Glasses Are In, Borders and Quebecor Are -- Out?

Hmmmm, this revamped blog is a mixed blessing. Bear with me, folks, we'll smooth out the bumps and red typeface in the weeks to come.

Morning, all... links and blinks:

* Center for Cartoon Studies folks made the grade at the SPLAT comics event in Manhattan this past week, and CCSers also made The New York Times fashion pages! I always knew you were cool, CCSers, but here's cultural proof. Yep, glasses are 'in' -- and being a cartoonist with glasses puts you on the cutting edge of 2008 style.

The New York Times SPLAT slideshow "Life is a Runway: Must-Have Glasses" is here, check it out --

-- and note that slide #2 is our current CCS fellow Bak, and slide #5 is CCS pioneer class alumni Caitlin Plovnick. Looking good!

* Get The Flock outta here, before the Flock eats you! The carnivorous Pleistocenian phorusrhacid Titanis walleri -- the 'terror bird' -- got a pop culture shot in the arm with its appearance in Roland Emmerich's fun 10,000 BC (best sequence in the movie, to my mind), but Bob Smith was there before Roland.

I reviewed James Robert Smith's (aka Bob Smith to his pals) recent novel The Flock on Myrant earlier this year as one of my fave books of the year,

and artist Mark Masztal glommed on to a copy and has been posting art inspired by Bob's book on his blog. Check 'em out, and here's hoping Bob and Mark can make it happen.

* The US dollar is at a historic low, the recession Washington keeps wishing away is hitting us all at the gas pump and in the grocery stores daily. It's about to nail the writing and comics community harder than it thus far has.

Bad news for book lovers and comics creators and publishers:

"Book retailer Borders Group Inc on Thursday suspended its quarterly dividend and said it may sell itself..."

Though the chain bookstores have been behaving like corporate phorusrhacids, Borders as much as any, this will be a major blow to many who work at Borders, to book lovers whose only local access to product is via a Borders, and to publishers, authors and creators who will lose vast income in those unsold books.

These kinds of losses devastate the creative community, and the comics community is already facing a crisis from the other end of the food chain via

the troubles at Quebecor, printer of almost all of Marvel and DC's comicbooks; this from January 14, 2008 (link compliments of Rick Veitch)

when "the struggling commercial printing giant... accepted the $400 million rescue financing proposal saying it is 'in the best interests of the company and its stakeholders.'..."

Then, Rick Veitch sent me the following article as email text on January 17th of this year, saying, "...I think one of their core problems is they negotiate five year contracts with guys like DC and Marvel. Then when the dollar drops out they are screwed." And oh, has the dollar dropped out since (another gift of the Bush Presidency, dedicated to devastating the US economy for their own economic gain). Here's the January announcement:

Quebecor World fails to obtain new financing
Wed Jan 16, 2008 10:57am EST

MONTREAL, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Quebecor World Inc said on Tuesday it failed to obtain $125 million of new financing required under waivers from its banking syndicate and missed a debt payment on $400 million of notes.

The struggling commercial printer, which is working on getting bank approval for C$400 million of rescue financing from its parent, media group Quebecor Inc, and a private equity fund managed by Brookfield Asset Management, said it did not make the $19.5 million payment of interest due that was due on Tuesday on its $400 million 9.75 percent Senior Notes due 2015.

The company said the failure to obtain the $125 million of new financing or make the interest payment on the notes do not result in an immediate default on its debt.

(Reporting by Robert Melnbardis; Editing by Renato Andrade)

Now, that was written when $1 US = $1.01 Canadian; our dollar has taken a beating since then, further debilitating Quebecor's fortunes.

This past week, Quebecor was in the Canadian news again:

"The Montreal-based holding company, which was forced into creditor and bankruptcy protection after its banks rejected a rescue plan in January, warned last month that it expected to take a hit of up to $779 million resulting from the difficulties of its Quebecor World printing subsidiary."

This will have a terrible impact on the comics industry, so hang on to your hats and pay off those credit card debts ASAP, cartoonists.

* On a cheerier note,

Hey, Ma, I made it to the front page of the Brattleboro Reformer!

The photo, BTW, was clicked by my sweet, sweet wife Marjory.

Have a Super Saturday, sap-suckers --

Giving the Hairy Eyeball

Up early, unable to sleep for more than just a few hours with the eye treatment ongoing. Eight more days/nights to go... wish me luck. Read the comments on yesterday's post for an alarming possible consequence, had this gone unchecked; good luck, Jon Ayre! I don't think our both being in the AccentUK Zombies anthology caused this, but -- hmmmm, that cover -- one eye highlighted, the left eye completely rotted out of its socket. Maybe it was a self-portrait all along?

My eyes are bleary now, a situation aggravated by the endless hours typing -- but that'll soon be over, as we are at the end of the process of writing the Gaiman book. Which leads me to this tidbit:

Entitlement

As of this week, our editor at St. Martin's reports that St. Martin's has officially settled on Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman as the official title of the book Chris Golden, Hank Wagner and I are now in the home stretch of delivering. So, scratch all prior references to The Neil Gaiman Companion, and more news here once there's news to share that isn't top-secret.

Why I Love Vermont, Part Deux:
Slap of the Beefcake; Or, When Polar Opposites Collide

I don't know what's crazier, the fraction of the -26% of Americans who still support President Bush bothering to inundate Brattleboro, VT with hate calls, or the Brattleboro, VT initiative that's prompting the hate calls -- more power to 'em, I say! Arrest the Prez! -- but it all adds up to another reason I love my home state!

Mark Martin sent me this link -- the story goes national! --

-- almost to the nanosecond the same time the email from HomeyM (of Jamaica, VT) sent me this article on the same hubbub, bub, from

The Brattleboro Reformer:

Proposed indictment elicits wrath across U.S.
By Bob Audette, Reformer Staff

Tuesday, January 29

BRATTLEBORO -- Brattleboro must be full of uneducated dilettantes, ignorant liberal morons, inbred hicks, liberal appeaser wimps, the lunatic fringe, Neanderthals, limp-wristed sissies, radical leftists, hippies, losers, scumbags, nut jobs, snooty northerners, liberal hate mongers and traitorous bastards.

Those are just a handful of adjectives that have been used to describe town residents after the Brattleboro Selectboard voted 3-2 to send a petition requesting the indictment of President George Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney to town voters for their approval or disapproval.

Since the board made its decision on Jan. 25, town offices have been inundated by e-mails, faxes and phone calls deriding the decision, the town and its Selectboard. Several staffers told the Reformer they have hung up on callers that have cursed at them because of the board's decision.

"Most of them are against the petition," said Town Clerk Annette Cappy. "They do not favor the action. You would never be able to print publicly what they've written."

"Those e-mails and calls will be taken seriously," said Acting Chief of Police Capt. Eugene Wrinn. "If we can prove a crime of disorderly conduct by use of the phone or disorderly conduct by electronic means, we will charge someone. If people are threatening or harassing the town clerk or Selectboard we will see what we can do."

If any of the language in the correspondence crosses the line into harassment or threats, it could result in federal charges, said Tom Anderson, U.S. Attorney for the District of Vermont.

Using e-mail or phones to leave threatening messages is a federal offense, he said, that could result in an FBI investigation. Local police can determine if they are threatening, he said, and then forward their concerns to the FBI.

Some of the comments sent to the town manager's office might be deemed threatening by even the most impartial observer.

"If you pass the measure ... you and all members of your town must be considered 'Enemy Combatants' by me and every member of the armed forces, active duty, reserve or veteran," wrote James Stone, no location given. "If you try to undermine the respect due to the office of the president ... I will have no other choice but to defend my country. This is not a threat. It is my duty."

"Maybe the terrorists will do us all a favor and attack your town next," wrote Brent Caflisch, of Rosemount, Minn. "Our country would be much safer with several thousand dead wackjobs in Vermont. Or maybe they could just kidnap Chairwoman Audrey Garfield and board members Richard Garant and Dora Bouboulis, cut their heads off, video tape it and put it on the Internet. Now that I would like to see."

Cappy said some of the comments have her worried for the safety of the staffers in Brattleboro's Municipal Building.

"My staff has talked about it today and we are a little concerned about the response."

During its Jan. 25 meeting, Town Manager Barbara Sondag appeared to be warning the Selectboard when she asked "How many more of these things do you want Brattleboro to become famous for?"

While Sondag said she was not worried about the safety of town staffers or the town itself, she posted a comment on the town's Web site explaining the board's vote.

"Reasons given by board members voting in the affirmative centered on the belief that if a petition contained the required signatures, the voters should have the opportunity to vote on the matter," wrote Sondag. "Reasons given by board members voting on the dissent centered on the belief that articles outside the scope and authority of the town should not go before the voters of the town."

In addition, she wrote, "The Brattleboro Town Attorney has stated that the petition has no legal standing, as the town attorney has no authority to write an indictment and the town police department has no authority to attempt an arrest of the President of the United States."

The town will vote on the petition on March 4.

Not all of the e-mails were derogatory toward the town.

"Arrest Bush and Cheney?" asked Ron Healy, no address given. "You go, Brattleboro!"

"Good for you," wrote Laurence Topliffe of Iowa. "They both should spend the rest of their lives in prison or on a deserted island."

Responses to other issues before the town in the past -- including a petition to urge impeachment of Bush and Cheney and an ordinance that banned nudity in Brattleboro -- didn't reach this level, said Cappy.

"This is far outnumbering anything else," said Cappy. "I have never gotten this much e-mail except when the civil unions were passed."

Most of that correspondence, however, was in favor of the decision, she said.

A Saturday Afternoon Update:

This just in: Today's Brattleboro Reformer featured

this obit for my First Run Video friend and fellow employee Gary Cummins;

come spring, I hope to make it to the service.

Play an old blue-grass tune for Gary, wouldja?