Sometimes your body knows innately, well before those reach your brain and sink their hooks into your consciousness. Of course, it’s also entirely possible that Blindsided’s title was just one of those strange bits of cosmic irony. The word arrived well before Mark Erelli was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) a degenerative eye condition that almost invariably leads to blindness. The diagnosis would arrive in the summer of 2020, triggered by fuzzy vision during an outdoor live show. It’s a struggle which informs his latest, Lay Your Darkness Down. It’s a bid to relay a life altering condition, both literally and metaphorically, in a bid to capture broader themes.

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Where I’m Coming From arrived in the Detroit Free Press at the tail end of the 80s. The strip, based on Barbara Brandon-Croft’s friend circle, was a breath of fresh air amid often formulaic newspaper comics. Two years later, Croft’s work received national exposure, upon being syndicated by United Press Syndicate. The strip would go on to run in more than 60 papers, plus magazines like Essence, before ceasing publication in 2005. Earlier this year, Drawn & Quarterly celebrated the beloved and bygone strip, with a collection aimed at bringing the work to a new generation, 18 years later.

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This bonus episode features the a full version of my recent conversation with the Batman writer for Publishers Weekly. The feature can be batman-falls-to-earth-pw-talks-with-chip-zdarsky.html">found here.

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This has never been a podcast obsessed with spoilers. In fact, the topic has rarely comic up over nearly 600 episodes. But Why Don’t You Love Me is the kind of book you desperately don’t want to spoiler. The Neil Gaiman quote that monopolizes the entire back cover of the Drawn & Quarterly edition sums it up nicely, reading, in part, “The kind of story leading to a last panel that’s all pain and joy and delivers the whole thing.” I would like to say that’s why this conversation veers into all sorts of unexpected areas, but the truth of the matter is sometimes the conversation takes over and you’re just along for the ride. Author Paul Rainey joins us to discuss, among other things, Marvel movies, Peanuts and why Twitter is a terrible source for news.

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After more than two decades, Lee Fields left the music industry and strongly considered opening a fish store. “What do you know about fish?” his wife asked. Very little, turns out. He did, however, know soul. In the late-60s, his performances had earned him the nickname “Little JB” – an homage to long-time hero, James Brown. Re-entering music in the 90s, Fields began experimenting with home recording, eventually attracting the attention of the Daptone scene. Last year, he and the label joined forces again, releasing Sentimental – a perfect showcase of the things that make him one of the remaining 60s soul greats.

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Formed in the late-70s South Bronx, ESG has an almost impossibly wide-ranging impact on popular music. Factory Records-owner Tony Wilson spotted sister act performing in Manhattan, and within days they found themselves recording in Manchester and playing opening night at the Hacienda. The group’s self-titled debut EP prove a massive hit with critics, while its third track, “UFO,” would go one to become one of music’s most-sampled tracks following the birth of hip-hop – a mixed blessing, to say the least. Singer Renee Scroggins has been through a lot in the 45 years since the group’s founding, but she’s managed to remain active, all while keeping ESG in the family.

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Even with nearly a quarter-century under their belt, five years was a long time to wait between Ladytron releases. The group had settled into a comfortable cadence of three year, but 2019’s self-titled album finally arrived after two major releases. Life can get in the way – take, for example, Daniel Hunt’s move to Brazil. Or his production of big name artists like Christina Aguilera. Or various movie scores. This year, the band happily returned with its seventh record, recapturing the magic and consistency the electropop band has maintained for well over two decades. As contemporary acts and flash in the pan stars has come and gone, the group has maintained and thrived – an increasingly rare feat these days.

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Earlier this year, The New York Times Review of Books published All Your Racial Problems Will Soon End. The collection features cartoons dating back to the 60s and 70s, offering a glimpse into author Charles R. Johnson many have not seen. Decades before he won the National Book Award for Middle Passage, his historical novel about the slave trade, Johnson was being published as a cartoonist. The works contained in the volume are gag strips tackling some of the day’s biggest hot button topics, primarily race relations at the height of America’s civil rights movement. Johnson joins us to discuss a wildly diverse career, as well as his time teaching drawing on public television and a long-time embrace of Buddhism.

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There are those musical careers that follow predictable paths – and then there’s Ivan Julian’s. The child of a Navy officer, he found himself in far flung corners, including Guantanamo Bay. After spending his early teenage years as the front man of a Led Zeppelin cover band, he found himself in London, as a touring guitarist for The Foundations, eventually leaving the group behind to take up residence in Macedonia. It was his time in New York that ultimately put him on the map, however, as a founding member of Richard Hell and the Voidoids. Subsequent years found him collaborating with a broad range of musicians from Afrika Bambaataa to Matthew Sweet. These days, Julian lives in New York, running Brooklyn’s SuperGiraffeSound recording studio. He’s also gone on to release solo albums, including his newest, Swing Your Lanterns.

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Beyond Vaudeville is a perfect time capsule. It’s a pre-internet era, when public access provided a rare outlet for entertainers. As Frank Hope, Rich Brown was the neurotic calm in the storm. Along with stoic sidekick David Greene, the pair held together a 30-minute variety show that paired celebrities with outsider entertainers for a decade. In 1997, the show was reborn as Oddville, MTV, which managed to revive some of the magic, in a more formal format that partnered gen x names with buzzbin bands. Brown has maintained a high profile show business career in the intervening decades, appearing as a Daily Show contributor and producing shows like Fear Factor and the Jay Leno hosted, You Bet Your Life.

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