Hello. I haven’t been blogging lately, blame the insufferable heat, world cup soccer (England was robbed!) and well, the computer ate my homework… seriously, I had a nice blog entry all written up and the computer decided to shut down my program, nothing saved of course. That reminds me: SAVE! I’ll be saving every few lines from now on…
SAVE! Bloody computers, boxes of demons… SAVE… try again…

Oh, I've been trying to scan images and post them on my blog, so far it hasn't worked... once I figure out what's going wrong this blog will have more images and be an estimated 16% more entertaining!

Global TV is trying to kill me. As I mentioned before I receive six stations on my TV with the aid of electrical rabbit ears (presumably lopped off the heads of electrical rabbits) so my choices are limited. For the past few months I’ve been watching “The Shield“, at 1:30 AM on Global (a neo-con station I normally avoid except for cartoons, the original “Fox Canada”) every week night. “The Shield“ is an intense, testosterone pumping often violent cop drama set in LA, I watch it because I like the characters (really, cop shows are just soap operas for men) and the fact the show is not afraid to deal with the politics of police corruption, violence., racism, gangs, and sexuality in a honest if sometimes brutal way. So, you get I’m really into this show, I sit own at 1:30 AM, click on Global and what do I see? “Queer Eye For The Straight Guy“. Skritch-zam-wham, that is the sound of my neck suffering pop culture whip lash. Could there be two shows less alike? Damn, couldn’t they have eased me into it, some sort of transitional programming like… I dunno, Barney Millar or Will & Grace? Jeez… not that I have anything against “Queer Eye For The Straight Guy“, I mean ,who doesn’t love watching a “reality” show about some poor slob who’s only crime is being himself being ritually humiliated and stripped of his personality by a bunch of nancy-boys at the behest of the women in his life? If they showed up at my door I’d call the cops. Anyway , global, next time give me some warning! Now I gotta think about getting the rugs shampooed before I get a knock on the door from the fashion police… SAVE

Comics I bought on Wednsday
DC Spotlight #11 by Sergio Aragones
Always nice to see some new work from the master, Sergio Aragones. He and his unique drawing style has been with me from as far back as I can remember, first in Mad and later in Groo. This collection features gags, fables, a Batman story (with Mark Evanier) and my favourites, autobiographical stories (including a bit of history-yahoo!). Sergio is a charismatic guy with an interesting past, his parents fled Franco after the Spanish Civil War and moved to Mexico, Sergio later went to New York to try his luck as a cartoonist (a story he tells in the this book, plus “I killed Marty Feldman”… YOU’LL HAVE TO BUY THE COMIC TO FIND OUT HOW!) {My only quibble is I don’t think Marty ever wrote for Python, although he did work with some of the folks who would later create Monty Python} Enough brackets.

Usagi Jojimbo #94 by Stan Sakai
(Coincendentially, Stan Sakai is also Sergio Aragones’s letterer!)
I have a lot of admiration for Stan Sakia, for years he’s been quietly writing an drawing consistently strong issues of Usagi Yojimbo. At first glance you might dismiss the comic as “for kids” or “funny animal dweebs“, but you’d be missing out. Each Usagi is a master class in clear, concise comics storytelling that flows so naturally you don’t even notice how well put together it is. It’s that good.

Heavy Metal Summer 2006
Yeah, I know, Heavy Metal, so sue me. Perhaps it’s sheer force of habit on my part but I’ve been buying Heavy Metal since virtually day one and I remember it’s glory days with Moebuis, Bilal, Tari, Corben , Druillet and a host of others bringing me a whole new world of comics. It’s gone through a lot of changes since then, more T&A and less genius. They sometimes do feature unexpected new artists like Prado, but like most European comics it’s usually gorgeous to look even when the story is totally lightweight… which it usually is…

Oh yeah, I also received in the mail a copy of Dork #4 complete with an autographed piece of cardboard from our recent interview subject, Evan Dorkin. What can I say, comic is twisted cry for help from a man on the edge… it’s also very, very funny… so, I’m putting on my hat and curling up with Evan, the Murder Family and the gang at Eltingville for a little recreational misanthropy… damn, I forgot to ask Evan if there really is an Eltingville.
SAVE!