C2E2, This Saturday

Today marks the beginning of C2E2 in Chicago and I'll be joining in the frenzy, albeit briefly.

While I'll be walking around today looking around at old toys and back issues of "Jimmy Olsen" and "Dotty Dripple and Taffy," I'll be sitting in one place taking your complaints and signing your dog from 2 to 4 tomorrow. I'll be housed by the reputable people of Chicago Comics, booth 526 (according to the current floor plan). Stop by, say hello, and demand that I stop using that high pitched voice when I talk with your dog.

Why did you bring so many dogs anyway?

Once More, from The VP

To indulge in one more bit of moral perspective, I thought this short but extremely heartfelt screed from Joe Biden was perfect. Biden's not known to prevaricate, and this time it served him – and the cause of the workers – for the better.

400 and Millions

To be overtly political for a moment (though I think it's more about morality and ethics than politics): Michael Moore gave a speech that I think is worth listening to. The truths he's saying here have been said by many others many times over, but hearing it told to a crowd in Wisconsin is especially meaningful.

Also worth viewing, with a few more laugh lines: Mr. Stewart over on The Daily Show has some well-chosen words about the inverted world of riches and work in an increasingly disparate class system in America.

More on So-So

Over at Chronicle Books' Blog there's a brief interview with me and a few more pictures of the upcoming collection So-So Heroes. Also: I mention Don Knotts and Airwolf, as is only correct and good to do.

Color Proofs Galore

A heap of color proofs are littered on my side table right now from the upcoming Life with Mr. Dangerous (from Random House/Villard) and So-So Heroes (from Chronicle). Have a gander. One of the proofs from Life with Mr. Dangerous in this shot is 1 of around 30 pages of comics that never appeared in Mome or anywhere else. Needless to say, those will get extra attention in the proofing stage.

And peeking around the corners are a few of the studio's scattered toys, one from Meltdown (though that one was purchased in Chicago at Quimby's), one from Friends with You, and a little Snoopy head that if you rotate its ear shows you different single panel Peanuts cartoons through a window in the back of his skull. Why that last one was ever produced, I don't know, but it's one of my favorites.

A Poster, Sampson Style

How do you do a poster? This is how you do a poster.

From the unending crotch kicking that is Johnny Sampson.

Game Over 4

On Friday, Giant Robot San Francisco will open the doors on Game Over 4, a show inspired by video games and their various pixelated worlds. I contributed last year, and am honored to be included again this year.

This time around I had Pac-Man on the brain, due in no small part to google's somewhat recent distraction. And I loved the Pac-Man cartoon. And I had... the record? Yes, I had a Pac-Man 45. And a Sesame Street disco album. That and murder mysteries went a long way toward making me whatever I am today.

I won't be able to make it to the opening, but I'm sure it will be an amazing gathering of arcade and basement born enthusiasm. Here's the skinny:

Game Over IV at GRSF, March 4, 2011 - March 30, 2011
Reception: Friday, March 4, 6:30 pm - 10:00 pm
618 Shrader Street San Francisco, CA 94117

Artists include swell people like Esao Andrews, Jeffrey Brown, Farel Dalrymple, Little Friends of Printmaking, Jeremy Tinder and a heap more.

Our Secret Mayor

A digital high-five is deserved to my friend Dan Sinker of Punk Planet, Cell Stories and now Twitter fame, for the revelation that he is none other than Pretend Rahm Emanuel. Dan has come out of tweeting anonymity to admit he's the man behind the profanity-laiden and oft-followed@MayorEmanuel account: he spoke with The Atlantic, and from the looks of a bazillion re-posts and following stories, everyone else was listening.

Way to go, Dan. Way to fucking go.

The Order of Odd-Fish on Boing Boing

My pal James Kennedy's book, The Order of Odd-Fish (for which I drew the paperback cover), was just reviewed on Boing Boing and I couldn't agree with Cory Doctorow's remarks more:

"This is what Harry Potter would be if its magic world was truly wondrous and magnificent, as opposed to plain reality with broomsticks and funny robes."

Farewell, Earwax

After a long history in Chicago, I was saddened to hear that Earwax Cafe is closing. In addition to having some of the best milkshakes and vegetarian burgers I've ever tasted, Earwax served as a meeting place for myself and countless other cartoonists over the years. Earwax, whose walls were adorned with circus sideshow banners and oddities, could lay claim to logos and ads designed by a couple generations worth of funny book people, including Daniel Clowes (who I just saw has a functioning web site, another sign of the progression of time) and Jeff Brown. Jeff and I used to meet up there with some regularity (one such get-together is pictured above), back when we lived in the area, and I know Jeff drew there all the time (with scenes from the cafe featured in some of his books).

I hung up countless posters over the years in this place, went there when I was depressed about this or that, made plans with The Holy Consumption there, and my second date with my wife nervously took place there, before our first kiss on a nearby playground. When I heard Earwax was closing, it was surprising to me just how many memories came back. Sometimes a cafe isn't just a cafe.

Goodbye, Earwax, you'll be missed.

Sale on Everything, Today Only

Because I feel bad about not posting shirts for the past couple weeks (though it's for several good reasons that I'll hopefully be able to talk about soon), I'm trying to make it up to you, dear reader, by offering 20% off everything on the Forlorn Funnies Store.

That's 20% off all original art and prints (I just added some prints and will hopefully be adding more next week).

And that's for 24 hours only... I mean, come on, I don't feel that guilty.

When you're at the store just enter in this code: FEB17. That should do the trick. If you have any problems with the code, please just leave a comment on this post and I'll look into it.

Happy discounting!

Link Burp for 02.16.11

It's high time I started a feature on the blog that is simply a bunch of stuff and bits that I found interesting over the past few days/week, but about which I haven't had the time to write a proper post. Therefore: link burp.

On to some sentences and some links:

• The book is great, but why not listen to the actual recordings of The Hitchcock and Truffaut conversations?

• You've been saying there aren't enough 14-part Star Wars documentaries out there in the world. You can stop saying that quite so much.

• Exciting news for anyone who enjoys The Criterion Collection and the ease of use of Hulu: Criterion comes to Hulu plus.

• Radiohead is releasing their new album this Saturday. Exciting. That they're releasing a "newspaper album" as well? Very exciting. And head-scratch-inducing. What's a newspaper album?

• I enjoy Pantone's colors (I often drink from my favorite Pantone mug). I enjoy cookies. Finally someone made some Pantone Chip Cookies.

• Take a trip around the offices and workspace of Pixar and remind yourself that where you work should always have a secret room triggered by a Shakespeare bust.

Get Flinchy

This has been in the works for some time, so it's a pleasure to finally be able to say that artists Jay Ryan, Diana Sudyka, and Tom Stack (with all around support from designer Jason Harvey) have launched their new shirt site: flinchy.

It's a great line up of attire from an amazing group (who all happen to be phenomenally nice people to boot), and with copy written by my pal and perennial blogger John Huston.

And if the shirts weren't enough to keep your interest (and they should be), you can test your Chicago cultural vocabulary by naming all the models for the shirts. A certain mister Nilsen (below) is among them, along with a Mr. Albini of the musical world and Christen Carter of Busy Beaver Buttons fame.

Give Yourself a Black Eye

There are still 17 days to go and more funds needed for Black Eye, an amazing (pending) anthology of dark humor featuring a long list of contributors. Among that list, some of my favorite people in comics:

Stéphane Blanquet (France)
Lilli Carré (USA- Chicago)
Al Columbia (USA)
Ludovic Debeurme (France)
Kaz (USA- Los Angeles)
Michael Kupperman (USA- New York City)
Mats!? (USA- Oakland, CA)
Olivier Schrauwen (Belgium)
Robert Sikoryak (USA- New York City)
Jon Vermilyea (USA- New York City)

I'll be contributing work as well (something concerning a childhood hero of mine), and I'm looking forward to seeing how such a wide selection of artists and writers comes together. So hurry up, Give to Black Eye now and support independent, grass roots fuckeduppery.

Strange Tales II Cover

No posts? No shirts? What gives?

Well, questioning internet, I've been a bit busy, to put it mildly. And unfortunately I can't talk about most of what I'm doing just yet. But at least one of the projects I can talk about:

I just completed the cover designs for Marvel's Strange Tales II collection, due out in April. It was a pleasure to work on the project, with the only difficulty being what to choose out of all the great art in the series. But there was one person whose work I knew I wanted on the cover before I even began sorting through the files: Kate Beaton, who is, in my humble opinion, one of the best, most pitch-perfect cartoonists working today.