Art Drawn for the Story, "The Boy the Cops Lit Up" for The Weinland Park Story Book Project

I'm drawing two stories for the book. One's completed; the second will be done by Monday.

Read more about the project here: http://wexarts.org/content/public-programs/weinland-park-story-book

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Artifacts from the Columbus, Ohio Stop of the 1995 Spirits of Independents Tour, featuring Dave Sim, Paul Pope and Steve Bissette

 

Spirits of Independents was one of the few (perhaps the first?) indie comics con held in Columbus before the founding of SPACE (Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo). I remember Dave Sim, who helped coordinate the show with Bob Corby, graciously treated many of the cartoonists involved to a Damon's Ribs dinner afterwards.

For a better look at the Dave Sim and Dan Zelig letters, click here: http://www.nenoworld.com/Spirits_of_Independents.html

Diamond, of course, no longer distributes comics from Columbus.

I very much miss Joe Zabel's contributions to the cartooning arts. His self-published comic books of the '90s were some of my favorites. He's a great guy and a major talent.

The info on my old business card above is long out of date, natch.

Max Ink is still quite busy cartooning, primarily with his Columbus-based series Blink: http://blinkcomic.wordpress.com/about/

Tyim Courts is still active as a designer: http://www.tyimcourts.com/

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Cliff Edwards and Bessie Love

Two actors I love.

You can check out my Cliff Edwards Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/UkeleleIke

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Parker's Hair Balsam

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Comic Book Collections Recently Read, February 9, 2014

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Art Drawn for Jennifer Smither's Monster at the Institute

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Desert Inn Chicken Dinner

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New Nix Comics Quarterly Cover

More Nix goodness here: http://nixcomics.com/

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Easy to Bake

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Recently Read: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne, Translated and Annotated by Walter James Miller and Frederick Paul Walker

For most readers, this relatively recent translation of Verne's classic will be the definitive version. Walter Miller and Frederick Walter have done a superlative job not only painstakingly correcting and translating Verne's text, but also annotating it. In addition, this version retains the original illustrations by Alphonse de Neuville and Édouard Riou (though they're strangely not credited on the title page). Most Verne readers are aware that most if not all of his earliest English translations were poorly executed, with haphazard abridgements, edits, incorrectly translated words, numbers and figures and other atrocities which resulted in Verne's work as a whole being derided by scientists as ridiculous and by literary critics as children's literature.

The plot of 20,000 Leagues is so familiar, there's no need to repeat it. The book has powerful and prescient imagery which elevates the work above its flaws, one of which is the dry (for my tastes) biological lists which frequent (and stop) the narrative.

This translation is prefaced with examples of the many ways the novel was influential and visionary. In fact, an odd thing happened during the course of reading it: I began to see references to the novel everywhere, from Jeopardy questions to a local obituary for a person who helped develop the first atomic submarine, appropriately called The Nautilus, to a local restaurant due to open which is utilizing Neuville and Riou's 20,000 Leagues illustrations, to realizing Disney's early '80s film The Black Hole is nothing but 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in space.

This version also includes the segment from Verne's The Mysterious Island detailing the origin of Captain Nemo and I was struck while reading it how many parallels there are between Nemo's family background and political motivations and Osama Bin Laden's, to the point of Nemo's retreating to the mountains after the failure of the social uprising he led, where he could plot against civilization.

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I.C.E. Pics - Photos from Independent Creators Expo, February 1st, 2014

 

The perfectly sane Ken Eppstein, of Nix Comics fame.

 

                                        Victor Dandridge, sketching up a storm.

                                            Cartoonist Tim Fuller, lower left.

Terry Eisele, author of With Only Five Plums.

SPACE head honcho Bob Corby.

Cartoonist Michael Carroll.

The 2 Headed Monster cadre.

Cartoonist Kel Crum.

Baron Von Porkchop of Bloodline Entertainment.

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