1/31/2017

2016 Reading

Here's some of the books I was reading or thinking about in 2016.

This is only a fraction. Actual objects that I held in my hands and considered. I liked some of them a lot, I didn't like some of them, some of them I liked the cartooning but hated the book design, some of them I thought the book design was interesting but that the content was not that interesting. Some of these are great covers, some are terrible covers.

I continue to love books and hate books. I love to go out and get books and come home with them, but I also like sorting through them and getting rid of some, or giving some away to good homes. I encourage you to do this too. It's the natural way of books.

Special note: I'm posting this on the internet. I hate the internet.

The library should be a weekly trip. The bookstore should be a monthly trip. Every quarter you should attend a "book sale" of some kind put on by an organization. This is the best place to buy books.

Last comes the Internet. The Internet hates books and is trying to destroy book culture and destroy actual physical books. It's a good place to find out about books, though.

Here's some good links to lists of books by bloggers who read more and are smarter and have better taste than me:

Also see Comics Workbook for a ton of comics to covet and learn about.
http://comicsworkbook.com/

David Auerbach
http://www.waggish.org/2017/david-auerbachs-books-of-the-year-2016/

Austin Kleon
http://books.austinkleon.com/

More in comments:

1/21/2017

links in an email sent to students I skyped with in Vancouver


kevinh.blogspot.com (best place for links)

Copacetic Comics (from Pittsburgh) is a good place to order comics online.
Or from my publishers Fantagraphics or Drawn and Quarterly. These publishers put out many other great comics and graphic novels.

Good collections are: Anthology of Graphic Fiction by Brunetti, 2 Volumes. Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics has a great selection of Early 20th Century newspaper comics.

There are good books of George Herriman’s work.

There are not many good collections of early Popeye, but there are some decent ones from Fantagraphics. They are designed badly and hard to read, but you owe it to yourself to read them.

also see: Spit and a Half for DIY current Small Publishers, punks, and great artists.

Please do not use Amazon to buy my books, or if you do, please buy my books used, using a different website. Order it through your local bookstore, if possible, and go in to pick it up!

I have a flickr account that is still pretty active https://www.flickr.com/photos/55197488@N00/

I have 3 tumblrs that are less active than a couple years ago, but I still throw stuff up on there http://fielder.tumblr.com http://khclasses.tumblr.com/ http://fielderbb.tumblr.com/

I don’t like twitter or facebook, but I’m on there but I don’t post much.
Like Amazon, these companies are transforming and destroying much of what was good about our literary culture in the USA, even as they make many things possible which on the surface seem cool and harmless, but are not.

I don’t like instagram either, but a lot of my friends are on there and I do like looking at images, but I’m on there @1000kevin

1/16/2017

“I don’t know what will happen now. 

We have got difficult days ahead, but it doesn’t matter with me because I’ve been to the mountain top. Like anybody else I would like to live a long life. But I’m not concerned with that. I just want to do God’s will and he has allowed me to go up to the mountain. I see the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. I am happy tonight that I am not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.” (Ben Shahn print version) (link to youtube of longer section) 

1/11/2017

Studio shots late 2016




This is the room I work in now. It used to be Anders Nilsen's room. It's pretty good. If it's too quiet I hear my downstairs neighbors fan pulsing. I think it's always on. The people upstairs are fostering two pitbull puppies, and that can get loud at times.



Here's the view out the window.


Minneapolis


1/01/2017

1_1_2017


Time Capsule Sunday Reading Links 1/1/2016


The Current Problems at the Shops
The problems being articulated to me are the following:
  • DC’s prices are too low
  • Customers disappearing
  • Customers are switching to tpbs/book format
  • Customers don’t like Marvel’s output
  • Rising cost of doing business
  • Diamond credit crackdown
Let’s do this by the numbers.


Cyber Panic - The current panic uses a definition of hacking that rates very low on the scale of cyberattacks, and blurs the line between actual security breaches and the dissemination of political propaganda.


-images via (link). Adorno everyday (see link). Adorno reading the internet, looking at ads from old comic books. Imagine that what if this is the redeemed world. Thanks to Lambert Zuidevaart.


Currently Reading: I Hate the Internet. Leaves Of Grass. The Organized Mind. New Yorker Magazine. Baron Bean.