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Monday | January 5th, 2009

Vermonsters Rule!

Could this be -- the Connecticut River Monster? ©2008 SR Bissette

Could this be -- the Connecticut River Monster? ©2008 SR Bissette

Another Vermonster sketch from work-in-progress on the Joseph A. Citro/Bissette The Vermont Monster Guide.

This water puppy is up for sale — 11″ x 17″ marker, pen and ink on two-ply Bristol, $50 as is, plus shipping, or I can add some watercolor for $100 total, plus shipping, happily personalized upon request. First to email me at msbissette@yahoo.com lands the mighty water beast.

Note that the Champy sketch (see Bissette Sketches for Sale! page, new to the site) I posted over the weekend is still available, too.

Never Again!

January 4th, 2009
  • Spinning from the Fox News interview with former President George H.W. Bush, Associated Press’s Ben Feller writes about how “Former President Bush touts son Jeb for top job”:
  • “Asked in a broadcast interview about Jeb Bush’s consideration of the Senate seat, Bush 41 said: ‘I’d like to see him run. I’d like to see him be president someday…. or maybe senator. Whatever. Yes, I would. I mean, right now is probably a bad time, because we’ve had enough Bushes in there. But no, I would. And I think he’s as qualified and able as anyone I know on the political scene. Now, you’ve got to discount that. He’s my son.’ “

    We’ve had enough Bush in the White House for ever.

    No fucking way. Never again.

    Matt & Matt & Kim

    January 2nd, 2009
  • The big news up north is how the Vermont State Police popped actor Matt Dillon for tooling up I-91 in a rental 2009 Chevy Impala at 106 mph — he’ll be in court January 21st, Orange County. He’s lucky he didn’t take a spin off the interstate given road conditions this week.
  • kimmatt

  • But the Matt I planned to write about today is Matt Johnson, as in Matt and Kim (or, per the pic above, Kim and Matt), the Brooklyn-based band that’s touring from now until spring. I want to wish an early “Happy Birthday” to Matt (his birthday is coming up, end of the month),
  • and share my vivid memory of Matt’s birthday (when he was known to us all as Matty) looooong ago one January in Jacksonville, VT.

    Now, Matt might not appreciate this. Hell, I haven’t seen Matt since saying hello years ago in the Latchis Theater when he was visiting his folks and his father Tom and mom Susan made a point of saying hello to me, and shit, there was Matt, too, who I’d heard was studying filmmaking in NYC. Never did see any of his movies. But, appreciate it or not, I can’t help it — it’s January, and I recall this event every year about this time for no particular reason.

    Y’see, Matt’s birthday is awfully close to SuperBowl Sunday, and he was a little feller — I reckon about four — and he was being awfully patient with the adults who were more intent on the football game than his birthday. In fact, you might say the adults plumb forgot the real reason they were all gathered at the Johnson house was to celebrate Matt’s birthday, and they were paying way too much attention to the SuperBowl. Adults are like that.

    Matt had to wait a loooooooong time for his birthday cake to finally have the candles lit, until half-time, which seemed to take forever to arrive. Then he had to wait even longer for the cake to be cut — cuz the half-time show was so damned interesting to the adults — and, well, the end result was after waiting so long, Matt was shaking like a leaf when he got his piece, he was wound up so damned tight with how long he’d had to wait.

    Being patient at four years old is difficult, to say the least.

    He was so keyed up, and shaking so bad, that when he finally got his hands on the paper plate with his piece of his birthday cake on it —

    – he dropped it.

    Cake piece down.

    On the floor.

    Matty then went, well, completely apeshit.

    He was instantly on the kitchen floor, spinning like Curly (at the 7 second mark in the following:)

    And that’s the energy he pours into his music these days with his partner Kim.

    I love it.

    So, Happy Birthday Coming Up, Matt, and hope it’s a sweeter one for ya, with no goddamned SuperBowl mucking up the fun.

  • Heave Media’s Amy Dittmeier interview Matt and Kim here (“…I grew up in Vermont in a really little town…”), providing a bit of background for the uninitiated,
  • and you can pick up a copy of Matt and Kim’s first CD Matt & Kim S/T Full Length here (scroll down to the bottom of the home page).
  • If you want to sample their tunes and stuff first, check out their MySpace pages,
  • MATT AND KIM - YEA YEAH

  • and their antic video for “Yea Yeah”, which is a hoot.
  • Their latest CD Grand is due out this month, too — music to draw to in the Bissette studio.

    New Year’s Day Dreams & Schemes

    January 1st, 2009
    Arni's Tyrant sketch

    Arni's Tyrant sketch ©2006 SR Bissette

    New Year’s Day, 2009! I awoke from a promising dream — I was exploring a new comics shop, unlike any that I know of in this world, where the works for sale were inexpensive, modest packages but very beautiful, personal and quite exquisite and tantalizing. As I came around the corner of one of the spacious shelving units, there was a round-table discussion going on, and among the cartoonists gathered were some of my CCS alumni and students, now older, and my ol’ pal Rick Veitch. I was invited to sit with them…

    Marge and I at Amagor Torv 2006; photo ©2006 Arni Gunnarsson

    Marge and I at Amagor Torv 2006; photo ©2006 Arni Gunnarsson

    For some reason, I also awoke thinking of Marg’s and my 2006 trip to Copenhagen, Denmark, for the Komiks.dk convention, and all our friends from that marvelous trip. Arni Gunnarsson was among those who made it all possible, and the above images are photos Arni snapped during our visit — that’s the Tyrant sketch I gifted Arni with, and the pic of Marge and I at the fountain on Amager Torv in Copenhagen — ah, sweet times. So, here’s to 2009, and friends, comics, travel and art — may 2009 be abundant with all of those, for all of you.
    _______________________________

     

    Odds & Ends:

  • Cartoonist extraordinaire and ol’ Kubert School classmate (Kim was in the Class of 1979, if memory serves) Kim DeMulder has begun posting his memories of his initial years in the comics industry, and it’s well worth reading and sticking with for future installments.
  • Though some seem to mistake these posts as pure ego-boo, I think it’s invaluable to have a record of the past — if only to ensure the current and next generations of cartoonists learn from our experience and don’t repeat all our mistakes! Kim’s engaging, enjoyable and in-depth reveries are terrific reading and full of nuts-and-bolts ‘how to’ tips for those on a similar path today. Thanks, Kim, and I’ll be among those keeping up with this venture!

    Edd Cartier art

    Edd Cartier art

  • Edd (Edward Daniel) Cartier passed away last month — he was one of the great pulp fantasy and sf illustrators of all time, and lived a long life (94 years!). Thanks to Neil Gaiman for alerting many of us to this sad passing — another great, gone from this Earth.
  • Among the happier end-of-2008 news bits was this: “Paleontologists in east China have dug up what they believe is one of the world’s largest group of dinosaur fossils…” though they really have to get a handle on the difference between a platypus and a hadrosaurid (Hadrosaurids are commonly referred to as “duck-billed dinosaurs,” members of the family Hadrosauridae composed of ornithopods like Edmontosaurus, Parasaurolophus and other duckbills — they are not platypus, which are still-living marsupials, and hence mammals).
  • Who knows what will be discovered in 2009? Keep Digging the Dirt…

  • Speaking of dirt and digging: This mind-blowing disaster on American soil should be paid to the mounting ‘clean coal’ mythos both sides of the political aisle have been imbedding into the American brainpan. An entire Tennessee community has been irrevocably slagged and demolished by toxic coal waste — as explicit a metaphor for the American plight in 2008 as could be imagined.
  • Also speaking of dirt and dinosaurs, we were only this week alerted to the fact that Hurricane Katrina “was the final nail in the coffin” for President George W. Bush, according to insiders and aides to the President who are finally speaking out. Hell, where were you guys and gals when we the People needed you? It’s infuriating to read now, though the comments about Vice President Dick Cheney are far more revealing: “He became vice president well before George Bush picked him… and he began to manipulate things from that point on, knowing that he was going to be able to convince this guy to pick him, knowing that he was then going to be able to wade into the vacuums that existed around George Bush — personality vacuum, character vacuum, details vacuum, experience vacuum.”
  • May Bush’s vacuum presidency never be lionized as Reagan’s has been, and may Vice President Cheney find the appropriate circles in hell.

  • No worries, though, America — the growing registry of real-life superheroes is growing by the day (meet Razorhawk, ladies and gents), and 2009 looks to be the year we need to be watching the Watchmen,
  • if it indeed becomes possible for the film to be released at all. Gotta love the ongoing insane evocation of “The Work Of Alan Moore’s Magical Powers” — look, if Alan had magical powers, the fucking movie would not exist at all. Can we at least agree on that?
  • That said, you really should read the judgment itself, which is fascinating. “Plaintiff Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. (“Fox”) has sued defendants Warner Brothers Entertainment, Inc., WB Studio Enterprises, Inc., and Warner Brothers Pictures (collectively, “Warner Brothers”) for copyright infringement, interference with contract, and breach of contract. Fox seeks to enjoin the scheduled March 6, 2009 release of Warner Brothers’ big-budget comic-book feature, “Watchmen,” and also seeks an accounting of profits, declaratory relief, actual or statutory damages, and punitive damages…”
  • After reading this, I can’t for the life of me figure out what the fuck Warner Bros. is doing, other than harrassing Fox and the producers of the film: “Warner Brothers exercised its option to acquire Gordon’s rights after being placed on notice of Fox’s claim and having received the documentation upon which this Court bases its ruling. Thus, Warner Brothers cannot argue that its interest in “Watchmen” takes priority over Fox’s interest.” Warners, in short, blew it, and now they’re trying to pull their weight as they have for decades with creators — claiming and/or extending options illegally — and it just isn’t working out the way they’re used to in the out-of-sight, corporate-bully-world of DC and Vertigo contracts. Correct me if I’m wrong, anybody.

  • Sweetest discovery of 2008 for me, personally, was finding out another of the Vermont kids I knew when they were kids has grown up to make marks in the world — in this case, Matt Johnson of Matt and Kim, whose music I’m big-time enjoying.
  • More on Matt later this week, I’ve a memory to share.

  • Me, I’ll kick off the year savoring this brief but sweet review on the Teens Read Too site of Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman, and lock my sites on the new projects underway for 2009.
  • Once again, Happy New Year, one and all!

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