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.

QUIET, PLEASE

     We don't usually do this sort of thing around here, but I feel I owe it to Wyllis Cooper and Ernest Chappell to hoist a dry one to QUIET,PLEASE, their phenomenally wide-ranging radio series. Cooper wrote and directed every episode, and Chappell was the main and often the solo voice actor.  Personally I think it's the greatest thing of its kind ever achieved; and its kind includes SUSPENSE, THE WHISTLER, and LIGHTS OUT. 

     The link above will take you to a site where you can listen to all available episodes; for what it's worth # 88 is my all-time favorite radio show ever.

THE LIVING ANIMALS THEREBY RECONSTRUCTED

Dry... arid... austere... a laboratory situation... a fossil loop. The words come later. The Giants come earlier, but later this year. There's a certain book... it makes the offer: "Won't you come out to the old estate? They are eating the flesh of cookies there." Let's meet.

JACK KIRBY TORPEDO DOGS

This is an incidental character design sheet drawn by Jack Kirby for Ruby-Spears' The Mr. T Show sometime during the 1980s. The script was changed and these dogs were discarded. I was working there too and I saved them from the trash, if you can believe that. How'd you like to have these monsters out for your blood? Gawd!

TOURISTS

Twenty-five things mean nothing to me;

youthful beauty, 

social position,

and the other twenty-three.

THE BLARSTED MOLESKINE: LIVING ROCK

TIRED BUT HAPPY

Oh, baby! Here's a little something for that quick-witted infant in or around your life; a FRANK board book containing 12 glorious double-page spreads depicting the highlights of the gormless mogomorph's day at The Museum of Love and Mystery. It'll be a brick and it won't even cost that much; under $16.

What? 24 full-color super-thick cardboard pages crammed with chroma, limited to 2000 copies.

When? In the next two months.

Where? Wherever Diamond distributes books, and on my soon-to-be revised website, where you can get a signed copy.

Why? Because it's the world's least expensive and most exotic vaction for you and your dearly beloved.

GONE, JUST LIKE A TRAIN

Justin Green's show at SHAKE IT RECORDS has closed, but Joe Kuth posted some pictures so you can see what it was like. There are probably more cartoonists alive and working to day than ever before, but seldom if ever does one see work that sizzles with life and cerebration like Green's. What a treat for the eyes and spirit this show must have been in person.

SUCKER

Click to enlarge for sneaking room only.

PEABRAIN

GOOD FOR A LAUGH

JUSTIN GREEN EXHIBITION!

Anyone who knows anything knows that Justin Green is one of the greatest cartoonists our species has produced. R. Crumb, Bill Griffith, art spiegelman and innumerable other acknowledged masters hail him. His seminal autobiographical work Binky Brown Meets The Holy Virgin Mary is regarded by many, including yours truly, as the greatest single "comic book" ever created.

As luck would have it there is an exhibition right now of Mr. Green's endlessly discussed but seldom seen original art at Cincinnati's SHAKE IT RECORDS (by all accounts one of the best record stores in America); 4156 Hamilton Ave, Cincinnati OH 45223. In addition to drawings and paintings, signed prints are available! These include the great image above ($32.50 plus shipping) and a swell silkscreened show poster featuring Mr. Green's beloved Perpetual Calendar ($35 + shipping).

So what are you waiting for!? Email Joe Kuth joe@shakeitrecords.com to get the lowdown on this harmonic convergence of genius and commerce. You'll be damn glad you did!