Queens Ledger/Brooklyn Star

The Queens Ledger/Brooklyn Star newspapers printed a write up of me and “the Moth or the Flame” last week. I garnered the front page of the Entertainment section. Below are some pics. And you can go check it out online here.

Pete’s Basement

Pete’s Basement is a show about comics broadcast on the internet from Pete’s basement in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. They have been producing the show for two years now and have some pretty funny stuff on it, if you like comics and born-and-bred Brooklynites anyway. While I was drowsily manning my table at the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival the other week they interviewed me about my work. Go here to check it out. My part of the show is around 9 minutes in. After me they go to some reviews of recent comics and then towards the end they go back to the festival footage. Check it out!

www.petesbasement.com

Bento Box

I recently constructed this “Bento Box” of goodness for some friends of mine. I liked it so much I took some photos. It is comprised of two t-shirts, one poster, two postcards, two sets of four buttons, and one copy of “the Moth or the Flame”. I fabricated the whole thing out of cardboard, white electrical tape, and clear packing tape.

Check it out:

Productive pow-wow

Last week friend of Thursday City Kristin “Little Bear” Lindner left the city. She went to a strange place named Chicago, a land of sausages and sports. Apparently there are also comics lovers there. One in particular, Sarah Becan, hereafter referred to as the Princess of Power, knows Little Bear. While they were talking about and loving comics Little Bear presented a peace offering to the Princess of Power in the form of one copy of my book “the Moth or the Flame.” The Princess of Power enjoyed it so much that she promised Little Bear safe passage amongst her people and also wrote a fine review of my book on her website.

Go check it out!
www.shortpantspress.com

General Updates

I am hard at play on my next book entitled “Severed Limbs.” I am a couple/few dozen pages into it and it looks to be finished one day.

This weekend I am participating in Open Studios in my building. A bunch of the artists here are opening up their studios (as the name would imply) in conjunction with a big arts thingamajig that BWAC does each year. We’ll see how that goes.

Also this weekend is the MoCCA Festival, in which dozens of really good cartoonists and publishers purvey their wares. Unfortunately I was too late to procure a table for “the Moth or the Flame” this year, so hopefully next time. I am angling to make it out, but with Open Studios, Big Brown making a run for the Triple Crown at the Belmont, and various and sundry other odds and ends, who knows if I actually will? God?

I am also working on a collaboration book of poetry, philosophy, polemical dialectic, cartoons, and comics with the amazing Martijn Benders, which we plan to complete within the next two years or so. You can read some of the stuff in germinative form on Martijn’s blog Loewak, which I also contribute to. As for the drawings they will remain largely a secret until the book is complete.

The official website for the city of Thursday City is almost done (a long time coming). I will post a link when it is complete. Postmaster General Benjamin Santiago predicts an arrival date sometime next week, but we all know how reliable the Thursday City Post Office is. We will see.

And finally please don’t forget to peruse the goods at thursdaycitywares.blogspot.com. One of the new items to check out is the Lightning Lump stuffed animal I am producing on demand in collaboration with Kristin Little Bear Lindner. I have received an amazing initial response to “the Moth or the Flame,” but in order to build this snowball into an avalanche I need to actually receive some financial remuneration for my years of toiling away in obscurity. And let’s face it, you could use some mythic power in your life.

That’s all for this transmission from the city of Thursday City. I will leave you with a sneak peek of a page from the upcoming “Severed Limbs.”

Potemkin glowers from on high:

the Moth or the Flame: Release Party

The Moth or the Flame book release party on Sunday night at Desert Island was considered a success by Jehovah and Gracey Kallifracks. The doors opened at 6 and there were already people waiting outside to get in. I hadn’t even had a moment to catch my breath before people were filling up the store and I was signing books. I don’t know what I expected, but it was semi-shocking to see people lined up for an autographed copy.

Since it was Mother’s Day my mother acted as Surrogate Mom for all the people at the party, so no one had to go without a hug from momma. And after 2 hours of chatting, signing and communing we had Tall Tale Time with Jehosephat Sunrays. I emceed and told the first story, and eight others told stories while everyone relaxed on blankets and ate s’mores brownies with beer. Mmmm… delicious and delightful.

I can’t even begin to express just how grateful I felt for the love and support that was shown. There was so much warmth, love, and energy given to me that I do not know how to repay it. Thanks to all that came out, and if you missed it I hope to see you next time. Or you can make up for it by ordering a book!

Check it out:

Desert Island

Big news!!! “the Moth or the Flame” is printed and I am having a book release party on Sunday May 11th! The party will be graciously hosted by Desert Island, the hottest new comic book store in Brooklyn (in North America really), which is located at 540 Metropolitan Ave. Visit their website here: desertislandbrooklyn.com The event will be from 6pm to 9pm and there will be beer, vittles, and great company. The book is hardback, will cost a measly fifteen simoleons, and I will sign any copies one wishes to be signed. Tell your friends and bring everyone along.

The proprietor of Desert Island, Gabriel, and I screen printed posters for the event this weekend. This is what it looks like:




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Entreaty

Abraham’s entreaty to the gods on my behalf finally worked and this week I received a batch of advanced copies of “the Moth or the Flame.” Here is a photographic teaser. The entire shipment will arrive in mid-April and will immediately be purchasable through Paypal online, directly through me, or at a very select number of comics stores. More details to come, but for now the images will have to suffice. I hope more than 3 of you are as excited as me, because I will have a thousand of these precious little objects to disseminate.

Giving thanks

The last two weeks have been psychologically and technologically disturbing here in Thursday City. A city wide computer problem caused a series of collapses, which destroyed many vaulted files. This series of computer problems triggered a series of psychological disturbances which shook Thursday City to the core. But I am back in the saddle (as it were) and excited about the future again. Yes, the rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. To catch you up on news: “the Moth or the Flame” is nearly ready to be sent to the printers. It will hopefully be available in mid-winter. “Severed Limbs” is coming along swimmingly. I should have images soon of the show in Michigan, from October. They will be posted as soon as I have received them. Le Gooch still has extra toes and is yet to show any hint of embarrassment about this fact. I have advanced another year in living chronology. Mayor Trumbull is still in his grave, and the interim Mayor Wilson should be replaced after the upcoming elections. The legal struggles involving the city of Thursday City and Kreme King’s illegal dumping of mass amounts of petro-chemical waste into Thursday River are still mired in seemingly interminable legal gridlock. The sun came up and went down again today. And all seems to be otherwise enduring in the world. Thanks for that.

BIG NEWS!: Re-membered

After I posted the news about not winning the Xeric grant the positive response was overwhelming (if a few people saying “too bad” can be considered overwhelming). Well one of the respondees offered to help fund the printing of the book. She is the president of Southern Belle Communications, Angela Finney. As you all know the Finney’s are a long established and well respected family here in Thursday City. Angela’s support could not be more appreciated. So it looks like Southern Belle Communications will be the co-publisher of “the Moth or the Flame.” It should be available in the Winter of 2008. Hurray!

I am now working on another long(ish) comic book titled “Severed Limbs.” (For those of you that love self-referentiality you will see it mentioned in “the Moth or the Flame,” once that is printed and available.) It follows a day in the rough and tumble life of Friedrich Blitzkrieg (if you will recall he was introduced to the blog a while back), you can call him Fred. This is the opening page of the upcoming book (look for it around 2009ish). (Apparently this post could have been sub-titled “parentheticals abound.”)