Gardyloo!

SLG "After Taxes" SALE!

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 23:17:00 GMT

YOU NEED TO BUY COMICS RIGHT NOW!
SLG is having a very dear little sale, 30% off, including stuff that's already marked down!
Use coupon code "taxtime09" to get the discount.
(Sale goes through Friday, April 17th)

Oh, and here's the link to the SLG site: www.slgcomic.com

NPR review of Skelebunnies.

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 03:17:14 GMT

     Well, I've been WAITING for someone to notice how much like Beatrix Potter I am, especially when it comes to Skelebunnies, and finally NPR has recognized this: www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2009/04/like_beatrix_potter_if_beatrix.html
     I asked my dad if this makes me culturally relevant, and he said it makes me culturally IRREVERENT. He also says that now that I've been compared to Beatrix, I need to get SLG to make plates and cups and stuff, with Skelebunnies on them.

     MOST HUMILIATING THING I'VE DONE RECENTLY: Played Willy Wonka in a skit at a "pep rally." The students who wrote the script for it are really cool, though, so how could I say no? It's not like I VOLUNTEERED or anything, so stop looking at me like that. These kids are NAUGHTY, though, and they somehow slipped a line by their teacher that went: "Gosh, Mr. Wonka, now that we're done licking all the chocolate off your stuff, your equipment is all covered in our saliva!" I'm not even kidding. This was in front of the entire 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade classes. I haven't been arrested, yet.

I FEEL SPECIAL

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 02:30:35 GMT

Check it out: www.boingboing.net/2009/03/03/skelebunnies-filthy.html

This is a review of the new "Skelebunnies: Complete Collection" on Boing Boing. The review is written by Cory Doctorow, which is really cool because he's, like, a famous author and stuff. The fourth comment under the review is from a former student from the school library I worked in, which made me go, "Awww..."

In other news, I'm sewing (horribly) a weird doll-thing from some old socks. So far he has a body, eyes, two arms, four tentacles, and three fingers on one "hand." I'll post a picture when he is ready.
Anthony is also sewing (un-horribly) a cute little creature with a pig nose.

MR. SCOOTS and his ass problem

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 23:29:14 GMT

Mr. Scoots has recovered excellently from his emergency ass surgery, for an abcessed anal gland. TMI? Sorry, but if WE had to hear all about his anal gland, and SEE it during this trying time, and TEND TO IT, then you have to at least share a small portion of the horror. Anyway, they also pulled two of his hillbilly teeth while he was sedated. He spent 10 days on pain meds and antibiotics, but now that damn Elizabethan collar is off, his sutures are out, and he's once again happy & naked as Baby Jesus intended.

If you wanna see a few more pics of his poor little self, go HERE.

TALKING GUITAR BABY

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 03:41:14 GMT

Last night I dreamed I was hanging out with a friend who has a toddler, and in the dream I also had a child, only it was a talking guitar that I was holding like a baby. It had just learned to talk, and was prattling about its boogers, and I had to teach it that it's not polite to talk about boogers in mixed company.
The night before last I apparently had a nightmare about tortillas, but I don't remember why they were so scary. Anthony says I woke him up and told him I'd had a scary dream about tortillas. I do eat a lot of them, so maybe it's time to cut back...?

I'M SO EXCITED!

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 02:41:34 GMT

Yay, I got my advance copy of the "Wonderland" hardback from Disney Press and it looks so amazingly awesome! It won't be in stores until March, though. But it turned out great, thanks to all the people who worked on it. :)

Not only that, but I also got my copies of "Skelebunnies: the Complete Collection," the first Skelebunnies graphic novel!!! Did somebody say Pulitzer...? And that book IS in stores today.

THANKS FOR SUPPORT, & SIGNING TONIGHT

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 18:49:03 GMT

Thanks for all the very kind comments about my previous post. :) It always helps to know there are so many GOOD people out there. You know what sucks? At work, our school district has this firewall that blocks any bloggy type thing, such as LiveJournal, and MySpace, and Facebook. Which is why I hardly ever write on here anymore. I mean, I'm not saying I whiled away countless hours when I should have been working, but... you know how it is. Anyway, dammit.
So tonight is that signing at Metropolis Comics in Bellflower, and they're even doing a costume contest with prizes! I will not be wearing a costume because I am shy. I didn't know last time I posted about it that Sarah Wilkinson will also be there. She is the artist for a Star Wars series of Topps cards.
I couldn't remember if I already took my Zoloft this morning, so I took another one. I may be VERY relaxed at this thing tonight.

PROP 8 BASTARDS

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:32:22 GMT

     For any of you who aren't from CA, and don't know what it is, Prop 8 is on our ballot for the November election, to take civil marriage rights away from gay couples.
     My mom & stepdad picked up two "Vote NO on Prop 8: Equality For All" yard signs, one for their yard, and one for ours. We put ours up yesterday afternoon, and by this morning when I left the house for work at 6 am, someone had ripped one side of it out of the ground, bent the metal rods, and ripped the sign. I guess that's one of our neighbors sending us a friendly little message.
     There are "Yes on Prop 8" signs all over the place, in cheery yellow with pictures of kids and the tagline "Restore marriage," like we're somehow CORRUPTING the institution of marriage, as if straight people need any help corrupting things that should be sacred, such as HUMAN RIGHTS.  Certain churches, like the Mormon Church, are donating huge obscene amounts of money to the "Yes on Prop 8" campaign, and they must be giving those signs to anyone who will take it. In fact, there's so many of those fucking signs I think these church groups who are so intent on taking our rights away must be literally SHITTING these signs out of their asses, just driving down the street and aiming for every bush, and every front lawn.
     I know there are good people out there who value equality and human rights, and are also religious and attend church. Maybe now would be a good time for them to speak up.

HALLOWEEN SIGNING RE-SCHEDULED FOR LAST TIME! PROMISE!

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:43:20 GMT

     So the Halloween signing at Metropolis Comics in Bellflower is now Saturday October 25th, 4-7. The good folks at Metropolis assure me this is the final change, so you may carve it into your arm now.
     But wait, it's even better now! Not only will Steve Niles be there, but so will Gilgrim, creator of the awesome SLG comic "The Cemeterians!" Oh my god, do you even believe it?! That's THREE for the price of ONE!
     Saturday Anthony and I got married and everything was so beautiful and perfect, except for when I knocked a whole cup of scalding hot coffee into my own lap. It wasn't fun for me, but everyone WATCHING totally loved it.

METROPOLIS COMICS APPEARANCE RE-SCHEDULED

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 05:09:13 GMT

The new date for the Halloween-themed Metropolis comics signing (Bellflower) is October 18th, 4-7pm.
Make a note of it, dammit.

HALLOWEEN SIGNING IN BELLFLOWER and LOOK OUT! THE GAYS ARE GETTING MARRIED!!!

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 02:00:52 GMT

     I'll be signing at Metropolis Comics in Bellflower on Saturday, October 11th, from 5 - 7pm.
     They're super nice people, and I've signed there several times before.  It should be fun, and Steve Niles will also be there.
     I had to look him up, but when I saw he was the guy who wrote 30 Days of Night I felt totally lame, because that's one of my favorite movies of recent years. Maybe I should pick up a comic book once in a while.
     Apparently it's a "Halloween-themed" signing, so I'm wondering if I should wear something Halloweenie.
     In other news, Anthony and I are GETTING MARRIED!!! on October 4th, so this October will be a really awesome month. I'm still happily stunned that after 18 years together, it's FINALLY legal, and we get to do the whole "I do," and wedding cake, and family lined up for pictures thing. But the very BEST part is that Anthony will be my HUSBAND at last, and I won't have to awkwardly search for a word that fits how important he is in my life, because "boyfriend," and "partner" certainly don't cut it.
     And if I'm filling out some stupid-ass form that only has spaces for "single," or "married," I can proudly check MARRIED. :)
     And if I get eaten by a shark, I won't have to worry about Anthony not getting my comic book fortune, and custody of our 13 children.
     And if a rhino slips and falls onto my head, rendering me nothing but a vegetable connected to machines, Anthony will have the legal authority to say, "Go ahead, pull the plug. I ain't changin' any more diapers."
     In completely unrelated news, I watched "Demolition Man," and I think it's the worst movie I've ever seen in my life. Anthony said, "If it's so terrible, why are you still watching it?" and I muttered, "I... I dunno..."

MINOR DELAY

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 03:15:35 GMT

    SLG is pushing the schedule back a little, meaning that the SKELEBUNNIES graphic novel will be released in February, and the STITCH re-release in March. This is just a month later than originally planned, so it's all good in the 'hood. I was finishing the very last page of Skelebunnies today, and now I suddenly have an extra month. Will I use it wisely? Probably not.
     As far as the WONDERLAND hardback slip-cased collector's edition from Disney Press, as far as I know it's still slated for January.
     In other news I had some cool stuff in my po box the other day. Bentley Little sent me his newest horror novel, "The Academy," which is perfect because I now work at a "college prep academy," and I will enjoy reading about one overtaken by Satanic forces. Bentley is marvelously twisted.
     I also received a request from a nice lady in Germany to do a sketch for her. She is "nurse for children."

WHOOPS

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 15:41:56 GMT

After a month of summer vacation I started back to work yesterday. I accidentally got black spray paint all over the staff bathroom. It's their fault, really, for putting a bathroom right where I was trying to use spray paint.
We're going to the Getty Museum today with a bunch of family. I'm totally looking forward to it, since we love the Getty, and I'm a fan of family outings. I keep thinking there are bunnies there, but now I don't know if that's true, or something I just made up in my head.

SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON 2008

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 03:18:57 GMT

We attended for two days, Friday & Saturday. It was really fun, met lots of great fans and hung out with writers and artists and other cool people.  Anthony is my Pony Hero because he got me the special exclusive Comic-Con 2008 My Little Pony! Normally you'd have to wait in some long-ass line at the Hasbro booth, but he got it on the sly from some private seller. I also saw a vintage My Little Pony LLAMA which is now the Holy Grail to me, but it was in a locked glass case because it's so fuckin' amazing. It was $75, so, you know, fuck that.
     Had dinner with the Disney people Saturday night, including the editor who's been working on "Wonderland" with us. First time I'd met him in person, and he was totally nice. Everybody was. I was really nervous about going to that dinner and meeting all those new people, and afraid I'd burp or fart or something, but the restaurant was so loud they wouldn't have heard me, anyway. We were seated at this very long skinny table, so at first the only people I knew were way at the OTHER end of it! But the other artists and their significant others were nice and friendly, and didn't spit on us or shove forks into our eyes.
     I saw a bunch of the students I know from the school library, some of them in costumes.  I loved it. They were some of the first people I saw when I arrived at my place at the SLG booth. :)
     I had a weird dream Friday night that I had to draw on some guy's arm, and ten the next day I had to do exactly that. He was going down the line asking the SLG artists to draw on or sign his arm.  I drew a quick Skelebunny, and tried not to come in too much contact with his skin, because I don't know where he's been. It's not like he was even buying any of our books. We saw that some other artist had drawn this beautiful, detailed girl's face on the inside of his other arm.
     He said, "Yeah, some Asian girl at a booth over there did that!  That was so nice of her to do such a great drawing!" I asked, "Did you buy her stuff?" and he replied, "Uh, no..."
     I said, "Nice. Well, maybe you should go back."
     So anyway, I had these postcards and a sign advertising that the Skelebunnies "Complete Collection" graphic novel, an ass-bursting 120-pages, is coming out in January, followed by a re-release of "Stitch" in February. Both will have bonus materials that will make them worth it, and in fact life-altering.
       Disney Press's hardcover slipcased "Wonderland" graphic novel is due out in January, too. I'm very excited about that, and we're all totally proud of the book. I got a lot of really great feedback from fans.  Quite a few guys have told me it's the only comic book their girlfriend reads, which is cool. But then I'm always happy to see there are plenty of guys who are actually reading it, too!
     Mr. Scoots is very happy to have us home, he missed Anthony so much he didn't eat much until we returned. As soon as we drove in and parked this afternoon, we could see his little brown nose poking under the back gate, and he was totally whining with excitement/relief.

'ZINELAND July 14th 6pm

Sat, 09 Jun 2007 23:48:06 GMT

Hey, I'll be selling "Library Bonnet" and some of my comics at an event in L.A. called 'Zineland, at the Hammer Museum. Here's what their website says, and make sure to note the ice cream truck:

'ZINELAND
Enter the fascinating, diverse and plucky world of do-it-yourself publications. A selection of talented LA ’zinesters will set up shop in the courtyard alongside local purveyors of independent publications from across the USA.

Browse vendor booths and pick up affordable, handmade and limited edition chapbooks, mini-comics, artist books, journals, and ’zines. Sample international confections from Heartschallenger while listening to music specially made for their pink ice cream truck. Get wild with LA’s indie rock glam extravaganza Sounds of Asteroth—live on stage!

‘Zineland is organized by Hammer Programs Coordinator Darin Klein.

CONGRATULATIONS SONNY!

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 01:15:25 GMT

I'm totally freaking out in a good way because Sonny Liew has been nominated for an Eisner Award for his pencilling and inking on our book, "Wonderland!" Here's the SLG news blurb about it, where you can congratulate Sonny. Issue #3 is out now, and I have to gush that with every issue, Sonny's work gets more textured and nuanced. I am very pleased indeed.

FAN ART!

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 00:58:06 GMT

Check out this totally adorable drawing by Alison S.
:)
*T*

NOVEMBER SIGNINGS

Sat, 11 Nov 2006 01:16:08 GMT

     Oh my god you guys, listen to this! I'm doing a signing at The Comic Bug in Manhattan Beach on Saturday November 18th at 2 p.m. with Dame Darcy and Crab Scrambly! I'm excited because Crab Scrambly is a supernice fellow SLG guy, and Dame Darcy is one of my favorite creators! I've been so busy for the last few months with just life stuff that it'll be nice to remind myself that I write and illustrate comics.
     I'm also doing a group signing at Metropolis Comics on Wednesday November 22nd from 5 to 8 p.m.  Be thankful!
     So the rumor is that Dame Darcy is bringing her banjo to that Manhattan Beach signing, and I can only hope with hands clasped and eyes shut tight that it's true.
     I had the day off today, so I've been reading A Storm of Swords, book three in George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice & Fire" series. I totally love these books. Unfortunately, I also watched "Doom" with The Rock*. I can offer no excuses for this, other than I wanted to see the monsters. I'm a sucker for monsters.

*To clarify, The Rock was not here in my house watching the movie with me, I just meant he's IN the movie.

DISNEYLAND

Tue, 17 Oct 2006 00:34:38 GMT

     Serena, Eric, and their friend Sarah were here visiting this weekend, and we all went to Disneyland on Saturday. It was totally fun, and I felt like I hadn't seen them in forever. Disneyland is doing their "Not-So-Scary Halloween Time" thing, which means lots of jack-o'-lanterns that light up at night. (Don't worry, mommies, the jack-o'-lanterns are in no way scary, or Satanic!) The weather was perfect for us, because it was overcast and not blazing hot, like the last time Anthony and I tried to do Disneyland with Serena and Eric, and we were all miserable and crabby, roasting in long lines under an unforgiving supernova sun. Not this time! Yay!
     Serena made fun of the obnoxious Main Street singers, by doing her "loud singing voice." That was awesome.
     For some reason, we hit a string of about 4 rides that all broke down while we were in line. Coincidence? You decide. We just waited it out. One of those rides was Rodger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin, and while we were stuck waiting in line, we kept smelling pickles. I was getting REALLY ANNOYED with the pickle smell, especially when it was joined by another even-less-pleasant fragrance, so I blurted loudly, "Why does it smell like PICKLES AND FARTS?!" Serena and Anthony whispered, "Because that girl is eating a giant pickle!"
     Sure enough, some bitch was standing right in front of us in line, chewing on a giant pickle, and then I felt really embarrassed because I had basically just accused her of pickle-farting. But really, SHE should be the embarrassed one.

     It was exciting to me, to get to ride Alice In Wonderland, now that I'm writing "Wonderland" for SLG. That's always been one of my favorites, anyway.
     Oh, and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride was fun, because Anthony and I both get irrationally scared when the train is going to run you down, even though you know it's just a light on a ceiling track.
     On Sunday Anthony and I SPRANG to the rescue like superheroes because Sarah's car wouldn't start.  The night before at Disneyland, the fireworks had been cancelled because of winds, but on Sunday in the hotel parking lot Sarah made some lovely fireworks when she let the two ends of the jumper cables touch. Yay!
     Then we all hung out at our place for a nice visit. The three of them were very eager to see Mr. Scoots, and Sarah had never met him before. Scoots was the center of attention, with his coy nudity, and subtle charm. He kept trying to hump Eric's arm, and I seem to remember him doing that the LAST time Eric and Serena were here, so I can only conclude that Eric is leading him on.
     Then he tried humping the girls, too, which was REALLY disturbing, because having a hetero pet is just NOT something we have ever planned for, or even considered the possibility of. How humiliating.
     When Serena asks, "Will you show me your sexy paw?" Scoots shyly curls that one paw up toward his chest in this really funny, dainty way. He pretends to be naive, but he knows how to work a crowd.
     Then Sarah grabbed his weenie, supposedly by accident. We're still investigating the incident, and working on the official report. Both parties will be interrogated.
     Not to go on and on about Mr. Scoots, but he was SO freakin' excited about Serena, Eric, and Sarah all giving him attention that he just ripped the shit out of his favorite blue octopus. He's had that toy for over a year now, and although it only had two tentacles left, it was still in one piece. Not anymore. He was in such a gleeful frenzy he finally tore a hole in it, pulled all the stuffing out, and basically annihilated it. (In looking up the correct spelling of "annihilate," I just discovered "anilingus.") Anyway, we had to quickly grab the squeaking mechanism, and the grunting mechanism, so he wouldn't choke on them. I may keep the grunting mechanism, just because how often do you come across one of those?
     This is the problem with me taking the day off. I end up with too much time to sit around and write about pickle farts and grunting mechanisms. But I did need some downtime.
     If I had a magic time and space-bending portal, I would use it to go have coffee with Serena anytime I wanted to, so we could chat about all sorts of stuff, and conspire. I would also use it to go hang out with Eric and Sarah, and talk about science fiction and horror novels.
     I was sad to see them drive away, and I'm hoping it won't be quite so ridiculously long before we get to hang out with them again, in person.

ENVELOPE FULL OF HUMAN HAIR PERPLEXES LIBRARY WORKER

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 00:35:41 GMT

     I've had a weird, long day. But let me backtrack a little, and mention that I was pee-your-pants excited to see Dame Darcy sitting in the front row of last night's episode of America's Next Top Model. I will not apologize for watching that show. It is my religion. As soon as Anthony said, "Oh my god, that's Dame Darcy!" in my head I was doing a "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" type thing, connecting Library Bonnet to ANTM.  Because Dame Darcy reads Library Bonnet.  It made me feel closer to the show, and... closer to God.
     Now on to my weird, long day. This morning I was checking books in, and when I opened one of the books, a white sealed envelope slid out of it. I thought maybe there might be something important in it, so I opened it. To my horror, it was full of BLACK HUMAN HAIR.  I don't mean just a few strands, I mean a LOT of black human hair, in a bundle. I immediately ran for my anti-bacterial handsoap. I almost kept the hair-filled envelope, just to show people, but it was so gross and nasty, I had to throw it away.
     Later in the day, I had a disturbing incident when these kids came into the library to take a history test. One of the girls was loudly disturbing the other kids, and finally one of the boys said, "She's talking so much I can't even concentrate!" The girl said something nasty back to him, which I didn't quite catch, so I said, "What did you just say to him?" She said, "I didn't say nothing," and gave me a dirty look. I said, "You better watch the way you look at me, and stop lying, because you DID say something. Now tell me what it was."
     She looked straight at me with this frighteningly hateful look in her eyes, and said loudly and proudly, "I said FAG." I was so stunned, I stupidly asked, "What?" and she repeated, "I said, FAG."
     Of course I called her teacher, and sent her off to detention with him, and he gave her the full-on talk about why that's so unacceptable, but what really upset me was how much it threw me off-kilter. Normally I would have handled the detention and "the talk" myself, but I was so freaked out by the pure ugly hate in her eyes, I sort of blanked out, and got all jittery. I HATE that. It's bad enough when they throw that word around casually in an ignorant way, but it was like this girl really MEANT it. Ugh. I just wasn't up to that today, even from some twatty 13-year old.
     But then after school something funny totally made up for it.
     I was standing there appreciating the relative quiet after the big after-school rush was over, and this one really quirky, smart kid came in. He walked up to the circ desk, looking freaked out and desperate, and said, "Mr. Kovac, I don't why, but I just thought maybe you would be the one to come to with this... dilemma." I looked at him, and saw that he was wearing eyeliner on one eye, with some creative design coming off of it, and across part of his cheek. Sort of a glam-rock thing. He said, "Do you know how to get eyeliner off? Do I wait for it to dry first?!"
     I said, "Dude, I always used eyeliner pencil, I can't help you with the liquid kind."
     Apparently he forgot what day it was, and was thinking he had several hours before any parents got home, and would have time to, as he put it, "prance around with my eyeliner on, and listen to David Bowie, and... you know..." I supplied, "Pretend to BE David Bowie?" "Of course!" he responded proudly. Anyway, the problem was that he remembered this was NOT a day when he'd have a few hours to himself, and in fact his conservative hillbilly grandmother was coming home soon, and if she saw any sign of eyeliner on him, he would be in big-ass trouble. Not to mention if his DAD found out. So I let him use the sink in the library workroom, and he scrubbed and scrubbed at his eye until I verified that all trace of the eyeliner was gone.
     He said, "So, my grandmother isn't going to look at me, and know I had makeup on?"
     I said, "No, not at all! Unless I TELL her..."
     He laughed, then said, "Wait, you're kidding, right?"
     He hung around for a while, then as he was leaving, he came up to the desk, and said, "Mr. Kovac I would just like to thank you for being so understanding. I would appreciate it if this didn't... uh, you know... leave this room. May you and all your Slovak brethren have a good evening."

WONDERLAND #2 IN STORES!

Sat, 30 Sep 2006 04:29:49 GMT

Beware the Jubjub bird! Here's the SLG NewsJournal link about it.
You know, it would sound nasty to say that someone has a frumious bandersnatch.

CONTRABAND

Sat, 30 Sep 2006 04:14:10 GMT

     Well, Banned Books Week went great! The principal was totally supportive of us, and he himself read a morning announcement about it over the PA system, and did not shy away from anything, and emphasized all the right stuff. I was AMAZED and thrilled, because this is the first principal I've worked with who was even willing to CALL it "Banned Books Week," rather than the pussy cop-out version, "Freedom To Read Week." The principal before this one didn't want to incite anything by using the term "banned books."
     The video journalism class, which always does a video announcement on Fridays, did a special spot about Banned Books Week. The kid who did it was great. He borrowed a bunch of "controversial" books from our library, and had them all lined up in front of him, and talked about intellectual freedom, and hit all the right terms. He said his "personal favorite" was Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret, (by Judy Blume) which made us all laugh because that book is all about periods and developing breasts and other girl stuff. Then he ended it by encouraging everybody to come to our library and check out all the "contraband" we have available. I loved that.
     The video journalism teacher, who's a friend of mine, said the kid wanted to put Annie On My Mind (by Nancy Garden) out in front of him on the table for the video. It's about two teenage girls who fall in love, and what happens when people find out. I think it was one of the first books about a gay romance for teens, and is fairly well-known. The teacher said he told the kid NOT to put that one out front, because he should display the ones that kids will be familiar with, like Harry Potter, The Giver, Scary Stories To Tell In the Dark, etc. I was like, "You are such a pussy. What makes you think there AREN'T kids who are familiar with Annie On My Mind?" But at least he initiated the spot on the announcements, so I won't complain too much.

BANNED BOOKS WEEK

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 02:55:13 GMT

     So this morning I dragged myself bleary-eyed in to work at 7:00 a.m., and before I even had a chance to put my stuff down, our new principal was bustling into my office, wanting to grill me about the Banned Books Week displays we have up around the library. I immediately felt defeated, pissed off, and defensive, because I was still holding all my crap, hadn't had any coffee yet, and was having a bad hair AND face day on top of it all. Not to mention that I was really PROUD of the thing I'd drawn for the hallway display case. It's a giant comic strip, four panels, with two kids talking about Banned Books Week, and intellectual freedom. Anyway, the principal's panties seemed to be particularly bunched up about some other posters I'd just put up that say "READ BANNED BOOKS." These posters happen to be from the American Library Association, and have really great quotes from classic authors like Mark Twain.  So clearly these posters were printed in Hell by Satan himself (funded by the ALA?), just to corrupt our youth. Because the American Library Association is like that.
     To be fair to our principal, after the grilling session, he let me keep everything up, and I found out from a coworker that the whole thing was sparked by a teacher who came into the library on Friday when I wasn't there, and apparently pooped her pants angrily (or at least this is how I imagine it) about the posters that say "READ BANNED BOOKS," and ran directly to the principal to complain. So he was only investigating what we were doing because of that bitch's frenzied tattling.
     What really pissed me off is that ever since my involvement in the censorship case, which was YEARS ago, we (the librarian and I) have had to defend our professionalism and our ability to do our jobs in an appropriate way EVERY FUCKING YEAR during Banned Books Week. BEFORE the censorship case, we celebrated and promoted Banned Books Week every year, and no one said ANYTHING, or questioned us at all. Now suddenly we're "ones to watch," and they act like this is something sneaky we're doing, and they'd better keep tabs on us, and make sure we're not handing the kids porn, with dildos for bookmarks. They seem to forget that we're the GOOD GUYS (and girls), we're the ones trying to protect intellectual freedom. That's what the censorship case was about. Censors : bad. Library : good.
     Anyway, after explaining what the posters mean in detail to the principal, and detailing to him exactly how I would discuss it with the students, and assuring him that we're not trying to hand the kids anything that is clearly not appropriate for a junior high school, he seemed to turn around and become supportive. Which is good, and I feel better about HIM now, at least. But I'm concerned about that teacher who ran and complained to him, because all it takes is one very vocal moron like that to cause real problems for a library. Hopefully it will end there. But I can't forget that our censorship case was sparked by just ONE instance of an asshole teacher making some very ugly, bigoted comments about a series of books we had in our library. That teacher walked away without ever filing a complaint or a challenge, but because of his off-handed ugly comments, our (previous) principal pulled the entire series off our shelves, and set the whole chain of events in motion.

LIBRARY JOURNAL

Wed, 20 Sep 2006 13:27:43 GMT

Library Journal” is one of the most well-known and respected professional library publications out there, so Julie and I were both very excited when someone sent money for our lil’ zine “Library Bonnet” to the PO box, with a note saying she had read about us in “Library Journal!” (I’d love to know how/where they acquired it, since we did not specifically send them a copy. Maybe we should from now on!) Some friends tracked down the issue for us, and here’s the brief but nice blurb:

“Tommy and Julie are playful enough to make up for a few uptight librarian stereotypes. Filled with gripes, games, and a sometimes twisted sense of humor, this zine is amusing and lighthearted (with dark undertones).” (They also included all the ordering information and website.)

The blurb refers to issue #7, and we’re planning to send issue #8 to Tower Records soon, since we have a little distro deal with them.

In other news, Wonderland #2 comes out this month, so yay! And here’s something else: I’m pencilling Autumn #6, now that the script is finished. It may take a while, since illustrating my own work takes so much time on top of working full time (at the library) and stuff. I’m experimenting with acrylic paints, because I think I may paint the cover of Autumn #6. It’s all trial and error for me, since it’s been about a decade or more since I even TRIED painting anything. Back then, I had NO patience for waiting for the paint to dry, so most of my stuff was all smooshy and blurry, and I’d get very frustrated, and everything looked like a melted rocky road sundae.

Oh, and by the way regarding summer, Comic-Con was fabulous and fun, and then our friend Matt came to visit which was also fun, Anthony and I celebrated our 16th anniversary with a lovely little get-away, and then I started back to work at the school library, which is... whatever, and I've been very busy. Did I mention my dad and stepmom came to visit right before Comic-Con? That was really nice, too. Lots of stuff has been going on. Gotta go, late for work!

SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON

Mon, 17 Jul 2006 20:08:30 GMT

Well, it's only a matter of days now. If you're going to be at Comic-Con and feel so inclined, there's a "Spotlight on Tommy Kovac" panel from 1:30 to 2:15 on Thursday, July 20th in room 9.

We'll be driving down to San Diego with a friend on Wednesday morning, and it should be loads of fun. Barrel of monkeys, etc. I even have copies of the brand new hot-off-the-copier Library Bonnet #8! It's true! Not to mention that SLG will have copies of Autumn #5, which I don't believe has appeared in stores quite yet.

I'll be signing Wonderland and my other stuff at the SLG booth Thursday through Sunday, along with Sonny Liew, fabulous artiste of Wonderland.

There will also be an official "announcement" of a new SLG comic I'm developing with Malaysian artist Leong Wan Kok. I think "official announcement" means we'll have a postcard or something cool like that.