Yesterday Oni Press held a big ol' cookout up at Mt. Tabor Park here in Portland, and it was a great time. I can't think of any observations except that a lot of us now have kids, and they like the playground. That sneakthief Layman took the train down from Seattle too. And Greg Rucka seems to be in charge of any grill fired up in within a 10 mile radius. I got to meet David Hahn's mom too. I thought I had more pictures, but this is all there was on my camera this morning. Thanks to James Lucas Jones, Jenny, and everybody who worked to put this together.

Well it's out now, go to VARIETY.com and read all about me and my new pals at New Line Cinema. If you sit through a quick ad, you don't have to sign up for the paper!

Remember when I was wondering whatever happened with HavenCo, the company that wanted to host web content on the Principality of Sealand? They just talked about on On The Media recently, you can scroll down to "Stranger Than Paradise" and listen. HavenCo went out of business, not being fired upon by a gunship like I imagined, but because some lawyers were scared of hosting streaming movies or some such. And there's a documentary about the whole thing coming. Guess we'll just have to focus on another potential Evil Villain Base, LIKE MAYBE THIS...

My friend Terri has posted a new story at Sirenita, the more or less monthly blog she and her husband Stewart maintain. Though I demand regular posting of the other links in my to-do list, Sirenita has good enough true stories that I'll happily wait for them. Such as this anecdote called "Haggis".

When is The Batman not as entertaining? A: When the greatest Riddler is dead.
Even though Frank Gorshin stood for my least favorite episode of Star Trek in my youth, he also stood for some of the best episodes of Batman. He made the other villains look like they were sleepwalking compared to his performances. I can still enjoy those episodes, largely because of that inappropriate orgasmic brain-freeze thing he used to do when laughed too maniacly. That went completely over my head as a kid. But on a show that people just wanted to guest star on as a lark because it was the campy-chic thing to do in the 60's, he really gave it his all. It's impressive that he came back to play the Riddler after John Astin because he didn't want people left with an impression of the cigar-smoking Gomez Riddler. (No slight to Astin, who was great on Addams Family and Briscoe County!) And of course, Gorshin was a satellite member of the Rat Pack. Now all we're left with is that chump from late-night TV with the dollar signs all over his coat, waving money. Rest in Peace, Frank.

There's a new interview with me over at COMIXFAN conducted by Remy Minnick, and focusing on all my upcoming Marvel work. Go give it a read. Post if'n you like. You did know I was going to be writing Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four, right? Oh, well I meant to mention it.

I was checking out sites that link to me and found this very cool blog by palaeontologist Dr. Michael Ryan. Thanks Michael! Go check it out and read about the new book of Mark Schultz art coming out soon.

Old studiomate Casey Jones has built a new website with his own hands so go over there and start clicking buttons. You don't have to click five things to finally see some art, the place is just loaded with images. Those comics site hackers who like defacing sites struck within minutes of him going live, bless their hearts. But it looks fine now. Good job, Casey!

While I gather my thoughts on logo design, go enjoy that new GORILLAZ video. You click picture now.

Everyone had a high old time at Excalibur Comics Saturday, where Free Comic Book Day looked to be a success. No mean feat in a town with as many good comics shops as Portland, and plenty of cartoonists to appear at them all. But Excalibur gave us pizza and generous store certificates! It was also good to talk to Craig Thompson and Paul Chadwick. Paul, in town from his island sanctuary in Washington, even came down to Mercury Studio later to talk shop with us. I got some Concrete out of the deal! Now, thanks to diligent art-scanner Rob Castillo is the Sandman piece he got me to do for Ryan.

At all shops participating in Free Comic Book Day today. It's a great promotion for the medium, the kind only Joe Field could have come up with. Yes, there will be a few bozos at every shop who walk in thinking that means any comic they want is free. They'll even fancy themself brilliant because they'll look up a really expensive comic on the internet and go in asking for that one, thinking they'll hit paydirt. It's okay to fire upon such people.

BIGFOOT!

Hey, Casey Jones pointed me back to our old standard of AM radio, COAST TO COAST AM for that Bigfoot in Manitoba footage. So here's the link to A Current Affair's site showing the video. It could be a guy in a business suit walking around on the shore, as vague as it is. But I'm sure we'll get answers-- watch through to the end of the video to see the crack team A Current Affair put together to go hunt down the mighty Sasquatch. They'll be lucky if they find Canada.

Thanks to Dean Haspiel's blog, I just saw these terrific strips by Jim Dougan and Roger Langridge. Go enjoy that for a minute. Shoot, I didn't know Roger was up for working with others. I wonder if he'd team up with me on something? I need to buy more of his art before everyone realizes he's one of the greatest cartoonists of our generation and I can't afford it anymore.

An unveiling! Jim Ottaviani of G.T. Labs (publisher of the upcoming Bonesharps, Cowboys and Thunder-Lizards) charged me with the task of creating a new logo for his company. I agonize over these things, but I love to do them. Without further ado...

Hey, did anyone see the Bigfoot footage
supposedly captured by the Manitoba
Ferryman? That was supposed to air on
A Current Affair?
Did it look good?

Finally I've got a chance to update my bloglist there on the side, try out some new ones for a change. We have to bid a sad farewell to Johnzo.com, the blog of John Aegard, but he hasn't updated since October. Bye John. And since Kevin Melrose dropped Thought Balloons in the harbor chained to an engine block, it's gone. But replaced with the new one he contributes heavily to, Dark But Shining. Just as I was checking the url for Drawn to finally put it up, I saw that Jay linked to my homepage yesterday, that was a nice surprise. We have a few science blogs, a couple of comics folk like Eisner-winning colorist Trish Mulvihill, whose blog is more a celebration of Manhattan, and my buddy and studiomate David Hahn, who just used part of his DNA to construct a new baby girl named Cleo. Dave, I don't like the name of your blog though, so I suggest you change it to the name I have given it in my link, Wrath of Hahn. Also included is one that has given me so much enjoyment lately, the blog of artist Mike Hoffman. The link is one the best quotes on his blog, "Ego? Nay. Facto!", which routinely trashes lots of my artist friends (except for Boris Vallejo, he's not a pal), but man is it something to read. Hipster and Image Executive Eric Stephenson is on here as "Stephenson." And you can check out cool old toys and commercials on the "Bedazzled" blog. I'm open to all cool links you might wish to send this way, too.