As mentioned in the OutSmart article last week, Darren Davis of Bluewater Productions ran the Orthocomics ad in this month’s comics – Legend of Isis #1, Warlock #3, Vincent Price Presents #9 and Leprechaun #1. Even though I knew it was coming, I have to say, this is so much cooler in life than I thought it would be. I mean, this is national, like CNN national (well, Bluewater is national. Orthocomics is just an ad, but still…)!

I’m also grateful to my brother Scott who designed and assembled the ad, and to my nephew for being the world’s cutest model.

Last week, I sent my brother a link to the now-viral College Humor video, “We Didn’t Start the Flame War”, which we both found to be horrifyingly accurate and therefore hysterical. Then a few days ago, he sent me this email:

I am reading Gorgias and this quote reminded me of the Flame War video you sent along the other day.

Socrates: I suppose Gorgias, that like me you must have been present at many arguments, and have observed how difficult the parties find it to define exactly what the subject is which they have taken in hand and to come away from their discussion mutually enlightened; what usually happens is that, as soon as they disagree and one declares the other to be mistaken or obscure in what he says, they lose their temper and accuse one another of speaking from motives of personal spite and in an endeavour to score a victory rather than to investigate the question at issue; and sometimes they part on the worst possible terms, after such an exchange of abuse that the bystanders feel vexed on their own account that they ever thought it worth their while to listen to such people.

And that in 405 BCE, eh?

Mr. Portokalos was right, everything can be traced back to the Greeks.

From my brother, “Dude, Do We Have a Magic User Back There?” is a confection whom several guys (and some women) I know wouldn’t mind meeting in a dark alleyway against the better advice of their party members, flaming sword and feet that don’t touch the ground or no.

Prints are available in time for Christmas!

From my brother:

Bro:

Dominic drew this and wanted you to have it.

Also, Dominic says, “Can you make a comic book again, please? SpiderMan. I want it to be Dr. Octopus and I want it to tangle Spiderman up and then I want the Green Goblin to punch him and I want you to write POOM! ‘cuz the building I want thme in is very old and part of it blowed up and I want it to be Venom in it putting his web in SpiderMan’s face and then SandMan going around SpiderMan to make him so dizzy.”

Well, there it is. I have a feeling now that the drawing was just to butter you up. The kid does, indeed, know some angles in life. Good luck.

(I told him that you’re in school and might not be able to get to this right away.)

Scott

I won’t be able to get to it for another week or so, but I will do it for him. The kid really does know how to get what he wants.

I’m terrible with word puzzles, Scrabble and being clever in pictures (which doesn’t bode well for me being a late-blooming comic book artist). My brother, however, is very good with these mental acrobatics. Here is his submission to GraphJam, which is just highbrow enough to be “Family Guy” funny:

My brother over at Daedalusrose.com has started his new line of images, A Metafiction of Muses. There will be 13 sisters in all. Below is a detail of the Muse of Small Occurrences. Click on her to see the others.

My brother sent me this email today about my nephew:

Hee hee hee hee.

I was rolling in the car tonight on the way back to Dominic’s house. He’s been having the Bible read to him at night and I asked him how it was going.

“Good.”

“Did you get to the flood story yet?”

“The one with Noah’s ark, yeah.”

“Did you like it?”

“Yeah.”

I asked him some questions about the two birds and all that and then said:

“Did you know that there’s another story just like that about a flood?”

“Really?”

“Yeah, except in this other one Noah is called Utnapishtim.”

“Why’s he called Utnapishtim?!?!?!?!?!?”

He pronounced it properly and his enunciation was so perfect that I started laughing my ass off. It was cute as hell. I explained why his name was different, yeah. He wasn’t proud of himself for having said it right. He just kept saying it over trying to get me to laugh again.

I asked him, “Do you remember which animals Noah took?”

“All of them. Except the unicorns were goofing around.”

*pause*…”Is that why we don’t have unicorns anymore?”

“Yeah.”

God, I love that kid!

The awesome Juan Romera and my very talented brother Scott have provided me some art samples from the next issue of Frater Mine. Respectively, you can see pages 1 and 5, and the cover above. I can’t say enough good about them – they do so much to being my stories to life and I’m genuinely thrilled to be working with them.

Frater Mine #6, “Shadows of the World Appear”, the third part of the Here, There and Nowhere story arc will really mark the beginning of stories told as an ensemble. But first, we have to get the main players – Colleen, Matt and Mark – isolated from everything they depend on, then bring them together. It’s gonna be rough. Enemies are everywhere and allies are closer than they imagine. It’s going to be a great issue, especially if letterer Ed Brisson will be part of the staff again. I know I’m looking forward to it!