I just wanted to let you know about a few appearances I have coming up. Please click on the links for more information.

On Thursday, May 7, 7PM (this week!), I'll be the guest speaker at the Cartoonist Roundtable at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art:
http://www.moccany.org/events.html

On Tuesday, May 12, 7:30 PM, I'll be in Los Angeles, giving a lecture at the Skirball Cultural Center, talking about the history of Jews in comics and my book, From Krakow to Krypton:
http://www.skirball.org/index.php?option=com_ccevents&scope=prgm&task=detail&oid=525&ccmenu=d2hhdcdzig9u

On Friday, May 22nd, 7:30 PM, I'll be at the 92nd St. Y Tribeca, hosting a Comic Book Shabbat:
http://www.92y.org/shop/event_detail.asp?productid=T-MM5SH15

Arie will be at numerous events at next weekend's New York Comic Con at the Jacob Javitz Center in NYC, Feb 6-8, 2009. (www.nycomiccon.com)

JPS will be exhibiting all weekend at booth #2443. Other than Arie, JPS authors JT Waldman (Megillat Esther), and Josh Lambert (American Jewish Fiction: A JPS Guide) will be featured panelists at events being held at Comic Con, and will be signing copies of their books. We'll post the signing schedule as it's confirmed.

In addition, Arie will be on two panels.

WWII and Comics
Friday, February 6, 2009 from 2:00-3:00 pm in room 1A18

World War II started 70 years ago, in 1939. From the beginning, comics were intimately involved with subjects and themes relating to that momentous conflict -- or with escapist fare designed to distract readers from the intensity of the war. The first boom in comics was fueled in large part by GIs interest in them, and many of the earliest creators went on to serve in the war effort, including in the messages contained in their stories. Arie Kaplan (From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books) moderates a panel of comics veterans including Jerry Robinson (Batman), Al Jaffee (Mad magazine), and Irwin Hasen (All-Star Comics), as they discuss the War and the medium so closely identified with it. And comics critic N.C. Christopher Couch (The Will Eisner Companion) offers a historical perspective.

Jews and Comics: A Cottage Industry
Sunday, February 8, 2009 from 12:15-1:15 pm in room 1A18

In the past few years, there have been multiple books dealing with Jews and their role in the creation of the comics industry. Could this be because, as we lose more and more of the Greatest (Comics) Generation, there is a collective need to understand the roots, ethnic and otherwise, of the medium? Authors Arie Kaplan (From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comics), Danny Fingeroth (Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, and the Creation of the Superhero), and Simcha Weinstein (Up, Up, and Oy Vey!: How Jewish History, Culture, and Values Shaped The Comicbook Superhero) and comics creators AL Al Jaffee (Mad magazine) and Jerry Robinson (Batman) discuss the rise of interest in the Jewish side of comics. Moderated by David Hajdu (The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How it Changed America).

And by "us," I mean "bookworms."

Arie here. Okay, so I've been really bad about posting lately. Like, super-mega-ginormously-bad. However, that's gonna change, starting now. I'll even be blogging about my book tour. Last year, when I went on the first few stops on the tour, I kept a "journal" of sorts, talking into a digital recorder and verbalizing my thoughts, feelings, and neuroses. Basically, it was a very "in the moment" record of the book tour. So I'll be typing that up and posting it soon. (And by "soon" I mean by the time my great-grandkids are in grad school.) Think of it as some very belated blogging, a "retro-blog" if you will.

And I made a promise to myself that I'd keep a "cartoon diary" on the tour. The idea was this: I'd bring a sketchbook on every one of my tour dates and I'd draw at least one page each time I went to a new city - and with a few exceptions, that's what I did. I sketched people I saw in hotel lobbies, the flight crews at various airports, people sitting next to me on the train (until they started glaring at me as if to say, "Knock it off or I'll knee you in the groin"). You know, that sort of thing. The cartoon diary continues to this day, and it's a work in progress. I'm going to a lecture tonight, and I may be able to squeeze in yet another drawing today. But I'll be posting the first several drawings from the cartoon diary on this blog soon as well. Basically, there's a backlog of material that you can look forward to seeing on this site in the near future. But enough about that. I've got news! So...

A couple of weeks ago, I learned that From Krakow to Krypton was selected as a 2008 National Jewish Book Award finalist. And earlier today, I was told that From K to K is a 2009 Sophie Brody Honor Book. The Sophie Brody Medal is an award given by the American Library Association. The nominations were announced last fall, but the winners were just announced today. My book didn't win, but being an "Honor Book" is pretty much the same thing as second place. Which is nice. Hell, it's a cliche, but it really is just nice to be nominated.

Also, I guess this is thematically relevant, since it doesn't have to do with my book directly, but it DOES concern Jews and comics (sorta): One of my comics stories, "Not A (Green, Slimy) Creature Was Stirring," is currently featured on page 29-38 of The Simpsons Winter Wingding #3, out now from Bongo Comics. The story was penciled by the incredible Phil Ortiz and inked by the amazing Mike DeCarlo. In "Not A (Green, Slimy)...," Krusty the Clown realizes that there are plenty of Christmas mascots (i.e. Rudolph, Frosty), but there aren't any Hanukkah mascots! So he embarks on a mission to create one...and he comes up with the most grotesque "mascot" imaginable! It's a perfectly cromulent tale for the holiday season, one that promises to embiggen the spirit!(Now, I know that the holiday season is over, but the comic is still in stores, so...uh, well, better late than never, I guess.)

I actually talk about both From K to K and my Simpsons Winter Wingding story in an interview I did with Heeb. (There. That wraps everything up in a nice little bow, doesn't it?) Here's the link: http://www.heebmagazine.com/blog/view/1283