Happy Birthday, Cole!

I don't know if I'll post this one...

I guess I did.

On the other hand, I found out that if I was a Christmas food I'd be a trifle. I don't know what to think of these quizzes.

Pull List

First off, a clarification on my views on Iraq. I did not support the invasion, and I think it would better to begin pulling out than continuing the current half-a$$ed policy Bush pretends is a strategy. But we are there now and we should have tried to win. We might have pulled off a win a few years back, but I can't imagine a way now to pull together the political, economic and trained military resources we'd need to put 500,000 US troops in Iraq for the next ten years. Bush stabbed his own soldiers in the back by not trying to do this in 2003, or better yet not invading at all.

Anyhow, back to comics. I'm one of those lucky jerks who gets a pile of free DC comics every month. I'm on the comp list. Marvel used to have a comp list before their short lived financial crisis in the mid 90s. Anyhow, I thought I'd write down the books I yanked to read first.

Fables: still top of the list
Shadowpact and Jack of Fables: more Willingham goodness!
Welcome to Tranquility: they sent me a preview and I did a later cover. Good stuff.
Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters: Daniel Acuña is my current inspiration! Why does he have an IMDB entry?
Astro City: Dark Ages
100 Bullets: written by Chicago's own Brian Azzarello
Cat Woman: mainly for the Adam Hughes covers. He's a continuing inspiration. Beyond near flawless technique his graphic creativity keeps blowing me away. His laurels have never been slept on.
American Splendor
The BOYS: Just noticed the creative team. How did I miss the previous issues?
Desolation Jones
Midnighter: Studyng Chris Sprouse's work marked my style transition in 1999. Still love his work. That Garth Ennis guy's pretty good too.
Superman Confidential: Again, how'd I miss the first issue?

Beyond that, my pal Lowell's has me studying the world of manga. Really enjoying Scott Pilgrim, Death Note and Kare Kano. Pilgrim is really a Canadian book, not true manga. Definitely one of my favorite reads right now. I do wish that he'd stop drawing Nancy noses...

Cute fuzzy drunk

It's sad and debauched and cute. From Skywitch and her husband Shad (of Big Time Attic). They came home to find out that a squirrel had been gnawing at the jack o'lanterns on their front stoop. The pumpkins had fermented.







Apparently the squirrel is all better now!

Memes I like

There are endless brilliant webcomics out there today. Back in 2000 even the best looked like rejects from a high school newspaper. They've since become truly beautiful, and in some ways are more exciting and varied than the US print comic book scene!

I've been reading Dork Tower and Penny Arcade for years. Now my friends Sherri and Lowell have gotten me hooked on Scary Go Round. The rotating cast of young fun heroes face up to a rotating cast of mystical and annoying threats. In today's episode a young British woman has been forced into nunning by the Devil. And now her young charges have mutinied and are chucking her into a wicker vole. It's hard to explain, you'll have to check it out yourself...


I just can't stop reading it!

Photos from Cleveland

Jeremy and Kelly Dale are my paesans from South Bend. They took quite a few photos, including a lot of photos of my booth when they got bored. We were across the aisle from each other.

Mid-Ohio-Con photos

Jeremy is the broad shouldered kid behind the Jeremy-Dale.com table sign and draws Absolute Zeroes. Kelly is the striking red head not wearing Phoenix tights and works as a school psychologist. They've moved to South Carolina recently, so I guess the students are crazier there than Indiana.