Michael Chabon is really, REALLY liked by NY Times

I like Michael Chabon. I've got almost all of his books, maybe all, most of them signed. Kavelier & Clay, except for a gratuitous homosexual rape scene, is one of the best novels about comics you'll ever find. I've even got a complete run of the spin-off Escapist comic books.

But the Times must like him better. They've run three stories on him in two days:

Parents Burning to Write It All Dow
By MALIA WOLLAN, October 18, 2009

First-Person Masculine
By DAVID KAMP, New York Times Book Review October 18, 2009

Boy to Man: Amazing Adventures
By MICHIKO KAKUTANI, October 19, 2009

By the way, Politics and Prose has signed copies of his new book. I bought one last night.

Oct 9: Chabon at GWU tomorrow

Comics-friendly authors Jonathan Lethem and Michael Chabon will be in town, reading from new books this fall.

Oct. 9; Chabon is at Lisner Auditorium, at 7:00, free.

Nov. 2: Lethem is at Folger Elizabethan Theatre, at 7:30, $15.

Lethem and Chabon in town this fall

Comics-friendly authors Jonathan Lethem and Michael Chabon will be in town, reading from new books this fall.

Oct. 9; Chabon is at Lisner Auditorium, at 7:00, free.

Nov. 2: Lethem is at Folger Elizabethan Theatre, at 7:30, $15.

March 23: Chabon at GWU

From GWU's English Dept blog (!)

Thursday, February 26, 2009
For Your Calendar: Chabon and Jones (March 23)
The author of The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Wonder Boys, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Summerland, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh -- and MORE -- will read from his work and then be interviewed live by Professor Faye Moskowitz.

Michael Chabon will be introduced by Edward P. Jones, GW's first Wang Professor of Contemporary Literature.

The event begins at 7 PM on Monday March 23 in the Jack Morton Auditorium, and is followed by a book signing for both Chabon and Jones. Free and open to all who wish to attend, but seating is on a first-available basis.

The auditorium is in the School of Media and Public Affairs, 805 21st Street, NW Washington, DC 20052

Spiegelman, Chabon, to read at George Washington University

Sara Duke tips us off that, for a course on Jewish literature, Spiegelman and Chabon will be at GWU this spring. "While on campus, several authors will give readings open to the entire GW community. Ulinich will read on March 5; Chabon, who will be introduced by GW's Wang Visiting Professor in Contemporary English Edward P. Jones, will present on March 23; and Spiegelman will read on April 2."

GWU's PR deptartment says, "The event is open and free to the public. It will be held at 8pm in the Jack Morton Auditorium, which is located on the main level of the Media and Public Affairs Building. The address is 805 21st St. NW."

Comics scholarship from Singer of Howard

Marc Singer's "Embodiments of the Real: The Counterlinguistic Turn in the Comic-Book Novel," Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 49 (3; Spring 2008): 273-289, just came out. Marc's teaching at Howard and ran SPX for a couple of years. The article deals with Lethem and Chabon for the most part. In mentioning it on the comix-scholar's email list, Marc said, "The article focuses on novels about comics (Chabon, Lethem, Moody, etc), but it also addresses some of the distinctive figurative possibilities of comics and it draws on the work of comics scholars like Don Ault, Scott Bukatman, and Richard Reynolds."

If that sounds like it's of interest to you, hit the library for inter-library loan or convince your library to order the journal.

Michael Chabon, formerly of Columbia, MD, on superhero costumes

Secret Skin: An essay in unitard theory, by Michael Chabon, The New Yorker, March 10, 2008. He talks about growing up in Columbia toward the end of the essay.

Chabon endorses Obama

Chabon endorses Obama in "Obama vs. the Phobocracy," by Michael Chabon, Washington Post.com Monday, February 4, 2008; 12:00 AM. Chabon of course wrote The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay about an early comic book-creating duo. He lives in Maryland and is well worth reading as he works his way through reinvigorating literature via genre conventions.

Does anyone know if this appeared actually in the paper? I can't find it in mine.