Weekend Update

* Hey, note that Jim Pinkoski himself, author/illustrator of A Creationist's View of Dinosaurs, has weighed in on this week's three-part thread/overview, below. Check it out; Jim also provides a link to his own current site, which is worth a look. I'll be responding to Jim's comments there, in the relevent comment threads.

* An email inquiry from a reader concerning the same posts asked what underground comics Jim had done. That would be Spaced; I'll correct this if my recovery of the actual comics from my collection proves otherwise, but if memory serves Spaced ran two issues, and the series was published by Bud Plant. It was a fairly imaginative sf/horror anthology, splashed with gore, nudity, and mayhem typical of later underground genre comix. Jim also self-published a comic on his own theories of finance reform sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s; I have clippings about that project (and its unfortunate consequences) in my files, but until/unless I lay hands on 'em, I'll leave this mere mention of the latter at that.

* Work on the Bissette office/computer studio/library is in momentous weekend overdrive. With the break in the rainy weather and couple of moderate, even sunny, days this past week, I wrapped up all the exterior work and touchups left to do -- some painting, repainting (second coats), and final parging/mud work and sealing -- and took the interior installation of insulation as far as I could (leaving the rest until after the heating and electrical installation is completed). The pros have been pitching in on the planned timetable, too, which is working out. Yesterday, the chunk of 2'x 3' x 8" original foundation wall blocking what is now the doorway to the new space was removed (and quite neatly, too); this morning, Mark Younger of Maple Leaf Painting & Drywall was in and we made final sheetrocking arrangements for the first week in November; in about a half-hour, Rick Fortier is coming in to install the baseboard hot water heating extensions and unit; tomorrow, my stepson Mike Bleier and his pal Chad are working on the final trim work on the outside window (weather permitting) and the interior electrical. After Halloween, the sheetrocking done, the massive shelving units will be constructed and in -- and my creative and academic life takes a turn for the better afterward with space at last to work.

* I'll post all the details this afternoon and tomorrow AM: I'll be at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center on Thursday night, Oct. 27th, giving a heavily-illustrated presentation on my comics work (with special attention to some of my horror stories, 'read' and presented complete) and a short history of horror comics. It's shaping up to be quite a nice piece, different from anything I've ever done before (though it does include elements from my expansive Journeys Into Fear slide presentation); hope to see some of you there!

OK, more later today --