meltblog

Today’s New York Times features an op-ed piece by Neil Gaiman. It’s a charming read about the relevance of ghost stories and things that go bump in the night. At the end of the article Gaiman is identified as the author of Anansi Boys and Fragile Things, no mention of his comics work. Nitpicking, I know, but what can I say? My heart is filled with sweet comics love.

Why do you write ghost stories? Is there any place for ghost stories in the 21st century?

As Alice said, there’s plenty of room. Technology does nothing to dispel the shadows at the edge of things. The ghost-story world still hovers at the limits of vision, making things stranger, darker, more magical, just as it always has ….

Hey guys, check out this here flyer for what my pals at Jim Hanley’s universe are doing. Basically, they’re getting fans of Jeff Lewis’s music to come by the store for a rock show. Will they get into comics at the gig? Myabe not, but they will be exposed. It’s ideas like this that can spread the word beyond to non-comic readers and bring up the numbers of enthusiasts. Outreach like this is outstanding and overdue. Tip o’ the hat to my old friend and mastermind Michael Binaco. It’s a great idea, Mike! I hope it inspires more folks to read comics, and more of us to think about how we can attract readership for our medium from “outside the club”.

The Seattle Times has a nice little profile on writer Ed Brubaker. He talks about his new noir comic book Criminal, which dropped this week and you should check out.

I’ve spent some time in the felony tank, let’s put it that way. That really straightened me out, as far as scared straight goes, like not sleeping while you’re in a downtown San Diego county jail with, like, 50 other guys in the tank, getting legal advice from a guy who’s covered in blood from getting beaten by police. That was lovely.

Warren Ellis has uploaded a few pages of script for his forthcoming comic book series Ignition City. The publisher and artist have not been announced yet.

I watched the season opener of Saturday Night Live last night and it was horrible. It was so bad that my cats switched into Disney sidekick mode, looked up at me with shame in their eyes and walked out of the room. Dane Cook was hosting and did a great job of leading off the show with a funny 3 minute set. Then it all went to shit. First of all, there’s not a stand out performer in the entire roster this year. But the saddest part is that in a world with so much turmoil — a treasurehouse for satire — we’re subject to a skit that consists of a bunch of 5 gallon water containers falling out of a closet. Really? That’s all you guys have to say?

One of the saddest comedy shows I’ve ever seen.

Hi, this is Caleb Monroe, and I’m the newest member of the Meltdown and Meltblog families. I’m just going to take a moment to introduce myself since I’ll be posting around here. This is my first time ever using WordPress, but I don’t imagine I’ll break the Internet if anything goes wrong here.

I write comics, I read comics and now I sell comics. You can visit me online at CalebSpace until my eponymous website is finished being revamped, which will be sometime in the next several months. If you live in LA, you can also visit me in person at Meltdown.

If you’re a burgeoning creator, I maintain a Comic Creator Services Page for your reference. It is mostly a guide to publisher submission guidelines, and has links to upward of 80 of them.

The brilliant artists of Meathaus have a new blog you should be reading. When I look at Meathaus I see the future of comics — and the future looks good. The creators that make up their collective are some the most talented, unique artists working in the industry today. Go check them out; it’s easy on the eyes. Plus, they have excellent posts about sci-fi-grunge found objects and dirty kiddie tiddlers so…

Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter, has a small interview up with James Sturm and Michelle Ollie of The Center For Cartoon Studies. Few comics journalists on the web interview as well as Spurgeon, in my opinion.

Comic book creator Felipe Smith just put up a new short story on his Myspace. He’s telling the MBQ familly to hold tight! He’s burried in Deadlines at the moment, but Felipe never has a shortage of love for his fans.

Read the whole story here