Ing Phouséra by Jason Dittmer Ing Phouséra, or Séra, as he is known in artistic circles, is a French-Cambodian comics artist who evacuated Phnom Penh with his French mother in 1975. While the subject of his works range far and into other media, he came to my attention for his graphic novels about the Khmer…
Read MoreFrom Saga of the Swamp Thing, by Alan Moore, 1982. Art by Stephen Bissette, John Totleben and Tatjana Wood by Jason Dittmer The Art of Comics: A Philosophical Approach, Edited by Aaron Meskin and Roy T. Cook, Wiley-Blackwell, 213 pp. The Art of Comics bills itself as the “first-ever collection of essays published in English…
Read MoreThe old bridge in Mostar being rebuilt, 2003, photograph by Donar Reiskoffer by Jason Dittmer Bosnia Remade: Ethnic Cleansing and its Reversal, by Gerard Toal and Carl T. Dahlman, Oxford University Press, 488 pp. Bosnia Remade is a book a long time in coming and yet absolutely timely, taking as its scope not only the 1990s…
Read Moreby Jason Dittmer The other day I was emailed by a friend: “Did you know that Gabrielle Giffords may be the Antichrist?” My eyes widened in surprise. Despite all the media attention in the wake of the Congresswoman’s January shooting, both connected to her remarkable recovery and to the subsequent debate over blood libel, targets,…
Read MoreColonies of the second French colonial empire (1830–1960) published in Le Monde Illustré in 1891. From Le Monde Diplomatique: Why, in 2011, think about empires? We live in a world of nation-states — over 200 of them, each with their seat in the UN, their flag, postage stamps and governmental institutions. Yet the nation-state is…
Read MoreFrom cover of The Fourth Circle, by Zoran Živković, 2005 edition From World Literature Today: Michael Morrison: You have allied your fiction with the literary tradition of Middle-European “fantastika.” How do you define this tradition? Which of its authors have influenced your work? Zoran Živković: The literary and geographical areas of “Mitteleuropa” (“Central Europe”) don’t…
Read MoreFrom Guernica: It’s 1994, and Michael Stipe recently lost his religion. It’s before Bieber and bling, before ordering a latte required six qualifying adjectives. In coffeehouses across the country, bored teens slouch on thrift-store couches nodding along to the Cranberries’ “Zombie.” Weezer breaks into the alt-rock scene with the Blue Album ; Green Day tops the…
Read Moreby Jason Dittmer The Middle of the Map: Geopolitics of Perceptions, by Attila Marján, John Harper Publishing, 208 pp. Attila Marján’s The Middle of the Map is a book that defies easy characterization. From its cover photo by Deep Purple’s Roger Glover to…well, really the cover photo by Roger Glover should be enough to differentiate this…
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