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Rumpus Articles
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Hansi, the Girl Who Loved the Swastika
Spire Christian Comics was an old comics company that, like many other publishers (including Marvel, in its early years), was distributed and printed by a larger company. Archie Comics, the publisher that got famous off of superheroes like The Shield…
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Joey Nicoletti: A Poem I Love
I am smitten with Milton Kessler’s “Comma of God.” It’s a poem of great texture: a prayer, a chant, an adroit benediction. Perhaps most of all, it’s a testament to a fully lived life; an edifice of gratitude for having…
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Trevor Paglen reveals the “Blank Spots on the Map”
Trevor Paglen may be familiar for his 2008 appearance on The Colbert Report, where he talked about his book I Could Tell You but Then You Would Have to be Destroyed By Me, a picture book of military unit patches…
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The Mystery of Mouchette
I hate to be frail, but Mouchette gives me the creeps. The creator of this disturbingly dark Web site has successfuly concealed his or her identity since its inception in 1996. But the persona around which the site exists is…
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Margaret Cho on The Wrestler and Wrestling and Youth and S&M and Violence
Comedy hadn’t taken off yet for me, and so I tried to get as many jobs as possible. Wrestling seemed like it would be easy.
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Joel Arquillos: The Last Book I Loved, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
I absolutely loved Junot Diaz’s The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. I never thought a story about the childhood I lived would make an interesting novel, but I was completely wrong. Junot wrote the book I wish I…
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Sounds of the Past
Phonograph cylinders were the earliest form of audio recording. Today, the Belfer Cylinders Digital Connection (part of the Syracuse University library) has begun digitizing their vast collection of cylinders with free access to all. The results provide a fascinating view…
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Shatner Unrepentant
If you’re feeling a bit cloyed and put out by Vanilla Ice’s apology for “Ice Ice Baby,” wash it down with William Shatner’s stubborn refusal to concede any ground on history’s unkind judgment of his interpretation of “Rocket Man.” The…
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Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed
Mark Blatte’s hip-hop-crime novel brings a touch of philosophy to New York’s mean streets
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Batman, Robin, and…Dostoevsky?
Drawn and Quarterly is one of the premier anthology publications in the indie comics world. Although the caliber of work in the quarterly is almost always superb, the crossover appeal and sheer cleverness of their Crime & Punishment adaptation are,…