"Swirly knees, I see swirly knees everywhere...."

Some of you will never have heard of cartoonist Fred Hembeck (and that woefully inadequete wikipedia link might not help you learn much). He is, primarily, a humourous cartoonist and commentator, mainly covering the mainstream side of things. His general schtick (though he does lots of other stuff too) is drawing strips where he "interviews" famous comics characters--or various variations thereof. He's also done things like a stint at DC in the late '70s, drawing a silly strip that would appear on the House info page, a partial collection of which can be found here. (Funny, silly gags with DC characters, take a look!)

Anyway, why am I telling you about Fred now? Because he has just announced that in February, Image Comics will be releasing THE NEARLY COMPLETE ESSENTIAL HEMBECK ARCHIVESOMNIBUS! It'll contain the vast majority of his hilarious fannish output, minus his work directly for Marvel and DC. All for just under $25 clams! (Even less on Amazon.) I will have to own this book, since I'm crazy enough to want to read it again and again. And, sight unseen (well, I've seen parts of it over the years), I'm gonna say that some of you will want to own it too! For examples of Fred's work, check out the link above, or head on over to Hembeck.com! (You can even read some of the strips that'll be reprinted--though the eyestrain on the monitor can be tough--right here!)

Check it out, won't you? You'll be glad you did. And buy the book--Fred's gotta send his kid to college in a few years.....

One of life's true pleasures....

This weekend I got to watch a three year old watch "Star Wars," and then demand to play "Lukey" vs. "Badguy! Darth Vader! You Badguy!"

(Of course, I think the whole thing was slightly less pleasant for the people he chose to be "Badguy," but we all had fun nonetheless....)

It's wonderful how that thirty year old film still has the ability to enrapture the young--and the young-at-heart! George, you may have done a lot of things wrong, but back in the '70s, you done good. Real good.