Dan and Bands at Brat's Tinderbox,
and Blasts from the Past:
The War That Time Forgot Resurrected?
Rambo Ravages and Bissette Dreams...

My, my, don't forget if you're in driving/walking distance of Brattleboro, VT that tonight's the night that my son Dan will be rocking The Tinder Box with his cronies with The MAJESTY FOREVER GLOWING MUSIC AND ART SHOW!

Here's the Tinder Box MySpace page, which will provide directions, info, and all you need to get there --

and here's my earlier Myrant writeup about the Tinder Box (scroll down a bit for text, pix and more).

So, if you're in the area tonight, rush on over to The Tinder Box on Elliott Street in downtown Brattleboro on Saturday, February 16th at 8 PM. Playing are Colin Ahern aka Flash 'C'; Jeremiah Crompton aka Jeramigo, 'Kyle Thomzo' and finally the trio of Sam Phillips, Zach Phillips and my son Daniel Bissette.

Marge and I can't make it -- we'll be away -- but if you can, by all means, go! $5 donation at the door, more if you can afford it (support the musicians, folks), all big fun for a few bucks.

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Neal Adams hasn't forgotten a single goddamned DC Comics war!

Mirage Studios amigo Mike Dooney sent me this news yesterday: "Hey, Steve-o, I've been hearing rumors that Keith Giffen was writing some kind of 'War That Time Forgot' crossover series this year....just saw this Neal Adams cover art online so I'm assuming that it's for that storyline...". Mike said more, but it's not for your eyes. But this is! (see above) Well, looks to me like it's a major crossover of every war-themed DC universe character imaginable (including Firehair, Tomahawk, Enemy Ace, etc.). Adams drew at least one story in the original Star-Spangled War Stories run of "The War That Time Forgot," and worked in some capacity on at least one Enemy Ace (inking, if memory serves, Joe Kubert's pencils), so that link alone to the original Bob Kanigher-edited-and-scripted series is sufficient to move this dino buff.

And that ain't all, folks. Consider

Roland Emmerich's latest epic 10,000 BC, which opens on my birthday, March 14th!

Yow! The War That Time Forgot and mammoth hunting cavemen on the big screen -- what more could a paleo buff ask for in the same year?

Mammoth hunters score! Roland Emmerich's 10,000 BC, coming March 14th!

BTW, given the completion and delivery yesterday of The Prince of Stories, Chris Golden, Hank Wagner and my book on Neil Gaiman and his work, I can now return to completing roughs for the new Tyrant proposal in hopes of landing a home for my project with a book publisher. Wish me luck; with all this pop paleo brewing, mayhaps I can tap the zeitgeist for a Tyrant revival.

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Speaking of wars -- and warriors -- that time forgot, among the many films I've seen of late I haven't had time to write up here is Rambo, which I dashed out to for a late-day matinee with some of my fellow CCSers (hey, Chuck, Denis and Alex, didn't we have fun?). I've no time this AM to write up anything proper, but I just want to let fans of rampant maniacal action pics with a dash of sentimentality to leaven the vivid carnage know that Rambo is not to be missed on the big screen.

Sylvester Stallone co-scripted, directed and stars, so this is his movie all the way. It's an amazing piece of work. Stallone milks that mug of his for all its worth. Rambo's heart is stirred at one point by a female missionary, trying to engage with the rock-hard vet to serve a greater good: Rambo reacts with a curt "Fuck the world!," then muses over the unexpected rumbles of conscience by blacksmithing metal into a nice, new machete. It's that kind of movie, folks. Now, I've no doubt Stallone is dead serious about the in-your-face-subtext (the ongoing atrocities in Burma), but the action movie template inevitably sublimates any serious aspirations under the relentless needs to feed the baser instincts. That said, Stallone, like Mel Gibson (with Apocalypto), is the heir apparent to actor-turned-director Cornel Wilde's primal throne, though Mel's got it all over Sly in crafting more potent cinematic universes. Rambo is, well, Rambo; if you can engage on its level, it's a hoot.

Of course, most folks have been put off by the film's rampant mayhem (check out this solid essay at Times Online, link compliments of Dan Archer; thanks, Dan!)

In the Times piece, Stallone is quoted as saying, “I don't think this film is horrific and bloody, because that's what war is. It's not gratuitous violence. Gratuitous violence is a guy dressed up in a fright wig with a meat cleaver, chasing teenagers around the woods for ten hours. This is war, and it's a civil war - which, as you know, is by far the most vicious of all wars.” Believe me, however earnest the political and social intent (which is genuine, and makes the outrageous spectacle aspects of this action opus all the more audacious), Rambo is a wall-to-wall bloodbath, and the CGI-enhanced mayhem is as breathlessly staged and executed as the best of Tex Avery and Sam Raimi. Whether hapless Burmese innocents or craven, hateful Burmese despots, the onscreen atrocities are eye-and-mind-blowing: humans burst like the bloodbags we are, rapid-fire 21st Century machinegun fire folds, spindles and splinters the frail meat-puppets like -- well, meat-puppets. I was helpless with laughter at the apparently sub-atomic bit of British hardware (left unexploded from a prior war) being detonated. Ah, Rambo. I had a grand time; but don't revile me. It is, after all, an exploitation movie, and they do make 'em like they used to; Stallone is still working in the grand tradition.

Exploitation movies are alive and well in America.

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The Guests Bissette Forgot

With all that's been going on, I've also neglected to write about the many CCS guests we've enjoyed, including David Beronä last week and Howard Cruse this week.

David Beronä comes to CCS every year to talk about the early 20th Century graphic novels by Frans Masareel, Lynd Ward and others, and now David has a brand-new book on the subject out from Abrams, Wordless Books: The Original Graphic Novels.

David brought his advance copy, and it's a beaut of a book!

Here's David's homepage and site,

here's the link to the Abrams page on the book,

and this will start you getting to a copy -- don't miss this book, it's a real (and affordable) treasure.

My highest recommendation; first 'best book' of 2008!

Howard is always a treat to visit, and this is his second session with CCS -- hopefully, we'll be seeing Howard for years to come. He also delivered a stellar presentation on his personal journey as an artist, and draped every available flat surface in the classroom (except the top of my head) with original art, archival publications (including a 1960s Birmingham, Alabama Nazi newspaper, The Thunderhead), and tons of amazing eye-candy.

Howard Cruse's blog is here, and worth some time -- I'll be adding this to my permanent link list at right.

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Stevie in Slumberland; Or, Rare-Bissette Fiend?

The blast from the past above arrived this week from amigo Rick Veitch: "I've scanned up a bunch of the Road Bits for Jeff Smith's self publishing blog. Here's another couple Bissette psycho-billy-classics from 1995!"

Big thanks to Rick, and have a great week, one and all -- I may or may not be able to post this week, but keep an eye out. I may only miss a day or two.

If not, see you next weekend, and have a great one.

MoCCA Morning!

Day One of MoCCA begins -- and here's a quick update on some of the other CCSer comics available there today (and soon online; links to follow, post-MoCCA), before today's interview marathon...

See last night's post -- below -- for a quick eleventh-hour update on Zombies (this handsome, horrible Accent UK anthology will be for sale at the CCS table!) and Sean Morgan's Capsule: The First Dose, with the Morgan/Bissette jam alien abduction story.

Though I won't be at MoCCA, much new (and old) work by yours truly is there -- and I made sure to sign and do a sketch in every copy of Capsule, sign all the Zombies covers, and sign and do a sketch in many copies of Sundays before they were packed up and spirited away to MoCCA for this morning's setup! Look for 'em, ask for 'em, buy 'em!

But enough on that, here's a quick wake-up call to some of the CCSers we didn't have time to interview (or post interviews for) who are at MoCCA this weekend with new work:

Penina Gal has two new comics at MoCCA:

THE is "a collection of short comics about how people react to snow, how trees react to people, scientists exploring dreams, and the race between a turtle and rabbit. Two books in one -- the mini's got a mini-mini! Screen-printed covers..."

Penina is also offering a second comic, Through the City -- "A short story (eight single-panel pages) about a man reminiscing while trying to make his way out of a city. Full color, written, drawn, and painted by me, with backgrounds photographed by

the insanely talented JP Rosa..."

These two Penina Gal creations are at MoCCA this weekend,

and available from I Know Joe Kimpel afterwards.

Ditto on Matt Young's The Good Catholic, his nifty solo anthology of stories and art, which is now on sale at MoCCA.

We've also got an interview with Matt ready to run, but I'm saving it for Sunday AM!

Here's the front cover of Sundays, photographed (by Joe Lambert) drying on the silk screen rack this past weekend.

Remember, the oversized anthology Sundays is at MoCCA -- if you're at MoCCA, rush to the Sundays table and snag a copy while they last. These will be a coveted treasure in the near future, lots of great reading and art!

Here's another shot from my Sundays page, "Mighty Tyrant in Slumberland" (and he is, too).

The full wraparound cover to Sean Ford's Only Skin #1, now on sale at MoCCA!

Sean's Only Skin cover is a reminder that we've already covered a lot of ground with these Myrant interviews, and I want to remind folks of the great books that are at the CCS, Sundays and other tables today.

They'll all be on sale via online venues, too, after this weekend, and I'll post that info as well as it's available.

As time permits this weekend, I'll also post links to all the CCS/MoCCA interviews I've posted for easier one-stop reference. It's been a heady couple of weeks, and it's all about today -- I'll get a new interview (three more to go!) up ASAP!

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Here's the first:

First interview of the weekend: Bryan Stone generously provided an interview about the Sundays anthology, but I coaxed a solo interview from Bryan about his work. He and his wife Amanda Ann have made this year a really special one, and it's a pleasure to share Bryan's vision and voice with you via this venue.
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Bryan Stone:
Frogherder

SB: What's your background -- where you are from, Bryan?

BRYAN STONE: I actually grew up right on the dividing line of two towns in central Alabama, Munford and Coldwater. The area was, and is, pretty typical of the south.

I went to elementary and high school in Munford. After that I went on to a community college in the closest town and from there to a college called Jacksonville State University about an hour from where I grew up. The whole college thing was a slow and terrible process. Most of the time I was working and taking classes.

Photo: Amanda Ann's leg, Bryan Stone, beer, beer. What more does a man need?

SB: When did you first get into comics?

BRYAN: I first got into comics when I was really young, probably 5 or 6. There was a drug store close to the grocery store that we shopped at that carried some Marvel stuff. The first book that I can remember buying was a G.I. Joe comic with Stormshadow on the cover... I think it took place on an aircraft carrier. After that point I would grab any comics that I could get my hands on because stuff just wasn't available.

SB: How about making your own comics -- ?

BRYAN: I remember drawing comics type stuff off and on for most of my life. The first thing that I did that saw print was a one page story called "Mr. Smiley" which was about this guy who was some kind of super hero with something like a big smiley face for a head. I think he was half alien. That got printed by a local guy, Derrick Samuels, who was putting together a comics anthology called Sin. That was in 1996.

SB: You just completed your first year at CCS, and will be into your senior year in the fall. White River Junction is a long haul from Alabama; what brought you to CCS? How did you find out about the Center?

BRYAN: When I was in my final year at JSU I read about CCS in a design magazine -- How, I think. I had just gotten married and my wife, Amanda Ann, and my drawing professor and good friend Gary Gee were both incredibly supportive about the idea so we worked for a year to save as much money as possible and moved to Vermont.

Frogherder Stories

SB: We talked about Sundays earlier this week. What’s your latest solo work debuting at MoCCA?

BRYAN: My new comic is called Frogherder Stories. I'm hugely influenced by the stuff like the Fraggles [Fraggle Rock], anything of Jim Henson's for that matter, and Peyo's Smurfs. On the other hand I've always been a really big fan of science fiction story telling, hard sci-fi or space opera. I guess Frogherder is a result of those obsessions.

The Frogherder story is set on a planet called Noria which was discovered by a handful of humans after fleeing a dying Earth. On the planet exist several different races which were all categorized by the humans. Nor'landers are the race that Frogherder Stories focuses on, more specifically a single Nor'lander family with the surname Frogherder.

Frogherder Stories

The family name Frogherder, as with all Nor'landers, is the name of their profession. The Frogherder family members that I focus on in this book are Timo, who has discovered that he has the ability to affect the world around him, especially plants, and Timo's brother Doogan and his family which consists of his wife Sira and his two children Skip and Sparrow.

SB: Bryan, you’ve been working on this concept for a number of years -- let’s get into this a bit. Where did Frogherder come to you, and when did you initiate writing and drawing his adventures?

BRYAN: I was in college at JSU in Alabama when I started working on Frogherder so it was probably around 2002. Initially the story focused on the entire Frogherder family but Timo's character had to be on his own I guess. A while after that I got involved in a webcomics contest called The Daily Grind which is a competition between cartoonists to see who can keep up a Monday through Friday comics posting schedule. I finished about three hundred and seventy strips. I guess I'd still be going if I hadn't moved to go to CCS.

SB: Hmmm, we've got to get you Alabama cartoonists together for Frogherder Meets Montgomery Wart -- y'hear, Mark Martin? OK, now, you've also completed another solo book for MoCCA -- what is it?

BRYAN: The new book is called Ominum Gatherum. I think it's really an attempt at defining myself for myself more than anything. I had also, for a long time, wanted a venue for publishing different types of stories under one title. I'll probably do two of these per year, or maybe more, depending on how much material I generate.

SB: You've had a very active first year at CCS. What are the highlights in terms of the work you've done, solo and collaborative?

BRYAN: Yeah, it's been a busy year. I think I'm happiest, or maybe just surprised by, the quicker one and two page stories that I've done at CCS like the 'Mountain and Me' comics that we did for your class and some of the shorter stuff that we generated for James [Sturm]. It's always amazing when you are able to take something as time consuming as comics and condense the process into just a few hours. I'm also very proud of my Frogherder work from this semester which is in the Frogherder Stories book. I felt like those stories were a big step for me.

I've worked on a few collaborative projects. The ones that come to mind as highlights are the Taking Care anthology from the first semester which is no longer available and the Sundays book that we're wrapping up now. Both have been invaluable experiences.

Jurassic Park, Beating Around the Bush-style, by Corey McDaniel & Bryan Stone

SB: What else, outside of CCS, have you done in the way of comics, online comics and minicomics?

BRYAN: The Frogherder webcomic was a pretty big deal for me. When I started it I had been doing a weekly comic called Beating Around The Bush for a year or two with a good friend named Corey McDaniel.

One of Corey McDaniel's solo Beating Around the Bush strips

Before that I had several projects that I tried to get off the ground including a story for a ten issue comics series called 749 Pace St. that I wrote with a couple friends, Lee Jiles, Nick Phillips and Corey again. We actually got pretty far with that one. We put together a mini with all the character info and story previews and such and took it to a Wizard con in Chicago. After that life got in the way for all of us and nothing else ever happened with the story. Even further back I was involved with a guy named Derrick Samuels who, I'm told, is the 'creator' of one of the biggest video game console debacles in the history of the industry. The 'EVO Console', that's a long story.

Bryan thinks this photo is hilarious: Derrick Samuels and the EVO Console --
do not ask Bryan or I anything about this! We know nothing!

Before all that he was determined to publish comics and he did a few books over the years to which I contributed several strips and pages along with my good friend Donald Beck. Derrick actually published the book with my very first comics story, "Mr. Smiley."

Right: Donald Beck art, "Wolf"

SB: What are your future plans for Frogherder?

BRYAN: I'd thought about pursuing a monthly series but I think I'm leaning toward a couple seventy or eighty page books but honestly I'm just trying to let it do what it needs to do. I've still got a ton of story to tell and I'm working very hard on getting my writing up to snuff so I can do it service.

SB: Do you have any other continuous characters and/or concepts in the works?

BRYAN: There are several stories that take place on the same planet, called Noria, that the Frogherder stories do. They mostly deal with the fate of post-Earth humans that find their way there. There's another story about a robot named Issac that also takes place there as well. Other than that I've got a couple stories that I'm pretty far into. One of my favorites at the moment is called Onion Head which is about this amateur astronomer who has an onion for a head. I guess it's kind of a messed up relationship story. There's a science fiction story that I've been working on that's about plant people which was inspired by an Astro Boy story. I'm actually very excited about that one. There are several others, there's just not enough time to draw everything!

SB: If there were no hurdles -- no time, money or income constraints, venue in place -- what would your dream project be?

BRYAN: I'd probably work on a few of the Frogherder books. For a while I felt like I was trapped by the Frogherder stuff because I was working on it so much but now I've realized that I really love it. After doing a couple of those I'd probably move on to another story so I could come back to it later with a fresh perspective.

SB: Thanks, Bryan, and good luck this weekend!

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For more of Bryan and his work, visit Bryan's website

and his blog, always offering something lively.

If you missed MoCCA, Bryan's work will be available at I Know Joe Kimpel, too.

Next up: Joe Lambert's mighty, mighty interview and mighty, mighty art and comics!

Get thee to MoCCA, though, and meet all these folks -- and their work -- face to face!

Have a great Saturday --

Morning Amid MoCCA Mania...

Jon-Mikel Gates's cover art for the I Know Joe Kimpel catalogue, debuting at MoCCA on Saturday. BTW, that's a spot-on rendition of CCS's Colodny classroom, and all the Joe Kimpel crew!

The MoCCA mania continues, with the first wave of CCSers heading south to NYC today while others scramble on their respective projects. It's a heady couple of days ahead, all cresting when MoCCA opens its doors on June 23.


Among the drama is some unfortunate trauma: Sean Morgan, whose anthology Capsule debuts at MoCCA (featuring the story "Area Stoned" with uncanny alien art by Sean and yours truly), broke his left hand Monday night! Man, talk about crap timing!

Still, Sean shoulders on -- fortunately, he's right-handed (actually, he says, ambidexterous), and he's wrapping up work on Capsule today and getting it to the printer in the nick of time. If all goes well, Sean will be at MoCCA with comic, cooler (his cast has an attachment to a cooler to circulate cold water through the cast to keep swelling down) and his usual cool, and be kind to him when you see him, folks. Oh, and buy a copy of Capsule, natch.

The first Tyrant page in a decade, awaiting scanning last Friday night -- debuting in Sundays on, uh, Saturday. Don't miss it!

OK, interview to follow later today -- just wanted to be sure to get this quick update online this AM as early as possible.
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En route to his pending veto of yet another stem-research bill, President Bush says it's "immoral" to use tax funding to "destroy human life..." What the fuck is the Iraq War??

Saturday Note on Sundays!

I'll be posting an interview this weekend, but at an odd time, more than likely, as I've got a full plate this weekend. This 12:50 post will stand as my Saturday post, given the running around I'm doing later today (like, after I wake up), but hopefully it's welcome news.

I've just returned home from CCS, where I delivered my self-standing one-page story for the Sundays anthology (which Sam Gaskin referred to this week in his interview; you'll be reading more about in this weekend's interview with CCS senior Alex Joon Kim). Alex, Joe Lambert and Chuck Forsman were there to receive it, and all seemed very pleased with it --
-- my first new Tyrant page for publication in over ten years!

That's all I'll say for now.

It's done, it's in, and it'll be featured in the Sundays anthology debuting at MoCCA on June 23rd.

Now all that's left on my board with the clock ticking is a story CCS pioneer class graduate Sean Morgan invited me to jam on with him, "Area Stoned." I'm drawing the aliens and their spacecraft for Sean's tale, and we're having some fun with it. Sean's interview -- here, later this week -- will discuss this new anthology he's debuted at MoCCA, the comic that will feature this extraterrestrial extravaganza (along with the zombie story he completed for the Accent UK Zombies -- but proved too controversial for that collection!), so I'll leave it for Sean to tell you all about it.

So, that's three books I'll have new work in that you can peruse and purchase at MoCCA, folks -- Sean's anthology, the oversize Sundays anthology, and the new Trees & Hills anthology comic.

And, speaking of Zombies -- if the package on the slow boat from the UK arrives in time, you may also have a shot at picking up a copy of Accent UK's Zombies anthology there, too! As already shamelessly ballyhooed here all this year, that features a new cover and a four-pager by my son Daniel and I (along with some terrific stories by a clutch of CCS talent and Accent UK's lineup of their native contributors, including Leah Moore and John Reppion). Here's hoping the package shows up this week.

There will also be some vintage Bissette for sale at MoCCA, at the King Hell Press table -- and it's primo vintage Bissette & Veitch stuff, at that.

Rick Veitch will be at MoCCA and he'll have copies of Shiny Beasts there for sale, featuring our full-color "Monkey See" story -- unseen since its first (and until now only) appearance in 1980 in Epic #2.

Dig a little deeper between those covers and you'll also find my rendition of the ravages of cosmic VD in Rick's and Alan Moore's long-lost Epic collaboration "Love Doesn't Last Forever"... along with a plethora of mind-bending, eye-popping solo Veitch delights, making Shiny Beasts one of the must-have acquisitions at MoCCA for those who care.

So, there ya go. Three, hopefully four new titles with all-new Bissette comics creations, and one corker of a reprint collection sporting one of my sweetest pre-Swamp Thing collaborations, and one of my few painted full-color efforts at that.

My retirement from the comics industry stands, but there's plenty to make you happy in reach as of this week! I fully expect all these comics to sell out, then, right? There's nothing in it for me -- though you'll sure make a crew of CCSers happy! -- but plenty in it for you.

All of these are or will be for sale online, too; once the CCS titles debut at MoCCA, we'll post the sales venue links here. So, if you're craving a fresh Bissette comics fix, thanks to my son Dan, the CCSers, Accent UK (and Leah and John) and the Trees & Hills folks, you can feast for the first time in years.

OK, signing off. It's after 1 AM, and I'm off to bed.

Have a splendid Saturday...

Monday, Bloody Monday...

Before launching into this week's procession of interviews, I reckon it's fair to provide a little Monday recap of my week in some matters:

* I completed a two-page piece for the upcoming Trees & Hills New England cartoonists collective's anthology comic. They'll be selling it at MoCCA, too, so keep an eye out for that. Ye Venerable Editors, Dan Barlow and Colin Tedford, were at CCS on Saturday for a Trees & Hills comics jamming session, and I left the completed pages for them, as I couldn't attend.

The two-pager has been accepted, but their comments were interesting: this is an all-ages anthology, and working carefully within those parameters, I cooked up the most subversive two-pager I could, aimed at anyone who has ever seen a school yearbook. Dan wrote, "Very powerful stuff. I was actually quite stunned when I read it." Colin wrote, "Kind of at the edge of 'all-ages' (for some folks, I guess? I mean, I read Ender's Game in elementary school), but no more so than a newspaper anyway. I'm starting the mini's layout right here in the CCS classroom - looks like 52 pages incl. bios..."

Heh heh. You can do a lot with just two pages, folks. And if you want to see what this is all about, you'll just have to buy the comic, won't you? Links to follow, once Colin and Dan give me the heads up.

* Also worked on some panels/pages with CCS graduate Sean Morgan for his MoCCA comic. I've been drawing aliens for Sean's new story, and we'll have more on that closer to MoCCA -- again, you'll have to buy the comic to see what we've cooked up!

* Still laboring over one more piece for another CCS-spawned venture for MoCCA, but I'll hold off saying anything more until it's done. Biggest damn page I ever worked on, though.

Well, I've got to dash -- I'm having breakfast with CCS grad Ross Wood Studlar, who is leaving VT and the CCS community for work in the grand outdoors of Oregon this summer.

As I pointed out to Ross via email, he's carrying on a proud tradition: after all, folk singer/cartoonist Michael Hurley has been shuttling between Oregon and Vermont since the '60s, making his way in the world while making his own distinctive music and comics. Sending Ross off with at least one good Crossroads Cafe breakfast in his belly, my treat, seems the right thing to do. We'll miss you, Ross!

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The conclusion of The Sopranos was a corker last night. I loved the ending -- I thought my fucking cable had gone out! It pissed me off and left me feeling the way Tony must have felt every moment of his adult life. Kudos to David Chase and all the creators; what a great series.

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Beating a Dead Horse into Pulp Dept.: Note the comment thread on yesterday's 'PS' post, if you're interested in revisiting or visiting for the first time why I ain't doing what many folks think I should be doing, based on not knowing -- ah, well, read it, if you're interested.

So it's all in one neat, tidy compact place, here's the back story links:

Final public exchange with Rick Veitch about these & related matters, which pretty much covers the basics;

Dave Sim's followup to that exchange, which led to a final airing on the subject

via this reply from me, which is pretty much my last word on the subject of my retirement and reasons for it,

which thankfully brought the discussion (of years!) to a close with this reply from Dave Sim, putting matters to rest (scroll down a ways in his post to reach the few relevant paragraphs),

to conclude with this followup thread at Al Nickeron's Creator Rights Forum discussion board -- Go to: Creators Rights Forum Index -> Creator's Rights Discussions on the discussion board -- And then: the thread entitled: "Post subject: Steve Bissette's letter: Dave Sim and 1963..." -- my letter, and Dave's reply, are there complete, followed by some conversation about the very points Jed raised in last night's comments on this blog.

Whew. That's that, I hope. If not, let's converse on the comment thread for last night's PS, please.

And that frees me up now for the week of wonders ahead -- more interviews here, more drawing at home, and a sweet week in June.

Have a great Monday, one and all --

Warm Thoughts from the Frosty Lands

Alex Ness of the online Land of Frost popthought.com column has just

posted these warm and fuzzies about comics that should be collected into book format, including Tyrant.

Thanks for the kind thoughts, Alex, and kind words. It may yet come to pass!

What About Laughing Gravy?

* Quick, get Phil Baruth and Dan Barlow together!

Why?

Well, Dan is moving.

Up.

In the world.


Trees & Hills comic group co-founder

Dan Barlow (here's the man's blog)

just informed me and the world he's moving -- to Montpelier. "After four years of working as a reporter in southern Vermont - covering great things like a 34-year-old nuclear reactor, nude teenagers and pirate radio stations - I'm hitting the big time," Dan sez. "Well, big time for Vermont. Starting Feb. 19th I will be one of the Rutland Herald's two reporters covering the Vermont government. Yeah, the government that Howard Dean used to run before he started doing whatever he's doing now. This means I'll be in charge of writing about things like the Vermont House and Senate, our swell old Republican governor and ... nude teenagers (if they decide to follow me to Montpelier). I may even write things about our wide-eyed freshman Congressman or our socialist Senator. We'll see."

We shall indeed. Congrats, Dan!

But in the meantime -- whither Trees & Hills? What will happen to this adventurous band of New England cartoonists once Dan moves (choke) North?

Will this move mean the group is growing, spreading its roots further over the Green Mountain and Granite State landscapes?

Will the roots be deep and sound, or shallow and spread, like those damned conifers that blow over in wind storms?

Or will Dan still nurture and support the collective, or will he cast it adrift, leaving it shy of one activist co-founder?

Can Colin keep it afloat with his compatriots sans Dan?

And -- What about Laughing Gravy?

Only time -- and Dan -- will tell. Stay tuned.

[Trees & Hills group photos by Mark Martin, from his glorious Jabberous blog, circa May 2006: http://jabberous.blogspot.com/2006/05/comics-club.html -- see that link for ID of those pictured, save ---- Bjork -- who is he, anyway? And is he still drawing? Does he have a site? Did DC Comics approve of one of you wearing a Batman t-shirt? Did you have to pay royalty fees, or was that included in the price of the shirt, and First Sale Doctrine rules uber alle? Colin?]

* Speaking of which -- Damn, I let the Trees & Hills group down yesterday.

Amid all my catch-up posts, I neglected to mention that

the monthly Trees & Hills drawing party is happening, like, today, and I forgot to post the info & link about it yesterday!

Colin writes, "drawing party (always the 3rd Sat. of each month except under extenuating circumstances) will be happening this Saturday 2/17 at Tim Hulsizer's house in Keene, NH; email Tim (escapevelocity at hotmail.com) for directions and other info." BTW, here's the link to

Tim Hulsizer's site,

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* Don't know if you read the comments posted to this blog, but my short review of the documentary Jesus Camp prompted a strangely familiar hit-and-run swipe from an outraged Christian fundamentalist, in this case the right Rev. Don Spitz of Hampton Roads, Virginia. The link from his comment yielded this

little one-post blog,

a rant in the wilderness.

In his comment on my review, Rev. Don Spitz said:

"Sounds like you have some real serious hatred issues directed towards Christians. Suffice it to say, most, if not all problems on the planet earth are from people like you who reject Jesus Christ. Our prisons are filled with people, like you, who reject Jesus Christ. Most if not all rapes, murders, robberies and thefts are committed by people, like you, who reject Jesus Christ. AIDS is mainly spread by people, like you, who reject Jesus Christ and have sex outside of marriage or else like children with AIDS get it from people, like you, who reject Jesus Christ. I hope you will turn from your sins and receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and escape the fires of eternal hell. Turning from your sins and giving your life to Jesus Christ is the only way you can escape the fires of hell and receive everlasting life. If you persist in your sins and continue to turn your back on Jesus Christ, you will be lost forever."

Now, I love this shit. Of course, as we all saw during the election season of 2000, we sinners embracing the Lord as our Savior doesn't necessary win the respect of fellow Christians, as then-not-yet-President Bush amply demonstrated by jeering and openly mocking a Born-Again woman on death row the very week of her execution. We're all to take his conversion on faith, but -- well, you get the idea. "By their works ye shall know them."

Rev. Spitz's post is a pip. I'm not mocking the man, whom I don't know any more than he knows me, but I am assessing his words. The wording resonates oddly with past brushes with other angry zealots.

Keeping the context of mere movie reviews and/or articles, I recall how, way back in 1989, I interviewed Alejandro Jodorowsky about his then-new movie Sante Sangre and placed that interview, in different forms, in a number of zines and papers, including our local 'activist' newspaper The Valley Advocate (out of Northampton, MA). My interview/article prompted a short published letter from two area feminists who attacked me for writing about the film -- which was Alejandro's delirious fictionalized account of a serial killer's career and eventual redemption, as only Alejandro could tell it -- who accused me of being a misogynist and of hating women, concluding, "We know who you are and we know what you are doing to women."

My first wife Marlene, to whom I was married still at the time, was absolutely outraged by the letter. She wrote a response, as did I. But the Advocate refused to allow either her and me to respond. The screed stood, and thereafter I made it a point to instantly respond to any such bile when it was directed my way.

Fact: In 99 cases out of 100, the accusers never, ever respond or reply.

Thus was established a pattern that became familiar to me over time, during the Taboo years and especially the Tyrant years. Foolish me -- I thought after the endless customs battles, censorship rows and difficulties finding printers, binders or venues for the calculated confrontational agenda of Taboo, doing a nice little all-ages dinosaur comic would be a piece of cake by comparison. Oh contraire!

No sooner had Tyrant #1 arrived in comic shops than a steady flow of angry letters from Creationists began to trickle into the ol' SpiderBaby Comix mailbox. By comparison with the Taboo era, the Tyrant letters were far more angry and contemptuous: I was judged a sinner for my dinosaur comic, and was a greater threat to humanity than I had been publishing horror comics. I find it hard to believe the publishers or creators of Turok, Son of Stone, Kona, Monarch of Monster Isle, Gorgo or Star-Spangled War Stories (with "The War That Time Forgot!") ever received this kind of hate mail, but those halycon days of the '50s and '60s many evangelicals cling to as "the good old days" of Christian America rule were perhaps more tolerant of that most malignant of all comics genres, the dinosaur comic book.

Of all those who wrote, sometimes vehemently judging me and my family in rhetoric fully of a piece with the good Rev. Spitz's comment, only one -- one! -- responded to my reply letters, striking up an exchange of letters (and comics) that was fun and lively and at the very least a conversation of sorts.

What I found, in all but that one case, was the letter-writers weren't interested in conversation, they were interested only in venting, in blasting me (and my family): an odd, vindictive form of 'witnessing,' to my world view.

I engage, they refuse. A sure path to communication and possible conversion, my friends!

In any case, I replied directly to Rev. Spitz's post on 2/14, which follows in the spirit of possible conversation:

"Wow, Rev. Spitz, you sure pretend to know a lot about me you don't know. Having not caused most of the problems on planet earth (though I think I can honestly say a few of those can now be chalked up to our President, who claims to be a true believer in Christ), having not been in prison, raped, murdered, robbed, or have/had/or spread AIDs, and as I do indeed believe in Jesus Christ (though not as you do), I reckon you just struck out on every single count in your rant against me and my modest post -- which is, after all, a movie review (in that it's the comments on Jesus Camp that seems to have brought you here), nothing more. What sins, precisely, am I persisting in? Not practicing my Christian beliefs in perfect accord with your own? Using the good brain God gave me at birth? Practicing my own faith as I see fit, rather than as you or others demand I do? Isn't this America? I thank God it isn't your fiefdom, yet. Making vile accusations and posting personalized bile and fear isn't in accord with the New Testament Christ I was raised with, or believe in -- nor, for that matter, is much else I can divine from your accusatory screed."

Any word from the Rev, I'll let you know.

I'm not feeling the love, though, as yet.

We used to have this old 45 RPM record in my family's modest collection, and I'll go out with that tune:

"Praise the Lord, and Pass the Ammunition, Praise the Lord, and Pass the Ammunition, Praise the Lord, and Pass the Ammunition And We'll Allllll Beeeeeee Freeeeeeeeeeee!"

Make Mine Stout!

Later today I'm teaching my first class at CCS, but I'm using this morning to catch up on some non-CCS matters. Read on...
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Check out Cole Odell's comment on my September 8th posting and "Moving Day." Needless to say, I'm not recommending anyone ever jump insane heights into dangerously narrow, shallow pools of water. Thanks, Cole, for making the 'what if' scenario painfully concrete; I hope your reckless and unfortunate Middlebury College didn't suffer any permanent injuries.
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This bemusing letter from my old friend Tim Viereck, aka 'Doc', who reports on a recent event involving his two innocent, unblemished children and the insinuation of malignant Bissette brainspew into his happy home:

"So I came into the living room this morning, Saturday morning. Videos have been banished for two weeks, as punishment for faulty behavior patterns, and Tamara and Pom are ensconced in an easy chair, she reading aloud. How sweet, how special!

I read an email, fill in a petition against the repeal of the estate tax, peruse some jokes sent by a friend, as the words drift into my consciousness: "... said grace, his robes moved... shifted and quivered as if hidden limbs were moving... limbs where no human being ever had limbs... "

Arrggghh! SpiderBaby Comix has found my six-year-old!

I turned his attention to Tyrant, and read a couple, but even after one, he said, "That next one doesn't look so good - it doesn't have much blood... I like the blood!", and after two, he went back outside to play.

To play whatever secret games he plays...
alone...
in the shadows...
by the ditch, perhaps with little helpless creatures...

Thanks, old buddy -
Doc"

Yes, it was difficult to manage, much less afford, but I did make a real effort to ensure every copy of SpiderBaby Comix was self-ambulatory and designed to target the youngest reader in any given geographic area. Though most readers can't feel them, there are eight spindly legs that sprout when the comix lay undisturbed for a long enough duration, with the genetically-embedded imperative to land in the lap of the most innocent and waif-like of all bipeds in their reach.

Wait, what's that scratching? Is it coming from that stack of comics -- or perhaps your comic boxes? The feeble but insistent scrabbling of thin, hairy legs....
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Bill Stout is one of my all-time favorite cartoonists and artists, and he has elevated his work into the ranks of classic paleontology and naturalist artists like Charles Knight, Zdenak Burian, and Rudolph Zallinger. My penpal Dan Johnson (who interviewed Rick Veitch and I for Back Issue magazine about a year ago) recently conducted a lengthy, career-spanning interview with Stout, and the first installment is on newsstands now in Filmfax (Plus) #107.

If that's not enough, my Mirage Studios amigo Mike Dooney also steered me to an online audiofiled interview with Bill Stout which is

here.

Poke around that site a bit for other engaging interviews with cartoonists and comics personalities.
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Al Nickerson's ongoing online Creator Bill of Rights debate continues: the link is forever posted on this blog (on the right), but if you've not checked it out yet, click

here.

Prepare for some intensive reading, and once you've digested all that, the latest letter from Al to Dave Sim is posted

here,

and Dave's latest response is

here.

The occasional discussion board posts regarding this ongoing discussion have been of interest, particularly the first response to Dave Sim's most recent letter by Scotsman Stu West on Comicon's board, which is

here.

Kudos to Stu, who immediately picked up where I was going with my reply, which I hope to provide ample historical context for. I'm specifically directing my replies to Al's site, as he initiated this current debate and is archiving the letters in a centralized online venue. Anyhoot, it's a worthwhile debate, particularly if you're working in the creative arts, eking out a living.
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Meanwhile, in day-to-day reality in our country, it's timely to reflect upon the events of the past three weeks. Lest we forget:

Daily Kos New Orleans recap

Andrew Debly steered me to the September 7th entry in the blog of Tor Books editor Teresa Nielson Hayden, which offers an agonizing account of the obstacles Katrina evacuees faced trying to leave New Orleans, and it makes for sobering (infuriating) reading. Check it out:

What We Did on Our Vacation.

I'm presently reading The Long Emergency by James Howard Kunstler, recommended by Alan David Doane, and preparing to interview George Romero about Land of the Dead, which I consider a masterpiece (along with Romero's previous Dead films). Somehow, the two go together with uncanny precision. Now that the Bush Administration has put the lid on photos of the dead from New Orleans (for the same reasons given for not photographing the incoming wounded and dead from the Iraq War), Romero's image of the dead rising from the waters takes on an eerie, almost prescient resonance...
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While there are countless Katrina relief efforts underway, including many from the comics field, one upcoming effort I've been informed of is Phil Yeh's community-galvanizing effort in Houston, which Rick Veitch just fired my way. FYI, Phil has been creating comics since 1970, including one of the first graphic novels (circa 1977). He remains best known for Theo the Dinosaur (1991) and The Winged Tiger (1993), but he has been a whirlwind of activity each and every year, tornadoing into neighborhoods all over the world to host pro-literacy comics and graphic novel workshops in community libraries and work with local youngsters and artists to create colorful public murals. Phil is a true comics and creativity activist, and it's no surprise he has quickly adapted an already-planned Houston event to Katrina relief efforts.

Phil is seeking donations of comics and graphic novels for Katrina victims. The press release offers the necessary details:

"Yeh is now working with the Houston Public Library to bring donated books to area shelters for the many people who are homeless due to this tragic event. He also plans to paint a mural with the some of the children in the area's shelters. Publishers and artists who would like to donate books for the relief effort can send books directly to the North Channel Branch Library, Harris County Public Library, 15741 Wallisvile Road, Houston, Texas 77049. Please address the donations to Pat Lippold, Branch Manager. All donations are tax deductible."

For further information, contact Rob Valentine at (805) 735-5134.

BTW, Phil's planned Houston workshop is happening, too. "Yeh's graphic novel workshops at both the downtown Houston Main Public Library at 4 pm on September 28 and at the North Channel Branch Library at 6 pm on the 29th will go on as scheduled. The events are free to the public."
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On August 30th, an AP report filed by Jennifer Loven offered the underreported bon mot that President Bush "answered growing anti-war protests with a fresh reason for American troops to continue fighting in Iraq: protection of the country's vast oil fields that he said would otherwise fall under the control of terrorist extremists."

Wait a minute -- isn't that what many of us said three years ago? Does our President even know what he's saying any longer???
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A few emailers asked where I got the poverty figures I cited in one of last week's posts. I'm being pretty rigorous about citing sources and/or online sources that are neither specifically left nor right; that info came from the AP as well, specifically Jennifer C. Kerr's August 30th "Poverty Rate Rises to 12.7 Percent
Changes Marks Fourth Consecutive Increase," which offers the following insights:

Even with a robust economy that was adding jobs last year, the number of Americans who fell into poverty rose to 37 million - up 1.1 million from 2003 - according to Census Bureau figures released Tuesday. It marks the fourth straight increase in the government's annual poverty measure. The Census Bureau also said household income remained flat, and that the number of people without health insurance edged up by about 800,000 to 45.8 million people. ...While disappointed, the Bush administration - which has not seen a decline in poverty numbers since the president took office - said it was not surprised by the new statistics....

The Bush Administration is "responding" to the reality of the mounting poverty and health care crisis precisely as they responded to Katrina: not at all. The last decline in poverty figures, according to the AP report, was in 2000, during the Clinton Administration. From the beginning of the Bush Presidency, all the effective policies instituted by the previous Administration were willfully abandoned, stripped, or inverted, as demonstrated most recently by the horrific underperformance of FEMA (which, under Clinton, was streamlined into one of the most effective FEMA eras in that organization's history). Parallel to that demolition of various poverty-relief efforts, Bush and his cronies have also gleefully realigned the distribution of tax burdens and wealth, even as the current stage of corporate evolution has inflated CEO salaries and packages into the stratosphere, increasing the disparity between incomes to levels unseen since the 1930s.

The "by the numbers" portion of the AP report is staggering:

31.1 Million People living in poverty in 2000

37 Million
People living in poverty in 2004

$44,389
Median household income in 2004 (unchanged from 2003)

45 million
People without health insurance in 2003

45.8 million
People without health insurance in 2004
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Finally, I needn't elaborate on the recent turn of events with FEMA management (and mismanagement), in which Bush had to eat his risible praise of Michael Brown aka "Brownie" to replace "Brownie" with a new acolyte (aka "Duct Tape Man"). This is indicative of the nature of almost all Bush Administration posts, rewarding political cronies regardless of their true abilities or inabilities, pawning off the responsibilities of and obligations to public safety and key regulatory positions as if Bush were a Fraternity kingpin blessing his circle of frat brothers. It's a vile spectacle now laid naked to the world, though anyone watching has been aware of this and could see this inevitability coming. The mask has been ripped at last from the Phantom's face, and there's no spinning or taking back that moment (maybe now more people can understand Jim Jeffords' decision to leave the Republican party in the first year of Bush's Administration: when, exactly, did Jeffords see the mask ripped away? His autobiographical book on the subject, reportedly ghost-written in part or whole, skirts the revelatory moment).

It's taken Katrina to at last open more of America's eyes to the reality of our situation. The abuses of power the American public and press have not only endured but sanctioned -- by delusional somnambulism and/or active indifference -- may finally be too blatant for even the most devoted of the flock to remain blind to for much longer. In the wake of the recent revelations concerning Karl Rove's role in the notorious Valerie Plume case, in which arguably the most influential Presidential aide in over half a century was shown to have vindictively breached national security to serve partisan reliation (a treasonous act), the incarceration of NY Times reporter Judith Miller (for an article that never saw print!) has finally put the press on notice. One of their own has gone down; it should be Rove, not Miller, behind bars (while Cheney and DeLay continue to enjoy an arm's length from the dirty deeds of their respective aides and associates, Rove himself is individually culpable this time).

We've seen a procession of government officials from Colin Powell to "Brownie" willing to fall on the sword for their Commander in Chief. But when Miller went to jail, I hoped that all journalists (not just the few who have been tackling this Administration, against enormous stacked odds) finally realized the stakes of this high-risk "game" includes their own -- themselves -- and that finally honoring one of the fundamental obligations of the press and their importance to a true democracy may be the only hope of saving their own asses.

An invigorating sign that even the most complacent and corporate of the US media might finally be waking up from their long slumber is offered by Marlene O'Connor, my beloved first wife, who told me this past week about a stunning turnabout in the wake of Katrina on none other than NBC news. Keith Olberman (aka the Bloggerman) was the man; Marlene tracked down an online transcript of that momentous event. It was last Monday night on NBC news, and you can read it for yourself

here.

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OK, enough of that. Tomorrow, a report on my first day teaching at CCS...