Here are some snapshots from Alex and my wedding this weekend!

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/subcultureofone/sets/72157606276245564/
• http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=7suh4gz.61r87ytf&x=0&h=1&y=fchffg&localeid=en_US
• http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=q73a7yz.7oxt7e4j&x=0&y=-rfp0vl&localeid=en_US

Wedding poster

Cartoonist Joshua Kemble has a new website at: http://www.joshuakemble.com/

Alternative Comics helped Joshua distribute his Xeric Grant award winning book Numb.

His old website is still alive and kicking at: http://www.sidewithus.com/joshkemble/

The trial court ruled against him twelve days ago in just one of many, many rulings related to the litany of appeals and motions that will undoubtedly be filed over the course of years by Defendant Michael George, former comic book retailer and promoter of the Pittsburgh Comicon, as he serves his mandatory life sentence without possibility of parole after being convicted of the 1990 murder of Barbara George, who was then his wife. This article describes the most recent ruling in the appeals process:

From the Macomb Daily, May 23, 2008:

Murder verdict stands

Man asked judge to overrule jury in 1990 cold case slaying of wife

By Jameson Cook
Macomb Daily Staff Writer

A Macomb County circuit judge Friday denied Michael George’s request to throw out a jury’s first-degree guilty verdict for killing his wife in their Clinton Township comic book store nearly 18 years ago.

Judge James Biernat said although he has “misgivings” about the cold case, most notably its age, he said he was bound by the law to turn down the renewed motion for a directed verdict of acquittal…[click for the rest of the article]

The annual MoCCA Art Festival is being held this weekend in New York at the historic Puck Building in lower Manhattan.

Alternative Comics has a number of exciting new books debuting at the show - We should be at table B43 - right across from Drawn & Quarterly.

Don’t miss these guys:

Sam Henderson will be debuting Magic Whistle #11: Body Armor For Your Dignity

Karl Stevens will be promoting Whatever

Scott Campbell will be selling art prints, mini-comics, t-shirts, and promoting the latest issue of Hickee

I was lucky enough to be invited this year by Veterans for Peace to help set up their annual Memorial Mile display.  Although I am fervently against having troops in Iraq, I respect and appreciate those who participate in military service.

Video of the memorial

Read and see more about the memorial here: http://www.alligator.org/articles/2008/05/27/news/local/080527_veterans.txt

Rich Tommaso has just started a new blog where he will be posting pages for his Miriam graphic novel “Filmography”

Look here: http://miriamfilmography.blogspot.com

Rich Tomasso also has his own personal blog here: http://richtommaso.blogspot.com/

This news article popped up as I was doing web searches for comic book conventions. Comic book store owner Michael George, who has run the Pittsburgh Comicon for years and years, was recently convicted of the 1990 murder of Barbara George, who was then his wife. This news article describes the case and the beginning of the appeals process:

From the Macomb Daily, April 26, 2008:

Judge grants motion that may negate murder verdict

Michael George can ask for directed verdict, even though trial is over

By Jameson Cook
Macomb Daily Staff Writer

Still protesting the jury’s guilty verdict, defense attorneys for the man convicted of killing his wife in their comic book store nearly 18 years ago have gained a sliver of hope in the case… [click for the rest of the article]

For the first time in years, I have absolutely no abdominal pain. I’m still weak as a kitten, and don’t yet have stamina - but that will improve with time.

After getting out of the hospital, up until just a few weeks ago, I was not able to comfortably sit down for more than a minute or two, so I handled almost all of my e-mails the same way as in the hospital. I am surprised to discover that I can type pretty fast while standing, hunched over my keyboard. Reading much while standing was really not very workable for me.

I am now not a fan of the practice of hospitals giving their patients the illusion that they have control over their pain management by allowing them to administer their own medication by pressing a button when they felt the need, to cope with their pain. When I spent years in grad school aspiring to be a social psychology professor, “locus of control” was one of many research interests of mine. Yeah, I understood that I got to choose when to administered my pain medication, but the doctors’ orders were rather specific as to exactly how often my button press would actually let the IV administer medication and as to exactly how much medication. It took about an hour for me to learn that I could administer pain medication every 10 minutes, and that the amount of pain medication was rather minimal. This was especially obnoxious when I was attempting to go to sleep the first two nights, when I was in the most pain. I was in too much pain to sleep, and for me to get any significant amount of pain medication into my body I would have to be awake at each 10 minute interval to hit the button to get a few drops of pain medication. Of course the night-shift nurses were absolutely afraid and unwilling to call the doctor that was specifically on call to handle calls from night-shift nurses. On the third day after surgery, I described my pain control plight my actual lead surgeon. He readily agreed to change the order from self administered meds to a nice cocktail of happy happy pain medications which included pill, patch, and IV delivery methods that truly handled the pain, and kept me pretty blitzed during my hospital stay.

Hickee v3 #3 (Alternative Comics)
By Graham Annable, Paul Harvey Brown, Scott Campbell, Vamberto Maduro, Razmig Mavlian, Nathan Stapley, and Joe White.
For Mature Readers; 32 pgs; 6.625″ x 10.25″; $2.95; ISBN-10: 1-891867-95-4; ISBN-13: 978-1-891867-95-8; Diamond Code: APR07 3315; June 2007

The third installment of this humor anthology is a gamey one! All manner of games: bouncy games; square games; gladiatorial games; ball games and more are given the Hickee treatment by a crew of expert funny men. Hailing from such diverse backgrounds as animation, illustration, and surfing, these cartoonists bring all their skills to bear in Hickee. In the tradition of Mad, Weirdo, and Plop!, this book is for lovers of screwy, humorous comics. It’s packed from cover to cover with cartoons that will delight, shock and prod your funny bone! Giggle away at the latest works of Scott Campbell, Graham Annable, Razmig Mavlian, Joe White, Nathan Stapley, Paul Brown, and Vamberto Maduro.

“If this anthology of humorous comics by a group of San Francisco-area young artists is any measure, the spirit of anti-mainstream cartooning is alive and well.”—Publishers Weekly

[click for larger images]

Graham Annable is the award winning animator, editor, story artist, and cartoonist behind the Grickle books, Stickleback, and Hickee anthology from Alternative Comics. When he’s not swamped by his day job in Portland, Oregon, he stays up late making comics.. Contact Graham at grickle@hotmail.com or visit www.grickle.com.

Paul Harvey Brown is an artist living/working in Toronto, Canada. Better known in the industry as “Dr. Amazing,” Paul has been working in animation since the days before computers were invented. When he’s not animating, he can be found enjoying life’s simple pleasures — smelling roses and public streaking. Contact Paul at paulatron@sympatico.ca or visit www.paulbrown.ca.

Scott Campbell — has comics and paintings in a number of anthologies, including the new Flight4, Beasts!, and Project:Superior. He also does a daily comic at: www.doublefine.com and is responsible for some mini comics such as “Pyramid Car”. His paintings have been shown in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, and Montreal. E-Mail Scott at scottc@doublefine.com or you can see more of his work at www.scott-c.blogspot.com.

Vamberto Maduro — Currently living in Toronto, Canada, Vam is the only member of Hickee with webbed toes. He works as an animator on a 3D children’s show, where his award for “Most Improved Student” in Grade 8 comes in handy. Contact Vam at chalkie2000@hotmail.com or visit vampinions.blogspot.com.

Razmig Mavlian — Livin’ a wicked lifestyle in the downtown core of San Francisco, Razmig finds time to animate and draw funny cartoons. Contact Raz at grickle@earthlink.net or vist lightningtothenations.blogspot.com.

Nathan Stapley lives in San Francisco and enjoys drawing, painting, and surfing in front of his house on Ocean Beach. He works as a texture artist at a video game company, but has also had several gallery showings of his own paintings and drawings. Nathan enjoys drawing comics, and hopes to put out a collection of his own. Contact Nathan at bagel@doublefine.com or visit www.nathanstapley.com.

Joe White — Hailing from Ontario, Canada and now living in the San Francisco Bay Area, Joe White has formulated a fascinating theory that places the soul of America in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He works as an animator and lives in a little hut on a mountaintop. Contact Mr. White at joewhitey@gmail.com or visit joe-white.blogspot.com.

Joel Orff’s Thunderhead Underground Falls graphic novel just hit stores, and is now starting to get reviewed:

Joel Orff’s latest graphic novel packs an emotional wallop that hits like a thunderbolt, a fact belied by the delicately rendered, highly abstracted art and the light touch with which Orff tells his sharply observed story…
[full review]
—Las Vegas Weekly, June 28, 2007

…Thunderhead Underground Falls is an extraordinary graphic novel that brilliantly shows the spirit of young love that a couple feels in the face of impending life events…
[full review]
—Silver Bullet Comics, June 27, 2007

Joel Orff’s work has a rich, lovely quality that makes it difficult for me to make a rigorous appraisal of its overall worth…
[full review]
—The Comics Reporter, June 26, 2007

What a thoroughly beautiful book…
[full review]
—Optical Sloth, June 20, 2007