2013 Summer Schedule Update

June 23rd, Akron-Canton Comic Con, Chapparells Community Center, 2418 Arlington, Akron OH, 44319

August 31st, Art in the Square, Highland Square, Akron OH

More to come...

Giant-Size Summer Special!

Convention Season is upon us, and I'm just about out of copies of Issue 2. I was going to get more printed, but I'm also ready to print Issue 3. So, instead of an "Issue 3," per se, I decided to just put out a "Giant-Size Summer Special" that collects the whole Hard Oats story in one book, plus a handful of other unseen strips I've had sitting around. I'll probably do this from now on, instead of numbering the books, since I put them out whenever I can afford to, rather than by any sort of schedule.

I'm really, really happy with this book. I was pretty unhappy with Issue 1, being as it was unfinished and hastily tossed together. Issue 2 was better, but it was an incomplete thought, and having a full year-and-a-half between the beginning of a story and its conclusion has a way of, you know, slowing momentum, not just for the reader, but for me, as well. I've had the conclusion to Hard Oats on the shelf for a year, practically done but in dire need of editing. So, I've done that, cleaned it up, adjusted some things so they make sense, and now I feel like Hard Oats is a finished story, and leaves us in a good place to wait for the next installment of the larger plot.

Anyway, I'm pleased with it. It's 52 pages, which is about as many pages as one can cram into a stapled book. The price on this cover is incorrect. The actual cover price will be six dollars, which is a bargain for 52 pages in today's indie comic market. People be charging up to ten bucks a pop for much smaller books, and I guess people be buying them, too. So, hopefully they'll buy this one.

I'm putting together my Summer convention schedule, which I will make available as soon as I can. I plan on doing at least four shows this year, all in Ohio. For now, however, I know I will be at the Akron-Canton Comic Con, at the Chapparells Community Center in Akron, on June 23rd. I'll keep you apprised of developments.

Modern Funnies is now "AMALGAMATED HOVERCHAIR"

TOUGH TOM HELLS and all my other books will now be published under the imprint of "AMALGAMATED HOVERCHAIR."

There are two reasons for this. One, I just like the name "Amalgamated Hoverchair" better than "Modern Funnies." Modern Funnies was an attempt to be ironically bland, and I'm far less keen on that notion than I was a few years ago. The second reason is that this "re-branding" coincides with my own renewed interest in pushing through and finishing all the stuff I've been working on for the past year. It's been a year and a half since last I released an issue Tough Tom Hells, and now I've got one totally done (and has been done for months), another that is practically done (just a few finishing touches here and there), and yet another that I am very eager to begin.

I am hoping to release TTH #3 sometime in June. Before that, however, probably by mid-May, I am going to try to launch a Kickstarter campaign to help me put out TTH #4 by early Autumn. The Kickstarter campaign will function basically like a pre-order. Whatever you give in money will buy you a certain amount of goods, tit-for-tat. I'm still leery of the whole crowdfunding business. I know, I know, it's "the way things are done now," but I tend to disbelieve that I, as an "artist," deserve any financial support that doesn't analogously translate into goods or services rendered. Without getting into a whole thing here, I am uncomfortable with the current line of thinking, even among many who consider themselves "liberal," that funding the arts this way is a positive trend. My dream is that one day, a president of ours, with the help of congress, will create a new Federal Arts Project. It's a bullshit dream, I realize. This ain't the 1930s, and we won't likely see a man like Franklin Roosevelt again. Yet, as a fan of both history and labor movements, I can't help but regard crowdfunding with suspicion.

Whoops! I got into a whole thing. Forget about that. What's important is that I'm going to bite the Goddamn bullet and do the Kickstarter thing, and then you'll give me money and I'll send you shit in return, and not one dollar that you send me won't go into the products that you receive! Get it?

I'm going to go watch some Depression-era news reel footage now.

Buy My Comics

Issue #2 is now available for purchase online from Comixpress. Please "clicking into" the following "hyper link" to access the proper Web Page:

TOUGH TOM HELLS #2






Of course, there are still plenty (infinite) copies of Issue #1 available, so pick one of those up, as well, if you have not! It's like 8 pages longer than Issue #2, and 50 cents less in price! Why? It is because of "the economy"

TOUGH TOM HELLS #1






Oh ho! You say you have also not yet purchased your copy of Modern Funnies: A Very Cumulative Boy? Or maybe you have one, but have spilt whixy or turp upon it and now it is are pages stuck together? No problem! Simply clicking into the following hyperlink and we will replace your book at full price, for free!

MODERN FUNNIES

Please by all of my books early and often!