Simon Gane shares a preview of the the cover for the upcoming Halloween Classics edition of the Graphic Classics series. More deets in this article from last week.

Sam Henderson doodles constantly. He has generated thousands of sheets of paper that are jam packed with his characters. Sometimes these get left behind… Here’s one that re-surfaced over a decade after he did it.

The debut issue of the new Adventure Time comic book series from KaBOOM! is in stores today*, and Toronto’s The Beguiling will be celebrating with an event this Saturday, featuring series writer Ryan North (of Dinosaur Comics fame) and AT artist Steve Wolfhard (creator of Cat Rackham Loses It). Many comic artists work on Adventure Time – check out our survey here.

Gary Panter and Joshua White are opening a massive light show/trip city/living sculpture in a 22,000 square foot museum in Detroit. It’s at MoCAD, opening February 10th with a performance.

Sam McPheeters (of Born Against/Vermiform Records/Men’s Recovery Project/etc.) has written a novel – The Loom of Ruin – it is to be released on April 1st, 2012. He will be doing an extensive book tour and needs help filling in a few dates. Anyone seriously interested in helping me put an event together for Sam in the South Bay on May 3rd., can you please get in touch via the contact form. Thanks.

The Center For PostNatural History will be opening a storefront location on March 2nd 2012, at 4913 Penn Ave. Pittsburgh, PA. Congrats to Rich Pell and crew! Hopefully we will have more details before the grand opening.

*Sorry, folks… Wow Cool will not be carrying the floppy issues of Adventure Time, as they are distributed exclusively through Diamond and we do not and have never done business with them. Stay tuned for news about the collected editions, which Wow Cool intends to offer for sale. So, hey, support your local comic shop!

Live at The Brick House – Turners Falls, MA. Otherwise unreleased track. Release show for the Harmonic Time Cycles & Scary Guitar Man Cassette on Yeay!

Mike Kelley, a sure godfather figure to many who have followed, including the likes of Fort Thunder and Brown Cuts Neighbors, has left this world. He will be much missed. I just wanted to share a few images and link to some words about the man…

LA Times Obit | Pictures | Culture Monster | Dan Nadel | Robert Boyd | Art 21

Many images after the jump….

If you can click on only one, please check out “The 20 Most Beautiful Bookstores in the World” by Emily Temple, on FlavorWire. The ultimate in shelf porn. I think I’ve been to only one of these, Shakespeare & Company in Paris.

As you may have heard, the artist Mike Kelley is dead. The above video of the unholy trinity of art hooligans Mike, Gary Panter and Matt Groening is a great romp to lift your spirits.

The Magic Band (as in Captain Beefheart’s) has been touring recently – with original members John “Drumbo” French, Mark “Rockette Morton” Boston and Denny “Feelers Rebo” Walley. This tour report from Drumbo is much more interesting than you might guess. His history of the band Beefheart: Through the Eyes of Magic is well worth tracking down.

Sold out of its first printing well before it actually goes on sale this Monday, the new comic book of Adventure Time looks like it might actually be ‘all that’. The many alternate covers of issue three – including one by Michael DeForge – are previewed on the Frederator site. Read Wow Cool’s roundup of the Artists of Adventure Time.

You may have heard of 24-Hour Comic Day, there appears to also be something called Hourly Comic Day – “On February first a bunch of people make a journal comic every hour they are awake. and then they show these journal comics to other people on the internet.” Bad Machinery‘s John Allison participated. I’m sure others did, but there are only so many hours in the day…

Apparently Too Much Coffee Man shows up as an NPC in some strange incarnation of Half-Life.

Frank Santoro is on tour preaching his comics gospel. I managed to miss him in the bay area (sick kid). Hey, Pacific North West! Don’t you pass up this opportunity! He’s been posting tour diaries too: Part One | Part Two

Lynda Barry delights in coloring book misuse and abuse and many other wondrous sights on her tumblr.

Didn’t hear much noise about this elsewhere, but it seems that the “Monty Python team set for film reunion with Absolutely Anything” It’s animated, yes.

I’m currently in the process of reading this interview with and exploring the sounds and software of Richard Devine. I’m a particular fan of Graincube. Richard’s DEVSND blog.

Wow Cool crucial guy Joshua Baker has recently returned to Portland after a long sojourn up in Maine. He and partner Eli have a blog of their trip up that you may enjoy. So… does this mean a chapter three in the God Hates Computers/Chased and Smashed Saga (or is that a chapter four in the Things I Hate/God Hates Computers/Chased and Smashed Saga? Or wait, are there more?… goddamn punk bands…)

Simon Gane draws cathedrals. Sure, mummies and Rodan are cool, but these big ass churchy things could probably kick your ass too!

The actor Ben Gazzara has died. He may be best remembered as part of that great trio with John Cassavetes and Peter Falk that made the film ‘Husbands’ as sort-of promoted above. I thought I had run this video before, but can find no evidence of it. This is one of the most insane talk show appearances ever. I could never get quite as behind the rat pack or the beat crew of Bill, Jack and Al as I could with these guys.

Simon Gane brings us a preview of several panels from his 28 page adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s 41 page* horror story from 1892, “Lot No. 249“. The comic will run in Graphic Classics Volume 23: Halloween Classics, due for release this August. The book will also feature adaptations of Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, H.P. Lovecraft’s “Cool Air”, Mark Twain’s “A Curious Dream’, and an interpretation of the silent film classic “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”, with art by Matt Howarth. The story was the first bit of lit to introduce the character of the vengeful bad ass mummy — later much popularized by hollywood — right during the height of Egyptomania in Victorian England. Simon also steps out in a co-adaptation of The Strange Case of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde in the revised Graphic Classics edition to be released in April.

* It’s that long in “The Best Horror Stories of Arthur Conan Doyle“, where I have it… a few pages less in “Round the Red Lamp“, where it usually shows up.

Jason Martin brings his Power Animals to Florida today, Groundhog Day, February 2nd, 2012…

POWER ANIMALS TRANSMISSION DEVICE 2012 (video projection w/sound, runtime: 1 hour, looped) @ Orlando Museum of Art, event curated by artist Johannah O’Donnell: “From Robots to Warlocks: Sci-Fi and Fantasy Art in the 21st Century.” Power Animals screening 6-9PM @ SunTrust Auditorium, Orlando Museum of Art, 2416 North Mills Avenue, Orlando FL — Features new videos, strange raw footage, works made for the internet, previously screened videos, all remixed and scored with original music for this particular screening.

Tom Hart will be opening the Sequential Artists Workshop (SAW) to the world this Friday, January 27 from 7 to 10PM. The Grand Opening is also a book launch party/gallery show for Derek Ballard’s Cartoon Show.

SAW is proud to open its doors to the public and showcase Gainesville comix artist Derek Ballard.
Derek Ballard has worked extensively as a illustrator and t-shirt designer and has had comics published in Vice, Juxtapoz & Beautiful/Decay, Faesthetic, Typhon, and The Drama. Cartoon Show is his first book collection. Ballard’s comics are a combination of intense imagery rooted in visionary science fiction, 80s style and modern street art, drawn with bold, angular brush strokes and vivid colors. Cartoon Show is a genre comic of futuristic originality.

SAW, is located at 17 SE 5th Ave, Gainesville, FL 32601 (behind Citizen’s Co-Op.)

SAW is a non-profit organization dedicated to the prosperity and promotion of sequential art and artists, offering comprehensive instruction in comics, graphic novels and sequential art. In vibrant Gainesville, Florida.

Among Tom Hart’s many achievements, he co-founded Wow Cool 24 years ago this month.

Out on the Warp label this Tuesday, January 24 is Gonjasufi‘s MU.ZZ.LE. Although it’s just ten short tracks, this could well be the album of the year (hey, early days… but this is an incredible collection of music). You can preview the entire record on Fader. Audio CD and Vinyl release out on Tuesday. Digital presumably out then too (Gonjasufi iTunes page).

Hopefully you also checked out Ganjasufi’s interview and 20-minute guest mix on Tom Ravenscroft’s BBC 6Music show from January 13 (Friday the 13th!). Maybe it will turn up on Gonjasufi’s SoundCloud page.

In 1977, Ringo Starr did four commercials hawking Simple Life Leisure Suits for Japanese TV. They contained variations of the song, “I Love My Suit” – sung by Ringo, featuring background vocals by Harry Nilsson and Davy Jones of The Monkees.

I can’t begin to say how awesome I think this song and video are. Would love to see a higher quality copy of the commercial. Info here.

Download the song from backup singer Davy Jones.

Somewhat appropriately, today marks one year since legendary college radio station KUSF 90.3FM was shut down.

UNREST Perfect Teeth / 7″ Box Set from Teen-Beat on Vimeo.

UNREST’s landmark indie-rock album, Perfect Teeth, has been out of print for 15 years. Their last, and widely considered their best album. Featuring M.T.V. hits “Make Out Club” and “Cath Carroll”, the other 8 songs, plus 6 non-LP tracks.

it is being re-released in it’s original 7″ vinyl box set format, revised with a 7″ 24-page booklet filled with photographs of the band by Erin Smith and recording session photos by Mark Robinson, six records all on color vinyl, full-color labels, replicas of the Unrest and Teen-Beat stickers, and a download coupon. Just like the original, the box will be printed by Independent Project Press, this time with metallic gold ink. Each box will be numbered.

You may pre-order it today at http://teenbeatrecords.com It will ship in Spring, 2012.

It is no secret that we at Wow Cool *heart* Unrest all over like a cheap suit.

Adam Arcuragi and The Lupine Chorale Society – with Andrew Gerhan on Bass – kicks off a one month US Tour on Wednesday, January 18th at Los Angeles’ Bootleg Bar. More local to Wow Cool HQ, they will be in San Francisco at The Hotel Utah on Thursday. They’ll be hitting 22 states, so there is a good chance they will be playing somewhere near you soon. Their album Like a fire that consumes all before it… will be released on January 31st on the Thirty Tigers label.

Andrew Gerhan is, of course, the chief audio mixer and general knob fiddler for Wow Cool. Two of the records he added massive polishing to will be released this spring. Stay tuned for more news…

Kramers Ergot #8 will be having itself a release party at Family in Los Angeles at 7pm on Thursday, January 19, 2012. Contributors Ben Jones, Johnny Ryan & Tim Hensley and editor Sammy Harkham will be in attendance. Can’t make it? The book is now in stock at Wow Cool.

Read Sean T. Collins review of Kramers 8 at The Comics Journal.

Welcome to the linkdown and shop update for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Weekend. My five-year-old told a very curious tale about King Luther, whose ‘last name is Junior’, when he came home from school the other day. He also executed the assemblage above out of junk we gathered by the train tracks near the Wow Cool office in Cupertino. Note the wooden train track. We found several of these. If you follow Wow Cool on Twitter, you might have noticed there was a fire near those same tracks last week. We’re fine, the office is fine, but it sure stunk like smoke that afternoon.

I managed to skip doing any kind of best of 2011 lists for music, comics or anything else, but I did note several others. The best rundown you could want of those for comics is provided by Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter. On the music side of things, you should welcome Kid Kameleon to the lineup at Peter Kirn’s excellent Create Digital Music, and spend a few hours with his The (electronic) Music of 2011 list. Of special note is the Kid Kameleon mix of Om Unit further down in the post. You will also want to check out Om Unit’s end-of-year mix for XLR8R from a month ago. We ran a little piece on Kid Kameleon here just a few weeks ago. He knows his stuff.

In other news:
On the ‘How Mid-Westerners See The North East’ side of things, you should check out John Porcellino’s King Cat Winter Tour Diary posts on Maybe Blogging Will Help.

Jeffrey Lewis talks about Bob Dylan on American Songwriter.

Steve Ditko’s cover to his new book Sixteen is previewed.

Alan Moore gets the ‘comics aren’t for kids anymore treatment’, but worse, and also better, in the following:

OK. New in the Wow Cool shop.
The big stars this week are two solid hardcovers that are much less than a million miles apart.

Although originally seen at some shows and available some places back in October, due to a distributor switch it has not been until now that we are able to offer the excellent collection of Jesse Moynihan’s Forming from NoBrow Press. We also have his previous book Follow Me available.

And then there is Kramers Ergot #8. The book made it’s debut at December’s BCGF in Brooklyn, but is only just now on general release. It is a package seemingly designed to encourage discussion (or argument of plate throwing). Few reviews have surfaced yet, but this short write-up and interview with editor Sammy Harkham by the very knowledgeable James Romberger on Publisher’s Weekly is well worth your time.

In the meanwhile, there is not much NEW new stuff in the shop this week, but a number of older titles of interest have been floating in. You may have missed these: Funny (Not Funny), edited by Ryan Standfest who also gave us Black Eye; several books by David King, including his recent Lemon Styles and a stellar contribution to the new Study Group Magazine; the serious gem of a jamcomic Play Overlord by Sean Christensen, Amy Kuttab & Theo Ellsworth; we got some of the last available Wowee Zonk #3 in; one we’ve had for a while that deserves another look is the Stalagmite anthology with Kevin Scalzo and Brian Ralph; and, then there’s Grendel Tales: Homecoming by Dave Cooper, Pat McEown & Matt Wagner… about the oddest thing Dave Cooper worked on, but a real classic.

Thanks for giving!

Media artist Dara Greenwald has been a close friend to many of the people involved in Wow Cool on both coasts for many, many years. I am sad to report that she lost her fight with cancer on Monday, January 9th, 2012. Although I have never met Dara in person, I feel her loss greatly and have never heard so many great things said about someone by so many people involved in my life and work from so many different areas. She contributed much to this world and I invite you to explore her work at http://daragreenwald.com/

This post will be updated with more information as it becomes available.

This is a couple years old, but somehow I totally missed it. The Empire State’s favorite sons The Scientific Maps present a video loveletter to Albany, New York(!!!???). Starring ace designer Philip Pascuzzo as the bubblegum bandit. Makes a nice follow up to the Andy’s Chair 4 video zine posted here awhile ago – see the same settings virtually unchanged after over a decade and a half. Look for a special appearance by my Brown Cuts Neighbors “Make Room” poster featuring Frank Beam, towards the end of the video. Thanks to all the folks that shared this on facebook this week.

Yes, it is I. The irregular Wow Cool link dump. Usually posted on a Monday or Tuesday, often in two parts, often skipping many weeks. We are well back from the holidays, and therefore it is time to obliterate every open tab and share the good bits that emerge.

We open with the fight song from of the original St. Trinnian’s films. As you may have heard, St. Trinnian’s creator Ronald Searle passed away a few days ago. He has been remembered far and wide. I tried and failed to find what I thought would be the perfect image to present, so I went with the video instead. If you are going to read only one obituary of the late British cartoonist, you should read the one by Steven Heller in the New York Times. And, hey, I actually liked the newer St. Trinnian’s films.

If you have a couple days to spare you really should take the time to read this interview with amigo Steve Bissette – part of the Comics Reporter holiday interview series. I could list about half of the rest as must reads too, but I’ll let you pick your own favorites.

I was hit totally from left field to see that the Comics Journal had run this astoundingly comprehensive profile of the great Motorbooty zine assembled by Frank Santoro. Mark Dancey is the man and make no doubt.

Our late friend and inspiration Dylan Williams, of Sparkplug Comics, is being chronicled in bloggy fashion at the DYLAN WILLIAMS ARCHIVES – The life and work of Dylan F. Williams 1970 – 2011. “We are attempting to archive the life and work of Dylan Williams: Collected writings, comics, artwork, sketches, letters, stories, photos and tributes. This is an ongoing project compiled by Dylan’s friends and family. If you have something you would like to contribute, please write to tom (at) iwilldestroyyou (dot) com” If you knew Dylan, then the Amazon reviews will make you chuckle and miss him all the more. I lied a couple paragraphs ago, you also must read this Comics Reporter holiday interview with the current proprietors of Sparkplug.

I would be amiss to not give a shout-out to Sean T. Collins for giving us a Shout-out in this post-holiday roundup of amazing comics stuff. It’s part three of… how many? Does this guy ever sleep? So much goodness out there.

In related news, CBR’s Robot 6 has gone into overdrive the last few days (while most of us were relaxing) with great news, bits, previews and more. Seriously, too much to mention, just start digging.

And give special attention to this Robot 6 exclusive preview of titles coming from Koyama Press in 2012. We’ve just added a couple more Koyama titles to the shop here at Wow Cool. Snatch those up, because they are low in quantity and not likely to be reprinted.

OK… in more related news, just one more specific Robot 6 link, and another Koyama-related bit, even… you should really read their recent interview with Michael DeForge, who is also one of the featured artists at Wow Cool.

I’m not sure if Wednesday or Thursday is new comics day where you are. All I know is Paul Grist’s Mudman issue 2 is out from Image. Go get that!

I’m sure I could go on… but I refuse. Carry on… single file, begone with you!

Link dumpage composed while listening to Tom Ravenscroft sitting in for Gideon Coe on BBC 6Music.

Rites & Dust by scottsmallwood

Scott Smallwood of Evidence has shared a collection of his field recordings from Burning Man 2011 up on the SoundCloud. Share and enjoy. “A collection of field recordings from the 2011 Burning Man Festival, Rites of Passage, Black Rock City, NV.August, 2011. (download the mp3s for better quality!)”

There’s a new gang in town… the Press Gang - made up of Jason Leivian’s Floating World Comics imprint, cartoonist and editor Zack Soto’s Study Group Comic Books and Elfworld editor François Vigneault’s publishing house Family Style. Press Gang is described on its website simply as “like-minded publishers/packagers banding together.” Wow Cool has carried their many titles for a while now and we’re pleased to see them ganged up and have now grouped them together in the shop. Get the full scoop on this small press PDX hookup in this informative interview with Sean T. Collins on Robot 6.

In the meanwhile. Many, many new items (and a bunch more old ones) have been floated into the Wow Cool shop since we last mentioned such things here on the blog. Of special note are: Josh Bayer’s ROM & Raw Power; John Porcellino’s King-Cat #72; three issues of Press Ganger Zack Soto’s Ghost Attack; Study Group Magazine #1 (Zack & those Press guys again!); oversized Image Comics in the 90s love letter Rub the Blood; Nancy & Sluggo hate mail Suspect Device; and, we finally have Michael Kupperman’s Tales Designed to Thrizzle #7 in stock.

We look forward to your custom, true believer. May your eyeballs bleed and your spleen splinter at these wondrous delights.

Yup. Tapes… as in cassettes. New in the Wow Cool shop are two full length releases from former Brown Cuts Neighbors Jason Martin and Marc Arsenault. First up – on Yeay! – is Jason’s “Harmonic Time Cycles & Scary Guitar Man” and on Hollow Home Ministries is the debut release from Girls of Slender Means – the electronic music lab of nickname: Rebel – Marc Arsenault, Nick Carpenter and Michael Keegan, with special guests Pete Von Petrin and Andrew Sullivan. Break out your Walkmans and crank up the funk.

Pieces of Ralph E. White performing his original tunes “farewell to the river daughter” & “no stranger” live at the United States Art Authority. Video by Neil “Cloaca” Young of Yeay! Records and Fat Worm of Error. This is an astounding performance.

Now in stock at Wow Cool is Sam Henderson’s “Free Ice Cream” comics that debuted a couple weeks ago at BCGF. It’s Sam’s first solo publication since 2008′s Magic Whistle #11 Body Armor for Your Dignity. Subtitled “And other cartoons you could have drawn”, it collects Sam Henderson’s gag cartoons from 2009 and 2010 (148 of them, by our count). Sam has been posting these online and in Smoke Signal for the last couple of years. Also included is a 2-page “Jerrold K. Footlick” adventure. It’s 40 pages and a little bigger than comic-book sized. You can get yours here on Wow Cool at three dollars a pop. If you are feeling adventurous you can grab them up at one of the many wholesale options: It’s a three for the price of two (actually 3-5 copies for two dollars each), 6-19 copies at $1.50 each (50% off!) or, if you want to buy 20 or more copies it’s a full 60% off, or $1.20 per copy. Go jump on that!

Hey comic book shops! You can also get your copies of Free Ice Cream through our distributor Last Gasp, or, if you order through Tony Shenton, please do!

We Have You Surrounded, originally uploaded by slovobooks.

The Dirtbombs – We Have You Surrounded
In the Red Records, 12 February 2008
Contains “Leopardman at C&A”, written by Alan Moore. Cover art by Gary Panter. I just thought this was pretty cool. Moving along…

Via Flickr:
The Dirtbombs
We have You Surrounded

In the east bay this weekend? You like some alternative press? Get on over to this! The East Bay Alternative Press Book Fair is going on at Berkeley City College, 2050 Center Street in Berkeley, CA on Saturday, December 10, from 10-4. Dig it.

Jason Martin will be presenting Power Animals in a variety of formats
at several events in New York City during the next week:

Saturday, December 10, 2001 – Power Animals & Rachel Mason at The December Store

Monday, December 12, 2001 – Power Animals Videos at Home Sweet Home

Friday, December 16, 2001 – Art Pussy: born into this at The Paper Box

The Power Animal Systems video installations are still on view through January 14, 2012 at E10th and Broadway, and a second installation at 80 Washington Square East, Manhattan, NY. “So please come peep the dimensional portals and assist us in transmission! Two solo installations in windows: photographic prints, video, sculpture, teleportation.” Jason talks about Power Animals in this interview.

Hey! Peoples in Brooklyn and nearby! Be on the lookout for the eleventh issue of Smoke Signal! You can grab them from Desert Island, 540 Metropolitan Ave., Brooklyn NY 11211 and elsewhere nearby. They should be showing up soon online exclusively in the Desert Island web store. This issues features a lovely cover by Charles Burns and a strip by Benjamin Marra and Michael DeForge. Also inside is an ad for Wow Cool, designed for us by Steven Cerio. We will have copies available for bay area peeps just as soon as our new shop in Cupertino opens. Still picking out displays and matching doilies and whatnot.

Kid Kameleon at SF MusicTech 2009 - photo by Marc Arsenault

It’s always really nice when a thing leads to another thing and you discover a whole other world of awesome music and art that you did not previously know existed. The art and science of discovery is something that drives the marketers wild and makes us passionate ones crazy. Today saw a series of intriguing finds spurred by the usual Friday afternoon listen at Wow Cool HQ of the excellent Tom Ravenscroft show on BBC 6Music. The guest mix on the show was by local favorite Kid Kameleon (Site, Twitter), who I’d photographed and seen perform at SF MusicTech a couple years ago.

Discoveries:
The Kid Kameleon Mix Archive – hours of listening
Next stop on that world opening up was this post: The King Deluxe label is one year old. This was my first exposure to Canadian-based collective King Deluxe and to the artist HR-FM. I need more! Many more discoveries are to be made in Kid Kameleon’s blog.

The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival 2011 is happening this Saturday, December third in Brooklyn, New York. The event has become the go-to show for the type of art comics/comics art that we peddle here at Wow Cool, and a great many of the artists whose works we distribute will be at the show (Full exhibitor list). Many excellent new books will be making their debut, and we will be featuring several of them in the Wow Cool shop as soon as we can. Among the titles to look out for: Sam Henderson’s new book Free Ice Cream, š! #9 ‘Female Secrets’, guest edited by Ryan Sands from kuš! komiksi, Smoke Signal 11 with a Charles Burns cover and six pages of goodness by Michael DeForge and Benjamin Marra (also, look for the Steven Cerio designed Wow Cool ad in this issue), DeForge himself will have two new digests available, Zack Soto’s anthology title Study Group Magazine #1 (also with DeForge!), and the much anticipated Chameleon #2.

The guest list this year is simply stunning and includes appearances by Al Columbia, Gary Panter, Phoebe Gloeckner, Brian Ralph, Jack Davis, Lisa Hanawalt, David Mazzucchelli, John Porcellino, and Michael Kupperman.

Keep up-to-date on BCGF goings-on via their blog and on Twitter #BCGF or #BCGF2011 (can we get an official hashtag?)

BCGF 2011
Saturday, 12/3/2011

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, 275 North 8th Street, Brooklyn, NY
12-9 pm Free and open to the public

AND

Union Pool, 484 Union Avenue #A, Brooklyn, NY
1-8 pm Free and open to the public

Manhattanites! Friday December 2nd, join Box Brown, Josh Bayer and Pat Aulisio at Jim Hanley’s Universe!  Can’t make it?  Get Josh and Pat’s Retrofit books here and pre-order Box Brown’s new book The Survivalist from Blank Slate Books.

Dig deep into this roundup of classic video game magazines that are archived online. Via Rock Paper Shotgun

Printrbot: Your First 3D Printer by Brook Drumm — Comfy couch not included on Kickstarter. Also via RPS, same link as above.

Two games I’ve been exploring today that are well worth checking out are Kairo (available as a very affordable pre-order with an alpha download) and English Country Tune, which is in full release, but you might want to wait to see if your mind survives the experience of playing the demo first before making the plunge. Again, both via RPS.

Alan Moore on how the mask of “V” became the face of a global movement in the Guardian.

The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy “The violent police assaults across the US are no coincidence. Occupy has touched the third rail of our political class’s venality.” Also in the Guardian.

The archives of Anthony Burgess reveal many gems on the eve of the fiftieth anniversary of his notorious Clockwork Orange. I had a great book-nerd conversation with the clerk at Shakespeare & Co. in Paris a few years ago about Burgess. He totally hard sold me on one of his later books. Sly bastard.

Giving comics for the holidays? Tom Spurgeon’s “The Comics Reporter’s Black Friday Holiday Shopping Guide 2011” is the definitive guide. It appears to be possibly still a work in progress.

Washington D.C.’s Emo-Punk über-dudes Fugazi are launching an online archive of 800-odd live show recordings, as first reported in the New York Times, and last reported here.

You can stare at this for hours… Michael DeForge’s concept art for one of the best Adventure Time episodes ever, Beautopia. And, wait, there’s more. And much more on the Frederator blog.

Beautiful Decay did a lovely post on Derek M. Ballard a few days ago that you should check out. A bit NSFW in most districts.

I could probably add tons more, but it’s late. Sorry, not much in the way of images or videos this time… click on for that. In case you missed it, Image Comics is having an SF Bay Area shindig this coming February. We haven’t signed off on anything yet, but Wow Cool will likely have a presence there. So, hope to see you at the Image Expo in late February in Oakland, CA.

Be the next person to order any of these three items from the Wow Cool shop and you will receive a custom heavy duty canvas totebag at no additional charge:

Offset Needle Radius Vs. nickname: Rebel CD (this tote is also available to purchase separately)

These are 6 oz. cotton canvas totes. Size: 15″ x 16″. Natural color. Screenprinted. This offer will remain open until completed.

We also have a selection of lovely items that are on sale, including several graphic novels.

The new shop is forever growing, so keep watch on the new items page. Recent highlights include Bowman by Pat Aulisio, Ganges #4 by Kevin Huizenga, Never Learn Anything From History The first collection of Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton, R.A.V. #5 by Mickey Z, the much acclaimed Pope Hats #2 by Ethan Rilly and the 30 page monster minicomic Stay Away From Other People by Lisa Hanawalt – a 2009 Ignatz Award Winner now back in print.

Please do watch the above and have your mind gently blown before reading the following. But you might want to wait…

I had never heard of the Czech-born International cartoon legends Pat & Mat until today. It’s very likely that you had not either. I discovered them while trying to find some fun new games for my son to play – browsing the offerings in the Steam Autumn Sale. He’s five, and he loves Pajama Sam and puzzles. There do not seem to be a ton of age-appropriate point-and-click adventure games for him out there currently. We mostly pick up older games that will still run in the classic environment on his iMac. It’s one of the last ones that Apple made that will still support it. So, at some point I stumbled on the Steam page for the Pat & Mat game. Oh no! This doesn’t seem to work right! Can we fix it?

The description makes a big point of playing up the international brand recognition of these two schlubs that I had never heard of nor seen before. Google power to the rescue and it is little wonder why. Despite having logged 78 episodes in over a quarter of a century and being shown worldwide (apparently being quite popular in most of the middle east and even Iceland!), they have somehow skipped any sort of US TV programming or video release. You can score More Pat & Mat – Series Two [Region 2] on Amazon, if you want to spend a bit… or the show is available through YouTube and the other usual sources.

The shorts are astounding. They are mind-rendingly funny. The two clear animated decedents of the show in both style and content are Bob The Builder (Which could be read as an elaborate apologia of it’s Slavic ancestor) and Wallace & Gromit, which pays clear homage in several moments, especially Wallace’s chin-grabbing pondering.

The short I picked to show above brought many great attempts at audio art to mind, including the various vinyl-de(con)structive releases by the Haters. Remember the slab of vinyl, needle and set of instructions LP they did? No? Ok…

Seriously, whoever can sell me the North American distribution rights to these cartoons, please get in touch soon. Oh, was that too crass? Sorry. Have a happy Macy’s Day.

Do you know the Press Gang? They are the rag tag fugitive coalition of Family Style, Floating World Comics and Zack Soto’s Study Group Comic Books. They have a tumblr and a Facebook page and they are going to BCGF. The slightly re-branded Study Group Magazine #1 will debut at the show. Wow Cool carries just about every book this trio has put out and we’re eager to see more. Diamond Comics #7? Is that in the works?

There is going to be an Adventure Time comic series debuting in February from Boom! Studios’ all-ages imprint Kaboom! in February 2012. The book will be written by Dinosaur Comics creator Ryan North. Get up close and personal with the artists behind Adventure Time in this report we posted last month.

Watching Rise of the Planet of the Apes while I work on this. Somewhat more disturbing during the current occupied climate.

š! #9 ‘female secrets’ is out! It contains stories by 27 international female cartoonists on 164 pages! Guest editor Ryan Sands. You know you need some of that! See the big preview. Be getting some of those here soon.

Salvador Dalí does Alice in Wonderland

Sam Henderson talks about working on Spongebob Squarepants

How do you feel about a third installment of Puzzle Agent?

Gang of Four’s Dave Allen digs through old notebooks and posts thoughts on Damien Hirst, Johnny Rotten, JG Ballard, Brian Eno and the American suburbs.

“If you could see the world the way I see it” Spend two hours hearing Philip K. Dick Ramble.

I could post many, many more, but am oh so very tired. These were the big ones. Check this space for Black Friday deals and other such nonsense later in the week.

With music by Burial! Archangel from Untrue, even! Jason used to make fun of me for liking that kind of stuff! Hey!

I’ve been pretty terrible about posting new books in the Wow Cool Shop here on the blog, but, I was pretty excited by today’s arrival, and, since I can barely walk after today’s big move to new offices on the other side of town, here’s a brief rundown…

As seen above, we’ve got the very limited (numbered edition of 300, and all the ones we currently have are in the first 50) brand new this week issue of Mickey Z’s R.A.V. #5 in stock for a meager six bucks. Includes a guest appearance from Michael DeForge.

Other new stuff in the shop well worth a look:

The new Nedroid Collection Beartato and the Incredible Event Book by Anthony Clark

Bowman by Pat Aulisio – Number three in the Retrofit series gets all 2001

Kevin Huizenga’s Ganges #4 – already widely regarded as one of the best comics of the year. We carry many other books by Kevin that are hard to get otherwise, including the Curses Collection and Fight or Run.

Brian Ralph’s Daybreak collection is an absolute must have. Brian Ralph… zombies. What more do you need to know.

And, the sleeper hit of the summer (um, are we past that season now?) is the first issue of Holli Hoxxx, A sci-fi comic like you wish Heavy Metal would print more of. Kevin, are you listening?! Don’t make me start a campaign or something!

Lauren Weinstein has the rest of the story.

I’ve been finding the strangest stuff while unpacking and stuffing filing cabinets. Today, the long-missing “Mark Martin” folder was uncovered, also a xerox collection of very early strips that Mike Kupperman sent to me to use in the old Tuna Casserole anthology. Wondering now why we never said, ‘hey Mike, we should print a whole book of this stuff’. Many, many other gems… Once the scanner gets moved I’ll scan a few and share them here. I’ve been planning on digitizing and posting massive chunks of the Wow Cool archive over the course of the next year or so. More on that when it starts happening. (illustration above is a scan from a memo by Mark Martin to the Hyena artists)

In other exciting news there is once again a Pee Dog publication available from Wow Cool. We did a printing of Pee Dog #1 back in the early 90′s and were working with Jocko & Eddie to get a Pee Dog Collection into print for about five years at three different publishers until when – literally the week that production was starting on the book – they pulled the plug on the project, presumably to spare their poor mothers the worry. Now, Picture Box has printed a new edition of Pee Dog #2 and we have that available to you here along with a dozen other fine PB publications.

There’s about a hundred more books and other stuff in the shop since last mentioned here in the engineroom, so, please do some browsing. Highlights include Kate Beaton’s first Hark! A Vagrant collection and the Nedroid collections from Topatoco, a large selection of books by the artists behind Adventure Time, Caroline Paquita’s 2012 Calendar, Mickey Z.’s R.A.V. books (expecting #5 to show up any day now), A very nice and very affordable print and also a very nice and very thick minicomic by Lisa Hanawalt, and the very strange event of when Michael Kupperman (him again!) worked for Timely Comics – All Select Comics #1 featuring The Blonde Phantom and Marvex!

OK. Now for the Tweetdown. The best and brightest bits of news from the Twitterzone from the last few days (follow Wow Cool, already). Usually posted on a Monday.

Liz Suburbia posted five new pages of Sacred Heart late on Wednesday, November 16th. She swears she’ll be getting some of the printed editions to us soon.

Bill Moyers is returning to television, and he has a personal letter to YOU about it.



Jeffrey Lewis will be playing at Pat Aulisio’s studio in Philly on November 23rd. Read the recent write up here on Jeffrey.

Ron Regé Jr. is taking your money and doing you drawings. I can think of worse ways to spend 75 bucks.

The must read item of this list is this interview with the awesome Annie Koyama of the press of the same name on CBR. And, no, I didn’t know she worked for the National Film Board of Canada either. No joke, we get plenty of those productions this side of the border too.

Gary Panter’s skateboard design for Pharmacy is a joy and a wonder to behold.

Dan Clowes’ Wilson may become a film. Slightly more information at the very end of this interview with director Alexander Payne.

Wow Cool is officially the last place on the interwebs to post a link to this video of Alan Moore talking about Harvey Pekar.



Oh… and though we teased it within minutes of everyone else, if not much earlier, and through the burnt sage grapevine of the Comic Relief Alumni psychic friends network knew all about it at least a few hours earlier, we are now about the last to report that, yes, there will be a big fat fucking book of King City finally. Creator Brandon Graham has the most enjoyable report of this impending publication. The book, will, of course, be available from Wow Cool. M. Graham will also be writing the new Prophet series for Image. Oh, the news of the new complete edition of King City was first announced in USA Today, of all places. The complete King City is to be a 424 page book from Image Comics, released on February 22, 2012 for a meager $19.99 at the ‘Golden Age’ size. Uh Huh. Yup. As mentioned before… we’d like to see an expanded Escalator collection with a special color section.

You like some J. Church? My much missed fellow MRR shitworker Lance Hahn’s unreleased demos have been digitized and unleashed for you to download. I will be re-hosting these here soon, so that you don’t have to deal with the idiocy of Sendspace. Um… remind me if I forget. Seriously. Busy damn week.

OK. That’s probably it until next Tuesday or so. We’ll see how the move goes. As mentioned before, there are many, many books that are in stock at Wow Cool that are not yet listed online. The goal is to get the vast bulk of it ready by good ole’ Black Friday, including the staggering amount of Robert Crumb titles we have. Otherwise, when the new place in Cupertino is open to the public, announcements will be made prominently in all the likely locations. Local pick-up will also be added as a shipping option in the store checkout. You can get in touch through the Contact Us form to make an appointment if you like until then. Thanks for reading.

This teaser image has just been released to the world by Image Comics. What does it mean? More King City, perhaps? A collection? Hmmm. We’ll just have to wait to find out. In the meanwhile, will someone please bring Escalator
back into print?! In other B.G. news you should check out his drawing-rich post from a few days ago with a preview of his “The Speaker” comic for Dark Horse Presents #7 and much more tasty goodness.

Family Circus is an easy target for subversive alteration (quite often mashed with HP Lovecraft), but it managed to be pretty weird on its own and often genuinely funny. The classic “Can I cut things out of People” is one of the best, then there was the crossovers between Family Circus and Zippy The Pinhead in 1994-1995. Billy spent a week under the gaze of the Bill Griffith Observatory in December 1994. Viewable much larger (but harder to navigate) on Zippy’s home site: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

AP Obituary.