Dreams & Nightmares:

McCay, Bava Book Updates;
Jaci's Journey;
Pumpie's Putdown;
and Trailers From Hell!

For those of you who tuned in early yesterday,

I've added extensive illustrations and page samples to my exclusive interview with Dr. Ulrich Merkl and overview of his magnificent Dream of the Rarebit Fiend book; check the post out again, please, for some delicious eye candy...

...and more reasons to purchase a copy of this book, while you can! Yesterday's post is the best shot I can offer to encourage you to check out this exceptional book, while it's available, and showcase Ulrich's unique undertaking and accomplishment. Enjoy!

Two of Winsor McCay's post-Dream of the Rarebit Fiend strips, It Was Only a Dream, circa 1911; another page sample from Ulrich Merkl's definitive Dream of the Rarebit Fiend volume (pg. 454)
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In the realm of must-have books of 2007, you all know I rate the upcoming Tim Lucas biography Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark highest of all, right alongside Ulrich Merkl's Rarebit Fiend collection.

Tim and Donna's work on this astounding book has at last yielded fruit, and the book ships next month.

Due to the higher cost of production and publication, Tim and Donna have repriced the book to $250 (plus $10 US postage or $40 postage outside the US) -- after the August 21st delivery date from the printer. Until then, though, the standing pre-publication price of $120 still applies; so order your copy now (here's the link to the announcement, and all info on the book)!

Tim writes, "Effective upon our receipt of the shipment, the cost of the Bava book on all new orders will be increased to $250 (plus $10 US postage or $40 postage outside the US). Suffice to say, the book developed into something far more ambitious than we realized when we began accepting pre-orders for it over six years ago. However, not wishing to take anyone by surprise, we will continue to observe the pre-publication price of $120 until the expected delivery date of August 21. This is the perfect opportunity to acquire the book (for yourself, or as a gift) at less than half its publication price, or to obtain that second reading/preserving copy for yourself at a combined total of $240 -- $10 less than the publication cost of a single copy! And remember: all pre-ordered copies will be signed by the author."

So be sure to place your order soon, if you haven't already.

Tim and Donna are also placing ten signed copies for sale on eBay in early August -- again, click the link provided above for the particulars at the Bava book website -- which provides another opportunity to secure a copy of this exquisite book.

Given the remarkable access via DVD to almost every single film Bava directed -- most of these in their original Italian versions, subtitled, letterboxed and restored -- there has literally never been a better time to take the plunge into the cinematic universe of Mario Bava -- and never a better Dante to guide you into that delicious inferno than Tim Lucas.

As with Dr. Merkl's magnificent Dream of the Rarebit Fiend tome, Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark is a one-of-a-kind volume, self-published and hand-crafted to fulfill all the author's goals and specs. These are the kinds of dream books publishers simply do not publish, offering definitive retrospectives of artists too long overlooked (and relegated to lesser showcases).

(Note: as with Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, I have made sure both the Center for Cartoon Studies Schulz Library and the Bissette Special Collection in Henderson State University's HUIE Library will have their own copies of Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark, ensuring future generations of cartoonists, comics scholars and historians access to both incredible volumes.)
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This just in from Jaci June, former Center for Cartoon Studies freshman (2006-7) now on the Mississippi River and still alive to tell tales. She's having real summer adventures, the kind you read about. Like, you're about to, natch.
This is posted with Jaci's permission, so enjoy without guilt:

"I am happy to report that I am still alive (somehow!)! For those of you who are unsure of my whereabouts: I am currently living aboard a half pipe skate ramp river raft called the Baditude Snake Gang Girraft. I am floating down the Mississippi River to New Orleans with a radical artist collective known as the Miss Rockaway Armada (a fleet of equally garish garbage rafts touring the midwest and the south).

Oh boy so much has happened. My sister Jacki came to live with us for two weeks. We went to our friends farm in Coal Valley, hitched to Chicago and back... and then broke into an abandoned school and was hunted down by police dogs and 'copters on megaphones! Woo! After she went home I turned 19 and our fleet of rafts hit the river (finally). My friend Charles got bit by a dog named Skippy and fish hooked in the armpit and on our first day we got stuck in a stump field. We reached Muscatine, Iowa did a parade, workshops, play and bike jousting performance.... we sailed across the river and stayed at Mosquito Beach where two electrical storms raged and made my tent do cartwheels while I was still in it. Garden Of Bling raft had its crew doing nose dives naked in the river while the lightning bolted. The next day my entire body had a hundred welts (no exaggeration here) because I was having allergic reactions to the mother fucking skeeto bites! My butt being the most popular target!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We sailed again stopped in New Boston where the locals greeted us... They warned us of a huge storm coming and said we may be able to beat it if we skeet it south. So we tried to race the storm and whilst in the middle of playing 'Our God Is An Awesome God' repeatedly on my rusty trumpet the black clouds rolled overhead and shitstormed right down on us. Our skate ramp raft bolted for the shore but there was nowhere to tie up so we tied to some dead trees and logs stickin' out the river. The lightning lit our tarp up every two seconds it was so stormy. We watched a giant barge cross and the bats fly through the fog while the sky lit up in the background. The next day we set sail again. I ran the raft into a buoy and Charles yelled at me while Babalouie laughed. Reached Burlington, went to a motel and took two hot showers. Now I'm in the library writing this ridiculous email...

So as you can see the Mississippi is trying to kill me and I've decided it's about high time I go visit mom... I miss you CCSers and maybe I'll be out east sometime in the future. Or maybe you'll come see the freakshow along the Mississippi, eh?

-- Jay "SeaHag" June

P.S. What do you call it when two clouds have anal sex?
A: A Shitstorm!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Good luck, Jaci, and keep your head above water at all times!
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Jeez, Mark, you sure know how to hurt a guy.

If you can somehow scroll past the newborn pandas that looks like one mewling newborn with two heads, the cigar of King Kirby's brain, the Miracle Fruit Bush, and scroll down into the "From Behind the Curtain" post of 7/23,

Mark became unfunny by saying "Bissette is also too convinced that he has The Answer." When I have I ever said I had "The Answer"?? Answer me that, Mr. Answer-Man! I just seem to have questions you don't appreciate. Mark then arrives at some beatific bliss about

the Jay Stephens situation,

which you can read for yourself. So, peachy -- it's OK that the US treats fellow cartoonists like terrorist suspects. No wonder Bush is still President.

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My current fave new-found website is Joe Dante, Jr. and friends's entertaining as hell Trailers from Hell site, which you can access immediately from this link!

Tim Lucas turned me on to this last week, and I've enjoyed 'em all. This week, they've added two: the featured trailer for Joseph Sargent's xlnt 1969 sf gem Colossus: The Forbin Project (commentary by John Landis), and this week's added attraction, the preview for Hammer Film's stylish first go-round adapting J. Sheridan LeFanu's "Carmilla" as The Vampire Lovers (also 1970, commentary track from Mick Garris). Enjoy!
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Have a terrific Tuesday, one and all.

I've done my best to lend it something you wouldn't otherwise have... a headache!