Wake Up Calls! Things to Do To-Day --

My grand amigo Mike Dobbs aka G. Michael Dobbs is launching his new book today in Springfield, Massachusetts, the first in a series of book signings and events lined up for the winter months to promote Escape!

If you live anywhere near Springfield, MA, hustle over to the Central Library on State Street a little before 2 p.m. to get a seat -- then enjoy Mike's presentation/lecture on the subject of 1990s animated films and TV programming and Escape! How Animation broke into the Mainstream in the 1990s. He'll have a few pre-release copies to sell and Mike will also have order forms for you to pre-purchase your own signed copies, but Mike's talks on animation alone are well worth the trip.

Scroll down to Mike's January 22nd post on his blog for more details, and make time to visit the event if you live in the area!

And you've got just one more week to pick up The Coffin Joe Trilogy DVD boxed set from Fantoma, which I recommend highly to all horror fans and fanatics. This is essential viewing!

If you're a horror comics maniac, like me, you need it just for the sterling English-language mini-editions of the ultra-rare 1960s Zé do Caixão/Coffin Joe horror comics, which are amazing in and of themselves. These are unique to the Fantoma releases, and the boxed set features a comic that's not available otherwise (each separate release of the three films sports one comic each; the boxed set gives you a fourth!).

But the films -- well, they're even more astonishing, truly classic of international horror cinema and far more transgressive and horrific than any of Herschell Gordon Lewis's celebrated gore films.

As I announced earlier this month, this set of José Mojica Marins's stunning Zé do Caixão/Coffin Joe films is coming off the market on January 31st, when Fantoma's license expires and they have to pull the trilogy set off the market. Don't wait!

Here's my extensive January 7th Myrant writeup, loaded with pix and all kinds of links through which you can purchase your copy of the set from now -- don't hesitate, if you're the least bit interested and have the $$, this will become a dear item on eBay in short order!

OK, José, I gotta get back to work! Have a sizzlin' Saturday, one and all!

Sunday Spinnings

Yesterday morning I finished reading my friend Mike Dobb's new book Escape! How Animation Went Mainstream in the 1990s -- this morning, I finished reading my friend Tim Lucas's truly massive, moving Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark. Today, I'll be continuing work on a book project as a writer, The Neil Gaiman Companion, which coauthors Chris Golden and Henry Wagner brought me into in the eleventh hour. Mike and Tim's books are an inspiration, to say the least, and I'll blog about both books later this week -- but today, I've got to keep the clock ticking on the Gaiman book.

Lorraine a' Malena, again. Again.

More of Lorraine a' Malena's music is spinning in my head this morning, and now on my player as I work on the book project. One tune in particular strangely fits the process Chris, Hank and I currently are steeped in -- reading, re-reading, and autopsying Neil's body of work:

"I've been dissecting all the letters that you sent me,
Slicing through them looking for the real you,
Cutting through the fat and gristle
Of each tortuous epistle
Trying to work out what to do..."

- from Postmortem on Our Love (lyrics by Neil Gaiman, music by Lorraine Garland)

That said, though, it's a tune that I still associate with Van Morrison that I hit 'replay' on a couple few too many times:

"I'll tell me ma
When I get home,
The boys won't leave
The girls alone
They pull my hair,
They steal my comb,
But that's all right,
Till I get home..."

Lorraine a' Malena's website is where you can purchase their new CD Mirror Mirror -- Gaiman fans, take note.

You need this CD.

Thanks again, Lorraine, for gracing the week with the copy you gave me!

Today and tomorrow I'll be working through Hank's weekend torrent of chapters, amid transcribing the five hours of interview tapes I came home with; we'll be at this till it's done in the next couple of weeks. Wish us luck!

At last, a photo of the CCS/Bissette booth in the Antique Mall in Quechee, VT; photo by Mark & Kathy Masztal

A few things I didn't get to this week, as yet:

* My old cartooning amigo Mark Masztal and his wife Kathy were in the area this past weekend, and Marge and I managed to join them for breakfast on Tuesday morning at our favorite Windsor eatery Stub & Laura's.

Mark and Kathy were on their second honeymoon, and whilst in the area visited the CCS/Bissette booth at the Quechee Gorge Village Antique Mall -- here's Mark's account of their trip and his plunder.

* I'll use this opportunity to shamelessly plug once again The Center for Cartoon Studies/Bissette booth -- Dealer #653 -- in

said Quechee Gorge Village Antique Mall,

and note this is a perfect shopping spot for Christmas, folks.

The booth is literally jam-packed with one-of-a-kind signed CCS and Bissette collectibles, including signed copies of Sarah Stewart Taylor's mystery novels (sold two more of them yesterday!), James Sturm's graphic novels, Peter Money's poetry tomes, Cayetano 'Cat' Garza original art, Bissette-illustrated ceramics (see Mark's blog, linked above, for a shot of him with his Bissette Quechee Coffee Zombee mug!), lots of CCS student comics/mini-comics/comics packs, and tons of outstanding and curious vintage comics, factory-sealed DVDs, outsider LPs, and much, much more.

Colleen Frakes's Xeric-Award-winning series Tragic Relief is there, complete -- including copies with Colleen's original art packaged with the comics! -- along with almost everything listed here from the CCS Class of 2007! If you can't shop in Quechee, though, click on this link and shop here --

--and here's the online venue for comics and minis from the class of 2008, almost all of which is in the Quechee booth, too, signed and waiting for you.

* While I don't play favorites at CCS, I do want to note among my readings this past week was a most enjoyable re-reading of the first two issues out thus far of Sean Ford's excellent Only Skin: New Tales of the Slow Apocalypse, which is likewise on sale at the booth.

But don't take my word for it -- here's one of the most expansive online reviews of Sean's first issue, check it out.

Then quit dawdling and buy both issues -- while you're at it, get two sets: it'll make a great Christmas gift for some unwary comics-loving soul.

Have a great Sunday...

Visiting Neil Part IV,
Escape! and More...

Ah, so many things we didn't get into with our formal interview time with Neil -- but so much we soaked up via our downtime with Neil and Lorraine. It's important to note that the American and UK releases and critical responses to both of this year's Neil flicks, Stardust and Beowulf, are quite different from one another, and Neil got into that during our time together. Having known Neil for over two decades, this whole new life phase he's into is compelling (to say the least), and I'll get into my observations on that as time permits in the days ahead.

But first, a little catching up before I wind up my overview of the trip's last day, below. Read on --

Home Agin, Home Agin, Jiggedy-Jig

Our first snowfall of the season is upon us this morning in Windsor VT, and it's really coming down. I love it, but I'm counting Hank's and my blessings on the weekend at Neil's. Though there was a brief snow squall on Saturday morning at Neil's, nothing stuck and it was a sweet weekend weatherwise -- my heart goes out to all trying to drive/fly to or from Thanksgiving gatherings this week. Good luck, one and all!

Mike Dobb's New Book Escape...

...was waiting for me on our dinner table when I got home Sunday night a little after midnight. After kissing a sleepy Marge and saying my kitty-cat howdy-dos to Tuco and Lizzy and then unpacking the car, I jumped into reading Mike's book, and it's a sweet read. I'll be posting a full writeup later this week or weekend, but suffice to say for now Escape! How Animation Broke Into the Mainstream in the 1990s is worth picking up now, and worth picking up as gifts for any animation fans you have in the household or family/friend karass.

Constructed around a selection of the one-of-a-kind interviews and articles Mike scribed for his tenure as editor on Animato! in the late 1980s and '90s, and his own zine Animation Planet in the '90s, the tidy tome Escape! provides the first comprehensive overview of the major changes the animation medium and industry enjoyed in the last decade. Mike's chapters conscientiously lay a foundation for its cumulative portrait, via in-depth interviews and essays with/about the key practitioners of the art, of all facets of that transformation: the venues (kicking off with the launch of Cartoon Network), the industry, the creators, the animators, the independents, the voices, and more. Mike winds up Escape! with a potpourri of reviews of 1990s videos, DVDs and programming, the whole sweetened with behind-the-scenes photos and some shots of Mike and his own industry-related travels of the '90s.

Order your copy and/or gift copies now --

here's the Amazon.com link for Escape!,

the Buy.com venue for Escape!,

Oldies.com's sales page for Escape!,

and the Amazon.com UK venue for those of you reading this on the other side of the Atlantic.

Highly recommended, folks, and more later!

Visiting Neil, Part IV

So, mere minutes after I posted on Sunday AM, Hank called me downstairs to join he and Neil for breakfast. Man, homemade flapjacks by Neil for breakfast Saturday, and Neil-made omelots on Sunday -- sweet morning meals, both. Neil's formula for omelets includes a tip he picked up from a British cooking show he watched when he was a mere lad: after melting the butter in the pan, you pour the extra butter melt into the egg omelet mix. Ya, I know, it's not good for me, but it's so goooooooood. It made the omelet one of the tastiest I've ever enjoyed, not to mention the generous amount of local cheese folded into the center of the omelet.

Also mere moments after I hit the blog 'publish' button Sunday AM, the gunshots from the surrounding woods echoed with a sporadic, almost rapid-fire multiple-shot discharge. Then, silence.

After breakfast, Neil, Hank and I moved into 'The China Room' to continue the interview, and we'd no longer begun than we heard the 'chop chop chop' of a helicoptor outside -- distant, but close enough to register even in the house.

Neil looked over at Hank and said, "That would be the day's first hunter being airlifted to the hospital."

Hank laughed, and I added, "No, really. Why else would a 'coptor be out here on a Sunday morning?" Any marijuana harvest is long gone; deer-hunting season in the Midwest, folks.

We had a solid interview session, finally getting into some of the writing nuts-and-bolts I was hoping we'd get into, when the arrival of a couple of Neil's amigos derailed our final session. Good people and a timely meeting, for reasons that may manifest later, but it was too bad we got derailed -- and we got into other things. Still, we came away with over seven hours+ of interview tapes and much more, so it was a trip well worth taking in terms of the book project.

With the interview session essentially over and only a little over an hour left to our weekend with Neil, I took advantage of the disruption to tuck into a cup of coffee and catch up with Mary Gaiman. Mary and I first met and bonded when I visited their UK home in Nutley back in 1990 or so, and it was great to spend some time together. Our half-hour chat turned into an hour of conversation -- again, it's been years! -- and by the time I re-engaged with Hank and Neil, it was time to go.

I had packed early in the morning, but it took Hank a bit to get his bags together. By the time we were out the door, Neil was standing resolute in the doorway, like some black-bellied poppa: "You don't have time to say goodbye, you have to go or you'll miss your plane, Steve!" He was no doubt happy to see us go, with a full day ahead of him and his own plane flight to prep for, but still, I insisted upon proper farewells all around -- and then we were off.

The drive to the airport was uneventful, but Hank was sweating the time more than I -- if I missed my plane, I'd catch the next one. Big deal, I didn't have to be anywhere until Tuesday, really. Still, with a 3:25 departure, it was 2:50 when Hank dropped me at the Northwest departures entry -- luck was with me, though, as there wasn't a line. "Can I possibly make a 3:25 departure?" I asked the blonde woman at the Northwest desk. She smiled, "You're fine," and within seconds she had my boarding pass in my hand and I was off to the gate. The plane was already boarding, but the flight wasn't full, and my seat was waiting with ample luggage space overhead.

I flew back to Boston sitting aisle seat amid a family with six daughters from age four to teenagers, all en route to Beantown. The kids were incredibly well-behaved the whole way, and thanked me profusely when I shared my $5 snack-pack with the clan. The littlest one had a Care Bears backpack -- Dreamcatcher, coincidentally enough, given the Sandman-heavy weekend -- and I was amazed that my own daughter Maia's beloved pop culture debris had come back around for the 21st Century.

We arrived in Boston ahead of schedule and Chris Golden was waiting for me at the airport. Off we went (I travel only with carry-on these days), and the rest of the evening was sweet, too. Connie Golden had a great plate of grub waiting for me, Chris and I sat up talking for a couple hours (and Chris loaded me up with copies of his latest books, so plenty of winter reading ahead), and I was wide awake enough to head home, arriving in Vermont a little after midnight after a pleasant two-hour drive with Steely Dan music and thoughts of the weekend spinning.

There's much more to tell, and that I'll do in the days to come. Neil covered a lot of ground with Hank and I, and I've just given the teeniest tip of many icebergs with these posts -- more to come!

A busy Center for Cartoon Studies day ahead of me -- so, see you here tomorrow. The snow is still pounding down outside, but I've got my snow tires on, so it's all good -- have a great Tuesday, one and all...

The New Age of Animation (And How We Got Here) and Common Ground Update...

A brand-new book from my good amigo Mike Dobbs aka G. Michael Dobbs is hot off the presses, and I'll be writing about it here in the coming week (once my copy is in my steaming little mitts). That sweet cover is by Mark Martin, too, another draw for old-timers and 'toon lovers alike.

With Bee Movie and Beowulf -- the former in theaters everywhere now, the latter coming in a week or so -- representing the polar extremes of contemporary American feature animation, Mike's book is more timely than ever.

Escape! How Animation Broke into the Mainstream in the 1990s is the title, and the subject is indeed the transition animation and animated features have made into wider and adult venues, out of the G-rated family and "children's matinee" territory the medium was consigned to for so long. It's been a gradual process, with landmarks like Ralph Bakshi's 1970s and '80s features (Fritz the Cat, Heavy Traffic, Fire & Ice, American Pop, etc.), The Simpsons, Spike & Mike's festivals, the anime explosion and much, much more peppering the landscape. But it all changed bigtime in the 1990s, and that's the turf Mike tills in his new book.

Mike's Escape! is available to you all, here and now, via Oldies.com -- place your order now!

Here's the link for UK animation lovers and fans to pick up their copies,

so it's now in reach on both sides of the Atlantic, folks. Get it while it's hot!

More on Escape! in the coming days...
__________________

As I've mentioned here before, I served on the Board of Directors for the Common Ground Restaurant in Brattleboro, VT from 2005-6, an active part of the communal effort to resurrect this venerable collective (worker-owned) eatery after a quarter-century of serving great, healthy food to the community and a few years of limbo after that collective collapsed and evaporated. When Marge and I moved out of the Brattleboro/Marlboro area late last year, I stepped down from the Board, just as the new Common Ground reopened its doors.

It's been quite a year for the Common Ground, full of highs and lows and the inevitable birth pangs and initial growth spasms, culminating in -- sigh -- the closing of the restaurant a week or so ago. But it isn't over yet, not by a long shot, and here's hoping the Common Ground's resurrection (and, now, transmutation) gains a new head of steam.

Here's the iBrattleboro.com article, which provides the best current overview of a complex situation,

and the Brattleboro Reformer piece on the Common Ground.

Have a great Friday, one and all, and see you here this weekend. Next weekend I'll be visiting and interviewing my worldly and overworked friend Neil Gaiman, so I'll be out of the blogosphere for a few days the end of next week and weekend. Adios for now...

Rarebit Dreams Do Come True...

Heeeeeeeeeeey, It's Monday!

If you missed my weekend posts, check 'em out -- my complete DVD review of Warner's new Camp Cult Classics Volume 1, with particular attention to The Giant Behemoth, is now complete and online, below -- Friday, Saturday and Sunday. You looking to piss away some office time and learn about stop-motion dino and monster movies, Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen, The Beast and The Behemoth, look no further! The long overdue Part Two of my dino comic essay on "The War That Time Forgot" is coming up next week.

Speaking of beloved Ray Harryhausen movies of my youth,

Tim Lucas at Video Watchblog just posted the sad news of Kerwin Mathews -- Sinbad himself, Jack the Giant Killer, Hammer Films vet (The Pirates of Blood River, Maniac) and so much more -- passing away on July 5th at age 81.

Fred Saberhagen, author of the Berserker stories and novels, also passed away last week; I'll be writing about his work, and my odd career twist related to those novels, at a later date.

I'd also like to bring this remarkable July 3rd MSNBC Keith Olbermann commentary to your attention, if you missed it (or the link on my Saturday post).

It's going to be a hot week in Washington, and I intended to blather about that at some point this week, but I'll spare you that potential Monday rant -- click this link, and keep your eyes and ears open this week.

Instead, I've another amazing limited edition comics volume to bring to your attention, then I'm off to work.

It's the year for remarkable self-published books: if you want it done right, sometimes you just have to do everything yourself.

I've been touting the soon-to-ship Mario Bava biography and overview Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark by my longtime friend Tim Lucas for over a year now, and will be writing more about that as soon as my copies arrive, which will be soon.

As I've mentioned before, Tim and I first met via our mutual love for Bava's films, when I wrote to him care of Fangoria upon publication of his article on Bava for that venerable newsstand horror zine. Many years later, Tim has at last self-published his definitive Bava biography, and I couldn't be happier for him!

Tim and Donna just posted video of their opening the first box of copies -- the first two copies, ever -- here, at their Bava book blog, where you can also find out all you need to know, savor preview pages, and place your order.

My hearty congrats to Tim and Donna, and I can't wait to hold that tome on my own lap and savor it!

(Also -- cherished amigo G. Michael Dobbs -- Mike Dobbs, aka 'Dobbster' to those who fear him -- has his new book coming up, too, which I'll write more about here soon; it's not self-published, but it's likewise eagerly anticipated.

Escape! How Animation Broke into the Mainstream in the 1990s will be out later this summer from BearManor Media, collecting the best of Mike's excellent animation articles from Animato! and Mike's own self-published zine Animation Planet, including interviews with voice actors, animators, etc., all revised and updated.

The book sports a corker of a cover by Mark Martin, which you an see here; publisher links and ordering info to follow!).

In November of 2005, I praised (and interviewed) comics historian and archivist Peter Maresca for his exquisite self-published collection of Winsor McCay Little Nemo in Slumberland strips, Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland: So Many Splendid Sundays! (here's the link, folks, to revisit that post).

Peter's exquisite restoration and publication -- the book reproduced McCay's glorious ull-color Sunday pages at their full size, over 21" x 16"! -- was a revelation, his book an essential addition to any comics library.

(Here's my original review of Peter's book, FYI; scroll down to the last paragraphs of this archived rant.)

I'm overjoyed to announce there is now available a limited edition companion volume of Winsor McCay's classic Dream of a Rarebit Fiend comic strip!


Dr. Ulrich Merkl of Germany has taken it upon himself to lovingly archive, restore, collect and publish a definitive new book of Winsor McCay cartoon strips, the complete Dream of a Rarebit Fiend. Allow me to quote fellow comics and stop-motion animation scholar/fan Miron Mercury, who first brought Dr. Merkl's project to my attention last year: "He took the risk of publishing the book, limited to 1,000 copies, himself. He has restored each image to day of publication quality instead of reprinting the strips from microfilm or other low quality sources (as the Checker Company recently did). The volume comes with a DVD filled with twice the material of the book (and the book's text as a searchable MSWORD file)."

Now, there have been many Rarebit Fiend collections, the most recent the Checker Company hardcover collection Miron mentions above. I have 'em all, as each features strips the others do not -- but they're patchwork creations, sans any reference to dates of original publication or any coherent chronology. None have noted the remarkable innovations McCay introduced; as I've noted (since 1989) in my "Journeys into Fear: An Illustrated History of Horror Comics" slide lecture, McCay's Dream strip introduced many motifs, narratives and remarkably nightmarish panelogical inventions that echo through many media. The Dream strip in which the rarebit-soused dreamer sees his death, funeral and burial -- presented by McCay entirely from the dreamer's point of view! -- was imitated by Danish filmmaker Carl Dreyer (in the celebrated premature burial coma-dream of the nominal hero of Vampyr, 1931), Johnny Craig in EC Comics, and Alfred Hitchcock (in "Breakdown," one the episodes of Alfred Hitchock Presents the maestro directed himself), among others.

Dr. Merkl's Dream of the Rarebit Fiend collects, for the first time ever, the complete nine year (1904 - 1913) run of this still remarkably inventive, truly adult cartoon strip.

Here's the vital statistics, via the press release Dr. Merkl has circulated:

"The 821 cartoon strips have been carefully restored to their day of publication clarity and are printed at original newspaper size and format. Dr. Ulrich Merkl of Germany is the author of this privately published volume which is limited to one-thousand (1,000) copies. This book is unavailable through bookstores or comic shops, it must be ordered from the author's web site. The book's fair price is $114 US (89 euros) plus shipping. 464 pages featuring 1010 illustrations, 17 by 12 inches, 9.5 pounds.

Accompanying the fabulous oversized volume is a free DVD containing twice the images and text material of the printed book. High resolution scans of all 821 known Rarebit episodes, a 600 page Microsoft WORD file with a catalogue raisonne of all the episodes containing a vast array of additional information about the individual episodes, the complete printed text of the book which can be searched by keywords and the only known fragments of a vivid animated film by McCay.

This publication is of the first quality. The images and cartoons have been carefully restored. This is not a book of disappointing reprints from microfilm or earlier source books."

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!

More on this book, and a short interview with Dr. Merkl about his project, later this weekend. But don't wait -- order your copy ASAP, before they're gone!

_________________________

It's the first day of the Center for Cartoon Studies summer "Creating Comics" workshop, and I'm teaching this week's session with James Sturm (today) and Robyn Chapman (all week). Our new interns Jon, Ellie and Simon (who attended the summer workshop session last year as a student -- welcome back, Simon!) have been working hard this past week with Robyn to get everything ready, and today's the day.

Have a great Monday, one and all, and see you in the funnies!