That’s a crazy photo on the table there.

Herriman represents, from Don Marquis’ the lives and times of archy and mehitabel.

Roy Thomas and Big John Buscema prefigure Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, from Savage Sword of Conan Vol. 5.

I’m burning through Martial Law, the American television show starring Sammo Hung which aired a decade ago, and I’ve noticed that his scar seems much more pronounced. It’s a fairly wicked scar, picked up during a street fight by a thug wielding a broken Coke bottle, which explains its perfectly circular shape. Man, ghettos are the same all over the world. In the show, Sammo is almost always found drinking Diet Coke, so I guess there’s no hard feelings.

Today’s the big day. The comics community is aflame with discussion on the movie event of the year. You can find my review of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li Review at Film Junk, where the crew there have invited me to write the occasional post.

Yesterday was the birthday of Welland’s own Poet Laureate, the Rose City Condor (wonderfully NSFW). Don’t let the E-Bike Niagara title fool you. You don’t need to be a citizen residing in the Niagara Region nor an E-Bike enthusiast to enjoy the madcap edification provided by the world’s biggest Foolkiller fan. But don’t just take my word for it. Here are a few of the wonders you will discover upon entering the technicolour cave of the Rose City Condor.

“…you should fucking care as much as you care about Popcorn getting his shit together post-Celebrity Rehab so Axl can tap into the mana pool that gave us such hits as Rocket Queen and Night Train.”

“Has Charlie Murphy not been more entertaining than the 5 man dragon with the crazy eyes, paper mache body, and Snuffalupaguss style mysterious nature?”

“While watching a documentary ingeniously titled ‘Joy Division’ about some obscure band from Haiti called Joy Division I tapped into the gloomy doomy post-epilepsy diagnosed subconscious of deceased lead singer Ian Curtis. Then I had placed all of his experiences/my experiences into a fortune cookie and removed a tiny sheet of white paper that had the following question: ‘What Is Red Condor Without Road To Travel?’”

Pray that he is never forced to answer that question.

In our darkest hour, naked comic-reading.

For those of you with limited skill in reading comprehension, International Read A Comic Book Naked Day is a completely fabricated excuse to get naked and read some comics at the same time.

Tradition dictates that I help out the comics-deprived by providing links to online comics for their naked perusal. This was relatively easy when I started this and there were less than a dozen comics blogs, but as the years go by and scan blogs, bittorrent and webcomics become more popular, it’s become difficult to find anything that hasn’t already been done to death elsewhere.

One comics archive that has gone virtually unnoticed is the full collection of Very Vicky comics and ephemera by John Mitchell and Jana Christie, supplied by the creators themselves and “not some nasty little scanner-wielding comic book pirates, god love them”. The story of a young, urban sophisticate drinking hard and fighting Shriners, Very Vicky was one of my favourite comics from the self-publishing boom.

My complete run was lost in one of many ill-considered evangelical attempts, but now I can share these treasures with you with no possibility of tear-stained pillows as an outcome. And if you’re hesitant to download the entire thing, make sure you sample a few of the various short stories, or the pin-ups by such Friends of Jilly as Steve Bissette, Michael Zulli, Evan Dorkin, Dave Sim, Brian Bendis, among others. It’s all there, more comics than you can shake a cocktail at.

Now get naked and start reading!

Full Frontal Herriman from Don Marquis’ the lives and times of archy and mehitabel.

I don’t know when I’ll have internet next, so I take this golden opportunity to wish the eldest of the Brothers Wintle a most joyful of Birthday DELIGHTS!!!!!