Pouring Monday

To most folks, a rainy Monday is the suck -- to me, it's the music!

This means I'll see David Gabriel today -- he just called, and is on his way up later this AM. Thus, construction will continue on the basement shelving I so desperately need. Marge finished her unpacking and 'nesting' (as she calls it) back in January; I've yet to even begin, save for the DVD room and my drawing and light tables. The rest has been boxes, stacks, three storage units and a horrorshow; I barely made it through this CCS semester teaching, due to the constant difficulty getting to anything I need for class and lectures.

This involved a fair amount of prep -- Mike Bleier (my stepson) saw to the initial electrical work, prepping everything with new outlets (there were none, save for the washer/dryer outlets) and the wiring necessary to eventually installing lights and more outlets, where needed. Our plumber installed a sorely-needed pressure tank, which had to be done before any other work on the basement was undertaken. That was all finished by the first week in March, and I cleared a full half of the basement for the work ahead. I've given almost all my old pasteboard shelves and bookcases away -- Mike and his wife Mary claimed four of them, and the rest went to needy CCS students, starting with Joe and Becca Lambert, all gratis (the last three will be picked up today, again by/for CCSers -- use 'em in good health!). Marge and I have held onto and used the wooden shelving units here and there about the house; nothing has gone to waste or ruin.

As I've shown you before on this blog (see photo at left),

Dave does terrific work; check out the viewing room shelving he and his brother Mike designed and constructed back in February -- beauty!

But the basement library needs heavy-duty, rugged and long-lasting shelving units, and those can only be built, not bought. Dave initially wrestled with the sheer bulk and no-nonsense constructions I wanted, but he's now well into it; it's nothing like the marvelous work he did in the viewing room. The design is functional, not particularly pleasing to the eye (though I always love the warmth of wood, in and of itself): these will be sturdy, standing floor to ceiling, and holding the maximum number of books of all sizes possible, with the topmost shelves for backstock. I need them all; by the time we're done, 3/4 of the basement will be dedicated to the library.

Dave began work on the basement project late last month, working with his amigo Josh; they got the sheetrock up, the mud work done and sanded, and I primed and painted that in a weekend. Dave came back this past Thursday and Friday, and he and Josh pulled together all the preliminary work on the shelving for a full half of the basement, completing work on three massive shelving units -- the rough equivalent of the shelving I had in my then-new Marlboro studio last year at this time. They had to fight the weather (a rental truck took care of the Friday haul of needed lumber, ensuring it remained dry) and lack of lumber (incredibly, not a single lumber yard or Home Depot in the WRJ area had 2"x 4"s!); that's now been solved, and the unit components are all cut and stacked in the garage and basement.

Dave and Josh are returning today to finish the ten-foot-long shelving units they'd cut and prepared for, and I can't wait.

By the end of today, those will be up and bolted to the walls; then Mike can complete the electrical work, placing lights and outlets as needed. Man, we are finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel!

This means, after some cleanup and a little touchup on the painted cement floor, I can unpack every box currently stacked (five-or-more feet high) in the quarter of the basement we placed boxes during the move, opening that area up completely for me to seal & paint the floor and prep for sheetrocking and that basement area's completion. That section will ultimately sport shelving and some office/work space, with a computer work station for scanning/lecture prep for CCS needs and future publishing ventures. Back in December 2006, Dave safely removed the custom-built looooooooong computer desk/workstation Olivier Flaggelot had built for me for the Marlboro studio space (based on a rather inventive design we both cooked up, sketched, and Olivier constructed); that will go into the last quarter of the basement, along with more shelving, which will allow me at last to have my entire library accessible and out of boxes for the first time since the late 1980s!

(And yes, Mike Dobbs, this time the shelving is accomodating expansion, too -- more shelving than I'll be filling!)

Remaining work thereafter involves framing the laundry room, which will also be lined with shallow shelving (for standard-size paperbacks and vhs videos), and closing in the bulkhead with (a) weatherproofed door(s), which Dave will likely build, given the odd shape and size of that doorway. The goal there is to keep the bulkhead fully functional while sealing the basement from heat loss -- it remained pretty comfortable all winter, despite the heat loss, just from the warmth generated by the boiler and hot water heater. Still, for those below-zero weeks, we'll be installing at least two baseboard heat units at the far end of the basement, just in case.

OK, time to go -- I've got a busy day ahead. This afternoon, Cat and I will be focusing on the long-under-construction website; hopefully, we'll have something up later this week, however skeletal. It's been a long time coming! I've been emailing Cat digital art & photo files all weekend, and I'm still hoping Jane Wilde gets around to mailing Cat a disc with all the work she and we'd done last year.

[Cat, U R my computer guru; art (c) Cayetano Garza]

It's coming together. It's all coming together.

Tomorrow, I'll offer my first CCS graphic novel discussion class -- I'll be moderating a session on the first volume of Junji Ito's Uzumaki, which is among my favorite horror comics and graphic novels from anywhere in the world. I've prepped a Q&A sheet (which I'll post here later this week), and then it's Ivan Brunetti week at CCS. Ivan and his wife arrived this weekend, and he's scheduled a full run of workshops and lectures; last year, Ivan arrived with Seth and Chris Ware for a three-day whirlwind of creative and instructional activity, of which I only experienced one day, due to my schedule and the long drive from Marlboro to White River Junction. Now that Marge and I live fifteen minutes away, I hope to sit in on all of Ivan's sessions, except today's. Hooooo doggies! OK, enough of my rambling --

Have a great Monday, one and all!

Rainbows & Split Beavers

Driving home from White River Junction at twilight, I see the dim, fading remnants of a rainbow over the southern edge of the village. As I continue south on I-91, it brightens and seems to move with me, until the rain begins to fall in earnest and the last of the colors dissolve.

As I pass the sign for the Windsor exit, there's something in the road, sprawled towards the shoulder. Matted deep brown fur, the raw red hollow of a shattered ribcage, a huge flat black tail -- a beaver, pulverized by a truck, no doubt. A short ways further, another, rolled like a bloodied floormat at the far edge of the passing lane, more recognizably a beaver, its distinctive broad tail partially flattened by tire treadmarks.

As the Windsor exit comes into view, I sigh -- another beaver smashed to a partial pulp in the right lane ahead. I look away, toward the northbound lane, and see yet another on that stretch of highway. Four adults, by the look of it, all quite, quite dead; an entire family, or colony, wiped out in an afternoon. There was nothing on these stretches of road this morning.

I flick my blinker on, and veer onto the exit, heading home, hoping to arrive.

Sunday Morning Review of Books...

...and comics.

Well, at least an overview of some recent and upcoming publications that may be of interest to some of you.

An opening morning thought (compliments of HomeyM, thanks, Homey!):

"The creative process is a process of waiting, trusting, acting, it has a deep wisdom, if we will surrender to it. The power of the unconscious rises to the page. It can be frightening. It is difficult. But it is in the vitality of this struggle between the writer and the word that we can create transformative work. Each book I have written has transformed me in the process. I write myself to the other side of my question..."

- Terry Tempest Williams

This past Friday, Charlito and Mister Phil

of the popular podcast venue Indie Spinner Rack

visited the Center for Cartoon Studies and interviewed yours truly at great length; that'll be online soon. As CCS fellow faculty member Robyn Chapman points out, Indie Spinner Rack has been a great supporter of CCS -- "they are donating half of the profits from their upcoming anthology to CCS," Robyn says -- and they are excellent promoters. Charlito is also a fellow XQB (Kubert School graduate), and it so happens we first met and he was a student there when I visited the school and presented an early version of the ever-expanding Journeys Into Fear: A History of Horror Comics slide show lecture.

Anyhoot, among the many things Charlito and Mister Phil grilled me about was "Why isn't there any new Bissette comics?," a question touched upon ad infinitum here from time to time. Which leads me to this morning's subject:

My work appears in a number of new comics and books! Here's a quick review of those goodies, now out and/or about to hit the shelves:

* Rick Veitch's King Hell Press is just releasing Rick's new anthology Shiny Beasts; for more relevant info, memories and details, and a peek at the story and artwork I had a hand in that appears in this anthology, check out

this previous blog posting,

and this one,

and then there's this, too! All worth visiting or revisiting.

Best of all, though, is Rick's own preview section he's posted online, here!

* The latest issue of Bob McLeod's magazine Rough Stuff #4 features an illustrated overview of some of my Swamp Thing pencils, with insights by yours truly, and best of all a lengthy illustrated interview with my venerable amigo and fellow Swamp Thing vet John Totleben. Pick it up, and pronto -- it's on the shelves now, or you can order your copy immediately

at the TwoMorrows publisher website.

I wrote about this issue on the blog

here

and here, including art, links, etc. of interest and delivering some immediate gratification and eye-candy delights.

* So much for vintage Bissette -- there's new stuff, too. here's the upcoming (shipping in May!) Accent UK Zombies anthology, for which I drew a cover, some interior spot illustrations, and completed a brand-new four-page Edward-Gorey like humor piece working with my son Daniel Bissette,

which I first announced here,

discussed at some length here,

blathered more about with this post,

and provided bios for the anthology's fellow contributors here.

That Zombies also features some stories and art by Center for Cartoon Studies students is a plus in my book, too!

I'm not sure if this anthology is going to make it over to the US, so best you check out

the Accent UK site and see about ordering your copy online, just in case.

I'll be posting more info, links, and tidbits on Zombies -- and the planned US followup, featuring much all-new work (including new material by yours truly!) -- later this coming month and spring. Keep your eye on this blog!

* In stores right now is the third (and, alas, final) issue of Mark Martin's most recent anthology Runaway Comics

which prints the complete version of "Blog Opera," the amazing story featuring me, Steve Bissette, trying to rescue my friend Mike Dobbs's severed head, which I previewed here

(lifting the images from Mark Martin's marvelous blog "Jabberous," which is forever linked on the menu at your immediate right), and which places me at last in the Brain That Wouldn't Die pantheon I secretly forever longed to belong to.

Thanks, Mark! Do I give head as well as I take head? You'll have to buy Runaway Comics #3 to find out!

I also have a teeny, tiny li'l drawing that's part of Mark's eye-popping back cover painting,

and you can find out the secrets of this back cover painting here, including my part in it -- scroll down the menu at the left Mark has created, and click on the contribution by everyone Mark invited to "come draw with me!" (which is also covered -- pun intended -- in the pages of Runaway Comics #3)!

So, don't hesitate, run right out today and pick up your copy of Runaway Comics #3! While you're at it, get Runaway Comics #1 and 2, too -- all great, fun reading -- and all available

here, where you can also preview every issue as well, right now.

Check 'em out, and tell Mark I sent you.

* I've also written the introductions for two new graphic novel collections -- one a partial reprint extensively revised and expanded into a whole new graphic novel, the other reprinting for the first time a seminal body of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle work by Michael Zulli. Both, though, are well worth picking up, and pronto!

If you scroll down a bit, you'll find my writeup of Michael Zulli's excellent TMNT: Soul's Winter here,

and you can order a copy here (with Michael's exquisite & exclusive signed bookplate as a bonus)!

* The amazing new graphic novel I proudly scribed an intro for is Rob Walton's masterpiece Ragmop, which doesn't "just" collect the existing pair of Ragmop series from the mid-1990s -- don't believe those know-it-all online putzes and pundits who claim otherwise.
Ragmop, the book, is not a reprint edition -- Rob completely revised, revamped, redrew, rewrote, and expanded the whole into a complete, self-standing and mighty hilarious satiric epic that is hands-down one of my favorite graphic novels of all time!

Here's Rob's blog and site, always worth a visit (on a regular basis),

and here's where you must immediately go and purchase a copy of Ragmop with the limited edition signed color bookplate -- no, right now. No excuses.

You think I refer to something as "my favorite graphic novel of all time" lightly?

So, there. Some new Bissette, some old Bissette -- all in print now, and in comics shops and bookstores now.

Now, I personally know how many of you did (and most of all how many didn't) order my son Dan's zine Hot Chicks Take Huge Shits last year, with my first-ever all-new comic story of the Millennium. A vast yawn greeted Dan and I with that little wonder. There's a stack of 'em signed sitting here in the SpiderBaby backstock; Dan was so discouraged with the cosmic indifference to his first effort he damn near killed himself -- good thing I talked him down out of that tree. That's right -- and it would have been your fault!

You don't really care whether I draw comics again, you just like to gripe about it, and expect me to post whatever I do online so you can dig it for free. Well, I'm on to your little game. I can just glance over at the huge stack remaining of Hot Chicks Take Huge Shits and I know what's what.

So get out there, or just click your fucking mouses, and buy the books and comics above. They're all great! I'll know if you did or didn't, bunky. Quit whining about my not doing anything and go buy 'em all, or leave me alone!

_____________________

On another matter all together, which Ragmop creator Rob Walton and I talked about during his visit here, and which Clan Apis and The Sandwalk Adventure creator (and biologist) Jay Hosler had a lot to say about during his visit to CCS, check out the comments on yesterday's blog posting for a lengthy comeback from Luke Przybylski about

this Easter blog posting, which I still stand by (your writing still played to the prejudices I noted, Luke).

I've replied in kind in the same comment thread, so check that out, too, and feel free to weigh in

(and feel free to read the local article in this recent post, too -- scroll down past the Grindhouse writeup -- as followup; that goes for you, too, Luke!).

Happy to talk about it, if anyone wishes to.

______________________

And this just in, Naomi Wolf's sobering Guardian story about how we're currently perceived overseas, and justifiably so.

Thanks to Tim Lucas for the link -- and y'all have a good Sunday, now, y'here?

Back From the Grave...

You can't keep a Blog Zombie down!

Well, not for long.

Yep, thanks to the collaborative exchange of info/media/scans between my respective computer gurus Jane Wilde (of Absolute Computing Solutions in Marlboro, VT) and web cartoonist extraordinaire and early founding member of the extended & growing White River Junction/Center for Cartoon Studies cartooning community

Cayetano Garza aka 'Cat,'

thanks to whom my long-under-construction and long-overdue-for-revamping website will at last be up (gulp) this week!

Cat is now my computer guru, and you have him to thank for today's blog being up and running at last. We've got a lot planned, and will be posting info, links, and opening up the long-overdue Bissette website -- keep your eye out here, and all praise Cat! He's been making web comics since 1996, and he's a demigod in this old-timer's book.

That's a lot of back from the grave, eh?

________________

For those of you starving for Bissette comics work, there's a batch of stuff coming up and out -- but for now, suffice to note that Rick Veitch just sent me the first comp copy of his new King Hell anthology Shiny Beasts, which I previewed for ya

here

and here.

The book is gorgeous, and our collaborative Epic effort "Monkey See" never looked better (26 years out of print!), and there's also Rick and Alan Moore's long out-0f-print Epic collaboration to savor, too (including it's revelatory Bissette cosmic-VD panel) and Rick's afterword with vintage photos of his old hippy self (and Totleben and Bissette, in their younger years). A terrific package, if I may say so myself!

Rick dropped by the house last weekend to pick up the oldest Veitch & Bissette "Creative Burnouts" art in my flat files -- including our first ever collaboration, drawn up on our Kubert School drawing boards in September 1976! -- and Rick is planning an upcoming anthology featuring all our collaborative work. But that's later, folks -- Shiny Beasts is out now.

Shiny Beasts is shipping to comic shops pronto, and I'll post more on this blog once I know it's in stores and online. You might want to hold out, though, for buying the book via PaneltoPanel.net, as Rick, Alan Moore and I are currently signing signature sheets for PaneltoPanel's special promo of Shiny Beasts -- more info on that (and sales link) soon!

_________________

This-here blog has been down the entire week of the White River Indie Film festival, which is too bad -- I had scribed and was planning to post a day-by-day diary of the event, and promote the hell out of it.

Alas, bandwidth issues decided otherwise, and WRIF ends this very weekend -- today and tomorrow. My panels and such ended last night (more on that later this week, as time permits).

Still, if you're in the area, as in today and tomorrow,

WRIF's current weekend lineup boasts some of the festival's best films (scroll down to the listings and info for April 28 and 29),

including a zinger Iraq War double-feature of The War Tapes and

Iraq in Fragments (which I wrote up here),

followed by panel discussion; the gender-issue one-two punches of Freeheld and Georgie Girl, likewise followed with lively panel discussion;

Adrian Grenier's Shot in the Dark and his short film Euthanasia (which I blogged about here),

(and the lingering possibility that Grenier himself may show up, live and in person); and more.

Best of tonight's offerings, to my mind, is the African film Bamako, which I reviewed

on this very blog during our screening process (scroll down a bit to that writeup),

though I've no doubt the two most popular films of the fest may prove to be tonight's showings of Brick (reviewed in the same post as Bamako; see link, above) and The Devil and Daniel Johnston, which is one of my son Dan's favorite films.

Sunday's program offers an intense lineup of "First Person" documentaries, including a panel on the genre. There's a lot of intensive scrutiny of abuses of power in these films, too: The Forest for the Trees,

the excellent Strange Culture (which I reviewed here),

the riveting Hand of God, and the 5:15 PM show of Sacrificial Lambs, which I will be introducing, followed by a panel with filmmaker Ed Dooley, Norwich Selectwoman and farmer Suzanne Lupien, the Faillace family, and farmer Doug Flack. Now, that should be a lively session! Tomorrow's program also includes

51 Birch Street

and the evening begins with the marvelous

Absolute Wilson (Bissette review here)

and concludes with the amazing documentary Jesus Camp (my review, and some blistering fundamentalist comments, here; scroll down to the goodies).

Sorry I didn't have this venue available to promote all this past week's wonderful films and events, but c'est la vie. If you can come this weekend, see you there!

_________________________

My ol' pal Mark Martin has been posting some great vintage Mark Martin comics, art and stories on

his blog "Jabberous,"

and that's a perpetual treat.

His latest excavation has yielded a complete MM parody of Harvey Comics's venerable bowler-derbied spook Spooky,

Dooky, who's short-but-sweet adventure begins here. Then click on over to

Dooky's page the second,

Dooky's penultimate panic, and

Dooky's ass-blasting last hurrah (and more)!

Now, tell me that ain't funny. Kudos to you, Mark, and here's hoping for a complete Harvey Comics parody comic from you one day!

Everyone in comics knows about Dan Clowes's Harvey parody in Eightball, but this has been a rich vein of comics satire for ages, and it would be a corker of a book if someone would brave the legal hurdles and put them all together into one fat tome. My old XQB pal and vet Taboo contributor Tom Foxmarnick had cooked up a hilarious satire of Hot Stuff a loooong time ago, which I still fondly remember. Rick Veitch and I once roughed out a Harvey parody of our own (back in 1979) intended for Dr. Wirtham's Comix and Stories which we entitled "Li'l MicroDot," in which our version of Harvey's beloved dot-obsessed li'l girl character was tripping her brains out and finally, in desperation, grabs the phone to call for help, only to space out on -- the little holes in the receiver! As she is mesmerized by this miniature landscape of uniform holes, a clutch of tiny Art Linkletters pop out of them all, screaming "Don't jump, MicroDot! Don't jump out the window!"

Well, it was funny to us in 1979. We never drew it, though, so it remains a layout in one of my sketchbooks, which ain't funny.

____________________

What really ain't funny, and has prompted me at last to turn off the fucking news by yesterday AM, is

the utterly spineless news coverage of President Bush's latest pathological projection of blame -- it's just too infuriating for words -- isn't anyone going to call this latest GOP shell game for what it is?

Bush and Cheney and their corrupt cabal have manipulated their budgets year after year by keeping the genuine cost of the war(s) off the table, and out of their annual budget -- it's at last caught up with them. Is anyone really falling for Bush's bullshit? Cheney, per usual, is even more reprehensible in his rhetoric; I have never, ever so loathed a public figure in my life. The man is evil incarnate; typical of our times, he was keynote speaker at the Brigham Young University graduation recently. Now, there's religious values for you.

I am so aching for any coverage of this current "showdown" to confront the core issue -- the President and Vice President's false budgeting of this war, by persistently not budgeting for these war, by absolutely refusing to budget for these wars -- for what it truly is: the consequences of this President's ongoing strategic shell game.

These two bastards don't give a flying fuck for our troops -- they created this horrorshow, they have abused the military and military families every step of the way (note this week's Pentagon hearings), they created this current standoff by refusing to responsibly budget for and truly wage the war they claim our very lives depend upon, and they are the lowest slime to ever hold the highest office in our country in US history.

Have a great weekend, one and all --

And the Beating Goes On...

Alas, Tuesday AM, and this bandwidth issue is still unresolved.

If I knew WHAT to do, with WHOM, it would have been resolved by now! I trust my computer gurus to sort this out, knowing I'm losing many of you who habitually visited this blog daily... sigh.

Soon, I hope...

Update (for whenever this is all visible) --

Well, major changes as a result of this blog situation, all long overdue (I've been dragging feet, with the move and CCS workload and all). This weekend, my former computer guru Jane Wilde of Absolute Solutions in Marlboro and my new website guru (and cartoonist) Cayetano "Cat" Garza Jr. began the process of transferring all the work Jane and I had done on the site between one another, and Cat and I will be underway later this week.

Among the goals: preserving this blog, and then getting everything up and running.

Thanks for your patience; this glitch has been a catalyst for long-overdue action on the site.

More later...

Blogged Out!

Ah, the Luddite hits 'post', only to receive the message:

Bandwidth Limit Exceeded
The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later.
Apache/1.3.37 Server at www.srbissette.com Port 80

Reckon I'll have to sort this out this weekend... patience!

I know, no one can read this...

Just Slamming Up a Friday AM post --

It's the week of WRIF, and I'll be posting a lot about the White River Indie Films festival later today and all weekend and week. Along with, like, other things of broader interest, for those of you not living in driving distance. But it's WRIF week for Bissette! Links, info, pix to follow, starting later today.
___________

Most curious fact about the Virginia Tech killer, Cho Seung-hui, to emerge this week:

"His only sibling is an older sister, Sun Kyung-cho, who oversees Iraq reconstruction aid at the State Department."

This from article by Helen Thomas in New York Daily News, April 19, 2007, compliments of HomeyM.
___________

Fox News sank to new lows with this abominable treatment of Kurt Vonnegut.

Of course, the fact the same 'news team' (choke) that so endlessly lionized the likes of President/Governor Ronald Reagan and have shamelessly trotted out Ted Nugent as an antidote for liberal guests they've summarily trashed ended up treating Vonnegut thus in the pretense of presenting an 'obit' would likely have been a source of great pride to Vonnegut himself.

Have a great Friday, more later today, and hope to see some of you at WRIF this week...

Big Doings at CCS...

First up, the Center for Cartoon Studies community is celebrating its first newborn:

CCS co-founder and Grand Omnipotent Benevolent Goddess-Being Michelle Ollie and her partner Michelle Roy gave birth this past Tuesday, April 17th, to their son Phineas Henry Roy-Ollie -- born at 5:05am, weighing 5 lbs 8oz. Everyone is healthy, well, but tired. Congrats to Michelle, Michelle and Phineas!

Secondly, CCS senior

Sam Gaskin, who has poured this year into the creation of a phenomenal, one-of-a-kind first volume of Pizza Wizard strip

just won a Xeric Foundation grant -- allowing him to self-publish Pizza Wizard, hopefully in time for the upcoming MoCCA art festival. Keep an eye out here, and on Sam's site, for future announcements -- congrats, Sam!

It's been a real treat to see Sam's skills blossom this past year. He began work on a planned thesis project that had its roots in an expansive strip he'd begun during his first year at CCS. However, something -- else presented itself, even as Sam worked on the planned project: a one-pager entitled "Pizza Wizard." During his first critique session as a senior, Sam shared that one-pager along with the considerable work underway on the thesis project, and we all responded with unexpected enthusiasm to this new eruption from Sam's imagination. Pizza Wizard thereafter took over -- when the muse alights, it's best to go where she leads -- and grew into the most ambitious undertaking of Sam's body of work to date. He finished Pizza Wizard's first volume this month, within days of receiving the phone call from home informing him of the Xeric decision.

Sam is the second CCS student to win a Xeric -- not bad, one per year for the school's first two years in existence. But the prize belongs to the cartoonists/students, not the school, mind you. Still, nice to note. Sam's 'win' last week was well-deserved, as was last year's Xeric award to

Alexis Frederick-Frost for his excellent graphic novel La Primavera (2006).

Haven't got a copy as yet, or read it yourself? Well, that can be remedied promptly -- via I Know Joe Kimpel (link already provided, above -- and again, below). Alexis is already hard at work on his current graphic novel, and it's even better -- Sam and Alexis are both talents (and very different visions) to watch!

Leading us to:

Thirdly (?), the online venue for CCS comics, minicomics and graphic novels is expanding. This just in from senior Adam Staffaroni:

"We've added a bunch of new people to the I Know Joe Kimpel site, added a blog, and there's a Press Release link on the top of our main page detailing all the good things people have been saying about Gabby [aka Ken Dahl]'s and Alexis' work."

The sweet quotes are

beginning to appear here -- just scroll down the press page during this period of construction on the site -- and spread the word!

But that's not all -- like Adam says,

the blog is up and running, with its first post in place,

and here's the link to the whole "I Know Joe Kimple" site. Check it out, and often! Many changes, updates, and new stuff a-coming soon!

Fourth, I'm happy to announce that our beloved CCS intern Gabby aka Ken Dahl has completed, printed, and is about to debut

the second issue of Monsters, second volume of his Ignatz-Award-winning minicomic of 2006, will debut this week at APE -- or you can purchase your copy via mail order from this link at I Know Joe Kimple!

Congrats, Gabby -- I mean, uh, Ken -- and hope APE proves a festive and celebratory debut venue for your latest creation.

Monsters #1 deserved the considerable attention and praise it garnered, and humble as Gabby remains, he sure earned that Ignatz Award. The above link will steer you to both issues, highly recommended!


And last but by no means least, there's the good news that

CCS senior Josie Whitmore has just launched her new site, which waits for you here. Check it out, and keep doing so, as Josie will be adding to it regularly.

A sure sign of spring: so many new, fertile beginnings...

Support this generation of young cartoonists -- they're gonna change the world, for the better.
__________________

New England cartoonists, take note: The Trees & Hills Group wants YOU! This just in from T&H co-founder Daniel Barlow:

Members of

the Trees & Hill comics group

are proud to announce that we plan to publish a second anthology of work by regional creators early this summer.

Submission details for the new anthology are located near the bottom of this message.

In October 2006, the comics group published the 60-page opus, Trees & Hills & Friends anthology, which featured cartoons by over 20 creators from New Hampshire, Vermont and western Massachusetts.

The mini-comic, which featured work by Stephen R. Bissette, Cat Garza and Marek Bennett, has sold more than 100 copies. This total does not include the copies that we gave to contributors for their work, meaning there may be nearly 200 copies out there in circulation.

The release of that book capped the first year of operation for Trees & Hills, which was formed by NH cartoonist Colin Tedford and VT writer Dan Barlow following a large turnout to a 24-Hour Comic event just more than a year earlier in Brattleboro, Vt.

Publishing and distributing the anthology was the first major expansion for the group, which had since been focusing on holding semi-monthly drawing parties, managing a Web site and tabling at local comic book conventions.

Format: The 2007 anthology – which does not yet have a name – will be 5.5 x 8.5 inches with a one-color cover and black and white interiors. It will be a mini-comic; the same size width and length as the previous anthology.

Content: There will also be a change in the content we are looking for in this publication. This time around we are looking for all-ages contributions, whereas the first publication was a showcase of the talents of the many members of our group.

Now, we are hoping for a comic that children, teenagers and adults will all be able to enjoy.

Details: Every contributor will receive one copy of the book per page published. We're looking for copies of the content; please do not send original art. If you live in Vermont, please send the contributions to barlowdaniel@gmail.com and New Hampshire artists can send their work to colintedford@gmail.com

Creators from Massachusetts can choose either Dan or Colin to send their artwork to.

Photocopies snail mail submissions can be sent to Colin Tedford, PO Box 645, Winchester, NH 03470 or Dan Barlow, 182 Main Street #2, Montpelier, VT 05602.

The submission deadline is Saturday, May 26.
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Pro-Death President Bush did it: his reorientation of the Supreme Court resulted in the 4-5 vote yesterday that's a victory for anti-abortion, anti-choice activists. This is a major shift in our country, in personal freedoms, and in woman's rights.

My family has had its own experiences with abortion -- no one's business, suffice to say -- but it was a choice the women involved had to make, did make, and live with, for good or ill. It was their choice to make, though, and thank God this country at the time provided some sane measure of safety and legal means for them to make those choices within.

That's now threatened, possibly forever, and I've nothing but contempt for this President, this Supreme Court, and this country's decision to go down this road.

Pro-Death advocates can also ponder this morning's surprise from

deeply disturbed Virginia Tech student Cho Seung-Hui, who left his indelible mark on us all this week, spiced with the revelatory surfacing of videos he shot and mailed to NBC -- between the time his killing spree began shortly after 7 AM and resumed and escalated after he mailed these videos to NBC -- bringing horrifying new light to this national tragedy. This link will also take you to various links to the video excerpts that have been released (if you can make it through the Netflix commercials, natch).

Complete with references to Jesus Christ, President Bush, Columbine "martyrs like Eric and Dylan" and presenting himself as doing what he did to achieve similar media martyrdom -- "...I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people..." -- Cho's video confessional should provide a fresh, unavoidable national wakeup call and life-and-death debate -- but no. It's all being quickly, handily packaged, promoted, sanitized, trivialized. With every single radio, TV, online and government agency I was in eye or ear shot of yesterday immediately removing any serious discussion of gun control from the table, there's really nothing left to say, is there? Reports that Cho purchased his guns and clips at local pawn shops and Walmart speaks volumes. Go, NRA; you've got the nation in your pocket; that's another 32 notches to take pride in.

More Totleben Awaits You...

...here, at Bob McLeod's Rough Stuff website.

More art Bob couldn't fit into Rough Stuff #4 (see yesterday's post), plus John's comments. Check it out!

Other insider info:

Tim and Donna Lucas's Mario Bava book is almost a reality! They just posted these photos of themselves with the ozalids of the book (check it out, especially if you need to know what ozalids are).

How cool is that?

Amazing, too, that lifelong Wizard of Oz fan Donna is now savoring "ozalids" of her and Tim's own creation -- I'm amazed there was never a drug dealer who adopted the term (though it likely didn't exist pre-digital era). It all fits together, somehow.

Ah, it's closer to reality -- and to my own bookshelf! -- and it's looking more than ever like the ass-kicking book of the year! Heartfelt congrats, Tim and Donna! Thanks for posting the pix and update!

That's a lot of book! Tim sez, "Do not drop this book on your cat!"

More post later today -- gotta run!

Imagine That Newt is Orange...

...and then click over to

Bob McLeod's Rough Stuff site to read about this vintage Bissette/Totleben collaboration, our first painted Swamp Thing cover art.

Then, at your local comics shop or via

this link, pick up a copy immediately of Rough Stuff #4, featuring the interview with John Totleben and pencils section by yours truly.

George Khoury's interview with John is truly excellent reading, and (per usual for Rough Stuff) illustrated with some jaw-droppingly gorgeous reproductions of John's pencils for covers, story pages, pinups, concept drawings, etc. John's recollections about our Swamp Thing days are, also per usual, dead on the money right -- though I'll post some comments (in the way of additional info, in part since George asks John about my end of things more than once) later this week, as time permits. In any case, get your hands on Rough Stuff #4, and pronto!

I'm speaking in Stowe, VT tonight at 5:30 at

The Helen Day Art Center; here's the particulars.

Maybe see one or two of you there? I'm working all this morning there at the art center with three groups of regional high school students (11th and 12th Grade) drawing comics -- fun, fun, fun! I dig these sessions, and some pretty lively comics come about as a result.

Ya, I know, it's late notice. Heck, I've barely had time to post anything this week, and this bull run (between CCS workload and WRIF final prep) will continue thus into Friday. As time permits, though, I'll try to catch up.

The Virginia Tech rampage is the fresh national horror; but this has had me wincing over the past week:

One thing to keep in mind as you hear/read the increasingly bilious crap pouring out of President Bush's mouth this week: You know, if President Bush would just finance his war the way every other President in US history tends to -- within his annual budget -- instead of keeping it "off the table" with his bullshit sideline funding via emergency spending measures, he wouldn't have gotten himself into this dilemma. He alone is responsible for this, however much he stridently says otherwise. He is refusing to "fund the troops."

The Congress is, at last, holding him and the Pentagon accountable (literally) for this war funding, and it's Bush's strategic burying/sidelining of the real cost of the war that led to this present showdown. The pork is a false issue -- the real issue is Bush, Cheney, et al set up this situation by never honestly funding this war, thus falsely cooking the annual books. It's Bush's own fucking fault -- however much he blisters the Democratic Party with his mounting rhetoric (and it was Republican votes that landed much of the pork attached to the war bill, BTW, so don't buy into that line of crap, either).

OK, there's other stuff to get into.

More later this week!

Good Lord, Now What is Jesus Telling Me?

And still, they tempt me!

Man, I don't ever, ever want to hear about how Gay Marriage is a threat to hetero marriage again -- these Christian dating services are a far, far greater intrusion into my home life and threat to the sanctity of my marriage! They're getting blonder...

Have a great Sunday, one and all...

More Uncle Sam Zombies...

Now that I've opened this can of worms, everything's coming up maggots!

I posted an announcement about

Leah Moore and John Reppion's Raise the Dead comic series earlier this week,

including a peek at the cover art -- and now there's Uncle Sam zombies crawling out of the woodwork.

As already noted, I first "saw" the image in a screenplay Tim Lucas wrote and shared with me 20 years ago; at that time, Tim had come up with something original and unique. Alas, the script was never filmed, so that specific image never reached the public eye -- but here it is again, the unsung pop image of 2006.

Clearly, "its" time has come. Though no one "owes" a debt to Tim, per se, it's still worth noting for the record that his script is the first eruption of that image I personally encountered. Now, Undead Uncle Sam is everywhere.

Berni Wrightson's ad art for the high-def horror channel Monsters HD includes a fun riff on the old Jack Kamen Creepshow poster art, featuring the nervous young lad with a remote in his hand, Alex Gordon/Edward Kahn's The She Creature playing on TV, and Berni's take on the She Creature malingering outside the boy's bedroom window, peeking in. But relevant to this topic at hand is Wrightson's "Eye Want You!" parody of the famous Flagg Uncle Sam recruitment poster, looking a little worse for the wear

(here's the link to the site's liveliest use of Berni's Uncle Sam zombie painting!).

(For those of you with long memories, this recalls Wrightson's stylishly done Howard the Duck for President poster, which I still have somewhere in my collection.)

Well, OK, with Wrightson doing his take on zombie Uncle Sam, you'd think that would be enough. Nope, the new wave of zombie comics has embraced the image like a long lost patriarch come home at last.

Not counting the Captain America zombie Art Suydam painted for the Marvel Zombies series (itself satirizing the iconic Jack Kirby 'Cap is Back' cover from the '60s), along with the stirring Uncle Sam alternative Raise the Dead cover for Leah and John's series (likewise painted by Art Suydam), it turns out there's a "Cover B" alternative cover to

Mark Kidwell & Nat Jones's Image Comics one-shot '68, their undead-in-Vietnam opus (alternative cover pictured as this post's lead; here's a review of their comic by Don MacPherson at Eye on Comics).

Even better, to my mind, is Art Suydam's mock Norman Rockwell zombie cover for Raise the Dead #2, which you can get to

here, just click on the entry to the Raise the Dead preview link below the double-cover preview image.

I would have posted it here, but I wanted to be sure to give you a reason to revisit and spend a little time at Leah and John's site this weekend, which was all I was really trying to do earlier this week anyway.

And that's enough on that subject, don't you think?

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So, I now have a retail venue in our new home area here in Vermont...

If you're touring Vermont this spring or summer or fall, and you find yourself on Route 4 in Quechee, VT -- a real easy, short (less than two miles) drive off Interstate 89 -- pop on over to

the Quechee Gorge Village

and enter

the Vermont Antique Mall --

-- and visit my collectibles sales booth!

Hey, my stuff's now in one of those booths crammed with insane, gotta-have-it, gotta-buy-it stuff!

I'm dealer #653, and the booth is now up and running -- comics, including signed copies of my own publications, are waiting for you there, along with a plethora of collectible books, DVDs, videos, toys, and odds (very odd) and ends.

They're open seven days a week (July 4th-Labor Day, from 9:30am-5:30pm; Labor Day-July 4th from 10:00am-5:00pm), they're awful nice folks, and this seemed an ideal means of at last giving folks access to my and the Center for Cartoon Studies' work, creations and collectible curios. No, we're not there, but our stuff is -- priced to sell! -- and I'll be refreshing and restocking the booth biweekly, so there will always be something of interest waiting for you there.

This space prominently feature work from the CCS students, too, with all sales income from their work going to them -- providing a one-stop shopping venue for those of you interested in picking up the students's comics, mini-comics, art, pottery, etc., all signed by the creators. I'll post pics once the booth is closer to its intended status (gotta start somewhere, and right now it's in its infancy) -- but this is likely to remain my (and CCS's) sole retail venue, so make a point of visiting our booth in the Vermont Antique Mall this year!

Of course, those of you wanting to sample the CCS student comics, graphic novels and minicomics now for sale online can immediately go to

the "I Know Joe Kimpel" site and support the next generation of cartoonists with your hard-earned dollars and interest.

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The Bava Book is Coming -- SOON!

Have a great weekend...

"The Peeps Say We Monkey Around..."

Huh, Thursday.

It must be snowing.

Geez Louise, it is.

I gotta run -- overslept (cuz Marge has no school today! But I do),
so no secret info on Prehistoric Peeps today. Sorry!

Have a safe, great Thursday, and unlike me, don't drive in this blizzard...

Tim Lucas Wants You --

-- To Know He Was Here First!

Lest anyone think Tim Lucas's comments on yesterday's blog post are in any way sour grapes or offbase, Tim indeed proposed using the very Uncle Sam zombie recruitment imagery

Leah Moore and John Reppion are using in their lively new comics series Raise the Dead

in his stellar screenplay The Gore Corps almost (or exactly) two decades ago. I know, because way back then Tim graced me with a copy of his screenplay in (I believe) its second draft.

Now, this is not a matter of plagiarism, to my mind. I can likewise vouch for the fact that Leah and John have never, ever read Tim's script , nor ever heard of it. Hence, Leah and John are blameless -- nor is Tim saying they copped it from him. He's just saying, "Hey, I came up with that 20 years ago!", and he did. It's one of those images/ideas whose time has come -- in fact, one could argue current American foreign policy, and domestic military policies (e.g., abuse of its own volunteer Army and National Guard) in particular, have made it more timely than ever, and dead-on target at that.

I read and loved Tim's screenplay before Taboo was taking shape -- a project John Totleben and I began work on in earnest in 1986, based on Dave Sim's proposition to publish anything John and I wished to do -- meaning I read Tim's script at least 20 years ago. In fact, it was reading Tim's screenplay that led to Tim and I discussing his writing something for Taboo, which survived the inauspicious first script proposal "Your Darling Pet Monkey!" -- a 'cute' idea for a decidedly 'uncute' anthology (no dis on Tim, mind you; Alan Moore's first Taboo script submission was likewise rejected for being too funny, built as it was around an agonizing slide show of a family vacation -- a very funny script, decidedly not what we were looking for given Taboo's manifesto). Tim came back with "Throat Sprockets," and the rest is history.

Alas, Tim's screenplays remain unknown quantities to the world, though thankfully Tim has shared them with me over the years. More thankfully, his most recent one seems to be attracting some welcome attention -- keep an eye on

Tim's blog for info, updates and announcements.

His sensitivity to the matter is understandable, given the number of ideas he's cooked up that have somehow made their way into produced films (it was Tim, in a proposal for a sequel to David Cronenberg's The Fly, who came up with 'The Freak Pit,' which made its way into The Fly II sans anything for Tim; there are other examples I could but won't cite, as I've probably mortified Tim enough with this post as it is). As it stands, no lesser stellar exploitation cinema talents than Larry Cohen and William Lustig graced the world with their collaborative effort Uncle Sam on July 4, 1997, thus acing Tim's unproduced script imagery a decade past my reading of The Gore Corps -- and trumping the above Raise the Dead covers by a decade, too.

Criswell Predicts: When you've got an idea that seems like a natural, by any means possible, get it out there! If you don't, someone else will.

Mind you,