"I Now Can See..."

Ah, the pinkeye is at last fading; this is the first morning since Tuesday I've awakened with just a slight itch in the orb instead of gunkathon deluxe. What a relief! Still keeping the eyedrop therapy going, but nice to literally have light at the end of the ol' eyeball.
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Blur Volume 1 is in hand, with the initial orders already shipped (and my first to Canada -- hey, Bob, and thanks! -- going out this AM). I'm really happy with the book, and plunging into the book-formatting of Volumes 2, 3 and 4 with the high from Volume 1's arrival feeding the work.

If you'd like to support this ongoing archival project, please place your order for the first volume this weekend -- it's the best way to support my creative life, and ensure a lasting series of volumes preserving my writing, artwork and comics continues.

To those who have already ordered Volume 1, thanks for your support! It means the world to me.

I know my returning to work on Tyrant and new comics is all that many desire from me, but this new phase in my life is falling into place, piece by piece, and Blur is a vital piece in this stage. Please, support this effort, if you can; I can promise you solid reading in return, and assure you Blur brings me a major step closer to getting more new work out, as well.

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As it does to other creators and their projects...

Foremost among those fellow authors in my thoughts this week are my good friends Tim and Donna Lucas, whose lives have been turned upside-down by the long-awaited delivery of their new book, Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark.

Personally satisfying as it might be, my little box of Blur doesn't hold a candle to what Tim and Donna are punchdrunk on today: two truckloads of the Bava book arrived yesterday, and Tim posted this photo (taken by Donna) of himself and the motherlode of Bava books straining Tim and Donna's dining room floor. Here's hoping it holds up!

Actually, here's hoping Tim and Donna hold up -- the enormous task of shipping the books lies ahead. From my own experience with Taboo and Tyrant in the old days, I know well the weird fusion of giddy satisfaction and exhaustion such a process entails -- but I never dealt with as physically oversized a tome as the Mario Bava book. Good luck, Tim and Donna!

As one of the anxious recipients of the book (more than one copy: I've prepurchased copies to donate to both the Center for Cartoon Studies Schulz Library and the Bissette Special Collection at Henderson State University's HUIE Library), I'm eager for the day my own copy arrives, but hey, Tim and Donna, pace yourselves and take care of yourselves in the days ahead.

Tim and Donna announced the joyous news on the Video Watchblog (always great reading), and there's

more photos, news, info and the purchase links are here, at the Bava book blog!

Congratulations, Tim and Donna, and much love from the Bissette hacienda on this momentous weekend...

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The very real economic crisis upon us -- predicted by many economists since 2001, and emblematic of the US at every level (has any US President ever racked up such an enormous national deficit?) -- has finally "supplanted terrorism as the gravest immediate risk threatening the economy...," though note the credit risk is untethered from government spending in the survey.

It shouldn't be: as above, so below.

Have a great Saturday and weekend; I won't be posting tomorrow.
Road trip!