•Â Addendum to the fun at SPX. The Sunday picnic was canceled this year, because no parks could be found that had toilets. Clearly, this is problematic. So the organizers used the budget to rent out space and food at a place called (I think?) Dave & Busters, sort of a Chucky Cheese without the seizure-inducing lights and colors, and with a full sports bar for the grown-ups. Personally, i REALLY hope SPX will be in September again next year (as it usually is), and will have the picnic & softball game on Sunday.

That said, Chris, Jacq, and myself walked over to Dave & Busters, and ended up having a blast in the arcade. We met up with Chris (AdHouse) Pitzer, and cartoonists Scott Morse and Rob Ullman. Just when i thought i was the King of the air-hockey table (with a sore arm for days to prove it), along came Pitzer to put me in my place. Damn you, Chris! Standouts for me were the basketball game (i loves me the hoops), the shooting gallery, and the snowmobile race.

•Â I also forgot to mention a stunning art/comix coffee-table book called BLAEK (in league with the likes of the recent volumes of Kramer's Ergot), given to me by Paw Mathiasen, a Danish publisher, and editor of the anthology Farenheit. This is a real gem, which may or may not be available in the States, so if you stumble across a copy, it's truly worth picking up. (Paw, coincidentally, will be publishing the Danish version of Blankets soon.)

•Â Meanwhile, i recently wrapped up a zine that had been sitting on my bedside table since Carter was born almost two years ago, called Journal Song #6, by a Portlander named Steve Gevurtz. His writing is extremely personal, quite infectious, and REALLY good. I'd rank this guy's writing style up there near the prowess even of the almighty Aaron Cometbus. (Though i'd love to see him try some longer form work in the future, as each pice here is anywhere from 2 - 6 pages on average.) Journal Song was published by punk-rock distro juggernaut Microcosm.

•Â We got Corey Lewis' Stumptown poster back from the printer, and it looks sweet! Thanks to Randy at Oni for scanning this.

• If you get my blog (god help you) on an RSS feed, then make sure you check out the new comics that are up. There's some great shot by Gregory Benton, Brecht Evens, Lode Devroe, James Hindle and Will Dinski. Oh, and there's also a big-ass sale going on at the Top Shelf website as well.

•Â Finally, i saw Tom Galambos at SPX (Tom did a phenomenal comic years ago called All the Wrong Places), and he told me about a piece he did that sounded pretty kick-ass, so i asked him to send me a link or a photo... and viola! I don't know much behind this, but it certainly looks interesting. Thanks, Tom!