Inkslingers, Assemble!

Compliments of curator Idoline Duke of

the Helen Day Art Center in Stowe, VT

comes this tasty portrait from

this past Wednesday's VT cartoonists gatherum in Burlington.

From left to right, back row: Jeff Danziger, James Kochalka, and yours truly; front row: Harry Bliss, Ed Koren, James Sturm. A fine time was had by all, and the dinner afterworks (at the Pacific Rim eatery) was delish and great fun.
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Zombies Bios

Here's the lineup of fellow American cartoonists I appear alongside in the upcoming Accent UK Zombies anthology. More info & images as May -- and the anthology's publication -- approaches!

Daniel Bissette is a native Vermonter (b 1985) and has been drawing, writing and making music of one kind or another (drums, guitar, etc.) all life. His art appears in an Italian book on Lucio Fulci, onscreen in Lance Weiler's new feature film Head Trauma, on its companion alternative soundtrack CD Cursed, and his first self-published zine was Hot Chicks Take Huge Shits (2006). He lives in Brattleboro, VT, DJs for the local radio station, and he and his dad Steve jammed on a piece for the mini-comic Trees & Hills and Friends before re-teaming for this anthology.

Chuck Forsman currently attends The Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont where he researches how to sleep less and draw more. Visit

http://mcbuck.wordpress.com.

Jaci June is a student of the Center for Cartoon Studies, and a former resident of southern California. Comix for Jaci are what brains are for zombies: vital sustenance.

Sean Morgan: Born a cowboy, raised a Creole, forever a Yankee. There's no button Mr. Morgan won't push. His artwork (including the monster cover/splash) graces the “Jersey Devil” minicomic packaged with the Heretic DVD release of The Last Broadcast.

Bob Oxman was born in Ohio and raised in New Hampshire where he discovered his three loves: comic books, skateboarding, and beer. Bob started drawing comics in math class using graphing paper. At the University of California Santa Barbara, Bob and Mark Smith cofounded the Comic Book Creator’s Co-op, creating comics published in both campus newspapers and teaching a popular colloquium on graphic novels during their senior year. After college, Bob drifted through a series of uninspiring occupations (temping at a gel implants corporation, working for an insurance company, etc.), eventually moving back home to NH to attend classes at The Center for Cartoon Studies. Bob is currently hard at work on Smuttynose, a macabre retelling of the infamous Smuttynose Island, Maine axe murders of 1873, and he brews several fine beers featuring comic labels, as he works professionally in art crime prevention at the Hood Museum of Art for Dartmouth College.

Against his wishes, Morgan Pielli was born in Connecticut. Here he began creating comics of dubious quality from the tender age of seven. At age twelve his cartoons began appearing in the school newspaper; and the tragic course he had set was clear. But in an unexpected moment of weakness, Morgan decided that a classical art education was needed. After four years of painting pictures of squares bigger than his head, Morgan physically pried a BFA from the cold unfeeling hands of Bard College president Leon Botstein. Dr. Botstein shook his fist and cursed Morgan, vowing to someday have his revenge.Currently Morgan resides in Vermont where he attends the Center for Cartoon Studies. His cartoons “The Dancing Paperclip of Tormented Souls” and “Morgan's Guide to a Fruitful Life” are read by several people world-wide and enjoyed by nearly as many. Morgan's work can be found at

http://morganpielli.rated-arr.net

if you're into that sort of thing.

Jeremiah Piersol is a 2002 graduate of Art Center of College of Design, Pasadena , California (Bachelors of Fine Art). He is currently studying cartooning at The Center for Cartoon Studies, White River Junction, VT. His past endeavors including interning at the The Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA, and volunteer work at The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, PA. and The Water Street Rescue Mission, Lancaster, PA; he was born in Lancaster. Jeremiah’s interests include Art in all forms, comics, quantum physics, paranormal research, post-modern theory, and popular culture.

Denis St. John (b 1981) heralds from most of the United States (California, New Orleans, Washington D.C., the Midwest, etc.). Denis was a local children’s show host in Indiana and co-host for a midnight horror show, often playing the creature for the creature feature, alongside the very real and cranky Dr. Calamari. Denis is currently a student at the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont, and is trying to move on with his life after the glamour of children’s show host fame has faded.

B.C. Sterrett was born and raised in Ogden, Utah. His ongoing comic strip "The Sweetest of Dreams" has been published by Young American Comics, in entertainment rags like Melting Music and The Salt Shaker, and various other school papers, zines, and newsletters. He acts as founder and current director of the Lost Media Archive Museum and Library, salvaging and saving forgotten and obsolete media formats. Previous host of the long running "Oddity Rock Radio Show" on KWCR, he and has produced and hosted various broadcasts of rare and unusual music throughout the years (i.e. "Outsider Music" on live365.com). He is currently a student at The Center For Cartoon Studies, in White River Junction, VT. Contact: bcsterrett@gmail.com

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BTW, speaking of Blair and his creative and archival endeavors, the January 13th Lost Media Archive Museum and Library event I noted

in my January 13th post on this blog (scroll down to that day's posting, just below the glowering Varnae art) yielded photos by Blair's friend Janean Parker,

which are posted online here -- check 'em out!

Check it all out, please, and savor the beauty of it all.

Have a Great Saturday, One & All!

WANTED:
A New Home for This Vampire!

Plus: Wild Doings Tonight in Utah!
Sip & Sup Salt Lake Surprises!
Be There or Be Unloved!

And: Jesus Saves! Scores!

Weekend Update:
No Politics Today, Promise

As I continue to labor, like some bloated pregnant collector ready to pop like a tick, toward passing my massive tons of shit -- a massive library of films, books, comics, magazines, and all manner of collectibles and invaluables -- out of the 50+-mile-birth canal that yawns, gaping, across half of my native state, it's sweet to know there's some kindred souls who understand this lunacy.

Thankfully, the Center for Cartoon Studies is full of such kindred souls -- many of whom have helped Marge and I through this momentous move.

In celebration of that fact, I wish to bring your attention to just one of these kindred spirits this morning, and the amazing event he has a hand in over in his own home state, Utah.

Take it away, Blair --

* Blair C. Sterrett is among this year's Center for Cartoon Studies freshmen class, and we bonded early on over our genetic predisposition to weird shit, and our attitudes toward archiving and pack-ratting. Blair is smarter than creaky ol' Bissette, though, in that he has collaborated on an archival collective with a plan that has long-term goals (with public access) as an integral part of its operation. This may free Blair in the long term from the kind of massive move Bissette is currently overwhelmed with, schlepping a half-century of pop cultural debris from one locale to another.

Back in his home state of Utah over the CCS winter break, Blair has been a busy fellow. He and his cronies are, today, January 13th, hosting a momentous multi-media event entitled "Excavations."

The particulars can be found over here,

amid the miracles of The Lost Media Archive website,

and has received some local press (Blair says, "We were just interviewed today by the Salt Lake Tribune newspaper"), but here's the overview Blair and his fellow Lost Media Archive fellow Tyrone Davies provided me via email and his posting on our beloved CCS board:

The Lost Media Archive announces it’s first event of 2007…

EXCAVATIONS:
An exhibition of unearthed films, videos, records, and other forgotten media.

On January 13th, starting at 7:00 pm, the Lost Media Archive will host a FREE multimedia film and audio event at the No Brow Coffee and Tea Company (315 E. 300 S. Salt Lake City).

What is the Lost Media Archive?
-------------
The Lost Media Archive is a Utah-based collection of mondo/kitch/cult/ephemeral/experimental/historical/
obsolete/forgotten/unearthed audio-visual and textual documents. LMA is also a resource for those who cling to bygone media formats. When possible, the LMA maintains equipment and media for use by recordists and filmmakers. The LMA was founded by Blair Sterrett and works together with loaf-i productions and the Free Form Film Festival to arrange screenings, viewings, and concerts. The LMA also promotes and initiates the creation of new and unusual films, albums, performative projects, and book events.

What will be shown?
LMA founders Blair Sterrett and Tyrone Davies will exhibit numerous works on 8mm film, 16mm film, video, and frame-by-frame filmstrip, as well as audio recordings and rare books. The evening’s events will include screenings of many delightfully bizarre films and also demonstrate some of the benefits of “obsolete” media formats. What’s more, the two founders will describe how the public can become members of this archive and make personal use of the Lost Media collection.

For more information visit

lost media’s temporary website,

or visit

freeformfilm.org,

or contact Tyrone Davies at tyrone@loaf-i.com

Blair adds, "Here's a list of some of the machines and formats that we will have on exhibit:"

Machines:
Wire Recorder
Wax Cylinder
Windup Victrola
Reel to Reel
8-Track
Frame by Frame Filmstrip Projectors
Portable Turntable
16mm Projectors
8 mm Projectors
Super 8 Projectors
Slide Projectors
Portable foldout Slide Projector Theater
U-matic Tape Deck
6 rpm record player for the blind
Micro-Film Projector
Stereo-scopic Viewer
Fisher Price Movie Viewer
and more...

Formats:
Reel To Reel
Wire
Accoustic (Pre-electric) 78
Electric 78
Edison Records
Recordio Discs
Flexi-Disc
Paper Records
Cardboard Records
Metal Records
Resin and Metal Records
Glass Records
Mini - 78
45 rpm
33 1/3 rpm
6 rpm
8-Track
Beta
VHS
U-matic Video
Large VHS for Broadcasting
Frame by Frame Film Strips
Slides
8 mm
Super 8
16 mm
33 mm
Cassette
Mini – Cassette
Laser Disc
Mini – DVD
Regular DVD
and other stuff I can't describe

If I were in Utah, I'd be there.

BTW, Blair also noted this week, "Wow! Canyon Crest Elementary School in Provo is giving us a huge donation of film strips today!" So if you've got some pop cultural debris in need of a new home, you now know where to go. Don't send it to me; I've got enough!

* The multi-talented Mr. Sterrett also plays music (including sweet saw, with which he briefly serenaded the CCS auction back in December), and

his band "The Nourishment" just released a new MP3 EP for all to hear place on their IPods -- right here: The Nourishment, "Shareholders' Annual Stock Report 2003."

Enjoy. Blair notes, "It's funny because when this was recorded back in 2003, it was to help explain why nothing had come out from us since 2001. Thus, the 1st track blaming our manager. Sigh, now at last this lost EP sees the light of day in 2007."

And that ain't all. Earlier this week, one of Blair's collection rarities made an appearance on

365 Days 2007; check out "365 Days #9" listing (Antonio Eugenio Martinez - Puno De Tierra/Volver Volver) for that mp3 treat!

Judging just from the sampling Blair has shared with CCS classmates and yours truly over the past semester, his record collection is extraordinary, ripe with oddities and curios.

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* Amid a week punctuated with wonders -- including a VT contact out-of-the-blue with vital information on A Vermont Romance (1915), one of the first feature films ever made in the Green Mountain State and among the elusive research plums for my still-in-progress Green Mountain Cinema book series project -- was this gem from the one and only Jamie Meyers, aka Reverend Jay, who I was lucky to come to know via his formative years in Brattleboro and our time working together at First Run Video waaaaaaaaay back in the '90s (remember the '90s?).

As out-of-the-blue as the surprise A Vermont Romance info (from another source, mind you), James surfaced unexpectedly and sent me

"Jesus Saves! ...Rebound Gretzky! He scores!!!,"

noting:

"I'm not sure what to say about this. I think it just speaks for itself.



You've got to figure that Jesus is always the first one picked when choosing teams right?

I mean you've gotta figure he's good for a whole bunch of goals/
touchdowns/
RBIs.

How about the kid tackling Jesus? I would think he's gotta be good to take down the almighty.

And what if Jesus is one of the team captains? How would you feel if you don't get picked to be on his team? That's gotta sting."



The Rev found the Jesus statue website via

this blog,

and thus all credit due has been given its due.

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* As the attentive of you may have already noticed, my ol' Massachusetts cartooning crony Mark M. (man of mystery, and not Mark Martin) already noted on January 9th amid the comments for this very blog,

"Holy Crap! Someone's selling Varnae the Vampire!,"

referring to the original art for the back cover of Bizarre Adventures #33 magazine that I painted back in 1982 to accompany Steve Perry and my Dracula story, "The Blood Bequest," which indeed introduced Varnae the Vampire as a new and original twist for Dracula's origin in terms of the Marvel Universe. Varnae was our contribution to the Marvel Universe, crafted with love but under Marvel's rigorous work-for-hire terms, and Varnae has since been elevated to the official pantheon. Cool; too bad we never get any credit for that, but hey, we knew the rules going in, having fought to preserve a 'thank you' nod to Marv Wolfman and Neal Adams on the credit scroll for "The Blood Bequest" which Marvel editorial vindictively removed (they were mucho pissed at Marv at the time).

Yep, Varnae -- ahem, I mean, The Primal Vampire -- is indeed for sale, and here's your shot at purchasing a primo Bissette original painting, suitable for framing and scaring the shit out of your household.



Now, there's a history to this piece not discussed at the online eBay auction site (and one error in fact: this never, ever appeared in Taboo. It did, however, enjoy a reprint in The Year in Fear calender G. Michael Dobbs created, I illustrated, Mark Martin art directed and Tundra published back in '91).

I'll not go into all of it, but among the tidbits I will share this weekend:

* This art was originally published by Marvel in a slightly different version, rendering Steve Perry's and my original conception of Varnae. However, Marvel's archaic methodology of returning original artwork circa 1982, amid the hubbub over their refusal to return Jack Kirby's original art, was the blind alley, ass-backward mail-order form we lowly artists received from Marvel prior to receiving our original art. The form, a photocopy of which is still in my files, stated that the artist acknowledged the art still and forever belonged to Marvel Comics, along with all rights, in perpetuity, like, forever, man. And that if you signed the release, and mailed it back to Marvel, you might, maybe, get your art back (if you did not sign the form, no artwork; no tikky, no washy).

Signing the form (as I knew the rules by then; there's a reason I did very, very little work for Marvel Comics in my career), I was pleasured about a month or two later with a package containing "The Blood Bequest" original art, including the Bizarre Adventures #33 back cover painting -- with a fucking hole the size of a quarter punched through the dead center of the painting and the double-page spread splash page. I kid you not. (The only worst treatment my original art ever suffered via a publisher -- other than the outright theft of Saga of the Swamp Thing pages, covers and pinup art from the DC offices -- was via Eclipse Comics, who similarly mangled pages of "Scraps," one of my personal fave stories I retain my copyright to. Sigh.)

Now, I took the time to not only repair said quarter-sized hole inexplicably rammed through my art, but I also redid major portions of the back cover painting, changing it significantly so that it was no longer Varnae -- the Marvel Varnae -- and was now a slightly new painting, another variation on the primal vampire archetype Steve and I had conceived.

So, that's what this painting is -- that's what saw print in The Year in Fear calender, and that's the original now on sale.

* A friend begged me to sell him this painting back in '88 or so, and I reluctantly did. A couple of years later, he was going through some tough times, and chose to put the painting out for sale at a horror convention we both attended; thus, the Primal Vampire at some point found a new home. I've no idea what the route this painting went through might have been, but it somehow ended up with Texas-based Heritage Auctions about three years ago, and my Texas bud and fanzine maestro and cartoonist extraordinaire Jeff Smith (not, as he hastens to add, "the Jeff Smith," of Bone fame) let me know it was going up for online auction.

Alas, that auction didn't find a buyer for the piece, which prompted me to abandon any and all plans to sell my own original art via online auction venues, if at all or ever, period.

* Thus, the fate of this painting determined the fate of all my artwork: it stays with me and in the family, bunky, save for those precious few times I'm contacted by serious buyers. I haven't deviated from that decision. In the past decade, there's been only two buyers I've sold to among my circle of friends and associates, and one sale to a stranger that was worth the trouble -- being the last time I sold a page of original art back in the late 1990s. This went to a serious fan and buyer (who, coincidentally, was a writer and on the creative staff for Seinfeld). The price was dear, the sale was worth making, I shared the income with my kids, and I knew the art went to someone who dearly wanted the piece.

So, here's the deal: This is a rare opportunity, for anyone who cares. You've got until January 18th to

bid on this Bissette original art, right here.

I've got no stake in this, get nothing for or from it -- but would like to see The Primal Vampire in a new home. I got a new home this year for Christmas, my Primal Vampire deserves a new home.

Whoever buys/wins this art, and contacts me at msbissette@yahoo.com, I will send you a signature card you can frame with the art, personalized to you (or, if it's to be a gift to someone else, signed to that gift recipient), which can be framed with the art.

(Now to get to those sketches (now paintings) I still owe some very patient people... who have been waiting a decade for their sketches/paintings...)

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Have a great weekend!