Review: The Romanov Sisters
The extent to which readers will enjoy Helen Rappaport’s The Romanov Sisters will most likely depend on one or two important factors. First, it will help if you haven’t spent m
Review: The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book
Nadezhda Mandelstam, widow of the Russian poet Osip Mandelstam, once noted a “remarkable feature” common to Soviet leaders: “their boundless, almost superstitious respect for
Review: Foligatto by Nicolas de Crécy and Alexios Tjoyas
There are not many comics which feature bloated, castrated opera singers as the lead character. In fact, it’s quite possible that there’s only one: Foligatto, by writer Alexios
Dictator Lit: The Poetry of Ayatollah Khomeini
Perhaps the most famous literary critic of the 20th century, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1902-1989) was renowned for his vehement loathing of the work of Salman Rushdie. Indeed, t
X-Men? No, X-Rated: The Secret History of Marvel Comics
As another summer gets underway, so the nation’s movie theaters fill up with blockbusters based on comic books. So far this year we’ve already seen The Amazing Spider
On Design, Books, Kickstarter and Russian Criminal Tattoos
Design studio turned publisher FUEL made a splash in 2004 with the publication of their first book The Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia. Since then London-
Incidents in the Night by David B.
Last year Uncivilized Books expanded our knowledge of the enigmatic oeuvre of French cartoonist David B. by releasingIncidents in the Night. Although it is the most recent of David
The Curious Russian Afterlife of Steven Seagal
A Kalder klassik, to coincide with Seagal’s announcement he plans to run for governor of Arizona Long, long ago—for about 15 minutes—Steven Seagal was a big deal in Holly
For Instant Christmas Spirit, Blow Here
A Seasonal Kalder Klassik: Four years ago, I spent Christmas in Texas for the first time. Shortly beforehand I’d been driving around in the desert out West, and I have vivid memo
Does Putin’s New Literary Assembly Bode ill for Russian Writers?
Pushkin: Not a Belgian Russia has a long history of revering writers; it also has a long history of censoring, exiling, corrupting and, on occasion, killing writers. The Tsarist a