Emerald finds cartoonist titillating, disproportional
Art Spiegelman, madman genius behind Maus, Shadow of No Towers, RAW, and those Garbage Pail Kids for which those of us around in the eighties used to trade our lunch money, was in town on his “Comix 101” tour last night at the Shedd Auditorium.
Also present at the Shedd was an ODE reporter, whose coverage is nearly as comical as Spiegelman’s presentation. Explaining the fact that he was smoking on stage, the Emerald quotes the speaker as saying, “This is a performance by an erotic, self-absorbed cartoonist from New York.” Um… A NEUROTIC, self-absorbed cartoonist, Philip. Neurotic people smoke; perhaps you’ve seen me traipsing past the Emerald office fifteen times a day. Erotic performers generally take their clothes off when they take a stage; as Speigelman is a middle-aged man, that might have gotten a little bit weird.
The article’s full of stuff like this, by the way, but maybe you’d have had to be there to notice.
Spiegelman had a lot to say about the Jyllands-Posten thing, and he might even have stolen some of our upcoming thunder. (< -- HINT) A staggering majority of those in attendance admitted they hadn't seen the cartoons. They've seen 'em now. Unlike Ted Rall , he’s drawn up some arresting images in response to Iran’s call for anti-Semitic cartoons, which he showed last night. The only one he couldn’t get published featured a drawing of a heap of skinny bodies in the foreground, a razor-wire fence in the midground, and some beefy guards and puffing smokestacks in the background. Between the fence and the bodies, a single-file line of emaciated, somber prisoners. But the prisoner in the middle of the line is colorfully drawn, leaning back in laughter, squealing, “You know what cracks me up, though? The fact that none of this ever happened!”
I really wish I could link to the ones he’s gotten published– but you know how those Jews at the New Yorker can be.
