K: Kusama
L: Louis XVI
M: Mafia
N: Normans
O: Oeuvre
Stay tuned for the next installment in this history series! In the meantime, catch up on previous rounds of Comics A–Z. One of the most amazing things about Kusama-sensei, though, is her willingness to speak publicly about her experiences with mental illness and to be open about her decision in 1973 to take up permanent residence in a psychiatric facility, where she still resides today. While living there, she has continued to make art and has also delved into poetry and various forms of prose writing. Kusama-sensei does leave the facility occasionally for exhibitions of her work, traveling in the company of her physician. She is 91 years old. To others it means taxing your people into oblivion so you can hold costumed balls and gild your shoes. The Versailles of Louis XVI was the epitome of excess and the height of grace, one of man’s greatest achievements and most singular failures. What better way to explore Louis’s world than with the stunning reissue of the manga that explores that world’s greatest potential and most deadly mistakes? In Vol. 2, Ryuko goes on a search for the family and allies she has left while on the run from the enemies who have been chasing her since her last assignment. Ryuko is tough and she’s a survivor, but can even she make it through this? Whether or not William had a right to the throne is disputed: he claimed to have met with a childless Edward the Confessor just weeks before Edward’s death and received the then-monarch’s blessing as heir. On his deathbed, however, Edward left the kingdom to Harold, head of the nation’s most influential family, said to be more powerful than Edward himself. Well. No one descended from Vikings was going to tolerate that malarkey. Harold ended up with an arrow in the eye and William ended up on the fancy chair in London. Many of you have probably heard, and at least seen pictures, of the Bayeux Tapestry, an incredible work of art nearly 70 meters long (~230 feet) and 50 cm tall (~9 feet if I mathed properly, which is always questionable) and are aware that it depicts pivotal moments from the Battle of Hastings. What you may not know is that Burton, Kessell, and Amat used the scenes depicted on the tapestry to frame the narrative for their graphic novel. I know, right? Time to get reading. Cass Elliot started as Ellen Cohen from Baltimore, a 19-year-old with an amazing voice and dreams of stardom. Was she the kind of girl producers were going to plaster on album covers? Not in the amphetamine chic ’60s. Ellen Cohen from Baltimore wasn’t about to compromise though; instead, she found people who accepted her as she was and she made the music she wanted to make in the short time she had with them amidst the social and personal chaos of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Learn her whole story in Bagieu’s graphic creative biography.
