"Luminous beings are we."

My scanner and hard-drive are currently not on speaking terms, so I haven't been able to post any of my art on this blog so far. Hopefully, with the help of a sympathetic scanner, I'll have a bunch of stuff ready to put up fairly soon.

In the meantime, here's a little Yoda sketch of mine to keep us company:

"A dangerous servant and a fearful master."

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."

--George Washington

Next week the CIA will be declassifying what is unofficially known as "the family jewels"--records of much of the agency's worst abuses, from assassination attempts to drug tests on unaware U.S. civilians. More information can be found at this link:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19360920/

I'll be interested to see what kind of news coverage this receives.

"Inside of a dog it's too dark to read."

Stuff I've been reading lately:

--Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers, by Daniel Ellsberg. A very detailed account by Ellsberg of his years working for the State and Defense departments, leading to his disenchantment over the Vietnam War and his leaking of top-secret documents detailing the history of the United States' political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1971.

--His Excellency, by Joseph J. Ellis. A biography of George Washington. When Washington put aside talk inside the army of him becoming king, and resigned his commission and turned his army over to the legislature at the end of the Revolutionary War, King George III of England was said to reply, "If he does that, he truly is the greatest man alive." What's fascinating about Washington is that, even when you consider his faults, he really was just about as impressive as his sizeable reputation.


Houdini, The Handcuff King, by Jason Lutes & Nick Bertozzi. Nice little book about a particular day in the life of Houdini. Lutes remains one of the very best layout men in modern comics, and Bertozzi adds an energetic, loose quality to the work. I like the historical notes at the end.

--Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus Vol. 1. You may have gotten the impression from my previous post that I love this book. Let me add to that: I really, reeeaaaallly love this book. I've been waiting/hoping for a quality collection of Kirby's Fourth World comics for a long time, and this is just about perfect. The paper stock, reproduction, and color quality are all top-notch. In fact, the only blemish in the whole thing are all those unfortunate Al Plastino/Murphy Anderson Superman heads (DC had artists redraw all of Kirby's Clark Kent/Superman/Jimmy Olsen heads--as well as some figure work--because they wanted Superman and Jimmy to retain a certain established in-house look).

Example:

But a giant green Jimmy Olsen clone and a guest appearance by Don Rickles goes a long way to make up for all those heads.

"THEN--THERE WAS NEW LIGHT!"

I love this book.

"How use doth breed a habit in a man."

Naked and wet with slime I step blinking into the world of blog.

In time I will update this sucker on a regular basis, sharing sketches, preliminary comic work, rarities, random thoughts, etc.

In the meantime, let's christen this blog with the greatest comic book cover of all time--Shadow Comics vol. 3 #6 (Jan 1943)