Fotographical Friday: A cow I done did draw a might good piece o’ time ago.

Fotographical Friday: Madly reading MAD.

Career Crisis: How I began my Master’s dissertation (2012): Page 4.

Fotographical Friday: Still #1.

Shocking image, ain’t it. No more shocking than that MAD Magazine is moving from NYC – its home since its inception 65 years ago – to Burbank. On Monday night editors, staff and contributors, both past and present, gathered at send-off party…and I got as many of them to sign this infamous image as I could. As a kid reading MAD I dreamt of being one of “the usual gang of idiots.” Many thanks to my first editor, Jon Bresman, for the encouragement and guidance to make that happen, and to my second editor, Ryan Flanders, for keeping that dream alive and becoming a dear friend in the process.

Free Comic Book Day recap

Please note my hot-rod red NYC laundry cart that I use to haul books around

Once again, I’m as timely as ever. It’s been over two weeks since FCBD and I’m just now posting about it. And my memory ain’t as facile as it used to be, but I’ll give it a go.

I did an appearance at Comix Connection and, man, they know how to do it up right. The whole reason for FCBD is to get people into comic book stores and, presumably, get them to come back. And how do you do that? CC had sales galore going on: 20% off everything. Still too pricey? How about $1 back issues (usually about $4). Not good enough, ya cheapskate? How ’bout all $1 comics at 10¢? There was a line out the door for the first two hours I was there.

I was signing free Bo prints (in the spirit of the day) and met some nice people including fan-of-the-day Phillip, who drove 90 minutes to meet me. Hope I didn’t disappoint. (E-mail me, Phillip, I lost your address.) A handful of students from my “Graphic Novel to Film” class showed up. I’d like to think I’ve inspired them to search out comics, but I feel their geekish tendencies were well in place.

I sold some books, which is always nice, but left with a much bigger stack of books, which is even nicer. They are piled next to my bed making dark-of-night visits to the little cartoonist’s room an adventure.

Many thanks to Bill, Ned, Jared and everyone at CC for my second FCBD there. HTDIANY (Hope to do it again next year).

May is the new February (I guess)

Yesterday was the end of the Mrs. Yannes/Valentines series rerunning on Gocomics.com. If you want to read it from the beginning, start here cuz I’m going to throw out a spoiler below.

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The seed of the idea came of a Valentines-themed coupon we got in the mail from out car repair place. Then I had the idea of Mrs. Yannes recognizing her lost love in the cartoon of the muffler. Realizing that she actually resembles a spark plug came much later in the writing process. And, wow, I’m glad it did.

Reader Wildcard24365 was nice enough to comment, “Touching, yet consistently surrealistic.”

Thursday is the new Sunday – Pop goes the…

The Sunday strip that’s rerunning on Gocomics.com today doesn’t have the greatest end gag (does it really get across the craziness of Mrs. Yannes?) but I like the art and concept.

I think I was trying to represent the idea of a seismic rumble in the unseen-until-now drop panel. Once again, not sure if it works too well.

Apologies all around.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

Well, it is over at GoComics.com where the calendar is more of a suggestion than anything else. The next few weeks of strips are my take of “Twas The Night Before Christmas” starring Bo and the surly mall elves.

Two out of four

The strip running on GoComics.com today is a Mr. Bench fav that features not one but two, count ’em, two pause panels.

Once upon a time there was a blog called The Silent Penultimate Panel Watch. I got featured a couple of times (here and here). But, alas, author Matt Gill stopped his watch mere weeks before the ending of Bo, the last strip containing 4 out of 4 pause panels. My chance for immortality foiled.

Thursday is the new Sunday – Extra! Extra!

OK, OK. The Sunday strip rerunning on Gocomics.com today is kinda cruel when you think about it. But it’s funny. Doesn’t that count for something?