Welcome to Wednesday. Today we have Annie Mok reviewing fellow TCJ-contributor Mike Dawson's book Rules for Dating My Daughter.
Mike Dawson delivers an uneven collection of personal essay-style memoir comics, occasionally thoughtful, but often thoughtless in its concern for others. The stories, culled mostly from The Nib, Kickstarted to fund production, and now published by Tom Kaczynski’s Uncivilized Books, focus on parenting in a hyper-masculine, capitalist, culturally volatile age. While I enjoyed some elements of the book, many rattled me (I’ll get to those in a moment).
One comic essay has Dawson looking at his daughter’s infatuation for a Disney princess show called Sofia the First. Dawson wonders: what does the show’s implicit acceptance of a ruling class mean for his daughter, taking that in taking in these stories?
Elsewhere:
The good people at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum blog about another new acquisition.
I'm fascinated by the new talking points that have sprung around R. Crumb, straight from his gallery's press releases. Theoretically and economically moving him out of a comic book context is key to establishing a more robust primary market for whatever he still has to sell. So on comes the talk of media and selfies and the like. Fine by me. Lord knows the discourse around him in comics hasn't exactly been interesting. Funny to watch.
This sounds like a great exhibition over in Australia.
The 2016 Eisner Award nominees have been announced. Frank Santoro offered his commentary here. Me, I'm holding out for a No-Prize.
Most importantly: Hillbilly comics!
