happened on Monday, May 4, giving cartoonists ample time to weigh in that week. I was surprised by what I found. Very few did! I scoured newspaper archives online looking for examples and found very little. I guess this event was too hot a topic. The first reaction, after all, from mainstream, middle-aged America is that "we should have shot MORE." In a Gallup Poll a week after the Massacre, almost 70% blamed the students for being shot, and not the soldiers who shot them. I suspect newspaper editors were keenly aware of this sentiment, and a majority probably shared that view, and warned their cartoonists to back off.<br /><br />But I did find a few examples. Let's start with one that appeared in <i>The Cleveland Press</i> the day after the Massacre. Cleveland is a mere 38 miles from Kent and the student body was full of Cleveland kids. This cartoon is by longtime cartoonist Bill Roberts, age 56 in 1970. He was right-of-center on most issues, in keeping with the politics of the big afternoon daily. The <i>Press</i>, like most afternoon papers, was a "working man's paper." It certainly wasn't psycho rightwing, like media is today. Perhaps "traditional" would be a more apt description. Certainly, the paper was no fan of student radicals, or of the Woodstock Generation in general. If 20somethings were written about at all in 1970, it was dismissively, or with outright mockery. <br /><br />This cartoon, well, doesn't really say anything at all. Yes, students are dead and, yes, that's a tragedy. The problem with the Kent State story, of course, is that it unfolded piecemeal over those first few weeks, and a lot of the official statements and assertions were either wrong or outright lies. The first 20 statements by Guard leadership, for example, were all lies, as they desperately tried to cover up their crime. Pretty tough to draw a cartoon about something when you have no clue what actually happened.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqwEX9lgYnISaxVRnF7QV8qlkI-gvT849dih_OB1rAjies7g5itOsiB4cQfZM_6jgMqFhHruylJwal8_AhowBamKysCg4CMi5lkw5Z80fphyphenhyphenCWzgOjYN_onfuuG2KpeczGMrBUmXu2PXSd/s1310/ClevePress.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="807" data-original-width="1310" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqwEX9lgYnISaxVRnF7QV8qlkI-gvT849dih_OB1rAjies7g5itOsiB4cQfZM_6jgMqFhHruylJwal8_AhowBamKysCg4CMi5lkw5Z80fphyphenhyphenCWzgOjYN_onfuuG2KpeczGMrBUmXu2PXSd/w400-h246/ClevePress.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Here's one from Pat Oliphant, one of the "new breed" of political cartoonists who transformed the genre, and moved it away from the dry, humorless cartoons of old pros like Roberts. Having said that, this is not one of Oliphant's better efforts. What exactly is happening here? The SDS Radical is pulling on the Cheese of Anarchy. What exactly IS the Cheese of Anarchy and why would SDS want such a foodstuff? They're about to get clobbered, but wouldn't the mousetrap be enough? Why is there a spiked iron ball attached to it? I suspect just so Oliphant had a place to write "reaction." </div><br /><br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiweIGCCHLqWcalJ9kKtTxOieE-VTC39bEjiR2XqYCXr0vxyiF3wrRTuKWPInurQnYTcKROGT__A-z6gBHn-00g_x3e_gUvGW945yXn6Q_PSwlVUeswFWzhi2kvFtV9KSaccxDHp_DiGy7y/s2048/Oliphant3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1239" data-original-width="2048" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiweIGCCHLqWcalJ9kKtTxOieE-VTC39bEjiR2XqYCXr0vxyiF3wrRTuKWPInurQnYTcKROGT__A-z6gBHn-00g_x3e_gUvGW945yXn6Q_PSwlVUeswFWzhi2kvFtV9KSaccxDHp_DiGy7y/w400-h243/Oliphant3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Ray Osrin of the <i>Cleveland Plain Dealer </i>penned this one (below). Again, it says nothing, but even the most reactionary subscriber has little to object to here. Kent State was the most divisive event of the 1970, a year that was abysmal all around, one of the worst years we've ever had. In Ohio, that divisiveness over Kent State was amplified many fold. This, after all, happened in our back yard. For example, the <i>Akron Beacon Journal</i> (which didn't have a political cartoonist in 1970) won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the Massacre. But readers were so incensed that the <i>Beacon</i> refuted many of the Guard's lies, that subscribers cancelled in droves!<br /><br />The point being, cartoonists in these parts had to tread very softly.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4sHe2KhWDwfg-klFoYTh4eu3JkmiuW3mi__5tU42HKrzoK9xKc_GY5MDktj4PQxibXUHHS4GU_DEDryv8HXZFvhGaaDbHdt_DWeassNjuQEpgpYCtcOzoDgzRuCsSo7hh4KR7at7rOBDO/s869/OsrinPD_1.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="869" data-original-width="756" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4sHe2KhWDwfg-klFoYTh4eu3JkmiuW3mi__5tU42HKrzoK9xKc_GY5MDktj4PQxibXUHHS4GU_DEDryv8HXZFvhGaaDbHdt_DWeassNjuQEpgpYCtcOzoDgzRuCsSo7hh4KR7at7rOBDO/w348-h400/OsrinPD_1.png" width="348" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Below is a cartoon by Cy Hungerford of <i>The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette</i>. Hungerford was 82 years old in 1970! Dude was born in the 19th century! As you can tell, he was no fan of the whippersnappers on campuses. This one is a total piece of shit. We've got Death, dressed from the waist down as a Guardsmen, and from the waist up as a student protestor, running onto the Kent State campus. <br /><br />Huh? <br /><br />This one reads, and looks, like ol' Cy scrawled it out in 5 minutes, which is probably exactly what happened.<br /><br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYrKfZyKZ0i2CUo7wcsIr5F6wf-8F6g7wvqB4Jyb4EPFaasHuX1VP3deJh7Pi3_v_dBUQk6sfoq_oeFbpTP9j2E8OczwbKvRsNoN1G4sNOHFL4xK2HTmzMgM6VepEv_Wl1tHI3GYc-LvpQ/s2048/Pittsburgh_Post_Gazette_Tue__May_5__1970_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1388" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYrKfZyKZ0i2CUo7wcsIr5F6wf-8F6g7wvqB4Jyb4EPFaasHuX1VP3deJh7Pi3_v_dBUQk6sfoq_oeFbpTP9j2E8OczwbKvRsNoN1G4sNOHFL4xK2HTmzMgM6VepEv_Wl1tHI3GYc-LvpQ/w271-h400/Pittsburgh_Post_Gazette_Tue__May_5__1970_.jpg" width="271" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Wish I had a clearer copy of this one, by the great Bill Mauldin. This is from a few months after the Massacre, when a state grand jury issued indictments. It was convened as a kangaroo court by Ohio Gov. Rhodes, the Nixonian strongman who was most to blame for what happened at Kent State. The judge was a Rhodes ally, the prosecutors were, too. In the end, the grand jury cleared all the soldiers who fired, and their officers, and completely exonerated Rhodes, and instead indicted the students who were shot! It was a travesty. All of the indictments were eventually abandoned by prosecutors. <br /><br />Mauldin cuts right to the heart of it. Heavily-armed soldiers shot and killed students who were armed only with words.</div></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDWvE593AGIoWCj1Q8z9bquu9vVTtT1kghVUyqXU0Wm9RSubXgEurij41w-IW4K1zGssopp9jlDapSOWVTpv1NW24ufUg8cXqu2GT4i9SXNMrZ3bJ-8K49dYq9Vqmicn3_ggfB_-RCYR0n/s390/Mauldin.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="390" data-original-width="308" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDWvE593AGIoWCj1Q8z9bquu9vVTtT1kghVUyqXU0Wm9RSubXgEurij41w-IW4K1zGssopp9jlDapSOWVTpv1NW24ufUg8cXqu2GT4i9SXNMrZ3bJ-8K49dYq9Vqmicn3_ggfB_-RCYR0n/w316-h400/Mauldin.jpg" width="316" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Below is a cartoon by Mike Peters, the renowned cartoonist of the <i>Dayton Daily News</i>. Peters was never one of the more savage political cartoonists and this one is fairly typical of his work. UN Observers sent in to keep the parties separated, just as they were in Northern Ireland in 1970, at the peak of The Troubles there. Peters isn't far off equating what was happening in 1970 America to civil war. We were on the knife's edge of that. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcPE1yqn9YkUfFJ_pHDvntKu99BOAkzIHHjVM-c0TYeyrdXsAKPdhnlG2YKwIddjsDM3F3elUDgiQlxIVQrU3ks-6x7i1UeXHkzpZFsNsJfGsTHQsF1OneZ8UuxByqSS8VcBdknR-Xe7fI/s2048/Peters_May_6__1970_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1750" data-original-width="2048" height="341" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcPE1yqn9YkUfFJ_pHDvntKu99BOAkzIHHjVM-c0TYeyrdXsAKPdhnlG2YKwIddjsDM3F3elUDgiQlxIVQrU3ks-6x7i1UeXHkzpZFsNsJfGsTHQsF1OneZ8UuxByqSS8VcBdknR-Xe7fI/w400-h341/Peters_May_6__1970_.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Another Ohio cartoonist, and another old-timer, L.D. Warren, penned this one for the <i>Cincinnati Enquirer. <br /></i><br />Well, he's certainly making a statement here, placing the blame squarely on "violent" student protestors. The problem was, of course, that the protestors on May 4 were peaceful. It was the Guard that was violent. The 400 protestors on the Commons that day were merely chanting, as was their right of free assembly in a public space on a public university that was open. The Guard gassed them, and marched on them with bayonets and batons, beat anyone who didn't move fast enough, and then shot them. <br /><br />Details, details, right L.D.?<br /><br />Cincy was a pretty conservative place in 1970. I'm sure the readers nodded their approval at this one.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsY7mN2iYI5p-PbinhRx4xGYYvaQxqUXSPC7WldAZK_EYGz50LEx5Y2IqSF4Em1ZGuZdhzYudyS_jhO43CA9BHt5V5lNAcxr2AHINzTvxs3fqI-2qkQ9BZDs8-e_JsnMm4DLcVUj8dmpdE/s2048/The_Cincinnati_Enquirer_Fri__May_8__1970_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1496" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsY7mN2iYI5p-PbinhRx4xGYYvaQxqUXSPC7WldAZK_EYGz50LEx5Y2IqSF4Em1ZGuZdhzYudyS_jhO43CA9BHt5V5lNAcxr2AHINzTvxs3fqI-2qkQ9BZDs8-e_JsnMm4DLcVUj8dmpdE/w293-h400/The_Cincinnati_Enquirer_Fri__May_8__1970_.jpg" width="293" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">And finally, here's one from Don Wright, the great multi-Pulitzer-winning cartoonist for <i>The Miami News. </i>He's working from the relative safety of sleepy South Florida, true, but at last here's a powerful cartoon. This appeared on Wednesday, May 6, two days after the Massacre. As I wrote, much was still unknown, but Wright astutely zeroes in on what WAS known: the students were unarmed and the Guard killed them without justification.</div><i><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWYqt3pZSO9dSaedqzAxNkEhFQPVBJO4y81LvoX2IdLD1QrTywHRWy2jBWBQSrSBWuuH3e8CHCSCt1zlBwqeMWrg-SjAPuasnI4dKNWpyDlY624q7VSD8NBupnxc-KrFDNvHP1wRr3AeKU/s2048/Wright__May_8__1970_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1598" data-original-width="2048" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWYqt3pZSO9dSaedqzAxNkEhFQPVBJO4y81LvoX2IdLD1QrTywHRWy2jBWBQSrSBWuuH3e8CHCSCt1zlBwqeMWrg-SjAPuasnI4dKNWpyDlY624q7VSD8NBupnxc-KrFDNvHP1wRr3AeKU/w400-h313/Wright__May_8__1970_.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><p></p>Derf Backderfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650799247027927063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530457878876952867.post-71872093000714557272021-07-01T12:02:00.006-04:002021-07-08T12:01:43.831-04:00A rare Kent State artifact<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHIwN63YdFfzGvZN_4qwmkzDYRQyBZoPjjx_oFP9eIzwaGORxiM35ukK94KQOWBShGpnMg8-EBs_Sdvi4kHcFWmRQsWaQPHe0Hbn_Qqaim_wFMnmPnN4VJ62VVtgL6i8u0E_d02PHzNePf/s2048/Pratt.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHIwN63YdFfzGvZN_4qwmkzDYRQyBZoPjjx_oFP9eIzwaGORxiM35ukK94KQOWBShGpnMg8-EBs_Sdvi4kHcFWmRQsWaQPHe0Hbn_Qqaim_wFMnmPnN4VJ62VVtgL6i8u0E_d02PHzNePf/w300-h400/Pratt.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Here’s an original art score I just acquired.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This is a political cartoon about the Kent State Massacre, from 1970!</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It’s by Newton Pratt, the longtime cartoonist for the <i>Sacramento Bee</i>. Pratt was 69 and just one year from retirement when he penned this one. Pratt was a well-regarded cartoonist of the Herblock School, as you can see. Vertical format, lots of crayon, lots of labels.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This cartoon is blasting the Ohio State Grand Jury verdict of October 16, 1970, just five months after the massacre. Gov. James Rhodes, the man most responsible for the tragic debacle, convened a kangaroo court to “investigate” the shootings, and bury it. Rhodes installed a staunch ally as judge, and allies as prosecutors. The grand jury was convened in the rural county where Kent State is located, thus ensuring a jury pool of conservative locals with strong animosity against students in general, and student protestors in particular. Attempts to move the jury to a neutral county were quashed. Rhodes’ judge and prosecutors also made sure that the governor was not brought to the stand.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">After several months of secret testimony (all reportedly destroyed by order of the judge after the rulings) the grand jury exonerated all the Guard officers and the Guardsmen who shot at students. Instead, the jury indicted 25 protestors who were shot AT, including most of the wounded students! It was an utter travesty.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This was Rhodes rebuttal to the Scranton Report that was issued in September, which placed blame for the massacre squarely on Rhodes’ decisions and on Guard leadership. The Scranton Commission was convened by Nixon to investigate the campus unrest of Spring 1970, specifically the slaughter at Kent State and Jackson State. Rhodes was furious at this political betrayal by Nixon and the FBI. Rhodes had been one of Nixon’s earliest supporters, and was a big reason Tricky Dick won Ohio in the 1968 election. But Rhodes was to be term-limited out of power at the end of 1970, so he was of no further value to Nixon, and Tricky threw him under the bus to distract from his own machinations against the Antiwar Movement. Classic Nixon! Rhodes officially rejected the Scranton Report, and his Grand Jury provided him cover to slink out of office… and to be reelected four years later!</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The Kent 25, as they became known, faced decades in prison on a plethora of state felonies. This scathing cartoon asks the question, why didn’t Ohio indict the murdered students, too?</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">By Fall 1971, the state’s cases fell apart. A couple students plea-bargained their felony charges down to simple misdemeanors, a small fine and no jail time. A student who took his case to trial was exonerated. At that point, prosecutors DROPPED all felony charges against the remaining protestors and abandoned the indictments! Clearly, they didn’t want witnesses called to testify under oath, especially Rhodes and Guard brass, because THIS testimony would be public record, not sealed and destroyed like the grand jury testimony. Rhodes was also out of power by Fall 1971, and his Democrat successor had no interest in Jimbo’s vendettas or ass-covering.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A lot of political cartoonists are lost to time, theirs being the comics genre with the shortest shelf life. Here’s the only bio info I could find on Pratt. He was a native of Sacramento, born to Irish immigrant parents. He dropped out of school at age 10 and began working, eventually becoming a draftsman for the state Division of Highways. At the <i>Sacramento Bee</i>, Pratt worked at a variety of jobs including messenger, office boy, and copy boy. Walter Jones, the head editor for the newspaper, eventually hired Pratt as the main editorial cartoonist in 1938. His work was reprinted by the <i>New York Times</i> and <i>Washington Post</i>, which brought Pratt national acclaim. In the 1950s, Pratt was one of the first editorial cartoonists to take on Senator Joe McCarthy’s anti-Communist hysteria. By the time Pratt retired in 1971, he had produced roughly 7500 cartoons. He was a 3-time Pulitzer finalist.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This cartoon was made with pen & ink and black crayon. It’s drawn on coquille board, aka stipple board. The paper has tiny bumps, so when you drag a crayon across it creates that dotted shading. The whole thing can then be sized and shot as straight line art, but it has the effect of a halftone, without losing the strong, deep blacks. It was perfect for the ghastly reproduction of newspapers in the 1930s and 1940s. A guy who mastered this stuff could work fast, another benefit. It was definitely a dated look by 1970. The new generation of political cartoonists embraced then-modern art techniques, especially Zipatone dot screens and Craftint paper. Old-timers like Pratt were called “grease pencillers,” because of the stipple board technique.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I tried it a couple times when I joined the <i>Plain Dealer</i> in 1986. That was such a retro paper, 25 years behind the technological curve, and the supply storeroom in the art dept. was packed with vintage art supplies. My attempts failed miserably! There was a definite learning curve, and it wasn’t worth the effort.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Craftint here in Cleveland, who specialized in cartoon and comics art supplies, manufactured this stuff until the 1970s, then sold it to another outfit who produced it as Duoshade paper. There’s no stamp on the back to indicate it's Craftint, unfortunately.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This was a real find, being the author of <b><a href="https://bookshop.org/books/kent-state-four-dead-in-ohio/9781419734847">KENT STATE</a></b>. Believe it or not, there were not a lot of political cartoons, that I could find, about the Kent State Massacre in 1970. It was just TOO hot a topic. Cartoonists shied away for it, or, more likely, were ordered by their editors to do so. I was thrilled to stumble across this original. </span></div></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p></p>Derf Backderfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650799247027927063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530457878876952867.post-65945763544511261972021-06-30T11:50:00.003-04:002021-07-08T11:57:59.380-04:00<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0IQP3tPm3CEs4RBIH7LLdOrdlLrQ1lu3R8_CZC30RIB_u6gtQGXQZvR2d-HNDWo6XlnBF9YpdecpzbwlgYBx-m7E9FFAs1eHB-bzWud4eX-s-HZBVwP6VYzJHizRBkzAWDCO1cwaw4gJo/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="1620" data-original-width="1506" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0IQP3tPm3CEs4RBIH7LLdOrdlLrQ1lu3R8_CZC30RIB_u6gtQGXQZvR2d-HNDWo6XlnBF9YpdecpzbwlgYBx-m7E9FFAs1eHB-bzWud4eX-s-HZBVwP6VYzJHizRBkzAWDCO1cwaw4gJo/w372-h400/image.png" width="372" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: arial;">I just stumbled across this. This is the last cover I did for a Cleveland weekly paper, from 2010.</span></div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="color: #050505;"><br /></span></div><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="color: #050505;"><div style="text-align: justify;">End of an era.</div></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505;">It’s not the cover that ran, because the management at the Cleveland rag at the time, </span><i style="color: #050505;">Cleveland Scene</i><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505;">, rejected it. Too cranky, not positive enough. Obviously, I was NOT the man for THIS job.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">15 years earlier, the editors would have LOVED this cover. I was at the <i>Cleveland Free Times</i> then and filled that paper with snarky cartoons. It was a lot of fun. I drew probably 50 covers in the Nineties for the <i>Free Times</i>, and for <i>The Cleveland Edition</i> before that. The business folks at those papers always told me that “Derf covers” had a higher pick-up rate. That’s because readers love comics! Something weekly papers had forgotten by 2010. And into the tar pit they sank.</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Six months after this rejected cover, I had a messy break up with <i>Scene</i> and that was the end of my 20-year career in Cleveland weeklies. Happily, I got my book deal for MY FRIEND DAHMER at the same time and was on my way to much better things.</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Y’know, looking back on it now, my demise in weekly papers is all a bit of a meh. It was horrible at the time, and I watched it all with despair. But now, in hindsight? Things change. Everything has its time. The savage snark of my newspaper strip was a Nineties thing. It fit beautifully with the era, and, not surprisingly, that’s when it was most successful, and the most gratifying to produce. In the 2000s, progressively less so. Humor changed. Maybe it was existential shock of 9/11… or the endless dreariness of the Dubya Years… or just the personality of that miserable decade. I didn’t see that clearly then. I do now. My biggest regret is not retiring the strip at the end of the Nineties and moving on full time to books. I did the strip WAY too long.</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Still think this is a funny cover, though. Imagine it in color. The woman covered in cheesy tattoos, the Lake a nice algae green.</div></span><p></p>Derf Backderfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650799247027927063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530457878876952867.post-55567340848058928172021-06-30T11:37:00.005-04:002021-06-30T12:33:41.859-04:00Crazy year<p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4qc2lUZLUFVGyCHRSumIJh6geJHdD27gv2QKEEHy3Wycpmx29Twpn3-rTtLt43hKuJk8TgQpYGtTy58k5pCrMbxz5IZFlfdnwUyHTTRzjlAf_KONbwMrlsZhrDsnxDYAtNTMs1_acfikK/s770/FOCUSvif.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="770" data-original-width="558" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4qc2lUZLUFVGyCHRSumIJh6geJHdD27gv2QKEEHy3Wycpmx29Twpn3-rTtLt43hKuJk8TgQpYGtTy58k5pCrMbxz5IZFlfdnwUyHTTRzjlAf_KONbwMrlsZhrDsnxDYAtNTMs1_acfikK/s320/FOCUSvif.png" /></a></div><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Right? And with all that's happened, the plague, the failed coup, the near collapse of democracy, etc etc, try releasing a book during such a year!</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I know, I know, it's a petty concern, but hey, I'm an author. I'm allowed to be petty. Besides, it's not like I came through this unscathed. I've taken some pretty hard hits.<br /><br />KENT STATE? Here's the report, nine months after its release in September 2020. It's done well. It was nominated for two Angoulême Prizes (lost 'em both), won a French Critics Prize, and a big YA award from the American Library Association. It sold well during its initial release, all things considering. Remember, the release was delayed 6 months because of the lockdown, and Americans didn't care about anything but Orange Hitler, the election and COVID. So taking all that into account, I can't complain. In a "normal" year, yeah, it probably would have sold more. Wonder if we'll ever have a normal year again?<br /><br />KENT STATE is currently in its 3rd printing. There are already translations in French, Swedish, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and Finnish. It sold like crazy in France. <br /><br />Above is the cover of FOCUSvif magazine in Belgium. There's also been a traveling exhibit about the book at train stations in France (You're reading that correctly. It truly is comics heaven over there). Here's some cool pics. These were taken in le Gare in Rouen, one of my favorite towns, with one of my favorite comics shops, <a href="http://www.librairie-augrandnullepart.fr/"><b>Au Grand Nulle Part</b></a> :</div></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzcXJUYQuXJ_trMybFfBTycxkVH2SSy4gFBdx_Z9mqfRyYGUf7-TqWfDwUVuUYAaVJd-uZGBPxQZdFZlLxSOVpZZOWk7WVpm7Fe9H9xyfeTtA8T4lp-3FG4vROdPS-xhicazwlb_JlV6uK/s2048/192799023_2651481951818167_8294062441144384738_n.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzcXJUYQuXJ_trMybFfBTycxkVH2SSy4gFBdx_Z9mqfRyYGUf7-TqWfDwUVuUYAaVJd-uZGBPxQZdFZlLxSOVpZZOWk7WVpm7Fe9H9xyfeTtA8T4lp-3FG4vROdPS-xhicazwlb_JlV6uK/s320/192799023_2651481951818167_8294062441144384738_n.jpeg" width="320" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA3WIE3elh-kaUhL5RLqjKlpiKKtY_qjxB2eoULaaM1jP0eHrOpYG_R27je6Ihj_AA5GSJuKgWByEVl97Or4Q8SyFhH1GNv7f6yGuEikjvxbGBJZERoFZ7lF2QiztCcgC6lUt2VMVqziV6/s2048/194343214_10227025279921779_5411580400573473747_n.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA3WIE3elh-kaUhL5RLqjKlpiKKtY_qjxB2eoULaaM1jP0eHrOpYG_R27je6Ihj_AA5GSJuKgWByEVl97Or4Q8SyFhH1GNv7f6yGuEikjvxbGBJZERoFZ7lF2QiztCcgC6lUt2VMVqziV6/s320/194343214_10227025279921779_5411580400573473747_n.jpeg" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5SzQkLaZiZQy7Y2cocEMLlytfnBGx5_hyphenhyphenZw9ETtX2RK535Nr1UMj_VKiPnyCJC3PLiqk9czGpdi5PPR3DmRpo38wXBZi_RuXe8q2SK1SUMa9pjym4ADLFZ00BJ84oij5G9udW-qA4Pb4e/s2048/195285910_10227025278241737_8781919380760442742_n.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5SzQkLaZiZQy7Y2cocEMLlytfnBGx5_hyphenhyphenZw9ETtX2RK535Nr1UMj_VKiPnyCJC3PLiqk9czGpdi5PPR3DmRpo38wXBZi_RuXe8q2SK1SUMa9pjym4ADLFZ00BJ84oij5G9udW-qA4Pb4e/s320/195285910_10227025278241737_8781919380760442742_n.jpeg" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">What got completely torched, of course, was all the appearances, fests and cons that usually come with a book release. Yeah, that all went up in a poof of COVID in Spring 2020. I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself because that would have been an EPIC tour. I only have so many book releases left, y'know? <br /><br />The good news is I'm tentatively scheduled to return to France in October for the fabulous Fall comics fests there. Fingers crossed. </div></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></span><p></p>Derf Backderfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650799247027927063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530457878876952867.post-29226782719992510742020-06-27T12:46:00.001-04:002021-06-29T21:58:31.393-04:00New interview with the Quebec Comics Fest<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: small;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlR4kMun5NS3U4tyb0vJjDH09UgC2CWrfI0SIANMm3u6u2Yc3dX42OqrrSdaDPLTUrF2bQ-15n6haDSdTSGtVNRGSG12I1ooiQf_pnTCAD2i4z16oCMaum8aLyp7cMSLBW9FPynYyv9clm/s1127/Screen+Shot+2021-06-29+at+9.57.15+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="1127" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlR4kMun5NS3U4tyb0vJjDH09UgC2CWrfI0SIANMm3u6u2Yc3dX42OqrrSdaDPLTUrF2bQ-15n6haDSdTSGtVNRGSG12I1ooiQf_pnTCAD2i4z16oCMaum8aLyp7cMSLBW9FPynYyv9clm/w400-h190/Screen+Shot+2021-06-29+at+9.57.15+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br />Here's a fun video chat with Raymond from the Quebec Comics Festival and the fine folks from <i>La vie en BD</i> (Life in Comics) podcast, about my work, focusing on the upcoming <i>KENT STATE.</i></span><br /><br />
<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: small;"><span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></span><span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yeah, that's my lockdown hairdo. I look like a hippie. My wife likes it, so I guess I'm stuck with it.</span><span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></span><span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></span><span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">It's mostly in English. Give a listen <b><a href="https://www.pscp.tv/w/1YqJDpMpOdYJV">HERE.</a></b></span></span><br />
</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Derf Backderfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650799247027927063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530457878876952867.post-81963200341353447082020-05-28T10:18:00.003-04:002020-05-28T10:27:34.703-04:00Echoes of 1970, fear and anxiety in 2020.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img height="222" src="https://i2.wp.com/orinocotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/EY_aOLaWkAMgI72.jpeg?resize=800%2C445&ssl=1" width="400" /></div>
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Some of you have asked asked what moved me to make <b>Kent State.</b> Think about America 1970. An authoritarian regime and a brutal, often deadly, police response to anyone who stood up and raised their voice in protest.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;"><br />Now think about America 2020.</span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Stand up to those in power, stand up to the cops, and you feel their full military force. Didn't take long for the Minneapolis cops to use gas and rubber bullets and clubs, did it? They murder a man in public, in front of a dozen witnesses who beg the smirking killer to let the man breathe. A day later cops attack a crowd of people protesting that murder. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And the following night, the city was on fire. Well done, officers. You had a chance to ease tensions, to let people peacefully have their say, to demand justice and real systemic change. Instead you lit the fuse.<br /><br />"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable." –John F. Kennedy</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Wouldn't extreme police restraint be the order here? Let the people have their say. punish the criminal cops, reform your ranks, change your practices. Be better at your jobs! Does the Minneapolis mayor have any control over this police force at all?</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The great cautionary lesson of Kent State is that when protests threaten those in power, the price of dissent will be bitterly high.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Especially, then as now, if you're black.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One of the biggest issues of the Black Panthers in 1970 was police brutalizing the black community. The police and the FBI, under orders from Nixon, unleashed a secret war against the Panthers. Their leaders were arrested and jailed, forced into exile in other countries, or gunned down in cold blood. This war was then expanded to include Nixon's long list of enemies, virtually anyone left of the Republican Party. It involved every layer of the intelligence services, FBI, CIA, the IRS, Military Intelligence, and filtered down to state and local authorities. It's the same punishment Trump has vowed to unleash on HIS enemies.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This war on US soil was noted for its sweeping unconstitutional, often illegal, methods spread over nearly a decade of abuse. Thanks to the Patriot Act we foolishly allowed to become law, many of these things are now perfectly legal. That was the point of the Patriot Act! Dick Cheney, who started his political career in the Nixon White House, remembered the scandal of CointelPRO (the name of the illegal war) and wanted to ensure any abuses in his War on Terror would be excused.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Mission accomplished."</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The lesson then that the government learned from the Kent State era? Not what we had hoped. Law enforcement (from local to fed) has spent 50 years militarizing their forces, perfecting crowd control techniques, and arming up with weaponry specifically designed to crush protests. The government will never again allow the kind of mass unrest we had in 1970, which filled the streets of every city and roiled every campus, and forced US policy to change. If you try, as we're seeing in Minneapolis, they will immediately move against you with overwhelming force. They want people to be afraid to protest.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Unless, of course, you're a bunch of white far-right protestors waving guns and QAnon signs. That's different.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Gee, wonder why?</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's my fear, especially with an increasingly desperate, anti-democratic president who feels his grip on power slipping away, is that we have circled right back around to 1970. The partisan hatred is the same. So the story of Kent State is, sadly, as relevant now as it was in 1970. We've learned little as a society in those 50 years.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 6px;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We are perilously close to another Kent State.</span></div>
Derf Backderfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650799247027927063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530457878876952867.post-7802745357134135402020-05-05T13:49:00.003-04:002020-05-20T13:44:51.357-04:00Fifty years, and one day later...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://bookshop.org/books/kent-state-four-dead-in-ohio/9781419734847"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="801" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQXwn9pdKQJOmU2wANEEVzLG8rlzKryjiSnCyBut-fxrANOq-NaFPDdsJ6nUnIltt9OrC2eczjkKocXn9p_-4aJSNIACbj_NZV1zgnJcezdhfVfre2_Bdhr9UuZOnjxUtF2IiVcFguLbwd/s400/Screen+Shot+2020-05-05+at+1.37.04+PM.png" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">OK, so now what?</span></div>
<div class="p2" style="font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Yesterday, May 4, the mainstream media did their pieces on the 50th anniversary of the Kent State Massacre, and a day later has moved on.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Because of the lockdown and the cancellation of all the events at the university, it was, by my observation, half the coverage it would have received. That’s the last interest they’ll show in this event until the 60th, if even then. The media loves a good round number. Odd numbers, not so much.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="p2" style="font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I’m sad for all the survivors of May 4, the Students of 1970. This was to be THEIR richly-deserved moment. After a half century of cover-ups and lies, of the university trying to bury the past, of bloviators and apologists telling them to “get over it and move on,” this was– finally– their chance to receive their due. The slate of events at the university was incredible. I bet 15,000 people would have flooded the campus. There would have hugs and tears and embraces. The pain the Students of 1970 carry with them is palpable. It’s there in every one of them I’ve met, and I’ve met dozens and dozens. Many are still burdened with PTSD. That’s what happens when you see your friends gunned down in cold blood right in front of your eyes. Think of your own college experience, and how treasured that is for most of us, those heady, transformative years when you come of age, find yourself and lay the groundwork for the rest of your life. Then drop a government massacre in the middle of it. The students of 1970 are all in their Seventies now. They waited so long for this. How many more chances will they have? Not to be morbid, but I watched this happen with my Dad and all his WW2 comrades. Generations die out and vanish from the world. It’s the way of things. What a pity to have the indomitable Students of 1970 be cheated like this, by a fucking virus and the blunders of an incompetent, narcissistic oaf.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="p2" style="font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mine was one of several books that were to be released in conjunction with the 50th. I won’t apologize for piggybacking onto the event. I make books to sell books, as has every author throughout history. This isn’t a hobby. It’s my career. It’s more than that, of course, it’s a calling, or perhaps an obsession, but it’s what I do. KENT STATE has been on a list of potential books for years. I had other books I wanted to make first, and, frankly, I didn’t have the drawing skills needed for this tale (and perhaps STILL don’t have those skills). Yes, the 50th looming on the horizon was the impetus for finishing the book, but the desire was there regardless.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="p2" style="font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">KENT STATE is a book of which I’m very proud. It’s an important story, and one that the vast majority of Americans don’t know at all, or have misconceptions about. I think I’ve told it pretty well. Here's an <a href="https://www.comicsbeat.com/release-and-tour-for-derfs-kent-state-four-dead-in-ohio-postponed-to-september/"><b>EXCERPT.</b></a> As we head into, I fear, a prolonged period of extreme partisan warfare, government repression, and the very real possibility of a victory by anti-democratic reactionaries, the story of KENT STATE is a relevant now as it was in 1970. Do you really think Trump and his oligarch enablers are going to slink off quietly?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="p2" style="font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The plan all along was to launch the book in April and do as much mainstream media as could be mustered, up until May 4. Hopefully, that would have been a great push for the book, reaching far beyond the comics world, and generated lots of interviews, reviews, and, yes, sales. But after May 4, when the media moved on, the book was going to have to survive purely as comics. I always knew that. So we planned a two-tier promotional campaign. I had events stacked up in April for audiences that were only interested in the history, not in comics. After May 4, the tour switched gears to events that were for comics or books. That would have carried me into the Fall, for the second leg of the tour.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="p2" style="font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That plan went up in a puff of smoke a month ago when the pandemic hit and we all locked down.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="p2" style="font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Again, I realize this sounds crassly commercial, but hey, what good is doing a book that isn’t read? Coming up through indie comics, where I had to fight tooth and nail to be seen and heard and taken seriously, especially by the mainstream, I’m wired to sell my work hard. I’m old school. I don’t flounce in for a 2-hour signing at a comics festival, then disappear. I table for the entire 2 or 3 days and sell every damn copy I have.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="p2" style="font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The release of the book is now delayed until September 8. So much for piggybacking onto the 50th. It’s the best of bad options. There’s no point in releasing a book right now if no one can buy it. The distribution system is running on half steam, and all the bookstores are closed. Yeah, Amazon is up and running, but y’know what? I don’t want to help make Amazon even more MORE dominant! Comics retail is totally shut down. The monopoly distributor has closed up and Marvel & DC aren’t even making new floppies. It’s a total stop. Maybe by September, the retail machine will be running again, what’s left of it and even if only at half steam. It’s also possible it WON’T be, but at least there’s a chance, as opposed to now, when there’s no chance at all.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="p2" style="font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Nonetheless,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>the book got some nice coverage this past week. A great write-up in the New Yorker, and <b><a href="https://www.wksu.org/post/derfs-graphic-novel-about-may-4th-delivers-emotional-wallop#stream/0">the piece for WKSU</a> </b>which found its way to NPR’s Morning Edition. Most of the rest who were planning pieces are holding off until the book release, if they have interest at all at that point.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="p2" style="font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It’s likely that the book is screwed, as is every book that comes out in 2020, and maybe every book in 2021. I can’t see book events and, especially, festival and cons returning for several years. Can you imagine San Diego Comic Con or the Angoulême Festival being held during a pandemic? We’ll need a cure for this fucking virus before those things happen again. Everything I planned on to promote the book is basically out the window. How will we sell books in the COVID world? Unclear. What happens if the carnage is as bad as feared and we plummet into another Great Depression? Also unclear. It was going to be an incredible year of travel and events. It is what it is. Thankfully, I still have the past decade of incredible memories to hold me until I can hit the road again.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="p2" style="font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I hope you’ve found the posts </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">of the past week</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">on social media interesting and moving. We’ll fire up the promo campaign in August and I’ll pepper you all with posts and media once again. Until then, pre-ordering Kent State will certainly help. I recommend Bookshop, where the hardback (which is a beautiful edition) is currently on sale. Bookshop is a non-profit online service that hooks up buyers with indie bookstores who do mail order. Here's the </span><b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://bookshop.org/books/kent-state-four-dead-in-ohio/9781419734847">LINK.</a></b></div>
</div>
<div class="p2" style="font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Stay safe, everyone. Be well.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
Derf Backderfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650799247027927063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530457878876952867.post-29674950794159659562020-04-28T19:28:00.003-04:002020-04-28T19:28:54.127-04:00Kent State on NPR<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ6_iOc156ww7IfNIHnOzxtTTKL1ef9-h4AEdPe9AVdhaFC1nwRDJSmzxEk_gQx0Kmc_K_kzvdT_W1EEjUfZVjodMxRA3gUYTxI_bOkqKTKHXImcz0YURtnau62o5SWtdb4RlzsAoTt-Vu/s1600/derf_backderf_may4th.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1180" data-original-width="1600" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ6_iOc156ww7IfNIHnOzxtTTKL1ef9-h4AEdPe9AVdhaFC1nwRDJSmzxEk_gQx0Kmc_K_kzvdT_W1EEjUfZVjodMxRA3gUYTxI_bOkqKTKHXImcz0YURtnau62o5SWtdb4RlzsAoTt-Vu/s400/derf_backderf_may4th.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Interview with yours truly on the Kent State NPR station </span><span style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.wksu.org/post/derfs-graphic-novel-about-may-4th-delivers-emotional-wallop?#stream/0">HERE.</a><span id="goog_1380389430"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_1380389431"></span></b><br /><br /><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: justify;">
Photo by reporter Jeff St. Clair. I'm standing on Blanket Hill, right at the spot the Guardsmen wheeled as one and opened fire. Fifty or so protestors were at the bottom of the hill. See that lone kid walking in the parking lot there? That's just about where Jeff Miller was standing when an inch-long copper-jacketed bullet tore through his open mouth and blasted out the back of his skull, killing him instantly. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
In that parking lot beyond, 500 students walked innocently past, on their way to and from class. Eight to 10 soldiers fired directly into that lot, emptying their clips. </div>
</span><br /><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: justify;">
One of the shooters' initial excuses for this massacre was that they were "surrounded" and in "fear for our lives." Look at the distance involved here. Would you find that kid in the parking lot a potential threat in any way? There were no protestors on the hill. There were about 100 kids watching from the Taylor Hall terrace on the right, not protesting, just observing the spectacle. The student farthest from the Guard who was hit was in front of that building in the distance, the length of over two football fields away. He was shot through the neck, the bullet miraculously missing both his spine and jugular by a fraction of an inch.<br /></div>
</span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Despite the release of Kent State being delayed until September, thanks to the lockdown, it's still generated some media attention. There's no such thing as bad publicity, of course, but it's frustrating that it's unavailable for anything other than pre-order. Ah well, that's just the hand that's been dealt.<br /><br />This week, I got a nice write-up in <i><b>The New Yorker,</b> </i>which hails <i><b>Kent State</b></i> as "gut-wrenching.'"<br /><br /><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; text-align: start;">"This spring marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Kent State shootings, an occasion explored in Derf Backderf’s deeply researched and gut-wrenching graphic nonfiction novel, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; text-align: start;"><b>Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio” </b>(forthcoming from Abrams ComicArts). Backderf was ten years old in 1970, growing up outside Kent; the book opens with him riding in the passenger seat of his mother’s car, reading Mad, and then watching Richard </span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; display: inline; text-align: start;">Nixon on television. <b>“Kent State”</b> reads, in the beginning, like a very clever college-newspaper comic strip—not unlike early “Doonesbury,” which débuted that same year—featuring the ordinary lives of four undergraduates, Allison Krause, Jeff Miller, Sandy Scheuer, and Bill Schroeder, their roommate problems, their love lives, their stressy phone calls with their parents, and their fury about the war. As the violence intensifies, Backderf’s drawings grow darker and more cinematic: the intimate, moody panels of smart, young, good people, muddling through the inanity and ferocity of American politics yield to black-backed panels of institutional buildings, with the people around them saying completely crazy things, then to explosive splash pages of soldiers, their guns locked and loaded, and, finally, to a two-page spread of those fateful thirteen seconds: “boom!” “bang!” “bang! bang! pow!”</span></i><br /><br /><br /></span></div>
<br />Derf Backderfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650799247027927063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530457878876952867.post-20134539921337130572020-04-19T11:44:00.002-04:002020-04-19T11:44:21.155-04:00Kent State to be released Sept. 8!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmJ_HKlSB9ZoQ7IHRhIQ36TVMjox6b935Ua3p_AW1rmMyg2btsg-LETGQCUfRxxm9nLSCg4WgCMesTiVxxn3M2Wx-Dh5U5r4gwzyevFmE8ZIiCd_TqpfwqsfTdGxVwF1ktvOTi5bJh6NX_/s1600/IMG_6727.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmJ_HKlSB9ZoQ7IHRhIQ36TVMjox6b935Ua3p_AW1rmMyg2btsg-LETGQCUfRxxm9nLSCg4WgCMesTiVxxn3M2Wx-Dh5U5r4gwzyevFmE8ZIiCd_TqpfwqsfTdGxVwF1ktvOTi5bJh6NX_/s400/IMG_6727.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finally got the actually release date. KENT STATE was, of course, originally scheduled for an April release, but you know what happened. Abrams has pushed the date to September in the hope that the book retail machine will be back up and operating, even it's only at 50 percent or whatever. That's better than the current state, which is not at all.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
You can pre-order the book in the usual places. Links to the left here. </div>
</span>Derf Backderfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650799247027927063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530457878876952867.post-33750264767989797422020-04-17T14:17:00.001-04:002020-04-17T14:33:05.328-04:00Lockdown video interview<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Talking with Dave Filipi of the Wexner Center at Ohio State University.</span><br /><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/M24HiY0LQxc/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/M24HiY0LQxc?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />Derf Backderfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650799247027927063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530457878876952867.post-70320580352055667632020-04-09T16:49:00.000-04:002020-04-19T11:48:30.131-04:00Greetings from the Bunker<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicOygilvZHNmgn5OJiRbqtAm5JZHvaUcJidoBUWgGtdPEzfQC0J7WPPgfHecfct9wyNKJ68AkeHI8CZS8lwLUKb2n3nska1VcrS6SKpapsP3J-pdruwDiqZiEpb7gNixlpoDLqq7QxEiwM/s1600/Color+sample2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1076" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicOygilvZHNmgn5OJiRbqtAm5JZHvaUcJidoBUWgGtdPEzfQC0J7WPPgfHecfct9wyNKJ68AkeHI8CZS8lwLUKb2n3nska1VcrS6SKpapsP3J-pdruwDiqZiEpb7gNixlpoDLqq7QxEiwM/s400/Color+sample2.jpg" width="268" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /><br /><br />I don't know what to write about this nightmare. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I thought about doing some regular True Stories about living (hopefully) through this, but what is there to write about? Sitting in my studio under lockdown and scrolling through ever-more-gloomy news reports? I leave the house once a week to get food for my family, that's it. Is my search for toilet paper a compelling diary comic? </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I talked about this with a colleague. "There's going to be a LOT of comics about coronavirus," he said. He's right. I see some of them on Twitter already. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If I have nothing worthwhile to contribute, and nothing has come mind yet, maybe I'll just go in a completely different direction. People need distractions. OK, maybe not right NOW, when it's pandemic 24/7, but eventually, when this thing starts to ease up. If the warnings are true and it's two years before this passes, with recurrent flare ups that send us diving back into our homes, and sends the economy plunging over and over again, then people will REALLY need distractions.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I think back to popular art during the Great Depression. Comics didn't wallow in the suffering and economic misery and the rising tide of fascism around the world, terrifying things we're repeating here in 2020. Readers instead devoured the humor of <i>Popeye</i> and the gentle laughs of <i>Gasoline Alley.</i> They thrilled to daily installments of exotic adventure strips set in far-flung climes, like <i>Terry & the Pirates</i> and <i>Cap'n Easy</i>, or in the mind-bending fantasy of <i>Tarzan, Flash Gordon</i> and <i>Buck Rogers. </i>In 1938, Superman ushered in the superhero and the introduction of comic books. Real-life struggles were seldom depicted.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Of course, comics were different then. They've grown up since.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I dunno. We'll see. Right now, what I'm dealing with is the total loss of my planned book tour, some 40 cons, signings and speaking gigs that took me right up to San Diego Comic Con in July. There's a second leg in the Fall, which is still on, but for which, frankly, I don't have much hope. I spent months planning this tour, and rested up in anticipation of the grueling schedule, which had me criss-crossing the country, as well as a couple jaunts to Europe. It all vanished in the space of a couple days. The official release date of <i>Kent State</i> was yesterday btw. I glumly noted the date from here, then watched an episode of <i>Shitt's Creek </i>to take my mind off it. Now the release has been pushed back to Sept. 8, as detailed in my earlier post.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So... I'll be getting back to work soon. Might as well get <i>some</i>thing out of all this unexpected downtime!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I've been experimenting with color these past few weeks, retrofitting pages from <i>Punk Rock & Trailer Parks, </i>as in the page depicting The Baron's debut, above.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">None of my long-form comics have been color, of course. <i>Trashed</i> had a spot color. The rest are b&w. The City was b&w for 15 years, too, before I reluctantly added color. Shitty color, since alt-weeklies had infamously bad reproduction. I regret adding color to that strip. It was a lot more work and didn't add anything to the read. Other, smarter creators, never made that switch, like Matt Groening and Lynda Barry. Their strips were b&w to the end, as they originally envisioned, one consistent body of work. Mine is split in two, The City of the 1990s, and then the color one of the 2000s, which was an entirely different strip, really. I should have re-named it. Thought about doing that. I regret not doing so.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But I've worked in full color for years and years, all the way back to my first newspaper gig in South Florida. Posters, record covers, book covers, gig flyers, freelance illustrations, hundreds of images, all were done in color. I prefer very dramatic eye-catching colors, in fact, which always surprises those who only know my work in b&w. Here's some samples.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3yaFxlmYbDZAlK_jCq2Fc_Giw8SENCrNH1wrUroHhGwzQrxV2nY4bFhwh9SAWre5Mgw1x4LSPvQfB22dRjbyctOo1k-Yaq2hopebwDtmn84l_oHokiDYvwRL8raCRPRvxjVUWWoYUxpnh/s1600/1989_toomuch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1485" data-original-width="1001" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3yaFxlmYbDZAlK_jCq2Fc_Giw8SENCrNH1wrUroHhGwzQrxV2nY4bFhwh9SAWre5Mgw1x4LSPvQfB22dRjbyctOo1k-Yaq2hopebwDtmn84l_oHokiDYvwRL8raCRPRvxjVUWWoYUxpnh/s400/1989_toomuch.jpg" width="268" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A very early, unpublished story from 1989. I drew this on scratchboard (!!) and colored it with Dr. Martin's Dyes. Crazy media in which to work. Didn't stick long with that! The colors aren't really working here. I was shooting for a noir-ish look, but it needed a much stronger black.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI7pvp-wqleRpIxFTkNqXK36AoRLOayV2U7shjqdsHAakp-7571QUpRVYzdvhi40vBcAQCAGDFTPhCl8ev2wrD1hbuSNbiB_teqqXZ7-4tdtNBwh9ZgMC4OmDnHuJRe_EAdKNj7lohFio7/s1600/Superreader1989.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1098" data-original-width="1600" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI7pvp-wqleRpIxFTkNqXK36AoRLOayV2U7shjqdsHAakp-7571QUpRVYzdvhi40vBcAQCAGDFTPhCl8ev2wrD1hbuSNbiB_teqqXZ7-4tdtNBwh9ZgMC4OmDnHuJRe_EAdKNj7lohFio7/s400/Superreader1989.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This was an illustration for the <i>Detroit Free Press</i>, also from 1989. This is pen&ink over color pencil. Another goofy mixed media. Color pencils are very waxy, so most ink won't stick. The scanners of the day also had big problems picking up the color. I was very happy with the piece, though. In fact, this is the exact moment it all came together for me, stylistically, After several years of frustrating experimentation. I finished this piece and literally yelled, THAT'S IT! The saturated, dramatic color palette became a staple, too. This one pivotal piece carried me through the next decade, and <i>still</i> resonates in my work.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaN1p63STLd9Oa7IbQMBElwmC6gsA5R4plCqdbwcBqt_yxYk6eah5YsxLgXOOWQOluOIFEAyE1XwtbubvdkQa7pR4sP0SpKLRN29KF9dztiSEpiVQbnQyxZ4dzxuDdv7Ippu9Um4oI6fPM/s1600/eruptions.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="708" data-original-width="720" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaN1p63STLd9Oa7IbQMBElwmC6gsA5R4plCqdbwcBqt_yxYk6eah5YsxLgXOOWQOluOIFEAyE1XwtbubvdkQa7pR4sP0SpKLRN29KF9dztiSEpiVQbnQyxZ4dzxuDdv7Ippu9Um4oI6fPM/s400/eruptions.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Comp CD cover, 1995. I moved to <span style="text-align: justify;">gouache</span><span style="text-align: justify;"> paint after my earlier failures, and that proved to be a reliable media. Pen & ink took to it beautifully, too. I've never been a great painter, but strong ink line covers many a weakness. There are a lot of European comics creators who still work this way! Their work is gorgeous, but MAN, it's time consuming.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRl23JbRE5f4bfnyPcawdPoUR_x7euJmNH6_tzeXS-bLd22PfrnhrYOLQm49emCqg-lP2bWCjRiTNgYbku_RQrH2_pB-6otKSXNurDKiRZvtLfLyW8daC1RGaOpiMMtc-JIfF-RV1Qwlhm/s1600/PAFposter_small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1081" data-original-width="1500" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRl23JbRE5f4bfnyPcawdPoUR_x7euJmNH6_tzeXS-bLd22PfrnhrYOLQm49emCqg-lP2bWCjRiTNgYbku_RQrH2_pB-6otKSXNurDKiRZvtLfLyW8daC1RGaOpiMMtc-JIfF-RV1Qwlhm/s400/PAFposter_small.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Above: the poster for Int'l Performance Art Festival, from 1999, billed as the final one (although that turned out to not be the case). I drew this huge, poster size, with gouache paints and pen & ink.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrU1XYdwuySlFVeVb-unjgioU2tNabq5E7hX8DzQO4Dj4I-_ak_ztgwF1QDiNQk8JyLiKgmvK4FFahQd7sqWslp7QYIOK-RsWKliCTOASe3OFFWhrYMPdkSsbAe-TxNyuru7pbxAQo4cEG/s1600/LPfrontcover_sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1554" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrU1XYdwuySlFVeVb-unjgioU2tNabq5E7hX8DzQO4Dj4I-_ak_ztgwF1QDiNQk8JyLiKgmvK4FFahQd7sqWslp7QYIOK-RsWKliCTOASe3OFFWhrYMPdkSsbAe-TxNyuru7pbxAQo4cEG/s400/LPfrontcover_sm.jpg" width="387" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Above: album cover for local band Hazard Adams, 2010. Everything from here on is digital color, applied to scanned pen & ink drawings. I miss paint, but not enough to go back.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw6NVw-re59aXlVvoRgQrLtzMwosT6mSBgvTehSQfezyLo1pOAYRBU2IhjyHTEpwnVCGnt4af7v1EnikAxv6x63vWHFOiiDK1k-LJ6e8XmEBeFvjIozLMaP_y3M6oYczs5p9nccJtoQeZA/s1600/DERF_musique.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1385" data-original-width="1001" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw6NVw-re59aXlVvoRgQrLtzMwosT6mSBgvTehSQfezyLo1pOAYRBU2IhjyHTEpwnVCGnt4af7v1EnikAxv6x63vWHFOiiDK1k-LJ6e8XmEBeFvjIozLMaP_y3M6oYczs5p9nccJtoQeZA/s400/DERF_musique.jpg" width="288" /></a></div>
<br />
Above: Klaus Nomi, for the Belgian magazine <i>Focus</i>, 2014.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPZYLKXljRLKy3Dz-t3lR8r7YmKTsUICEnYT7DnNcwQtrEBOjVOflnEBs5x_m4iefdHiGWJQvcL0UWPrWWTe8rgUwfdbIrz0SN1surizz1rWU2_uzZr7n0ejO-K3Cl70sRZmToSHmzJx1k/s1600/Genghis-sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1047" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPZYLKXljRLKy3Dz-t3lR8r7YmKTsUICEnYT7DnNcwQtrEBOjVOflnEBs5x_m4iefdHiGWJQvcL0UWPrWWTe8rgUwfdbIrz0SN1surizz1rWU2_uzZr7n0ejO-K3Cl70sRZmToSHmzJx1k/s400/Genghis-sm.jpg" width="261" /></a></div>
<br />
Above: poster for The Genghis Con, 2016<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg1w7O2AhPDVKesl0UUE7QlWooYwnIp4yO0jHsHaHK2QPLeBQuogn4p3TayHcos7B7BQr0GacpBkGgRqnvupdgz9M54Q1gjES6HtrM41PLwi1FwnZj0Fm4rKJj_ErdJx4uK4rMY28GooPy/s1600/Styrenes_final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="853" data-original-width="1600" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg1w7O2AhPDVKesl0UUE7QlWooYwnIp4yO0jHsHaHK2QPLeBQuogn4p3TayHcos7B7BQr0GacpBkGgRqnvupdgz9M54Q1gjES6HtrM41PLwi1FwnZj0Fm4rKJj_ErdJx4uK4rMY28GooPy/s400/Styrenes_final.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Above: wraparound album cover for the <i>Essential Styrenes</i>, 2016. There's Magee from <i>Trashed </i>and Otto from <i>Punk Rock & Trailer Parks</i> in the crowd!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6LmiUnJEIlZuT5_OjW9-kF65VksGGriAn1TEU7MNR872IMTpI6QBn-W0axecy3p2Pdci-nmo-rmJj7S8V9aSoSpncAiljEIPoO2dZntJcAzbV9qvpW-Vjj2BCX3kE1hA0rfU1OacRPyIY/s1600/Clutch_final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="725" data-original-width="948" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6LmiUnJEIlZuT5_OjW9-kF65VksGGriAn1TEU7MNR872IMTpI6QBn-W0axecy3p2Pdci-nmo-rmJj7S8V9aSoSpncAiljEIPoO2dZntJcAzbV9qvpW-Vjj2BCX3kE1hA0rfU1OacRPyIY/s400/Clutch_final.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Above: the most dramatically colored piece of all is this poster for the Rock en Seine Festival in Paris. This one was printed as a HUGE poster for the Paris Metro! It was an eye-grabber, for sure. No one can accuse me of being shy with color!</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp3uS5Z00dILDbkVsYMjdy1WQR9__6LTzoliwcIHdJ5ARTlZ6p6EUlP92cVUDgpwKHfAGkJqoRwxOFDj-LHha-PgfV1eozdjX-DNflrb-VfBAOo6aV3etgNhwznH9_RqBkJ5aXQmJhMvXE/s1600/IMG_6060.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp3uS5Z00dILDbkVsYMjdy1WQR9__6LTzoliwcIHdJ5ARTlZ6p6EUlP92cVUDgpwKHfAGkJqoRwxOFDj-LHha-PgfV1eozdjX-DNflrb-VfBAOo6aV3etgNhwznH9_RqBkJ5aXQmJhMvXE/s400/IMG_6060.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDkQV-r5QEiFmlPy9b4lwVYLX7xivwir4ZlUB4uYoWa2CCQr6tmNI-3gBTOJTwbw-szpYEXc7DoSy7i3-XfuI8gymcSOXDDJMqIwNr1JLNorxC4VUiuWJ91_lnInqvJt91wiVZWwr0f6Ng/s1600/Supes-color_sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1070" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDkQV-r5QEiFmlPy9b4lwVYLX7xivwir4ZlUB4uYoWa2CCQr6tmNI-3gBTOJTwbw-szpYEXc7DoSy7i3-XfuI8gymcSOXDDJMqIwNr1JLNorxC4VUiuWJ91_lnInqvJt91wiVZWwr0f6Ng/s400/Supes-color_sm.jpg" width="298" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
More dramatic colors, in a poster showing young Jerry Siegel, the co-creator of Superman, in front of his house in Cleveland, for the Siegel & Shuster Society, 2016.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijgyueVK2sqkFPBYldxrZQmdFHSyUmZ58Npqptvov5hxHGt_8SdBZ3EPAUPJgpOtRYt1FaXXVUQPlgE9b2ubFrpfe09FKok7ZFPe_chsRJKcixKcgQlLHBVUVi1xVmX-QiKj04pDyQtcHM/s1600/Ralph-Butler_small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijgyueVK2sqkFPBYldxrZQmdFHSyUmZ58Npqptvov5hxHGt_8SdBZ3EPAUPJgpOtRYt1FaXXVUQPlgE9b2ubFrpfe09FKok7ZFPe_chsRJKcixKcgQlLHBVUVi1xVmX-QiKj04pDyQtcHM/s320/Ralph-Butler_small.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Above: and finally, another album cover, for pals Chris Butler and the late Ralph Carney. Really crazy colors on this one. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<br />
So moving forward, yeah, I think my books are going to be full color. That's a pretty daunting amount of work, of course, adding color to 200-300 pages of art, and not a job I'll be tackling myself. I'll have to hire a colorist. But the world is in color. I love b&w and the DIY vibe it has, and the moody purity of it, but it's time, <i>past</i> time, to move on.<br />
<br />
Here's another test page from <i>PR&TP</i> to whet your appetite:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5ktkpMMi-l64I5rXZd-ntcZCF2kHr2iVvU09Of3F8HvllH-XG4PlWXrLgmHzX5VCyzkuBOjTCFuv4gKTzCAj0xjMNaQmXZ2ZYN68diQuyhBYspFJot6uynju7t2XPSfpPV3kZHKciXvdO/s1600/Color+sample.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1112" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5ktkpMMi-l64I5rXZd-ntcZCF2kHr2iVvU09Of3F8HvllH-XG4PlWXrLgmHzX5VCyzkuBOjTCFuv4gKTzCAj0xjMNaQmXZ2ZYN68diQuyhBYspFJot6uynju7t2XPSfpPV3kZHKciXvdO/s400/Color+sample.jpg" width="277" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
</span>Derf Backderfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650799247027927063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530457878876952867.post-65234296487275230072020-03-18T16:31:00.000-04:002020-04-09T15:18:28.564-04:00Release of KENT STATE pushed back to September<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnMmFu5s-RqsWg-WGFLKcP2dgLZaFZ-yNvmdvIOrrhQaHDNzQt9NSIz8NKnYOjO6orpDjHUP001vYFxkFDuAzSblydoTeyp3UDpFrk9dsfPtguWsF-NHh3GAHMKG7yhQX8jMiOzipw_lAg/s1600/IMG_7077.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnMmFu5s-RqsWg-WGFLKcP2dgLZaFZ-yNvmdvIOrrhQaHDNzQt9NSIz8NKnYOjO6orpDjHUP001vYFxkFDuAzSblydoTeyp3UDpFrk9dsfPtguWsF-NHh3GAHMKG7yhQX8jMiOzipw_lAg/s400/IMG_7077.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
The release of KENT STATE: FOUR DEAD IN OHIO has been pushed back from April 4 until September 8, 2020.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div>
<div class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
This was a difficult decision, since I very much wanted the book to be published in conjunction with the 50th commemoration of the Kent State Shootings on May 4. The coronavirus and unfolding events, obviously, have torched those plans. Abrams Books decided it would be better to wait, in the hope this crisis will ease over the summer, and the country can return to a semblance of normality. I completely agree. In fact, I pushed for this.</div>
<div class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
This is an important story, one I don’t want overlooked during the necessary fixation on the pandemic and its effects. I’m very proud of this book. The story of the four students who were cut down is deeply important to me. The issues that KENT STATE raises have no expiration date. In fact, it could well be it’s more relevant than ever in September.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div>
<div class="p2" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
Be safe, everyone. I’ll see you in the Fall.</div>
Derf Backderfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650799247027927063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530457878876952867.post-56651158408434297692020-03-18T09:40:00.001-04:002020-03-18T09:40:33.056-04:00Locked out of Facebook. Again.<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the 10,000-plus of you who follow me on my Facebook feed, yeah, I've been locked out again. This is, if memory serves, the third time this has happened in the past 5 years or so. The latest, I suspect, is Facebook's admitted "glitch" in their A.I. rooting out Russian bots that are spreading fake news about coronavirus. Sorry, Uncle Putin, I've failed you!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hopefully, this is resolved soon. Or maybe it won't be. I've been focusing more on Twitter, since my last lock out, and this may be the thing that prods me to abandon Facebook completely. I was planning to after the Kent State launch and tour anyways, but... hahaha... well, what difference does that make now?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My Twitter is <b><a href="https://twitter.com/DerfBackderf" target="_blank">HERE</a></b></span></div>
Derf Backderfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650799247027927063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530457878876952867.post-57320644604281042322020-03-16T10:42:00.001-04:002020-03-16T10:47:08.225-04:00Book tour update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8hSMu4lUffFldi9ghCUhyphenhyphencSynwooBPgFLP4cuqXQtayMjgZII4fwWwaKZxglhxRo9r1caUHfYRj-wNqlXE3LvP7ChmDDd7UI9FqmAsj-j5L_jRe3BmlOYZEnARnlh4a9rxgEkKGkiX1rh/s1600/Kent-State_Tour-Graphic_03+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8hSMu4lUffFldi9ghCUhyphenhyphencSynwooBPgFLP4cuqXQtayMjgZII4fwWwaKZxglhxRo9r1caUHfYRj-wNqlXE3LvP7ChmDDd7UI9FqmAsj-j5L_jRe3BmlOYZEnARnlh4a9rxgEkKGkiX1rh/s400/Kent-State_Tour-Graphic_03+copy.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Yeah, the book tour above is looking like a smoldering ruin. If you follow me on Twitter and Facebook, you already know the first three events are canceled. The big NYC launch ain't happening. The gallery show at the Society of Illustrators will still be hung, God bless em, but with the city on lockdown, who will come? I was particularly looking forward to the opening of that show. It's a huge honor and a real career validation. It'll hang until mid-June. Maybe this will have blown over by then. Yeah, I know. Wishful thinking, probably.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All the libraries are currently closed, it's anyone's guess for how long, and the state universities have shuttered campuses for the remainder of the semester, so those events are likely finished, although I haven't gotten final word yet. This is only a technicality.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I hold out slim hope for some of the fests later in the Spring, but that is probably just wishful thinking, too. I'm not optimistic about Comic Con either.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As of right now, there will be no book launch. Kent State will be released on April 7 and the online stores will start selling it then. Brick-and-mortar stores? Who knows if they'll even be open by then. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm not looking for sympathy here. It is what it is. Every author with a Spring book is facing this same challenge. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm hoping to set up an online signing service. My favorite indie bookstore here in Cleveland will take orders from anywhere, I'll personalize the copies and add a title page sketch, and the books will be shipped out. So people who want a signed book will be able to get one. Unless, of course, the post office shuts down, too. Groan. So stay tuned for details on that.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I'm now re-focusing on the Fall. Jesus Christ, I hope this thing has passed by then. A second leg to the tour above was already in the works. Some of the cancelled events will be rescheduled then, if possible. I fear the fests and cons that are cancelled will remain so. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Stay safe everyone. Hopefully, I see you somewhere down the road.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Derf Backderfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650799247027927063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6530457878876952867.post-68293414347546923132020-02-18T12:25:00.001-05:002020-02-18T12:25:07.122-05:00Kent State Book Tour, Part 1
<style type="text/css">
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 15.0px Helvetica}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 15.0px Helvetica; min-height: 18.0px}
span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
span.s2 {font: 14.7px Helvetica; font-kerning: none}
</style>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisF8RDxq2Uo2DfmzpilRcg8XP5v9DaBRYhG91t7cRgff0Z5m5MVCbTAb6q7FkJF9NF1Hs9fo1n2V6Z_iffCgcH9WL807VFzQ3yYFQ8vWFsFo7jqvlTewyXduZPmpMYy4sbUk_KLxUJhwFE/s1600/2016_ParisSigning.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="541" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisF8RDxq2Uo2DfmzpilRcg8XP5v9DaBRYhG91t7cRgff0Z5m5MVCbTAb6q7FkJF9NF1Hs9fo1n2V6Z_iffCgcH9WL807VFzQ3yYFQ8vWFsFo7jqvlTewyXduZPmpMYy4sbUk_KLxUJhwFE/s640/2016_ParisSigning.jpg" width="360" /></a></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Here's the schedule so far, for the first half of 2020. The Fall festivals and events will be added later. These are the public events, so hopefully I'll see you at one. Check back for further updates and details.<br /><br /><br /><b>Thurs., Mar. 26 –</b> Society of Illustrators, New York City, Opening of Kent State gallery show, featuring sketches and original art, plus talk & signing</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Fri, April 3 –</b> OFFICIAL BOOK LAUNCH, The Strand Bookstore, New York City, signing and talk</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Sat.-Sun, April 4 to 5, all day – </b>The MOCCA Comics Fest, New York City</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Tues, April, 7 pm –</b> Akron Main Library, Main Event Speaker Series, slideshow talk & signing</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<b><span class="s1">Thurs, April 9, </span><span class="s2"><b>11:30am to 1:30pm</b></span></b><span class="s1"><b> – </b>Cleveland City Club, slideshow talk</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Weds, April 15 –</b> Wexner Center, Ohio State University, slideshow talk & signing</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Fri, April 17, 7 pm –</b> Quimby’s, Chicago, slideshow talk & signing</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Sat, April 18, noon –</b> Abraham Lincoln Bookstore, Chicago, live webcast & signing</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Weds, April 22, 7 pm – </b>Parma Cuyahoga Public Library, slideshow talk & signing</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Fri, April 24, 6 to 9 pm – </b>CLEVELAND BOOK LAUNCH, Mac’s Backs and the B-side Lounge, slideshow talk & signing</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Tues, April 28, 6:30 pm –</b> Bowling Green University, Library of Pop Culture, slideshow talk & signing</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<b><span class="s1">Sat, May 2, </span><span class="s2"><b>1:30pm</b></span></b><span class="s1"><b> – </b>FREE COMIC BOOK DAY, Carol & John’s Comics, Cleveland, slideshow talk & signing</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<b><span class="s1"></span><br /></b></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Sat-Sun, May 9 & 10 –</b> TCAF Toronto Comics Arts Festival</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Sat-Sun, May 16 & 17 –</b> VanCAF Vancouver Comics Arts Festival</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Sat-Sun, May 30 & 31 –</b> Stripdagen Comics Fest, Haarlem, the Netherlands</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>June 2 to June 6 – </b>Paris signings, details to come</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>June 13 & 14 – </b>CAKE Chicago Alternative Comics Expo,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Sat-Sun, June 27 & 28 – </b>American Library Assoc. Convention, Chicago</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>July 17 to 19 –</b> San Diego Comic Con!</span></div>
<br />Derf Backderfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05650799247027927063noreply@blogger.com