Caro Small on Asterios Polyp

Apparently, everyone is suddenly critiquing Mazzuchelli's Asterios Polyp, including DC's Caroline Small. I liked the book well enough, thought the art was stronger than the story, and thought the ending was silly. Read Craig Fischer rather than me though, because he thinks about these things.

Heroes Con pic of 3 cartoonists, 1 professor and 2 fanboy stalkers.

Dinner at Heroes Con. Left to right: Richard "Cul de Sac" Thompson, Mike "ComicsDC" Rhode, Shannon "G.I. Joe Gallant, Craig "Appalachian State" Fischer, Chris "Crogan's Vengeance" Schweizer and Chris "Cul de Sac webmaster" Sparks. Sparks and I are the fanboy stalkers because Fischer gets paid to do this stuff. The picture is Sparks' and we all had to really overtip the waitress by the time he was done asking her to take it.

Heroes Con, Or Stuck Inside of Charlotte with the Cul de Sac Blues Again

Richard and I will be motoring down to Heroes Con next Thursday - I think this is pretty much a go since the schedule posted today says:

June 5 Saturday

3.00 PM

IN CONVERSATION | Richard Thompson
Room 206
Reuben Award -nominated Richard Thompson is widely hailed as one of the most talented cartoonists working today. From his strip Cul de Sac to his Richard's Poor Almanac humor strip to his illustrations for the New Yorker, the Washington Post, and more, he's a fascinating creator. Tom Spurgeon sits down to talk with Richard in this informal conversation.

Presumably I'll be the table monkey and miss it again.

Shannon "G.I. Joe" Gallant is also going down from DC. My buddy Craig Fischer's doing his thing again too.

Heroes Con Feldstein (and Friends) panel recording online

Al Feldstein and Ben Towle

I've uploaded Craig Fischer and Ben Towle's panel to the Internet Archive as an mp3. Click on the link to download it.

NOT THE USUAL GANG OF IDIOTS: EC COMICS PANEL
Part 2: A Chat With Al Feldstein (and Friends)

Ben Towle and Craig Fischer host an in-depth interview with Al Feldstein, EC artist and writer and MAD MAGAZINE editor extraordinaire! Along for the ride is a pair of celebrity funsters - FRED THE CLOWN and FIN FANG FOUR cartoonist Roger Langridge and CUL DE SAC comic stripper Richard Thompson - ready to roast and grill Feldstein about The Lighter Side of Editing America's #1 Humor Magazine!


Craig Fischer, Richard Thompson, Roger Langridge, Al Feldstein.

Craig Fischer on Heroes Con

My friend Craig and I got to hang out a lot over the weekend and it was great. I finally got to meet 2/3 of his family - wife Kathy and son Nate - his younger daughter was playing hookie. Craig's done blog posts on his trip - 1 anda 2 anda 3. I'll try to get my thoughts together and get them up soon. Here's Craig with MAD editor Al Feldstein.

Fischer on Feldstein on Beaty on Hadju

My buddy Craig Fischer stirred up some old EC and Wertham issues for Al Feldstein and Bart Beaty, both of whom I correspond with, so I'm calling this DC news for the nonce. And it's interesting. Part the first - June 09, 2008 Feldstein on Beaty on Hajdu and part the second - June 11, 2008, Beaty and Feldstein Reply. Craig and I will be seeing Mr. Feldstein at Heroescon next week - the panel that Our Man Thompson is also on, and I'm going to help Big Al stomp Craig down to size... Harrassing an EC editor, indeed. Where's the respect?! Ooooh, my questions for Craig are going to be so tough...

Our Man Thompson goes MAD

Thought Balloonist Craig Fischer is reporting that he'll be moderating a panel "A Chat with Al Feldstein (and Friends)," with Al Feldstein, Roger Langridge* and Richard Thompson at Heroes Con on Saturday, June 21 at 4 pm. Hoo-hah! I'm there!

*when I saw Roger at SPX last year, I bought 3 pages of original art from him. Richard was no use at all making the selection so I just bought them all. I'd encourage you to do the same from both of them. You won't regret it. Well, not for long.

Hatfield and Fischer - Siskel and Ebert? Nah.

My buddies Charles Hatfield and Craig Fischer are interviewed by Chris Mautner in "Everyone's A Critic: An interview with the Thought Balloonist guys," Sunday April 20, 2008.

New Thought Balloonists blog born at Politics and Prose

My friends Craig Fischer and Charles Hatfield, two of the best academic writers on comics, have started a new blog, Thought Ballonists. So far they've taken indepth looks at Shaun Tan, Carol Tyler, Fraction's Iron Fist and Chester Brown. I hadn't paid any attention to the Iron Fist relaunch, even though Craig was pushing it at ICAF. Charles emailed me today, "The idea of TB was born while waiting in line at P&P to get Oliphant's signature, and Craig mentioned Iron Fist to me then as well!" So I just ordered it from Big Planet.

Anyway, check out the blog twice-weekly.