January 14, 2019
THE YEAR IN MEDIA
I’m always thinking I should blog more—it is after all, what, like 1996? What? 2019? Jesus God Almighty, blogs were 23 years ago. Anyway, I have worked hard over the last couple of months to rebuild my old habit of reading, something I did constantly as a kid and through my twenties, and—as a high school dropout—still the source of whatever small amount of self-education I retain. But social media and the various click-clacking distractions of having a smartphone just utterly destroyed it. So, for 2019, a resolution to do more reading and less clickety-clacking, other than good ol’ blogging.
May 20, 2013
ON TCAF AND GINA GAGLIANO AND VALUE
I have fallen out of the habit of writing con reports. They always seem to take a whole day, there’s a million links to go and fiddle with, pictures, all that. I’m too busy lately. But I wanted to say something about TCAF 2013—
January 23, 2013
INDIE GAME: THE MOVIE
So last night, I finally watched Indie Game: The Movie, a movie a lot of people I know were very excited about. It was the focus of not one but two successful Kickstarter campaigns, has a soundtrack by the brilliant Jim Guthrie, and was talked about by a lot of the people I know…
December 31, 2012
NEW YEARS RESOLUTION :: 2013 I Am Watching You
I always have a lot of New Year’s resolutions—for instance, "less masturbating, both literally and figuratively" is usually in there somewhere. "Don’t be such a dick" also is usually present in some form or other. I like the idea of self-improvement; I think it’s maybe…
October 21, 2012
NO HOMOSEXUALS
Today I was at a church-sponsored paintball field with most of my family, and the man running things pointed out in no uncertain terms during his safety/rules talk: "No homosexuals," and I didn’t say anything. Not a peep.
September 23, 2012
SOME THOUGHTS ON RICHARD THOMPSON
I feel very, very conflicted about writing about Richard Thompson, whose strip Cul de Sac ends today. Richard has been suffering from Parkinson’s disease for the last few years, and can’t keep up with the demands of a daily strip, even with help. I love Richard, both his body of work and him as a person…
September 21, 2012
SOME THOUGHTS ON SPX AND CONVENTIONEERING
Last weekend I exhibited at the Small Press Expo, one of the premier independent comics shows in North America. Just to give you some background. I was set up with Koyama Press, debuting my new book Diary Comics 4, as well as Small Drawings. Here’s a banner ad I did for the show, part of a series of 4 by Koyama artists, the others by Michael Deforge, John Martz, and Julia Wertz.
September 06, 2012
REVIEW :: Barack Hussein Obama
BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA is a challenging and idiosyncratic book that describes its subject from a great, absurd, and comic distance. It’s closer to the kind of associative resonance of poetry than what you would expect of a book called BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA, released just weeks before [the real] Obama’s attempt at a second term in office. It has very little to do with actual reality, and weirdly seems more real than it has any right to be.
July 12, 2012
HIS CHUCK CLOSE PROBLEM
I’m not an intellectual properties or copyright lawyer. I’m not well-versed in the dogma of appropriation versus reinterpretation vs derivation vs plagiarization. It all seems fairly subjective though, doesn’t it? I’d say for me that it’s something that comes down to value — does the philosophical blur of "is this right?" add a certain crackle to things?
June 27, 2012
HEROESCON 2012 :: The Power, The Glory, The Jaime
SO last weekend I was a guest of Heroes Convention 2012, widely described as the best mainstream comics show anywhere. I think a lot of people might stipulate that it’s the best regional show, and that’s fair. But for my money there’s nothing I want from a mainstream comics convention that Heroes doesn’t provide, short of actually being an indie comics convention. Oh and while we’re at it, featuring all my friends as guests, and being renamed "DharbinCon."