Morning from Maine...

...and a hot one it is, too. Marge and I were walking the beach last night at dusk -- a brisk and marvelous two-mile walk in about 70 degrees comfort -- when the heat wave swept in from the south. It was fast and stifling; our glasses immediately steamed up, I'd never felt anything like it in this part of New England. Woke up for the sunrise and the malingering heat is still suffocating. Reckon we'll be taking in a matinee or two at the local cinema today, if only to escape the heat.

I'll be posting daily again, at last. Sorry for the long hiatus. It's been a crazy-busy three weeks, and I've barely had a moment to breath. I'm behind on emails, personal contact, and everything except work. Much to do -- but next week. This week is for pleasure only, despite the horrific state of the world... which touches us here, too, as our grandchildren have just arrived in the US from Israel, in what we hope is a long-term move back to the states. We've been sweating bullets over that situation, as you can well imagine (but I won't be getting into that here).

I've already begun the annual scouring of used bookshops en route throughout our Maine travels, and the harvest has already been healthy (and highly affordable). The treasures of the finds thus far, both remarkably cheap, are quite lovely -- I'll post images upon our return home.

I've long sought a copy of Greg Irons Bellerophon Books coloring book edition of G. Chaucer's The Wyf of Bathe (1973), and I stumbled on a nice tight copy yesterday, tipped on its side from an odd shelf -- all that caught my eye was Greg's distinctive signature above the byline, "A Liberated Woman's Great Story!," which was enough to prompt my pulling it from the shelves. Cooler still was a curio hanging from the edge of a stray bookcase amid a plethora of Evergreen Reviews and vintage 1950s True Confessions and Hollywood gossip zines: the February 1956 issue of Whisper, cover featuring James Dean and Vampira! "James Dean's Black Madonna -- The Most Chilling and Tragic Love Story in Hollywood History" is the banner slapped across the paired pix of Dean and the Queen of '50s TV horror, and the story inside doesn't disappoint. What a gem! Who knows what other wonders await me in the nooks and crannies hereabouts? I intend to find out...
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Before I go for now, and to provide a heap of reading for ya to make up for the long silence, here's a link for my latest online interview! I interviewed one of my favorite contemporary cartoonists Bob Fingerman about his new book Recess Pieces, which should appeal to all you zombie fans out there, though it's much more than "just another zombie comic" amid the current undead wave. Read all about it over at PaneltoPanel.net by clicking on
http://www.paneltopanel.net/article/view/12280/1/1990

Bob and I will be chatting about some of his other recent works in short order, and those interviews will be posted soon at PaneltoPanel.net, too. More to come!
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This just in, from HomeyM up in sunny Jamiaca (uh, Vermont) --

"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread." - Anatole France.

On April 14 a federal appeals court ruled that the Los Angeles Police Department cannot arrest people for sitting, lying or sleeping on public sidewalks on Skid Row, saying such enforcement amounts to cruel and unusual punishment because there are not enough shelter beds for the city's huge homeless population. Judge Pamela A. Rymer issued a strong dissent against the majority opinion. The Los Angeles code "does not punish people simply because they are homeless," wrote Rymer. "It targets conduct -- sitting, lying or sleeping on city sidewalks -- that can be committed by those with homes as well as those without."