LOVE AND MYSTERY UPDATE

Evidently Diamond forgot to list THE MUSEUM OF LOVE AND MYSTERY (sample image above) in their current catalog, so they won't be distributing it until the fall. That makes me feel less sanguine about charging more for it than your local comic shop would, and I can't start charging less because a considerable number of people have already paid the larger price for it. It's a dilemma. 

And yet how much extra is one paying for this limited-edition (2000 copies) $25 signed book? Here's how it breaks down:

Book: $15.95

Priority Mail postage: $4.80

Luminous ink signature, handling: $4. 25

TOTAL: $25.00

Is it worth it? Only you can decide: yes. See post below for ordering info.

HAVE YOU SEEN MY LATEST?

We have received advance copies of THE MUSEUM OF LOVE AND MYSTERY, a souvenir picture album from Frank's strange vacation in the hinterlands of The Unifactor, and we believe she is a lulu.  From the soul-satisfying symbolism of the Dark Ride to the majestic encounter in the Throne Room, this garden of unearthly delights is a place adventurous readers of all ages will want to visit and, eventually, move to.

The book proper is a tidy brick of well-modulated chroma; 12 gorgeously colored pen-and-ink drawings packed into 24 super-thick cardboard pages, specially engineered to lay flat for optimum viewing pleasure.

This book will be distributed by Diamond and made available in better comic book stores for $16.95; but if you want to you can buy one from me, signed on the cover in luminous ink (to go with the luminous Sanskrit title) for $25 postpaid anywhere in the USA; overseas, $30. You can order it from me via PayPal; jimwoodring(at)mindspring.com is the account handle.

And lovers of heavy vinyl take note: the book comes with a coupon explaining how to attain the new lifesize Pupshaw and Pushpaw figures... also from your genial pals at Presspop.

A MAN, A PLAN, A CANAL; SWEET JESUS!

The world-beaters-and-shapers at Presspop have released this photo of the prototype-in-progress of a kaijin, (actually a fragmentary portion of a kaijin family cluster) based on meticulous designs by your Uncle Jim. As this project takes form and new developments occur you will be apprised; and then the day will dawn when the time for speculation has passed and the time for fleeing has commenced. You have been warned, temporalites!

AN ESSAY ON FRANK

This is the single best piece of writing I've ever seen on the lives and times of the thrice-lucky chuckbuster. Profusely illustrated, too. If I ever meet the author I will buy him or her a rib dinner (unless he or she is a vegetarian, in which case they can buy me one).

WHAT HAS EYES BUT CAN'T SCREAM?

Why, it's this appalling potato, as photographed by Jared Moore, who says (and I quote)  "My girlfriend and I were shopping at QFC recently and she found a potato that resembles Frank after being blasted by the warp ray gun." Why can't I ever find a potato friend like this? If Kroger is going to introduce brain-looted produce into their line I'll have to re-think my boycott. Thanks, Jared.

"ART AND LOVE RENDERED WHOLLY STRANGE BY ALIEN DESIRES!"

If you enjoy poking a sharp stick at a roast goose, take a gander at this guy; he's about to find himself in the hell-hoppin' oven of Paul Di Fillipo's fever-dreaming brain.

 COSMOCOPIA, a brand-new novelette by award-winning science fiction and horror author Di Fillipo is about to be published by Payseur and Schmidt in an innovative deluxe edition that will have you cabin-bound with suspense. That's a promise! And as the French say, "'Allo; I have a hand in it."

TROUBLE BREWING

When Fantagraphics Books releases Jacob Covey's BEASTS #2 this fall, the full appalling spectacle of which this is but a fragment will be revealed... to say the very least.