Sundays -- Updates, Links, Pix and Pox

I've been holding off announcing this for some time (in part due to Marvel's inexcusable late payment to yours truly), but it's Halloween week -- and I can't hold off any longer. If you can afford it, pick up a copy of the new Marvel Omnibus: Amazing Fantasy ("The Magazine That Respects Your Intelligence!"), if only to savor my two-page introduction to the Amazing Adventures portion of the collection.

Canada's beloved premiere Steve Ditko expert Blake Bell introduces the Amazing Adult Fantasy half of the tome, which concludes (natch) with the historic Amazing Fantasy #15 debut of Spider-Man. Read for the first time since its publication in the complete context of the Twilight Zone-like comic series Stan Lee and Steve Ditko took such personal pride in, Spider-Man is even more revelatory; if only for that, this omnibus is worth picking up. It ain't cheap -- take the cover shot pictured here and replace the 12-cent price bullet with $75, folks -- but it's part of my bibliography now, so I reckon a plug here is appropo this week.

The deepest discount I'm finding online is at Amazon.com, and here's the link.

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Better yet, there's new work coming out of The Center for Cartoon Studies. I've savored some great comics and mini-comics this past week from the CCS community -- alumni Josie Whitmore's moving In Which I Think About Drowning, graced with a CD The Small Planets: Bike (music by Josie and Ben Moy); JP Coovert's one-two punch Press Start and companion minicomic And Fight, a beautifully crafted introspective (and playful, in more ways than one) creation; Penina Gal's enigmatic mini Enjoy the Fish, Sam J. Carbaugh's collected works These Things Happen #1 -- all great stuff.

JP's new (and elder) comics can always be found here,

Josie's website awaits you here,

and Ben and Josie's Small Planets site orbits in virtual space here.

Check 'em out, please!

Nice to see CCSers getting more online attention -- here's the latest, senior Sean Ford's second issue of Only Skin garnering some deserved attention --

-- and that will only continue to gain momentum in the coming months. There's even talk of a couple new anthologies, one of which I've committed to doing a piece for; more news as things come together, and the respective anthology founders/editors make formal announcements.

Page 13 of Dan Archer's 24 Hour Comic from last weekend -- link below!

Last weekend, the Center for Cartoon Studies hosted its own 24-Hour Comic marathon, and here's the pix to prove it --

-- and here's the link to the first of the comics posted online, from CCS freshman Dan Archer (and a mighty sharp comic it is, too, Dan!).

And that ain't all, folks. It's been a lively week since at CCS and in White River Junction.

Here's pix from CCS senior Bryan Stone covering last night's White River Junction Halloween parade and events, which brought out the town en force -- as participants!

As Bryan puts it, "There had to be at least a few hundred people in the parade...and like, three spectators..."

That's what's happening in WRJ: a whole new community on the rise, but we need to build/draw an audience from the wider surrounding communities. It'll happen, in time! Friday night I hosted a Halloween film event at the Main Street Museum, hosted by MSM founder/curator David Fairbanks Ford, and we ended up with a good crowd, half-CCSers, half from the wider community. As I headed home, a music event on Main Street seemed to draw a fair crowd of teenagers and high schoolers. Bit by bit, event by event, the WRJ community is coming together anew...

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I've kept tabs with my old stomping grounds down south, too. Let's see, Yankee Nuclear Power remains a center of controversy, my daughter Maia Rose has moved closer to said nuke plant (reckon I didn't show her enough 1950s atomic age mutant movies when she was a wee lass!), and -- well, they're stilling bickering over legislating against public nudity, for whatever that's worth.

Got the sad news that the Common Ground Restaurant in Brattleboro, VT -- on which I served the Board of Directors for a year or so in the hopes of resurrecting the restaurant -- is closing; but the Common Ground Club is opening and keeps the venerable Common Ground tradition alive.

Kudos to HomeyM for the updates and the ibrattleboro posts, and here's hoping the Common Ground finds new life in its latest incarnation.

Have a grand Sunday, one and all!

* CCS at SPX *

Well, it's Friday -- SPX begins today, and a major chunk of The Center for Cartoon Studies community is there! If you're in the Bethesda, MD area, make sure to pop in to the convention and pay the CCS folks a visit.

The amount of work that's been pouring into individual comics -- and anthologies, like Dead Man's Hand, which I'm part of -- has been enormous. Diehards like Robyn Chapman, Sean Ford (debuting Only Skin #2), Joe Lambert, Alex Kim, JP Coovert (all debuting new work which I haven't seen as yet), and many more have been burning the midnight oil in the CCS Colodny basement studio and the senior Verizon studio, some for weeks... it's amazing.

One more preview page from my story "Tenderfoot" debuting at SPX this weekend in the CCS anthologyDead Man's Hand; page/story copyright 2007 SR Bissette

Lacking the relatively available lead time we all had back in the spring for MoCCA, there simply wasn't time to rally interviews, graphics, etc. for everyone's comics; the few interviews we did initiate are still dangling unfinished, so the best I can do this time around is steer you to

the official SPX website.

CCS will be at table W22, near the door and registration table, and I Know Joe Kimpel has a table on the floor, too, as does JP and Joe's imprint.

For those who can't be there, I'll be posting followup ASAP, as information, art, links etc. are made available.

Dead Man's Hand has it's own website, here,

and I'll be posting sales links and more info after this weekend, as the DMH editors pull that together (of course, the past weeks have been entirely intent upon getting everything done and ready for SPX).

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For a peek at last Friday's day-trip with my amigos G. Michael Dobbs and Joseph A. Citro -- Mike and Joe -- click here for Mike's overview with photos, scroll down to his "Monday, October 08, 2007" post.

Also note Mike's pix of the Main Street Museum, which I'll be posting more about this weekend as my son Daniel and the band he's a part of -- Mooneye -- will be playing live there this coming Tuesday. More info soon!
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I'm home sick as a dog, so I'll also be posting here off and on the next three days to make up for the slack of this week's posts.

Have a great Friday, one and all, and stay warm and well...

It's James Sturm's America -- He Just Lets Us Live Here!
An American trilogy of Religious Fervor, Greed, and Entertainment Through the Eras Arrives At Last!

Hey, all -- top o' the morn to ya. My amigo, fellow author, artist and the dearly beloved Center for Cartoon Studies co-founder and Grand Omnipotent Inkslinging Stomper James Sturm has a new book out, and you need it!

As James puts it, "the modestly titled James Sturm's America: God, Gold and Golems has just been published. The book is the definitive collection of my American history stories."

Here's the front cover, folks; I didn't have a scan of the full wraparound to post, but trust me, it's a beaut.

Here's the hard info on the book itself, which collects all three of James's Americana graphic novels and novellas, The Revival, Hundreds of Feet Below Daylight and the celebrated The Golem's Mighty Swing:

"Focusing on less sensational times in U.S. history (non-war and pre-Depression), James Sturm's America draws a portrait of the people and their dreams that make up this country. Comprised of three chapters... the story grows as the country grows; from pioneers searching for a place to call home, to ghost towns gutted by greed and racism, to the distractions and fantasies of popular entertainment."

How to get your copy? Read on, and act!

If you're in the White River Junction VT area, James is having a celebratory signing this Thursday, October 11, at the stylish recent addition to WRJ drining holes, Elixir. We CCSers frequent Elixir every Tuesday night, after CCS movie night, and it's sweet. Elixir is located just a short walk from CCS itself -- at 188 S. Main St. (802-281-7009).

James says, "The signing is from 6-8pm but if enough people buy me a drink I may be there longer (luckily I live within walking distance)! I'll have my pens on hand and will adorn your book with some original artwork. If you haven't been to Elixir it's worth checking out, it's a swank tapas/martini bar in the beautifully refurbished freight house." Indeed it is.

But wait, there's more! The wonderfully independently owned Norwich Bookstore will selling copies of James Sturm's America there, at Elixir -- but, if you want to buy a signed book but cannot make it Thursday night, call the Norwich Bookstore now (802-649-1114 ) and reserve a copy -- James will happily inscribe it for you.

Cool -- but what if you live far, far away? What if you are in another part of America, or not in America at all? Well, fret not, constant reader.

My fave online source for all things comic-like, John Rovnak's renovated (and amid renovations) Panel to Panel.Net, is offering James Sturm's America to you via online purchase with a signed bookplate featuring an exclusive full-color image created by James Sturm.

Here's the link to the PaneltoPanel purchase page,

and note -- while supplies last, order James Sturm's America now and receive a free, signed copy of his out-of-print 2004 Eisner Award winning Marvel Comics graphic novel Fantastic Four: Unstable Molecules!

PaneltoPanel.net also has a new exclusive interview with James online, which you can get to from this link -- enjoy!

And oh, the quotes James has amassed. Read 'em and weep:

"Original and fascinating." -- Garry Trudeau

"James Sturm's graphic narratives make us re-imagine our shared history. This is historical fiction at its best." -- Russell Banks

"Sturm's America is the one glimpsed through the holes in the flag: rooted, grim and enduring. His line of his drawings has a pure grain like that of the voice in William Carlos Williams' epic poem Paterson, or the singers on Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music. Fables like these are an antidote to cultural amnesia." -- Jonathan Lethem

"Sturm's prose is as elegantly understated as his line work. And every now and then he throws the heater: 'They've been waiting for their Messiah a thousand years,' says one opponent. 'So they know how to wait on
a curveball.' A-." -- Entertainment Weekly

"Luminous... The revival, as Sturm gleaned through careful research, offered an oasis of companionship, entertainment and brief salvation from the land itself. One can see how Americans...would have yearned for a
message that this dangerous, lonely place was actually part of some divine plan." -- New York Times Book Review

"Sturm is a master of nuance, whose economical drawings effectively evoke the era, while his thoughtful compositions impressively capture action and atmosphere." -- Booklist

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Work continues on various Center for Cartoon Studies creations for this weekend's SPX convention in Bethesda, MD -- as previously noted (see last week's posts), I won't be there (my convention days are over), but my newest comics story will be, via Dead Man's Hand, a new anthology of western comic stories.

No, we don't have great quotes or a signing at Elixir, but we do have a mighty stylish hat and hankerchief, and there's enough of us to drink James Sturm under the table if we have to.

Here's the link to the Dead Man's Hand site --

-- updates, art and more info awaits you there!

OK, 'nuff ballyhoo for one day -- follow through, and have a great Monday!

Making Good in the Badlands
(& Other Vistas)

More CCS This & That for Friday AM...

The Center for Cartoon Studies has some big doings coming up, primary among them Garry Trudeau visiting on Monday, Oct. 22nd -- more on this public event next week, as I get final details.

But let's take a look at what the first-ever CCS alumni have been up to...

This summer, CCS alumni Elizabeth Chasalow and Jacob Jarvela took the big plunge across the Atlantic and explored Jacob's home country of Sweden and other Scandanavian vistas (Finland, Denmark).

Here's Jacob and Elizabeth's core saga blog, packed with photos and more --

-- with even more travel-blog material here,

and Elizabeth's summer profile here.

They returned safe and sound last month, and are presently nestled into the hills of New Hampshire, where I hope to catch up with them face-to-face soon.

CCS alumni Ross Wood Studlar has been roughing it in faraway Oregon's Crater Lake National Park since June, and posted these photos this week.

Ross notes his gig at the Park has included "...guided boat tours... presentations on geologic, biologic, and cultural aspects of Crater Lake; staff[ing] the visitor center and been asked innumerable times whether the lake freezes in winter; be[ing] a first responder for several medical emergencies... some trail work," and notes that throughout the summer he has "received weird looks from visitors when they learned where I went to school." A proud CCS alumni tradition, established!

Fellow CCS alumni Adam Staffaroni has been on a cross-country roadtrip (including a visit to Ross in Oregon!) and posted some of his pix, with blog narration, over at the I Know Joe Kimpel blog --

-- also note the latest news on Colleen Frake's excellent comics series Tragic Relief, which you should be ordering ASAP.

Great to see the pix of everyone on the road, and how the CCS alumni are making it in the big wide world... others are on the move now, and I do mean now. Anyhoot, more info, links and pix soon.

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In the meantime, the new community of CCS seniors have been mucho busy. With SPX approaching, I'll have more info, news and art to bring to your attention in October.

I'll kick off that effort this morning with

CCS senior Morgan Pielli's new comic blog, now featuring Pilgrim O'Neal!

Morgan is co-editing the western comics anthology Dead Man's Hand, for which I'm completing a new story, "Tenderfoot," about which I'll say more closer to SPX (yep, it'll be debuting there, pardner).

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Among the Class of 2008 who didn't return to CCS for a senior year is the talented and beloved-at-CCS Jaci June, who sent this communique last month about her summer trip down the Mississippi and splinter detours and adventures, which thankfully included a return visit to White River Junction and CCS in August. We miss you, Jaci, but you're on your own great adventure -- happy trails! Posted here (with Jaci's permission) is her most recent update:

So the Miss Rockaway Flotilla is in Voltron formation and stranded in Alton at a fancy yuppie marina that reminds me of good ol' California. Recently I ran away to St. Louis with my sister and friend Mendon to escape the weiner that sometimes possesses people to act carelessly and treat others like shit. I call this the deep dark weiner in all of us. Sometimes it is more potent than others and at the time too overwhelming for my tastes so I booked it.

Two days in St. Louis hanging at a collective anarchist house and visiting the anarchist bakery and farm, I bump into my friends Bochay and Jenny. They say "New York Wedding?" And I say "I do." Twenty hours later sans sleep I am in upstate New York in a forest ringing bells at a bride in a blood red dress and a groom in a sultan costume, at night we skinny dip in a pond and take breaks from the sauna to watch the lightning turn the black and white night into full color. The next morning I hitch a ride with some wedding guests who live in Montpelier and ask them to drop me off at White River Junction, Vermont. I went swimming in a postcard picture slough with giant conifers and pines, nursed a baby mouse to death, danced professionally with Josie for my stoner friends, and got a lot of drawing done. My stay in Vermont wasn't all smiles, quite a few gut wrenching frowns accompanied by hot stinging tears were also had. But I guess that was fun too.

Afterwords I took a 30 hour bus ride back to St. Louis. Surprisingly, I drew a shit load on the bus, read a book on Civil Disobedience, talked to some traveling crusty kids, a couple of old guys who where crude, earnest, and hilarious, and I figured out my life plan for the next couple of decades! So Greyhound didn't treat me too badly, although by the end of it I had technically not slept for 3 days.

I arrive in St. Louis, MO at 3 in the morning and I am tired and without a place to sleep (the collective house is a good few miles aways). Then I remember the St. Louis City Museum's owner is a friend of the Rockaway project and has given us unlimited access to the property. I call my sister for the code to get inside. I walk a few blocks and eventually find it. If you haven't seen this place there is really no justice to describing it but I will try.

The museum is a junk playground. It is a huge metal, rebar, concrete, big toy that goes a hundred or more feet into the air. There are airplanes in the sky with long spiral staircases leading up to them. There is a school bus hanging off top corner of the museum. The place is a twisted child's dream.

So the code doesn't work. And everything I've described is easily accessible and outside of the actual museum. I jump a 2 foot fence. Climb into the wire arches into the heavens climb the spiral staircase to the tallest airplane and lay down to rest. As sleep creeps up so do scritch-scratching sounds of clawed feet. I'm convinced it's rats and so I get into my sleeping bag and cover my face with my straw hat to keep the varmits from clawing my eyes out of my head. The next morning I hear a dozen baby birds chirping and I realize that pigeons are sharing my sleeping quarters. I wake up with a killer view of St. Louis from a fucking broken airplane in the sky. I love my life.

Call my friends, they pick me up. Jacki and Harrison swing by in a van I tell them everything. I'm so happy to see my sister again. We visit the boats, not feeling it. My friends I was supposed to room with in San Francisco are seeing other people and are no longer close. Someone from CAMP (the collective house) Eric, suggests me moving in with them.

So now I'm going to be living in St. Louis, working on comics, doing an after school cartooning program, and helping scavenge for the rafts. I'll be visiting California soon to visit my Mom and pick up my things...

Love,
Jaci

P.S. A panda walks into a restaurant and shoots the waiter. The cops rush into the crime scene, arrest him and then ask why he killed the waiter. Someone answers "look panda bear up in the dictionary. They eat, shoots and leaves."

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Oops, missed this: yesterday afternoon a telephone interview with Leah Moore & John Reppion was broadcast on London and Web radio station Resonance FM. Alex Fitch and Duncan Nott interviewed Leah Moore (daughter of Alan) and her zombie (and Leah) lovin' husband/writing partner John Reppion about their comic writing; here's the link, hopefully the interview is still online -- check it out.

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More later, have a great Friday, folks.

Catching Some Leaves...

Woolly Bear Love!

Whoa, it's fall! With the colors coming out, the woolly bear caterpillars crawling everywhere while Monarch Butterflies coast the breezes and the nights get cooler and cooler, there's no doubt fall is in the air.

I love this time of year unlike any other. Seeing the woolly bears -- the fuzzy larval form of the Tiger Moth, and beloved harbingers of autumn in whose black-framing-red fur some locals claim they can predict the intensity of the coming winter -- humping along in the grass, on driveways and roads, always traveling alone, is always a heartwarmer for me. They spark fond memories of childhood in Duxbury, the end of summer and the start of a new school year.

Just some catch-up and links to share this morning, and a bit of all-over-the-place reading for you this AM.

Let's see, here's Mark Martin's and my old Tundra era compadre Marc Arsenault's new Wow Cool website: "News on Art, Video and Music by Marc Arsenault, Jason Martin, Simon Gane, Ian Lynam, Steven Cerio, Reverend Joshua Baker and the bands Brown Cuts Neighbors, nickname: Rebel, Evidence, Broken Seats, Krebstar and many more."

Marc and Wow Cool also hosts The Stupid Pages: "...taste the loveliness of the Stupid Pages, as comitted by Jason Martin, Marc Arsenault, James Kopta, and guests Colleen Martin and Steven Cerio (and maybe others). Every week we publish the webcomic The Stupid Pages. It’s stupid, it’s simple, it’s occasionally funny. Also, commentary on bad advertising, punk rock, psychogeography, green building and more. (OK not so much of that later stuff yet)."

Enjoy!

I'll be writing about and posting links for this year's Center for Cartoon Studies new class (and they all have class!), but it's timely to post this link to

Publishers Weekly's article on Chicago Art Institute graduate and current CCS freshmen/grad student Lucy Knisley, whose new creation French Milk has been catching a buzz.

Congrats, Lucy, and best of luck!

Here's Lucy's current site; the link at the PW article seems to be, uh, dead, but this one's alive.

(And should you wish to own your own copy of French Milk, here ya go -- order it now.)

Have a great Wednesday, I gotta go teach...

FALL FOLIAGE SEASON is Coming --
Center for Cartoon Studies and Bissette Goodies Await You at the Quechee Gorge Village Antique Mall!

For some of you, this is known stuff, for some this is new -- in any case, read on:
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FACT: I've paid out $438.98 to CCSers since May 1st from sales of their work and/or items in the Quechee Gorge Village Antique Mall on Route 4 in Quechee, VT.

So, while the individual check(s) every 2 weeks cut to the students, faculty and community members may seem modest, this retail experiment has begun well for the CCS community, sans any real promotion outside of my modest blog efforts.

CCS student and alumni comics and minis -- like Sean Morgan's Capsule -- are always on sale at the booth!

Now, this isn't about me. I'm still in a loss (though close to moving into profit this month at last), paying the booth rental fee out of my pocket. My goal is to build a vital retail venue for CCSers -- students, instructors and the community -- in the mall, which has much livelier foot traffic than any White River Junction location at this time.

This is where the CCS student, instructor and community's work is made available to the public in a one-stop venue from 10 AM to 5 PM every day. It's working: CCS creations now sell every week now, from individual student minicomics to novels (mystery novelist and CCS writing instructor Sarah Stewart Taylor's novels are always available there, signed, and three sold in a single transaction last week!) to original art (Cayetano Garza's paintings are usually showcased, and we sold one of Cat's originals last week). All the minicomics, comics, graphic novels and books are signed by their creators.

We're also racking a lot of collectibles from our private collections: vintage comics (priced well below Guide, bagged and boarded, or in bargain-priced 'bricks' with a dozen to 50 comics per 'brick'), rare books, paper, records (lots of unusual and outsider music LPs from CCS senior Blair Sterrett's collection), DVDs (most new & factory sealed, including DVDs with our work featured, like Lance Weiler's Head Trauma), videos, curios and oddities... priced from 50 cents and one dollar to dearer prices (though nothing is more than $40 or so).

As of this writing, over 700 items have been racked at the booth since mid-April -- that's a lot of retail traffic in one small booth space! There is always an abundance of unique, sometimes one-of-a-kind collectibles, comics, artwork, oddities and curios at the booth, at your fingertips.

Here's the scoop, folks:
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Looking for comics, books, art and collectibles by/from The Center for Cartoon Studies students, artists, instructors?

Visit Steve Bissette’s booth at the ANTIQUES & COLLECTIBLES MALL in QUECHEE GORGE VILLAGE!

It’s just 5 miles from White River Junction -- take ROUTE 4 WEST, from WRJ -- or off Interstate 89, Exit 1, just 2 1/2 miles on ROUTE 4 WEST --
QUECHEE GORGE VILLAGE is on the right, just before the Quechee Gorge -- open every day, 10 AM to 5 PM!


ASK TO SEE DEALER BOOTH #653

For more information, go to http://www.quecheegorge.com/antiques.html
or call 802-295-1550, extension 106.
Email is also an option: quechee@quecheegorge.com
Or write to: Quechee Gorge Village / U.S. Route 4, PO Box 730 / Quechee, VT 05059
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One of the booth's exclusives: Bissette Coffee Zombee mugs, each hand-painted and glazed, each one of a kind, and only available at the booth!

For CCS and yours truly, this is a dream venue. Furthermore, the QGV Antique Mall folks only take a percentage two months out of the year -- they take 6% from September and October sales -- so your purchases go directly to the students and CCSers directly, helping them make ends meet and supporting their creative lives.

If you're in the area and you haven't been to the booth as yet, make the trip. The Antique Mall itself is a pretty amazing local resource, well worth a visit.

If you're going to be touring the state this or next month, enjoying the fall colors, plan to stop by the Antique Mall and pay us a visit.

Here's the link, make the trip.

Enjoy!

Have a great Tuesday, one and all...

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)

World War Awesome is Here!

Yesterday was the penultimate day of The Center for Cartoon Studies first July 2007 workshop -- and it was a beehive of comics creativity, as we all cranked ourselves up and over the work needed to complete our collaborative 48+ page comic, World War Awesome!

Yep, that's the title the group voted onto the cover masthead of our massive collaborative comic scrimmage between the group's menagerie of characters.

I drew the final confrontation (three pages) between the last survivors, Spork and Wolor Burtle. I also re-introduced a character from the first round, due to a narrative loophole the storytellers of that particular page left dangling (and didn't notice until I pointed it out yesterday morning, much to their consternation). I also drew the cover, inked the back cover and Robyn Chapman's beguiling four-panel "L'il Sally meets Surly Snail" (originally intended to be an inking demo piece, nothing more -- hope it made the final editorial cut, but I won't know until I see the book myself), and typed up the credits page. Just doing my part, with Robyn jumping in and helming the afternoon session of intensive production which spilled well into the evening -- and will spill into this morning! Robyn Chapman and James Sturm are handling this morning's session, which will wind up this amazing whirlwind week of creativity, drawing and publishing in style.

It's been a lot of work and a lot of fun. It's been a pleasure to get to know and work with all the Create Comics 1 students -- Matthew Loiosa, John Woods, Liberty Roach, Rebecca Miller, Lee Williams, Dominick Cariddi, Ellen Langtree, Daniel Matthews, Michel Valdes, Nick Langley, Emily Kelly, Brendan Cornwell, Kyle Warren, Jonathan Gorga, Joseph Worthen, Tom Laurent, Dave Remillard and Cory Daniels (ages 16 through various stages of adulthood, including three teachers/professors). Kudos, one and all, and happy trails -- it would be my pleasure to see you and draw with you again.

We couldn't have done it without our stellar summer interns, Jon Chadurjian, Simon Reinhardt and Ellie Manny, who juggled many tasks all week and still contributed characters to World War Awesome! Simon played a critical role, coordinating the final cartography of clashes to ensure we arrived at the correct final face-offs in World War Awesome (and in a timely manner), a tall order given the plethora of characters and tag-team nature of the enterprise -- thanks, Simon, for keeping it all in order! I can't wait to hold a copy of World War Awesome in my hot little hands -- what a zine, what an accomplishment for this group!

In every corner of New England this week, comics are being created. I know CCS graduates Colleen Frakes and Adam Staffaroni are working in various comics camps -- Colleen is somewhere in New Hampshire this week, filling in for N.E.'s busiest cartoonist Marek Bennett, who (click here) is busy with another comics camp in Keene, NH!

The buzz is in the air, the ink's on the fingers, and the images and word balloons are spilling off the pages.

If you've the inclination and energy, join the beehive -- and if not this summer, next summer. We've already had four returnees (Dan, Liberty, Tom and Simon were part of prior CCS summer workshops, happily back for more), and I've no idea who or what next week will bring.

Looking forward to the people, the energy and the comics next week...
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It has arrived!

Dr. Ulrich Merkl's massive, marvelous Dream of the Rarebit Fiend has arrived -- and what an incredible book it is.

This hefty, lavishly-produced and bound book boasts 464 glorious pages and over 1000 illustrations, with the first 135+ pages alone dedicated to a rigorous overview of McCay's life, work and career; the precursors to, and imitators of, McCay's pioneering Dream strip; the influences of Dream on the pop culture (with many delicious frame blow-ups from the films and animated cartoons placed side-by-side with the relevant McCay panels), from Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel's L'Age D'Or to Walt Disney's Dumbo and beyond -- and then, the strips themselves! Over 300 pages of the Dream of the Rarebit Fiend strips, beautifully restored and reproduced, showcased in their original chronological order, footnoted and indexed for handy cross-referencing (based on associative content, imagery, etc.).

Do you have a shelf big enough for this book? Trust me, you do!

Simply put, this is the comics archival book of the year, an essential text for all comics fans, creators, historians and archivists; for all Winsor McCay fans; for all libraries; for -- well, for you. Yes, it's pricey ($114 plus shipping, from NJ), but it's worth every penny of its price, and a bargain at that. It's also an absolutely essential companion to Peter Maresca's Little Nemo in Slumberland: So Many Glorious Sundays! in every way.

I first wrote about Dr. Merkl's book this Monday (click here to revisit that post),

and am conducting an email interview with Dr. Merkl (as I did with Peter Maresca about his 2005 masterwork Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland: So Many Splendid Sundays!) to post next week, with more info on the man, the dream, the dreams and the tome.

But I urge you all not to wait for that post to get excited. This is a simply stunning book -- and there's only one place to order your copy -- now! -- and that's here, at Dr. Merkl's website. Note he is generously offering discounts for bulk purchases (two or more), so find someone to order with you. Whatever you do this month, set aside the $114 (plus shipping) needed for this book, and get your copy now!

FYI, this is not an ad -- I get nothing from this, and bought my own copy, mind you. This is an enthusiastic recommendation from a fellow reader of the book, and devoted McCay and comics scholar.

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The entire deck enclosure is now framed, the roof going on -- good progress from our contractors in just two days. But we'll miss today's efforts -- we're off this morning to pick up our incoming guest from Denmark; he's flying into Burlington at some point today (alas, his arrival is already delayed due to a canceled flight from Copenhagen, but he'll still be here before midnight!), and we'll be there to pick him up.

I don't know what the rest of Friday the 13th has in store for us here, but I hope it's nothing but roses for all of you --

Have a Great Friday, and a fantastic mid-summer weekend!

Brave New Worlds: CCS News, MoCCA Followup/Conclusions, Mobile Phone Comics & More!

A few things to cover this AM; hope you enjoy the return to potpourri format.
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I've known about this for some time, but now it's public and it's official: The Center for Cartoon Studies earned MFA degree granting status from the VT Board of Education. Read about it here!

"The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS) is proud to announce its approval from the State of Vermont Department of Education Board to award Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Degrees. Based on recommendations from the Vermont Higher Education Council during their June meeting, the State Board approved CCS for Degree-Granting Authority and a Certificate of Approval to offer one-year certificates in cartooning and summer educator courses."

This is big news for CCS, and bodes well for the future.
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More MoCCA followup and my own conclusions (as a non-participant), for whatever it's worth:

The amazing Alex Joon Kim posted some more pix, compliments of Jovial Joe Lambert, at his own blog -- check 'em out.

Alex was among the Sundays editorial crew, but also had his own comics and prints at MoCCA, prominent among those the exquisite collaborative accordion-mini Medusa, based on Jess Abston's poem, which likewise sold out (for a preview of Medusa, check out Alex's blog, too). Congrats, Alex and Jess!

I you missed MoCCA or arrived at Alex's venue after Medusa sold out, Medusa is available right now at the I Know Joe Kimpel site, along with oh so much more I've already shamelessly huckstered on Myrant this past month.

Robyn Chapman was there, too, a tireless worker and promoter of her own excellent comics and of CCS. Robyn writes, "Thanks to all for a great show! The CCS table looked great, the school and the students were well represented. Shout outs to my awesome table managers, Jon-Mikel and Penina. Special thanks to Alex, Bryan and crew, who went the extra mile carting CCS merch back to WRJ. Also, much thanks to Steve, for donating half the profits from the Zombies book to CCS." You're welcome, and I just wish we'd sold more (the only Zombies US venue garnered a few modest sales at MoCCA).

Daniel Barlow posts his post-MoCCA thoughts on the Trees & Hills blog, noting location, location, location biting some MoCCA participants on the ass a bit.

"...The Trees & Hills/Mimi's Doughnuts table was located on the seventh floor of the Puck Building, six floors up from the three other MoCCA rooms. This meant we got about one-fourth the traffic that the other floors saw, but the incoming natural light and breathing room turned our floor into a nice island away from the bustle of the convention. Reviews are a bit mixed on this. Marek Bennett (Mimi's Doughnuts) preferred the location. But he's a true natural with relating to people and sold what appeared to be a good number of comics and a few shirts. Trees & Hills co-founder Colin Tedford and I felt that the access that the downstairs floor would have given us outweighed the nice, upper floor atmosphere."

"Medusa, Medusa, Let Down Your Pages!" Quality spills over from the Sundays table at MoCCA (Photo: Joe Lambert)

My considerable thirty years+ convention experience (with video industry trade shows as well as countless comic conventions and media shows) had me concerned at the multiple-floor layout of MoCCA; there's no getting around the fact that the main display floor is prime real estate, and all dealers & participants on the floors or in rooms/salons elsewhere are second fiddle at best. Though it sounds like MoCCA made sure there were "destination guests/tables" in these remoter nooks and crannies to offset their segregation from the main floor, traffic inevitably is concentrated on the main floor, and all other levels/rooms are detours from the main event.

Other verbal conversations with CCSers, though, note the downside of being placed alongside 'hot spots' and/or wedged between 'destination' tables (e.g., major indy publishers or participants).

If you're next to a hot ticket guest or key publisher venue, your table may be either cut off from traffic due to lines waiting to reach the table/guest next to you -- though there's some benefit to this, many fans (with limited budgets and/or attention spans) simply ignore the table/cartoonists/comics "in the way" of their destination, and the lines prevent those seeking out you or your table/comics from getting to you! Placement alongside a key publisher/participant is likewise a double-edged sword: you're second fiddle by proxy, catching some spillover traffic but only as the "oh, what do you do?" table next door to the big kahuna.

Dan also notes that "The Green Mountain State was well represented. The Center for Cartoon Studies had two tables at the show and their Sundays anthology sold out on, appropriately, Sunday, and was one of the true buzz books of the show. Rick Veitch (Army @ Love, Rare Bit Fiends) was right around the corner from our table and he had some nice original pages for sale. Alison Bechdel had a huge line for sketches, which nicely occurred directly behind our table." Cool!

In conclusion (and in response to a few of this week's emails):

Sundays did great, CCS did well, vets like the One Percent crew (JP, Stephen, Joe etc.) and Marek Bennett did well -- MoCCA was a worthy venue and profitable and/or breakeven for many. This is now a CCS tradition, and like SPX I've no doubt MoCCA will remain a fixture of every year for past and future CCSers, and this is as it should be. It's their time, it's their shows!

Pragmatic self-assessment: For all the ballyhoo I hustled here at Myrant, I haven't heard or read of a single MoCCA participant who benefited from all the effort that went into the interviews posted here for almost a full month. No regrets -- the interviews are/were solid reading and worth posting in and of themselves, and the creators involved deserve attention, and that's all that matters here -- but that experiment in promotion was a failure. Some of the best comics (in my estimation) at the CCS table registered barely a ripple, despite promo here -- Sundays, at least, garnered attention and sales, though the book itself and its solo table status amply justified that deserved attention. I've no reason to believe otherwise, given reports.

I'll also note that sales were modest for the couple of items I had work in, other than Sundays, which most deservedly earned the attention it was worthy of. I'm not disappointed -- I had/have no expectations -- but for those who continue to push/cry/shame me into believing in there's some vast public need only Bissette comics can fill, the reality once again confirms it just ain't so. I'm happy to be drawing again, and will continue to do so for my own pleasure and where it might benefit CCS and/or CCSers and Trees & Hills, and I am moving ahead with Tyrant this year. But that indifference of the comics community (such as it is) is measurable this week by modest sales. Nice to know, a solid reality check.

Shameless flea-marketeer and huckster I am, no doubt I could have hustled more sales had I been there in the flesh, but that raises other issues:

None of this stirs in me any desire to return to the convention scene, even an 'enlightened' con like MoCCA or SPX. My being at the CCS table might be a draw for some, but fielding fans who only want to ask me about Alan Moore, '1963' and "when will you draw Swamp Thing again?" (every one a lose/lose proposition for the fan and I and certainly the CCS tables, had I been there) may bring foot traffic but distract from the reasons for being at the show/table, and not add up to any sales for anyone at the booth.

As I've said & written before, the flea market orientation of US cons is what I've had enough of; an event that really embraced and engaged with the creative life and wellspring of comics would be another matter. MoCCA and SPX and such are necessary and beneficial venues for the young cartoonists and those with new 'destination' product to hustle, and kudos to those who organize these events and please, keep 'em coming. But for my age/time/money, staying home remains a far preferable option.

My CCS-centered orientation to the comics community, such as it is, is all that matters to me at this phase in life, and if my humble participation makes White River Junction in any way a destination point, all the better that I don't go to cons.

Back to the boards -- in the CCS classrooms and my own drawing board -- is my best use of time for myself and for comics. 'Nuff said!

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This just in from my Puma Blues/Mirage/VMag amigo Steve Murphy and from Josh Peres of uclick; the press release, in full:

uclick Brings Detective Drama Umbra to Mobile Phones

KANSAS CITY, MO (June 27, 2007) uclick, a leader in mobile entertainment, has announced an agreement that brings the critically- acclaimed comic book series Umbra, by Stephen Murphy and Mike Hawthorne, to mobile phones throughout North America, UK, Australia and South Africa.

The first weekly installment of Umbra will launch on June 27 through uclick's GoComics Mobile Comic Reader, available on all major carriers, including Sprint, Verizon and Cingular.

"I'm very excited to be able to offer Umbra to an expanded global audience through uclick," said series creator/writer Murphy. "This story, with its imperfect heroine, exotic locales and blurred division between dream and reality - not to mention Mike's brilliant artwork - really resonated with fans in print, and it's been fascinating to see it make a smooth transition to mobile.

"Mobile fans will read it in weekly installments, which I feel actually adds a level of tension to the already- intense storyline. I think they are definitely going to enjoy the ride."

Originally published as a three-issue mini-series by Image Comics, Umbra is a mystery set in Iceland during the year 1999. The story's protagonist is a young, self-medicating police forensic scientist named Askja Thorasdottir whose first big case involves the discovery of a strange skeleton hidden in a glacial cave.

Umbra joins a GoComics mobile line that boasts several popular titles from a wide range of genres, including the sci-fi fantasy hit Godland, the webcomic- turned-comic-book PvP, the manga and anime horror epic Guilstein, martial arts adventures starring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and many more.

"One of our goals with the GoComics Mobile Comic Reader is to offer comic book fans a mobile experience that reflects the diversity of the comics medium," said uclick Manager of Product Development Harold Sipe, "and Umbra certainly does that. It's a finely-crafted detective story with dramatic artwork that plays out beautifully on the mobile screen."

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That's the press release, folks.

For more info on this and on uclick, click here

or text "COMIC" to 26642 on your mobile phone.

Why my posting this this morning? Well, other then my glee at Murphy landing this, and my desire to bring his Umbra to your attention, I've a selfish motive: among the licenses I've pursued for my trio of '1963' characters -- N-Man, The Fury and The Hypernaut -- is a mobile phone game of -- The Fury!

More news on that, and other N-Man, Fury and Hypernaut news, later this summer.
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Have a great Thursday, one and all...