America cannot long remain free, nor first among nations, if it becomes the kind of place where universities are dismantled because they don't align politically with the current head of the government.

Truth

What’s up, doc? Seen hanging out on 231st St, half a block from the Henry Hudson Parkway.

His home borough

60% of American households can’t afford a minimal quality of life. Meanwhile, the 19 richest households saw their wealth increase by $1 trillion in 2024 — the biggest one-year increase ever. Our problem isn't a lack of resources. Our problem is ever-expanding inequality.

@nsousanis.bsky.social and I made it into the timeline of 50 years of Columbia alumni magazine. If you want to see the other 49 years, click here magazine.columbia.edu/article/50-y...

With thanks to J.J Sedelmaier and Howard Beckerman’s daughter Sheri, these beauties are now gracing our collection. Descriptions in the ALT text.

This is a major milestone. It’s even bigger than this post indicates. Art Spiegelman won a special Pulitzer. Tessa Hulls won a Pulitzer for a category that branched off in 2023 from one established in 1917.

Wonderful, fabulous @cathkastner.bsky.social drew this portrait of me after my visit with her in Paris. It is accurate to every detail, from Sacre-Coeur in the background to my fuschia coat to the pockets on my suitcase to my omnipresent chocolat chaud.

So…more fun at Columbia. I left the library at about 3:30 to go have tea with a donor. There was a crowd outside the entrance, but they were milling about. No chanting, no placards.

Last night at @92ndstreety.bsky.social : Naomi Fry talks with Robert Crumb and Dan Nadel, on the occasion of the release of Dan’s Crumb biography. Also, obviously, the most important content in the book (see alt-text for why)!

MMR vaccine doesn’t just prevent measles, mumps, and rubella. It also prevents RFK Jr. from showing up at your child’s funeral to exploit your grief at your most vulnerable moment.

Look at this absolute BEAUTY of a cartoon: Sisters of Liberty!, by Burris Jenkins, 1943. From a time when a majority of Americans pulled together for a common goal. Hard to believe, eh?

Un-American.

Interesting. I would have expected the price to be higher. The one on the left might belong in a different bin, though.

Jeez, let’s get back to comics, eh? I’m trying to avoid current events as much as possible to stave off insanity (witness my last post, wherein I succumbed). Herewith, for those of you on FB, a minuscule portion of the photos we got in a recent donation… www.facebook.com/126490/posts...?

Jeezus Chriminy-rist, “Democracy First”: are you his pawns?!?

If you are pissed off about the news that Columbia University is capitulating to Trump, please consider donating to the Spectator, the fully independent newspaper that has broken so much of the news about Columbia's role in Gaza protests and more. www.specpublishing.com/donate

The Columbia Spectator is published by a 501(c)3 that is financially independent from Columbia University. Outside donations are the reason they are able to keep up the amazing journalism they do, holding Columbia University accountable.

Okay, this is my newest very very favorite meme.

Gotta admit—this is not a shining moment in the history of NY Democrats.

Not a shining moment in the history of my university. www.aaup.org/news/cowardi...

the fact that people are being disappeared in the name of ""preventing antisemitism"" by a christian nationalist administration is making me nauseated and horrified in ways i cant even begin to explain

I saw a truly bizarre caryatid on a late 19th-c building near Columbus and 69th Street. I figured, that CAN’T be real. And what the hell—is she holding in her intestines?? I went looking for an image of the original in those 1940 WPA building photos and, sure enough, somebody did sumpin’.

I got roughly 300 new followers today and I can’t help but wonder how many of them are bots…

Just learned that Tom Robbins died about four weeks ago. I can’t begin to say how ANOTHER ROADSIDE ATTRACTION got me through my teen years. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/o...

Let’s do this.

free online Thu, March 6, 4pm PT, 7 ET: remembering Jules Feiffer, with friends & admirers Peter Kuper, Mort Gerberg, Karen Green, Danny Fingeroth & others. @klg19.bsky.social @dannyfingeroth.bsky.social @pkuper.bsky.social @thenewschool.bsky.social nycomicssymposium.wordpress.com/remembering-...

The fact that the USA has banned visas for trans people but welcomed rapist Andrew Tate shows how all this "defending women" stuff is total bullshit

Well, it's been a long time in the works, but at last the elf is out of the bag: Wendy & Richard Pini have donated $500K to create an endowed fund to support acquisitions, processing, and stewardship of the comics collections at Columbia. www.forbes.com/sites/dbloom...

This…this is quite a good idea. Punk versions. C&W versions. Swiftie versions. The whole gamut.

Every artist I know is really struggling right now. Financially, emotionally, their confidence, in general. If you like an artist's work, support them any way you can. Buying their stuff or subscribing to their Patreon is great, but words of encouragement are also incredibly helpful.

Bravo to Governor Mills of Maine! Proud that my father was a State of Mainer, and wish he were alive to hear her (he’s been gone for 39 years). Her third paragraph is the crux for me, and echoes Martin Niemöller’s famous “First they came…” maxim.

For Valentine’s Day, my Amicus Incognitus gave me a new drawing for the Alice Sketchbook. This one is from Fernando Ruiz and is simply lovely. (For more examples, go to Instagram and search #AliceSketchbookKLG. There are some real corkers!)

The winners and special mentions of the BolognaRagazzi Awards are announced! Here are the winners I was involved with… Comics, Early Readers: www.bolognachildrensbookfair.com/en/awards/bo...

Sigh. When have Democrats ever taken that strong a stand on anything?

I’m going to do this. Are you? H/T to @lavd46.bsky.social !

We are living through Republicanism boiled down to its essence: Everyone should be deprived of everything, because otherwise, somebody I don't like might get something I don't want them to have. We call it an ideology, but it's really a personality: Greedy, withholding, suspicious, angry, cruel.

This is true.

Dang. That’s not even a remotely competent phishing attempt (asssp to you, too, tiger). Not to mention I don’t even own a car.

Tesla's stock is ridiculously overvalued, and even a modest consumer boycott could tank the company, which accounts for the majority of Elon Musk's wealth. The divestment movement weakened apartheid South Africa. Let's do that again. slate.com/business/202...

I started the graphic novels collection at Columbia just a few months shy of 20 years ago. In July 2005, we had three titles in the building: MAUS, PERSEPOLIS, and PALESTINE (I nice example of diversity right there, actually. But I didn’t want an all-English collection. (Exposition in ALT text)

I know it’s not “cool” anymore but, for the love of all that’s holy, if you need to get an answer or arrange a meeting…EMAIL ME.

Ah, NYT Pitchbot, you’re like the Onion: parody is now indistinguishable from reality.

The staircase in Villa Majorelle, Nancy. I never wanted to leave.

DO NOT MEMORY HOLE THE NAZI SALUTE! Elon Musk did it not once but twice, and with vigor! It’s been 3 weeks, and there’s been no accountability. Institutionalized Judaism has let him off the hook. It is up to us to remember, to never forget the ancestors who deserve better, and to make it stick.

My kid learned from Spider-Man that some kids have to pay for school lunch and is having a righteous meltdown about it bc “we HAVE to go to school so people have to FEED US and some people don’t have any quarters” so congrats, everyone in charge, an 8 yr old is beating you on both logic and empathy

I was lucky to spend the afternoon and evening with MAD artist Rick Tulka, picking up art he’s donating. After a lovely dinner with Rick & his wife Brenda, I prepared to go. Rick was clearly having second thoughts but the energy from my dinner served me to fight back. The struggle is real, people.

This time tomorrow I’ll be in Angoulême.