On the Horizon: My Life With Charlie Brown

My Life with Charlie Brown included autobiographical essays, introductions, articles, reviews, and lectures by Charles Schulz.

Perhaps best known as the creator of Peanuts, Charles M. Schulz (1922–2000) was also a thoughtful and precise prose writer who knew how to explain his craft in clear and engaging ways. 

This book, edited by comics scholar M. Thomas Inge, will be available from UPM in April.

Errol Morris Received Interview Tips from Harvey Weinstein

It seems the latest addition to UPM's Conversations with Filmmakers Series wasn't always a great interview subject. Apparently there was a time when Errol Morris needed some encouragement and advice on how to talk about himself and his films. Luckily for us he eventually figured it out. Readers can view the progress for themselves  by picking up a copy of Errol Morris: Interviews.

This story and letter comes from the blog Letters of Note:

Studio head Harvey Weinstein sent this fantastically blunt letter to Errol Morris in 1988, following the director's recent promotional interview for The Thin Blue Line. Morris' documentary eventually went on to win multiple awards and much acclaim, and the subsequent exoneration of the movie's 'star' earned Miramax - Weinstein's company - invaluable publicity, but at the time it seems the producer was less than pleased with Morris' efforts when it came to selling the concept to audiences.

A truly entertaining letter to read but no doubt an infuriating one to receive.

Transcript follows after the jump:

New Book: Madame Vieux Carre

Celebrated in media and myth, New Orleans's French Quarter (Vieux Carré) was the original settlement of what became the city of New Orleans. Although the Vieux Carré has been marketed as a free-wheeling, boozy tourist concept, it exists on many levels for many groups, some with competing agendas.

In Madame Vieux Carré, Scott S. Ellis (a former French Quarter resident) presents the social and political history of this famous district as it evolved from 1900 through the beginning of the twenty-first century. 

From the immigrants of the 1910s, to the preservationists of the 1930s, to the nightclub workers and owners of the 1950s and the urban revivalists of the 1990s, Madame Vieux Carré examines the many different people who have called the Quarter home, who have defined its character, and who have fought to keep it from being overwhelmed by tourism's neon and kitsch.

Learn more at www.madamevieuxcarre.com

**Scott Ellis will be signing copies of his book at Garden District Bookshop on Saturday, January 23 from 1-3 p.m.

Praise for A Comics Studies Reader

A Comics Studies Reader has just been named winner of the 2009 Peter C. Rollins Book Award by the Southwest Texas Popular/American Culture Association. This prize is awarded annually for the best book in popular culture studies and/or American culture studies.

Editors, Jeet Heer and Kent Worcester have been honored for their exemplary work in the popular culture field. Designed to reward genuine research and lucid expression, the award bears the name of Peter C. Rollins, Founder of the SWTX organizations.  

A Comics Studies Reader offers the best of the new comics scholarship in nearly thirty essays on a wide variety of such comics forms as gag cartoons, editorial cartoons, comic strips, comic books, manga, and graphic novels.

Yabby You is Gone

Reggae artist Vivian 'Yabby You' Jackson died in Jamaica 2 days ago, aged 63. 

Below, UPM author Randall Grass (Great Spirits: Portraits of Life-Changing World Music Artists) offers his thoughts on the life and career of Yabby You. Grass' book offers a more detailed presentation of You in a chapter titled "Yabby You: The Jesus Dread."

Yabby You was one of the most spiritual people I've ever met. 

What do I mean by that? It was not simply that he focused on matters spiritual, talked about them and made music that was intended to be a conduit for spiritual expression. His very presence was a strong, benign, calm, beneficent, ego-free kind of being. He radiated serene knowledge, which he would pass on to you but not in any proselytizing way.

New Book: Of Comics and Men

Originally published in France and long sought in English translation, Jean-Paul Gabilliet's Of Comics and Men: A Cultural History of American Comic Books documents the rise and development of the American comic book industry from the 1930s to the present.

A thorough introduction by translators and comics scholars Bart Beaty and Nick Nguyen brings the book up to date with explorations of the latest innovations, particularly the graphic novel. 

The book is organized into three sections: a concise history of the evolution of the comic book form in America; an overview of the distribution and consumption of American comic books, detailing specific controversies such as the creation of the Comics Code in the mid-1950s; and the problematic legitimization of the form that has occurred recently within the academy and in popular discourse.

On the Wall Named Outstanding Academic Title

On the Wall: Four Decades of Community Murals in New York City has been chosen as a 2009 Outstanding Academic Title from Choice.

This collection of neighborhood art by Janet Braun-Reintz and Jane Weissman collects 150 color images and offers an aesthetic perspective on New York's community murals in a lively and perceptive history.

 These outstanding works have been selected for their excellence in scholarship and presentation, the significance of their contribution to the field, and their value as important--often the first--treatment of their subject. Choice Outstanding Academic Titles are truly the "best of the best."

See photos from On the Wall after the jump.