I'm pleased and honored to say that original artwork from my books – as well as uncollected comics, drawings, and various oddities – will now be represented by Charles A. Hartman Fine Art.
Feel free to peruse the pages the gallery's put up. And in the near future I'll post more information about the show planned for next spring.
I am saddened, disappointed, angered, but not at all surprised by the recent resurgence of character assaults on Barack Obama by Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Her insistence that Obama is "palling around with terrorists" (in reference to Obama's connection to former radical and Weather Underground co-founder William Ayers) is barely relevant, even if it were accurate (which it is not).
That Obama chooses to befriend (though in this case it would be seriously straining the term "befriend") those who did wrong in the past (as Obama has explicitly denounced Ayers' violence, I think it safe to say he would construe it as "wrong"), merely speaks to a capacity to forgive and to reach across differences for a common good. That he is "palling around" with a currently active criminal or terrorist is beyond ludicrous, though that is certainly what Palin is attempting to evoke. Ayers is now a tenured professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and conducted his suspect actions in the late 1960's and early seventies, before Obama was even ten years old. Obama's involvement with Ayers – which included accepting a small donation ($200) from him in 1995 and serving with him on philanthropic boards benefiting schools – hardly qualifies as being fast friends, and certainly has nothing to do with condoning his actions decades ago, when, again, Obama was a mere child.
But infamous Savngs and Loan fraud czar Charles Keating conducted his wrongdoing (which I would argue affected more lives in a far more negative and long-lasting way, bilking the American public of billions of dollars) not when John McCain was a child, but when he was a U.S. Representative. And he (Keating) had contributed hundreds of thousands to McCain's campaign. And Keating's fate was directly influenced by his association with McCain and McCain's subsequent (lapse of, or poor) judgment. THAT sort of association and subsequent judgment about what to do with fraudulent persons (or the environment of non-regulation that leaves their activities unfettered) IS relevant and certainly worth closer examination. That said, I recommend the above video.
If you're anywhere near the Baltimore/Washington DC area this weekend, or if you're anywhere near the east coast at all, stop by SPX, The Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland. It's always been one of my favorite conventions, being a near perfect blend of gritty, quick xeroxed minicomics and polished silkscreened and lithographed eye candy. And this year you'll get a chance to meet the inestimable talent that is Joost Swarte in person. What's not to like?
I'll be at table D15, almost directly across the aisle from Fantagraphics (and Joost Swarte will be just around the corner from them). I'll be hiding behind the second printing of The Three Paradoxes and piles of t-shirts. Stop by, say hello, and ask where the restroom is.
I don't where he finds it all, but God bless Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine. I could spend days – probably weeks – just reading through the treasures there. There's something about these pages that is everything right about comics, a sort of playful recklessness that's lacking in so many modern comics (and I include my anal retentive self in that). Something about just banging those comics out on their dynamo schedules imbued them with this sort of kinetic insanity, and I can't get it enough of it.
There's nothing more to say other than to give a long due hats off. Keep up the good work, Pappy.
A student of mine was recently asking how to use a ruling pen, along with other questions about various time honored tools of the trade, and I realized how little material there is out there about these tools and their uses, save a couple books on inking like Steve Rude and Gary Martin's (which has some decent pointers in it) and the stalwart, if limited, How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way (which, if I recall correctly, just has a handful of pages on inking and doesn't focus much on the actual tools). Reminded of that dearth of information, I wanted to be sure to point to comicrazy's post of Lesson 3 from the Famous Artists Cartoon Course: Inking the Head and Figure. It's fairly basic, but packed with useful bits. Featuring art from some of the best the business has ever known doesn't hurt either.
My best buddy in the world, John Huston (pictured above in slightly younger days), has finally been given the nod by the provincial powers that be to start his blog at the Pioneer Press here in the suburbs of Chicago. The city (and the world at large) is better for it. He's one of the funnier people I know, and no one enjoys getting under people's skin more. So expect great things, or at the very least (from the looks of things on the blog thus far) expect some great lunches and dentistry.
If all Thieves of the Night (comprised of my pals Charlie Deets and Deric Criss) ever put out is this video (above) and this picture (below), they'll still be one of my favorite bands. In fact, that's the best way they can guarantee it. One hundred percent pretense, no music.
Finally, we've reached the logical conclusion of the music industry.
I'm not sure what the pie graph of my time spent on the internet would look like. I'm sure the majority of the graph would be reading news, especially recently as we sprint toward apparent Armageddon. But another sizable chunk would have to be –born at least partially from escapism, but in concert with sheer curiosity and forgetfulness – playing detective work about items from my youth. What really existed, what was that show or this toy really like? The forgotten worlds the internet burps out never cease to impress.
One such burp is the Mego Museum. Like plenty of people my age, I've a fond recollection of these dolls (apologies to the male power fantasy comics crew, but they're dolls), though I never had the honor of owning one. I would go down the street and play with Batman, Robin, and (if I recall correctly) Spider-Man, all owned by Jodi Reid, the daughter of the school librarian. Jodi, by the power of ownership of these dolls (possibly her older brother owned them, but that was of little import to anyone at the time), was the coolest kid – never mind girl – on the block.
There was something about those toys sadly lacking in the over-rendered toys of today. Somehow in their simplicity they left play more open to interpretation. A sort of three dimensional cartoon. Maybe I'm just being overly nostalgic, romanticizing the past. Mainly I'm still just a little jealous of Jodi Reid, wherever she is. Guess I could look that up on the internet, but I've got to get back to reading about which bank fell through today.
Several months ago, the good people of the Ann Arbor Book Festival were kind enough to invite me up and have a little conversation with Dave Carter, comic enthusiast and purveyor of this blog. The Festival site subsequently posted a heavily truncated version of our conversation in which I mumble and pull just about every possible face out of my bag in a simulacrum of entertainment for the five or six people in the audience. All in all, I think we had a good time. And, yes, the truth is out: I love root beer.
The Holy Consumption site, which has, for the past six years, hosted postings of artwork by Jeffrey Brown, John Hankiewicz, Anders Nilsen, and myself, will discontinue its "Sunday Services" ("weekly" offerings which, due to my schedule in concert with this blog and the other three artist's schedules was getting to be far from a weekly event). Anders finished off the six year run with one of the best contributions yet (a truncated version of which is above, but be sure to visit the site to see it in its majestic entirety).
I posted a longer note of the site's progress and where you'll be able to find all of us on The Holy Consumption's blog. For those that e-mailed wondering about the Sunday Services (mainly readers from Sweden, for reasons that escape me), we'll be keeping the site up for anyone who wants to peruse all those past posts, and I'll be sure to post any new events or projects from the group here.
As I noted in that blog post: thanks so much to everyone for reading, e-mailing, and supporting us for these past six years. Your support was invaluable.
Ruben Bolling's Tom the Dancing Bug (a perennial favorite of mine) once again hits it right on the head, this time succinctly nailing the demeaning nature of McCain's vice presidential pick.
Eugene Mirman – one of my favorite comedians despite inadvertently pouring his drink down the front of my jacket at a post-show bar encounter during my latest trip to New York – apparently garnered unsolicited attention from the secret service for his smoking pants at this year's Republican National Convention.
My pal and all around aesthete Michelle Maguire has posted more gorgeous photography on her site Pretty Patti. Stop by and give your support by picking up a Theremin couture Clara Rockmore shirt.
Goodbye to Bill Melendez, the animator who worked on "Pinnochio," "Fantasia," and most memorably for me and so many others, on the animated Peanuts cartoons. I've always loved his collaboration with Peanuts creator Charles Schulz and understood on some level why Schulz never authorized anyone else to animate the characters. Melendez was just that perfectly in tune with Schulz's quiet world, even to the point of being Snoopy's voice.
Music Hall (below) will be taking the stage at the end of this month with Spectrum (above), aka Sonic Boom, aka Pete Kember of Spacemen 3. I saw Mr. Kember once open a show (under the moniker of Sonic Boom) with a bevy of Speak & Spell voice emulator toys and a mixer. That's it. And he filled the venue with one of the most massive sounds I've ever heard. So I'm looking forward to seeing what gadgets and noises Spectrum brings this time around.
Music Hall goes on first, around 9. Feel free to recommend your preferred b-movie, educational film, or newsreel to be shown over top of whatever it is we end up performing.
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