Sam 'the Man' Gaskin:
Livin' to Draw, Drawin' to Live

Some cartoonists just do it -- draw. Always. Like a shark, forever swimming to keep breathing, to keep the water flowing over the gills. Hence, pioneer CCS graduate Sam (aka Tito the Shark) draws, day in, day out, and remains an inspiration to us all here at CCS.

Well, OK, he also makes music. And eats. And sleeps. And does other stuff, too. Read, for instance. Watch TV.

But mainly, I saw Sam draw for two years. I know the top of his head better than his mug; he was always drawing.

Sam also won a coveted Xeric Award this spring -- the second CCSer to do so, on the heels of his classmate and fellow 2007 grad Alexis Frederick-Frost (to be interviewed here, too, this coming week).

Need I say more? Let's get Sam talking instead.
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Sam in Montreal, 2006 (Photo: Joe Lambert)

Sam Gaskin
Pizza (and comics) Wizard

SB: What's your background, Sam?

SAM GASKIN: Okay, well, I've lived in Holden, Massachusetts my whole life really. It's the epitome of suburbia and I live right next door to the high school, so you can imagine. No kids lived near me, so I spent a lot of quality time with TV, which probably explains a lot of things about me. Naturally, growing up I was a bored kid, so friends and I would end up hitting soda cans with baseball bats, throwing computer monitors out of moving cars, etc. I slept through a large part of school, even the one year at Fitchburg State College I attended. I would go for the sake of going, being told it was necessary. I always knew I wanted to get into some sort of media, I was just having a lot of trouble choosing. Film required too much interpersonal work, my writing was too cheesy, I didn't understand most computer programs, what else could I do?

"Thank God for Evan Dorkin!"

SB: When did you first get into reading comics?

SAM: Of course, I've been reading comics since I can remember, lots of newspaper strips: Calvin & Hobbes, The Far Side, Fox Trot, Bloom County, even Garfield! I never really got into the newsstand floppies, it all looked the same to me, and it didn't make me laugh, except for Sonic the Hedgehog (which I should mention is one of things that unifies [fellow CCSer] Dane Martin and myself)! Something about the feeling of reading a video game really caught me then, and I bet you can read that in my stuff now, even though I don't really play them anymore. Who knows how this stuff affected me, man. And then there was that fateful day in fourth grade when my Mom bought me my first issue of Mad magazine. I brought that thing to school every day and read it during silent reading time, over and over and over! I still have it, even though the cover is sort of falling off. From then on, I got every single issue, every super special, every reprint, for Cracked too! I couldn't get enough of that stuff. Eventually, late in high school, I found my way into the comics shop and discovered the (for lack of a better term) "indie" stuff, but there's hardly anything behind that. I'll sum it up in five words, thank god for Evan Dorkin!

SB: Milk and Cheese, Dork, and so on -- Evan’s stuff is great. Let’s talk about your earlier comics work. What was your first comic or minicomic?

The modest cover for Trek (2006)

SAM: I did little stuff, like one pagers and things all through childhood, but I guess my real first project was Trek, which was wholly inspired by Mat Brinkman. It's a 45-page story I drew in 2004 as a drawing project for Fitchburg State about two monsters looking for the home of this magic crystal. I improvised the whole thing, never penciled, and drew it entirely in Sharpie. I was really obsessed with the Fort Thunder guys for a long time, that first issue of Paper Rodeo was just like the first issue of Mad, I seriously carried it everywhere. I especially loved Mat probably because of the adventure and the humor. When I did Trek, I basically ripped off Multi-Force in entirety.

SB: What led you to becoming part of the first-ever class at CCS?

SAM: My parents brought home an article in the Boston Globe about the school, the one with James, Ana Merino, and I think Art Spiegelman all standing in the Colodny space. I don't remember if I read the whole thing before I hit the web to learn more. I knew that this was something I wanted to do, no doubts in my mind. I would make my parents happy by going to college, and I would actually learn something that I cared about and would stay awake for... mostly (there were some late nights, man!).

Pure inspiration: Paper Rodeo #18 cover art by Ron Rege

SB: You arrived at CCS with a strong affinity with Paper Rodeo and Fort Thunder’s guerrilla creative work, their comics and music coalitions. Care to talk about those a bit more, Sam, and your experience with that body of work? There doesn't seem to be much of anything on line or in print about them...

SAM: Here are some links and images, Steve. There's never been an official website for this stuff, so whatever you can find, that's it, I guess!

Here's an article about Paper Rodeo ending...

Here's a random Mat Brinkman panel [from Expo 2000]

Here's the cover from Kramers Ergot #4...

... and the Teratoid Heights cover.

Paper Rodeo was funny in this great way that no one signed any of their work, so I can still go back and look at certain parts and be like "oh, I know who did that now!"

SB: Do you feel part of that scene, or outside of it, as a successor?

Paper Rodeo installation invitation 'logo thingie'

SAM: Even though I got a drawing into the last issue, I am in no way part of that, as badly as I want to be, as badly as a lot of people want to be, we all missed the boat. Everything about the residual Fort Thunder concept is weird, Tom Devlin and I were joking about all the misconceptions there are about it, like that he and Ben Jones lived there and stayed up all night playing Nintendo and hacky-sack. Now, there are tons of people who are weaseling their way into art galleries with really busy marker drawings or something equally uninspired. It's sort of like watching reruns; yeah, they look nice, but I've seen them all before and it's the same old tricks. I think they were a really great archetype for friends getting together and inspiring each other and just exploding everywhere, but too many individuals are just copy-catting them at this point. The art world is another can of worms though, I won't get into that. Tom knows though, I had a lot of trouble letting go of that and really making my own comics, not comics that look like others. He really pushed me, and I love him for it (you hear me, mister!). He gave me this weird analogy with something about Ska bands, it was really great. So I don't know if I would say that I'm a successor, but it's definitely made a huge impact on what I do now of course. I mean, I've met a few of those guys, and we're friends and all... I guess I just feel that I relate to people like that more, like I'm not going to be hanging out with Adrian Tomine any time soon, you know? I don't want to sit in my own camp by myself, I want to see my friends work, it excites and motivates me. Did that make sense? Was that coherent? Did I even answer the question?

Photo: Lightning Bolt, one of Sam's fave bands

SB: You most certainly did! What’s your own music like, Sam, and how does that crossover into your comics work?

SAM: Music is weird. I start a new band with myself every week, I'm not sure if it's something I'll ever be able to pursue in any sort of "professional" way, you know, like actually recording songs or touring, I’m never satisfied with what I’m doing. Most of the time though, the idea is showmanship over musicianship, I want people to go to a show and have fun. This usually involves me running around the room or breaking things. Lights, fog, I got it all, man. I guess Pizza Wizard kind of relates because I'm trying to create this big world with lush environments, so it's sort of the same showoff "look at me" idea, that's one way to interpret it, I suppose. Haha, well, I hate to say it, I guess that's a Fort Thunder thing too sort of, wearing lots of hats. I'm doing this new thing, I taped a microphone to my bass drum and put it through effects, so it's sort of like automated accompaniment when I play. I think it would help if I had someone to be in a band with, but so far that hasn't worked out.

Photo: Another fave of Sam's, Lucky Dragons

Listening to music is really important to the process though, it's one of the most inspiring things, it really helps me open my mind when I'm drawing. Either that or TV. When I'm drawing Sugarcube, I'll watch Freaks & Geeks, but when I draw Pizza Wizard, it's got to be music, mostly spazzy, rock stuff like Lightning Bolt, Hella, or Lucky Dragons.

I’m also into this band, Noise Nomads, right now which is this guy, Jeff Hartford, from Western Massachusetts. Check him out, total trash sound, I love it. Again, that's the reason I put ads for record labels and things in Pizza Wizard, I'm excited about what others are doing, so I want to help them out, and I want to hear more!

Photo: Hey, fella, it's Hella!

That's a good joke my friend

Jacob Berendes, junk man extraordinaire,

told me, "What? You're in a noise band? Where's your mask?" Jacob runs Happy Birthday Mike Leslie, a junk store in Worcester, MA that sells homemade zines, music, clothes, toys, movies, and tons of other great stuff. It's like walking into Pee-Wee's Playhouse. I volunteer to help out there at least once a week.

Friend and blood brother Ben McOsker runs Load Records,

which I did an ad for. He puts out really incredible stuff. Check out the new Silver Daggers album, new high & ord, featuring Gary Panter cover art!

SB: OK, let’s get into your comics, Sam. Before Pizza Wizard emerged, you were working on an expansive narrative that you began in 2006 and intended as your thesis project -- what was that, and will it see light of day?

SAM: Oh, that thing, um... definitely maybe. I keep getting new ideas all the time and I can't even get them down on paper fast enough, and I have this new thing that I'm really excited about, so I might just keep it on the shelf for now. Who knows, maybe in ten years I'll have a real intense dry spell and it will be the perfect thing to pick up again. I'll keep it in a dark place for now, but I'll give it plant food, just enough to keep it alive, but not to grow. I've got plenty going on though, don't worry about that!

SB: I love Faux Pas. When did you start those, and how many have there been to date? Tell us about ‘em...

Faux-Pas #4 (2006)

SAM: The first Faux-Pas was my final project for first semester last year. It has a really nice cover and will hopefully never be seen by anyone ever again. There are too many embarrassing things I had to include per whatever requirements there were for the project. There are four total and I'm hoping to have a fifth in time for SPX, and then they should be collected next year. It's really just been an outlet for me to mix all the little things I do together, jokes and things that shouldn't go beyond a few pages, short stories, funny sketchbook pages, as much variation as possible.

SB: You’ve done a lot of those short parody pieces and single-pagers goofing on the pop culture: TV shows, Spiderman and so on. Where have those seen print?

SAM: So far, they're only in my zines. Some of them might be in the next Unicorn Mountain, if I ever remember to mail it out. I guess I've been kind of negligent on that... I have a very guilty look on my face right now

SB: What’s Unicorn Mountain?

SAM: Unicorn Mountain is a weird, square anthology

edited by this guy, Curt Gettman, that features lots of new and upcoming artists, as well as fiction writing, articles, and a CD sampler of new music. It was weird how I came to meet Curt, I was just waltzing past their table at SPX and he locked eyes with me, walked over, and said "hey, have you seen the track listing for our CD?", which was so bizarre because I could not figure out how this guy knew just from looking at me that I liked bands like the USAisaMonster and Coachwhips. It's pretty cool, I really look forward to seeing how it's going to develop with each issue.

Joe Lambert cover art for the Face Book, Graduation Edition (May, 2007); this was the second publication of the Face Book, which was the CCS pioneer graduate class's 'yearbook'.

SB: What’s the Face Book?

SAM: Haha, okay, so I drew this one picture of Rich Tommaso by tracing a photograph, which by my hand made him look completely wonky and and nutty. Everyone in the class seemed to really like it for some reason, so James and Michelle commissioned me to draw everyone in the class as a sort of yearbook. Joe Lambert did a really nice job packaging it to give out at graduation, a real nice color cover for a bunch of kooky looking caricatures. No one complained, so I guess I did something right.

SB: Hey, I love it, hence my question. What’s your latest comic creation?

SAM: Okay, so there's Pizza Wizard, right? As if he hasn't weaseled his way into the blog world enough already! Put simply, it is about a tiny wizard looking for magic pizza. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. This is the full-on manifestation of all those comic strips and cartoons and bad jokes and action figures and Magic cards and rock music and everything else that's made me who I am today and I am so, so sorry. Issue #1 premieres at MoCCA and issue #2 is say, 1/8 finished. By Christmas, maybe? There will also be a collection of my Faux-Pas series of mini-comics come next year, and another book sometime later called Sugarcube which is a sort of coming-of-age story (another thing I'm a sucker for), and then something else which I'm not gonna talk about here (top secret for now!).


SB: Where did Pizza Wizard come from? I still fondly remember the class crit when you shared that first single-page Pizza Wizard with us, and everyone fell in love with it.

SAM: Should I reveal that already? Maybe I should keep it a secret for a while. I guess I'll tell. So when I was doing the original copy of the CCS Facebook, there was a picture of [CCS co-founder] Michelle Ollie with a quote underneath that said "who wants pizza?", because seriously, man, she was always getting us free pizza, it was awesome. When she saw this, she said, "What am I, the pizza wizard?" Basically, bells went off in my head that this was the greatest title I had ever heard in my life and that I had to start drawing it immediately. I mean, do you know anyone who doesn't like pizza? There's a whole theory behind the unification powers of pizza, but I won't get into that now. And wizards are just cool. It quickly evolved into this thing that allowed me to draw the most fun things imaginable, castles and monsters, and the characters came easy because I actually built most of them.

"Put Butts Here": Sam, following instructions outside of Sweetie's, Marlboro VT, 2006 (Photo: Joe Lambert)

SB: Pizza Wizard landed you a Xeric grant. What was that process like, and when did this all go down?

SAM: I really didn't expect to win that at all. I applied before for Trek and didn't get it, I talked to a lot of people who applied a lot of times, and this time I only sent them the first 16 pages, so I was really surprised. It was actually pretty easy to do, I don't have any money or assets or anything like that, so filling out the paperwork was no problem, and doing something short and cheap made getting a printer much easier. Actually getting a response from a book printer is a real pain. My friends Barry and Leon in New York helped me through the process too, more than I can ever thank them for.

SB: Pizza Wizard involved -- involves -- you working essentially in a different style every single page. Each is its own universe: there's fresh logo and title lettering design every page, a different rendering style and drawing challenge each page, and so on. What prompted you to push yourself so extensively, and in the scope of one mercurial venture?

SAM: I don't really know what prompted that, I guess I just wanted to challenge myself to play with layout and to be a better designer, figuring out the title location and font is actually one of my favorite parts. Maybe I was reading too much Acme Novelty or something, but I knew I wanted things to be big and individual, like Gasoline Alley sundays or Little Nemo. Not that I'm comparing my work to any of those things, my output and draftsmanship are deplorable next to them.


SB: You also based some of the creatures and characters in Pizza Wizard on these fusion 'mutant toys' you create at your leisure. What's that all about, how long have you been doing it, and are the plastic fumes fucking you up, Sam?

SAM: What? Who are you again? No, if anything is fucking me up, it's the solder I've been inhaling since I took up circuit-bending. I've been making the action figures for probably a year now, my friend Danny and I started after seeing some of the ones Jacob Berendes had made. It was it's own thing at first, but now it helps out a lot, totally eliminates the need to come up with new, disposable characters. I just go over to the shelf and pick one out. It's nice, I'd like to have a gallery eventually, maybe once I have a hundred or so.

This pic needs another caption like Sam needs an extra asshole, but this is the only place I could link to Jacob's blog! Click and enjoy!

SB: With the Xeric grant in hand, you could have published Pizza Wizard in a grander format. Why the low-tech newsprint format, Sam? -- it's a consistent aesthetic in all your published work thus far.

SAM: I just figured that if it's sort of like a newspaper comic, why not make it a newspaper? I really like that format too, it's cheap to print, and it's sort of become it's own art object in a way. My first priority at this point is to make it accessible to as many people as possible. Plus, it's big! It would be so difficult to deal with a regular printer for a special project like that. I guess it comes back to the Paper Rodeo thing too, except this one's alllllll mine, baby.

Sam, Cigar, CCS: Graduation Day, May 2007 (Photo: Joe Lambert)

SB: You just wrapped up two years at CCS and graduated with flying colors. Do you feel part of a community now, and if so, what is it?

SAM: I definitely feel like I'm deep into the community of all cartoonists. I don't know about our class, only time will tell there. It'll be interesting to see who's still drawing in a few years. That's a can of worms that should probably stay closed, all the weird relationships that our class had, I probably have half my facts wrong on that anyway. Comics is a community in itself though, I'll leave it at that. Also, Dane Martin, please e-mail me.

SB: Dane, follow up! Sam, is there anything you absolutely would not do in comics? Where are your personal boundaries and parameters circa 2007?

SAM: Probably not. I mean, I won't draw any religious extremist pamphlets or anything that promotes hate or anything like that, but otherwise, I'd do anything. I would draw for DC or Big Boy or anything. I don't know if I'd get bored doing those things, but none of them will ever hire me anyway, so I guess it's a moot point.

SB: If there were no obstacles, no inhibitions in terms of time, money, types of media or mergers of media and so on -- what would you be doing creatively, Sam?

SAM: There aren't really any of those things right now, actually! I don't have a job, no real expenses, I'm free to work on all my different projects all day long most of the time. I mean, if I had more money and access, maybe I'd start a television or radio show or record label or something like that. But otherwise, I'm pretty content.

SB: Then you’re a doubly-blessed man, Sam. Great talking to you, thanks for sharing!

__________________________

“Don't be smackin' my face! It's where I keep my good looks!”

Like The Sopranos final episode, visiting the I Know Joe Kimpel site just now to buy Sam's work is a frustrating experience -- it's all sold out! But keep an eye out there, hopefully Sam will be selling Pizza Wizard via I Know Joe Kimpel -- right, Sam?

More tomorrow, with someone else who is highly entertaining--

Have a great Wednesday, one and all!

Next Weekend: Comics and Cartoonists in Burlington Literary Festival...

I'll be posting more tonight and tomorrow (AM and PM) on the Center for Cartoon Studies events this weekend, but here's an announcement that may be of interest to y'all, particularly if you're in driving distance of Burlington, VT. I'll be there, so read on:

* Saturday, September 24, 2005: I'll be in Burlington, VT next Saturday with a bevy of marvelous cartoonists as part of the Burlington Literary Festival, which shows we're all "moving up" in the world, eh? The fact that this comics event at the Fletcher Free Library in downtown Burlington is popping up in the context of the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center's ongoing exhibition of VT cartoonists (yours truly, Frank Miller, Rick Veitch, James Kochalka, and James Sturm) is indicative of a real change in the cultural winds in my home state. More on that next weekend; in the meantime, you can find all the particulars about next weekend's event

here!

The event be at the Fletcher Free Library (235 College Street, Burlington, VT 05401), and for more info you can call 802-865-7211 or FAX 802-865-7227, but here's all I know:

This event was brainstormed by Barbara A. Shatara, Outreach & Reference Librarian at the Fletcher Free Library, and my good pal John Rovnak, who used to own and manage Comics Route in Manchester, VT and hosted one of Vermont's first expansive comics-related events in the mid-1990s, the ACE/Independent Comics Exposition (also in Manchester, VT, at the historic Equinox). The Burlington Literary Festival is a city-wide event, celebrating all facets of writing and creativity in Vermont, but this is the first year I'm aware of that the event has expanded its parameters to embrace comics, graphic novels, and cartoonists.

The comics-related portion of the Literary Festival programming kicks off in the Fletcher Free Library's Main Reading Room next Saturday at 1:00 PM with an illustrated lecture by the great James Sturm, who is presently amid the opening week flurry of activity at the newly opened Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction (much more about that tonight!). James is founder and director of the CCS, and needless to say he's best known for his comics and graphic novels (all of which have been translated into several languages and have won numerous awards, including "Best Graphic Novel of 2001" by Time Magazine).

You know, I might as well give you the whole scoop (and nothing but the scoop) on James, since he'll hereafter be a constant presence in my life and on this blog.

Let's see, where's the official bio? Ah, here 'tis:

In 1991 James received a Master of Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in New York City, moved to Seattle and co-founded the alternative weekly, The Stranger. That same year Fantagraphics began publishing his Eisner-nominated comic book series The Cereal Killings. During the next five years James was the art director of The Stranger, collaborated with syndicated columnist (and talking head) Dan Savage producing two issues of the comic book Savage Love. In 1996 James received a Xeric grant for his comic The Revival. From 1997-2001 James lived in Savannah, Georgia and taught at the Savannah College of Art and Design in the sequential art department. In 1998 Drawn and Quarterly published the story Hundreds of Feet Below Daylight, the second in a trilogy of American historical fiction pieces. Three years later came the last installment of the trilogy, the best-selling and award-winning graphic novel The Golem's Mighty Swing. The book has been translated into several languages and was named "Best Comic 2001" by Time Magazine. An avid collector of Marvel Comics in his youth James wrote and designed the 2004 Eisner award winning Unstable Molecules, a four issue series and trade paperback featuring the characters based on the Fantastic Four, and published by Marvel Comics. James' writings and illustrations have appeared in scores of national and regional publications including The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Onion, The New York Times, and on the cover of The New Yorker. James is also the founder and active member of The National Association of Comics Art Educators; an organization committed to helping facilitate the teaching of comics in higher education.

Now you know all you need to know about James, though I'll be sure to post embarrassing and intimate details about any compelling or particularly vile personal habits he might have in the coming weeks, months, and years.

OK, enough on James. Back to the Burlington Literary Festival. So James gives his lecture at 1 PM, then a new group convenes in the same area -- Fletcher Free Library's Main Reading Room -- at 3:00 PM for a panel I am moderating, which has a silly title I won't repeat here (Why do they saddle us with these risible panel titles? Thankfully, "Pow! Whap!" is not part of the title, so I suppose we'll count that as a blessing). It will basically cover how we work, how we got into the business, and how we eke out livings therein. Who's "we"? I'm so glad you asked. I'll be sitting alongside James Kochalka, Tom Devlin, and Gregory Giordano, a fine group of fellows, two of whom I'll be teaching with at CCS starting this week.

Some background on everyone: Greg Giordano managed the first-ever Vermont comics convention I ever attended (and perhaps the first-ever VT comics con, period), which was at the Sheraton Inn in Burlington. Greg is a Burlington comic book artist, and his website is

here.

Greg's a fine fellow and key to the ongoing Burlington comics scene.

James Kochalka is known to most of you, but again, since he'll now be an ongoing part of my life at CCS and hence a frequent persona in this blog hereafter, as will Tom Devlin, who is likewise teaching at CCS, I'll post their official Burlington Literary Festival bios here, just by way of introduction for those of who aren't familiar with them or their work:

James Kochalka's comics have been published internationally by almost every alternative comics publisher; he's recorded several music CDs under the name James Kochalka Superstar (making him a favorite at college radio stations across the country); and he's developed animated cartoons for Nickelodeon. Best known for his graphic novel, Monkey vs Robot, and his critically acclaimed Sketchbook Diaries, Kochalka currently lives in Burlington, Vermont.

Tom Devlin is the publisher and visionary behind the art-comics publishing house Highwater Books. Specializing in comics that don't fit into the publishing profiles of other companies, Highwater has carved out a niche in the comics publishing world as an idiosyncratic, art-first/artists first comics publisher. Devlin also draws an infrequent strip on the Highwater Web site. In the past, Devlin has guest-edited The Comics Journal, managed a Diamond Comics Distribution warehouse, designed covers and content for nearly all the other independent comics publishers as well Harvard University Press, sat on the Steering Commitee of the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland, lectured at Universities in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Montreal, had artwork displayed in galleries in Boston and Portugal, and managed a comic store.

OK, we'll be informative and entertaining and engaging as hell, and we'll also be signing our work after, which will be available and on sale right then and there, shameless hucksters that we all are.

After they clear our mangy hides out of the seats and we scatter like sheep to go have dinner, the Burlington Literary Festival will reconvene in the Fletcher Free Library's Main Reading Room for that evening's event at 7:30 PM: the Cartoonists Panel with Alison Bechdel, Harry Bliss, and LJ Kopf. Alison will be the moderator, and if here's the skinny on everyone at the evening panel:

Alison Bechdel's comic strip Dykes To Watch Out For reproduces the texture of 21st century life, queer and otherwise, in exactingly high resolution. From foreign policy to domestic routine, breastfeeding to chemotherapy, postmodern theory to parenting practice, the finely-drawn characters of Dykes To Watch Out For fuse high and low culture in a serial graphic narrative suitable for humanists of all persuasions. The Comics Journal says, "Bechdel's art distills the pleasures of Friends and The Nation; we recognize our world in it, with its sorrows and ironies." Bechdel grew up in rural Pennsylvania. After graduating from Oberlin College, she moved to New York City, where she began drawing Dykes to Watch Out For as a feature in the feminist monthly Womanews in 1983. Ten book-length DTWOF collections have since appeared, nine of them -- including Spawn of Dykes To Watch Out For and Hot, Throbbing Dykes to Watch Out For -- published by the pioneering feminist press, Firebrand Books. The most recent volume, Dykes and Sundry Other Carbon-Based Life-Forms to Watch Out For, was released by Alyson Books in the fall of 2003. Her bi-weekly strip is syndicated in over 50 periodicals. Bechdel's work has become a countercultural institution. "Hers are thinkers' comics," writes Harvey Pekar, "full of the stuff that classics like Gasoline Alley and Doonesbury are made of." Bechdel's work appeared recently alongside Aaron McGruder's Boondocks and David Rees' Get Your War On in Attitude 2: The New Subversive Alternative Cartoonists (NBM, 2004). Four of her books have won Lambda Literary Awards for Humor, and The Indelible Alison Bechdel won a Lambda Literary Award in the biography/autobiography category. Utne magazine has listed DTWOF as "one of the greatest hits of the Twentieth Century." In addition to her comic strip, Bechdel has also done exclusive work for a slew of publications including Ms., Slate, The Village Voice, The Advocate, Out, and many other newspapers, web sites, comic books, and 'zines. Her work has been widely anthologized and translated.

Harry Bliss was born in upstate New York and studied painting at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Illustration at The University of the Arts (BFA) and Syracuse University (MA). Bliss was illustrating for Gentleman's Quarterly, McCall's, Business Week and other national magazines in his final year at The University of the Arts. In 1997 he was asked by the art editor of The New Yorker to submit cover sketches. His first cover for The New Yorker appeared on January 5, 1998. Shortly thereafter, his black and white cartoons began appearing in The New Yorker; to date Bliss has published fifteen covers and numerous cartoons and illustrations with the magazine.
In addition to his work for The New Yorker, he has contributed cartoons to Playboy, Nickelodeon, Archaeology, and illustrated book covers for writers such as Lawrence Block, Dorothy Uhnak, Bob Dole, Ben Yagoda, and Fiona Buckley. He has received awards of excellence from Print, Society of Illustrators, Communication Arts, National Society of News Design, Inc., and Art Directors Club of New York. His first children's book, A Fine, Fine School by Newbery award winning author Sharon Creech, was a New York Times Bestseller. Other books for children Bliss has illustrated include Which Would You Rather Be? by William Steig, Caldecott winning author and creator of Shrek, Countdown To Kindergarten by Alison McGhee and Diary of a Worm, a New York Times Bestseller by Caldecott winner Doreen Cronin. Bliss's next book, Don't Forget To Come Back Candlewick Press), is due out in February 2004.

L. J. Kopf had his brief bid for local fame when his Edge cartoon appeared in every issue of the twelve year (1978-1990) run of the Vanguard Press, a Burlington news and arts weekly that laid the groundwork for Seven Days. A collection of the best of those Edge cartoons, entitled Into Every Life a Little Edge Must Fall, was published by Fantagraphics Books and is still available. Mr. Kopf continues to draw cartoons. By day, he works as the Children's Librarian at the Richmond Free Library in Richmond, VT.

OK, that's the lineup. I'm looking forward to being there -- hope you'll join us!

A proper, non-huckster blog posting will follow this evening, after I return home from this afternoon's CCS Grand Opening event. Hope to see some of you there; in any case, see you Constant Readers here later.