Monday Morn Links, Interviews, Dreams
Bryan Talbot, Jaime Hernandez, Hydras, Martians and Oz

So, it turns out I've had time this week thus far after all to post a few posts. Still, I'll be erratic at posting the rest of the week, so let me take advantage of this early AM access while I can. Also, I wonder: how did the concert go at The Tinder Box Saturday night? Damn, wish we could have gone!

Talbot Talk

My second interview with Bryan Talbot is finally up online at the new PaneltoPanel.net, and well worth a read --

-- we're not sure why this didn't make the leap to the new site before amid PaneltoPanel's transition and recreation, but here 'tis. Bryan and I chat about The Naked Artist, his grandly entertaining 2007 book composed of 'best of' stories from fellow comics pros about the industry, the conventions, the fans and each other!

As you'll note, it's 'Part 2' of my lengthy interview with Bryan;

here's Part 1, in which Bryan's remarkable Alice in Sunderland is discussed --

-- which is a compelling, multi-level companion piece to Alan Moore's novel The Voice of Fire and other works (including portions of From Hell). Also interesting to note, now that I've revisited almost all of Neil Gaiman's works in the process of co-authoring The Prince of Stories for St. Martin's Press, how Bryan's Alice resonates with much of Neil's autobiographical and semi-autobiographical work, too, from Mr. Punch to the only published chapter of Sweeney Todd (in Taboo 7). Bryan stretches the idiom into fresh directions on almost every page; it's compulsive reading and a visual feast, required reading for any and all Alice devotees. In any case, check out Bryan's Alice in Sunderland if you haven't already, it's one of the best of 2007.

And just to round out this morning's overview of all things Talbot, here's a fresh link to my May 2, 2007 Myrant interview with Bryan about his underground UK era, illustrated with samples of his work from that period. All good reading!

PaneltoPanel Jabbers with Jaime

Jaime Hernandez fans, take note and click this link: PaneltoPanel's Jon Mathewson talks to Jaime about Love & Rockets, his influences and his work --

-- and note that Jaime has also done an exclusive bookplate for the new Love & Rockets Collection, The Education of Hopey Glass, available with Jaime's signed bookplate exclusively from PaneltoPanel.net.

What are you waiting for? Yet another reason PaneltoPanel is my fave online comics and graphic novel retailer.

Oh, wait, one more thing:

Here's one other PaneltoPanel online goodie, for your reading pleasure this AM: an excerpt from a great article on the history of Wonder Woman by Philip Crawford, librarian at the Essex High School and author of Graphic Novels 101.

I met Philip at a VT librarian's conference I spoke at in the fall of 2007, and this whets my appetite for reading more of his work.

More Bissette Dreams

Now that I've got some breathing space for a week, my brainspew/dreaming is livelier than ever. It's been vivid, intense and mucho fun -- here's a couple I awoke from with crystal clear memories of last dreams of the morning, condensed a bit so they're semi-coherent.

Marge and I are in a huge warehouse, working with a group of fellow survivors of some unspoken-of societal upheaval. Though we've kept it together and have it pretty good, manifestations of some sort of super-sized microscopic life forms are starting to erupt into our safe space. Having just exterminated one intrusion, at the cost of a few lives, we're suddenly confronted by something that looks like a tiny hydra (much like those I used to watch through my microscope, in the Duxbury pond water; translucent, multi-tentacled, like the branches at the top of a stubby tree) grown to monstrous size. I glimpse it newly-grown from a drain between two of the warehouse shelving units: it is clear like crystal, wavering its arms in the air as if tasting it for our presence. "Run!" I whisper, slamming the shoulders of the teenagers in front of me, and we bolt down the aisle alongside the shelves, and behind me the hydra tentacles are already stretching around the corner and after us. The damned thing catches Cory (black-haired kid we all like) and absorbs him; we can't do a thing, save outdistance the reach of the thing. We return armed with flame-throwers and a pouch of a chemical mixture in crystal form; with these, we succeed in sending the thing back into the drain, and topple the shelves over the opening. Marge is counseling one of the survivors of the skirmish, Cory's best friend; she calls me over, alarmed: tiny, barely visible tendrils of the hydra are wavering from the boy's nostrils, intangible but definitely there, feeding on his fear. The creatures have taken root in our imaginations, like a contagion.

Another dream:

I am at some sort of sprawling educational/shopping complex, which seems to be comprised of antique dealers shopfronts, school entryways, and a weird conglomeration of government offices and kitchens to restaurants that never open. I spot a fellow I know works at the shop I need to reach before they close today; he sees me, waves, and then runs madly to the shop, dashing through kitchens, back rooms and staff break rooms. I drop down on all fours and sort of lizard/crab walk at super-speed after him; we're both enjoying the game, but he maintains his lead ahead of me, staying just out of reach. When he arrives at his breakroom, he shuts the door and grins through the narrow vertical glass window: I can't get into the shop this way. I get back up on my feet and look around for the public entrance to the multi-dealer antique shop he works at, remembering a Wizard of Oz item I'd glimpsed last time that I wanted to pick up as a birthday gift for Donna Lucas, if the price wasn't too dear.

In searching for the entrance, I stumble into a school for 'unusual' children, nice kids ages 12 and under, their teacher an articulate fellow who seems to have Downe's Syndrome, though his speech and behavior isn't in any way compromised. His student is an 11-year-old boy with extremely course, thick hair all over his face and body, like a little werewolf. They point out the door that leads out of the school and up to an outdoors stucco stairway; at the top of the stairs is the rear entrance to the antique mall. "Hurry up, they close in ten minutes," the werewolf boy tells me. Outside, Ana Mereno [in real life, poet, comics scholar, Dartmouth professor and amazing part of CCS's support network] is huddled by the back stairs; we chat, but I begin to wonder if this is really Ana. She seems to be eager to find some comics, saying she never had any as a child. This isn't Ana -- she's read and written about comics all her life! Could this be Ana's sister? She shakes her head furtively when I ask, her eyes suddenly fearful; I don't press the point. She says she's Ana, but she clearly isn't. No problem; I'll help her find some comics in the shop.

We go in together, and find by the doorway we've just entered a huge glass-windowed dealer's cabinet that has only a few items displayed. We open it up, and I immediately find a children's album from the 1890s with some odd, strangely-colored dinosaur paintings in the back pages, but Ana hands me something cooler: a printed 1910 Wizard of Oz in the War of the Worlds, a fully-illustrated book in which the H.G. Wells martians and their war machines enter Oz. The art is wonderful -- two-color watercolor paintings and full-color lithographic art, fey and evoking an encounter between the denizens of Oz and the martians in which the Red Planet warriors are pacified by Oz. One page depicts one of the martian tripods overgrown with Oz-vines, which are blossoming. Ana has unfolded the pages in a single accordion-fold carefully draped from the display table to the floor; she is enchanted by the book, and no longer cares if we find any comics, though she only wants to look at the book, she doesn't care to own it. It's closing time, though, so I have to decide quickly if I can afford this book for Donna's birthday. In seeking a price tag, I am surprised that the book isn't in English. What language is this in? The antique shop manager who comes to us to let us know they're closing takes an interest, too, and tells us it's not any language: the book is typeset with blocks of meaningless type, slugs meant to indicate only where type will go. This is a proof of a planned book, perhaps never written or published! It's only $35, I have to pick it up for Donna. What a rarity!

Have a marvelous Monday, one and all...

Alan Moore Double-Disc DVD,
PaneltoPanel Free Shipping Update,
Ten Points In Need of Correction?

Since Alan Moore doesn't visit the US, and probably won't again in our lifetime, the only way you're likely to sample the man and his current personal universe is via this new two-disc DVD.

The Mindscape of Alan Moore is now out (my copy arrived yesterday) and it's essential viewing for any Moore fans -- and you can get it here, at PaneltoPanel.net's new online venue. Order yours now!

In fact, check out the new PaneltoPanel venue and site stem-to-stern, as their newest feature is a honey: all domestic orders totalling more than $40.00 will now ship for FREE!

I've not watched my set as yet -- still hard at work on too many projects -- but I intend to this week, or at least begin. More later, but don't hesitate on this: get your copy while the DVD is still available. These things sometimes sell out fast!

_______________________

OK, tell me what I've got wrong here.

Seriously -- if I'm offbase on any of the following, let me know, and provide sources/footnotes to steer me to hard info demonstrating where I'm incorrect. I'm writing this off the top of my head.

I will revise this ten-point outline accordingly, and post it again with all corrections cited:

1. Planes hijacked by primarily SAUDI radical Islamists slam into US landmarks and kill 3000+, 9/11/01

2. Saudi Arabia remains our ally. Bush instead cites three other countries as the "Axis of Terror," invades Afghanistan (NOT one of the three countries named, and not part of 9/11) chasing Osama; we never catch him, despite a report of UK military having Osama in their sights and being told to stand down.

3. Saudi Arabia remains our ally. Rather than maintain focus on finishing what we start in Afghanistan, much less do what braggart Bush says we were gonna do with Osama (catch him), we bomb the living fuck out of IRAQ (NOT part of the 9/11 plot, and NOT a terrorist base of operations) and invade sans planning. "We" also ignore the advice of our own military, and "we" fire the only military reps who honestly report what the war will cost. Condi Rice, for six years, argues all this is correct and justified.

4. Saudi Arabia remains our ally. Iraq becomes a vital center of terrorist operations, due primarily to US actions against that country and complete mismanagement of the preemptive war (the reasons for which are proven repeatedly to have been falsely portrayed to the world and US public, to the point where Bush himself publicly discounts the reasons given to justify the war).

5. Saudi Arabia remains our ally. Distracted by waging war in Iraq, Afghanistan unravels, and the Taliban reasserts itself in that country. No centralized government is established, much less reinforced. Iraq descends into increasing chaos, its infrastructure destroyed. Osama is never caught, but Saddam Hussein (who had nothing to do with 9/11) is. He is executed; his brother's head pops off during his respective execution.

6. Saudi Arabia remains our ally, Osama remains uncaught and at large. The wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan (neither part of 9/11) plunged further into chaos, generating anti-US ire and a new generation of radical extremists and terrorists. Having failed on two fronts, Bush vehemently and persistently argues IRAN (one of the three countries named as part of the "Axis of Evil") is a world problem, and should be dealt with sternly -- even after his OWN INTELLIGENCE AGENCY reports Iran has no nuclear program, Bush persists.

7. Saudi Arabia remains our ally, Osama remains uncaught and at large. The wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan (neither part of 9/11) plunged further into chaos. Traveling to the MIDDLE EAST, advocating PEACE, Bush vehemently and persistently argues IRAN (one of the three countries named as part of the "Axis of Evil") is a world problem, and should be dealt with sternly -- Rice agrees, but also argues for PEACE.

8. Bush completes a major SALE OF ARMS to our ally SAUDI ARABIA (remember, SAUDI radicals helmed the planes 9/11), talking PEACE while aggressively arguing IRAN is the most dire threat against world PEACE ("...threatens the security of nations everywhere...") -- despite the NIE report to the contrary.

9. Condi argues, with a prominent SAUDI gov't official at her side, that ISRAEL and ARAB countries should work toward PEACE in THE MIDDLE EAST, a region destabilized by US ACTIONS since 2002. Meanwhile, our pre-emptive, unprovoked wars in Afghanistan and Iraq rage, no end in sight. Arab governments are understandably cynical about anything that comes out of the mouths of Bush and Rice, knowing too that (given failed US military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq) Bush can't back his tough talk about Iran with action.

10. Saudi Arabia remains our ally, Osama remains uncaught and at large. The wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan (neither part of 9/11) plunge further into chaos, generating increasing anti-US ire and uncountable radical extremists and terrorists. The 3000+ killed on US soil on 9/11 has been met with 24,000+ uncharged "detainees" still in various prison facilities (and fresh recruitment centers for radicalized extremists), 4000 US military dead, uncounted US military wounded, uncounted US contracted workers/mercenary dead and/or wounded, and 1 MILLION+ Iraqi dead and more wounded -- NONE dying or wounded on soil from which came a single member of the 9/11 SAUDI radicals who attacked the US. Bush and Condi have one year left in office; argue for PEACE while in the MIDDLE EAST, but foment 'strong action' against IRAN.

PaneltoPanel Relaunch;
Amanda Ann's 'Stone'work;
Dinner with Gojira!

One of my buttons for the new PaneltoPanel.net -- now servicing libraries and librarians, too!

* First off, an announcement:

The brand-new PaneltoPanel.net site is now up and running -- check it out, and take advantage of the exclusives for your last-minute Christmas shopping!

PaneltoPanel mogul John Rovnak has been hard at work on the new site for months now, with considerable help from many (including amigo Mark Martin), and you can instantly see the graphic input of a circle of cartoonists -- Mark, Eric Talbot, Rick Veitch, James Kochalka, Cayetano 'Cat' Garza and yours truly -- on the homepage alone. Go on, have a look and press them shiny new art-buttons!

As I say, pay special attention to the exclusives catalog, as there's some unique gifts there... or self-gifts, if you're so inclined.

Here's the link to exclusives, for your comfort and ease -- lots of goodies here!

Congrats, John, on the new venue, and we all look forward to shopping with you in 2008 and beyond!

* The CCS creative community involves a lot more than just comics and cartooning (just?? What am I saying?), and it has since day one. We've enjoyed a stellar synthesis of musicians, photographers, performers and -- as of last summer -- potters among our number.

The amazing Amanda Ann Stone lives hereabouts her hubby (and Center for Cartoon Studies senior) Bryan Stone, and folks, Amanda makes pottery. Amazing pottery.

While her work is appearing in more and more regional venues hereabouts, Amanda has at last launched her own blog to post info, photos and insights about her work, process, and -- er -- their dog.

If you're interested in special ordering Amanda's beautiful, functional pottery, email her at amandaannceramics@yahoo.com, but take a look at her new blog first.

Amanda Ann's blog awaits you here -- check it out! It's just started this past week, so keep an eye out for future work, photos and posts.

* Alas, I no longer live in the Brattleboro area, but I'm pleased to bring to your attention a special seasonal event for daikaiju eiga fans in the area and New England Godzilla lovers.

Really, how often do you get a special dinner invite, with monsters? And dig the cultural context of this event, Tohophiles:

___

LOCAL & ASIAN DINNER WITH GODZILLA & FRIENDS

Celebrate local businesses and agriculture of Southern Vermont

A fundraiser for the Asian Cultural Center of Vermont

A buffet with time to network and socialize.

Then view a presentation by Harvey Nystrom on 'Godzilla and Friends.'

Thursday, December 20th, 5:30 pm - 7 pm

*Suggested* donation: $40 per person for this dinner event. (More welcome!)

Location: America's Best Inn, 959 Putney Road. (Wheelchair accessible)

Directions: 2 miles north of Main & High in Brattleboro, 1/4 mile south of the I-91 Exit 3 roundabout, near the junction with Black Mountain Road.

Food includes: Delicious soup and dishes made with local winter vegetables and locally prepared cooks; chicken; ribs; fish stew; rice pilau; curry; spring rolls; sushi; desserts; coffee; cider; and more!

Asian Cultural Center of Vermont's fundraising has two goals:

1. Match funds from the State Tourism/Marketing Department for out-of-state marketing and promotion of southern Vermont, especially around the upcoming Vermont Samurai Kaiju Film Festival in September. Also, related to this goal: Help raise funds to underwrite the cost of screening the Samurai and Kaiju films to lower the cost to the movie goer. Kaiju (Japanese for 'mysterious beast') is the genre that has brought Gozilla-type movies. Samurai are traditional warriors.

2. The Cultural Center is taking its Bhutan Textiles exhibition overseas to Thailand and will be co-sponsoring an April exhibition in Chiang Mai! Help us bring Brattleboro and Vermont to Thailand!

Tell others to consider supporting these efforts. Partial or full underwriting of any of the following would help a lot: $250 will... cover the cost of one screening of a samurai or Godzilla-type film; ... cover the cost of space rental and staffing for an festival evening; ...provide access to promote the Festival at an out-of-state conference or convention; amounts needed for the Thailand exhibition are more.

Other upcoming events ---

Tuesday Dec. 18 & Saturday Dec. 22 at 6 pm: Kazakh film, The Land of the Fathers, at the C.X. Silver Gallery, 814 Western Avenue in West Brattleboro, 2 miles straight up High St. from MAin St. in Brattleboro, one mile west of I-91 Exit 2, on the right.

through December: don´t miss the marvelous show of Tibetan painted scrolls - more than 50 of these thangkas on display at the Gallery.

Tuesday afternoon, January 1, 1-4 pm: Shogatsu, Japanese New Year Festival. at the River Garden, 157 Main St in downtown Brattleboro.

For further information, contact Adam Silver, (802) 257-7898 ext. 1 or 2, (802) 579-9088 (cell) or e-mail to: acc.vt@ verizon.net --- or --- cxsilvergallery@verizon.net.

Brought to you by local farms, restaurants, and others:

Tina Vaidya of America's Best Inn; Amy of Amy's Bakery; Anon of Anon's Thai Cuisine; Sheetal of Austrian Haus Lodge; Brattleboro Food Co-op; Cai of C.X.Silver Gallery; Todd Darrah of Chelsea Royal Diner, Amy Frost of Circle Mountain Farm; Wendy of Dutton's Farm Stand; Jay & Janet Bailey of Fairwinds Farm; Lori Schreier of Fertile Fields Farm; Mary Ellen of the Franklin Farm; Jean Garrecht; Debbie Posson of Gillies Seafood Restaurant; Wendy Brewer of Grafton Cheese Company; Green Mountain Coffee; Andrea Darrow of Green Mountain Orchards; Hannaford Supermarket, Dee of Harlow Farm; Dan & Shiela of Harlow's Sugar House; Chander Kanta of India House Restaurant; Amanda & Ross Thurber of Lilac Ridge Farm; Jill Johnson and Dierdre of The Marina; Gini Milkey, our legislator; Dwight Miller Orchards; Mountain Mowings Farm; Pete Kerber of New England House; Harvey Nystrom; Heather Chou of Panasian Chinese & Japanese Cuisine; Joan Peters of Flying Color Studio; Jenny & Bruce Wooster of Piccadilly Farm, Price Chopper; Rebecca Rueter of Reiki Healing Arts; Tristan Toleno of Riverview Cafe; Helen of the Robb Family Farm; Bob of Sunny's Deli & Bakery; Hiroko Varela; Bill, Judy and Tracy of Vermont Country Deli, Norma Willingham.

Thank you for contributing locally grown materials, cooking, and baking!

Also, don´t miss this rare and special event:
Sunday, Dec. 16, 8 pm at The Stone Church on Main Street:

The Friends of Mevlana will hold a Sema, the ceremony of the Whirling Dervishes, at the Stone Church on Main St. in Brattleboro . The Sema is held this time each year to commemorate the passing of Jallaludin Rumi. 2007 was named the year of Rumi by UNESCO, celebrating the world renowned poet’s 800th anniversary. Although Rumi is one of the most read poets in America , few people know that he was also the founder of the Mevlevis, the order of the Whirling Dervishes. In the dance of the Sema, the dervishes participate in the simultaneous whirling for all of creation, from the movement of sub atomic particles to the revolution of planets and galaxies. As Rumi’s words reveal: “A secret turning in us makes the universe turn.”

Here's the link to the Asian Cultural Center site, hosts of these stellar events -- check it (and the events) out!

____________

* OK, more tomorrow, and have a thumpin' Thursday.

Major snow hitting our area today, they say -- we'll see!

Shiny Beasts is Here!

Alan Moore Fans, Take Heed --

Well, we did it -- Rick Veitch, Alan Moore and I signed the same pieces of paper for the first time since 1999.

The earth did not shift, the sky did not fall, all went well.

But fair warning and high-alert to Alan Moore fans: this is likely to be your one and only chance, ever, to get all three signatures in one book, in one place.

You snooze, you lose. Jump on this opportunity.

To celebrate the release of Rick Veitch's latest trade paperback collection Shiny Beasts, Panel to Panel.net offers a once-in-a-lifetime, exclusive tipped-in bookplate signed by Rick Veitch, along with collaborators Alan Moore and Stephen R. Bissette.

As I've already boasted on this very blog, this new King Hell collection of primo past Rick Veitch treasures features one of Rick's and my key collaborative efforts, "Monkey See," from Epic #2. It's a story I'm still extremely proud of, and hope you'll enjoy. Shiny Beasts also features the one-and-only Epic story Alan Moore ever scripted, "Love Doesn't Last Forever," which also sports a graphic interstellar VD diseased panel ghosted by yours truly (making it yet another Moore/Veitch/Bissette collaborative effort from our personal 'golden age').

Like "Monkey See," "Love Doesn't Last Forever" has been out of print and hence out of reach for most avid Moore fans for almost a quarter-century, and it's well worth picking up the entire collection for this single jewel alone.

But Moore fans will want to jump on this singular signed bookplate most of all. It's no secret that (a) Alan has ceased attending any comics conventions or any US event whatsoever since the late 1980s, and (b) Alan chooses not to have any relations with yours truly, making a joint signing venture ever again in this lifetime highly unlikely (the last publicly-available signing was for Tim Underwood's hardcover limited edition of Stanley Wiater's and my own Comic Book Rebels, almost 15 years ago -- long out of print and out of circulation; FYI, the last co-signing of the three of us was for the contract necessary to the somber 1999 division of the '1963' characters and concepts as a legally-shared property).

Thus, PaneltoPanel is offering something exquisitely singular and rare here -- and quantities are extremely limited (there's only about 80 signature plates), so really, don't wait a moment to order. This may be your only window of opportunity.

Of course, all of this is gravy, really. Shiny Beasts is a collection well worth owning in any case, offering a one-stop overview of all of Rick Veitch's color comics work prior to his leap into the graphic novel form with the serialized Epic sf-adventure epic Abraxas and the Earthman (also recently collected by King Hell in a single volume, and essential reading). Actually, the Shiny Beasts body of work is sandwiched between Rick's first two graphic novels -- our collaborative effort on the Heavy Metal/Simon & Schuster movie adaptation graphic novel 1941: The Illustrated Story (1979) and Rick's Abraxas and the Earthman -- Rick really is one of the unsung pioneers of the graphic novel form, plunging into the expansive format a mere year or two after Will Eisner codified it with the pioneer A Contract With God (1977/78).

But what the hell, hardsell internet commerce sometimes requires further sweetening of the proverbial pot. All right, potheads, if you need any further coaxing --

order now, and receive free shipping on any other trade paperback collection from Rick Veitch's King Hell Press (here's the list, via this link).

So c'mon, what are you waiting for?

Don't forget to check out PaneltoPanel's other great exclusive bookplates, here; there's some great cartoonists, graphic novels, and rare signatures and bookplates to be found here!

Bryan Talbot's Alice in Sunderland, Rob Walton's Ragmop (among my favorite graphic novels of all time, pictured at left -- and one of the precious few graphic novels that's also hilarious), Michael Zulli's TMNT: Soul's Winter, Mark Martin's Runaway Comics (and the ultra-rare Runaway Comics 2.1), Bob Fingerman's delightful kids'n'zombies opus Recess Pieces, Gene Colan (!!!) signed bookplate for the Doctor Strange vs. Dracula collection, two volumes of Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and more Rick Veitch -- Abraxas and the Earthman and Rick's masterpiece Can't Get No -- are among the choice books and bookplates still available (others are sold out -- so don't miss out on your personal fave while it's in reach).

Now, I get nothing from all this; PaneltoPanel proprietor John Rovnak is indeed an old friend, and former owner of the late, great defunct comic shop Comics Route (the best comic shop Vermont ever had). But I love the fact that John is so engaged with promoting such quality work, and ceaselessly promoting the artists and creators whose work he loves. That's something worth supporting across the board. If we can't get more John Rovnaks in this world, let's all support the John Rovnak we've got -- and if this signature event is what initiates your making PaneltoPanel a primary online source for your comics, so be it.

But most of all, this fine Monday morning, it's important to alert those of you who are mutual fans of Alan, Rick and I to this singular opportunity to snag Shiny Beasts with this rare signed bookplate -- an artifact of happier times, for some comics fans and readers -- and to do so now.

Have a great Monday morning, one and all -- it's a beaut of a morning here in Windsor, VT, and I'm eager to get on with my day.

Bryan Talbot:
Illuminating Underground Roots

A Swamp Thing factoid known to almost all British fans of the series but almost no US fans is that Chester Williams, the benevolent, likeable hippie character Alan Moore introduced to Swamp Thing, was a nod to Bryan Talbot’s most popular 1970s UK underground character, Chester P. Hackenbush. Bryan and I will get into that matter (and the life and legacy of his Chester) in a future interview, but it seemed appropo to use the blog interview format to introduce those of you unfamiliar with Bryan’s pioneering early work and the British underground scene of the ‘70s to both.

I caught Bryan just before he began his April tour of Europe and the US, and we completed this, the third in a series of interviews we’re doing together (the first two were completed for PaneltoPanel.net; see link, below). This intro will serve to introduce all our subsequent interviews, so read on, please, and meet (as best as my own blog can provide a meeting ground) Bryan Talbot.


Spawned -- uh, born February 24th, 1952 in Wigan, Lancashire in England, Bryan Talbot is among his native country’s and the world’s premiere graphic novelists. Bryan in fact created the UK’s first modern graphic novel, The Adventures of Luther Arkwright (launched 1978, first collected into a single volume by Never Ltd. in 1982), an immediate contemporary of Raymond Briggs's celebrated When the Wind Blows.





But that was, in many ways, just a beginning (but not the beginning, as this interview will reveal to those of you who don't know otherwise).

Among Talbot’s other key and notable works are his comic strips (for Manchester Flash, Wired, Vogarth, Imagine, Knockabout, etc.) and contributions to 2000 AD (beginning in 1983, and including artwork for Judge Dredd, Nemesis the Warlock, etc.), Hellblazer, Sandman, Fables, the two-part “Mask” for the Batman series Legends of the Dark Knight, and many others. He collaborated with famed vet American underground comics author and poet Tom Veitch on The Nazz, and with Tom’s younger brother Rick Veitch on the first six issues of Teknophage, from a concept by Neil Gaiman; assuming the writing chores on his next Teknophage collaborative venture, Talbot scripted the six-issue miniseries Phage: Shadowdeath. Talbot’s ‘breakthrough’ graphic novel (for the US market, in any case) was the now-classic The Tale of One Bad Rat (1995), followed by his Luther Arkwright sequel Heart of Empire (1999, which also spawned a CD-Rom created by Talbot and his website maestro James Robertson, released the same year).

His most recent graphic novel is the marvelous Alice in Sunderland (2007), which

Bryan and I talked about at PaneltoPanel.net,

where you can also purchase Alice in Sunderland with an exclusive signed, limited edition bookplate (our second interview, on Bryan’s new book The Naked Artist, will be posted soon).

And that’s just the man’s comics work: Talbot has also illustrated and created covers for numerous comics, books and magazines, worked in advertising, created designs for British Aerospace, collaborated (with sf author Bob Shaw) on “Encounter with a Madman” for Granada TV’s anthology program Celebration (1981), produced concept art for the TV movie Above the World (based on a Ramsey Campbell story, 1994), and oh, so much more.

But it all begins somewhere.

It began for Bryan with an illustration in the Tolkien Society magazine (1969), a weekly comic strip (created with fellow UK cartoonist Bonk) for his college newspaper, and -- most vital of all -- with the British underground comix.

Just as a key component of the American underground comix of the ‘60s and early ‘70s emerged from the countercultural underground newspapers of the day, the British underground comix had their own roots in British underground papers like Oz and International Times (aka IT). Like their American counterparts, these were often rag-tag affairs brimming with radical political screeds, poetry, articles, photo collage, art and comics. The first British underground comic tabloid to emerge from this scene was Cyclops (four issues, 1970), founded by members of the IT staff helmed by Graham Keen, which reprinted choice cuts of the American comix and some new British work. The notorious Nasty Tales (1971-73) followed and was quickly squelched by the authorities and brought to trial; it, too, reprinted US comix along with new work by British cartoonists (Chris Welch, Edward Barker, Malcolm Livingstone). The same was true of the longest running of all British comix, the Cozmic Comics line, which was launched in 1972 (ostensibly as a life-support for Oz magazine) and lasted over twenty titles/issues, showcasing US comix alongside new work by Brian Bolland, Angus McKie, Dave Gibbons, Joe Petagno, Edward Barker, Mike Weller and others.

But even Cozmic Comics met its Waterloo, and by the mid-70s the scene seemed prematurely defunct -- until the arrival of Bryan Talbot and Brainstorm Comix (1975), the first British underground composed of entirely new and all-British creations -- the maturing work of one Bryan Talbot.

Brainstorm Comix was an unabashed psychedelic experience, published by Lee Harris, proprietor of the still-vital Portobello Road headshop Alchemy. Brainstorm Comix #1 also introduced the character of Chester P. Hackenbush -- and, with its third issue, Luther Arkwright, whose adventures proper were launched in Near Myths (reprinted -- in considerably revised and expanded form -- in Psssst! beginning in 1981). Bryan also serialized the adventures of one Frank Fazakerley, Space Ace Of The Future, in Ad Astra (1978) -- but we’re getting ahead of our story.

Let’s talk to Bryan about the underground comix scene overall, and we’ll get to Chester and Luther Arkwright next time around...

SB: When did the cartooning bug first bit you, Bryan?

BRYAN TALBOT: When I was around five years old and an uncle gave me some second-hand collections of the work of British newspaper cartoonist Giles. I couldn't understand the political jokes but I loved the drawings and the wealth of detail in them.

SB: What was your first published work -- and when, in your own mind, did something of yours see print that really had you thinking, "Now I'm on to something..."?

BT: I had a short prose story printed in the school annual when I was about fourteen. My first printed illustrations appeared in The British Tolkein Society magazine, when I was eighteen. I suppose that it was while working on my first underground comics a few years later that I realized that I could perhaps aspire to becoming a professional comic artist but I can't remember a specific moment of revelation.

SB: Between age 18 for you and your first underground creations, what did you do?

BT: A one-year foundation art course followed by a three-year graphic design course.

SB: The British underground scene is a rather murky period to Americans. I recall seeing my first UK undergrounds in a friend's collection, though precious few made it over here. What are you primary memories of how that scene started?

BT: The first UK undergrounds were, on the whole, very influenced by the American ones. In fact the two that lasted for more than an issue or two, Nasty Tales and Cozmic Comics, were filled with reprints of American strips. Both these comics were off-shoots of UK underground publications -- the International Times (IT) newspaper and Oz magazine, respectively. Towards the end of it's run (about eighteen issues) Cozmic Comics started to publish original British material by the likes of Chris Welch and Edward Barker.


SB: Would you care to chart the UK underground in terms of your own development and role therein?

BT: I came in on the tail end of UK undergrounds in 1975 with Brainstorm Comix #1. It had been about two years since the last Cozmic had appeared and the field was empty. Altogether, six issues were produced, mainly of my work but two were anthologies (including work by Hunt Emerson and Chris Welch). At about the same time, Hunt started producing low print run surrealist comics while he worked at the Birmingham Arts Lab. These got more ambitious over the next few years, increasing in size, circulation and contributors.

SB: The American underground expired, really, after the one-two punch of the 1973 Supreme Court Obscenity ruling and the outlawing of head shops, which quickly dismantled the distribution for comix. Arcade was the last, great gasp here. How did the UK underground scene evaporate?

BT: Head shops were never outlawed over here but Brainstorm was pretty well distributed anyway - even to news stands through the distribution company Moore Harness (which used to specialize in T&A mags). In 1978 I stopped doing undergrounds as such and began writing and drawing The Adventures of Luther Arkwright which was serialised in the independent "ground-level" adult SF comic magazine Near Myths. The Arts Lab's comics were never, strictly speaking, underground in that their subject matter wasn't the typical counter culture mix of sex, drugs and rock and roll that is usually associated with the genre. They, themselves, described their comics as "alternative" rather than underground. For example, they published the first UK feminist comic Heroine. They gradually stopped publishing comics at the end of the seventies, after Hunt Emerson left to go freelance. From the mid-seventies, Tony and Carol Bennett had been reprinting Gilbert Shelton's Freak Brothers and,in the early eighties, began Knockabout Comics and have since sporadically published underground and alternative comics and graphic novels, often by Hunt. By the way, my Brainstorm and other underground work was reprinted in one volume a few years ago by Alchemy, its original publisher, and is still in print.

SB: Two variations on the same question, Bryan, if you’ll indulge me. At the time, what was the single most influential British underground comic, story or creator within the scene? And, looking back, 20/20 hindsight, what would you consider today the single most influential comic, story or creator of the 1970s UK underground period?

BT: I don't think that I can really answer this as I think that the answer's Arkwright and myself! The UK underground scene was quite small compared to the US one. Both Dave Gibbons and Brian Bolland started in the Brit underground but I can't really say that their work there was very influential. Whereas, Arkwright had many readers who went on to become comic pros who've affirmed the influence that Arkwright had on them, including Garth Ennis, Warren Ellis -- and even Rick Veitch, Michael Zulli -- and yourself! The 1980s Italian edition of Arkwright was also very influencial, I gather, influencing a generation of young Italian SF writers.

SB: That’s true, your Arkwright work was a real influence on me -- we’ll get into that later, promise, in the Arkwright interview!

So, there’s a sort of limbo between the demise of the underground and the rise of 2000 A.D. and what Americans experienced stateside as the British Invasion, if you will, of the late 1970s and early ‘80s. That began with the import and US collections of Judge Dredd, particularly Brian Bolland's tenure on that character, and John Bolton’s new Marvel work and, in 1983, Alan Moore’s taking over the scripting of Saga of the Swamp Thing. All we saw, here, on our own newsstands were works like So Beautiful, So Dangerous serialized in Heavy Metal; horror fans, like myself, also savored the monster magazines -- Bolton, David Lloyd, etc. in Halls of/House of Hammer, which got some US distribution, Dave Gibbons popping up in The Monster Times -- and attentive comics readers caught the eruption of Warrior, which is strictly an import here. We missed Action completely, mind you, and most missed the coming of 2000 A.D. until the Titan trade paperback collections were imported.

You remained active throughout this transitional period; there were the music zines, which few saw here, and you poured yourself into Luther Arkwright, which was at last collected in book form in 1981. Could you chat about this post-underground, pre-British Invasion period, Bryan? What was it like over there, as a creator and a reader? And what, specifically, was it like for you?

BT: I was actually making money for the first time! This is the period when I went professional. As well as working on Arkwright, I did a lot of illustration work -- airbrush paintings, rock star pinups etc, as well as the
weekly strip Scumworld in Sounds. It was a pretty exciting time. Pssst!, the experimental precursor of comic magazines such as Heartbreak Hotel, Escape and Deadline was coming out and we were all waiting for Warrior, which was a year or two in preparation and promised -- and delivered -- a lot. Meanwhile, 2000 A.D. was the cutting edge of the adventure comic. I started working for it myself in 1983.

SB: What would you consider your key works from this pre-Luther Arkwright, early career period for you?

BT: The "Chester P. Hackenbush" trilogy in Brainstorm, I suppose -- and Frank Fazakerly, Space Ace of the Future! -- a monthly one page SF spoof strip in Ad Astra magazine (the UK's answer to Omni).

SB: Thanks, Bryan, I really appreciate the time you’ve given us -- let’s chat again, and soon. Good luck and happy trails on your April tour!

Here, again, is the link to our previous interview at PaneltoPanel.net,

where you can also purchase Bryan’s new graphic novel Alice in Sunderland with an exclusive signed, limited edition bookplate;

here’s PaneltoPanel’s complete one-stop shopping selection of Talbot graphic novels currently available in the US. All are well worth owning and revisiting frequently.

Here’s Bryan’s own Alice in Sunderland site home page;

but that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

For more on Bryan’s life, times and comics, check out

James Robertson’s marvelous Official Bryan Talbot Fan Page, which is also your exclusive online source for Bryan and James’s Heart of Empire CD-ROM.

To tap into the remarkable, imaginative realms of Bryan’s seminal Luther Arkwright graphic novel(s), visit this site,

and Bryan’s Luther Arkwright web comic awaits you here.

Bryan selflessly adds,

“Check out this incredible graphic novel by Véronique Tanaka,” and so you should.

This is just the first in a series of upcoming interviews, with all kinds of folks I hope you'll find of interest: cartoonists, writers, filmmakers, jacks-of-all-trades, and many more. So -- more exclusive interviews with other folks in the coming weeks -- keep your eye on this blog, folks!

Have a great Wednesday...

Back From the Grave...

You can't keep a Blog Zombie down!

Well, not for long.

Yep, thanks to the collaborative exchange of info/media/scans between my respective computer gurus Jane Wilde (of Absolute Computing Solutions in Marlboro, VT) and web cartoonist extraordinaire and early founding member of the extended & growing White River Junction/Center for Cartoon Studies cartooning community

Cayetano Garza aka 'Cat,'

thanks to whom my long-under-construction and long-overdue-for-revamping website will at last be up (gulp) this week!

Cat is now my computer guru, and you have him to thank for today's blog being up and running at last. We've got a lot planned, and will be posting info, links, and opening up the long-overdue Bissette website -- keep your eye out here, and all praise Cat! He's been making web comics since 1996, and he's a demigod in this old-timer's book.

That's a lot of back from the grave, eh?

________________

For those of you starving for Bissette comics work, there's a batch of stuff coming up and out -- but for now, suffice to note that Rick Veitch just sent me the first comp copy of his new King Hell anthology Shiny Beasts, which I previewed for ya

here

and here.

The book is gorgeous, and our collaborative Epic effort "Monkey See" never looked better (26 years out of print!), and there's also Rick and Alan Moore's long out-0f-print Epic collaboration to savor, too (including it's revelatory Bissette cosmic-VD panel) and Rick's afterword with vintage photos of his old hippy self (and Totleben and Bissette, in their younger years). A terrific package, if I may say so myself!

Rick dropped by the house last weekend to pick up the oldest Veitch & Bissette "Creative Burnouts" art in my flat files -- including our first ever collaboration, drawn up on our Kubert School drawing boards in September 1976! -- and Rick is planning an upcoming anthology featuring all our collaborative work. But that's later, folks -- Shiny Beasts is out now.

Shiny Beasts is shipping to comic shops pronto, and I'll post more on this blog once I know it's in stores and online. You might want to hold out, though, for buying the book via PaneltoPanel.net, as Rick, Alan Moore and I are currently signing signature sheets for PaneltoPanel's special promo of Shiny Beasts -- more info on that (and sales link) soon!

_________________

This-here blog has been down the entire week of the White River Indie Film festival, which is too bad -- I had scribed and was planning to post a day-by-day diary of the event, and promote the hell out of it.

Alas, bandwidth issues decided otherwise, and WRIF ends this very weekend -- today and tomorrow. My panels and such ended last night (more on that later this week, as time permits).

Still, if you're in the area, as in today and tomorrow,

WRIF's current weekend lineup boasts some of the festival's best films (scroll down to the listings and info for April 28 and 29),

including a zinger Iraq War double-feature of The War Tapes and

Iraq in Fragments (which I wrote up here),

followed by panel discussion; the gender-issue one-two punches of Freeheld and Georgie Girl, likewise followed with lively panel discussion;

Adrian Grenier's Shot in the Dark and his short film Euthanasia (which I blogged about here),

(and the lingering possibility that Grenier himself may show up, live and in person); and more.

Best of tonight's offerings, to my mind, is the African film Bamako, which I reviewed

on this very blog during our screening process (scroll down a bit to that writeup),

though I've no doubt the two most popular films of the fest may prove to be tonight's showings of Brick (reviewed in the same post as Bamako; see link, above) and The Devil and Daniel Johnston, which is one of my son Dan's favorite films.

Sunday's program offers an intense lineup of "First Person" documentaries, including a panel on the genre. There's a lot of intensive scrutiny of abuses of power in these films, too: The Forest for the Trees,

the excellent Strange Culture (which I reviewed here),

the riveting Hand of God, and the 5:15 PM show of Sacrificial Lambs, which I will be introducing, followed by a panel with filmmaker Ed Dooley, Norwich Selectwoman and farmer Suzanne Lupien, the Faillace family, and farmer Doug Flack. Now, that should be a lively session! Tomorrow's program also includes

51 Birch Street

and the evening begins with the marvelous

Absolute Wilson (Bissette review here)

and concludes with the amazing documentary Jesus Camp (my review, and some blistering fundamentalist comments, here; scroll down to the goodies).

Sorry I didn't have this venue available to promote all this past week's wonderful films and events, but c'est la vie. If you can come this weekend, see you there!

_________________________

My ol' pal Mark Martin has been posting some great vintage Mark Martin comics, art and stories on

his blog "Jabberous,"

and that's a perpetual treat.

His latest excavation has yielded a complete MM parody of Harvey Comics's venerable bowler-derbied spook Spooky,

Dooky, who's short-but-sweet adventure begins here. Then click on over to

Dooky's page the second,

Dooky's penultimate panic, and

Dooky's ass-blasting last hurrah (and more)!

Now, tell me that ain't funny. Kudos to you, Mark, and here's hoping for a complete Harvey Comics parody comic from you one day!

Everyone in comics knows about Dan Clowes's Harvey parody in Eightball, but this has been a rich vein of comics satire for ages, and it would be a corker of a book if someone would brave the legal hurdles and put them all together into one fat tome. My old XQB pal and vet Taboo contributor Tom Foxmarnick had cooked up a hilarious satire of Hot Stuff a loooong time ago, which I still fondly remember. Rick Veitch and I once roughed out a Harvey parody of our own (back in 1979) intended for Dr. Wirtham's Comix and Stories which we entitled "Li'l MicroDot," in which our version of Harvey's beloved dot-obsessed li'l girl character was tripping her brains out and finally, in desperation, grabs the phone to call for help, only to space out on -- the little holes in the receiver! As she is mesmerized by this miniature landscape of uniform holes, a clutch of tiny Art Linkletters pop out of them all, screaming "Don't jump, MicroDot! Don't jump out the window!"

Well, it was funny to us in 1979. We never drew it, though, so it remains a layout in one of my sketchbooks, which ain't funny.

____________________

What really ain't funny, and has prompted me at last to turn off the fucking news by yesterday AM, is

the utterly spineless news coverage of President Bush's latest pathological projection of blame -- it's just too infuriating for words -- isn't anyone going to call this latest GOP shell game for what it is?

Bush and Cheney and their corrupt cabal have manipulated their budgets year after year by keeping the genuine cost of the war(s) off the table, and out of their annual budget -- it's at last caught up with them. Is anyone really falling for Bush's bullshit? Cheney, per usual, is even more reprehensible in his rhetoric; I have never, ever so loathed a public figure in my life. The man is evil incarnate; typical of our times, he was keynote speaker at the Brigham Young University graduation recently. Now, there's religious values for you.

I am so aching for any coverage of this current "showdown" to confront the core issue -- the President and Vice President's false budgeting of this war, by persistently not budgeting for these war, by absolutely refusing to budget for these wars -- for what it truly is: the consequences of this President's ongoing strategic shell game.

These two bastards don't give a flying fuck for our troops -- they created this horrorshow, they have abused the military and military families every step of the way (note this week's Pentagon hearings), they created this current standoff by refusing to responsibly budget for and truly wage the war they claim our very lives depend upon, and they are the lowest slime to ever hold the highest office in our country in US history.

Have a great weekend, one and all --

Bryan In Sunderland,
Mantan the Funnyman
& Monday Misc.

[Image copyright 2007 Bryan Talbot]
"Sunderland! Thirteen hundred years ago it was the greatest centre of learning in the whole of Christendom and the very cradle of English consciousness. In the time of Lewis Carroll it was the greatest shipbuilding port in the world. To this city that gave the world the electric light bulb, the stars and stripes, the millennium, the Liberty Ships and the greatest British dragon legend came Carroll in the years preceding his most famous book, Alice in Wonderland, and here are buried the roots of his surreal masterpiece. Enter the famous Edwardian palace of varieties, The Sunderland Empire, for a unique experience: an entertaining and epic meditation on myth, history and storytelling and decide for yourself -— does Sunderland really exist?"

Morning, one and all, and a fine Monday it promises to be, too.

If you're aching to read my blather, there's a healthy weekend worth of posts awaiting you below, including mucho Cine-Ketchup for those so disposed.

Better yet, though, my interview with Bryan Talbot on his new graphic novel Alice in Sunderland is at last

online on PaneltoPanel.net, and Bryan is always worth reading!

Bryan and I are still at it, with more interviews on his recent and upcoming projects underway, which are plentiful. Few Americans are aware of the span and variety of Bryan's incredible body of work -- as cartoonist, writer, etc. -- or that his career dates back to the original British underground comix scene of the early 1970s.

We'll be covering all that and more in upcoming interviews, exclusive to PaneltoPanel.net and this blog.

In any case, be sure to give this initial installment some time today -- and be sure to order your copy of Alice in Sunderland with the signed Bryan Talbot bookplate from PaneltoPanel.net,

available exclusively here.

Tell them I sent you!

But that ain't all.

I'm always reading at least two books, and lately I've been devouring my preordered copy of Michael H. Price's brand-new book Mantan the Funnyman: The Life and Times of Mantan Moreland. I highly recommend this new tome to you, too. Michael H. is an old friend, so I'm a bit prejudiced toward any and all of his projects, mind you, but this is a real honey.

Packaged with an exclusive CD showcasing some incredible Mantan recording rarities from the 1920s to the '60s, hosted by Mike himself, Mantan the Funnyman offers a comprehensive and quite exhaustive overview of the late Mantan Moreland's extraordinary life, times and career -- and whole lot more than that.

Like almost all of Mike's books, this gem is peppered with a banquet of bon mots from Mike's own life and times, offering a multitude of narrative threads: Mantan's, Mike's (growing up in Texas with a jones for all things Mantan & musical), Mantan's daughter Marcella Moreland Young, and interviews and anecdotes from Rudy Ray Moore, Bill Cosby, Moe Howard (Mantan was almost the third stooge after Curly's death!), Aaron Thibeaux 'T-Bone' Walker, Frankie Darro and too many others to name here. There's a wealth of information lovingly culled from four decades in the newspaper biz (Michael H. has been a reporter and journalist since the late '60s) that also embraces the nooks and crannies of minstrel show and vaudeville history, the Southern "chitlin'" and black stage & music circuit, the black film industry of the '20s, '30s and '40s, the various incarnations of Amos 'n' Andy, the Charlie Chan films (which Mantan featured prominently in as Birmingham Brown), the ACLU's campaign against black actors and comedians like Mantan (which derailed the great man's career from the '40s on), and much, much more.

Michael covers so much cultural and subcultural history that the book functions as a crash-course on 20th Century civil rights issues in the entertainment industry as much as biography of its titular subject. Neatly contextualized with its foreword by Gregory Kane and intro by Josh Alan Friedman, launched with Mike (and Marcella)'s views on the savage caricature of Mantan that figured prominently in Spike Lee's akimbo agitprop feature Bamboozled,

Like Mike, I became a Mantan fan for life thanks to a late-night TV broadcast of the Monogram WW2 'walking dead for the Third Reich' opus King of the Zombies (1941). Mantan's character Jefferson 'Jeff' Jackson was, to my young eyes, clearly the most pro-active character in the movie, its true hero: yes, he runs away when common sense prevails in the face of danger (which always seemed utterly pragmatic to me), but it's Jeff who uncovers the menace to civilization (a Nazi scientist cultivating an army of zombies), insists this be dealt with, and, as Mike puts it, "laughs in the face of danger... and gives the white guys plenty of jovial back-talk in protesting his second-class citizenship" (Jeff is the valet of the film's nominal hero played by Dick Purcell). Moreland's playing subverted the film's horror element completely; once the villain succeeds in enlisting Mantan into the ranks of his walking dead (apparently via hypnosis: 1940s zombies were always ambivalent about their status in terms of living or dead), he pushes over the lanky lineup of stiffs with the line, "Move over, boys -- I'm one of the gang, now," which cracked me up enough to prompt my dad to stir from my parent's bedroom and insist I watch my movie quietly -- no laughing out loud.

That proved difficult, but not as difficult as it proved to see more Mantan; I fell for Mantan's brand of comedy that evening, and always kept an eye out for his films thereafter. This was a tough task in the era of succinct TV Guide movie listings, no articles on Mantan, and no internet. Still, I lucked into a few, and was constantly surprised at the unusual (and sadly usually fleeting) Mantan appearances, right on up to his murder-victim cameo in Jack Hill's delirious Spider Baby, or the Maddest Story Ever Told (1964), which I didn't see until the video explosion of the 1980s (and a taped-off-broadcast vhs copy my late amigo Bill Kelley sent me).

FYI, my other fave Mantan movie line that's zombie-specific remains "If there's anything I wouldn't want to be twice, zombies is both of 'em!" Michael H. spices his new book with an abundance of Mantanisms, many imminently quotable, but to quote 'em, you gotta read 'em.

Visit the Midnight Marquee book site and scroll down to order your copy of Mantan the Funnyman now -- it's now in print, I received my copy the last week in February, so don't hesitate!

There's also Michael H. and John Wooley's latest installment in the extraordinary book series Michael launched with the late, great George Turner back in the 1980s, Forgotten Horrors.

The first edition of the first volume, as I recall, was a full-size trade paperback published, oddly enough, by Eclipse Comics, an aberration in the Eclipse lineup to be sure, but a grand and glorious revelation for die-hard horror movie buffs like moi. Micheal H. and George later prepared at least two revised editions, and Michael H. has since considerably expanded, revised and extended that pioneer effort into a series of books with various partners (co-authors and publishers, natch). I've got 'em all in my library, proud to say, though they're still in boxes just now... the move is over, but the unpacking has yet to begin in terms of my library. Sigh.

This latest installment covers the years 1948-49, and I can't wait to see what lost treasures, curios and obscurities Mike and John have brought to light -- and also can't help salivating over what awaits us once they get to the 1950s!

Forgotten Horrors 4: Dreams That Money Can Buy is

likewise on sale at the Midnight Marquee book site, and well worth ordering ASAP.

And that's that this Monday AM, have a great one!