I went to Japan *and* I am spending $6M on comic art
I'm launching my long-awaited newsletter to share comic history, a love of books and bookshops, and much more.
✉Dear Reader
For a long time, I’ve wanted to start a newsletter. Since the days of my first blog, The Exile Bibliophile, from Tumblr, from anywhere I could post a link and cross my fingers, I’ve collected newsletter signups — but not launching a newsletter. I’m excited to say it’s finally happening!
I’m starting this newsletter because I’d like to reconnect with you as I work on my next book. And I’ve waited until now because — what can I say, life is busy! I’ve been curating museum exhibitions and even co-wrote an Eisner award-winning book I’m very proud of.
Going forward, I plan to share bits about comic history, beautiful bookshops, updates on Sonoma County life, and occasional pictures of our dog. And I’ll always have a book or comic recommendation to share.
To catch you up, here’s some highlights from this year.
🇯🇵I went to Japan
Back In January, I had the pleasure of revisiting Tokyo to install a new exhibition at Snoopy Museum Tokyo. I don’t often install exhibitions there, but I curate them and write the text for each exhibition and the usual accompanying catalog. This time I went, as I was also invited to talk to fans and media about our book Charles M. Schulz: The Life of the Peanuts Creator in 100 Objects. There’s a new Japanese translation of the book available, which was thrilling to see in person and on shelves.
Spotting my book at Tsutaya Books in Roppongi, the bookshop I love visiting when I’m in Tokyo! It’s enormous, and they have so many wonderful things, and it is close to the hotel I like to stay at when I’m there, so it’s easy to walk over there. The book was displayed right by the front door, across from the counter, where you pick up your coffee order from the Starbucks inside. Dream come true.
Another recent highlight was attending the annual gathering of cartoonists (and fringe folk like me) at the National Cartoonists Society's annual Reuben Awards at the end of August. This year, it was in San Diego, and it was exciting to chat with cartoonists like Lynn Johnston, Bill Hinds, and Bobby London and see the Comic-Con Museum! I even visited over lunch with Lex Fajardo, Jamar Nicholas, and Tauhid Bondia. I’d never met Tauhid before, and it was great to tell him I love Crabgrass and then cheer the next day as he won the silver Reuben for Outstanding Comic Strip.
📅Upcoming events
This Saturday, September 21, I will join Jump Start cartoonist Robb Armstrong at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco to talk about the Peanuts character Franklin and screen one of the very newest Peanuts specials by Apple TV+ (which is a DELIGHT). Tickets are still available.
😍Books I love
Glenn Fleishman has an incredible background in technology and printing. He has been interested in printing history for a long while and has turned his attention to the history of comics printing. An upcoming book he’s putting together looks fabulous! I’ve backed it, and you can still get in with pre-orders.
Bernie Mireault’s The Jam has been under a bit of discussion in recent weeks with news of Bernie’s death. Comics readers who found the series since its indie launch in the 1980s lauded it as much loved but underappreciated. About Comics brought collected volumes into print. I wanted to see more for myself, and I’m glad I did. Read my full review here.
📓My book projects
Bookshop Memories — During the COVID lockdown, one of the things I started missing right away, and more and more as time went on, was visiting bookshops. One evening, I made a list of all the bookshops I could remember visiting and wrote short essays about each one. I forgot about this little series but started posting them to my blog this year. Once they’re all done, I may bundle them into a little book or something. Hit reply and tell me what you think of that idea.
Dreamsticks by Walter Allman — There's not much to report just yet, but this is a single-panel comic from around 1910, which I love. Puns! Skeletons! Murderous punning skeletons! I‘ll be posting a lot more about these soon.
🔭You can find me
I post to my blog as I can. You can find short posts there. I sometimes share posts on Medium if you are there already. I’ve just started a new series of posts in reaction to the auction record for a comic book — $6M for Action Comics #1. I have to admit, I’d do it differently. If I had $6M for comic stuff, I’d buy something unique. Find out more as I go on a $6M shopping spree.
I’m enjoying BlueSky. It’s like Twitter was in the good ol’ days of the mid-2000s. There are lots of comics people and writers there already, so join the fun! This is a link to a “Starter Pack” of comics history people if you want to try it out. BlueSky introduced direct messages, so my reason to check back at Twitter occasionally has all but disappeared. RIP Twitter. It was great until it turned into a Nazi bar.
I have an account on Instagram if that’s your thing, but I spend less and less time there as time goes on. I don’t like that it has turned into TikTok lite. No, I’m not on TikTok, and I’m not going to be any time soon.
If you’ve read this newsletter's ragged end, thank you! Drop me a line if you'd like! Just hit REPLY, and I’ll see it.
If some boon companion or even a frenemy comes to mind as someone who would love to read along, fwd this to them: https://buttondown.com/benjaminlclark
⚠️WARNING⚠️: This newsletter will not contain Peanuts. My writing about the comic strip Peanuts and Charles M. Schulz will only be found in official Peanuts and Schulz places and channels. Visit the Schulz Museum’s website to hear about everything there.