12/20/2010

12/12/2010

Old Man

I was writing at the donut shop with my headphones on.  An old man came up to me and said something.  I took off the headphones and said "I'm sorry what did you say?" and he said, "Life is hell. You have to sit there and think all day."  I said "Well, but you can write and draw, too" and he said "ha ha whatever."

10/24/2010

New in the Catastrophe Shop

These items are now for sale in the Catastrophe Shop:

The Wild Kingdom
by me

Tel-Tales #1
by Dan Zettwoch

Anais in Paris
by Mardou

Emberley Galaxy
by Dan Zettwoch and various  (we found some in a closet)

and of course

Back That Fact Up
by Dan and me

Unfortunately CURSES and FIGHT OR RUN: Shadow of the Chopper are now both out of print and unavailable.

WK spotted in the field:

10/14/2010

PIX



This Sat. and Sun. I'll be at PIX in beautiful Pittsburgh, PA.  See here for details.
Panel discussions with Frank Santoro and Jim Rugg, with upbeat,
practical tips for the depressed and bewildered.

9/07/2010

8/25/2010

Recent Leons



(after Robert McCloskey)




Our third collection is at the printers.

8/19/2010

Poetry News

I'm just now catching up on poetry news – congratulations to Mr. Merwin.  

Whitman quotes Merwin in The Wild Kingdom:

The line is taken from:
                                                                              
For a Coming Extinction

  Gray whale
Now that we are sending you to The End
That great god
Tell him
That we who follow you invented forgiveness
And forgive nothing

I write as though you could understand
And I could say it
One must always pretend something
Among the dying
When you have left the seas nodding on their stalks
Empty of you
Tell him that we were made
On another day

The bewilderment will diminish like an echo
Winding along your inner mountains
Unheard by us
And find its way out
Leaving behind it the future
Dead
And ours

When you will not see again
The whale calves trying the light
Consider what you will find in the black garden
And its court
The sea cows the Great Auks the gorillas
The irreplaceable hosts ranged countless
And fore-ordaining as stars
Our sacrifices
Join your work to theirs
Tell him
That it is we who are important

8/09/2010

Party-UPDATED

PLEASE NOTE NEW DATE




I will be at Bergen Street Comics in Brooklyn, NY on SATURDAY, NOV. 13, signing books and "in conversation" with the Internet's Tucker Stone. It will be like Jim Fowler on Johnny Carson mixed with Pekar on Letterman. I should also have some new zines finished by then, I hope? Please stop by and say hello. Present your business card.

8/03/2010

Hot

Hot


A Long Weekend


Over the weekend I lost all of my Ganges 4 notes, which I had been scribbling in this small booklet over the course of many months. It suddenly was nowhere to be found, and just as I'm finally ready to begin drawing it. I got very upset and very sad, then philosophical about it, then upset again, unable to sleep, etc.  Turns out it had slid in-between some DVDs and had travelled with them into library’s return slot (Bruno, Terminator: Salvation, In the Company of Wolves, a documentary on Ray Bradbury – all un-watched except Terminator (!)). So now it's back, and I'm grateful.


Wild Kingdom Deleted Scene



Here is one of the DELETED SCENES from our new book of old comics, The Wild Kingdom. Because of some recent new fossil discoveries the accuracy of this chronicle was uncertified and called into question. After many meetings our scientific advisory board decided to leave it on the cutting room floor. The book contains only strictly accurate and up-to-date scientific information.


7/19/2010

The Wild Kingdom Cover


Please note, this is the actual cover of my new book:


Not this, which several websites have reported:


I know, they're pretty similar, but if you look closely, you can tell that the first version is more pleasant and more scientifically accurate. Also the first one is what the book looks like.  The second version is incorrect and should be discarded. What must have happened is, because one file was created as a .gif and the other a .jpg., the different algorithms must have introduced statistical errors into the data. It's an easy mistake to make. If you're using Netscape on your T-Mobile everything should appear correctly.

7/08/2010

New "Books"

Speaking of new books, a few weeks back, This American Life re-ran #203 "Recordings for Someone."  One of the segments tell the story of the famous "Little Mermaid" phone message. You can sort of read about that over here. Anyhow, in that episode of TAL you can also hear the source of the sample "I can't find the books, they must be in La Jolla," which appears in a song by The Books, on their album "Lost and Safe" (one of my favorite records of the '00s). The Books' new record, The Way Out comes out July 20. Watch a new panic-attack-inducing video here.


Also, check out Conrad Bakker's awesome Book Club project here (pdf). (Mr. Bakker was one of my art professors back in college. Conrad and I also both have done covers for the poet/comedian Aaron Belz, who also incidentally has a new book out, a real book. See him read if you get a chance.)