Praise and Reviews

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse praises THE OCTOPUS IN THE PARKING GARAGE by Rob Verchick “a smart roadmap for planning for the future on a changing planet.”

“Rob Verchick has created a smart roadmap for planning for the future on a changing planet.”

Po Bronson praises THE OCTOPUS IN THE PARKING GARAGE by Rob Verchick

“…a very important addition to the canon of climate literature—thinking ahead even further out, investigating the colossal mess…”

Michael Hardt praises THE NEW POWER ELITE by Heather Gautney a “worthy successor to Mills’ classic polemic”

“This worthy successor to Mills’ classic polemic reveals the enormous obstacles that face any project for democracy and equality in the US.”

Chuck Collins praises THE NEW POWER ELITE by Heather Gautney as an Essential Read

“An essential read for our oligarchic times.

Greg Grandin praises THE NEW POWER ELITE by Heather Gautney as Required Reading

“Make it the one-city-one-book for every town and college in the nation. Hand it out to new citizens at their swearing-in ceremonies.”

Cornel West praises THE NEW POWER ELITE by Heather Gautney as “Brilliant and Courageous”

“This powerful and profound text shows what the road to American fascism looks like if we do not heed her call for radical democratic action”

Dirty Picture: A free-wheeling, frank account of the rise and fall of the underground comic scene. Doherty, a senior editor at Reason magazine and author of This Is Burning Man, serves up a tale of underground comix, “the ‘x’ to mark them as distinct from the mainstream comics to which they were in opposition.” Perhaps the best known of their creators is cartoonist R. Crumb, who, despite what today are considered “problematic” depictions of gender and race, has evolved into an artist taken seriously enough to exhibit at major museums. Doherty’s pioneering players share the idea that just as music and film were breaking free of conventions in the countercultural era of the 1960s, so comix, “born of smartass rebel kids,” could become revolutionary vehicles for the mores and attitudes of the day. A major difference was that music and film had big corporations behind them, while comix were largely homegrown, underfunded affairs. Crumb, through the pages of Zap! and other seat-of-the-pants magazines, became internationally famous. So did Art Spiegelman, who early on “realized he could not make himself draw something he wasn’t intellectually or emotionally drawn to for the rest of his life” and who began to imagine a Holocaust-era tale of cats and mice half a century ago, well beforeMaus brought him to mainstream attention. Doherty pokes into every corner of the scene, recounting how the always entrepreneurial Stan Lee tried to co-opt it with a Marvel sort-of-comix book and noting that where only a few male artists are remembered today, plenty of women such as Trina Robbins made great art and deserve more attention. While the author closes with a grim recitation of artists and publishers who fell victim to drugs, alcohol, or the various ailments of old age, he observes that comix exert cultural influence today. Lively, well researched, and full of telling anecdotes; just the thing for comix aficionados and collectors by Brian Doherty

Rob Salkowitz reviews DIRTY PICTURES by Brian Doherty in ICv2

“Dirty Pictures is likely to be the most complete and authoritative account we’re going to get, and is well worth a read.”

A WAITER IN PARIS by Edward Chisholm (Pegasus)

A WAITER IN PARIS by Edward Chisholm Receives Starred Review from Publishers Weekly

“Bittersweet and enchanting, this serves as a potent look at the gritty underbelly of a glittering world.”

Kirkus Reviews DIRTY PICTURES by Brian Doherty

“A free-wheeling, frank account of the rise and fall of the underground comic scene. …Lively, well researched, and full of telling anecdotes; just the thing for comix aficionados and collectors.”

The Wall Street Journal reviews WHEN HARRY MET MINNIE: A True Story of Love and Friendship by Martha Teichner

“…ostensibly a memoir about an oddball canine romance. Its deeper subject, though, is the romance of cities, particularly New York…”