Podcast appearances and mentions of Ben Katchor

This podcast is a commentary and does not contain any copyrighted material of the reference source. We strongly recommend accessing/buying the reference source at the same time. ■Reference Source https://www.ted.com/talks/ben_katchor_comics_of_bygone_new_york ■Post on this topic (You can get FREE learning materials!) https://englist.me/185-academic-words-reference-from-ben-katchor-comics-of-bygone-new-york-ted-talk/ ■Youtube Video https://youtu.be/tfciBllA83Y (All Words) https://youtu.be/qqkxftTKgmk (Advanced Words) https://youtu.be/F1uZLLuEKBg (Quick Look) ■Top Page for Further Materials https://englist.me/ ■SNS (Please follow!)

For Big Table episode 51, editors Joshua Glenn & Rob Walker discuss their latest book, Lost Objects: 50 Stories About the Things We Miss and Why They Matter.  Is there a “Rosebud” object in your past? A long-vanished thing that lingers in your memory—whether you want it to or not? As much as we may treasure the stuff we own, perhaps just as significant are the objects we have, in one way or another, lost. What is it about these bygone objects? Why do they continue to haunt us long after they've vanished from our lives? In Lost Objects, editors Joshua Glenn and Rob Walker have gathered answers to those questions in the form of 50 true stories from a dazzling roster of writers, artists, thinkers, and storytellers, including Lucy Sante, Ben Katchor, Lydia Millet, Neil LaBute, Laura Lippman, Geoff Manaugh, Paola Antonelli, and Margaret Wertheim to name just a few. Each spins a unique narrative that tells a personal tale, and dives into the meaning of objects that remain present to us emotionally, even after they have physically disappeared. While we may never recover this Rosebud, Lost Objects will teach us something new about why it mattered in the first place—and matters still. For the readings this episode, two authors read their essays from the book: First up, Lucy Sante discusses her long lost club chair; and Mandy Keifez recounts her lost Orgone Accumulator. Music by Languis

Remember Zero Monthly #283? Cover by Robert Williams, a B. Kliban one-pager, the latest chapter of Freakwave by Peter Milligan and Brendan McCarthy, a Harvey Pekar vignette drawn by R. Crumb, the latest chapter of V For Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, a Gerald Jablonski one-pager, an Incal story by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius, a long Ben Katchor story, a Rick Geary one-pager, a painted comic by Kent Williams, a comic by Art Spiegelman, a P. Craig Russell comic, a Hunt Emerson short, a Dragonflame story by Don McGregor and Paul Gulacy, a Joost Swarte short, an El Borbah story by Charles Burns, a reprint of Pablo Picasso's fanzine comics work, and a comic by Steve Bissette and Rick Veitch? No, YOU DON'T! Because it only exists in my brain, along with the other 749 issues! How about Zero Monthly #145? Cover by Frank Frazetta, a short by Harvey Kurtzman and Bill Elder, a Richard Corben comic, the latest chapter of Lone Wolf And Cub by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima, a comic by Gilbert Shelton, a horror story by Bruce Jones and Berni Wrightson, a Basil Wolverton 2-pager, the latest chapter of Lt. Blueberry by Jean-Michele Charlier and Jean Giraud, a Rick Griffin psychedelic comic, a Voltar story by Alfredo Alcala, an Edward Gorey story, a Jim Steranko comic, a painted comic by Jeff Jones, a Mr. A story by Steve Ditko, a Greg Irons comic, a comic by Bernard Krigstein, a Jules Feiffer vignette, and a comic by Alex Niño. IT'S ALL IN MY HEAD! I HAVE TO GO NOW!

This week on Sinica, Kaiser is joined by historian Timothy Cheek of the University of British Columbia, political scientist Elizabeth Perry of Harvard, and our very own Jeremy Goldkorn, editor-in-chief of SupChina, in a wide-ranging discussion of the Chinese Communist Party on the occasion of its 100th birthday. The three each contributed chapters to a new volume called The Chinese Communist Party: A Century in 10 Lives, edited by Timothy Cheek, Klaus Mülhahn, and Hans van de Ven. Don't miss this one!8:59: Cosmopolitan traditions within the CCP13:10: Continuity and change within the Party20:19: The oscillations between flexibility and rigidity34:25: Intellectuals and their relationship with the Party50:37: Wang Guangmei and the Peach Garden ExperienceA full transcript of this episode is available on SupChina.com.Recommendations:Jeremy: The Dairy Restaurant, by Ben Katchor. Elizabeth: Middle Class Shanghai: Reshaping U.S.-China Engagement, by Cheng Li, and The Wuhan Lockdown, by Yang Guobin. Timothy: The Internationale, performed by heavy metal band Tang Dynasty. Kaiser: The July/August edition of Foreign Affairs, especially the pieces by Wang Jisi and Yan Xuetong.Privacy Policy and California Privacy Notice.

Is it possible to conceive of the American diet without bagels? Or Star Trek without Mr. Spock? Are the creatures in Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are based on Holocaust survivors? And how has Yiddish, a language without a country, influenced Hollywood? These and other questions are explored in this stunning and rich anthology of the interplay of Yiddish and American culture, entitled How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish (Restless Books, 2020), and edited by Ilan Stavans and Josh Lambert. It starts with the arrival of Ashkenazi immigrants to New York City’s Lower East Side and follows Yiddish as it moves into Hollywood, Broadway, literature, politics, and resistance. We take deep dives into cuisine, language, popular culture, and even Yiddish in the other Americas, including Canada, Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, and Colombia. The book presents a bountiful menu of genres: essays, memoir, song, letters, poems, recipes, cartoons, conversations, and much more. Authors include Nobel Prize–winner Isaac Bashevis Singer and luminaries such as Grace Paley, Cynthia Ozick, Chaim Grade, Michael Chabon, Abraham Cahan, Sophie Tucker, Blume Lempel, Irving Howe, Art Spiegelman, Alfred Kazin, Harvey Pekar, Ben Katchor, Paula Vogel, and Liana Finck. Readers will laugh and cry as they delve into personal stories of assimilation and learn about people from a diverse variety of backgrounds, Jewish and not, who have made the language their own. The Yiddish saying states: Der mentsh trakht un got lakht. Man plans and God laughs. How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish illustrates how those plans are full of zest, dignity, and tremendous humanity. Schneur Zalman Newfield is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York, and the author of Degrees of Separation: Identity Formation While Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism (Temple University Press, 2020). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm

Is it possible to conceive of the American diet without bagels? Or Star Trek without Mr. Spock? Are the creatures in Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are based on Holocaust survivors? And how has Yiddish, a language without a country, influenced Hollywood? These and other questions are explored in this stunning and rich anthology of the interplay of Yiddish and American culture, entitled How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish (Restless Books, 2020), and edited by Ilan Stavans and Josh Lambert. It starts with the arrival of Ashkenazi immigrants to New York City’s Lower East Side and follows Yiddish as it moves into Hollywood, Broadway, literature, politics, and resistance. We take deep dives into cuisine, language, popular culture, and even Yiddish in the other Americas, including Canada, Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, and Colombia. The book presents a bountiful menu of genres: essays, memoir, song, letters, poems, recipes, cartoons, conversations, and much more. Authors include Nobel Prize–winner Isaac Bashevis Singer and luminaries such as Grace Paley, Cynthia Ozick, Chaim Grade, Michael Chabon, Abraham Cahan, Sophie Tucker, Blume Lempel, Irving Howe, Art Spiegelman, Alfred Kazin, Harvey Pekar, Ben Katchor, Paula Vogel, and Liana Finck. Readers will laugh and cry as they delve into personal stories of assimilation and learn about people from a diverse variety of backgrounds, Jewish and not, who have made the language their own. The Yiddish saying states: Der mentsh trakht un got lakht. Man plans and God laughs. How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish illustrates how those plans are full of zest, dignity, and tremendous humanity. Schneur Zalman Newfield is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York, and the author of Degrees of Separation: Identity Formation While Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism (Temple University Press, 2020). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm

Is it possible to conceive of the American diet without bagels? Or Star Trek without Mr. Spock? Are the creatures in Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are based on Holocaust survivors? And how has Yiddish, a language without a country, influenced Hollywood? These and other questions are explored in this stunning and rich anthology of the interplay of Yiddish and American culture, entitled How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish (Restless Books, 2020), and edited by Ilan Stavans and Josh Lambert. It starts with the arrival of Ashkenazi immigrants to New York City’s Lower East Side and follows Yiddish as it moves into Hollywood, Broadway, literature, politics, and resistance. We take deep dives into cuisine, language, popular culture, and even Yiddish in the other Americas, including Canada, Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, and Colombia. The book presents a bountiful menu of genres: essays, memoir, song, letters, poems, recipes, cartoons, conversations, and much more. Authors include Nobel Prize–winner Isaac Bashevis Singer and luminaries such as Grace Paley, Cynthia Ozick, Chaim Grade, Michael Chabon, Abraham Cahan, Sophie Tucker, Blume Lempel, Irving Howe, Art Spiegelman, Alfred Kazin, Harvey Pekar, Ben Katchor, Paula Vogel, and Liana Finck. Readers will laugh and cry as they delve into personal stories of assimilation and learn about people from a diverse variety of backgrounds, Jewish and not, who have made the language their own. The Yiddish saying states: Der mentsh trakht un got lakht. Man plans and God laughs. How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish illustrates how those plans are full of zest, dignity, and tremendous humanity. Schneur Zalman Newfield is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York, and the author of Degrees of Separation: Identity Formation While Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism (Temple University Press, 2020). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm

Is it possible to conceive of the American diet without bagels? Or Star Trek without Mr. Spock? Are the creatures in Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are based on Holocaust survivors? And how has Yiddish, a language without a country, influenced Hollywood? These and other questions are explored in this stunning and rich anthology of the interplay of Yiddish and American culture, entitled How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish (Restless Books, 2020), and edited by Ilan Stavans and Josh Lambert. It starts with the arrival of Ashkenazi immigrants to New York City’s Lower East Side and follows Yiddish as it moves into Hollywood, Broadway, literature, politics, and resistance. We take deep dives into cuisine, language, popular culture, and even Yiddish in the other Americas, including Canada, Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, and Colombia. The book presents a bountiful menu of genres: essays, memoir, song, letters, poems, recipes, cartoons, conversations, and much more. Authors include Nobel Prize–winner Isaac Bashevis Singer and luminaries such as Grace Paley, Cynthia Ozick, Chaim Grade, Michael Chabon, Abraham Cahan, Sophie Tucker, Blume Lempel, Irving Howe, Art Spiegelman, Alfred Kazin, Harvey Pekar, Ben Katchor, Paula Vogel, and Liana Finck. Readers will laugh and cry as they delve into personal stories of assimilation and learn about people from a diverse variety of backgrounds, Jewish and not, who have made the language their own. The Yiddish saying states: Der mentsh trakht un got lakht. Man plans and God laughs. How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish illustrates how those plans are full of zest, dignity, and tremendous humanity. Schneur Zalman Newfield is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York, and the author of Degrees of Separation: Identity Formation While Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism (Temple University Press, 2020). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm

Is it possible to conceive of the American diet without bagels? Or Star Trek without Mr. Spock? Are the creatures in Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are based on Holocaust survivors? And how has Yiddish, a language without a country, influenced Hollywood? These and other questions are explored in this stunning and rich anthology of the interplay of Yiddish and American culture, entitled How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish (Restless Books, 2020), and edited by Ilan Stavans and Josh Lambert. It starts with the arrival of Ashkenazi immigrants to New York City’s Lower East Side and follows Yiddish as it moves into Hollywood, Broadway, literature, politics, and resistance. We take deep dives into cuisine, language, popular culture, and even Yiddish in the other Americas, including Canada, Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, and Colombia. The book presents a bountiful menu of genres: essays, memoir, song, letters, poems, recipes, cartoons, conversations, and much more. Authors include Nobel Prize–winner Isaac Bashevis Singer and luminaries such as Grace Paley, Cynthia Ozick, Chaim Grade, Michael Chabon, Abraham Cahan, Sophie Tucker, Blume Lempel, Irving Howe, Art Spiegelman, Alfred Kazin, Harvey Pekar, Ben Katchor, Paula Vogel, and Liana Finck. Readers will laugh and cry as they delve into personal stories of assimilation and learn about people from a diverse variety of backgrounds, Jewish and not, who have made the language their own. The Yiddish saying states: Der mentsh trakht un got lakht. Man plans and God laughs. How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish illustrates how those plans are full of zest, dignity, and tremendous humanity. Schneur Zalman Newfield is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York, and the author of Degrees of Separation: Identity Formation While Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism (Temple University Press, 2020). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is it possible to conceive of the American diet without bagels? Or Star Trek without Mr. Spock? Are the creatures in Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are based on Holocaust survivors? And how has Yiddish, a language without a country, influenced Hollywood? These and other questions are explored in this stunning and rich anthology of the interplay of Yiddish and American culture, entitled How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish (Restless Books, 2020), and edited by Ilan Stavans and Josh Lambert. It starts with the arrival of Ashkenazi immigrants to New York City’s Lower East Side and follows Yiddish as it moves into Hollywood, Broadway, literature, politics, and resistance. We take deep dives into cuisine, language, popular culture, and even Yiddish in the other Americas, including Canada, Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, and Colombia. The book presents a bountiful menu of genres: essays, memoir, song, letters, poems, recipes, cartoons, conversations, and much more. Authors include Nobel Prize–winner Isaac Bashevis Singer and luminaries such as Grace Paley, Cynthia Ozick, Chaim Grade, Michael Chabon, Abraham Cahan, Sophie Tucker, Blume Lempel, Irving Howe, Art Spiegelman, Alfred Kazin, Harvey Pekar, Ben Katchor, Paula Vogel, and Liana Finck. Readers will laugh and cry as they delve into personal stories of assimilation and learn about people from a diverse variety of backgrounds, Jewish and not, who have made the language their own. The Yiddish saying states: Der mentsh trakht un got lakht. Man plans and God laughs. How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish illustrates how those plans are full of zest, dignity, and tremendous humanity. Schneur Zalman Newfield is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York, and the author of Degrees of Separation: Identity Formation While Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism (Temple University Press, 2020). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm

Is it possible to conceive of the American diet without bagels? Or Star Trek without Mr. Spock? Are the creatures in Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are based on Holocaust survivors? And how has Yiddish, a language without a country, influenced Hollywood? These and other questions are explored in this stunning and rich anthology of the interplay of Yiddish and American culture, entitled How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish (Restless Books, 2020), and edited by Ilan Stavans and Josh Lambert. It starts with the arrival of Ashkenazi immigrants to New York City’s Lower East Side and follows Yiddish as it moves into Hollywood, Broadway, literature, politics, and resistance. We take deep dives into cuisine, language, popular culture, and even Yiddish in the other Americas, including Canada, Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, and Colombia. The book presents a bountiful menu of genres: essays, memoir, song, letters, poems, recipes, cartoons, conversations, and much more. Authors include Nobel Prize–winner Isaac Bashevis Singer and luminaries such as Grace Paley, Cynthia Ozick, Chaim Grade, Michael Chabon, Abraham Cahan, Sophie Tucker, Blume Lempel, Irving Howe, Art Spiegelman, Alfred Kazin, Harvey Pekar, Ben Katchor, Paula Vogel, and Liana Finck. Readers will laugh and cry as they delve into personal stories of assimilation and learn about people from a diverse variety of backgrounds, Jewish and not, who have made the language their own. The Yiddish saying states: Der mentsh trakht un got lakht. Man plans and God laughs. How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish illustrates how those plans are full of zest, dignity, and tremendous humanity. Schneur Zalman Newfield is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York, and the author of Degrees of Separation: Identity Formation While Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism (Temple University Press, 2020). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm

Is it possible to conceive of the American diet without bagels? Or Star Trek without Mr. Spock? Are the creatures in Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are based on Holocaust survivors? And how has Yiddish, a language without a country, influenced Hollywood? These and other questions are explored in this stunning and rich anthology of the interplay of Yiddish and American culture, entitled How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish (Restless Books, 2020), and edited by Ilan Stavans and Josh Lambert. It starts with the arrival of Ashkenazi immigrants to New York City’s Lower East Side and follows Yiddish as it moves into Hollywood, Broadway, literature, politics, and resistance. We take deep dives into cuisine, language, popular culture, and even Yiddish in the other Americas, including Canada, Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, and Colombia. The book presents a bountiful menu of genres: essays, memoir, song, letters, poems, recipes, cartoons, conversations, and much more. Authors include Nobel Prize–winner Isaac Bashevis Singer and luminaries such as Grace Paley, Cynthia Ozick, Chaim Grade, Michael Chabon, Abraham Cahan, Sophie Tucker, Blume Lempel, Irving Howe, Art Spiegelman, Alfred Kazin, Harvey Pekar, Ben Katchor, Paula Vogel, and Liana Finck. Readers will laugh and cry as they delve into personal stories of assimilation and learn about people from a diverse variety of backgrounds, Jewish and not, who have made the language their own. The Yiddish saying states: Der mentsh trakht un got lakht. Man plans and God laughs. How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish illustrates how those plans are full of zest, dignity, and tremendous humanity. Schneur Zalman Newfield is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York, and the author of Degrees of Separation: Identity Formation While Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism (Temple University Press, 2020). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm

It's the 8th annual Guest List episode! Thirty of this year's Virtual Memories Show guests tell us about the favorite books they read in 2020 and the books they hope to get to in 2021! Guests include Derf Backderf, Philip Boehm, Ruben Bolling, Betsy Bonner, Henri Cole, Joan Marans Dim, Emily Flake, Jonathan W. Gray, Tom Hart, Arthur Hoyle, Rian Hughes, Richard Kadrey, Ben Katchor, Kathe Koja, Tess Lewis, Ellen Lindner, Margot Mifflin, David Mikics, Otto Penzler, Woodrow Phoenix, Darryl Pinckney, Alta Price, Steve Ronin, Dmitry Samarov, Michael Shaw, Stoya, Benjamin Taylor, Jeff Trexler, John Vercher, and Sheila Williams! • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal

In his latest graphic novel “The Dairy Restaurant” writer and New Yorker cartoonist Ben Katchor retells the history of where we choose to eat—a history that starts with the first man who was allowed to enter a walled garden and encouraged by the garden's owner to enjoy its fruits. He also examines the historical confluence of events and ideas that led to the development of a “milekhdike (dairy) personality” and the proliferation of Jewish dairy restaurants in America before they mostly disappeared. Join us for a look at the role that the dairy restaurant has played in America’s culinary landscape in this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI.

Renowned cartoonist Ben Katchor sits down with host CEO Dan Mariaschin to discuss his new book, "The Dairy Restaurant." In their conversation, Mariaschin and Katchor explore the history and cultural significance of dairy restaurants, establishments that used to be cornerstones of New York's Jewish community. They also talk about what inspired Katchor to write about dairy restaurants, as well as the extent of his research, why dairy restaurants were so important at their peak and how they have impacted modern Jewish food experiences.

Cartoonist Ben Katchor is probably best known for his comic strip Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer, a comic about small businessman who roams the city capturing pictures of a fading ideal of New York. His newest work is called The Dairy Restaurant. It's an illustrated history of the Jewish restaurants that served as a kind of meatless counterpart to the delicatessen. Ben joins us to talk about the dairy restaurants of his youth, what he calls our "pastoral impulse" to find good food, and the first place he's going once he can break quarantine.

Artist & writer Dmitry Samarov checks in from Chicago to talk about self-isolating in a packed-up apartment (he's supposed to move in a month). We talk about his paintings, the lack of social distancing in some neighborhoods he's seen, his current reading (Tropic of Cancer and Ben Katchor's The Dairy Restaurant), and more. • Follow Dmitry through his weekly e-mail • Listen to our most recent full-length podcast • More info at our site • Find all our COVID Check-In episodes • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal

The great cartoonist Ben Katchor rejoins the show to talk about his brand-new book, The Dairy Restaurant (Schocken), a 500-page illustrated history of, um, dairy restaurants! We get into what drew him to the milekhdike personality, the remnants of Eastern European Jewish culture that call to him, why this book had to be prose-with-pictures rather than comics, the decades of research and interviews he conducted, and why these restaurants came to represent the history of how Jews moved away from their parents' professions. We also discuss just what went wrong with the world, why his favorite books are old Chicago Yellow Pages directories, why just studying Jewish history can constitute a sort of Judaism, his fascination with interwar Warsaw, his plea for a controlled economy, and why The Dairy Restaurant had to begin in the Garden of Eden. • More info at our site (And check out our past conversations from 2013 and 2016!) • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal

American Splendor scene #26 (1:18:34 to 1:24:48) — To his and Joyce’s great shock, Harvey is diagnosed with lymphoma. Joyce suggest he “make a comic book of the whole thing,” but Harvey just wants to die. Undeterred, Joyce enlists Fred, an artist, to illustrate the experience. Fred brings along Danielle, his daughter, on their first brainstorming session, and Joyce is smitten with the girl. Harvey agrees to participate in the comic — and asks Fred tp keep bringing Danielle along. Josh & Dean are again joined by Jeff “JahFurry” Newelt, who edited Harvey's online Pekar Project and the graphic novel Cleveland. "Fred" is an amalgam of artist Frank Stack and Danielle's real father. A discussion of Frank Stack and his art, going back to his work as one of the first underground cartoonists. Harvey wrote comics in the spirit of jazz — with the right partner — and how he chose his collaborators. "What kind of a Jew are you?" and Galicianers. JahFurry talks about working with the “late-period” Pekar. Harvey's importance as a jazz critic and “power-broker,” and Jah’s theory that the movie misses “25% of Harvey's persona.” Harvey's 70th birthday, Harvey Heads, and the Chocolate Cake and Clams Incident. Our giddiest and most flatulent episode ever! Shout-outs to James McCaffery, The Adventures of Jesus, The Texas Ranger, Nick & Eddie restaurant, George Gilmore, Mike DiAvila, Burnzy's Last Call, Viper, Howard Chaykin, American Flagg!, Michael Chabon's The Escapist, Bizarro comics, The Quitter, Joseph Remnant, Rick Parker, Eleanor Davis, DC/Vertigo, Jonathan Vankin, Darwyn Cooke, Ty Templeton, Los Bros. Hernandez, Bob Fingerman, Rick Veitch, SMITH Magazine, A.D., Next Door Neighbor, #RealPekarTweets, Sean Pryor, Alan Moore, Jamie Zaft, John Zorn, Andy Statman, Kamasi Washington, Alice Coltrane, Pharell Saunders, Jonathan Ames, Jen Ferguson, Anthony Bourdain, Sokolowski's Polish Food Emporium, Zip Comics, Top Shelf, Ben Katchor, Douglas Rushkoff, Larry Charles, and Lionel’s Lament. --- This episode is sponsored by · The Colin and Samir Podcast: The Colin and Samir Podcast hosted by LA - based friends and filmmakers Colin and Samir takes a look into what it’s like to make creativity your career. https://open.spotify.com/show/5QaSbbv2eD4SFrlFR6IyY7?si=Dj3roVoJTZmOime94xhjng --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/scenebyscene/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/scenebyscene/support

Time Codes: 00:00:26 - Introduction 00:02:30 - Setup of interview 00:04:05 - Interview with Bill Kartalopoulos and Ben Katchor 01:36:02 - Wrap up 01:37:10 - Contact us Derek talks with Bill Kartalopoulos and Ben Katchor about the 2017 volume of The Best American Comics (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). They are, respectively, the general editor of the series and last year's guest editor. Paul and Derek had wanted to interview the two back in December, but due to life complications, they weren't able to have them on the show. And although Paul wasn't able to join in on this interview, he was with everyone in spirit. So better late than never, Derek speaks with Ben and Bill about the process of their collaboration, the challenges that they faced in collecting potential material, Ben's choices in structuring and populating the 2017 volume, the ways in which current politics couldn't help but find their way into the text, and the questions both editors faced with the very concept of "best comics."  

Time Codes: 00:00:28 - Introduction 00:02:26 - Better late than never 00:05:42 - The Best American Comics 2017 01:30:43 - Wrap up 01:32:15 - Contact us On this episode of the podcast Paul and Derek discuss The Best American Comics 2017, edited by Ben Katchor along with series editor Bill Kartalopoulos. The Two Guys usually discuss Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's annual contribution to comicsdom in the penultimate episode of every year, but this time around life got in the way -- and Paul, everyone's heart goes out to you -- so they had to postpone slightly the current show. But better late than never! As Paul and Derek reveal, this has to be the most experimental volume of The Best American Comics we've ever seen. Editor Ben Katchor does his best to challenge our understanding and definition of "comics" and to interrogate the very concept of "best." In fact, you could call these efforts provocative. This most recent anthology is attuned to the current political environment, and this is perhaps best demonstrated in Katchor's multifaceted and hilarious introduction, as well as Kartalopoulos's insightful Foreword. The contributions themselves are perhaps the most fascinating, and definitely the most varied, of any The Best American Comics volume.  There are many names that would be recognizable to listeners of the podcast -- e.g., Kim Deitch, Tim Lane, Gabrielle Bell, Ed Piskor, Joe Sacco, Josh Bayer, Michael DeForge, and Sam Alden -- but what marks this annual is the sheer number of contributors that neither Derek nor Paul had previously known. Indeed, at least a good half of this collection is comprised of creators never before discussed on the podcast, and it's exciting to discover this many new artists. To say the least, this is the most engaging, and the most challenging, volume of The Best American Comics to date.  

Yiddish scholar and raconteur Eddy Portnoy joins the show to talk about his new book, Bad Rabbi: And Other Strange but True Stories from the Yiddish Press. We get into the tabloid craziness of bigamist rabbis, fights over a Jewish beauty queen, 600-lb. wrestlers, and the déclassé Jews of Poland and New York from the heyday of Yiddish newspapers. We also talk about how Eddy taught himself to read & write Yiddish as a teen and then turned a really fun hobby into a low-paying career, the slip of the microfilm dial that led to this book, his embarrassing story about meeting (and lecturing) Ben Katchor, his resemblance to Geddy Lee, the good fortune that led to preservation of Yiddish newspapers in eastern Europe, and more. But what will his poor mother think? • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal

Ben Katchor rejoins the show to talk about the 25th anniversary edition of Cheap Novelties: The Pleasures of Urban Decay (Drawn & Quarterly)! We talk about those aforementioned pleasures, the boredom of the modern flaneur, his evolution from genre fandom to "literary comics" (my awful term, not his), the danger in comics becoming over-academic, and the challenges of writing a world history. More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal

On this episode of the podcast, the Two Guys with PhDs Talking about Comics review The Best American Comics 2014, the latest installment in Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's ambitious anthology series. This follows a previous review show published earlier in the week where the guys spoke with Bill Kartalopoulos, the new editor of the series. But whereas during the interview Derek and Andy learned about the process and backstory to the Best American Comics series, in this episode they plunge into the specifics of this year's volume and give their own takes on the comics included. They begin with a larger discussion on the concept of “best American comics,” the kind of audiences the annual collections appeal to, and the efforts of the editors in pulling together a select or representative anthology. Here, the guys return to issues they had previously highlighted in their review of The Best American Comics 2013: the predilections and experiences of guest editors, the challenges of being inclusive, as well as the viability of a “best of” anthology. This time around Andy and Derek bandy about definitions of “mainstream” and speculate on the book's intended audience. Although both feel that this is an intelligent and eclectic collection of comics (first appearing between September 1, 2012, and August 30, 2013), Derek feels that the book might appeal more to academics and the New Yorker crowd than it does to general comic shop-visiting readers. (Returning, once again, to a topic that the guys have discussed many times previously, the unintended bifurcation of comics readership.) Furthermore, he wonders what a volume guest edited by someone enmeshed in mainstream comics – and not just superhero comics – might look like…if that is indeed a direction that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt would sanction. Andy reminds Derek how inclusive this year's volume is, and that depending on your definition of “mainstream,” McCloud's includes several comics you could certainly define as “popular.” But despite these dialectics, both guys agree that this is one of the strongest collections in the series' run and that the way that McCloud has organized his presentation is compelling. In this year's volume you have selections from the grand figures of contemporary comics (e.g., R. Crumb, the Hernandez brothers, Charles Burns, Ben Katchor, and Adrian Tomine), all-age and young-adult comics, excerpts from memoir and autobiographical comics, historical works, experimenters of narrative form, abstract and avant-garde comics, and almost as a centerpiece, a selection from what McCloud christens “the book of the year,” Chris Ware's Building Stories. Webcomics are given their fair share of attention in this volume, and the guys understand McCloud's decision to highlight and list URLs instead of attempting to reproduce comics from another platform (although they're not as excited by the one webcomic that does find its way into the collection, an excerpt from Allie Brosh's “Depression Part Two”). All in all, the guys have a great time discussing the many selections in The Best American Comics 2014, and in doing so, they get all revved up for their own “best of” exercise which they will present in next week's podcast episode.

The Greenwich Village loft space occupied by Toon Books is one part office space, part living comics museum. There’s a row of iMacs where most of the business is done, from filling orders to taking product shots, while just above on a second level balcony, a spool of bubble wrap roughly the size of a Volkswagen Beetle leans against a wall of bookshelves fit for a small library. There are decades of fascinating ephemera lining the walls, original comics pages, an in-store cardboard cutout for Chris Ware’s Acme Novelty Library and, most compelling of all, the Gary Panter classic comics head mashup painting that graced the first issue of the RAW’s second volume (1989’s “Open Wounds from the Cutting Edge of Commix”). It’s hardly a surprise, of course, that so many amazing pieces call the space their home. Francoise Mouly has been here for decades herself, since the days when she and husband Art Spiegelman first altered the course of the New York City avant garde comics community with a nascent anthology aimed at offering a publishing home to unknowns like Charles Burns, Joost Swarte, Ben Katchor and, naturally, Spiegelman, who used those pulpy pages to serialize a groundbreaking first-hand account of the holocaust starring a cast of cat and mice. That the Toon Books office occupies the same space is certainly no coincidence. Like RAW before it, the kids comics publishing company was launched to fill a perceived hole in the comics community in the wake of a media that had arguably overcorrected. Thanks to trailblazing works like Maus, the headline-ready phrase “comics aren’t just for kids” had quickly turned from rallying cry to cliche as adult-focused books rapidly became the norm in the intervening decades since RAW closed its doors. In the 00s, Mouly — by then the art director of The New Yorker — pitched a line of education kids bolstered by Jeff Smith’s epic fantasy masterpiece to Scholastic. By 2008, the idea gave way to Toon Books, an independent entity focused on books by cartoonists like Spiegelman, Smith and Eleanor Davis aimed at teaching kids to read and bolstered by detailed lesson plans aimed at reintroducing comics into a classroom setting.  A half-dozen years later, Toons’ scope continues to grow, including the recent publication of a Hanzel and Gretel adaptation penned by Sandman scribe Neil Gaiman. I sat down with Mouly in the middle of Toon Books' cramped quarters to discuss the company's role in the ever-evolving perception of comics as a educational tool.

It's comedy central on The Halli Casser-Jayne Show, Talk Radio for Fine Minds, Wednesday, October 16, 3 pm ET when Halli's guests will be Pulitzer-Prize winning humorist Dave Barry; bestselling author, playwright and screenwriter of that favorite romantic comedy, You've Got Mail, Delia Ephron, and cartoonist Ben Katchor best known for his comic strip Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer. Dave Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author and columnis. He has also written numerous books of humor and parody, as well as comedic novels. His latest book, Hard Listening: The Greatest Rock Band Ever (of Authors) Tells All is a collaboration with his fellow Rock Bottom Remainders, the band that included fellow authors Stephen King, Amy Tan, Scott Turow, Mitch Albom, among others. Delia Ephron is a bestselling author and screenwriter. H Her journalism has appeared in the New York Times, O: The Oprah Magazine, Vogue, The Huffington Post. In Sister Mother Husband Dog, her new book of essays, Ephron showcases her trademark wit and effervescent prose. Brooklyn born Ben Katchor is the American cartoonist best known for his comic strip Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer. Katchor was described by author Michael Chabon as "the creator of the last great American comic strip."

"...people are hesitant to make their own building into a ruin..."

Hand Drying in America

Cartoonist and MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Fellowship winner Ben Katchor joins us for the first live episode of The Virtual Memories Show (in conjunction with the New York Comics & Picture-stories Symposium)! Ben & host Gil Roth talk in front of 50 or so people about Ben's new collection, Hand-Drying in America and Other Stories (Pantheon), as well as what he learned from his work in other art forms (like musical theater), the malling of New York, how publishing lost its identity, how he teaches cartooning, the move to drawing by computer tablet, his one critical audience demographic, the joy of imperfections, how to pronounce "Knipl," whether he has an ideal era for New York, what happened to his History of the Dairy Restaurant book, how fear of shame keeps him productive, how Google can help when you need to draw a Russian prostitute, the Yiddish humor strips he read as a child, and the one book the Library of America should withdraw. (And more!)

This week, Derek and Andy talk with Ben Katchor, an award-winning cartoonist who has also worked in musical theater and is currently an associate professor of illustration at Parsons the New School of Design.  His new book, Hand-Drying in America and Other Stories, came out last week from Pantheon Books. It's a phenomenal work collecting strips that were originally published in the architectural and design magazine, Metropolis, between 1998 to 2012. In their conversation with Ben, the Two Guys with PhDs ask the artist about the design and packaging of  Hand-Drying in America, how his new book differs from his earlier collections, what he sees as the current state of comics publishing, the difference between his work in Metropolis and his ongoing serialized strips, and how his picture stories underscore the layout and strictures of urban life.

Ben Katchor's "Hand-Drying in America" and Mark Russ Federman's "Russ & Daughters," a cookbook memoir, are the new releases recommended by Emma Morgenstern, Director of the Jewish Book Council Network. Episode 0056 March 5, 2013 Yiddish Book Center Amherst, Massachusetts

The Two Guys with PhDs Look at the December Previews CatalogIn this week's episode, The Two Guys with PhDs rummage through the December issue of Previews, and fun and mayhem ensue! Derek and Andy highlight upcoming comics from Dark Horse, DC, IDW, Image, Marvel, Archaia, Bongo, Fantagraphics, :01 First Second, Pantheon Books, and others. Some of the comics and graphic novels discussed include Dark Horse Presents, The Answer!, Before Watchman: Dollar Bill, Mind MGMT, Marshall Law: Deluxe Edition, Snapshot, Son of Merlin, Road to Oz, World War 3 Illustrated, The Sixth Gun: Sons of the Gun, The Daniel Clowes Reader, Ben Katchor's Hand-Drying in America, and many others.

Il podcast sui fumetti condotto da Tito Faraci: ogni primo mercoledì del mese una chiacchierata con fumettisti e appassionati.

For our first foray outside the world of comedy, we talked to Ben Katchor, the super-thoughtful, world-weary cartoonist, author of such comics as Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer. Running in publications like The New Yorker and The Village Voice, among many others, his comics have also been collected in books including The Jew of New York and his latest, The Cardboard Valise, and in 2000, he won the MacArthur Genius Award for his work. Ben's work is both surreal and grounded - odd worlds, odd people and often tragicomic narratives exist in a fully-realized universe, one that resembles our own but is just slightly off. Ben also teaches at Parsons, and in May, we sat down in his office to discuss Google's shoddy lecture series, subsidized art, art and business, art as a craft, the weekly deadline, editors and audiences and in-jokes as the ultimate comedy.

With backgrounds rooted in rock and roll, television comedy and comics, our 4 guests have made the leap from their day jobs to the stages of Broadway and Off Broadway with their musicals. Ben Katchor (The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island), David Javerbaum (Cry-Baby), Heidi Rodewald (Passing Strange) and Stew (2008 Tony Award for Best Book for Passing Strange) discuss adjusting to the collaborative world of theatre, the rules of theatre they think were made to be broken, their reaction to producers' notes, and how they feel their shows fit within the context of traditional musicals.

With backgrounds rooted in rock and roll, television comedy and comics, our 4 guests have made the leap from their day jobs to the stages of Broadway and Off Broadway with their musicals. Ben Katchor ("The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island"), David Javerbaum ("Cry-Baby"), Heidi Rodewald ("Passing Strange") and Stew ("Passing Strange") discuss adjusting to the collaborative world of theatre, the rules of theatre they think were made to be broken, their reaction to producers' notes, and how they feel their shows fit within the context of traditional musicals.