Jul 20 2005
I transported my digital camera 3000 miles to San Diego, only to find it D.O.A. on the one day I took it to the convention and actually had a few hours to wander around and take pictures. Hopefully it’s just the batteries…but, anyway, this was forwarded to me. Front to back, that’s Chris Reilly, Steve Ahlquist and me at the Slave Labor booth.
Jul 19 2005
I’m on the snopes.com email newsletter list and recently received this month’s issue highlighting new additions to the site. Snopes.com specializes in researching stories and news items that circulate either verbally or via the internet, then either debunking them as urban legends or verifying that they are in fact true. This one is truly stunning:
Jul 19 2005
I’m doing a two-page story for the next Wide Awake Press anthology. The theme this time around is horror. I haven’t got the story entirely worked out yet, but it will definitely feature Count Stinkula: Hobo Vampire!
Jul 19 2005
The article linked above is about the new Harry Potter novel, but contains some good press for comics as well, including a swell quote from yours truly:
If Harry Potter doesn’t lure kids in, maybe comic books will. That’s what librarians are finding, as they reel in book-wary students with comics, graphic novels, and manga, the genre of Japanese comics. “Kids exist in a visual world, and comic books are a natural mode of text for them,” says Ben Towle, cofounder of the National Association of Comics Art Educators, which is promoting the use of these works in literacy programs as well as other school subjects.
Skeptics may still think of comics as trash lit. But Michele Gorman, an Austin librarian, is a believer. “They’re fun, but they’re not always easy to read. The vocabulary can be advanced, as can the imagery,” she says. That’s why she’s focusing on the library’s comics collection. After all, Maus by Art Spiegelman, the graphic novel telling of his father’s story of survival during the Holocaust, is as powerful as (if not more than) any plain-prose volume, and Jeff Smith’s Bone series, about three cousins who get separated in a weird world, is often compared with The Lord of the Rings .
Jul 10 2005
Wide Awake Press: INDIE ISLAND AT THE 2005 HEROES CONVENTION
The link above is a report on the recent Charlotte con, via J. Chris Campbell of Wide Awake Press, along with some pictures from the event. Regarding me, Chris relates the rarely told tale of my introduction to the facinating world of mini-comics:
Ben Towle tells Rob and me about the time he met old man Haversham up in the hills of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He showed Ben how to make mini-comics out of tree bark, twine and a pocket knife. Said he drew his comics in his own blood and kept them in mason jars buried in his yard. He even showed Ben a map he made pointing out the spots of all the jars. Thankfully Ben has a photographic memory and made a copy of the map when he got home. One day he says he’s gonna go back up there and dig up everyone of them mini-comics. That Ole Ben is such a crazy fella.
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