2008: All a-Blur...

The cover to Blur, Volume 2; cover painting/collage by yours truly, cover design by Jon-Mikel Gates (copyright 2008 SR Bissette)

I've been writing non-stop for two full weeks! It's been a productive stretch, but with the break between Center for Cartoon Studies semesters almost over, I'm feeling pretty woozy.

Currently on the keyboards: CCS syllabus revisions; ongoing work (transcription, fact and trivia checks) on The Neil Gaiman Companion; a massive essay Rick Veitch commissioned from me for the upcoming King Hell definitive edition of Brat Pack, an article which has been as research-heavy as the book on Neil (I'll excerpt some of that piece here, down the road); and -- at last -- Blur volumes 2, 3 and 4.

Jon-Mikel Gates just sent me his cover designs for Blur volumes 2 and 3, and I love 'em. With Jon-Mikel's considerable help, the old digital files for those three volumes are now on my laptop, and we'll be getting volume 2 to Jean-Marc Lofficier at Black Coat Press early in February, with volumes 3 & 4 to follow pretty quickly. It's foot-noting, formatting and proof-reading left to do, with a bit of cross-checking of my VMag collection to ensure correct references to some of the original publication dates of the "Video Views" columns reprinted in the Blur series. When all is said and done, it'll offer over 1000 pages of my writings on movies, video and DVD -- I hope some of you indulge the purchase of the complete collection. Announcements and release and ordering info to follow, here, when the time arrives!

I'm also drawing again, and will have some announcements about that soon.

But first, I have to finish my revised syllabus for this semester's CCS classes... a busy January, to say the least!

Note: For your peace of mind, a Middle East trip update:

While Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said this absolutely stupid shit earlier today (especially given the context of her and her President's and Administration's actions of the past 6 years!),

her beloved President also said even stupider shit today that tried to pretend this isn't happening. No, no, the U.S. economy is fine. We're fine. America's largest bank had the largest quarterly deficit in its 196-year history and the U.S. dollar is at an all-time low and per-barrel prices of oil have just about doubled since this time last year, but we're fine.

Have a titanic Tuesday...

While I Was Away...

...Chris Golden, Henry Wagner and I finished and delivered our initial draft of The Neil Gaiman Companion. Sans the interview and a few other items (art, commentary quotes we're awaiting from a few folks, etc.), it already clocks in at (choke!) 843 pages. Really.

What makes the final cut, time and hard work with our editor will tell. But just thought I'd announce the delivery.

So, I'll be posting here tomorrow, on something, sometime. See you Saturday, stay warm and dry.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Save Me From Myself!

Ah, first off, Happy Boxing Day.
Hope you all had a grand Christmas, too.
That said:


[Note: The following is a severely truncated version of my original post, which went up before 6 AM after three hours of sleep tops and many, many hours of work. Apologies to those missing out on the full post, which was up for about 15 hours today, but it was an error in judgment to excerpt so much from a work-in-progress in a collaborative venture such as this. Still, please enjoy the following...]

I am going waaaaaaay overboard -- the final published chapters will in no way reflect all this anal lunacy, as the book's length requires considerable pruning and my co-authors Chris Golden and Hank Wagner have yet to weigh in on and edit this brainspew, not to mention our outstanding editor at St. Martin's. Furthermore, this chapter represents a certain conflict of interest (after all, it contains my last-ever mainstream comics story), but while writing, I just... can't... stop... myself!

So, here's just a wee portion of the latest Bissette rough draft of one chapter -- the chapter on Midnight Days -- for The Neil Gaiman Companion.

And now, for me, to bed:
___________

NEIL GAIMAN’S MIDNIGHT DAYS (Vertigo/DC Comics, 1999)

By the end of the 1990s, the ongoing success of all the collected Vertigo Neil Gaiman works -- the Sandman graphic novels primary among them -- made the notion of gathering the previously uncollected Gaiman one-shots, guest issues and single stories as a self-standing trade paperback an inevitability. The resulting volume, Neil Gaiman’s Midnight Days (the author’s byline is indeed part of the title), also provided the opportunity to showcase a previously-unpublished Swamp Thing story. We’ve saved discussing the individual works in their initial publications, in order to cover them here. In order of their appearance in Midnight Days, they are:



Swamp Thing: “Jack in the Green” (1999, original to Midnight Days):
This ten-page story was originally written by Gaiman in 1985, one of two ‘trial’ scripts Gaiman had written immediately after mentor and friend Alan Moore had shown Gaiman the template for writing comic scripts on a notebook page at a pub during the British Fantasy Convention. His first attempt, “The Day My Pad Went Mad,” involved “John Constantine going home after [the Swamp Thing serialized saga] ‘American Gothic,’ and the things he found growing in his fridge,” according to Gaiman’s story introduction in Midnight Days. His second script “was about a 17th Century Swamp Thing. Nothing much happened in it, but I liked it.” He submitted it to Swamp Thing editor Karen Berger in 1986 after meeting her for the first time at a UK comics convention, but nothing came of it until the summer of 1999 and work was underway on the Midnight Days compilation.

“Jack in the Green” is narrated by the medieval incarnation of Swamp Thing, the titular ‘Jack in the Green.’ Jack is shown caring for and conversing with a plague-infested man named Simon up to the moment of Simon’s death. After burying his friend’s body (as only a plant elemental can), he explores the neighboring village, finding all its residents dead, Jack torches the village and watches as it burns. The meat of this melancholy anecdotal tale is Jack’s description of his journeys around the world, meditating on the vast diversity of life while trying to comfort Simon in his final moments.

The inclusion of a new story, of course, made the volume essential to Gaiman fans who may have already owned the individual comics and annuals collected, but Gaiman and editor Karen Berger took full advantage of the situation by approaching Alan Moore’s original art collaborators on Swamp Thing, Stephen Bissette (pencils), John Totleben (inks), Tatjana Wood (colors) and John Costanza (letters). The team completed the story, with John Totleben solo-illustrating the ninth page, and this remains the only publication of the story to date. Bissette and Totleben based Jack’s likeness on a 17th Century Celtic sculpted face of ‘The Green Man,’ the elemental archetype Gaiman (and, in the Swamp Thing series, Alan Moore) had used as a basis for his characterization.

[Note: I -- and we -- also write about “Brothers” (originally published in Swamp Thing Annual #5, 1989), “Shaggy God Stories” (also originally published in Swamp Thing Annual #5, 1989), “Hold Me” (originally published in Hellblazer #27, 1990), and “Sandman Midnight Theatre” (originally published as the one-shot Sandman Midnight Theatre #1, 1995). That's all I should excerpt... you'll have to wait until the book is out, folks!]

SNOWjob!

Why, yes it is --

-- and we've already got 4 inches+ of snow here at 10 AM. It's supposed to turn to shit -- excuse me, "wintery mix", meaning snow, sleet, freezing rain and heavy winds -- for its final 4-9 inches (!) later today or tonight, so Marge and I planned the whole weekend around not leaving the house once today, except to wander outside in our boots and savor the storm knowing there's a warm house and two cats to return to.

Stay warm, comfy and secure today and tonight, one and all; enjoy the snow, as best you can.

I've held off until today to post a link to the delicious ongoing "Favorite DVDs of 2007" lists Tim Lucas has been posting over at the Video Watchblog -- but here it is, because my list will be up later today!

Yep, my own "Baker's Dozen" list of favorite (not best, mind you, favorite) DVDs of the year will be online later today, exclusively at the Watchblog, along with hail and hearty Kim Newman's own picks for pix available outside of Region 1 (US) markets.

Already on the Watchblog are the 'favorite DVD' lists of fellow Video Watchdog contributors Sam and Rebecca Umland, Shane M. Dallmann, Richard Harland Smith, David Kalat, Sheldon Inkol, Bill Cooke and Jazzy John Charles, and they're all worth a read, if only to cobble together your own 'favorite,' 'must see' or 'must have' list for the New Year.

I'll be accompanying my Watchblog list with two Myrant 'Favorite DVD' lists this week: Favorite Animation DVDs of 2007, and Favorite Series DVDs of 2007 -- all I couldn't fit into my Watchblog Baker's Dozen (though I make mention of all, sneaky piker that I am).

I've earned my spot in Shadows Over New England, the upcoming book from Scott Goudsward & David Goudsward.

If I can lay hands on some of my Green Mountain Cinema files from my old computer (a dubious proposition made more possible thanks to considerable and sorely-needed aid last weekend from Jon-Mikel Gates), I'll be sending David more info on horror films made in my native state -- but in any case, keep an eye out for the spring release of their book, folks.

Which brings me to what I should be doing today -- back to the Neil Gaiman Companion project. I poured all I had into it the last two days, enjoyed an afternoon 'catch-up' phone chat with my old amigo Charles Vess yesterday, and will continue to work and chip away on my part of the book (and revision/addition/correction suggestions to the chapter co-authors Hank Wagner and Chris Golden may steer my way) today and tomorrow before engaging all cylinders with our final week of the semester at the Center for Cartoon Studies. A heady week ahead, plus -- my son Daniel's 22nd birthday!

Have a Safe Sunday, all...

Sunny Day --

" -- chasing the clouds a-way..."

Ramblings on this and that from the past couple of weeks:

James Sturm, hisself, in his new studio digs (no, I ain't telling) Valley News Photo: Nicholas Richer

* James Sturm is getting some local press for the recent Drawn & Quarterly release of his collected volume, James Sturm's America (2007). He's looking out at us from yesterday's 'Close-Up' section of the Valley News (December 14, 2007, pg. C1) --

-- here's the link, read it while you can (they don't keep online stories up for more than a week or so).

And here's an online preview and interactive website for James's and Rich Tommaso's new graphic novel Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow -- enjoy, and hey, it makes an ideal Christmas gift, folks.

* I loooooooove driving in snowstorms. I dunno why, I always have. Maybe it was the trials-by-snowball-in-blizzard-hell experiences driving in my youth, maybe not. In any case, we're having a real winter this December, unlike the last few years in Vermont, and though I know many have lost all anyone can (their lives) in the storms that have hammered the US this past week, and others have no doubt cursed the weather and suffered much, I've enjoyed the real snowfalls thus far.

The first storm I hit early this month was a night drive home to Windsor from Burlington on I-89. Per usual, the Bolton Flats stretch was windblown and slow going, but the hardest stretch of I-89 up north is usually (heading south) after the Waterbury exit -- my old hometown exit, natch -- where an unusual cold patch of geography means that haul of the interstate usually has more snow/slush/ice than any other. Sure enough, the driving got buttery there -- but the worst stretch by far was the drag from Middlesex to Montpelier, and especially the uphill slog after the Montpelier exit -- up, up, up and easily two inches or more white stuff on the highway than anywhere else the entire drive home.

Making the drive more interesting, per usual, were the tractor trailer trucks en route. Fed X had those damned double-trailer hauls going south, which are jackknife hazards but I always let them zip by me to give them all the distance I could, and there was another trucking firm whose name I forget now but they were omnipresent on I-89 that night -- like, no less than five of 'em passed me between Waterbury and Windsor. I just took it easy, doing 45 most of the way and avoiding passing except when essential (say, a car going 30 with no snow tires on fishtailing in front of me) since the passing lane had the heaviest snow sticking, churned to slippery butter by the faster traffic. So it went all the way to White River Junction and the shift over to I-91 for the final 15 miles home.

Suddenly, the sky cleared -- I mean, like a faucet turning off, going from 16th-a-mile visibility at best to crystal clarity, stars twinkling in the eastern New Hampshire sky across the Connecticut River. I-91 was clean sailing the rest of the way home until I got off our Windsor exit, where light snow picked up and Route 5 was kissed with slush from off the exit to our driveway.

The drive home from CCS this past Thursday was true snowstorm driving -- though we had no wind, the 1-inch-an-hour steady fall was relentless and folks were driving crazily in their rush to get to where ever they were going. With only 15 miles to get home, I took it easy all the way, happy to join the line on the main lane and only occasionally passing (again, to get past those sans snowtires threatening to slide off the tarmac any second).

Tomorrow we're supposed to get hammered, so we'll just be staying home. Marge is getting our Christmas tree right now, I'll be bringing it in and setting it up this afternoon, and we'll spend part of Sunday setting the house up for the holiday. Merry Christmas season, folks, and drive careful (carefully) -- where ever you are!

* Two (post) Chanukah reflections, compliments of my Jamaica VT amigo HomeyM:

"The image of Chanukah that will haunt me for the rest of my life is of Poland in December 1995 at a commemoration Louise and I helped organize to mark the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Our first evening there was also the last night of Chanukah and, on an impulse, we decided to take our chanukiah to the gates of the camp-- the site of the infamous sign, 'Arbeit Macht Frei.' Right there, juxtaposed against barbed wife, we lit our candles. It was a mesmerizing image, the light against the darkness. We could barely breathe. And then, suddenly, ten seconds of the lightest possible rain-- as a blessing from those we had come to remember." -- Jim Levinson, Shaliach Trzbur, Congregation Shir Heharim

"It is now a few months after the shock and awe of Kol Nidre. Darkness is replacing light in our daily lives. The promises and pleas we have made in the bright light of Yom Kippur are at risk of being overtaken by time, by the busyness of life and habits, and by the darkness of winter. So we have Chanukah, considered by most to be a minor holiday, a holiday for kids, but perhaps it is much more. Perhaps it is a timely reminder of the promises we made just a few months ago." -- Paul Berch, President, Congregation Shir Heharim

* With initial help from CCS alumni and fellow cartoonist Colleen Frakes, and thereafter considerable aid from Dartmouth Theater Department and recent Dartmouth Hair revival director Carol Dunne, I've been trying to pull together a February 'photo shoot' with three members of the Hair cast playing three of my characters (for a 'swamp monster' story I'm working on for a semi-secret project keeping me occupied in 2008). Though, like all artists, I've worked from reference, including photo reference, all my cartooning career, I've never worked from photos 'cast' and snapped for my own story reference, as P. Craig Russell, Alex Ross and others often do. Wanting to approach each of the stories I'm doing for this project a bit differently than I've ever worked before, I'm going to give this a go.

So, earlier this week, an at-times spastic back-and-forth flurry of emails trying to cobble together either an initial intro meeting or short photo session before the Dartmouth trimester ended finally culminated in a cup of coffee with the lead performer. My first meeting with this actor/student willing to work on this odd project went well, and it's looking promising for a February photo session. Wish us luck!

Better yet, moments after the young performer departed to get into his holiday break and I cleaned off our table in the coffee shop we met at, a fellow stood up betwixt me and the front door and said, "Steve?" Lo and behold, it was cartoonist Mark Bilokur and his partner Ania; I hadn't seen Mark in years and years, and this meeting was pure happenstance and a real pleasure. I last saw Mark at either Necon (that would have been 1998) or during my last-ever trip to University of Connecticut to speak in Tom Roberts's class and hang with my dear friends Gene Kannenberg and Kate Laity (hey, Gene and Kate!) before their big move to hell in Texas (since rescued by their recent move back east) -- turns out Mark is hoping to come to CCS, so I drove Mark and Ania over to the CCS complex and gave her the tour (Robyn Chapman had already given Mark the official CCS tour earlier in the week).

More strange coincidences punctuated the day, but this completely dumb-luck corssing of paths was a highlight, and one of those happenstances that makes a week worth wading through.

* Among the home stretch writing I'm working through on The Neil Gaiman Companion is arriving at a level-headed, non-biased short piece on the entire Gaiman/Todd McFarlane nightmare. As anyone who's kept tabs on my online blather over the past years knows, I simply don't see where Todd ever had a leg, legal or otherwise, to ethically stand on -- but I can't let that color my summary of this phase of Neil's career (a 'phase,' I know, he wishes simply hadn't happened, particularly as it did). Thankfully, cartoonist/inker/creator rights scholar Al Nickerson responded to my call for input, and

Al turned up this fascinating legal document online, which anyone interested in this clusterfuck should check out (PDFs you can download on your computer for scrutiny)...

More on this, and other creator matters, on Al's Creator Rights discussion board and site (forever linked in the menu on your right, folks) in January, where I'll be kicking up some dust after a too-long period of silencio on that board.

Have a Sweet Saturday, one and all, and see ya here tomorrow...

Visiting Neil: An Epilogue, Of Sorts

* An oversight in my previous post (see link, below): It was Special Collections librarian Meredith Gillies who led Neil Gaiman, Hank Wagner, Jack Zipes, Casey Hoekstra and I into the subterranean vaults of the University of Minnesota Children's Literature Research Collection. As promised, upon my return home I rushed a care package off to Meredith of my own work, and I hope in time to find a way to tap the collection there for my own research project on early children's literature on dinosaurs and prehistoric life. Mayhaps a reason to revisit the Midwest, when the time is right? I've many cool old samples of that genre in my collection (some of which I've already shipped off to the Bissette Special Collection at Henderson State University's HUIE Library), going back to the late 19th Century, but Meredith's tour and the mind-blowing scope of their special collection was a mouth-watering overture to arriving at a more definitive grasp of the roots of the prehistoric genre. Wish me luck!

In Part III of my posts on my visit to Neil Gaiman's, I mentioned Neil's signing session after his reading: "After the long line has been moved once to another room and each person (including a lanky pair of identical twin brothers) given time for signatures..."

Well, what d'ya know, an email arrived the next day from one of the brothers, Nick Folkman: "I just wanted to say that I read your blog today and was delightfully surprised to see you mention my brother and I (we were the lanky pair of identical twins at the Fantasy Matters conference). Had we known that you were there as well we would've attempted to say hello and try to pick your brain about comics. Anyways, I just wanted to say hello and good luck on the Gaiman biography!"

Thanks for writing, Nick, and a care package of comics (identical batch, signed to you and your brother) is already on its way to you; enjoy.

* To clarify: it's not a biography we're working on, it's a 'companion' -- an unauthorized overview and analysis of Neil's body of work to date, as complete as we can make it. Neil granted time for an exclusive interview, and when he's had time has answered some of our email questions, but this isn't a book Neil cares to have in existence, really -- to his mind, he's not done enough. Again, I'm a late-comer tagalong on this venture, happy to be working on it, invited in during the eleventh hour to help with this and that; it's Chris Golden's and Hank Wagner's book, I've done only a fraction of the work involved as and when asked, and Hank has been hammering Chris and I with completed chapters this week. We're in the home stretch, so I won't be blogging much this weekend due to workload on the project.

As of this week, I'm trying to excavate my set of Miracleman comics for that writeup this weekend, and have one more polish of The Wolves in the Walls to tackle before I fire the final draft of that chapter off to Chris and Hank. Again, wish me -- and us -- luck... I think the book is turning out pretty well.

* Last night, one of my CCS students asked me a question about Alan Moore, then flinched and covered their mouth and said, "Oh, God, sorry -- !" I laughed and answered their question, brushing off the unnecessary apology. Funny, though, that someone I've never discussed any of this with had that immediate a reaction, suddenly aware this might still be a sore point. Funny, too, I'd thought of it yesterday AM myself, for reasons noted below.

One of the first things Neil said to me almost immediately upon Hank's and my arrival to Neil's home two weekends ago was, "I just thought you should know I saw Alan the other day, and he seems very happy..." Alan and Melinda (Gebbie) were of course married earlier this year, and Neil was there, too; I posted links and congrats here when that popped up on Neil's blog.

Neil's immediate comment was completely appropriate, and it's nice to know Neil knew it to be. Neil is my only remaining 'lifeline' from the often intense ten-year friendship I enjoyed with Alan (Rick Veitch and I just don't talk about it any more, and haven't for a couple of years). It was a kindness indeed for Neil to share his news with me. I've made my peace long ago with Alan's exile of yours truly, but all this came to mind yesterday morning as I listened to one of my current favorite tunes on Mirror Mirror, the gift CD Lorraine Garland sent me home with from the visit to Neil's home. The following lyrics resonate in the context of all this:

"Every cold mile between us is painful,
All of the words we could never unsay in full,
Moments are magical, pain universal,
Frozen like ice and it's just too damn personal..."

- "Personal Thing," lyrics by Neil Gaiman, music by Neil Gaiman and Graham K. Smith, from Lorraine a' Malena's CD Mirror Mirror

(Again, the link...)

That's how it felt for a few years, but no more: the song, heard in the context of musing over lost friendships, captures the initial grief and melancholy that followed, but it's past history. It's no longer personal, when so many people know about it; and it's nice to know, per Neil's kind words, that Alan's doing well these days. What's done is done; life goes on. Thanks for the kindness, Neil, via the comments, via the song.

* One more followup to Neilland for this AM: I mentioned the backdrop of gunshots and deer hunters in the Midwest during our visit. Deer hunting season is closed here in VT now, but the aftermath lingers! But -- Goona Goona? No dice!

Marek Bennett asked if this (click link) counts as goona-goona --

-- sorry, Marek, that's not exotica, a necessary component for goona-goona. It's just New England nature at work. I've stumbled on far worse in the woods in northern and southern VT -- but those are tales for another day...

Have a thumpin' Thursday --

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...