"Bigger Than Zohran" (f/Me)
Watch this al-Jazeera documentary I'm in. Then come out tomorrow to my reading in Williamsburg
Edited by Sam Thielman
WALLER VS. WILDSTORM, the superhero spy thriller I co-wrote with my friend Evan Narcisse and which the masterful Jesús Merino illustrated, is available for purchase in a hardcover edition! If you don't have single issues of WVW and you want a four-issue set signed by me, they're going fast at Bulletproof Comics! Bulletproof is also selling signed copies of my IRON MAN run with Julius Ohta, so if you want those, buy them from Flatbush's finest! IRON MAN VOL. 1: THE STARK-ROXXON WAR, the first five issues, is now collected in trade paperback! Signed copies of that are at Bulletproof, too!
No one is prouder of WVW than her older sibling, REIGN OF TERROR: HOW THE 9/11 ERA DESTABILIZED AMERICA AND PRODUCED TRUMP, which is available now in hardcover, softcover, audiobook and Kindle edition. And on the way is a new addition to the family: THE TORTURE AND DELIVERANCE OF MAJID KHAN.
A FEW WEEKS before the election, Josh Rushing from al-Jazeera reached out to ask if I'd speak to him for a documentary he was making about Zohran Mamdani's mayoral bid. Having known Josh for years—more than a dozen years ago we shared a ride to the Quantico Proving Ground so I could get shot by the Pain Ray on video for WIRED—I knew he'd tell a thorough story. But "Bigger Than Zohran," released this morning, is 25 minutes of one of the spicier discussions of the stakes of the Mamdani mayoralty broadcast by a respected news outlet.
Executive produced by Peabody winner Laila al-Arian, the AJ Fault Lines documentary interviews Hasan Piker, David Hogg, Chris Hedges, Katie Honan of The City, Briahna Joy Grey, the Boston Globe's Abdallah Fayyad and myself. There's also a realtor who articulates the Cuomo position. I think the documentary is an incisive look at the dynamics that shaped Mamdani's victory. If you want to hear me and others extol the bankruptcy of the Democratic Party, you'll like this. If you want to hear talk about capturing New York from the oligarchs, you'll really like this. I also appreciate that there's a point toward the end in which I'm on my bullshit and then it cuts to a cheering crowd. That should happen more often, I think.
As well, my Cheney obituary is doing numbers. If you want to hear me talk about the life and times of Dick Cheney, my friends Danny Bessner and Derek Davison invited me on to American Prestige. This was more fun than anyone should have talking about Dick Cheney.
I don't really have it in me to do another newsletter this week. Socialism has won in New York City—borne on the back of, I have to say it, a fellow Bronx Science graduate—and I haven't yet wrapped my head around it. Read the next Molly Crabapple piece instead. The City has a great data-vis breakdown of the demographics of the election. Writing for Documented, Rommel H. Ojeda has valuable vox-pops from immigrant New Yorkers watching Mamdani win.
I'm not going to do any of that. This edition is pure self-promotion. And the most important aspect of that self-promotion: Tomorrow at Pete's Candy Store in Williamsburg (take the L to Lorimer), Tess Owen, Ryan D. Matthews and myself will be reading works on the theme of radicalization. I'll be debuting the fifth chapter of THE TORTURE AND DELIVERANCE OF MAJID KHAN. I've done a practice run and this chapter is heavy.
If you want a raw experience of hearing War on Terror narratives that were deliberately marginalized, get there by 6:45—I'm told the show is beginning, mercilessly, at 7pm sharp. It's free; you'll be the first to hear what it is I'm doing with this book; and, despite the subject matter, I will be in the mood to celebrate. Socialism has won in New York City.
See you tomorrow?
WALLER VS. WILDSTORM, the superhero spy thriller I co-wrote with my friend Evan Narcisse and which the masterful Jesús Merino illustrated, is available for purchase in a hardcover edition! If you don't have single issues of WVW and you want a four-issue set signed by me, they're going fast at Bulletproof Comics! Bulletproof is also selling signed copies of my IRON MAN run with Julius Ohta, so if you want those, buy them from Flatbush's finest! IRON MAN VOL. 1: THE STARK-ROXXON WAR, the first five issues, is now collected in trade paperback! Signed copies of that are at Bulletproof, too!
No one is prouder of WVW than her older sibling, REIGN OF TERROR: HOW THE 9/11 ERA DESTABILIZED AMERICA AND PRODUCED TRUMP, which is available now in hardcover, softcover, audiobook and Kindle edition. And on the way is a new addition to the family: THE TORTURE AND DELIVERANCE OF MAJID KHAN.