Books News is No Laughing Matter
In which I find out news of when something will be published.
A shorter newsletter this week, as we off on our travels again with a quick trip back up to Maryland this weekend - more on that next week.
But first how about we kick things off with a NEW BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT
In stores August 20th - THE MAN WHO LAUGHS: Exploring The Crown Prince of Crime.
The Joker has been a goofy trickster, a giggling lunatic, a psychopathic killer, a methodical mastermind, a failed comedian, and an unstoppable force. It all depends on the writer and artist telling the story. He's the Clown Prince of Crime, the Man Who Laughs, an agent of chaos. He has no special abilities or superpowers, but also no moral code or grip on reality. The Joker is charismatic, terrifying, unpredictable, and downright hilarious. The only method to this criminal's madness is that there is no method. This anthology offers more than twenty perspectives on the yin to Batman's yang, written by respected comic creators, historians, and industry insiders. So step right into the mouth of madness. The joke's on us, and we'd like to let you in on it.
I’m honored to have my essay on “Why I’m Fed Up With The Joker,” included in this anthology alongside a whole host of great pop-culture writers and comics historians.
Other Stuff
Thanks to the new subscribers who have joined since last week. I really appreciate your interest and support. If you would like to join them you can subscribe below.
I’ve already made an initial foray into Substack’s new NOTES function, which you can now access directly from the NOTES tab on my Substack webpage. Not sure exactly how I’ll be using it yet, but my first thoughts are that I’ll be posting more books and movie reviews, quotes, and the occasional bit of personal stuff not covered in the main newsletter.
Pages and Screens
Books Read in 2023 - “A History of the World in Six Glasses” by Tom Standage.
Beer, Wine, Spirits, Coffee, Tea, & Coke. Six drinks that could be argued literally changed the world and the way we live.
Standage looks at their origins and cultural and historical impacts to examine selected eras in mankind’s story.
It’s an entertaining and informative read that I ended up recommending to several people over the last few weeks as I was reading it.
It certainly made me appreciate the history and impact of some of my favorite beverages.
Podcast Procrastinations
The Before They Were Beatles podcast - In the latest episode, which went live this week, we return to our story of the Beatles formative years with detailed look at the events surrounding The Beatles change in drummer as we say “Farewell Pete, Hello Ringo.”
And talking of Before They Were Beatles, just a reminder that if you’d like to keep up with the progress of the work on the 20th Anniversary edition of the Before They Were Beatles book you can sign up for a subscription to the dedicated Substack monthly newsletter HERE. -
Weekly Web Round-Up
Batman On The Cover - The journey through Batman’s comics publishing history continues this week as we start our look at the various Batman comics published by DC Comics for February 1968; Detective Comics, Batman, The Brave & The Bold, and World’s Finest.
Although there was a couple of excellent Neal Adams covers from this batch (on Detective Comics and The Brave & The Bold), my favorite this week has to be the cover to Batman #199 with its meta commentary of Batman needing to find a copy of his own comic book.
As always, thanks for joining me for this week’s rambles through the Forest. And don’t forget to sign up for a FREE subscription so you don’t miss future updates.
See you next time
Alan J. Porter