JULES THA G.O.A.T.
We've got a new episode with Fred Kaplan, The Time I Met Jules Feiffer, and more!
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This week, I posted Episode 622 of The Virtual Memories Show, feat. the return of Fred Kaplan! After 4+ decades as a reporter and with a half-dozen nonfiction books under his belt, Fred celebrates his first foray into fiction, A CAPITAL CALAMITY (Miniver Press)! We talk about how lockdown got him to start A Capital Calamity, how his history in national security and the defense sector informs the novel (& its accidental march torward WWIII), how his protagonist is & isn’t a Fred-Not-Traveled, and what it was like to make things up after a career spent reporting the facts. We get into the moral quandaries of being an insider in Washington, his experience working for Les Aspin in the ’70s, the early morning storytelling revelations that opened up the novel to him, and why he set a major scene of the book above The Comedy Cellar in NYC. We also get into whether we’re slow-walking into WWIII, the lessons learned from the 2017-2021 era and how they may affect his coverage of the new administration, his jazz recommendations, the fun of dissecting Washington cocktail party culture, the pros & cons of a multipolar world, and more. Give it a listen! And go read A CAPITAL CALAMITY!
Last week, I posted Episode 621, where artist Mia Wolff joined the show to celebrate her fantastic monograph, THE EMPTY LOT (Fantagraphics Underground), bringing together 100 paintings from more than 40 years of her oeuvre. We talked about how she found the thread & structure for the book, the patterns that emerged as she re-ordered the pieces and stitched them together with new illustrations, comics and prose pieces, and how you can make a joyride of a monograph by introducing your cat into the scene. We got into her dream of catspiders that inspired her for decades, the game of exquisite corpse she’s been playing with Jim Woodring, and her history in art and side trips into a trapeze act with a circus and teaching martial arts. We also discussed the graphic novel she’s working on and how that art parallels her painting, why The Empty Lot has an afterword in the form of a page-by-page tour-conversation with Samuel R. Delany, her love of transparency & translucency and why her paintings of water are so magical, and a lot more. Give it a listen! And go get THE EMPTY LOT!
Recent episodes: Damion Searls • 2024 Recap • The Guest List • Benjamin Swett • Ken Krimstein • Eddie Campbell • Caitlin McGurk
JULES THA G.O.A.T.
“So much of the life of a cartoonist is the sense of getting away with it.”
Jules Feiffer died this week at 95. The hyphens you’d need to describe his work are . . . extensive:
Cartoonist
Satirist
Humorist
Illustrator (of The Phantom Tollbooth, dayenu)
Playwright
Screenwriter
Novelist
Memoirist
Mentor
Creator
Artist
He was an absolute legend, and I’ll run plenty of encomia about him in Sunday’s linky-newsletter. For now, here’s The Time I Met Jules Feiffer.
I was at the Small Press Expo (SPX), an indie comics festival in Rockville, MD, in 2014. I’d just finished doing a short podcast session with Drew Friedman near the lobby, and Drew, knowing that I hadn’t had breakfast yet, insisted I get something to eat in the green room, where he & the other SPX special guests got to go. By insisted, I mean he basically shoved me through the door and said, “Get a bagel!”
So I stumbled in and discovered that the only people in the room were the show organizer, Warren, alt-weekly cartooning legends Lynda Barry & Tom Tomorrow, and Jules Feiffer. Drew said, “It’s okay, he’s with me!” before shutting the door behind me. I got a bagel & lox and skulked to the farthest sofa in the room, hoping to disappear.
Jules, 85 years old, made the long walk over to me, sat down, and said, “What do you do, son?”
After telling him how much his work has meant to me, I told him I make a podcast where I interview writers and artists, and said I’d love to record with him. I dropped Drew’s dad’s name — Bruce Jay Friedman — as a past guest, and a couple of others, and Jules said, “Sure, but . . . you’d have to come out to Long Island.”
I looked at him for a second, thinking maybe this was a test, because I WOULD TRAVEL TO MALTA TO RECORD WITH JULES FEIFFER, then I nodded and said, “Yeah, that . . . won’t be a problem.”
I gave him my card and got his email, and went back to noshing, giddy at the idea that I’d get to record with a Pantheon-level guest. I mean, I’m not one to have heroes, exactly, but there are people whose art & careers I find awe-inspiring, and Jules was WAY up there for me. That he came over to me to start the conversation, that he was curious about “some zhlub from New Jersey,” that he didn’t blow off my pitch: it all blew my mind.
Soon the others joined us, and Lynda asked, “Jules, would it be okay to take a selfie with you?” He said sure, and this happened:
I loved the fact that, outside this room, Lynda Barry was deservedly treated as an absolute god by all the SPX attendees & guets, but here, Jules was top dog. After all, he’d pretty much created the syndicated weekly alt-comics form where Lynda made such a huge mark with Ernie Pook’s Comeek, and he had blazed a trail for so many artists over the decades.
Then Tom Tomorrow, whom I’d later become pals with in his not-so-secret identity of Dan Perkins, took a selfie with Jules:
At which point Lynda said, “Also, would you mind signing something for me?” Jules assented, and in that instant it was like a floodgate opened and Warren and Dan/Tom took out books, calendars, magazines, and other items by Jules for him to sign. (I’m exaggerating, but it felt like all three had tons of Feifferiana for him.)
He was gracious and kind to everybody — I mean, he came over to talk to ME when I was just trying to hide — and seemed to get how much he meant to them, even while he was continuing to explore new directions for his comics, publishing his first full-length graphic novel, KILL MY MOTHER, at, as mentioned, 85.
As he would say during our podcast, “People like Lenny Bruce and William Steig gave me permission. And once they give you permission you walk through that door that they opened and then it’s up to you to go further. If I’ve played a role doing that, that’s great.”
He also said, "As a kid, however sociable you may behave, there’s an inner part of you that doesn't seem quite to belong. You’re always adjusting, always imitating other people. You don’t have to do that with the comics; it’s there to meet you on your own level and quietly move you to a higher level.”
And that’s part of his magic. As sophisticated as Jules was — this is the guy who wrote Carnal Knowledge — and as socially conscious and politically active as he was, I feel like he never forgot or lost touch with the awkward child, and the magic bond that art can make. (Steven Heller did a great interview with Jules a few months ago about his latest children’s book.)
So, yes, Jules & I did record a podcast a little while after SPX. (The late) Tom Spurgeon was visiting me, and he was a huge fan of Jules. Bringing him along made the LONG-ass trip to Sag Harbor easier, and it was great to spend the trip back sharing “CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!” moments with each other.
The big one being when we’d finished the session and Jules asked us, “Would you like to see some of the pages I’m working on for the new book?” (KILL MY MOTHER turned out to be the first of a graphic novel noir trilogy.) We nodded excitedly, and he took us over to his studio, where he just as excitedly showed us page after page of his art, peeling back the tracing-paper overlays of his lettering so we could take it in.
I carry memories of so many of my pod-sessions, so I can reconjure those experiences when I need to convince myself that this has all been worth it.
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Instaxery
I took some Instax during Saturday’s art-trip to NYC, but I wasn’t thrilled with them. I think maybe my milieu is pod-guests’ homes.
Artistry
I’m still making a little sketch every day with a rollerball pen in a cheap notebook, but that’s been it. Here’s a quick sketch I did on Jules’ birthday, 3 years ago. You should go to the Flickr album of most of the art I’ve made & find something you like.
Postcardery
Let me know if you want to be on my postcard-a-day list. (Financial supporters of the podcast get a hand-drawn or painted postcard as a thank-you.)
Until Next Time
Thanks for reading this far! I’ll be back on Sunday with links, books, & workout-craziness, and on Wednesday with a new episode, and maybe some art, maybe some Instax.
I Yam What I Yam,