DRAWN TOGETHER
Cartoonists gather at Greenlight in PLG
COURIER L 56 IFE, OCT. 18-24, 2019
The best reads
— handpicked by
some of the best
Bklyn bookstores
Word’s picks:
“Horror Stories,”
by Liz Phair
Rock star Liz Phair is infamous
for her unflinching honesty in the
face of taboo. From the naked
candor of her debut album “Exile
in Guyville” to the raw text of her
new memoir “Horror Stories,”
the confetti queen of alt-rock
has made a career of stripping
away the glamour from life
in the limelight. The nonlinear essays
that constitute this hyper-literate memoir are intimate,
painful, and at times shameful, but these are the achingly true
memories that roughly approximate a human life.
— Steven Warren, Word 126 Franklin St. at Milton Street in
Greenpoint, (718) 383–0096, www.wordbookstores.com.
Community
Bookstore’s pick:
“The Gallows
Pole,” by
Benjamin Myers
This novel of coin
counterfeiting and criminal
conspiracy in 18th century
England is haunting and
haunted. Winner of the
2018 Walter Scott Prize for
Historical Fiction, it is a Gothic Western
set on the moors of Yorkshire — if such a thing can be
imagined. It follows the violent unraveling of an unlikely plot that,
as befits the most terrifying of tales, is based on true events!
— Samuel Partal, Community Bookstore 43 Seventh Ave.
between Carroll Street and Garfield Place in Park Slope, (718)
783–3075, www.commu nityb ookst ore.net.
Greenlight
Bookstore’s pick:
“Salt Slow,” by
Julia Armfield
“Salt Slow” is a luminous and
engrossing collection of fantasy
short stories that connect the
supernatural with women’s lives,
and that show transformations
that happen on different levels
and in different ways. The
first story, “Mantis,” is about
a teen girl going through an unusual,
hereditary puberty, and the final, title story is about
another transformation driven by childbirth. In between are stories
about love, loss, the separation of the self and different kinds of
relationships to nature and the supernatural. For fans of Kelly
Link, Jeff Vandermeer, and China Mieville.
— Rebecca Fitting, Greenlight Bookstore 686 Fulton St.
between S. Elliott Place and S. Portland Avenue in Fort Greene,
(718) 246–0200, www.greenlightbookstore.com.
House pour
By Bill Roundy This beer bar has leveled up!
A Williamsburg suds
spot expanded its reach
last week, doubling in size and
adding its own brewing tanks. The
Williamsburg branch of Randolph
Beer — which also has outposts
in Dumbo and in Manhattan —
opened its doors on Oct. 11 as
a nanobrewery, pouring its own
extremly small-batch brews and
serving them in a new game
room. It was the culmination of a
long-term dream, said the chain’s
managing partner.
“This is the full fledged versions
of what we had planned from the
beginning,” said Kyle Kensrue.
The new Williamsburg facility
is much smaller than Randolph’s
brewing spot in Dumbo, which
also makes it more flexible, he
noted.
“This is the experimental
brewery, where we can try new
flavors and new techniques,” said
Kensrue.
Experiments currently on
tap include a cucumber-andelderflower
pilsner, a Baltic porter
brewed with rum-soaked wood
spirals, a sour beer made with
blackberries and lactose, and a
“baby barleywine” — a low-octane
version of usually high-proof.
Most of the beers will be known
by their style, rather than having
formal names, said Kensrue,
because they will appear and
disappear so quickly that it is not
worth coming up with a unique
name each time.
The nanobrewery also opened
an additional lounge area,
which features a sunken area for
shuffleboard and a video game
system, along with booths,
couches, and an outdoor seating
area.
Question authority: Cartoonist
Michael Kupperman, creator of the
graphic memoir “All the Answers,”
will host a reading with four other
artist at Greenlight Bookstory in
Prospect Lefferts Gardens on Oct. 24.
Photo by Caroline Ourso
Randolph Beer Williamsburg
(104 S. Fourth St. between Bedford
Avenue and Berry Street in
Williamsburg, www.randolphbeer.
com). Open daily at 11 am.
TBy Bill Roundy alk about the art of
conversation!
A pack of acclaimed
comics creators, illustrators, and
graphic novelists will descend on
Prospect Lefferts Gardens next
week to read, discuss, and show off
their work at the neighborhood’s
branch of Greenlight Bookstore.
The “Escape Panel” comic reading
series launching on Oct. 24 and
planned as a quarterly event, was
organized by a Crown Heights
cartoonist as a way to build a local
community of sequential artists.
“I wanted an event that I
could go to in Brooklyn and see
other cartoonists,” said Michael
Kupperman, creator of the awardwinning
“Tales Designed to
Thrizzle” series. “When I first
came to New York, there were
artists everywhere. And now
they’re much rarer.”
Kupperman has invited four
other cartoonists and graphic
novelists to display their work on
a screen at the local bookstore.
Speakers will include editorial
cartoonist Eli Valley, Lauren
Weinstein, creator of the “Goddess
of War” graphic novel; Matt
Lubchansky, who draws colorful
political comics, and gothic artist
Julia Gfrörer.
The invited cartoonists
represent a wide variety of genres
and art styles, said Kupperman,
in order to show the versatility of
comics as a medium.
“I wanted to choose people
who were pulling in different
directions,” he said. “I want to
have that tension between different
kinds of artists, and really
demonstrate the directions the art
form can go in.”
Kupperman, whose comedic
work has been adapted for
“Saturday Night Live” and “Adult
Swim,” plans to read a chapter
from his latest, more serious
graphic novel “All the Answers,”
about his father’s experience as
a famous televised “Quiz Kid”
in the 1940s, and the strain it put
on his family. Kupperman also
plans to read a recently discovered
letter, which did not make it into
the book.
Comic fans should be sure not
to miss the show, said Kupperman.
“It’ll be fun,” he said. “And if
they don’t go, they will regret it for
the rest of their lives. It will haunt
them on their deathbed!”
Escape Panel at Greenlight
Bookstore 632 Flatbush Ave.
at Fenimore Street in Prospect
Lefferts Gardens, (718) 246–0200,
www.greenlightbookstore.com.
Oct. 24 at 7:30 pm.
Good as brew: Kyle Kensru,
Randolph Beer’s chief operating
officer, has a pint in the newly
upgraded Williamsburg brewpub.
Photo by Caroline Ourso
Get smart: Kupperman explores his father’s career as one of the famous “Quiz
Kids” during the 1940s, in his graphic novel “All the Answers.” Michael Kupperman
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