ARTS . Arts Picks

Jules Feiffer


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Published: Nov 15, 2006

reading

Keep the presses rolling — for another 50 years, we hope. Cartoonist Jules Feiffer ended his long-running syndicated strip in 2000, but he's still busy with plays, children's books and other cartoons.

He and his wife, journalist and comedian Jenny Allen, will visit the Free Library to present The Long Chalkboard (Pantheon), a collaborative effort. Within the book's three stories, Allen's words and Feiffer's drawings explore the triumphs and anxieties of modern life, accented by Feiffer's light touch and deceptive whimsy. In the most fantastical, a woman with the ability to cook magical healing chili runs into trouble when politicians try to make use of her meals.

In a New York Times article, Feiffer professed delight at the latest turn in his prolific career, but some may be less comforted than he. "What made me a serious political artist was that I always believed that what I did, along with other cartoonists, could effect change in some way," he said. "I no longer have that illusion. Nothing I could do is going to change the mind of Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld or Dick Cheney. How happy I am that I stumbled into all these other forms."

Tue., Nov. 21, 8 p.m., $12, Free Library of Philadelphia, 1901 Vine St., 215-569-9700, www.library.phila.gov.