Blogs

Mathew Klickstein has worked extensively in all facets of live theater, film and TV, and has recently entered the comic book creation field with his highly acclaimed series You Are Obsolete, currently being developed for television. Comic-Con Begins, his six-part audio documentary about the origins of the San Diego Comic-Con and the rise of modern fandom, was released via SiriusXM/Stitcher throughout the summer of 2021.

His playful middle-grade audiobook, So Good to Be Bad: A Really Bad Middle-Grade Reader for Really Good Kids; or, A Really Good Middle-Grade Reader for Really Bad Kids, will be released by Blackstone Publishing on Sept. 28. The book involves the wacky misadventures of a young boy who is very good in a topsy-turvy world that is very bad, and can only make it through with the power of friendship, a la Matilda meets The Goonies. Actor Cary Hite, who performed in the longest-running African American play in history, The Diary of Black Men, narrates the humorous book.

Klickstein is a longtime writer, producer and instructor who specializes in arts and culture reporting across all platforms. His writings have appeared in Wired, the New Yorker, New York Daily News and Vulture. He’s the writer of numerous nonfiction books on such topics as The Simpsons, Nickelodeon and so-called “geek/fan culture.” In 2018, he worked with Mike Reiss, a Simpsons writer for three decades, on Springfield Confidential: Jokes, Secrets and Outright Lies from a Lifetime Writing for The Simpsons.

His recent middle-grade reader The Kids of Widney Junior High Take Over the World! received a 2021 Independent Publisher Book Award and is also available as an audiobook from Blackstone Publishing.