Long-Running Independent Comics Publisher in Danger Press Release from Claypool Comics (via Peter David's blog):

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact David Seidman, Claypool Comics marketing director
davidseidman@earthlink.net


CLAYPOOL IN CRISIS
Independent Publisher Reaches Out to Readers and Retailers

Diamond Comics Distributors has told Claypool Comics of plans to cancel the Claypool titles DEADBEATS and SOULSEARCHERS AND COMPANY, starting with the issues shipping in April, unless Claypool can push their sales up. That move would wipe out much of Claypool's line.

This news comes as Claypool is in the middle of a group of special issues. SOULSEARCHERS #76 and ELVIRA #153 (shipping in January) and DEADBEATS #76 (shipping in February) are "Jump In" issues written and drawn especially for new readers. Last year, when Claypool inaugurated the "Jump In" issues, they sold very well.

Claypool has asked retailers to order an extra copy of each "Jump In" issue. In addition, Claypool has asked readers to buy Claypool titles now and request that the retailers order the "Jump In" issues. The cover of SOULSEARCHERS' "Jump In" issue is on the Web at http://www.claypoolcomics.com/uploads/ss76.gif, while http://www.claypoolcomics.com/uploads/db76.gif houses DEADBEATS' cover.

Claypool is backing up its requests with point-of-sale cards that retailers can put on their counters or use as bag stuffers. The cards tell readers about the issues and include a spot to check off which issues they'd like to buy.

DEADBEATS, by Marvel veterans Richard Howell and Ricardo Villagran, is a punk vampire soap opera that should appeal to fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and 30 Days of Night. SOULSEARCHERS, written and co-created by Peter David, is a super-hero satire featuring a group of supernatural investigators, featuring art by Joe Staton and covers by JSA Classified: Power Girl's Amanda Conner.

Claypool editor Richard Howell says, "Claypool Comics has always had a dedicated base of fans, most of whom are literate and educated people whose needs aren't always met by the current comics marketplace. A retailer who puts our comics on the shelves will most likely find that they continue to sell month after month. The consistency of our sales is undisputable, and we have every indication that if our books got more exposure, they'd sell strongly for many, many more retailers. Claypool Comics are and always have been a labor of love -- love of comics, that is. We're committed to good comics, and that makes our readers committed to us. Any retailer who wants to profit from that dedication and goodwill is enthusiastically invited along for the ride."

Claypool, which has published comics steadily since 1993, is known as "the publisher of hidden treasures" -- but it doesn't WANT to hide them!

Go buy them.

And buy Peter's new Fallen Angel (coming soon from IDW), as well.

Chadwick Saxelid says:

Lee, the Fallen Angel, returns once again to Bete Noire, as she does every night. Although there is no one is seated at her table, seeking her help, the night will prove an eventful one. Not only will Doctor Juris, the Magistrate of Bete Noire, be retiring at midnight, his son Jubal taking over the position, but someone from the Fallen Angel's past arrives with a message that could change her life forever. (more)

Buzzscope says:

Fallen Angel Soars Again With IDW
posted by Ronee Garcia Bourgeois
2005-10-25

Come this December, Fallen Angel will be rising again. The critically acclaimed title, the brainchild of writer and co-creator Peter David (Angel: Old Times), was previously published by DC Comics. When that publisher chose to end its run, IDW was quick to contact David and see about keeping the title going. (more)

IDW says:

Fallen Angel #1 $3.99
One of the most critically acclaimed series of 2004 makes the jump to IDW, as new artist J.K. Woodward introduces readers to the enigmatic city of Bete Noire. In its shadows resides the Fallen Angel, whose origin has long been a mystery... until now. Much time has passed since we last saw her, and in the first issue of the new series, dreams of her long-suppressed past are surfacing and making her life even more torturous than it already is. Dreams that anticipate the return of someone from her past who may hold the key to her future. New York Times Bestselling author Peter David invites you to enter Bete Noire...and get ready for a long and spooky stay.

mike weber says:

The DC run was great, even limited as Peter was by the restraints of being a mature/adult-themed, creator-owned title published as part of the regular DC line, except not being allowed to use any DCU characters.

As a thrill machine, it could be compared to one of the better roller coasters you ever rode.

With (i'm sure) fewer restraints on Peter's creative process, this run promises to be like riding the same roller coaster backwards.

Standing up.

Blindfold.  ¶ 7:16 AM 0 comments links to this post

  A Goon. And i mean that in the Nicest way... Jennie Breeden dropped me a line about my earlier post about her online comic The Devil's Panties, and i wrote back, mentioning another of my favourite on-line comics. I included this description of the latest strip posted:

It's a very odd strip that started out with a strong anime/manga influence (it's still there but not so much in the foreground); i'd rate it at a PG13 for content, since much of its content revolves around gender-swapping and/or gender-confusion among the characters.

In the current strip (11/25/2005 - he's one strip late), all of the main characters are gathered at a birthday party for one of the girls. As things have progressed, so far, three of the six girls are normally guys, and both of the guys are normally girls, the cat has spines like an echidna, a satanic duck is not succeeding at his assigned task of distracting people ["Look! -- Is that a demonic duck?!?" [Run like hell while everyone else stares...], one girl is having cold feet about being gender-swapped, and one girl is actually a genetic super-weapon mutant squirrel...

If my meagre powers of description haven't failed me, anyone who's encountered the strip before ought to recognise the fine maniacal touch of Dan Shive in his ongoing wacko opus, El Goonish Shive.

[I have a link to this strip on my regular web page (or maybe i'm just planning one in the redesign that's stalled at the moment -- i'm so confused!), and the button i picked from his site shows one of the characters wishing "I wish I could find a comic as weird as me!"]

In the very first strip, we meet Tedd and Elliot, and Elliot feels it's necessary to explain that Tedd is not a girl. [Well, not at that very moment]

Within the first week, we are introduced to Sarah (who will be established as Elliot's girlfriend), who refuses to appear in a skimpy bikini to build initial readership, and pulls out a big anime-style hammer when they try to raise money to bribe her, leading to the introduction of a stereotypical German Professor ("Guten tag. I am a stereotypical Germsn Professor..."), who explains the manga/anime concept of "hammerspace". Well, actually, he doesn't, but sets up the gag for the next strip.

That was three years ago. Along the way, Tedd creates living Goo in chem class, we learn that Elliot is a black belt in Anime-style Martial Arts and Grace, a sort of a were-squirrel, comes to live with Tedd and his father.

Then things get weird.

Tedd turns Elliot into a girl, but his transformation gun breaks down before he can change her back to him, who will be stuck as a girl for thirty days...

Anyway, stuff happens -- and a part of the stuff winds up creating Ellen, who is just like Elliot but female.

And we meet Grace's brothers.

And eventually, we get to the birthday party described above.

You should click on the strip above and start from the beginning.

Prepare to give up a whole Saturday or something starting in 2002 and getting up to date...


  ¶ 4:47 AM 0 comments links to this post

  Confusing Cause & Effect... Our Beloved Herbaceous President Speaks Out:

In a Thanksgiving weekend radio address to Americans, President Bush mourned the growing number of fallen troops but vowed to keep fighting for the cause they died for.

Bush thanked U.S. service members and military families "who are making great sacrifices to advance freedom's cause" in his weekly radio address Saturday.

Better we should be making efforts to advance the spread of freedom's effects.  ¶ 9:31 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Not Satanic Porn? Shucks! (v1.1) Here in Atlanta there is a fine comic shop. And working in that comic shop is a young woman name of Jennie Breeden, who does two on-line comics, both at least loosely autobiographical.

I think more people ought to discover these fine efforts, and so -- assuming that anyone ever reads this -- here are links to them.

First is a strip called, disconcertingly enough, The Devil's Panties. She insists (as the image to the right shows) that it's not satanic porn.

(She's right, too. Darnit.)

What is is a somewhat fictionalised account of her life and times as a comic shop clerk who draws an on-line reality comic and attends conventions to sell her art and collections of her strip and party and eat chocolate and hang out and club and drink....

And to enjoy the sleep-deprivation.

Her other strip, Geebas on Parade, features her adventures in a live-action role-playing game named SOLAR, which, to be quite honest, i cannot see the point. I mean, role-playing games have never actually
appealed to me (as games to play; as constructs of rules, to study and find loopholes in, that's another matter -- someday maybe i'll talk about that), and role-playing games with real mud and dust and flies and rain and vermin (not to mention annoying wild animals) and real people whacking me over the head with real (albeit padded) weapons -- no way.

(Unless i'm allowed to bring along the Holy Handgrenade of Antioch and the Thrice-Blessed Autorifle of St Kalashnikov, maybe...)

That being said, the SOLAR crew obviously have a good time, and Jennie obviously has an equally-good time bringing her world to us.

And one can definitely understand how a weekend of SOLARing would help to restrain the usual accumulation of negative feelings one collects in the course of the average work week; one hesitates (very slightly, well-nigh imperceptibly) to suggest that perhaps if the USPS were to organise LARPing weekends for its employees, the phrase "going postal" might not have entered the language.

And speaking of "going postal" -- DO NOT bug Jennie about her spelling. Like many visually-oriented types, she and the written word have a less-than-cordial relationship from time to time.

And enough -- more than enough -- people have given her grief about it.

And, eventually, inevitably, she has reacted...

I appreciate a good rant. I have, on occasion, commited rants of my own.

But, when i clicked the link marked "Spelling" on the Devil's Panties homepage... well...

Herewith (with permission) i reprint one of the most ranty tants it has ever been my pleasure to encounter.


Take it away, Jennie:

A rant that has been inevitable and a long time in coming

yes I f**king know I can't spell. Do you think that it could POSSIBLY have escaped my notice after 12 YEARS of special education, resource classes, and private tutors?! because if it did then the CONSTANT reminder and LIFE LONG ridicule SURE AS HELL keeps me f**king awair!!

Click here to read the full, uncensored rant.





  ¶ 5:36 AM 6 comments links to this post

  Sony/BMG: ...and the hits just keep on comin'... The only comic strip that responds so quickly to national events as Bill Amend's Foxtrot is Doonesbury -- and Trudeau intentionally operates on a short deadline tp achieve it.

I don't know what deadlibe Amend works on, but i first noticed just after 9/11 that his responses to big national or world events tend to come within two weeks of the event; Foxtrot was the first regular strip i saw with a 9/11 response -- eleven days after the event. (And it was a great one.)

So we have today's Foxtrot (which will be available online for only fifteen days, unless you subscribe to their comics service -- sorry).

I suspect he'll be beating up on Sony/BMG all week -- he's very media-savvy/literate.  ¶ 2:11 AM 2 comments links to this post

  Modern Medicine So i go to the doctor's office for a followup on my visit of some months ago.

Actually, there's noting to follow up, because Kate's insurance won't pay for the meds i need for the chronic fungal condition i have, which may actually trace all the way back to Viet Nam, for all i can say definitely.

First thing one of the doctors at the clinic prescribed was an oral medication that (A) requires close monitoring of liver function and (B) costs $13.98/dose -- taken daily, for a year.

Not covered.

Okay, so we try this anti-fungal nail lacquer.

Not quite so expensive, but equally Not Covered.

So Dr. Fogarty says to try tea tree oil.

Meanwhile, my blood pressure which was like580/225 (slight exaggeration) three months ago, and is now 110/80, with which Dr Fogarty is Well Pleased.

I had been on a course of Mobic for the inflammation in my knee subsequent to arthroscopic surgery, which expired the day that Fogarty put me on BP meds; i dunno if Mobic could have any tendency to elevate BP, butFogarty had me switch to ibuprofen, daily at first, then as needed for pain, which means almost never by now.

Of course, the BP meds are not fully covered by insurance, so instead of a $10 copay, it's $40 (though i may be able to get them through the VA, for a $7 copay).

I'm trying to get an appointment with a VA dermatologist (they're booked up right now); if i can convince them that this condition runs back to Viet Nam, i might be able to get a partial disability ruling on it, which would be nice all round...  ¶ 12:13 PM 0 comments links to this post

  A Knockout in the Fourth Round! Sony to Suspend Making Antipiracy CDs

By TED BRIDIS, Associated Press Writer
Fri Nov 11, 7:46 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Stung by continuing criticism, the world's second-largest music label, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, promised Friday to temporarily suspend making music CDs with antipiracy technology that can leave computers vulnerable to hackers.

As of 1:06 AM EST, the complete story was available here.  ¶ 1:06 AM 0 comments links to this post

  Work for the Happy Fingers Method must go on! Today, kiddies, we are going to talk about Bill's tribute to the 5000 fingers of dr. t (sic)a site devoted to one of the quirkier children's films ever released.

Way back in 1953, Stanley Kramer somehow ended up producing a musical comedy which, even fifty-two years later, looking back, has some rather ... odd ... moments and lyrics.

I mean, one wonders how the producer of films like Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Judgment at Nuremberg, Inherit the Wind, On the Beach, The Caine Mutiny, The Wild One and High Noon, just to take a quick sampling of his IMDB page, wound up involved with a film in which the title character's big number goes:

Come on and dress me, dress me, dress me in my finest array
‘Cause just in case you haven’t heard, today is doe-me-doe day!
Dress me in my silver garters, dress me in my diamond studs
‘Cause I’m going doe-me-doing in my doe-me-doe duds!

I want my undulating undies with the maribou frills
I want by beautiful bolero with the porcupine quills
I want my purple nylon girdle with the orange-blossom buds
‘Cause I’m going doe-me-doing in my doe-me-doe duds!

Come on and dress me, dress me, dress me in my peek-a-boo blouse
With the lovely inner lining made of Chesapeake mouse
I want my polka-dotted dickie with the crinoline fringe

For I’m going doe-me-doing on a doe-me-doe binge!
I want my lavender spats, and in addition to them
I want my honey-colored corset with the herringbone hem
I want my softest little jacket made of watermelon suede
I want my long persimmon placket with the platinum braid
I want my leg-of-mutton sleeves, and in addition to those
I want my cutie chamois booties with the leopard-skin bows
I want my pink brocaded bodice with the floofy, fuzzy ruffs
And my gorgeous bright-blue bloomers with the monkey-feather cuffs
I want my organdy snood, and in addition to that
I want my chiffon Mother Hubbard lined with Hudson Bay rat
Dress me up from top to bottom, dress me up from tip to toe
Dress me up in silk and spinach, for today is my doe-me-doe day!
So come and dress me in the blossoms of a million pink trees
Come on and dress me up in liverwurst and camembert cheese
Dress me up in pretzels, dress me up in bock-beer suds
‘Cause I’m going doe-me-doing in my doe-me-doe duds!.

Well, he did. If you haven't already guessed, the film is The 5000 Fingers of Dr T, starring Peter Lind Hayes, Hand Conried, Tommy Rettig and Mary Healey.

And written by, with lyrics by and set designs by Dr Seuss.

Can you say "Extremely odd", children? Sure... i knew you could.

("Undulating undies"? Eeew. I think we sold those in the porn store where i worked once.)

Anyway, if you remember the film, you either love it or hate it -- there's very little middle ground here, i've found.

And one of the people who falls far far over on the "loves it" side, i discovered some time back, is "Bill" -- i can't find his last name on his website anywhere, but his AOL screenname leads me to suspect it may be "Seivadj" or some variant thereof

Bill is the man behind an almost spookily obsessive "Dr T" website; one of his projects is to a "director's cut" of the movie, which was apparently massively cut and re-sequenced by the studio (there are something like six or seven songs which were recorded bu didn't wind up in the film., and Kramer once said that they had like 2:20 of material but the studio demanded a film under 1:45); he's also trying to put together a documentary on the film.

If there's anything you need or want to know about "Dr T", it's either here or dropping Bill a line will put you on the right path -- or it's just not out there.

That is, it's here if you can find it -- i have to say that it's about the most cluttered and difficult-to-navigate sites i've ever encountered. And that includes my own.

But for "Dr T" fans, it's the only game in town...

(Incidentally, the best film version of any Seuss book i've ever seen is a ten-minute short of Horton Hatches the Egg, done in 1942 at Warner Bros' "Termite Terrace"(!), directed by Bob Clampett and featuring work by Chuck Jones and Bob McKimson; it's available on a DVD Dr Seuss compilation that Warner put out in 2003 to attempt to cash in on the anticipated popularity of Dr Seuss films after the live-action and Grinch and Cat in the Hat abhominations.  ¶ 2:54 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Sony BMG says...



  ¶ 4:20 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Talkin' Sony BMG DRM Rootkit Malware Blues Okay, so most of us who hang out on line are at least peripherally aware of the whole Sony/BMG "Digital Rights Management"/rootkit thingy, right?

Been brewing since Mark Russinovich's Halloween horror story about rootkits and DRM software on recent Sony/BMG CDs. I didn't hear about it for a couple of days, but as soon as i did i went hunting; this machine is quirky enough as it is without adding malware to allow media companies access or control capabilities.

I read the column and what little hair i have left stood more or less on end, and i resolved to

(A) not buy any Sony/BMG CDs ever again -- DRM or not. {Of course that resolve will last until about five minutes after something i really crave comes out on a Sony/BMG label}

and

(B) Check to make sure i wasn't already infected. I don't appear to be; i don't own any of the affected CDs, apparently, and various testware recommended by many helpful people here and there on-line says there's nothing of the sort on here.

and

(C) To find out what ever else i could about the situation.

So i clicked over to Russinovich's November 4 follow-up, in which he points out just what is wrong with the "decloaking" software that Sony is offering -- instead of simply revealing the ERM software, it installs almost 4Meg of updates to it... and does the decloak in a manner which could potentially crash (and possibly damage) your Windows software.

And that it passes info about you and or your music-playing hsbits to Sony without your knowledge or permission/

One thing i got from this was that the first time you insert the infected CD, it uses the Windows CD autostart function to bring up the "Install" function. No autorun, no install.

This, of course, led me to trying to figure out how to permanently disable a CD drive's "Autorun" setting in W2000, which is not listed in the "Help" files -- something i have been occasionally irritated enough by to want to shut it off but not suffciently (till now) to actually make a concerted effort to figure out how.

So i found this page that will help any Windows user to figure out how to do it (it requires manually editing the System Registry, which mkes me a bit nervous, and ought to make you nervous,too. But CDs no longer automatically open themselves or turn on the CD player when i sitck them in.

Other reading seems to indicate that what they have done is put the standard "Red Book" CD image into a file on the disc; once you have diisabled Autorun, you ought to be able to fish this out with ISOBuster, downloadable here, (or some similar program), and burn a DRM-less safe copy.

Meanwhile Sony has magnanimously decided to make an uninstaller available for their DRM software -- presumably, you can't/shouldn't play their music once you uninstall the software -- but do they publicise it, make it clear it exists, work hard to get it distributed, etc. like honest people who just weren't thinking in the forst place?

Nope.

First you have to download the decloaking/update/hope-it-doesn't-crash-my-computer patch and install it.

Then, after some difficulty, you have to discover where on Sony/BMG's customer "service" set to look to apply -- not download, order or execute, mind you, to apply -- for the uninstaller.

You have to fill out a form. You have to confirm that you really reeelly want to uninstall their crap.

Then you wait for them to send you an uninstall code. And then... Well, Russinovich, who has actually plodded through it, devoted his post for 9 November 2005 to actually getting Sony's uninstaller for this junk and making it work. Go there and let him tell it.

He also discusses, on 8 November, a communication he got from Matthew Gilliat-Smith, chief executive officer for First 4 Internet, the British company that supplied this crap to Sony.

In another article online, at TG Daily, standing there with his bare face hanging out (and smoke beginning to rise from his trousers, i'd say) he says:

"There's areas of misinformation which I'd be very happy to set straight," Gilliat-Smith told us. "The first is [the allegation that XCP is some form of] rootkit technology, in the form that would be used to spread malware. What it is, it's using cloaking techniques that are similar to a rootkit, for the purpose of making speed bumps on the content protection, to make it more difficult to circumvent the protection."

Gilliat-Smith said his software does not open up any connection between the stealth driver and its host. "Ours does not do that," he said. "All we're doing is using a hook and a redirect, so when you look for a file, it is hidden. It is very widely used...since way back in 1994, by many shareware companies and anti-virus companies.

Ya know, Abe Lincoln once asked "If you call a dog's tail a leg, how many legs has a fog?"

The answer?

"Four, because calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg."

If i take two slabs of C4, three pounds of screws, nails and other assorted iromongery and a Casio watch, and i pack it into a very pretty box that i send to school with my kid, i don't think it's gonna cut it to say that i'm very sorry, but i'm not responsible for the entire Senior Class being blown up in assembly, because that wasn't a bomb, that was an art project.

As of 9 November, one class-action suit had already been filed allegeing material harm to a groop of consumers by Mr Gilliat-Smith's little art project.

  ¶ 1:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

  Florida -- See it like a Native! v1.1 I was looking at this poster put out by the Brady people the other day.
And i've heard (from at least one Public Defender, among other reports) that the new Florida "Shoot-'Em-If-Ya-Don't-Like-Their-Looks" law is making cops, prosecutors and defence attorneys nervous...
And i said to myself "Hey, self -- what is it that Florids's sort of shaped like...?"
And Hanns Johst might reach for his revolver* whenever anyone said "art"... but i reach for my PSP.

=======================

*Actually, the phrase {from Act 1, Scene 1 of the play Schlageter, written by Hanns Johst} is :
""Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning!". which translates as "When I hear [the word] 'culture', I release the safety catch on my Browning!"

I believe that another possible translation for "Kultur" would be "art"; as the WikiQuote "List of Misquotations" says, the English (mis) translation may be a more felicitous turn of phrase than the original German...  ¶ 4:41 PM 0 comments links to this post

  They Are Killing My Brothers Again

---

.

My own Viet Nam service from 1969 to 1970 was non-combatant, but i watched how that war developed, how it ended, and how its veterans {or victims, to look at it another way} were (are) treated, and how they have fared. For some time, the suicide rate among Viet Nam veterans was (and may still be, for all i know) much higher than among others of the same ages and socio-economic groups.

I recently read a news story on AP about a rash of suicides among the members of a Special Forces unit after their return from Iraq, and it inspired the following diatribe:

They are killing my brothers again. In the Sixties, they sent us off to Viet Nam so that Robert Macnamara could prove the US had a bigger dick than the Soviet Union. They sent us off to Viet Nam because they knew how to start a war but not how to win or end one. They sent us off to Viet Nam because LBJ, RMN and Kissinger couldn't admit that their policies were wrong. And we fought and we died and we came home and we died by our own hand at home because they just dumped us back into civilian life and we couldn't handle the memories or the stresses and no one much was able (or willing) to acknowledge our need for help. And they are killing my brothers again. Sending them off to die to hide the fact that George W. Bush and his Administration haven't the slightest idea how to actually deal with terrorism, so they are wagging the dog in Iraq. Sending them off to die, infused -- brainwashed -- with a macho culture that says it's "unmanly" to admit that you are hurting and need help. A culture that files court-martial charges of cowardice against a soldier who seeks psychiatric help for his anxieties and fears. Sending them off to die to hide the fact that the Bush Administration is riding a tiger -- lying to start the war, but with no idea how to actually end it. Sending them off to die so that George W. Bush can feel as if he actually has a penis and balls. They are killing my brothers again with lies and incompetence and indifference and cynicism and profiteering, just as they have in every war that's ever been fought. And the Universal Soldier marches on. Eric Bogle's heart-breaking song, "No Man's Land", a meditation over the grave of a nineteen- year-old British soldier who died in France in 1916, ends And I can't help but wonder now Willie McBride Do all those who lie here know why they died? Did you really believe them when they told you the cause? Did you really believe that this war would end war? But the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame - The killing and dying - it was all done in vain. For Willie McBride, it's all happened again And again, and again, and again, and again. And again and again and again. [lyric © copyright by eric bogle]

And they are killing my brothers again.

  ¶ 3:07 PM 0 comments links to this post