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...

"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!

BLUR Vol. 1 Has Arrived!

Still a bit bleary-eyed, unable to deal with computers or even watch TV due to the lingering blur of pinkeye (see my Wednesday post, below), after Marj headed out to work yesterday at 7 AM I drove myself down to our remaining two rented storage spaces. Determined to complete the final heavy task of summer, and knowing the cool temperatures and overcast skies of this week were coming to an end, I shouldered myself (and my car) into the four-hour chore of consolidating two storage spaces into one -- the smaller (and cheaper monthly rental) of the two. I worked up a solid sweat and got it done, feeling better for the physical exercise and duty done.

With my car carrying the second of two loads of boxes of books and comics I shuttled home, and greatly relieved that it would be the last such haul for this month, I was instantly rewarded with some goodies in the mailbox -- and a surprise delivery from UPS propping open our front screen door.

My first batch of copies of Blur Volume 1 had arrived!

It looks mighty fine, and orders are now being filled --

-- so order without further ado from Black Coat Press, pronto!

(Black Coat Press has a number of new releases available now, so take a moment to explore the site.)

There's nothing like holding a new book you've had a hand in, much less holding it for the first time. It felt -- feels -- good.

I spent a couple of hours scouring the text and wincing over the few things I wish I'd done differently, but it's still a cool little book and an accomplishment. As noted before, this is the first of four volumes of Blur, collecting all my weekly newspaper "Video Views" columns written and published 1999-2001; the second volume is about done, and CCS alumni and cover designer Jon-Mikel Gates is showing me Volume 2's cover this weekend, so there's already more on the way.

Here's the full cover spread, designed by Jon-Mikel Gates;

Jon-Mikel's website, bio, specs, blog and more awaits you here!

All this does is whet my appetite for the archival projects ahead. After completing Blur's four volumes, I'll plunge into Gooseflesh, an illustrated book series collecting all my genre articles, essays and interviews from the past two decades. With the winter months, I'll also be forging ahead with the final draft of We Are Going to Eat You! for FAB Press, and other projects, all the while savoring the third year teaching at The Center for Cartoon Studies.

More news later; I'm catching up on the two days+ of pinkeye aversion to the computer, including pressing workloads, so I'll be back here later today. I'm doing much better, thanks, though the eye drop treatment continues and I'm not sleeping much as yet.

Have a great Friday, and check in later today and this weekend for more on Blur... the books, not the infection.

MySpace at MySpace --

[Art: Image from "Area Stoned" by Sean Morgan, art by Sean Morgan and SR Bissette, from Sean's comic Capsule: The First Dose (May 2007), soon available from my site!]

Yep, I finally did it.

In establishing MySpace contact with my daughter Maia, and with the ultimate goal of further promoting my blog, the new site, my books (now that Blur Vol. 1 is out -- see yesterday's post!) and more, I've finally signed on to MySpace and have a page there.

I don't have a clue how this works yet, but I'll figure it out.

[Careful, though! Don't confuse me for

Dr. Stephen Bissette of North Carolina!

No relation that I know of, mind you, but you never know. We Bissettes once bred like vermin.]

Anyhoot, here's my MySpace page; sign on, folks, and spread the word...

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Special thanks and a big hello goes out to Dave Kraus for being the first person on or off Earth to order a copy of Blur Vol. 1. You're the best, Dave, and thank you for the immediate interest and support! If only there were about 10,000 more folks out there like you, I'd be drawing and publishing comics again tomorrow.

Dave, your special 'thank you' care package is going out tomorrow. You will dig it.

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Have a great Sunday...

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!

Blur Volume 1 -- shipping soon!

Cover design by Jon-Mikel Gates; thanks, Jon-Mikel!

The cover for Blur is "in hand" and the book is en route to the printer. More news soon!

As previously noted on this blog numerous times, the four-volume Blur book series collects all the weekly video/DVD reviews I wrote for various New England venues (primarily The Brattleboro Reformer, VMag and The Chicopee Herald) from 1999-2001.

This first volume opens with the popular 'capsule review' format, my humble contributions to the short-lived Northampton, MA monthly VMag, and the initial "Video Views" columns I scribed weekly for The Brattleboro Reformer. I loathe writing capsule reviews -- it's too glib for anything but useless opinion, sans any context or insights -- and had always struggled with the brevity of the format from the first published reviews I wrote in the late '80s for editor and great pal Chas Balun's Deep Red zine. Thankfully, my first editor at the Reformer -- Willow Dannible -- was open for more article/essay format reviews, and that's where I quickly went with the weekly venue.

If you enjoy the film/DVD posts Myrant occasionally features, or the reviews and articles I've written for almost two decades for zines like Video Watchdog, Deep Red, Ecco, Euro-Trash Cinema, Fangoria, Gorezone, etc. and my own Tyrant Media Guide in the four published issues of Tyrant, the Blur book series is for you. FYI, I'll soon be collecting and archiving my complete genre reviews/articles/essays and interviews (with Ray Harryhausen, Coke Sams, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Phil Tippett, and many others) in subsequent book series for Black Coat Press. I'm also archiving, expanding and collecting my essays, interviews and articles on comics and graphic novels, also forthcoming from Black Coat Press.

I know these will be more commercial, marketable volumes, targeting horror, science-fiction and fantasy film lovers and comics fans and scholars, a dedicated fan and reader base. Nevertheless, Blur will be the maiden voyage and touchstone for this procession of archival projects, preserving and showcasing an often-ignored and vital part of my creative and writing life.

I hope some of you will support this venture with orders, and enjoy the wider range of content, context and reading the four Blur volumes provides.

Visit the Black Coat Press site and place your pre-order; Volume 2-4 coming soon.

Have a great Tuesday...

Monday Musings

Hey, check out yesterday's post if you're in the VT/NH/MA area -- these tickets are begging for a home for tonight's Emmy Lou Harris concert, and Sparky really means 'best offer.' Damn, wish we could go!

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Governor's Dorm, Johnson State College -- no, you can't see the subfloor in this shot. We were beneath notice then, and whoever is there now is likely living the subterranean life, too.

An explanation of the poem concluding yesterday's post:

In my two years at Johnson State College, where I met Sparky (aka Mark Whitcomb), Peter Jillson dubbed all we 'subhumans' (habitants of the sub-floor at Governor's dorm) with ludicrous nicknames.

I was knighted "Roadside Frog," which some of my JSC amigos still use when contacting me; the heart-rending poem was Sparky's moving testimonial to the Roadside moniker.

Composed under the influence? Oh, heaven forbid!
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Met with CCS grads and good friends Jon-Mikel Gates and Colleen Frakes here at our happy home last night, savoring some coffee and conversation on Marge's new screened-in backyard porch while Jon-Mikel showed me his cover design for S.R. Bissette's Blur, Volume 1 (1999-2000), coming soon from Black Coat Press. This initial cover determines the template for all four volumes, so Jon's properly focused on this first cover to wrestle with the needs of the entire series.

Jon's working with two collage-paintings I completed last year for the project, designed to work as four interlocking covers. The challenge for me, given the current corporate proprietary monitoring of images from their films, was to evoke the 'blur' of three years of video/DVD viewing (and the content of the books) without utilizing recognizable (read: actionable) imagery from any specific films. I worked with abstractions of 35mm film and TV monitor frames, each containing evocative teases of organs, images, textures and motion. Jon-Mikel has embraced the challenge admirably, and I'm happy with the initial results.

It's looking good, and we'll be posting the cover (and that of the subsequent three volumes) here as soon as Jon's wrapped up the design work.

Here's the current info/order site at Black Coat Press; these are fat reads at 250+ pages per volume, collecting all my 1999-2001 weekly film and video reviews; more news as the covers are completed and books are ready to ship!

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The summer has hardly been 'down time' amid the Center for Cartoon Studies cartoonists community.

Even as we lowly faculty are working through our class plans for the coming semester, the CCSers are already hard at work on a new anthology for the upcoming SPX this fall.

Title: Dead Man's Hand. Sample logo (by Cayetano Garza aka Cat) above -- not the final logo per se, but the first shot (pun intended) as work is underway on a variety of western tales. Jon-Mikel started our powwow last night by showing me a sketchbook exercise for his story. The storytelling muscles are flexing, the fingers twitching over pencils and pens, eyes narrowing for the showdown --

More news when everyone is damned good and ready to announce something; I've already said too much!

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Let's wind down today with another Sparky poetic concoction from the mid-'70s JSC years, to be read with Henry Gibson's Laugh-In vocal delivery ringing in your head:

Detente Or Debutante

Detente or Debutante
That is the question
One says
Put away your missiles
The other says
Is that a rocket
In your pocket

Spark

(an ode to Henry Gibson)

Extraordinary Gentlemen: Blurs, Black Coats, Muckmen, Shadows, Doctors, Phantoms, Fantomas and White (House) Lies

News on the home front blurs into a wider topic I've meant to post about all week. Thanks to today's conjunction of events, I can do both...

It's been a loooong time coming, but this week finally arrived at the delivery to Black Coat Press of my latest book project, Volume 1 of the four-volume archival book series S.R. Bissette's Blur. Each volume clocks in over 250 pages, reprinting my complete "Video Views" column from 1999-2001, the critical first step in my scheme to get all my professional writing archived and into print.

Here's the link to the section on the Blur book series on Black Coat Press's website, which will tell you all you need to know; cover art will be posted soon.

Black Coat Press co-founder and co-publisher (and longtime friend) Jean-Marc Lofficier turned the final document around in mere hours, and I'm presently seeing through the final proofreading of the book. I'm doing this as CCS graduate and amigo Jon-Mikel Gates works up the final cover design for all four volumes from two painting/collages I completed last year for the project; the first volume's cover will be turned in to Black Coat by the weekend's close. As noted, this is just step one in an expansive agenda to get all my writing, fiction and non-fiction, into definitive collected editions... followed by, with luck, my comics work. Wish me luck, but better yet, if you're a fan of my work, please, buy these books to ensure the viability of this project!

Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier have cultivated Black Coat Press into an impressive and unprecedented imprint. With the considerable creative alliances Jean-Marc and Randy have cultivated over the years, Black Coat Press has emerged as a one-stop venue for a lot of fine work. Prominent among the work thus far published are the first English-language translations of vintage French and Belgian pulp heroes and characters of the 19th and early 20th Century, precursors to many beloved pulp characters and concepts that emerged from America's pulp golden age.

If you're a fan of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Shadow, Doc Savage, Edgar Rice Burroughs and their kith and kin, the Black Coat library is a wealth of previously unmined riches!

Black Coat Press's website and catalogue, brimming with some fantastic new books, await you at this link, and it's all well worth a look and some purchases.

Consider, for instance, just one of the imprint's brand-new releases,

The Nyctalope vs. Lucifer by Jean de La Hire, translated and adapted by Brian Stableford with an afterword by Jean-Marc Lofficier, which is now available sporting a snazzy Denis Rodier cover (showcased above, by today's post headline).

Author Jean de La Hire introduced Leo Saint-Clair, alias the Nyctalope, in 1911 amid a torrent of his ongoing adventure serials; like most pulp author, La Hire was incredibly prolific. Nyctalope wields uncanny heightened senses, including night vision and hypnotic powers; he's an early incarnation of the super-cyborg archetype (via his artificial heart, an attribute revealed later in the hero's adventures). Nyctalope was pitted against a formidable rogue's gallery of villains (Oxus, Lucifer, Leonid Zattan, Titania, Belzebuth and Gorillard) for over three decades. Thus, according to Jean-Marc and Stableford, Jean de La Hire "created a template that was later adopted by such pulp heroes as Doc Savage... before providing the core mythology of American comic books."

Black Coat Press's new edition and translation of La Hire's 1921 adventure features the second appearance of Nyctalope's nemesis Baron Glô von Warteck aka Lucifer, Lord of Castle Shwarzrock in the Black Forest. The clash pitches hypnotic powers against hypnotic powers, with Lucifer's mesmerizing abilities dangerously amplified by the sf "teledynamo" device, with which Lucifer intends to -- hahahahahaha! -- enslave the world! This anticipates countless pulp and Golden Age superhero comics adventures; as Jean-Marc notes, "Just as Steve Rogers, Captain America, is the incarnation of the Stars and Stripes, Leo Saint-Clair, a.k.a. the Nyctalope, stood for the ideals of Colonial France between two world wars..." -- true enough.

How can the uninitiated get a handle on all this? Clocking in at over 300 pages (and 150-300 illustrations) per volume, the essential Black Coat Press purchases to begin with are

Jean-Marc and Randy's definitive Shadowmen: Heroes and Villains of French Pulp Fiction

and Shadowmen 2: Heroes and Villains of French Comics.

Shadowmen's first volume covers many familiar names and faces -- Arsène Lupin, The Count of Monte-Cristo, Fantômas, The Phantom of the Opéra, Judex, Robur, Captain Nemo -- but it also serves as an ideal introduction to the likes of Antinéa the Queen of Atlantis, Belphégor, The Mysterious Dr. Cornelius, Doctor Omega, Fascinax, The Black Coats, Harry Dickson, Monsieur Lecoq, The Nyctalope, Rocambole, Rodolphe, Rouletabille, Sâr Dubnotal and Les Vampires. The second volume expands the pantheon, with concise overviews of Zig & Puce, The Blue Hawk, The Pioneers of Hope, Fantax and Black Boy, Durga Rani Queen of the Jungle, Fulguros, Prince Kaza the Martian, Tom X, Salvator, Satanax, Stany Beulé, Arabelle the Last Mermaid, The Conquerors of Space, Monsieur Choc, Bibi Fricotin, Jacques Flash, Super Boy, Alain Landier, Zembla, Tenebrax, The Castaways in Time, Titan, Jodelle, Luc Orient, Submerman, Olympio and Vincent Larcher, Wampus and The Other, Thorkael, The Time Brigade, Tiriel, Kabur, Felina, Photonik, Mikros and Epsilon, Phenix, none other than Frankenstein's Monster and the classic la bande dessinee icons Barbarella and Druillet's Lone Sloane. Whew!

If you need more convincing, consider this recommendation from the late, great Will Eisner, and enter this exciting new (to almost all Americans) pop culture realm ASAP.

Thankfully, Jean-Marc has also created a stellar website celebrating this amazing heritage; click this link now to tap the "Cool French Comics" site, and bookmark it for repeated visits and use.

For instance, check out the overview of The Nyctalope/Léo Saint-Clair, and see if this doesn't whet your appetite for the real McCoy via Black Coat Press's new release.

And that, as they say, is just the tip of the iceberg...

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Making the Black Coat Press volumes even more timely this summer of 2007 is the recent launch of The Shadow and Doc Savage reprint volumes, thanks to former vet comics colorist Anthony Tollin's

double-novel new editions, jam-packed with articles, essays and illustrations to sweeten these already-sweet pulp revivals.

Anthony was a key member of the original '1963' comics creative team, having colored the entire series, and it's great to see him enjoying a new career arc and great success via these lovely reprint volumes.

As you can see via the links just provided, the catalogue has grown to an impressive lineup of multiple Shadow and Doc Savage reprint volumes in short order, boasting the original pulp covers (many shot from the original paintings!) and, in the case of Doc Savage, handsome reprints of James Bama's iconic Bantam Books Doc Savage cover paintings, reportedly with the blessing of Bama himself.

Anthony knows his stuff, too, and he has surrounded himself with like-minded and equally scholarly writers, researchers and aficianados. Like Jean-Marc, Anthony has crammed every volume and the website with tons of information, retrospectives, analysis, images and trivia -- and some essential reading.

Check out Kirk Kimball (aka Robby Reed)'s excellent "How Doc Savage Inspired the Fantastic Four" essay, which persuasively makes its case for the Lester Dent pulp classic feeding the revered Stan Lee/Jack Kirby Marvel superhero team.

We're in a fertile moment in pop cultural archiving and research, and between Jean-Marc's imprint and creative partners and Anthony's new line of reprints and impressive stable of contributors, it's pulp heaven in 2007. Enjoy!

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This is long overdue: If you're a fan of my Saga of the Swamp Thing years, and the entire Swamp Thing legacy and all that the work Alan Moore, John Totleben, Rick Veitch and I spawned via the Vertigo line and John Constantine: Hellblazer in particular, you need to bookmark Rich Handley's amazing website and resource,

Roots of the Swamp Thing: The universe of Swamp Thing, The Un-Men and John Constantine: Hellblazer.

Rich has created a remarkable one-stop showcase here packed with insights, imagery and the rich history of Swamp Thing and his universe. I've only started spelunking the caverns of Rich's site, but Rich just got in touch with me yesterday via email, so look for future collaborative undertakings.

I'll be posting the link on the permanent menu at left, and linking to/from my own website's "Green Man" section in August. But don't wait until then to explore all that Rich has archived, posted and researched -- it's a stunning site!

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Well, it's taken mere hours for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's Tuesday lunacy to unravel, and the spectacle of the Bush Administration's blatant contempt for any shred of Constitutional checks and balances on their power becomes more Pere Ubu Roi.

The fact that it's our Attorney General who will have to serve contempt of Congress charges against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and President George Bush's former legal counselor, Harriet Miers -- should the House vote to follow through on yesterday's decision of the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee -- only further launches this into the realm of madness.

Whatever Tony Snow says (the arrogance and loathing every facet of this White House harbors for the will of the people absolutely seethes from their pores), it's President Bush and Vice President Cheney who have rigorously fanned these flames into a mounting Constitutional crisis.

President Bush has openly stated he won't permit any prosecutions to proceed based on possible contempt charges --

-- in and of itself, a show of utter contempt, coming as it does on the heels of his commute of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's prison sentence.

How much lower can he, they sink? We're finding out.

That the recent U.S. District Judge John D. Bates ruling on former CIA operative Valerie Plame's lawsuit eliminated one of the last courtroom remnants of the leak scandal,

prompting Bush's shameless dismissal of it all as having "run its course... Now we're going to move on" further demonstrates his and his Administration's egomaniacal sense of invincibility and absolute disdain for any semblance of due process.

Treason averted -- they've successfully betrayed our nation on so many levels, with such blatant transparency, it's completely impossible to keep track of any longer. Benedict Arnold, you were a piker!

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I'll be posting erratically at best next week, so fair warning. We've got a lot going on, and logging on to the computer daily just won't be an option until I get out the other side of July and into the first weekend in August.

Have a great Thursday, one and all...