Blogophobia!

No, I haven't got that -- I've barely been home, or near a computer, long enough to post.

It's been a heady week at CCS (heading out shortly, my fourth day this week), and yesterday -- my one "day off" -- I lectured at Keene State College to the summer reading program students and faculty (who had read Persepolis, reportedly reaping the strongest positive reaction from the students of any previous reading, formally opening the door to graphic novels for the entire college) and a late afternoon creative writing class, getting home about 7:30 PM.

One stop: picking up a copy of Scott McCloud's new book, Making Comics. Drifted off last night reading it (which isn't a critique of the book itself, just noting my condition by evening's end).

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This weekend I'll be prepping for next week's CCS sessions and selling my wares on Sunday at Marty Langford's booth at the Worcester, MA Rock 'n' Shock horror convention.

My dear amigo Mike Dobbs (G. Michael Dobbs) is spending both weekend days at the booth with Marty, and Mike has manufactured a brand-new item to sell at the show, custom-designed for the Rock 'n' Shock misanthropic crowd -- Marty will be handling his DVD from the good folks at Heretic, the very fine Magdalena's Brain, which I highly recommend, along with Heretic's releases of The Last Broadcast and Head Trauma, both sporting my most recent published and/or onscreen comics work, hence my participation at the table Sunday. I'll be bringing along some collectible rarities for sale, including Taboo back issues and some DVDs long off (or never on) the market.

Maybe see some of you there?

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Many, if not most, of the Center for Cartoon Studies students are off to SPX this morning. If you're attending SPX, be sure to visit the CCS booth/table, and pick up some of the minicomics there! It's a great batch of work, and the students have been working their asses off on creation/production the past weeks, in major overdrive this week.
Whew -- back to normal next week.

I believe the VT/NH-based Trees & Hills cartooning collective will be there, too, sporting their new anthology which includes a brand-new two-pager (inspired quite directly by Edward Lear's Book of Nonsense) by yours truly and my son Daniel, so you might also save a bit of change for that comic, too.

Have a great SPX, if that's where you be this weekend!
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One of the highlights of this past week (among many) was the visit of James Owen to CCS. James and I used to see one another pretty regularly on the comics con circuit, especially as self-publishers (he with Starchild, me with Tyrant), though we'd met in 1992, a couple years before I launched my self-publishing effort (Taboo was my publishing/co-publishing effort -- it wasn't my work I was putting into print). James is on the book tour now for his new novel from Simon & Schuster, Here, There Be Dragons, and S&S graciously detoured James up to the White River Jct. hinterlands to visit CCS as part of the book tour.

James was fantastic with the students -- he spoke eloquently to both freshmen and senior students, with some particularly potent, poignant exchanges with the seniors -- and made time for one-on-one visits with the interested seniors on their thesis projects. Thereafter, James and I broke bread with Sharyn of the White River Indie Film group I'm a board member of, and later Tuesday-night-into-Wednesday-morning spent some selfish face to face time just catching up on each other's lives and work. We talked until 2 AM, with much more to share but little energy left, with my fullest teaching day ahead of me and his day of travel before him.

Still, it was great to have the time we had, and his making the time was significant: James is just beginning a rollercoaster ride I've seen others on a few times: Here, There Be Dragons has been optioned by Warner Bros. for film adaptation, and James is now a "hot property" in La-La Land, with all that encompasses. Most folks lose their moorings in the process, but I think he'll manage the ride fine, and his generous effort this early on to go well out of his way to connect with CCS and this generation of students bodes well for James's clarity of purpose amid the shitstorm of success.

Wishing you luck, James, and thanks again for popping in at the Center for Cartoon Studies. You inspired a lot of young cartoonists with your visit, and bless you for that.
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Hmmm, posting to the blog has been a mysterious process of late -- I never know if my posts will post. Hopefully, this will be resolved for the better soon...
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More later today, as time permits...