Talking Comics with Ho and Diana

Ho Che Anderson’s King.

 

Last month, right before the America election, I went to MIT where I gave a series of talks on comics. The main event was a session where Ho Che Anderson, Diana Tamblyn and I talked about the relationship between politics and comics. Ho has done many celebrated graphic novels and comic books, including a long biographical book on Martin Luther King. Diana has done some very fine mini-comics and is now working on an ambitious graphic novel about Gerald Bull, the Canadian scientist and arms dealer who was assassinated in 1990 (most likely because he continued making weapons for Saddam Hussein after it was no longer politically correct to do so).

Thanks to the miracle of modern technology, you can hear our talk by going here.

Diana Tamblyn’s drawing of Gerald Bull

A few highlights:

* I compare Orphan Annie to Sarah Palin

* Ho talk about his debt to Alex Toth and Howard Chaykin

* Diana also puts in a good word for Toth

* I mispronounce many names

* Diana explains how a scientist in love with the pure form of mathematics ending up making terrible weapons