I have been to three cities so far on my book tour to promote The Customer is Always Wrong. I was at Skylight Books in Los Angeles, where my local homies came out in force! Then it was to my spiritual home, Oakland, Ca, where, at the Starline Social Club, it was an amazing night of friends, old and new. I was introduced by the genius Oakland/Alabama polymath Brontez Purnell and the fabulous Devil-Ettes! In Chattanooga, TN, I had a magic night at Wayneorama, the art installation/Chattanooga history funhouse created by my genius husband, Wayne White. I have been feeling the love all over this great land!
Feeling the love!
August 8, 2017 is my book's birthday! The Customer is Always Wrong is in stores today or available on Amazon. It is, as you know, the sequel to my previous graphic novel, Over Easy. It's getting love all over the place, like this interview over at Jezebel, with that smart Anna Fitzpatrick, and this short but pithy review at undertheradar.com, and here's a list of all the places I will be on tour! If you're in any of these cities, please come see me and get a free Lyin' Whore tattoo, or a The Customer is Always Wrong button, or maybe a waitress tiara or a soda jerk cap!
Book excerpt at the new yorker.com!I
I'm thrilled and proud to announce an excerpt from "The Customer is Always Wrong" is excerpted today at the newyorker.com! Please mosey on over there and check it out.
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Vulture.com review!
Abraham Reisman has been kind enough to include my book in his review of graphic novels for August on Vulture.com, saying this, among other things, about "The Customer is Always Wrong": "Pond’s hand is confident and her figure work hops balletically across the page; her facial acting is simple, but searing." Aw, thanks, Abe!
Book event at Starline Social Club on 08/17/17!
I'm excited to announce a fabulous book event and party, open to the public, at the Starline Social Club on August 17, 2017, to celebrate the publication of my graphic novel "The Customer is Always Wrong," the sequel to 2014's "Over Easy." The spectacular go-go troupe, The Devil-Ettes, will open and the famous whirling dervish and polymath Brontez Purnell will introduce me. It's summer, it's hot, there will be cocktails. Where else could you possibly want to be? Please join us!
It's All Happening!
I'm very excited to share with you both the endpapers and the tour poster for "The Customer is Always Wrong." Tour dates may be added as momentum picks up for my book, available on Amazon. If you're in San Diego, L.A., Oakland, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Portland ME, NYC, or Columbus, please come see me! I don't think I can express how satisfying it was for me to make map endpapers for this book. Sometimes I think that I might create a book just for the excuse to do map endpapers! I really get pretty verklempt about this whole thing. It's only been the culmination of a 29 year-old dream, since the first day I went to work at Mama's Royal Cafe in Oakland, CA back in 1978. I might also stress that this book is a work of fiction, inspired by real-life events. I never intended for this to be a history of actual people or events, but instead a creative expression of what it was like to be alive at that place and at that time.
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A starred Kirkus Review!
I'm very excited to say that my upcoming graphic novel, The Customer Is Always Wrong, has been given a starred review by Kirkus Reviews! It calls the book "Immensely enjoyable"! You can order it on Amazon or from my spectacular publisher, Drawn & Quarterly. It will be out August 8. I will be doing a reading at Skylight Books on August 12. There will be a spectacular event to celebrate the book at the white hot center of it all in Oakland, California, on August 17, from 7-10 pm at the Starline Social Club. More on that later! The following month I will be in New York City at the spectacular store Fishs Eddy, (where you can also purchase some delightful merch of mine!) on September 6. More details to follow on that as well.
The TCM Classic Film Festival! →
Back in March I had the thrill of attending the Turner Classic Movie Channel's TCM Classic Film Festival at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on Hollywood Boulevard, in Hollywood, CA. I live only 3 miles away, but it felt like a million miles away from my usual life. Surrounded by hardcore film buffs, I spent 4 days covering the event for the newyorker.com. I met so many interesting people, and actually got to know some of them better after they recognized themselves in the panels of my cartoon! Film buffs are a passionate bunch, and for good reason. Until you've been in a place where people don't naturally want to immediately talk about movies, you can't appreciate how grateful this group of people were to be together as a family!
Another cartoon for the newyorker.com!
I'm thrilled to say I've got another cartoon on the newyorker.com this week! It's about the new IKEA in Burbank, the largest in the nation, and how it seems...different!
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Mimi's Homestyle Cafe take 2
Although I stopped working at Mama's Royal Cafe about a zillion years ago, it ruined me for eating breakfast anywhere else. So I have learned to cook a great breakfast at home. I love me some pancakes, and usually I use this recipe, which really gets excellent if you take the time to find some fancy artisanal buttermilk, believe it or not. Normally I eschew pancake mix, but if you doctor up the Kodiak Cakes stuff I got at Costco - and trust me, it does need doctoring up -with buttermilk, an egg, and a little butter you got something going on! Even if you fake buttermilk by adding 1 T. of vinegar to 1 cup of regular nonfat milk! #immyownwaitress #fishseddy #thecustomerisalwayswrong #coffee #overeasy #waitress #breakfast http://dishes.fishseddy.com/housewares/Mimi-Pond
Mimi's Homestyle Cafe
I'm gearing up for the publication date of "The Customer is Always Wrong," August 8, 2017. That means I have to keep my strength up. Working at Mama's Royal Cafe in Oakland in the late 1970's as a waitress, I learned everything I know about cooking from watching the short-order cooks. At that stage of my life, I couldn't imagine how you could assemble a whole meal. How did you get everything to come out at the same time? What? You have to plan it, and time it, and prepare? Who knew? I began to work the mis-en-place - as Anthony Bourdain would call it, unlike any of the snarling, attitudinous, punk junkie fry cooks I watched would ever do- and over the years turned myself into a pretty goddamn good cook, if I do say so. This omelet- charming in its wabi-sabi, don't you think - contains a little cheddar cheese and some salmon roe, with a little chopped green onion on top. Another thing I learned in that kitchen was presentation! You can't just slop something down. You have to make it pretty. At Mama's Royal Cafe, we used vintage restaurant ware because at the time it could be bought for pennies. Now it's crazy collectible! Lucky for me I have an entire set of this Jackson china from fabulous New York tableware store Fishs Eddy.
New Publication Date for "The Customer is Always Wrong" →
The publication date for "The Customer is Always Wrong," the sequel to my graphic novel, "Over Easy," has been pushed forward to August 8, 2017. I hate the postponement as much as you all do, but I am assured this means more time to properly promote the book.
The NEW YORKER.COM, that's all, y'all
I was going to just post this cartoon on my site and be done with it, but with a little help from fellow cartoonist and newyorker.com contributor Julia Wertz, my story of judging a corgi parade in the historic St. Elmo district of Chattanooga, Tennessee got a slightly larger platform. I haven't had a cartoon in the New Yorker since 1994, so this is a big thrill! I urge everyone to go out and vote today, November 8, make history, wear pantsuits and eat tacos!
The Third and Final Presidential Debate
I am slow in uploading sketches from the third and final Presidential Debate of 2016, which took place on October 19, in Las Vegas, NV. Here they are!
the Second Presidential Debate!
I eagerly anticipated live-drawing the second Presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. I guess what I wasn't expecting was to feel, by the end of the 90 minutes, to feel like I wanted to take an endless shower. Perhaps that is why it has taken me so long to post these drawings. The subconscious effect of Donald Trump relentlessly stalking Hillary Clinton by standing behind her and glaring into the camera actually gave me nightmares.
The Customer is Always Wrong Spring 2017
I'm very pleased to announce that my publisher, Drawn & Quarterly, has announced its Spring 2017 book list and The Customer is Always Wrong is on it! The Customer is Always Wrong is the sequel to my 2014 fictionalized graphic memoir, Over Easy, a New York Times best seller and winner of the 2014 Pen Center USA award. I'm so proud to be in the awesome company of cartoonists like Seth, Jillian Tamaki, Guy DeLisle, Elise Gravel, James Sturm, Dupuy and Charles Barbarian, and works like Moomin and Kitaro!
The Pence-Kaine Debate
In the fleabag carnival that our election circuit has become, instead of the ratty spook house ride we've become accustomed to, last night's debate was fairly unspectacular, more of the garden variety of middling politics as usual. I'm not saying I miss Trump's presence on that stage. I think Kaine could have made himself more likable. I think he could have smiled more. I think Pence is a bobble-headed moron. But for the record I was simply trying to capture likenesses and expressions as the 90 minutes dragged on and on. If you'd like me to live-draw your event, please contact me! mimi@mimipond.com
Back to the drawing board
Recently I have rediscovered a rather long-dormant love of sketchbook drawing. I spent 10 days in New York City, where I lived from 1982-1990. I tried to fill an entire sketchbook with just drawings of people on the subway, but I would have needed a few more days and a few more hours to fill up this sketchbook.
