C.O.U.S.: Reflections from Rick's Collection #2

While "researching" the latest Nexus Graphica, I had reason to look through my collection of Comics Of Unusual Size. This set of the big and small and odd of comicdom contains many gems. Deciding that I really should share some of these largely forgotten and sometime rare pieces, I'm taking you through a tour of my unusual collection.

Today's selection comes courtesy of musician/artist Isaac Priestley. In 1994, Priestley produced the mini-comic Drug Abuse Is Fun! under his Hand of God Productions.

Judging from the one issue (#2) I have, the title and covers are the best parts.



Priestley relates the well worn tale of 90s Austin slacker culture, where everyone sat around talked about being in a band.

Rushpunk?!?!

For a comic titled Drug Abuse Is Fun!, there is an amazing absence of drug use. Given the time, place, and people that Priestley writes about, marijuana use should be commonplace.

Thankfully for Priestley in the ensuing 14 years, his art improved dramatically.

Page from the webcomic Progressions

C.O.U.S.: Reflections from Rick's Collection #1

Too Much Coffee Man #1

While "researching" the latest Nexus Graphica, I had reason to look through my collection of Comics Of Unusual Size. This set of the big and small and odd of comicdom hides many gems. Deciding that I really should share some of these largely forgotten and sometime rare pieces, I'm taking you through a tour of my unusual collection.

I begin with the reason for the research and perhaps one of the most widely distributed mini-comics of all time. The caffeine-fueled hero, Too Much Coffee Man appearing in a self-titled mini-comic, premiered at the 1991 Dallas Fantasy Fair as a promotional tie-in for Shannon Wheeler's first collection Children With Glue.

Too Much Coffee Man #2-3

Wheeler would eventually produced five TMCM minicomics and evolve the character into a mini-empire complete with a newspaper syndicated strip, a regularly produced comic book, a pop culture magazine, four collections, an animated Converse commercial, merchandising paraphernalia galore (mugs, coffee, t-shirts, and even toilet paper!) and most recently, an opera. The combined sales of the five issues would reach into the tens of thousands.

Too Much Coffee Man #4-5

How I Started My Day

This morning began with my bi-annual MRI. For the uninformed, Magnetic Resonance Imaging takes amazingly detailed pictures of the body's interior especially the soft tissue. Since I have multiple sclerosis and take the relatively new drug Tysabri, my doctor likes me to get a new brain scan every six months.


Basically, I am placed in a narrow tube and must remain motionless as this loud clanging noise moves around me. This device is a nightmare for claustrophobic people. The top wall of the tube is but two inches from my eyes and I can't move my shoulders.

Thankfully, it is a relatively short procedure-- about 45 minutes-- and painless.

Below are some of the actual scans of my brain.






YUM!
BRAINS!























EYES! Complete with stalks! CREEPY!

Sanctified and Chicken-Fried: The Portable Lansdale

The prestigious University of Texas Press have announced one of the first "must have" 2009 publications Sanctified and Chicken-Fried: The Portable Lansdale.

Sanctified and Chicken-Fried is the first "true best of Lansdale" anthology. It brings together a unique mix of well-known short stories and excerpts from his acclaimed novels, along with new and previously unpublished material. In this collection of gothic tales that explore the dark and sometimes darkly humorous side of life and death, you'll meet traveling preachers with sinister agendas, towns lost to time, teenagers out for a good time who get more than they bargain for, and gangsters and strange goings-on at the end of the world. Out of the blender of Lansdale's imagination spew tall tales about men and mules, hogs and races, that are, in his words, "the equivalent of Aesop meets Flannery O'Connor on a date with William Faulkner, the events recorded by James M. Cain."

UT's rep goes all to hell in March, 2009.

Pensions frozen at Random House Inc.

In case any of us were wondering how bad things really are in the print publication universe, this sad news came across the wires today.

The country's largest trade publisher, Random House Inc., has frozen the pensions of its current employees and eliminated them for future hires, the latest cuts in an industry hit by declining sales and anticipating, at best, a difficult 2009.

Most likely this was in response to this disturbing information:

Earlier Thursday, Barnes & Noble Inc. reported a larger-than-expected quarterly loss. The superstore chain reduced its full-year sales and earnings forecasts, sending its shares down sharply, and said it would cut the number of new stores opening in 2009.

Sales for B&N stores 15 months or older, a key indicator of a retailer's health, fell 7.4 percent from last year.

and

Two other leading publishers, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins, have reported low earnings in recent weeks, citing an especially weak market for older, "backlist" books.

"What I think is happening is that you would have somebody who would go into a store and buy a front list title, and then ... buy a second book. And now they aren't buying that second book," says Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy.

What this means is even less diversity of books and authors from the mainstream publishers. Fewer new authors or original ideas. Just rehashing of the same old shit.. over and over again. Also, fewer overall titles. This presents an even bleaker outlook than previously thought for the foreseeable future in the book world.

My review of Bradley Denton's Laughin' Boy

My review of Bradley Denton's Laughin' Boy appears in the latest San Antonio Current.

Throughout his riveting satirical novel, Denton successfully incorporates text equivalents of several early 21st-century mass communication modes, including video clips, newsgroup posts, sound bites, internet group chat, talk shows, and web pages alongside the more traditional-looking therapy transcripts and linear prose episodes. He wisely centers the story on the tragic tale of Laughin’ Boy, forcing us to take a hard look at contemporary media and its ability to derail society from the important to the trivial.

Quantum of Solace at HMSS

The folks at Her Majesty's Secret Servant have just posted my review of Quantum of Solace.

...Quantum of Solace is frustrating. In looking backwards and forwards it cuts Bond, both physically and psychologically, in ways we’re not used to. This is hardly surprising when one considers that the movie is continuing to explore ground covered by its predecessor...Deep though these cuts might be, however, they are too often quickly bandaged by unnecessary action sequences. Worse still, the bandages aren’t as binding as they should be; they threaten to unravel the entire picture, leaving it to die from blood loss.