The Blur is Here! S.R.Bissette's Blur Vol. 1 is Out!
Place Your Order Now...
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Note: I posted at length last night -- see below -- on recent international news; please see that post, below, and

this is the latest news story (as of 7 AM this morning) I find on the issue.

Small comfort to know the Securities and Exchange Commission is examining major Wall Street banks to determine their vulnerability to home-loan defaults,

when this completely dubious bon mot is immediately floated (which President Bush will no doubt conflate); note, per usual, that any truly accurate figure for our national deficit must also add the amount of the national surplus Bush inherited and immediately squandered.

But enough on this; I have a personal announcement to share. Just wanted to be sure you read my Friday evening post, if you're so inclined, and that I posted a bit of followup this AM.

But here's the topic of the day for me...
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Blur Vol. 1 is now available -- as of today! -- and you can place your order immediately, via this link.

This first of four volumes launches my first major archiving of my past work as writer and artist. Dumb luck (and time-limited) access to past digital files, and my own s-l-o-w-l-y growing computer skills, determined that the archiving of my weekly "Video Views" columns (1999-2001) was the first project to see print. This is just the beginning, and I hope I can count on your interest and support throughout -- starting with your order of Blur Vol. 1.

While I know all of you would much rather see my comics work back in print first and foremost, the massive project of sorting, restoring, scanning, digitally restoring, and preparing my 30+ years of comics story and illustration work has yet to begin. This will take, quite literally, years, and hopefully I'll find partners in this venture as the archiving projects gain their respective critical mass. Thanks to Rick Veitch's own ongoing archival restoration and republication of his past work, a wee bit of our collaborative work (as Creative Burnouts) is beginning to enjoy restoration and reprint, beginning with Rick's spring 2007 release of Shiny Beasts

(which you can order, here and now, via this link from the good folks at PaneltoPanel.net, with the limited edition signature plate signed by Rick, Alan Moore and yours truly -- likely the last place on Planet Earth you'll be able to get those three signatures together in this lifetime!).

More of the Creative Burnouts material is already in Rick's hands, and that restoration and reprint process is underway; in time, our collaborative work will all be back in print.

But I still have three decades worth of art, stories, and much writing to resurrect -- all while creating new work! -- and to that end, Blur Volume 1 marks the true beginning.

Each volume of Blur is over 250 pages. That's a lot of solid reading; once completed, this four-volume set will offer you over one thousand pages of my writings on film, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Every volume of Blur is jam-packed with my extensive reviews, articles, interviews and essays on the many feature films, anime, animated features and other (e.g., Maya Deren's films, etc.) landmarks of the video marketplace between 1999 and 2001. These were the key transitional years between videocassettes and DVDs, which includes the first-ever release of a film on DVD before its vhs release (Detroit Rock City was the fateful, forgettable title setting that benchmark). These were also the vital years in which the truly independent production and distribution of features were being co-opted by the major studios; the rise into mainstream culture of the long-fringe-market Christian feature films (via the boxoffice hit The Omega Code, the first Christian production to pop up on Variety's weekly top boxoffice grosses); the definitive embrace of anime by the major studios (via Warner Bros. theatrical release of Pokemon and Disney's initial manhandling of Hayao Miyazaki's masterpiece Princess Mononoke) -- all that, too, is here, in the Blur volumes. That makes these volumes further invaluable in charting a major period of Millennial change in our pop cultural landscape, preserving the ebb and flow and shifts in a way few other books have.

It's my plan to be publishing all my extensive writing on horror films, comics, and begin the archiving and reprinting of my past comics works, too, within the next couple of years. That I can do so at all is thanks primarily to the help and support I've received from my wife Marjory, my beloved friends Jean-Marc and Randy L'officier at Black Coat Press, and everyone at the Center for Cartoon Studies, primarily Jon-Mikel Gates at this critical juncture.

I'm happy to see Blur has already attracted some unsolicited notice online,

noting of course that Tim Lucas is an old friend; still, the post was unsolicited, and bodes well. (Curious aside: Tim notes Blur in the context of Bryan Senn's new McFarland book A Year of Fear; the cover collage image of all four Blur volumes is composed in part from imagery and textures lifted from elements of Mike Dobbs and my long-defunct A Year in Fear 1992 16-month horror calender, published by Tundra back in the day. Mere synchronicity, but still, amusing to this ol' codger.).

In any case, my first 20 copies of Blur are en route to me now from Black Coat and Lightning Press, and I'll be posting review copies later this week. But don't wait -- please, order from Black Coat Press knowing your copy could be in hand this month, too!

The full wraparound cover; collage/painting by yours truly, cover design by Jon-Mikel Gates; thanks, Jon! Covers to Blur Vol. 2-4 to be posted soon.

Note that Blur is only one of the many new titles available from Black Coat Press, an international publisher worthy of your attention and support.

More on the Blur book series -- including tantalizing excerpts -- in the days to come. Hey, I'm a shameless huckster, folks, but I'll be sure to keep the ballyhoo always entertaining and break it up amongst other posts of interest.

Have a great Saturday, one and all!