2008: All a-Blur...

The cover to Blur, Volume 2; cover painting/collage by yours truly, cover design by Jon-Mikel Gates (copyright 2008 SR Bissette)

I've been writing non-stop for two full weeks! It's been a productive stretch, but with the break between Center for Cartoon Studies semesters almost over, I'm feeling pretty woozy.

Currently on the keyboards: CCS syllabus revisions; ongoing work (transcription, fact and trivia checks) on The Neil Gaiman Companion; a massive essay Rick Veitch commissioned from me for the upcoming King Hell definitive edition of Brat Pack, an article which has been as research-heavy as the book on Neil (I'll excerpt some of that piece here, down the road); and -- at last -- Blur volumes 2, 3 and 4.

Jon-Mikel Gates just sent me his cover designs for Blur volumes 2 and 3, and I love 'em. With Jon-Mikel's considerable help, the old digital files for those three volumes are now on my laptop, and we'll be getting volume 2 to Jean-Marc Lofficier at Black Coat Press early in February, with volumes 3 & 4 to follow pretty quickly. It's foot-noting, formatting and proof-reading left to do, with a bit of cross-checking of my VMag collection to ensure correct references to some of the original publication dates of the "Video Views" columns reprinted in the Blur series. When all is said and done, it'll offer over 1000 pages of my writings on movies, video and DVD -- I hope some of you indulge the purchase of the complete collection. Announcements and release and ordering info to follow, here, when the time arrives!

I'm also drawing again, and will have some announcements about that soon.

But first, I have to finish my revised syllabus for this semester's CCS classes... a busy January, to say the least!

Note: For your peace of mind, a Middle East trip update:

While Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said this absolutely stupid shit earlier today (especially given the context of her and her President's and Administration's actions of the past 6 years!),

her beloved President also said even stupider shit today that tried to pretend this isn't happening. No, no, the U.S. economy is fine. We're fine. America's largest bank had the largest quarterly deficit in its 196-year history and the U.S. dollar is at an all-time low and per-barrel prices of oil have just about doubled since this time last year, but we're fine.

Have a titanic Tuesday...