Ditko Package

2013-07-02, 9:45 pm
Categories: Comics, Stream of Consciousness

Got this in the mail on Saturday:

Steve Ditko Package

It's what I bought in the Ditko Kickstarter back in April -- The Ditko Public Service Package #2, plus various other goodies, some Ditko and some non-Ditko, from publisher Robin Snyder's collection.

I've barely scratched the surface of this delightful haul, and I think it's far too early for me to do a writeup that would do it any kind of justice. Suffice it to say it's just what I'd hoped for -- brilliant and raw and undiluted and baffling and infuriating and contradictory and didactic and oblique and funny and heartbreaking and ingenious and so very, very pretty to look at, in turns and sometimes all at once.

So yeah, I'm pretty happy with it.

Bring on the next Ditko Kickstarter.

But I'll need some time to finish reading all my stuff from this one.

Frank Zappa's Classical Comeback

2013-07-01, 11:43 pm
Categories: Music, TV

Posted by, no shit, the Financial Times on June 20. You know, for everything that's wrong with the British press, you sure as hell wouldn't see an American paper with a name like "The Financial Times" doing this story in America.

Memoriam

2013-07-01, 9:25 pm
Categories: Announcements, Stream of Consciousness

I grew up in Prescott, kinda.

I didn't know any of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, but I guess my brother went to high school with some of them.

I dunno what the hell else to say. Here's a link to Prescott Firefighter's Charities. And thank a firefighter today, why don'tcha.

And it's a small thing, but hey, if you could try and pronounce the name of the place they're from right, that wouldn't hurt. It's "Preskit". Like "Biscuit".

  • Andrew Ashcraft
  • Robert Caldwell
  • Travis Carter
  • Dustin Deford
  • Christopher MacKenzie
  • Eric Marsh
  • Grant McKee
  • Sean Misner
  • Scott Norris
  • Wade Parker
  • John Percin
  • Anthony Rose
  • Jesse Steed
  • Joe Thurston
  • Travis Turbyfill
  • William Warneke
  • Clayton Whitted
  • Kevin Woyjeck
  • Garret Zuppiger

My thanks to them. My condolences to their friends and family.

That's it, I guess.

A Token of His Extreme Stinkfoot

2013-06-29, 9:57 pm
Categories: Music, TV

Stinkfoot, from A Token of His Extreme, a Zappa TV special from 1974 which never aired but has just been released on DVD by Eagle Rock TV. This video is from the official eaglerocktv YouTube account.

It's available for purchase on Amazon; that's an affiliate link and I'll get a small kickback if you use it to buy the DVD (or anything else).

Po-Jama Covered

2013-06-28, 10:19 pm
Categories: Music

The Muze Jazz Orchestra, just a few short weeks ago.

Uploaded by Tadeusz Cycon, which, oddly enough, makes twice today I've run across dudes with very different spellings of my name.

'Neath Satan's Sweaty Ballsac

2013-06-28, 6:29 pm
Categories: Stream of Consciousness

It's 116 degrees out today.

And cloudy and humid.

When I stepped out the door after work, I actually groaned, "Oh, Jesus."

When I say "It is literally an oven out there," it's not because I'm one of those assholes who uses the word "literally" to mean "not literally". It's because today at work we had a potluck, and the people who brought hot food just left it in their cars until lunchtime to keep it warm.

When I got in my car I burned myself on the turn signal -- and I'd had a shade in my windshield all day. On my way home, I was relieved when I got close enough to see that whatever's on fire and billowing a huge cloud of smoke into the sky is a good ways northwest of my house.

Tomorrow's forecast is 119. Which, well, I guess the good news about when it gets up to 119 degrees is it's probably not going to get any hotter. (Phoenix's all-time record is 122, and that was 23 years ago.)

And while the humidity is awful, it also means the monsoons are coming and we won't have to put up with this shit for much longer.

And the other good news is, I have made it back to my air-conditioned home and I have no reason to step outside again for days.

My pants are off, and they are staying off.

Moggio

2013-06-27, 9:42 pm
Categories: Music

Arranged by James Woodrow and covered by Icebreaker. Bochum, Germany, 2003. Uploaded by Icebreakerterminal.

Cartooning

2013-06-27, 9:16 pm
Categories: Comics, Stream of Consciousness

I've posted these bits from Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics before:

Chart of Realistic to Iconic Cartooning

McCloud as Iconic and Realistic

McCloud mentions, in one of his essays in the Zot! collection, that when he was working on Zot! he studied Peanuts and tried to figure out how Schulz managed to convey such a huge range of expression and emotion with such simple drawings -- and that this line of inquiry ultimately led to that chapter in Understanding Comics.

And you know who's got this whole "simple cartooning" thing down?

Sergio Aragonés.

The other week my wife and I took our 2-year-old nephew to the comic store. He made a beeline for a display case full of Batman statues. He looked at all of them, excitedly chanting "Batman! Batman!" But there was one he focused on more than any of the others:

Sergio Aragonés's Batman

He was excited. He was tapping on the glass. He was enthralled.

He's a smart kid.

And I got to thinking, what is it about Aragonés's art that has that kind of appeal? That speaks to a two-year-old, even through two whole shelves' worth of Batman figures?

Just look at it -- the pose, the arms, the fingers, the teeth, the eyes, the nose, the cape, the skinny little legs.

It's expressive. It's funny. It's exciting. And it's exaggerated as hell.

A collection of body parts in a bunch of simple shapes, most of them big and round.

It speaks to us on a fundamental level. A level so simple a two-year-old can see it.

Aragonés is a master. He may be the greatest living cartoonist. I wouldn't argue with someone who suggested he's the greatest of all time.

I was at Phoenix Comicon last month. Most of the artists were approachable. Eastman and Capullo were the only two who had real lines -- and they didn't just have lines, they had three-hour ones.

So my TMNT #50 went unsigned, because there's no damn way I'm waiting in line for 3 hours to meet Kevin Eastman.

I guess that brings up the question of what artist I would stand in line 3 hours to meet.

And I think, maybe, maybe Aragonés. If he ever came to Phoenix, and was just sitting in Artists' Alley signing things instead of spending the entire time doing panels. He'd be the one guy I can really think of who I'd be happy to wait that long to meet. Not Spiegelman, not Clowes, not Crumb, not Los Bros Hernandez -- I love those guys, but I wouldn't wait in line three hours to get their autographs But Aragonés? Yeah, maybe.

And I guess maybe Jaffee, too.

DRUMline

2013-06-26, 9:28 pm
Categories: Music

DRUMline interviews Joe Travers of Zappa Plays Zappa, who discusses, among other things, his longtime friendship and collaboration with Dweezil and Ahmet, his preservation work on the vault, and Frank's love of sound in all its forms. Uploaded by Michael St. John.

And remember, you can buy some of the recently-excavated work from the archives at Barfko-Swill.