Robert Boyd's Book Report: The Super-Fun-Pak Comix Reader

 Robert Boyd

Today I look at The Super-Fun-Pak Comix Reader by Ruben Bolling. This is a collection of occasional strips that run in his weekly comic strip called Tom the Dancing Bug, which can be read online in various places. One thing I didn't mention in the video is that I read ever single page of this book on the can. It turns out that an anthology of clever but light-hearted short comics is a prefect counterpart to shitting. Who knew?

Robert Boyd's Book Report: Tears of the Trufflepig

 Robert Boyd

Today I talk about Tears of the Trufflepig and Death to the Bullshit Artists of South Texas by Fernando A. Flores. I mention Malvern Books, so I want to link to it as well.

Robert Boyd's Book Report: Grip

 Robert Boyd

Today's book report is about Grip by Lale Westvind. I found out about this book from the podcast Comic Books Are Burning in Hell, where they ranked the then unfinished work as one of the 10 best comics of 2020.

(Addendum: Someone told me that Lale's name is pronounced La-Ley and that Westvind uses they/them pronouns. So given this, I mispronounce their name throughout and misgender them--for which I apologize. What can I say? It's hard to find information about Westvind online.)

(Addendum 2: Westvind responded below and writes "I do not use they, them pronouns... And my name is pronounced Lah-leh.")

Robert Boyd's Book Report: The Outlaw Bible of American Art

 Robert Boyd

Today I am discussing The Outlaw Bible of American Art, edited by Alan Kaufman. I mention several artists (and books) in my book report, including Forrest Bess, David Wojnarowicz, Sonia Gechtoff, Ana Mendieta, and Philip Zimmerman. (The books mention are Forrest Bess: Key to the Riddle, Welcome to Painterland: Bruce Conner and the Rat Bastard Protective Association, and Fire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz.)

Robert Boyd's Book Report: Pinko Joe

 Robert Boyd

This video is about Pinko Joe, by Christopher Sperandio. Sperandio has made guest appearances on this blog on several occasions. He is a professor at Rice University and frequently partners with English artist Simon Grennan on projects--including a remarkable series of comics. (I wish I could link to a place where one can buy these comics, but I don't find any such place on the internet--Chris and Simon, you need to correct this!) They have an excellent blog about their partnership, but I wish it included a shop. I reviewed Simon's solo graphic novel Dispossession a while back and I'm glad to be able to do the same for Sperandio.

(Also, please note that in the video, I fault Sperandio for not giving credit to the original artists whose work he appropriated. However, he did--on page 92 of Pinko Joe. he lists the issues of old comics he used as raw material and, where possible, credited the artists. For the record, the artists were Fred Guardineer, Ralph Mayo, Alex Schomburg, Louis Zansky, Leonard Starr, Murphy Anderson and Jim McLaughlin. And work from three comics where he could not identify the artists.)

Robert Boyd's Book Report: Haiku

Robert Boyd

Today's book report is about Haiku, written by Diane di Prima and illustrated by George Herms. Haiku was published by X Artists' Books, which has it's own interesting story.

Robert Boyd's Book Report: Yves the Provocateur

 Robert Boyd

 

This week I read Yves the Provocateur: Yves Klein and Twentieth-Century Art by Thomas McEvilley. McEvilley was a professor of mine when I was an undergraduate at Rice University, and I've written about him before. I wrote this post when after he died, and it is good introduction to his writing (if I say so myself). I have mentioned him in several other posts.