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klg19.bsky.social
Karen Green (she/her)
@klg19.bsky.social
3.5K followers 1.1K following 970 posts
Curator for Comics and Cartoons, Columbia University. New Yorker. Movie buff. Architecture fan. Medievalist. My life won an Eisner Award. I contain multitudes.
https://guides.library.columbia.edu/graphic-novels
(I don’t follow-back empty feeds)
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klg19.bsky.social
What’s up, doc?

Seen hanging out on 231st St, half a block from the Henry Hudson Parkway.
A brown rabbit hangs out on the grassy verge as I head down the sidewalk.
May 20, 2025 at 8:24 AM
klg19.bsky.social
His home borough
Photo of a building entrance in Queens, NYC, with the street number 86-47
May 17, 2025 at 5:48 PM
klg19.bsky.social
@nsousanis.bsky.social and I made it into the timeline of 50 years of Columbia alumni magazine.

If you want to see the other 49 years, click here magazine.columbia.edu/article/50-y...
Screengrab of section of 50 Years of Columbia Magazine, with the 2017 entry about my job, drawn by Nick Sosanis, which won the Eisner for Best Short Story in 2018.
May 14, 2025 at 11:39 PM
klg19.bsky.social
With thanks to J.J Sedelmaier and Howard Beckerman’s daughter Sheri, these beauties are now gracing our collection.

Descriptions in the ALT text.
“A tragedy of temperature” comic by Louis Glackens in 1906. After a refreshing dip in the ocean, a portly gentleman retires to dress in his street clothes. By the time he finishes, he’s drenched in sweat. An undated Sunday strip of “Abbie an’ Slats,” by Raeburn Van Buren. Judging by the fashion, I’d reckon mid- to late-1960s (the young woman looks a lot like Marlo Thomas in “That Girl). Aunt Abbie and her niece Kit are in London, where Kit believes a young man following them is a spy. Not original art, but a beautiful “Barney Google and Sparkplug” game board, drawn by Billy DeBeck. A Milton Bradley game with a copyright of 1923. A daily “Oaky Doaks” strip by Ralph Fuller, circa 1945. Oaky Doaks was a wannabe knight who made his armor from tin and took a plowhorse as his trusty steed.
May 11, 2025 at 2:42 AM
klg19.bsky.social
Wonderful, fabulous @cathkastner.bsky.social drew this portrait of me after my visit with her in Paris. It is accurate to every detail, from Sacre-Coeur in the background to my fuschia coat to the pockets on my suitcase to my omnipresent chocolat chaud.
Drawing by Cath Kastner, of me in Paris, with my Doc Martens, my fuschia coat, Sacre-Coeur (I was staying in Montmartre, and my trusty oversize cup of chocolat chaud. Thank you, Cath!
May 8, 2025 at 8:16 PM
klg19.bsky.social
Last night at @92ndstreety.bsky.social : Naomi Fry talks with Robert Crumb and Dan Nadel, on the occasion of the release of Dan’s Crumb biography.

Also, obviously, the most important content in the book (see alt-text for why)!
Onstage at the Y: Naomi Fry talks with Robert Crumb and Dan Nadel beneath a photo of the book cover. In the acknowledgements: thanks given to me ☺️ ! The university was still closed to non-Columbia researchers at the time, and I spent a few hours with Dan on Zoom, projecting scores of letters between Robert, Aline, or Jesse Crumb and Denis Kitchen of Kitchen Sink Press, the most useful of which i scanned and emailed to him.
April 16, 2025 at 11:40 AM
klg19.bsky.social
Look at this absolute BEAUTY of a cartoon: Sisters of Liberty!, by Burris Jenkins, 1943. From a time when a majority of Americans pulled together for a common goal.

Hard to believe, eh?
Original art for a 1943 cartoon about women in the war effort. Women are shown as nurses, welders, Red Cross workers, in factories tightening airplane tires, working heavy machinery, oiling propellers, and in the various Women’s Auxiliary uniforms. In the center of them all, Lady Liberty holds her torch up high.
April 5, 2025 at 1:14 PM
klg19.bsky.social
Interesting. I would have expected the price to be higher.

The one on the left might belong in a different bin, though.
A bin at a bodega, with a sign reading “CoCunt $3.99 each”—the coconut on the far left bears a resemblance to male genitalia.
March 26, 2025 at 6:34 PM
klg19.bsky.social
Jeezus Chriminy-rist, “Democracy First”: are you his pawns?!?
A text from a PAC called Democracy First that is literally asking me if I agree or disagree that 🍊should be added to Mount Rushmore. My texted response, which I’m sure they’ll never see, expressing my dismay and disgust that Mount Fucking Rushmore is what they consider worthy of my time when my country is being dismantled and sold for parts, while we lose every ally we’ve ever had.
March 23, 2025 at 12:51 AM
klg19.bsky.social
I saw a truly bizarre caryatid on a late 19th-c building near Columbus and 69th Street. I figured, that CAN’T be real. And what the hell—is she holding in her intestines??

I went looking for an image of the original in those 1940 WPA building photos and, sure enough, somebody did sumpin’.
A caryatid on the facade of a brownstone. There is no body below the waist: just a column of overlapping disks. The face is rendered in a primitive, almost mask-like, style. It is very flat. The right arm appears almost boneless. It also is wrapped around a confusing and indistinguishable middle that extends down past the top of the column. A grainy detail from a low-res photo, circa 1940. There is a lively 3-dimensional head emerging from the wall. The upper body is covered with drapery, and seems to end under the ribcage in a pedestal, which sits upon the column of discs. The right arm rests on the top of the column.
March 10, 2025 at 3:31 PM
klg19.bsky.social
I’m guessing they have no problems with this, though…

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...
February 26, 2025 at 6:23 AM
klg19.bsky.social
Bravo to Governor Mills of Maine! Proud that my father was a State of Mainer, and wish he were alive to hear her (he’s been gone for 39 years).

Her third paragraph is the crux for me, and echoes Martin Niemöller’s famous “First they came…” maxim.
The full text of Governor Mill’s statement: “I have spent my career – as a District Attorney, as Attorney General, and now as Governor – standing up for the rule of law in Maine and America. To me, that is fundamentally what is at stake here: the rule of law in our country. No President – Republican or Democrat – can withhold Federal funding authorized and appropriated by Congress and paid for by Maine taxpayers in an attempt to coerce someone into compliance with his will. It is a violation of our Constitution and of our laws, which I took an oath to uphold. Maine may be one of the first states to undergo an investigation by his Administration, but we won’t be the last. Today, the President of the United States has targeted one particular group on one particular issue which Maine law has addressed. But you must ask yourself: who and what will he target next, and what will he do? Will it be you? Will it be because of your race or your Side-by-side photos: one of Governor Mills sitting with her lips pursed; the other of Trump standing at a podium
February 23, 2025 at 1:38 PM
klg19.bsky.social
For Valentine’s Day, my Amicus Incognitus gave me a new drawing for the Alice Sketchbook. This one is from Fernando Ruiz and is simply lovely.

(For more examples, go to Instagram and search #AliceSketchbookKLG. There are some real corkers!)
A drawing of Alice in a forest with tree trunks and large mushrooms. She is holding the White Queen’s crown in one hand and the Mad Hatter’s top hat in the other. A frog is leaping away at her feet. The triple speech balloon reads, “These are very nice… but do you have something with ear flaps?”
February 21, 2025 at 11:49 AM
klg19.bsky.social
I’m going to do this. Are you?
H/T to @lavd46.bsky.social !
A complete economic boycott on February 28th, midnight on the 27th to midnight on the 28th. No money on food, on gas, on online purchases, at national retail or restaurant chains. Exemptions for medicine and emergency supplies. Spread the word. Describe your experience on social media.
February 16, 2025 at 1:43 PM
klg19.bsky.social
Dang. That’s not even a remotely competent phishing attempt (asssp to you, too, tiger).

Not to mention I don’t even own a car.
Text message providing a link to “pay” my FastTrak Lane tolls. The URL starts out convincing, then tacks on a -asssp.top/i after the .com.
February 12, 2025 at 4:08 PM
klg19.bsky.social
I started the graphic novels collection at Columbia just a few months shy of 20 years ago. In July 2005, we had three titles in the building: MAUS, PERSEPOLIS, and PALESTINE (I nice example of diversity right there, actually.

But I didn’t want an all-English collection.

(Exposition in ALT text)
These are the languages in the circulating collection on campus. They are in order of highest number to lowest. They occupy three reading rooms in Butler Library. But that’s not the entire collection. We have over 1000 titles in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library. We have a separate East Asian library where manga and manhwa may be found in their original languages. And we have Offsite storage, which is the largest library in our system. These are the comics languages housed there, but the list is deceptive. My search was: “comic books” OR “ graphic novels” OR manga. But many titles from abroad have only a very basic “Comic books, strips, etc.—>Venezuela” which tells you the book is from Venezuela but nothing on what it’s about. Some have no subject analysis at all. So, this list doesn’t include those with no subject terms, because I have no way to identify them. Nor do my readers. Very frustrating! Still: I’m enormously proud of our diversity, and grateful to my colleagues in Global Studies who’ve provided many of the rarest languages on this list…
February 12, 2025 at 3:02 PM
klg19.bsky.social
I know it’s not “cool” anymore but, for the love of all that’s holy, if you need to get an answer or arrange a meeting…EMAIL ME.
A heartfelt plea: Folks, there are just too many avenues for communication. Email, Messenger, Instagram DMs, Bluesky DMs, Texting… Have I left any out? Seriously, if you REALLY want to get in touch and expect an answer—or expect me to be able to find your message again a year or more from now—or want me to be able to search using topic keywords—or hope that I’ll answer a message more than three sentences long… EMAIL ME. Especially if it’s work-related. Email allows me to place similar messages in folders. Email allows me to search for your name or words relating to the subject matter. Email allows me to see the entirety of a multi-paragraph message and respond point-by-point. Don’t know my email? It is ALL OVER the internet.
February 12, 2025 at 1:47 PM
klg19.bsky.social
The staircase in Villa Majorelle, Nancy. I never wanted to leave.
A sweeping, gleaming wooden Art Nouveau staircase, with a lamp hanging down the middle of stained glass with flower-shaped bulb covers. A stained glass window is visible on the first landing.
February 11, 2025 at 2:57 PM
klg19.bsky.social
I was lucky to spend the afternoon and evening with MAD artist Rick Tulka, picking up art he’s donating.
After a lovely dinner with Rick & his wife Brenda, I prepared to go. Rick was clearly having second thoughts but the energy from my dinner served me to fight back.
The struggle is real, people.
A clearly-staged photo of me fighting to get out the door while Rick lies on the floor grasping desperately to the strap of my art-filled duffle bag. The photo was Rick’s idea.
February 8, 2025 at 7:55 AM
klg19.bsky.social
So much for the Hippocratic oath, eh?
Part one of the Hippocratic oath. Part two of the Hippocratic oath. Part three of the Hippocratic oath.
February 5, 2025 at 7:06 AM
klg19.bsky.social
This time tomorrow I’ll be in Angoulême.
Photo of a departure gate sign for a Delta flight to Paris, leaving this evening.
January 26, 2025 at 9:07 PM
klg19.bsky.social
I forgot to add the two new Alices in the Alice sketchbook!

With deep, DEEP thanks to @tomdaly.bsky.social and @tmotley.bsky.social !
What looks like a blue starry sky washes across the page, but is actually waves of blue hair coming from the heart-shaped face of the Queen of Hearts. Caught up in her tresses are the heads of Tweedledum & Tweedledee, the eyes and ears of the Cheshire Cat, a tea cup, the Dodo, White Rabbit ears, the Mad Hatter’s hat, and, of course, Alice. Tom Daly holds the sketchbook with his Alice drawing of the Queen of Hearts capturing characters in her hair A beamish boy stands, armed with a sword, facing the Jabberwocky. One Jabberwocky wing reads “Beware the” and the beast’s body is made up of the letters J a b b e r w o c k, with the sword serving as an exclamation point. In the lower right are the words “my son…” Tom Motley stands holding the sketchbook with his Jabberwocky drawing
January 25, 2025 at 6:02 PM
klg19.bsky.social
Devastated to wake up this morning to the news of Jules Feiffer’s passing. We didn’t meet until 2010, but his VV strip was a constant in my teen years—and, of course, THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH before that. I will miss him forever.

Below, a drawing Jules dashed off for me, as we sat together at SoI.
A drawing by Jules Feiffer for my Alice sketchbook. It’s titled “Alice in the True Wonderland.” A small Alice looks up at a hulking, hooded figure we see only from the rear. The figure is saying, “Yes, darling, anything you want.”
January 21, 2025 at 2:19 PM
klg19.bsky.social
Bless the late, great Janey Godley, and bless all the Scots on this grim day.
A photograph from 2016 of comedian and activist Janey Godley standing near Trump’s Turnberry golf course in Scotland. She is holding a placard that reads “Trump is a Cunt.”
January 20, 2025 at 2:50 PM
klg19.bsky.social
Oh, you KNOW he’s trying to avoid comparisons to 2008. Such a size queen.

Meanwhile, the inauguration is in 2 days, and DC hotels are only 70% booked?!?
Screengrab from The Guardian. Headline reads that DC residents are fleeing the city. Subhead reads that DC hotels are 70% booked.
January 18, 2025 at 2:19 PM