Which obviously means that I’m waaay behind in my bloggery duties. The short of STAPLE is this: it was a fantastic day to see an event center full of talented folks who do what they love doing. The long.. is actually not much longer.
After set-up, my table looked like this:










I’m going to write this feature without referencing Calvin and Hobbes, because any comic with a put-upon daydreaming ten-year-old boy is going to call up the comparison (plus, everyone else who discovers this comic is going to say the exact same thing). So, let me say that for those who enjoy pre-adolescent (and at times rather dark) whimsy and have an affection for all things superheroic, then as fast as you can type the URL, get yourself over to SMASH, and let the stupendous wash over you. It kicks Kick Ass’ ass without breaking a sweat or breaking a skull open.

A super-rare and very fine issue of Action Comics #1 sold today at auction for $1,000,000, a new record for this kind of collectible. According to the AP, only 100 copies of this comic are still in existence, and none approach this good of condition.
The transaction was conducted by the auction site ComicConnect.com. Stephen Fishler, co-owner of the site and its sister dealership, Metropolis Collectibles, orchestrated the sale.
Fishler said it transpired minutes after the issue was put on sale at around 10:30 a.m. Eastern time (1530 GMT). He said that the seller was a “well known individual” in New York with a pedigree collection, and that the buyer was a known customer who previously bought an Action Comics No. 1 of lesser grade.
The previous comic book record was set last year when John Dolmayan, drummer for the rock band System of a Down, paid $317,000 for an Action Comics No. 1 issue. Attempts to reach him for comment on Monday’s sale were not immediately successful.

cachectic
Last summer, my father passed away from metastatic non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In essence, the cancer attached itself to his organs and instead of destroying them, ate off of them, taking away his energy a little more every day. This is word for that.
I’m getting behind in posting all my food porn here at Orthocomics (damn you for being so easy to post pictures to, Facebook! seriously. Wordpress need to step it up.), so here are several days with of food at once:
Poached Chicken Panini with a Yogurt Dill Dip:








The first toys I remember my parents getting me for Christmas were the Mego Batman, Robin, Superman, Spider-Man, Joker, the Batmobile and the Hall of Justice. And “remember” is far too light a word. These toys are ingrained in me, and still pull and tug at me to this day (they’re also sitting on a shelf in my bedroom, which has a lot to do with that, no doubt).
Now, Mattell (!!!) is coming out with their DC Universe Retro-Action Figures series, which are unaplogetically based on the Mego aesthetic.

obstreperous
I read this work in Dexter by Design, which I will excuse myself now by saying that while I have read all the “Dexter” novels, a co-worker lent them to me. There’s nothing wrong with the novels, but there’s also not much right about them. However, I’m a little tired of books that have 50+ characters and cross the span of several hundred years. I’m saga’d-out. “Dexter” is a nice departure from all that.
prolapse
After seeing the following video on my favorite gay blog Joe.My.God
O.M.F.G. Get out of our bedrooms, you stupid, bleeding cunt!
And HELL YES, I want my husband’s cock up my ass. As for the wiggling around part, maybe YOU are loose enough for that, but don’t project your own near-prolapse on the rest of us, honey.
*hairtoss*
which is quite the image.
dormer
Weeks ago, I got a wild hair and decided to have my considerable but useless attic space made into an upper den accessible from the master bedroom. However, when trying to explain to a co-worker about “windows that stick out”, I could not for the life of me remember what they’re called. “Dormers.” They’re called “dormers.” I’m still picturing a spiral staircase going from my bedroom to a private den all my own where I can look out on the dead lawn in the middle of summer. Of course, I live alone, so how much more space and/or privacy do I need? And what if the contractors found my porn?
exonumia
I have no story about this word other than it’s completely new to me and fun to say.

Hey! If for no reason in particular, you might be thinking, “I want to get Sean something special, but, what? Whatever could I get him?” You might want to consider this, the RENT, Roger Davis bear from Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS:

Roger wears an exact duplicate of his Broadway costume. First seen at the top of ACT II during the emotionally charged “Seasons Of Love”, this faithful re-creation consists of Roger’s black and white geometric-print sleeveless button down shirt, straight leg pin-stripe pants (both cut from the cloth of the original costumes), green hand-knit scarf and black leather biker jacket with the portentous and tragic hand-painted “Only Good Die Young” logo on the back. His brown leather “New Rock” boots have been eternalized in miniature form, and his grunge-cut, frosted blonde wig has been perfectly styled. Finally, Roger comes with his very own (working!) acoustic guitar and stand, which will certainly help as he finds “…the power to ignite the air” and write his “One Song Glory”. Once he looks into “Your Eyes” you’ll know that he can’t live “Without You”!
Included in this lot is a hand-signed “eviction-notice” prop from the 2005 film RENT, signed by Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal as well as a set of Roger’s “old rock and roll posters, advertisting gigs at CBGB’s and The Pyramid Club” used in the final days of RENT’s Broadway run.
Did you see that? SIGNED BY ANTHONY RAPP AND ADAM PASCAL!!!!
All the iconic Broadway Cares bears up for auction can be seen here. All proceeds go to help people living with AIDS.
Thanks to Joe Jervis!
space cookies
I can’t stop listening to the soundtrack for “Bare: a Rock Opera” mostly because of how evocative the story is (gay boys at a Catholic boarding high school. Yeah. Really, has anything else in my life defined and informed me more than this?), but also because (Lord help me for saying this) the songs are so catchy. “Space cookies” comes from the song “Birthday, Bitch!”
kvell
I have a fascination for Yiddish and all things Jewish. All my friends know that. I’ve been accused of being a matzo queen, though I think I just prefer non-white guys. “Kvell” is one of those words I like to drop into conversation (along with “schmutz” and “schtupp” and “fakakta“). I heard this word used last night during a re-run of “House”. House said he kvelled when Cameron finally came to accept that everybody lies. I think I’ll really have arrived when I use “fartatshish” (“sloppy”) correctly in a sentence.
abattoir
There is apparently a chophouse in Atlanta called “Abattoir” that serves guests “the use of locally-raised proteins to produce high-quality, affordable food.” I admire how up-front they are about the name being from the French for “slaughterhouse”, but I really enjoy how they refer to meat as “protein”. Thanks, “Top Chef”! You’ve done for meat what “open concept” has done for real estate.
Last summer, I heard Maggie Gallagher say the most reprehensible and simultaneously twee-est (if I’m using the word right; it means “cutesy”, correct?) thing to ever come out of her voluminous pie hole: “Marriage is not a civil right. In fact, it’s a civil wrong.” Her ability to turn a phrase aside, Mags’ head should have by all rights exploded from just the uncut rage I was sending her way (to say nothing of the other people I’m sure were doing the same thing). Ah, “Scanners,” you disappointed me once again. So, what’s a guy to do?
Easy: write her as a blobby (well, “blobbier”) hulk with swaying tits in league with all the other hating low-lifes and get friends to help make it into a comic book.
I now present to you the fruits of our labor – Rise of the Pink Ninjas: A Gay Fantasia (click on the hate to get the fun):


heigth
I’ve been using this word for ages, and tonight in an email to my brother about the dimensions of a new header he’s making for me (!!!) spellcheck kept marking it as wrong. I finally had to look it up, and found out there is no such word. Maybe it’s a Northeastern thing, like perogie and Lake Effect Snow.
After several years of looking at my first few attempts at getting a comics book out into the public and all the mistakes therein, I’m happy to announce that a new trade paperback available at Indyplanet.com collects Frater Mine issues #1 to #3 – “Family Reunion” – with a new introduction, and corrected text and images. FINALLY!! Now maybe the OCD-induced nightmares will stop.



trews
I’ve been reading The Smart Aleck’s Guide to American History and “trews” came up in a joke about the Founding Fathers and “Yankee Doodle”.
I spoke to Andy’s previous owner this morning, and while he seems like a nice guy, he was a little fast and loose with the people at Town Lake Animal Center when he surrendered Andy. It seems that his mother had become unable to care for Andy due to some health reasons of her own, but also because Andy was unable to use the potty appropriately. Basically, his hind legs and age make it difficult for him to posture correctly when he makes, so he will often just do the best he can wherever he can. Obviously, this means I can’t let him have unfettered access to the house, especially if I’m going to sell it this summer. But I also can’t have him living in my bathroom forever.
At the advice of my vet, I decided to set up a hospice-like situation for Andy.
After work, I went to PetCo and got Andy a kennel. It seemed the best thing to do for him. I gussied it up and made it into (I hope) a serviceable and comfortable place to live. The idea is that when I’m not around, he’ll live there, but when I am, I’ll let him out to hang with the other cats. This way he’ll have the ability to socialize, accidents will be contained, and clean-ups should be easier.
I’ll also get my bathroom back.
Here’s how the first evening is going:
urine scald
I recently adopted a special needs cat named Andy, who, because of a dog attack, is unable to posture correctly to go potty. The vet warned me to keep him clean in order to avoid urine scald.
EMDR
A friend of mine mentioned this to me a few months ago. To say anymore would be breaking a confidence.

Alien space bats
I found this word while trying desperately to remember the fancy name for the historical fiction genre. I’m pretty sure it starts with “meta” (but, these days, what doesn’t?). I did come across “uchronia“, but that wasn’t the exact word I wanted. Still pretty cool, though.
Supersessionism
In my continuing fascination for all things God, I came across this word the other day. For being such a common topic of discussion, I’m surprised no one ever uses this word. Same with “theodicy“.
inappentence
I came across this word while researching why my cat is refusing to eat. It sounds much more urgent than “loss of appetite”.
Bass-O-Matic
This was said tonight by a competitor on Food Network’s “Chopped”. She used it as part of her justification as to why she hand-mixed a salad after slicing her finger with a knife. “It wasn’t all Bass-o-matic,” she said. I still wouldn’t have eaten her salad if God himself told me she was DDF/HIV-/certified cootie-free.
Sort of. In getting ready for the new semester, I’m trying out new healthier recipes for lunch so I don’t have to subsist on hamburgers every day (which, while delicious, would be bad), so here are two experiments:
First, pan fried wheat noodles with tofu in a Dr. Pepper/soy reduction. Yesh, the Dr. Pepper isn’t too healthy, and it doesn’t do anything for the flavor other than add a bit of a caramel finish. I think I’d be better off using Sprinte or white wine the next time.


My friends Mike and Jeremy will be getting married this August in Colorado. A few months ago, they asked me to draw their save-the-date cards. I balked. They persisted. I relented, because how cool an honor is that? Here’s the card I made them:

After Marvel proudly announced to the world that they are the biggest assdancers in comics publishing after Diamond, Adloph Hitler had this reaction:

Today, a friends of mine who works with animal rescue sent me a Craigslist link about a cat named Andy at Town Lake Animal Center. Her email read simply “ADOPT HIM”. When I clicked on the link, the ad read as follows:
This loving orange tabby boy is dependent on humans to help him, but is still responsible for himself. He gets where he wants to go, uses his back legs when he can, and most of all, he wants to connect with people. He gives headbutts, purrs continuously, and is clearly missing his safe home and owner. Even in the scary shelter he shows a lot of independence and the ability to move out of harm’s way.
Andy is a 9-year old orange tabby and white lovecat. Severely injured during a dog attack 8 years ago, he has limited use of his rear legs. His owner left him at TLAC Monday because she hurt her back and can’t keep him.
If you meet Andy, your heart will strengthen, not break. He is loving, trusting, and the shelter staff gave him the highest friendliness ratings. He is easy to pick up and carry around.
Can you save Andy’s life? He was put on the euthanasia list and now has one day to find a home or rescue placement.

crozzle
I read this word in The Road:
The days sloughed past uncounted and uncalendared. Along the interstate in the distance long lines of charred and rusting cars. The raw rims of the wheels sitting in a stiff gray sludge of melted rubber, in blackened rings of wire. The incinerate corpses shrunk to the size of a child and propped on the bare springs of the seats. Ten thousand dreams ensepulchred within their crozzled hearts. They went on. Treading the dead world under like rats on a wheel. The nights dead still and deader black. So cold. They talked hardly at all. He coughed all the time and the boy watched him spitting blood. Slumping along. Filthy, ragged, hopeless. He’d stop and lean on the cart and the boy would go on and then stop and look back and he would raise his weeping eyes and see him standing their in the road looking back at him from some unimaginable future, glowing in that waste like a tabernacle.
According to a CNN report today, people who have watched the movie Avatar are experiencing depression and suicidal thoughts.
On the fan forum site “Avatar Forums,” a topic thread entitled “Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible,” has received more than 1,000 posts from people experiencing depression and fans trying to help them cope. The topic became so popular last month that forum administrator Philippe Baghdassarian had to create a second thread so people could continue to post their confused feelings about the movie.
“I wasn’t depressed myself. In fact the movie made me happy ,” Baghdassarian said. “But I can understand why it made people depressed. The movie was so beautiful and it showed something we don’t have here on Earth. I think people saw we could be living in a completely different world and that caused them to be depressed.”
A post by a user called Elequin expresses an almost obsessive relationship with the film.
“That’s all I have been doing as of late, searching the Internet for more info about ‘Avatar.’ I guess that helps. It’s so hard I can’t force myself to think that it’s just a movie, and to get over it, that living like the Na’vi will never happen. I think I need a rebound movie,” Elequin posted.
A user named Mike wrote on the fan Web site “Naviblue” that he contemplated suicide after seeing the movie.
“Ever since I went to see ‘Avatar’ I have been depressed. Watching the wonderful world of Pandora and all the Na’vi made me want to be one of them. I can’t stop thinking about all the things that happened in the film and all of the tears and shivers I got from it,” Mike posted. “I even contemplate suicide thinking that if I do it I will be rebirthed in a world similar to Pandora and the everything is the same as in ‘Avatar.’ ”
Other fans have expressed feelings of disgust with the human race and disengagement with reality.
I’ve experienced this kind of depression before (though not with “Avatar”), most notably after seeing “Les Miserables” for the first time and wanting to run away with the touring company. Come to think of it, some women in grad school quit four weeks into their first semester to become “RENT” groupies after seeing the show for every performance of its DC run. I think that was actually my fault.
Call it what you will – Post-Holiday Letdown, The Back-to-Reality Blues, The After-Event Crash – but I’m going to call it Marauders’ Guilt. I’m also going to suggest that people stop worrying about what disgusting things movie people are doing to a fictional planet and wake up to how we’re destroying our own. That, if anything, was James Cameron’s message. Be angry (and active) here; not in make-believe.
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2d. "Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed."
— G. K. Chesterton
Orthocomics is an indy comics studio that pulls talent together to create novel, thought-provoking comics. Titles currently on the market are Frater Mine the oh-so-tantalizingly-familiar Generic Goddess Coming soon: PRAXIS!!

(And we love our pets, too!)
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