Okay, just like most of you, our pick-up trucks are all loaded with watermelon, Weber grills, and illegal fireworks, and we're ready to head out to parts unknown to celebrate the birth of a nation, but we've got a few more items for you to read first. Independence Day means that we won't be publishing on Monday, but that's good news really, because if you didn't notice, this week was really packed with great reading material. Use the extra day to catch up on whatever you missed. (And tune in to WKCR's annual all-day Armstrong festival for a soundtrack.)
This morning, our columnist R.C. Harvey offers a retort to the video re his Milton Caniff book that I posted a while back. Whatever controversy may still linger over its funniness or lack thereof, I can now feel confident that publicizing that video had at least one positive result. By the way, Dan wants to report that for the record, he has read the entire book: "It is very long, yet also very awesome."
Dan wrote the other piece we have for you today, a review of one of the most anticipated books of the year, Peter Maresca's latest oversize reprint anthology, Forgotten Fantasy: Sunday Comics 1900-1915. I can not wait to see this one.
On a sadder note, Thierry Martens, comics historian and former editor of Spirou, has passed away at the age of 69. Kim Thompson offers tribute.
Elsewhere:
The Asterix/brain injury controversy isn't going anywhere! Jeff Albertson goes into great detail on the subject over at the Comics Grid. Actually, he provides some valuable context, and a needed reminder that whenever the media hypes up a scientific or academic study, there's a very good chance there's some serious misrepresentation going on.
Apparently, the Favorites zine, edited by the great Craig Fischer, and intended to raise money for Parkinson's research on behalf of Team Cul De Sac, is now available for sale. Among its authors are several Journal favorites, including Rob Clough, Jeet Heer, Chris Mautner, Joe McCulloch, Frank Santoro, and Matthias Wivel.
And finally, Johanna Draper Carlson reports that Friends of Lulu is no more.
