May 14 2005

What I’m Listening to:

Recent CDs I’ve purchased:

  • Bonfire AC/DC (boxed set)
  • How it Ends Devotchka
  • Innervisions Stevie Wonder
  • Ramones The Ramones
  • St. Louis to Liverpool Chuck Berry
  • Come See Me The Pretty Things (best of)
  • London Calling The Clash
  • Love and Theft Bob Dylan
  • Revolution 33 Red Planet

May 13 2005

New Chick tract!

The newest Chick tract is all about NASCAR stuff—it even stars a driver nicknamed “The Eliminator.” Haw Haw Haw!

Dale

Speaking of which, I can hardly wait for International Chick Tract Day! Here’s what you need to do to celebrate on November 22nd:

There are four things you should do on November 22nd to celebrate International Chick Tract Day. They are:

1. Use some outdated expression in a fruitless effort to sound “hip.” Good examples include, “Far out”, “That’s heavy man”, or “This will blow your mind!”

2. Laugh really hard at something that isn’t particularly funny while pointing at it and guffawing, “Haw-haw-haw!”

3. Leave a Chick tract for that special someone who is least likely to have any interest in Christianity. Good examples include rock stars, prison bullies, or religious leaders of non-Christian faiths. The more impossible it is to imagine they will read it and be converted by it, the more probable it is that they will fall on all fours and recite the Sinner’s prayer by the end of the story (at least, that’s how it happens in the tracts).

4. Consider new ways the Jesuits might be plotting against the United States, the Protestant churches, or Chick Publications. Alert your friends to any likely conspiracies you uncover.

Oh, and need we mention you should also read and enjoy the same tract before you give it away? (You might as well get your full 14 cents worth.) Haw-haw-haw!

May 13 2005

Strange Eggs: Interviews, etc.

Here are a few recent press items about Strange Eggs:

At comicon’s The Pulse (It’s about third from the top as I post this, but will migrate downward as new stuff gets posted)

Strange Eggs picked as book of the week at NinthArt.com

Interview at NickelPig.com (Under “Recent Headlines” up top)

SE cover image

May 11 2005

Happy 25th PacMan

Google Maps

I’ll Take Pac-Manhattan

Pac Man turns 25

May 10 2005

Free Comic Book Day

Last Saturday was Free Comic Book Day and I wandered down to my local comics shop, Silver Bullet Comics to see what this year’s offerings were. Here’s what I’ve read so far:

  • Fantagraphics – I can’t remember the proper title of the offering from Fantagraphics this year, since I don’t have it sitting in front of me, but here are my general thoughts: the new stuff was great, but way too many reprints for my taste—of course I’m a big fan of most of Fantagraphics artists, so I’ve read a bunch of their stuff. Anyway, the new stuff was great—I loved Ivan Brunetti’s riff on Wally Woods “22 Panels that Always Work,” entitled “22 Panels that Always Work Sometimes” and the other strip by him was great. I’ve never been a big Brunetti fan–his cartooning is amazing, but usually the stories are so self-obsessed that I can’t really generate any interest in them, and often they rely on the “gross out” as a device, which gets pretty boring after a while…but this stuff is great and is from the upcoming Schizo #4, which I’ll definitely pick up.

    Likewise, the Kupperman stuff from his upcoming book was really good—although, he’s definitely a “you love him or you hate him” kinda cartoonist.

    Unfortunately, the rest of the stuff was pretty much reprints, and heavy on the “Love and Rockets” which has never been my bag. The most inexplicable inclusion was a 10-15 year-old Dan Clowes “Dan Pussey” story that pokes fun at the “comics collector” phenomenon of around a decade ago—it’s somewhat expired at this point, and there’s tons of better Clowes material they could have used. My guess is that it was included as a not-so-subtle barb at mainstream comics retailers—precisely the sort of smarmy, obnoxious gesture that the Fanta folks are known for.

  • Flight by Image Comics – This one includes two stories: one from “Flight Vol I” and the other from “Flight Vol II.” I own the first “Flight” book and have mixed feelings about it. The artwork througout is beautiful, but the stories themselves tend not to be very substantive. In the case of the FCBD giveaway, though, they picked probably the best story from the fist volume, which was wise. The story from the second volume is, again, beautifully rendered, if a bit sacharine for my tastes. Did I mention that they’re beautifully drawn…with beautiful color? Well, they are…

More as I read them…