Happy Birthday, America!
And what better way to celebrate than with some goodies all related to one of the three or four greatest living cartoonists.
First of all, I know this is sort of old news, but only at MoCCA last weekend was I finally able to pick up a copy of the Journal’s Winter 2004 Special Edition, which features both an in-depth overview of Phoebe Gloeckner’s career by Tom Spurgeon and a brand-new “photoromance” in which Gloeckner discusses several unlikely people who’ve provided her with artistic inspiration. (It also features a game of “Sexual Memory” that is one of the more bizarre things she’s ever done, and as you can guess if you’re at all familiar with her work, that’s saying something.)
Second, the most recent regular issue of the Journal has both a one-on-one interview conducted by Gary Groth, portions of which are excerpted here, and a review of The Diary of a Teenage Girl by Donald Phelps. Like the Special Edition, this issue is definitely worth picking up if you’re at all interested in Phoebe’s work: Not only does it feature another original photoromance, but the interview contains a great sidebar about the long and winding road that Diary took before finally being reviewed by the Journal, which is just happening now, over a year and a half after its release. (This has been a topic of some interest to me ever since I interviewed Phoebe, as astute ADDTF readers might recall.)
Finally, did you know that Phoebe is blogging again? Yes, she’s back! Go say hello. And buy her books, if you don’t already have them, because the simple fact of the matter is that comics don’t come any better.