you send me comics

Any idea what book this image is from?

First of all, the blog over at the The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is an amazing resource for comics lovers, especially if your tastes skew vintage. My favorite feature is "Found in the Collection" because it indulges the fantasy that working in an archives is an exciting adventure of discovery--the same fantasy that led me to get my MLIS, but perhaps that is another story for another time.

I missed Found in the Collection: E. Simms Campbell Letters when it was first posted, so it is old in internet time. The E. Simms Campbell Letters are, of course, timeless, as all good letters are. The writer, Elmer Simms Campbell, was not only the creator of the Esquire magazine mascot, but a working, African American, NYC cartoonist from the 1930s to his death. The letters speak to the cartoonist lifestyle, one of all-nighters, deadlines, loneliness, but also some pretty epic partying, life in 1950s Switzerland and the habits of some prominent jazz musicians. Reading them in full would be pretty much the best thing. Researchers, take notice!

^^^^^

Loved the interview with Ellen Forney over at inkstuds. They cover working in memoir, coming out as mentally ill, deadlines, drugs and doctors. I want to read Marbles, which I didn't want before I listened.

I simply like listening to Forney. Her verve for life is infectious and that is something I desperately need to catch. Her previous interview with Robin made me feel the same way.

^^^^^

From LWA

A postcard interview is one of the best things I've heard about in a long while. I am doing a postal-related interview for work and if deadlines were not an issue, this would be an amazing treatment. If only, if only.