Reading Event, TODAY!

Paul Buhle, author of Comics in Wisconsin and FDR and the New Deal for Beginners
Boswell Book Company @ 2pm

Who knew? Wisconsin comic artists, editors, and publishers have made both central and fringe contributions to the language, form, and content of comic strips, comic books, and other forms of this popular art.

Paul Buhle traces this history, illustrated by more than two hundred reproductions, from "The Gumps" and "Gasoline Alley"-which introduced the continuity of daily life into newspaper "funnies"-to comic book histories of Students for a Democratic Society and the Industrial Workers of the World, alternative press comics that fostered talents like Lynda Barry and James Sturm, and comic adaptations of totemic figures like Howard Zinn and Studs Terkel. Specialists and collectors will treasure this volume, and readers will find themselves educated and vastly entertained.

Paul Buhle is also the author of a newest installment in the series, FDR and The New Deal For Beginners, a profusely illustrated volume with original comic art, which sheds new light upon a story now regaining visibility thanks to the recent economic crisis and prominent reformer, President Obama, in the White House. The late comic book writer and author Harvey Pekar is a contributor.

Author bio: Paul Buhle teaches American Civilization at Brown University. His many previous books include Taking Care of Business: Samuel Gompers, George Meany, Lane Kirkland, and The Tragedy of American Labor.