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.
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.
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).
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.
Stop SOPA & PIPA Join the party: Wikipedia, Reddit, Google, RPS, BoingBoing, AmericanElf, Rhizome, Wired, tumblr, and many, many other sites have gone various shades of black in protest today.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!)”
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!
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…