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For the book sale this weekend!
1506 Abbot Kinney Blvd, Venice CA 90291. Sat & Sun, 9-4 LIKE THE SIGN SAYS
This actually isn't good! Phones only show you horrors when they're VERY DEPRESSED, or at any other time
True Stuff: A New Flying Machine
I got a new source book this week, and found these great photos in it! They accompany a long article that I didn’t read, but WHY DO I NEED TO because I think the captions tell the whole story.
(Click for bigger.)
Signing! Book sale! COMIC-CON
ITEM ONE
Meredith Gran’s massive nationwide book tour is touching a tentacle to the slimy form of Los Angeles this week, and I’m pleased to join her this Thursday, the 15th, at the crazy-cool Secret Headquarters in Silverlake! I’ll have books and high-fives and basically anything you might want out of life, ever. Come say hello from 7-9 PM and here is a Facebook thing with maps and everything.
ITEM TWO
You know what I did last night? I looked at my many, overflowing bookshelves and said “It’s time to reintroduce some of these items into the ecosystem so other people can enjoy them too.” I own too many books — and while they’re all great, I always seem to be getting more of them and it’s creating space problems in my life. So this weekend, I am opening up my studio and having a book rummage sale with art books, novels, tons of comics and magazines, and again, free high-fives and loads of joy all around! Come check out my studio — I’ll be here Saturday and Sunday from 9AM-4PM and I promise you will find some pretty great books here. And you will spend like a dollar for them. I am doing this friends-of-the-library-style where a massive novel will cost you about as much as a cucumber. The address is: 1506 Abbot Kinney Blvd, Venice CA 90291. COME ON DOWN
ITEM THREE
NEXT WEEK is the SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON. I am going to be at booth 1231! That is super-easy to remember because it’s just 1-2-3 and then 1 again. You cannot forget a booth number so simple, which is great because everything at the Con conspires to capture your attention. This booth number, however, will be rooted so deep in your brain that even your lizard ancestors could find it, even while being distracted by a Jabba the Hutt made of LEGOs. I’ll be with TopatoCo and the sign will likely be very red. Again, a good color for attracting even lizards. SEE YOU THERE???
BONUS ITEM FOUR!!
As a present for reading this whole thing even if you are nowhere near California, I will give you a little taste of what it is like to be in California. I found the following thumbtacked to a tree.
(UPDATE: This image was accidentally deleted, and I no longer have the original to re-scan. It was an index card with a to-do list written on it. The list included “laundry”, “buy sports bras”, “cuddles”, and “buy Pliskin’s light.”)
At first I thought it might have been viral marketing for a beer called “Pliskin’s Light”, but I can’t find any evidence that such a thing exists. I only hope that whoever thumbtacked this to a tree didn’t come back, find the note missing, and go on to totally forget to empty the trash. I would feel bad.
WHAT’S GOING ON HERE? Why in the world was this thumbtacked to a tree? Suggestions in the comments!
Original art auction: CASUAL GAXIAN
When my friend and yours Carly Monardo said “Hey folks who wants to donate some original art to be auctioned off for charity to benefit the Colbert Nation Gulf of America Fund,” I said “Well shucks I’d love to, except that my work doesn’t involve the creation of any original art!” To her credit, Carly was going to take that as an acceptable answer (and I was gonna make an exclusive print or something instead), but then I said “Dang-blast it, I wanna draw something.” So I did! And the result (that you see above) is up for auction right now as part of Carly’s Webcomics Auction For the Gulf series, which also includes many other pieces by many of my favorite people!
ANYWAY ENOUGH ABOUT THOSE PEOPLE HERE IS MY DRAWING which could very easily become your drawing (wink wink)! Edit: it’s sold! Thanks!
I Read This: Cul De Sac, by Richard Thompson
What Is It: Cul De Sac: This Exit and Cul De Sac: Children at Play by Richard Thompson
I Got Mine: From the author at Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC
Get Yours: From Amazon or Indiebound
I first became aware of Richard Thompson’s daily comic strip “Cul De Sac” when the news broke that Bill Watterson had written an introduction to the first collected volume. Bill Watterson? The reclusive “Calvin & Hobbes” creator had taken a break from whittling logs into clarinets or whatever to speak well of this very new comic strip? This must be something special.
And indeed! Despite running in newspapers, this is a great comic strip. The characters are eccentric in ways that continually delight and surprise. I read individual strips in bits and pieces (here’s the strip’s official online home), but it wasn’t until I sat down with the full books in-hand that Alice, Petey, and their parents and friends took on strange and hilarious personalities. The language is clever and specific; the drawings are weird and delightful.
I had the pleasure of seeing some of Richard’s original art at Heroes Con this year, and it’s phenomenal. Despite the scratchy-looking style, it’s very precise, very controlled. The watercolored strips in the first collection are particularly lovely. There’s something about seeing the work of a master well-versed in his craft — despite “Cul De Sac” only being a few years old, Richard has been a professional cartoonist for decades — that’s tremendously inspiring. BASICALLY WHAT I AM SAYING IS that I really like this strip and these books!
These Books Are For: Fans of “Calvin & Hobbes”, “FoxTrot” or goodness
Here is Richard Thompson’s blog
Here is a great interview with Richard
Here is Cul De Sac on Amazon or IndieBound