Week in reviews

Joe & Azat in the Smithsonian? Indeed, a nice review of Jesse Lonergan’s Joe & Azat at the Smithsonian site: “Joe’s best guide is local Azat, “the computer expert at the education department” – never mind that the entire department has but one computer. Azat, “the greatest dreamer [Joe] ever met” is also his best friend [...]

Booklist on Joe & Azat

“Lonergan’s clean, sharp lines, minimal backgrounds, and pure black and white (no grays, not even via shading) make another story of a youthful, probably temporary relationship vivid and affecting. Altogether excellent.” See more on Joe & Azat and Jesse Lonergan.

JOE & AZAT visit Publishers Weekly and RALL on Booklist

Ted Rall and Pablo Callejo’s The Year of Loving Dangerously just keeps getting the accolades, the latest from Booklist: “He was more interested in well-stocked refrigerators than impending sexual adventures. Realistically illustrated in soft colors by Callejo, of Bluesman (2004–06) fame, and maximally unbuttoned in some places, Rall’s sympathetic account of his life on the [...]

Give That Man a Prize!

When you have absolute power in a country, you get to do a lot of things that most other people don’t. For example, you get to have a lot of medals on your jacket. Just a few of the awards presented to Turkmenbashy: Hero of Turkmenistan (six times), Medal for Labor Heroism, Order of Friendship [...]

The Real Bashy vs. My Bashy

I don’t really do caricatures of people, so I was a little nervous about drawing Turkmenbashy in Joe and Azat. I suppose that Turkmenistan being the out of the way country that it is I could probably draw just about anything and most people in the U.S. wouldn’t question it, but I knew that at [...]

The Sacred Oath

I was an English teacher and Turkmenistan and before every class I heard the sacred oath chanted by students. Starting from the very lowest grades they new it by heart. It was kind of like the pledge of allegiance, only… Turkmenistan, My beloved motherland, My beloved homeland, You are always with me In my thoughts [...]

Sequential Tart on Joe & Azat + the National Post

“The art of Joe and Azat is deceptively simple. Black and white images, mostly of faces and places, do an adept job of telling the story. On the surface it represents the simple way of life for the people of Turkmenistan. However, when you study the images in adjunct with the text, the complexity of [...]

When In Doubt Refer To The Good Book

The Rukhnama is a truly amazing book. This is the quasi-political-spiritual-self-help-how-to-win-friends-and-dominate-people book written by Turkmenbashy (the former president for life of Turkmenistan). It was in all the schools in Turkmenistan while I was there. It was used in every classroom (I even saw it used in a math class). It was on sale in nearly [...]

Story of O, Joe & Azat and Things Undone news

First one out of the gate, the site Comics Waiting Room‘s Avril Brown saying this: “From the very first page it is apparent why THE STORY OF O is recognized as Crepax’s finest work. The fine, sharp pencils turn each panel into a vintage etching. Some are fractured panels, giving the effect of seeing these sexual [...]

Joe & Azat visit the Wall Street Journal…

Read more about Jesse Lonergan’s latest book JOE & AZAT in a piece on the Wall Street Journal online: “The story follows the unlikely friendship of an American and a Turkmen as they trade cultural gaffes and tolerate life in a totalitarian regime. (Azat’s brother, for example, claims that he is the Turkmen version of [...]

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