wonderous

March 11, 2007

Just back a few nights ago from WonderCon down in San Francisco. It's pretty much a "spectacle" show, meaning most attendees come to see the big stars and aging, has-been, child television personalities, and not so much to buy alternative comics. That said, it's still well worth doing for PR purposes alone, and damn do i love San Francisco. The weather was gorgeous, though i spent most of my time underground in the giant hall.

I stayed the first and last night of my trip with old pal Wayne Shellabarger. (Who's book The Veeps we'll be publishing next Fall.) Wayne is a fanatical film freak, and has an extensive dvd collection. We watched one of the most fucked up film noir films i've EVER seen, called Kiss Me Deadly, with a screenplay by Mickey Spillane. I call it film noir, even though the end of the flick is decidedly science fiction. Wow. Crazy stuff.

The ONI guys let me crash their hotel room for three nights... many thanks James and Randy!

At the show, i was horrified to discovered that the man behind the mask (Peter Mayhew) of one of my childhood gods, Chewbacca, was a dick to his fans. He was only too happy to take their money for a lame glossy photo, but god forbid a fan tried to make conversation. Yeesh.

On the plus side, Portlander Shannon Stewart saw fit to swing by with none other than Tom Waits, his wife, and one of his sons. What a super-nice guy. I'm not one to get start-struck a whole lot, but i have to say, that was cool as heck.

Food is great in SF, and two nights in a row i feasted at a brewpub called The Thirsty Bear, which served Spanish tapas. Insanely good food, and great beer.

After the last day of the show, on my way to Wayne's pad i stopped to drop in for a visit to Isotope Comics, got lost, and accidentally discovered a fabulous little bookstore called Bibliohead Bookkstore, at 334 Gough Street. The guy working there, Jeff, was a total comics-head, and was quite familiar with Top Shelf.

• Here's an interesting interview with the new Comics International editor Mike Conroy. I've often seen this comics magazine around, and i have a modicum of respect for Dez Skinn's place in the development of British Comics over the years, but the magazine has seemed pretty irrelevant in the past (it really never provided anything i didn't get elsewhere), so i never bought it.

But after reading this, i'm certainly willing to check out the new issue.

I'll report back once i do.

• A boatload of Kochalka paintings are up for sale online at Giant Robot now.

Here's pics from the opening reception.

• Craig Yoe is at it again. This guy is a fucking comics savant, and i eagerly await every new book he does.

"The Arf Lovers blog relaunches today with new zowie techie thrills like rss feed, perma-links, comments and lots of new links. I do the blog to promote the "Arf" book series and other books I do and to highlight cartoonists I enjoy, new and old skool. And to just have some fun. So, subscribe or bookmark and also please link if you have a blog yourself. And I welcome your feedback in the new comments link under each post.

"The new "Arf" book, Arf Forum, is now at the printer and can be ordered at a discount on Amazon, or you can wait for the edition with the bookplate from Budplant.com. I think it's the best volume yet with unknown surreal genius Ted Scheel and sexy genius Kremos and rare stuff by known geniuses like Bill Holman and George Herriman. And my hero Stan Lee. Starting on Volume 4 of Arf just after I finish my next book...

"Clean Cartoonists' Dirty Drawings (Last Gasp). This will be slighty risque to pretty raunchy comics and cartoons by cartoonists known for their mainstream wholesome stuff. So you'll see nudes by Milton Caniff, Rube Goldberg, Will Eisner, Joe Shuster, Bob Kane, Mort Walker, Dr. Suess, etc. Clean Cartoonsts' Dirty Drawings can also be ordered now so you can be the first on your block to hide it under your mattress."