Episode 4: Pride of Baghdad

This episode, Alex brings Brian K Vaughan and Niko Henrichon's critically acclaimed 2006 graphic novel Pride of Baghdad for Jean-Luc and Emily to cry about. Vaughan has been a staple of American comics ever since the early 2000's, and returning to the writer behind Saga and Paper Girls in 2022 proves to be a fairly jarring experience for our hosts. It's a fascinating case study in how western pop culture--all the way down to niche releases like a Vertigo-published original graphic novel--responded to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Fortunately, there's still a fair amount to like here, and this episode gets into all of it.

Next, on Crying in the Book Club: It's time to learn about the philosophy of Emily-core with Mariko Tamaki's 2019 graphic novel Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me.

Our theme song was ...