The Guardian: “The Unwanted”. Joe Sacco on African refugees in Malta in the first installment of a 48-page reportage that originally ran in the Virginia Quarterly Review.
Harvey Pekar. The death of the pioneering comics writer this week elicited some fine journalism around the web: Tom Spurgeon’s obituary, which features testimonies from a number of comics notabilities, is a great place to go if one wants an introduction to Pekar’s life and work; Gary Groth’s two excellent Comics Journal interviews, from1984 and 1993, would be the next; Eric Reynolds’ personal reminiscence is an example of the writer’s important influence upon a generation of readers and cartoonists; and Vanessa Davis’ short comics tribute provides a touching note. UPDATE: David Hajdu provides a critical corrective.
Debate on R. Crumb’s Genesis: over at HU, Ng Suat Tong wrote an involved and thought-provoking critique of the great cartoonists recent, major book, which elicited a fine response by Ken Parille and a further post by Suat, as well as a lot of interesting discussion in the comments of the posts.
Matthias Wivel is the administrator of the Metabunker. He is the Curator of Sixteenth-Century Italian Paintings at The National Gallery in London and a co-founder and the current chairman of the Danish Comics Council.
