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 --

If It's Wednesday, It Must Be a Shitstorm

What is this winter weather pattern we're in? Almost every single Tuesday PM/Wednesday AM since January has brought us snow or, like today, worse -- sleet and freezing rain. A shitstorm! I love driving in the snow, but I hate driving in this crap. Nonetheless, we're going ahead with class at the Center for Cartoon Studies today; Marge is all snuzzy in bed, no school for her (200 districts in New Hampshire postponed or canceled for the day). Like most campuses, CCS's students are mostly in walking distance from the school, and however bad the roads, I can make the 15-mile drive from door to door given the time to do so (unlike previous years when I lived 90 minutes away in good weather). So, on with the show!

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A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned our many Center for Cartoon Studies guest artists, and that my old cartooning pal Howard Cruse (as in, we've been pals for years, not we're old -- just grayer and wiser) had visited CCS last month.

Well, Howard's just posted a writeup of his visit on his blog,

Loose Cruse: The Blog; "Return to White River Junction" (gee, sounds like the title to a 1950s western) is up, with pix!

The only Bananas cover I could find online this AM, from the Smurf site 'Blue Buddies'

Howard talks a bit about our history together. I've always loved his comics work, going back to Barefootz. Howard and I were indeed published by Scholastic Magazines around the same time, and at least once together, in the Bananas all-comics issue, which had a knockout color cover piece by Howard as well as stories illustrated by my fellow XQBs Rick Veitch and Tom Yeates. For Howard, this was roughly 'phase three' of his respective career, following his formative years (phase one?) and his underground comix work with Kitchen Sink Press and Denis Kitchen (Barefootz, Gay Comix, etc.). As a reader, I'd also loved seeing Howard's distinctive art and comics popping up in newsstand magazines like Fangoria (Count Fango was Howard's strip), and it was a point of pride to find one of my first pro jobs -- following my cutting-of-pro-teeth sales to Joe Kubert and Sgt. Rock and to art director John Workman at Heavy Metal magazine, both during my Kubert School years -- landing me at Scholastic at the same time Howard was doing comics for Scholastic, too.

It's on eBay for $2.99 to $74.99; it's the long lost 'monster zine' Weird Worlds!

While Howard was a regular in Bananas, I wasn't. I'm only in a couple of issues, maybe three or four. I was a regular in a different Scholastic zine, one that didn't last too long. My entry into the Scholastic freelance pool was via a one-shot horror story for Scholastic's new zine Weird Worlds. Joe Kubert brought me into his studio/office in the Baker Mansion (which has long since been the dorm for the Kubert School rather than its headquarters and main building, as it was during its first few years) and asked if I'd be willing to draw a short (three pages, if memory serves) horror story for a magazine intended for schools; I would be doing the whole art job working from a silly but fun script by Bob and Jane Stine, co-editors of the zine, and my name would not go on the job, it would be credited to The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, Inc. Fair enough! I was still a student after all, and this was my shot at doing something different.

I was overjoyed to have the shot, and did my best on it. Part of the appeal, mind you, was drawing a horror comic for schools. During my early '60s childhood, any comics brought to school were verboten and usually confiscated, horror comics above (or beneath, in the minds of my teachers) all. So, drawing a horror story that was intended for distribution to junior high students -- sanctioned horror comics for school! -- was a hoot and a bit of karmic comeuppance I was happy to be part of.

Joe was delighted with what I did with the script, as was Scholastic. I wanted to do more. One of (many) great acts of generosity Joe extended my way was gifting me with the account with Scholastic when I graduated in the spring of 1978 from the Kubert School, and thus began my happy few years of working with Scholastic -- an account that often paid the rent and kept me working when work in comics was hard to come by.

Jovial Bob Stine aka R.L. Stine

Howard and I never met during this period, but we were both freelance cartoonists working for editor Bob Stine and art director Bob Feldgus, both among the most amiable and professional folks I ever worked for or with in my comics career. Scholastic treated me like a prince, paid well and were always a joy to work with. It seems fair to assume the same was the case for Howard; he was implied that was the case, and he did a lot of work for Scholastic, more than I. Like all good things, this passed: Weird Worlds was canceled after a few issues, and after a couple of jobs for Bananas I moved on to other things, including penciling The Saga of Swamp Thing beginning in 1983. But I always loved working with and for Bob and Bob, and I miss 'em both. I eventually collected some of my work for Scholastic for two comicbooks in the late '80s -- I'll post that info here someday, can't recall the titles now -- and did so with Scholastic's permission.

Alas, both Bananas and Weird Worlds seem to be lost in the limbo of all school zines; no comics sites acknowledge them or offer back issues for sale (none I can find, anyway), and general online searches turned up little.

Back in 1995, The New York Times ran this interview/article on Bob Stine when his Goosebumps TV series was about to debut, making mention of Bananas magazine,

but I've not found anything else online relevant.

There's a number of online sites dedicated to Stine's famous and beloved Goosebumps books series -- here's the one with the most info on Bob himself that I've turned up -- but Bananas and Weird Worlds are less than footnotes in the long shadow of Goosebumps.

As I'm able, I'll post covers, contents lists and images from my respective contributions and art to my new website, still under construction.

There's a handful of affordable back issues of Weird Worlds available today at Abebooks.com (here's the link), for those interested -- I'm in almost every issue.

One cautionary note: If you go looking on eBay, though, don't confuse the Scholastic media zine Weird Worlds with the lurid, gore-splattered Eerie Publications 1970s newsstand horror comic magazine Weird Worlds. Those are fun in their way, too, but you won't find me in there -- just my eye-tracks from reading 'em three decades+ ago.

But enough on that -- more on Howard Cruse and his comics in another post!

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Marge and I both voted yesterday, though I'm sorry to say our town (Windsor) didn't hold it's Town Meeting yesterday (it was Monday night, which I missed, damn it; no local press in The Valley News announced it happening then, so I lost track). I've been going to my home town meetings since I was a pre-teen, and regret missing Windsor's. In any case, we voted, and the turnouts were massive.

Hilary Clinton won Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island -- to listen to/watch/read the media we (Vermont) don't matter, but:

Obama, McCain coast to victory in Vermont primary
By Wilson Ring

Associated Press Writer / March 4, 2008

MONTPELIER, Vt.—Barack Obama easily defeated Hillary Rodham Clinton to win the Vermont Democratic primary on Tuesday, tapping into a desire for change among war-weary voters for his 12th consecutive victory in primaries and caucuses.

Obama led 59 percent to 39 percent with half the state's precincts reporting.

Exit polls found that the Illinois senator cut into every part of Clinton's traditional base of supporters, including women, older voters and the working-class.

Some New Year's Eve Thanks for 2007 Highlights...

...in my personal life, and a bit of my professional life. Just a big thank you all around to all my amigos and family; thanks for putting up with me!

Thanks, too, for Myrant readers being out there. I've no idea how many of you there are (I've yet to figure out how to get a count of hits to the blog, despite numerous efforts), but it's nice to know this venue gives me some link to the outside world and a means of writing and sharing some of my brainspew. Thanks to my many fans, especially folks like Salvo, Tom and Phil, for all your kindnesses; I am not worthy! I really appreciate the occasional care packages, fellas, and wish you all the best of the coming New Year. I'll do my best to get something new out there for ya!

For 2008, a new computer, scanner, and the construction of a proper computer work area should provide the means at last to (a) work with Cat to complete the website as I hope it will exist, and (b) share more art with you via the site and this blog. That said, here's what I'm already thankful for in 2007...

* 2007 was Marge's and my first year in our new home! We in fact completed the move one year ago this past Friday, folks, so the whole of 2007 was indeed spent nesting in our new digs.

We're both overjoyed to be in our new home, with closer proximity to our respective jobs -- burning up far less gas, mind you, and saving in every other domestic bill, too, except for property taxes (the fool Republican claims about lower taxes are premised in part on ignoring completely how all deferred spending is landing on our collective backs via regional property taxes, but don't get me going). The increased proximity to White River Junction and The Center for Cartoon Studies has been a blessing, too, and allowed me more time than ever to dedicate to the students, when required and/or requested.

This home also plugged us into high-speed internet access, which has freed up literally days, weeks, months of time -- even with the blogging! -- to dedicate to more worthwhile ventures. It now takes about 15 minutes to do what in Marlboro, VT, with no broadband access, over four hours a day to do. You do the math.


* I'm thankful beyond words for my ongoing job at The Center for Cartoon Studies. Beyond just being thankful to be a man over 50 who even has a job in 2007, I'm thankful to have a job that is meaningful, satisfying and rewarding -- a rarer commodity still in Bush-era 21st Century America!

The time with the classes, the students, the enormous confidence and trust co-founders James Sturm and Michelle Ollie demonstrate daily, the ongoing support and hard work from Robyn Chapman, Jess Abston, Sarah Stewart Taylor, Jason Lutes, Peter Money, James Kochalka, Kaori Hamura, Jon-Mikel Gates (the latter three helped me co-teach Drawing Workshop this fall semester) and one and all -- especially the students, alumni included -- it's been amazing. I savor the enormous creative boost and joy this all provides, the reunions with alumni over the past couple of weeks, the drawing and the craziness and the bullshit and the -- well, all of it. I'm thankful, and feel lucky as any man can be to have this opportunity to work with the new generations of cartoonists and creators, hopefully passing on something of what I've learned and invented over my 30 years or so since I graduated from the Joe Kubert School.

* The year is ending (to the day, with more to go!) with heavy work in the home stretch on The Neil Gaiman Companion, a book project co-authors Christopher Golden and Henry Wagner invited me in on back in October.

Thanks for inviting me in to the party, guys! Though it's been a real pressure-cooker, amid the end-of-semester workload and demands of CCS and the holidays, it's been a joy, too. Whatever the headaches, it landed me the rare opportunity to spend a little face-to-face time with my old friend Neil, and is culminating in what is shaping up to be a honey of a book -- which you'll see in stores, I think, later in 2008 from St. Martin's Press. Watch for it!

* It's been a pleasure easing back into drawing comics again, and fun seeing some of that new work popping up in print. My retirement from the US comics industry stands -- and events in 2007 did nothing but confirm the wisdom of that 1999 decision. But I've found my way to keeping busy in the medium I love most outside of any industry venues, and hope to expand upon that in 2008.

If you're happy to see this turn of events -- as I am -- special thanks is due to the following folks:

* First and foremost, my son Daniel, who once told Marge he hoped to get me back to drawing comics. Well, pat yourself on the back, son, you done good (and there was no prouder pop on Planet Earth than yours truly the night I enjoyed hearing and seeing you, Sam and Jeremy -- Mooneye -- playing at the Main Street Museum!).
* My daughter Maia Rose -- we'll get ours, done, too, my dear!
* Everyone at The Center for Cartoon Studies (see below)
* Leah Moore and John Reppion and the Komiks.dk folks; special thanks to Leah and John, I met and committed to:
* the AccentUK crew, primary among them Colin Mathieson and Dave West, who were enthusiastic and patient and attentive and ended up publishing my work (solo on the cover and interior illo) and collaborative effort with Dan, and some fine stories by CCS students/artists in May of 2007, all in the AccentUK Zombies anthology.

* The Trees & Hills Comics Group, a New England comics collective, particularly Colin Tedford and Daniel Barlow; in fact, my son Dan and I did our first published collaborative work for the 2006 Trees & Hills anthology, Trees & Hills and Friends; I had another (solo) piece in this year's first T&H anthology, too (I missed being in their second collective comic of 2007, though).

* Kudos, too, to CCS alumni Sean Morgan for being ballsy enough to ask me to collaborate on the art for the cover story in his anthology Capsule -- thanks, Sean, and it was fun!

The story turned out well, if I may say so myself, and it was also a hoot to see Sean's zombie story see print at last herein -- "He Is Risen" had been written, drawn and submitted to Zombies, but it was bumped due to its religious content. Way to push the 'taboo' button, Sean, and here's hoping we work on something new in 2008...


Invigorated by that process and the Zombies anthology as a whole, I also stepped up to the plate for a single oversized page of new work in the super-sized Sundays anthology, a true labor of cover-to-cover love a pack of inspired, perspiring CCSers created for its debut at the spring MoCCA convention in NYC. I did so with some apprehension, and considerable changing-of-horses in midstream a couple of times, but it all worked out for the best for one and all.

It was also inspiring to see everyone involved pouring so much of themselves into every aspect of the project -- though I was only an observer, really, with one page in the mix, I felt reconnected to the wellsprings of the comics community I once felt part of, the vital stuff of creation, hands-on production and working through the details, genuine self-publishing (right down to the marathon silk-screening sessions and hand-binding production line of that final week before MoCCA). The Sundays crew busted their asses on this book! Kudos to everyone involved, it was a monumental effort, beautifully conceived and executed.


Though I should have asked/pressed for another page -- I'm guilty of the sin of too-much-text to too-little-art in my humble one-pager -- I'm pleased that the encouragement of the CCS now-senior confederates in creative crime behind Sundays prompted me to re-engage with Tyrant for a time -- yep, the first new Tyrant work to see print in a decade was in Sundays!

Sure, it was bitter little pill of a page, but it was pretty funny, I think, too. More importantly, it prompted my returning to the project and prepping two versions of a proposal I'll be circulating in 2008, in hopes of landing a home in the book market for some incarnation of my pet project. Time will tell on that, but nothing will take away the shot-in-the-arm the Sundays crew provided this ol' coot.

Before summer was out, another scurvy pack of ink-slinging swine tantalized me with the thought of taking another shot at doing a western comic story, and the result was "Tenderfoot" in Dead Man's Hand (which debuted at SPX in October).

Now, I've the greatest affection and respect in the world for the rowdy-noodies who concocted and completed Dead Man's Hand -- after all, I taught 'em all most everything they know, y'could say -- but I gotta tell you right here and now, the sap-suckin' lily-livered saddle-sore slurpin' sidewinders bushwhacked me! Consarn their blasted eyes!

After a night of carousing at the local brewery Elixir's and proposing every conceivable variation on mixing cowboys and dinosaurs -- from Turok to Gwangi to thunderbirds to giant horny-toads squirtin' jet-propelled rivers of blood from their eyes -- and being increasingly slammed dick-in-the-dirt at every turn, I put pen to paper to craft an original tale with nary a saurian in sight -- not even a fossil! And I'm mighty happy with my story "Tenderfoot," mind ye.

Anyhoot, I did that only to find, upon publication, they'd let another cactus-lickin' contributor do a story with a pfucking pterodactyl in it! A no-shit flying dinosaur! Thunderbird, my ass!

Goddammit, I was hornswoggled! Boondoggled! Barn-doored and slamdunked! I'll get you suckers next time, you wait and see! It'll be Dunston comics for you, you baboon-assed monkey-humpin' simian lovers!

2008 already has me working on a swamp-monster personal project, which I'm excited about, and a story for a new CCS-community anthology proposed and helmed (or co-helmed) by our compadre Cayetano 'Cat' Garza -- watch for Secrets & Lies at MoCCA this year!

* The Bissette Coffee Zombee mugs have been a fun diversion this year, and I'm working on some new ceramic art for 2008.

No, you can't mail order 'em -- though I am gracing friends and family with their own one-of-a-kind ceramic goodies this holiday season, including some Marge and I did together (no zombies on those, though), and will continue to do so (for birthdays) throughout 2008.

These have been just fun to make, personally. As for those not created as gifts, I'm pleased to keep prices, productivity, profits and the profile low. Still, these each-one-of-a-kind painted and glazed works are happily circulating in surprising circles, and part of the fun for me is knowing

they're all finding homes via my booth at the Antiques Mall at Quechee Gorge Village on Route 4 in VT -- dealer #653, a booth jam-packed with work by yours truly and the students and faculty of The Center for Cartoon Studies, along with my ceramics originals, comics, books, DVDs (most brand new and factory-sealed, including lots of out-of-print cult gems), LPs, magazines, toys, collectibles and wackiness.

2007 record-holder for Coffee Zombee mug to have traveled the farthest! Brent just sent me "pics of the Coffee Zombee mug I picked up at the Queechee Gorge antique mall. I was passing through... and happened across the cup. More appropriately I should say I happened across your booth. It was great (albeit odd) to see your collection of the strange amongst the left overs and knick knacks from peoples past. I hope to see more next year when we head that way. Thanks for the coffee, in a round about way!" Yer welcome, Brent, and enjoy! [Photo compliments of Brent]

A fine fellow named Brent out in Newbury Park, CA holds the record for carrying a cup o' Bissette ceramic craziness the furthest from its origin point, and kudos to Brent for letting me know, too.

Marge and I have done a bunch of ceramics this fall and winter, which I'll post photos of here once we get everyone's gifts to them. Don't want to give away any secrets here... but we've both been enjoying the making of these goodies, and it's been rare fun to be doing creative work with Marge, too.

All this stuff is happening at the White River Junction-based Tip Top Pottery studio, here's the link to Amy's happening joint -- check it out.

Though I've started toying with other kinds of painting subjects -- dinosaurs are a subject I've been playing with in new works, along with my own monsters and stuff -- and plan on working on some tiles, which cartoonists like James Kochalka and others have embraced wholeheartedly as a vehicle, I'm keeping all this on the level of play, and intend to keep it that way!

Here's a Moondog (Louis T. Hardin) mug I painted for my son Dan, one of his birthday gifts this December -- the lad turned 22, and I wanted to be sure he got something special, unlike anything else on Earth...

OK, well, there's tons more I'm thankful for, too. I'm overjoyed that two of my best buds, Mike Dobbs (G. Michael Dobbs) and Tim Lucas, got their pet book projects done and published this year -- and what books they are! More on those later this week, as I try to assess the best books of the year.

I'm glad Black Coat Press and I got the first volume of S.R. Bissette's Blur out this year; volumes two, three and four are in the works, thanks to computer aide from CCS alumni (and Blur book cover designer and good friend) Jon-Mikel Gates, and it's too bad I didn't get 'em out this year as originally planned. Computer woes and the surprise involvement with The Neil Gaiman Companion derailed that scheme, but only for a short while... there's more to come in 2008, which I'll get into once we reach next year!

Which brings me to the inevitable Happy New Year, one and all.

Be safe, be happy, be warm tonight, and make it safely into 2008!

Another End-Of-Year Thingie...

I just contributed the following to Alex Hanson, arts editor/writer of the local newspaper The Valley News, for his year-end 'best arts in the Valley' wrap-up. And yes, I should have mentioned WRIF (White River Indy Film festival in April), but I wrote this in fifteen minutes and, well, OK, I forgot. With just 200 words to work with, verbose Bissette slipped his mickey on WRIF. Anyhoot, here's my two cents...

The high point of the year for me was the October 22 Center for Cartoon Studies fundraiser appearance of Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau at the Northern Stage, Briggs Opera House in White River Junction. Playing to a packed house, Trudeau saw to it the paying customers got their $50 worth -- plus. Trudeau’s highly entertaining 90 minute talk was spiced with video clips (from the 1977 Doonesbury TV special, a rousing tune from Rap Master Ronnie, clips from his Robert Altman collaborations Tanner '88 and Tanner on Tanner, and Duke's Motion-Capture animated interviews on Larry King and Today, with Garry's wife Jane Pauley). It was a night to remember; CCS students sold their work and Norwich Bookstore sold Garry's books in the lobby, and Garry signed everyone's purchases after stepping off stage.

The most fun my wife Marge and I had in area theaters: on stage, it was the Dartmouth revival of Hair, directed by Carol Dunne, charged by a high-octane young cast; at the movies, this summer’s fantasy sleeper Stardust (at the Nugget) scored. Special kudos to the down-and-dirty Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez double-feature Grindhouse, resurrecting the 1970s heyday of fast-and-furious drive-in double-bills and dusk-to-dawn shows. Bad taste is timeless!

An addendum for your eyes only:

Best movies I saw this year: Gone, Baby, Gone (terrific ensemble cast, excellent script, and the most assured directorial debut of the year -- from Ben Affleck, no less); The Black Book (Paul Verhoeven return to form, a grand, audacious WW2 survival tale) and The Lives of Others (hands down, best film I saw anywhere, on any screen or media). In a year of great, genre-stretching crime films (Eastern Promises, American Gangster, The Brave One, No Country for Old Men, Michael Clayton, etc.), Gone, Baby, Gone was the finest, in my mind.

More later, have a great (if wet) Sunday...

Another CCS Semester Passeth...
...and another cometh thoon

Whew -- another fantastic semester of CCS, behind me. Behind all of us. I've just finished my grading, and prepped for today's faculty meeting -- prep for the next semester, well underway. The freshmen finished their first group anthologies, and they're amazing; the seniors are all hard at work on their thesis projects, and it's all in their hands (literally) now.

Later today, I will (hopefully) be lunching with CCS alumni Ross Wood Studlar and his brother, here in the area to clear out Ross's storage area in Ascutney as he moves into his next life phase, shedding the cement cocoon. Alumni Elizabeth Chasalow and Jacob Jarvela will be up this weekend, too, and I hope to get together with them, too. And who else might show up? Time will tell...

So, have a fab Friday, one and all, and enjoy the holiday weekend, one way or another.

Neil Gaiman, Here I Come...

Prepping and packing this morning for tomorrow night's trip, which will eventually deposit me on Friday morning on Neil Gaiman's doorstep (with Hank Wagner, co-author with Chris Golden of the St. Martin's Press book on Neil and his work). It's still kind of amazing how all this fell together, but I'm really looking forward to seeing Neil again after so long.

Alas, I cannot bring Neil a Coffee Zombee mug, because -- he cannot drink coffee! My last visit to Neil's US home, ostensibly to do an interview with him forThe Comics Journal (which was deep-sixed by TCJ despite our successful attempt to find a sponsor to get us together -- a long story for another time), was plagued by Neil suffering a major pain-in-the-neck, and I don't mean me. Turned out he suffered from a negative reaction to caffeine! Ah, the '90s...

It's been about ten years since we were face-to-face -- he was working on the whole Princess Mononoke English-language dubbing script at that time, and we roomed together at Necon. We've stayed in touch, but I miss the lad.

I'm sure he's a crispy critter from all his travel and constant workload, but shit, I've seen Neil in crispier condition. Another story, another time.

Soooooooooooooo -- winding down the blog for the week -- I'll be back on Tuesday AM, unless I'm able to steal computer time at Neil's -- let me touch on a few things.

* As of this AM, Tim "Doc Ersatz" Viereck and I have rebooted the interview I began with Doc back in the late winter/early spring here on the blog. We're winding down on our Johnson State College 'daze' (where my first-ever comic, Abyss, was funded by Doc) and then we'll be getting into his fascinating years at Dino DeLaurentiis Studios in North Carolina (where he worked behind the scenes on David Lynch's Blue Velvet, Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive, and King Kong Lives, among other films), Douglas Trumbull's complex in Massachusetts (working on the historic Universal Back to the Future ride), and much, much more. I reckon we'll have more to post, with pix, by December, so prepare for a trip down someone else's memory lane around the time the snow might be flying.

Johnson State College campus memories and oh so much more, coming soon...

* Speaking of other people's memory lanes,

Center for Cartoon Studies pioneer class alumni Adam Staffaroni is posting photos and narrative of his summer 2007 trip to the great Northwest over on I Know Joe Kimpel

(which is still your one-stop shopping site for all things CCS-related in terms of comics, etc.). Check it out! I'll be having breakfast with Adam this morning -- we're working on a project -- so I'll find out more, but keep an eye on the Joe Kimpel blog for Adam's Saga!

* Today, my Drawing Workshop class at CCS begins a three-session workshop on character design and model sheet design with

the amazing Kaori Hamura, who lives here in Vermont

and is now into her second year of working with CCS, sharing her animation industry insider knowledge of creating characters and getting down the essentials.

Here's a little more one-stop info about Kaori and her career; enjoy visiting the links and seeing her work online.

* Speaking of workshops, CCS is still basking in the glow of Lynda Barry's visit last week.

More personal responses to Lynda Barry's CCS workshop -- with photos! -- awaits you here,

and we're all working on something special following her visit. More on that another time.

* Well, the fall sales season at the Antiques Mall in nearby Quechee, VT's famed

Quechee Gorge Village

is winding down. I've been restocking the booth big-time the past week or so, including original art (Cayetano 'Cat' Garza art, original art packaged with Colleen Frakes Xeric-Award winning comic, etc.), more CCS comics (all signed!), collectible comics from the '40s to the '90s, DVDs of all genres with a lot of rare and recently-released cult titles (almost all factory-sealed and brand new) including the Alejandro Jodorowsky classics El Topo and The Holy Mountain, books, a ton of Bissette collectibles (all signed) and much, much more.

Going...going...gone! This one-of-a-kind Bissette Coffee Zombee mug is now in some happy coffee-drinking collector's home, available exclusively at Dealer booth #653 in the Quechee Gorge Village Antique Mall!

I've now racked over 800 items in that rather wee booth since April of this year, with strong sales throughout the summer and fall. All earnings from the CCS artist community's work goes to the artists, save for the $1 markup to help cover a portion of the monthly booth rental fee. Marge and I had a pleasant Saturday painting new ceramic pieces at the White River Junction

Tip Top Pottery studio,

so I'm placing some new Bissette one-of-a-kind original works in the booth next week -- including the first in a series of dinosaur pottery pieces to accompany the Coffee Zombee mugs I've been doing. I'll post photos of the new work here next week.

So, if you're in the area before Christmas, visit the booth -- dealer #653 -- in the Antiques Mall in Quechee Gorge Village. You won't be disappointed, and be sure to pick up lots of CCS goodies!

* There's a fat batch of new trailers with commentary over at my fave online entertainment Trailers from Hell!

If you haven't been there since my last post of the link, give yourself an hour or more today to visit 'em and catch up -- if you're at the office, wait till the weekend, Bunkie. No need to lose your job over From Hell It Came or Suspiria previews!


* And in the big bad world:

Followup on the current estimated cost of the wars (Iraq and Afghanistan), essential context for spend-and-borrow-to-wage-war President Bush's ongoing vetoes and verbal abuse of Democrats in recent weeks.

"The $1.6 trillion figure, for the period from 2002 to 2008, translates into a cost of $20,900 for a family of four, the report said...," to also followup on that rather expansive span I cited yesterday. Again, I'm not sure where some come up with the $43,000 per household pricetag, but I'm sure you'll agree the estimated $20,900 is daunting enough. We're all like Br'er Rabbit: "Oh, please, puh-leez don't throw us to those bloated-budget Democrats, Br'er Bush!"

We also have news this morning about the Blackwater investigations: "A Blackwater Worldwide spokeswoman says the company supports "stringent accountability" for any wrongdoing in the wake of a New York Times report that federal investors have found that the shooting deaths of at least 14 Iraqi civilians by Blackwater guards in Baghdad nearly two months ago violated rules of deadly force..."

Aaaaaaaand, the Associated Press reports: "The Justice Department has reopened a long-dormant inquiry into the government's warrantless wiretapping program, a major policy shift only days into the tenure of Attorney General Michael Mukasey." Good news, that.

Now if only our elected officials wouldn't let AT&T and Verizon et al off the hook for selling us all down the river in this illegal spying program.

Have a great Wednesday, one and all...

Lynda Barry Monster Love,
and a Shout Out to Louie -- Here I Yam!

Lynda Barry has been visiting The Center for Cartoon Studies this week, giving a two-day workshop (Tuesday and Wednesday) for everyone and generally lighting up the place with her amazing grace and generosity of spirit. It's been incredible, I can feel the heart of the place throbbing: CCS has monster love for Lynda -- and from her back atcha.

Last night, CCS had a farewell reception for Lynda at the Main Street Museum in White River Junction and it was sweet. Non-stop music (from Blair Sterrett, Cat Garza and Gabby 'Ken Dahl' Schulz), conversation, company and good vibes. A grand evening capping a radiant two days for the students.

Lynda, hanging with long-hair creative-types (poet/filmmaker Alan Blangy, Lynda Barry and musician Roger Junk) back in 1977; she was doing it again last night, though the hair's shorter on most of the stylish 21st Century CCSers

(Source: here's the link to the Alan Blangy film Shirts, where I found this photo online.)

The energy in the place -- the music, the food, but most off all the powerful, open love between all the students and Lynda and everyone there -- was astounding, you felt it as soon as you walked in the door. In the hive, the buzz was profound. Blair played accordian, the saw, and more; Cat and Gabby followed with great guitar, banjo, harmonica, their playing solid and soulful (it's gonna be tough when Gabby moves to NYC later this year). Everyone was into it, the museum was alive with it all.

I did the fanboy thing and asked Lynda to sign my first-ever experience with her work, her book Girls & Boys (1981). She graced the title page with a sketch and a grandoise testimony to CCS love, which led us into conversation on being the same age (I'm just a couple months older than Lynda), how great being a former geek hitting our 50s is, the horrors of the Bush era, and (gasp!) Monster Love.

Listen, Lynda looooooves monsters ("...monsters saved my life, Steve..."), and began to recite The Wolfman verse ("The path you walk is thorny..."). She went back to it a couple of times, and the monster love flowed like wine. We bonded further over memories of seeing the Hammer Film The Gorgon when we were sprouts, which prompted Lynda to cover her eyes every time the Gorgon appeared onscreen. She had to go back and see it again and force herself to keep her eyes open ("...and the snakes were so stupid-looking on her head, you know?"). Ah, 1960s monster love. Lynda has it. Who'da thunk it?

Now I'm triply glad I left a stack of Tyrants, a Taboo and a Swamp Thing -- all signed with sketches -- for Lynda at the Coolidge, where she was staying. I didn't know if she'd get into my weird shit, but it's definitely appropo. Monster love, shared in ink. I hope she enjoys 'em on the long trip home to Wisconsin.

Come back soon, Lynda, CCS and this generation of cartoonists needs you and loves ya!

______________________

A whole lot else has been shaking at CCS -- like the fucking ceiling! Good thing we're a stoic bunch.

Alumni (and Xeric Award winner!) Colleen Frakes posted pics on the I Know Joe Kimpel site, and that's all I'll say. Glad we were all out of the classroom! Yow!

____________________________

Oh, man, why'd I do it?

I was sketching this past weekend and started doodling drawings of a few of the folks I went to high school with. I don't know why. I hated high school, though I had some good amigos there (hey to Jill Chase, Alan Finn, James 'Snake' Harvey and Clark Amadon, whereever you are). Some came out cherry, some were amorphous blobs of scratchy lines -- funny how some faces stay with you and others evaporate.

Anyhoot, in this moment of semi-pathetic weakness and without my Harwood Union High School yearbook anywhere in reach (still packed and in the sea of boxes in the basement, which is still under construction) for further reference, I decided (foolishly) to check out that site Classmates.com (no, I won't post the link). I'd been ignoring those banner ads since Marge first convinced me to tap email back in the 1990s -- hmmm, maybe I could find photos there? Why not check it out?

So, there's a 'free membership' -- hmmmm, OK, let me see what that opens up to me. Ah, shit, nothing. It's, like, they get your name, then it's $$ to access anything else. And not little dollars -- like, annual fees and shit. Fuck that.

Now, there's a message waiting for me at Classmates.com from Louie Kingsbury, who lived in the Patterson Trailer Park right next to my home in Duxbury and who I was in school with since, like, 2nd grade.

But can I open Louis's message to me? Not unless I 'upgrade' for $60 annually! What a fucking racket!

So, here's a shout out to Louie, if he can find/read this:

Louie, you out there? Can ya find this blog? My email is msbissette.com, write to me! And it's free! You're worth $60 and more, but I'll be damned if I'm going to stick my other hand into the Classmates.com tarbaby any further!

Tomorrow: Mike Dobbs's new book! Common Ground Update! More!

This, That, Paddywhack, Give That Cat a Bone

Just wrapped up my part of a roundhouse discussion with Tim Lucas, Kim Newman and Shane Dallmann about Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse for an upcoming issue of Video Watchdog, and more work on the Christopher Golden/Hank Wagner book on my amigo Neil Gaiman, which I'll be sharing some co-author credit on. Thanks to Chris's busy schedule, I'll be the one joining Hank in a couple of weeks for a weekend visit/interview session with Neil, too, which I'm greatly looking forward to. Haven't seen Neil face-to-face for quite a stretch, though we've stayed in touch over the years.

That said, the Center for Cartoon Studies is keeping me busy, too, and oh, the folks I've met and get to work with, primary among them the incredible CCSers themselves -- man, I love seeing/reading their comics! Anyhoot, a lively week is ahead: CCS hosts Lynda Barry this week, who's coming in and giving a full two-day intensive workshop for the students. Whew! I'll be dining with Lynda and alumni Colleen Frakes Monday night, which should be big fun. Marge and I are having breakfast with Colleen and her partner and fellow alumni Jon-Mikel Gates this AM, just socializing; life is good.

Fellow CCSer (and among the school's funding co-founders) Peter Money is making his own waves with his new tome, Che, and as a publisher with exiled Arab poet Sinan Antoon's The Baghdad Blues.

Peter's latest poetry/publishing venture landed a piece in Time Magazine -- kudos to Sinan and to Peter!

As for last Saturday's White River Junction Halloween Parade, in which CCS figured mightily, Main Street Museum's David Fairbanks Ford just shared these links with us all hereabouts, sporting photos from the parade shot and posted by Matt Bucy and Dennis Grady,

here and

here. Enjoy!

And, for your Saturday AM amusement, CCS freshman Jeff Mumm shared this link with us all, and you might dig it, too: a venue for reworked Garfield strips, sans Garfield's dialogue.

As Jeff put it, "There's a fun strip called "Arbuckle" in which cartoonists send in comics based on Garfield strips, removing the dialogue by Garfield (to see the world through Jon's eyes, considering that it's canon that he doesn't understand what Garfield says) and rendering it in whatever style they deem appropriate. I did one a couple years ago and thought it might be fun if people wanted to do a strip for it or even just to read through it a bit, because it's a pretty funny concept. Because really, who doesn't like making fun of Garfield?"

Check it out; click backwards from the lead page strip using the little arrows beneath it, and read the source Garfield strip for each via the link. Consider it a morning laxative, folks, if nothing else...

Have a great Saturday, one and all...

Back in the Blog Saddle...

...and sorry I was away so long; Criswell predicted I'd be back, and so I am! I'll be catching up today and tomorrow, so check in frequently betwixt now and Friday.

First of all, the Garry Trudeau Center for Cartoon Studies day -- Monday -- was glorious. I'll be writing about it here in some detail, sans pics; suffice to say Garry's two hours with the students and faculty Monday AM was open, candid and quite amazing, really. Garry talked to everyone in the room as peers, fellow cartoonists, in contrast to his polished (and very funny) Monday night public presentation. For the students, he covered the expanse of his career, opening with the tale of his entry into the field, and fielded questions for almost 90 minutes of the two hours.

Monday night's event at the Northern Stage, Briggs Opera House in White River Junction was sold out, and Garry saw to it the paying customers got their $50 worth -- and more. He prepared an excellent, engaging and highly entertaining 90 minute talk, illustrated with video clip highlights (the 1977 Doonesbury TV special Garry did with John and Faith Hubley, a rousing tune from Rap Master Ronnie, two clips from his Robert Altman collaborations Tanner '88 and Tanner on Tanner, and a variety of clips from Duke's Motion-Capture animated interviews on Larry King, Today -- with Garry's wife Jane Pauley -- and more). Everyone had a fantastic time, a night to remember; CCS artists/students did well with their sales table in the lobby, as did Norwich Bookstore with three of Garry's latest books, and Garry signed everyone's purchases and items after stepping off stage.

[Note: Following up on my last post, I wasn't part of the program, and no regrets -- James and Michelle asked me to prepare to moderate, and I did, but once Garry arrived in WRJ on Sunday and explained his plans, James gave a call and I happily stepped down. Hey, no worries -- it was sweet to enjoy the evening sitting next to Marge in the audience; if CCS had needed me, I was ready. Otherwise, it was a pleasure to just savor the event, same as everyone else!]

More on Garry's visit to CCS in the coming days.

_______________

A few friends emailed me in the past day or so to bring my attention (as I now bring your) to

Brian Hughes's Again With the Comics post, "Beyond Humanity Lies...The Hypernaut!"

I'm cool with Brian running this material, though I'll note for the record the copyrights are still the property of Alan, Rick and myself, and the copyrights and trademarks for The Fury, N-Man and The Hypernaut are my property (as of 1999). I'll alert Brian to that, but go take a look.

Brian had already dissected the subsequent 1963/Shadowhawk crossover -- here -- and it's good to see folks are still curious about this odd alternative universe Alan, Rick Veitch, yours truly and our cronies concocted waaaaaaaay back in '93.

As Marc Arsenault put it, "you've been Boinged, friend" bouncing me to

Mark Frauenfelder's BoingBoing: A Directory of Wonderful Things "Tales of the Uncanny -- cool Alan Moore comic from mid90s" post.

The beat goes on...
_______________________

Had I not been offline so many days, I'd have brought to your attention sooner the fact that

VT filmmaker Jayson Argento has pulled together a boat tour up north for this Friday, and here's the link for tickets if you're interested...

...a tour that includes my best friend (and Vermont's folklorist extraordinaire) Joe Citro!

Here's Jayson's most recent invite info:

"About a month ago I met Larry Holden for the first time. He, his wife Hanne and I became friends almost instantly as we sat and drank some beers by a pond somewhere in VT. He offered to be in my next film. The reason is because he is an incredibly generous person. He hadn’t even read the script. Larry believes in art and that it can change the world. Larry and Hanne are very close to the greatest and most amazing people I've ever met. To meet them is quite inspiring. A lot of you know me well enough to know that i am very picky about people and for me to make such a statement is no small thing.

This cruise is a chance to meet Larry and Hanne, learn about the film and how to get involved, have a nice dinner and some drinks, listen to some live acoustic music, meet our new film commissioner Joe Bookchin, get a chance to talk with my friend Joseph Citro (Author), Talk with me about whatever you want, support local art, and help make a Colchester VT boy’s dream come true. Hope to see you there.

if you haven't yet please buy tickets here.
www.stoneworksentertainment.com

Wednesday the 24th is the last day tickets are on sale. you have to buy them before you show up to the boat. We tell them how many are coming so they can make the food.

Don’t miss the boat. Friday Oct 26th 5:30 PM

Thanks,
Jayson Argento
cruise@stoneworksentertainment.com"

So, final day to pick up tickets.

Sorry again I didn't post this info sooner.

Be there, if you can.
_________________

How Green R U?

Finally, HomeyM in Jamaica, VT just sent me the news that "Vermont has lowest carbon emissions in [the] nation"

(via this Howard Weiss-Tisman article in The Brattleboro Reformer),

which prompted me to follow the link to

the Eredux website's profile of Vermont; as Howard reports, "Vermont is the greenest state in the country. They have a lot to be proud of," said Ed Arnold, an information technology specialist with Eredux. "The best way to combat global warming is to think globally and act locally and we wanted this site to help folks see how their states and cities compare."

Look up your own state (or, via this link, your own town's profile) on Eredux's site, and see where you sit, Green-wise.

So, there ya go.

Have a great Wednesday, and see you here later today and tomorrow and ever after...