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* Top of the Day news for me was the announcement of my old amigo Michael Zulli – he who made Taboo such a stellar experience for me, beginning with his Taboo 2 contribution to the party “Mercy” — landing a home for his newest graphic novel.

And a mighty potent, personal creation it appears to be, too. Michael talked to me about it tentatively during our all-too-infrequent catch-up calls over the past three years, but nothing he’d said prepared me for the first glimpses of what malingers in the pages of his latest masterwork.

The Fracture of the Universal Boy won’t be out until Spring 2010, but the first peek at what’s in store has been posted online just this past weekend, and it’s the most mindblowing of all Halloween treats imaginable (and no doubt many tricks are in store, too, from trickster Zulli).

Knowing much of what Michael endured in his rocky ride in comics over the years, this looks like a blistering semi-autobiographical purge of what those experiences exacted, expressed as only Michael can express them — and that, my friends, is what art is for.

and I’ll keep my eye sockets wide open for news of pre-order and availability, and be sure to share that info with you here just as soon as I know more myself.

Vet Taboo readers, take note; this is no doubt going to be an essential read.
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* My old Kubert School classmate Sam Kujava just emailed me this news

of a giant jellyfish overturning a Japanese fishing vessel — like a setpiece Eiji Tsuburaya might have created for one of his legendary Toho daikaigu-eiga!

“A 10-ton fishing boat has been sunk by gigantic jellyfish off eastern Japan,” reads the headline — it’s a little misleading, though. As reporter Julian Ryall in Tokyo writes, “The trawler, the Diasan Shinsho-maru, capsized off Chiba`as its three-man crew was trying to haul in a net containing dozens of huge Nomura’s jellyfish.”

So, tempting as it is to imagine a Kraken-attack like scenario of an outsized jellyfish tugging over the boat, it seems the cumulative weight of a too-vast catch is what tipped the vessel.

Still, one can dream…

[Image: Mexican lobby card for the Toho daikaiju-eiga oddity 宇宙大怪獣ドゴラ / Uchū Daikaijū Dogora / Dagora the Space Monster (1964) -- not quite a jellyfish, but it's the closest Eiji Tsuburaya came to making one!]
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* I love collecting and pouring over old ‘How to Cartoon’ instructional books, guides and booklets.

I recall during my Kubert School days one of my classmates — heck, it might have been Sam! –showing me a Charlton publication entitled The Comic Book Guide for the Artist-Writer-Letterer (circa 1974; I saw it in 1977, so it was still circulating then).

I craved my own copy but never found one; it sported artwork by Steve Ditko, Tom Sutton (ah, dear ol’ Tom; God, I miss his late-night phone calls) and Joe Staton, and Nick Cuti was the editor/packager of the booklet. I asked Nick about it in 1979-80 when I met him in the Heavy Metal offices, without trying to sound like I was begging — anyhoot, it was a real hoot to find it online earlier this year. I meant to post the link at that time, but forgot amid the daily jumble and mumble.

Well, wait no longer!

Special thanks to CCS Alumni (Class of 2009) Alumni and colleague Al Wesolowsky for reminding me of this discovery and link. Thanks, Al!

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* The Vermont Monster Guide is earning some national buzz at last, now that author (and long-time pal) Joe Citro and I have done our utmost to cover many corners of our home state in person throughout September and October.

So, ripples spreading at last,

Alex made a couple of errors; the only one worth correcting is that I illustrated Joe’s last novel to date, Deus-X, in its limited signed hardcover first edition — not Joe’s first novel (which was Shadow Child, 1987).

Though we’re a bit tuckered from all the October touring, we’re back on the road in a couple of weeks to continue promoting the book and spreading news of the Northfield Pigman and his creature cronies like the swine flu.

Back to the grinding o’ the ol’ nose on the stone…

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