Big thanks to Salon for running this article and letting the world (or at least Salon's readers) know that this book existed. I'm a longtime fan of Winsor McCay's work, or at least of what little I've managed to find over the years, which amounts to a couple of small collections and a dvd of his collected animated work, any and all of which I recommend to fans of the unusual and fantastic. Fantagraphics has done a pretty good job collecting other brilliant comics in nice and tidy publishable form but otherwise it's a travesty that we've let so many of our national treasures from those early years of "comic art" just wither away and vanish. At least there are a few people out there with some appreciation for what was for a long time a quintessential and uniquely American artform.

Now if only I can find a way to afford this without getting beaten by my wife, we'll be in business.

To begin with, I would like to comment on Lev Raphael's response that Salon should not be bothering to review the same NYT bestsellers that everyone else is so enamored with. While, in essence, I agree with this stance, I also find it uniquely helpful to have good, solid reviews of mainstream best selling books available on Salon. They usually do a fair-to-excellent job of reviewing the works and provide me with the necessary understanding and information about the bestseller to discuss it socially without ever having to actually read it. This convenience often spares me the time (not to mention money) I need in order to read more independent books of substantive virtue. I appreciate this as a service and have good faith in Salon to provide me with a summary and index of these works in a way that I often don't trust or, let's face it, have time to find elsewhere. This is not to say that I wander around espousing commentary on books I’ve never read, only that it is helpful, as I’m sure most would agree, to have some background information on a work on those occasions when it does come up conversationally. Similarly I try to read King Kaufman’s column without ever watching sports game and Heather Havrilesky’s brilliantly entertaining work without yet having seen a single show she talks about. This is a significant means with which we “outside the mainstream” may maintain our independence and taste while still being able to correspond with people like my father, who’s consistently excited about a new Tom Clancy and, in his deeper moments, the new Jon Krakauer or Sebastian Junger work.

This shall bring me in response to the first reader comment by Anonymous about giving away the ending of a nonfiction book. This feels to me a ludicrous statement because excellent reviews of nonfiction work tend to, without fail, "[Give] away the ending." Good nonfiction reviews are summaries of the books in whole, including the ending, and are often quite educative in themselves, serving as both lesson and lead in to the reader to entice them in further. As a teacher I had once exclaimed with fierce gusto to our class, "Anytime telling the ending ruins the story, it was a shitty story to begin with."

And so let me leave you with this question, anecdotally. There is a Simpsons episode in which Summer Break comes and the kids go roaring out of class, followed by the teacher shouting, "Wait! Wait! You didn't hear how World War 2 Ended!" Brief pause as the children look expectantly, "We Won!" the class shouts "Hurray!" and we fade off. Do we read and study history to hear how it ends? Or do we study history to figure out how we got to that ending?

I can't speak conclusively about the show you saw, but to be fair to the instrument at least, unless Nico was just holding down the same notes the entire time, the Harmonium isn't that easy to play. The style with which you pump it can affect the sound a lot and learning to change your fingering in such a way as to take advantage of the pumping rhythm takes practice and some precision. Well, this is really in the case of a hand pumped harmonium like the one I've got. I've never had a chance to play on a foot-pedal powered one, which I imagine would be a lot easier.

My wife and I have got a whole world of strange instruments floating around our home. Weird instruments are an addiction and our only lament is lack of money, space and time to give them all the proper respect and skill they deserve. I would encourage any and all musicians to find at least one out-of-date piece of equipment to play. Think of it as a contribution to our cultural heritage.