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by Nathan Gelgud

Type

Essays

Subject

Sociology

Keywords

politics, commitment

Publishing date

2026 (October 06, 2026)

Publisher

Drawn and Quarterly

Collection

Reel Politik

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 172 pages
5 x 7 inches (12.5 x 18 cm)

ISBN

978-1-77046-911-2

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Book Presentation:
Your favorite gang of militant movie lovers are back for an all-new season of hijinks and takeovers from their small town single screen cinema.

The Reel Politik guerillas discuss how to be an effective revolutionary while fighting the all-consuming evils of corporate Hollywood. Meditate! Fight your inner urge to binge watch! Engage in a cinema fast to truly appreciate the oeuvre of an auteur! Realism is bourgeois!

In an attempt to thwart a Hollywood studio from coopting the story of the Weather Underground, the gang then pursues its own cinematic celebration of their hero Bernardine Dohrn. “There are no good or bad movies, only correct or false ones.” Along the way the gang gets sidetracked to start the MLIB, the Marxist Leninist International Baseball league.

With his trademark slapstick zingers, Gelgud lovingly skewers leftist radical politics while simultaneously illustrating how late stage capitalism has made ethical decision making fraught with compromise. At once a celebration of what makes Hollywood and independent local cinema great and a call to arms to protect it.

About the Author:
Nathan Gelgud has been a projectionist, a video store clerk, and a movie critic. In 2012, he came in second place for the AltWeekly Award in Arts Criticism. He pretty much quit film criticism right after that. He makes comics about the arts for the New York Times and Hyperallergic when they let him. He used to live in New York, now he lives in Los Angeles. He is also the author of Reel Politik.

Press Reviews:
"Film critic-turned-cartoonist Gelgud’s looping caricatures achieve an appropriate mix of ardent and self-satirizing. This one will be snapped up by cinephiles who might, in between Agnes Varda retrospectives and complaining about Letterboxd, wonder if they could hijack the Criterion Closet van."–Publishers Weekly

"Radicals get their pomposity punctured with every punchline, but that doesn't mean Gelgud, a one-time projectionist himself, disagrees with them."–Sight and Sound

"Cartoonist Nathan Gelgud’s "Reel Politik" asks a question you never considered: What if there was a casual Sunday-comics-esque strip about insufferable movie snobs? (Yes, that’s a recommendation.)"–Chicago Tribune

"[Gelgud has] seemingly become the official cartoonist (and satirist) of cinema culture. Movie lovers will likely recognize themselves in the characters’ small-stakes bickering over such topics as assigned seating and film formats."–Los Angeles Times

"A full-fledged action drama that goes in wonderfully weird directions..[for] anyone who loves to talk film and politics, or enjoys sharp satire."–Hyperallergic

See the publisher website: Drawn and Quarterly