You can read it here.

I am quoted in this piece about the end of Matt Groening’s seminal alternative comic strip. Since they used an excerpt, I thought you might like to read the complete quote I supplied:

My generation of altie cartoonists—artists whose work first appeared in alternative weekly newspapers like The Village Voice and SF Weekly, people like Tom Tomorrow, Ruben Bolling, Ward Sutton, Carol Lay, Keith Knight—walked through the door that Matt Groening’s “Life in Hell” kicked down in the early 1980s. It’s hard to imagine how the business model that sustained alternative social-commentary and political cartooning for two decades (and is now all but dead) would have evolved had papers not discovered the power of Groening’s strip and its ability to attract readers.

Artistically and creatively, Groening was also a huge influence. His primacy of writing over art, a simple, stripped-down drawing style paired with sardonic, dark observations about life through an existential lens, multiple panels, the freeform use of interchangeable characters without continuing traits, much less story lines, were the template most of us followed.

Groening was also a mentor to many of us, generous with time, advice and blurbs, a real comics fan who still haunts comic shops and conventions. His time understandably became more restricted due to “The Simpsons” and “Futurama,” yet he remained engaged, both in the comics scene and in “Life in Hell,” which has seen a quiet resurgence in relevance and energy in recent years.

Groening is modern cartooning’s rock god, a Moses who came down from the mountain (or the East Village office of the Voice) and handed us the rules we followed. Now the Voice is a rotted husk, print has abandoned cartoonists along with its readers, and digital hasn’t figured out that people really really really love to read funny pictures, not just any funny pictures, but pictures drawn by the exceptionally funny people who need to be paid to spend their time and energy thinking up funny ideas, but if people remember Groening and what he was, or someone like him comes along again, all will be well again.

I was interviewed about America’s security state on RTTV.

Hey, Philistines! (Wait, that isn’t right, is it?) Anyway, I’m in your awesome town day after next, which is Wednesday. See you there, or not, but you should come out and support your awesome local anarchist bookstore, yo.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012
7 pm
Wooden Shoe Books and Records
704 South Street
Philadelphia PA 19147

I’ll be at Baltimore’s Pratt Library tomorrow. Hope to see you there and, no, I’m not going to be back any time soon, this is your one chance until, like 2014. Or later.

Details:

Tuesday, June 19, 2012
6:30 pm
Enoch Pratt Free Library
400 Cathedral Street
Baltimore MD 21201

I draw cartoons for The Los Angeles Times about issues related to California and the Southland (metro Los Angeles).

This week: L.A. county officials are considering a plan to demand that the homeless fill out more forms.

I’ll be signing The Book of Obama in Montclair NJ Saturday at 3 pm. Hope to see you there!

Note: This is a meet and greet, not a formal talk/presentation.

I appeared last week on Portland’s Live Wire show, a live NPR variety show. You can listen to the show, which includes my interview, here. There were some good moments.

I’m interviewed on Peter B. Collins’ podcast roughly 34 minutes in. Length is about 25 minutes, and as usual worth checking out. Mysteriously, Peter isn’t bigger than Rush.