it is funny that the two things most men are proudest of is the thing that any man can do and does in the same way, that is being drunk and being the father of their son."- Gertrude Stein.

Something about that quote makes me wonder if it is accurate (I found it identical in a printed and online source.) I find myself wanting to add a comma. The picture is from my new set of author portrait bookmarks for Bent Books of which this is the third shown here. Mr. Bent doesn't have them online yet but you can see the previous sets..

when I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, `it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.'


`That's a great deal to make one word mean,' Alice said in a thoughtful tone.
`When I make a word do a lot of work like that,' said Humpty Dumpty, `I always pay it extra.'
`Oh!' said Alice. She was too much puzzled to make any other remark.
`Ah, you should see `em come round me of a Saturday night,' Humpty Dumpty went on, wagging his head gravely from side to side: `for to get their wages, you know.'
(Alice didn't venture to ask what he paid them with; and so you see I can't tell you.)
`You seem very clever at explaining words, Sir,' said Alice.

Dave Sim has entered the Humpty Dumpty phase of his career. (I recognise it well, my friends, having been there awhile, in fact the decorated real egg above is from my Fate of the Artist, and since we ate it you'll never know how much of that is photoshopped)
Is Dave Sim A misogynist or is he just sexist? From the posted account of the email conversation involving Chester Brown and Dave Sim: "Absolutely, I said. I agree with you that Chet's argument is faulty. While, yes, languages do evolve - words don't suddenly lose their meanings. What Chet is describing is sexist, not misogynist. Misogynist is a fairly specific term and if it and sexist meant the same thing, there would be no need of the word. And, I do think that you fall into that category. I've had this argument on the internet many times.
So, Dave faxes back that no - he is not a sexist, because in today's world sexist is assumed to mean the same thing as misogynist..."

Dave probably thinks of me as one of his friends who did not stand up for him in his hour of need, and it is true that I have conscientiously avoided ever commenting on the issue. However, it seems to me that if you make a series of statements that is antipathetic to the hard won status of social equality of women as a group, that they, individually and as a group, are likely to call you names. At the risk of sounding sexist myself, what made you think it might be a good idea to haggle over the definitions of the words?

my attention has been drawn by my pal Bob Morales to the fact that Melbourne comedy band Tripod can be seen on Youtube. Here they are with the Umbilical Brothers doing 'Air Guitar'. The second piece is titled 'Hot girl in the comic shop' (or comic store as they say in the US) and I expect some of my readers will get a laugh out of it. These are from the band's regular spot on ABC's Sideshow last year.

let's make no bones about this. The Australian bank notes are among the best designed in the world and the USA's are crap. Here each note is a different length and a different colour. There's not much chance of accidentally getting these boys mixed up:


But over there in America...
Paper money discriminates against the blind- May 20- AP

WASHINGTON - Close your eyes, reach into your wallet and try to distinguish between a $1 bill and a $5 bill. Impossible? It's also discriminatory, a federal appeals court says.
Since all paper money feels pretty much the same, the government is denying blind people meaningful access to the currency, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Tuesday. The decision could force the Treasury Department to make bills of different sizes or print them with raised markings or other distinguishing features.
The American Council of the Blind sued for such changes, but the government has been fighting the case for about six years... (news item thanks to Bob Morales)

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VIRTUAL DREAMGIRL
CYBER-GENERATED BEDMATE -NY Post- May 20, 2008 --

An NYU grad student has a unique, two-dimensional take on modern love.
Drew Burrows, 28, rigged a mattress, computer and projector to simulate a slender brunette in bed, asleep by the time you've come home from a long day's work. Burrows had his project - titled "In Bed" - on display last week, allowing art patrons to lie down next to the two-dimensional sleeping beauty who would eventually roll over to cuddle. (link thanks to Bob Morales)

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Hilarious:Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse as Laurel and Hardy in Brokeback Mountain. (Youtube) (link thanks to hayley campbell)

Rory was the first guy in the States to pick up my stuff, for his Comic Relief store (photo from their site), along with the best of the British small Press photocopied things way back as early as 1983, when Knockabout used to use to use the small oddsize booklets to pad out their shipments to Last Gasp, also in San Francisco. First time I went to the San Diego show in 1989, feeling very foreign, there was a copy of one of my books hanging up in the Comic Relief display. Rory was ahead of the rest in that way and many others. It's been good to catch up with him almost every year since then, and this year I'll miss him. My condolences to his family.

cal came home from the movies the other night and announced that Iron man is cool. I said 'You know I drew Iron Man once' 'You never did' 'yes, he was a guest star in an issue of Captan America.' 'YOU drew Captain America?"
The thing about kids is that they weren't listening to anything you told them between the ages of ten and sixteen, so you get to tell them all over again. I fished out the issue in question and he read it. Here are a few panels. The heroes get to hang out and call each other by their first names. I always liked that kind of thing when I was a wee'un. You could imagine you were hanging out with them yourself. Tony, Steve and wee Eddie.
The colouring was very dark, and I've had to lighten it so we can see what's going on. StewART McKenny helped me out with the backgrounds and mechanical objects in these panels. The thing I like most is that it almost doesn't look like my work.







update: I forgot to mention that the book was writen by Bob Morales who is always sending me links for my blog.

i'm a guy who goes everywhere on a bicycle. I'm not a bike enthusiast; I just buy a relatively cheap one, run it till it's no good, then buy another. And I dress to ride the way I want to be dressed when I get where I'm going. I was looking for some pictures of bikes for a story i'm working on and i came across the webage of Brian Wilson, an American who has 83 photos of bicycles in Amsterdam taken during a holiday there. In Amsterdam nobody wears a helmet, they ride in their suits, in their nice dresses and it's common to see old people riding too, and everybody looks so fit and healthy.




Here's a kid in a regulation child safety seat, but she's standing up in it:


One of the commenters on the page sends his own photo: "It's our minister of social affairs who always rides a bike when coming to parliament. I know this is not in Amsterdam but in The Hague, but it's typical for our bicycle culture in The Netherlands." And another sends a photo of himself with his three grandkids and two dogs all on his bike with him. And he's smoking a pipe. What style.