Trip City is happy to announce the Trip City Salon at Fornino’s in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The event will feature comics, live music, readings, girls (!) and of course, booze! As you can see from the event flyer, the roster is stacked with Trip City favorites. Personally, this is the first time I’ll have the honor of performing alongside my lovely lady, Plucky Charms who will be performing a song on the ukelele for your pleasure. Vavavoom! Myself, I will be reading Time Fucker . Knowing that I will be in arms throw of the audience has me a little concerned, however. How many heads of lettuce do you think I can dodge!? Come and see for yourself!.
Don’t you dare miss this one! See you there!
Kirkus book reviews proudly claims to be the “world’s toughest book critics.” It’s for that reason that I’m so excited that Marathon by Boaz Yakin and I has recently been awarded their highest honor…the Kirkus star review.
Infurnari fills patchwork panels with glimpses of rugged faces, slashing swords and jumbles of martial action with “KLAK” “CHK!” sound effects. Yakin draws from ancient historical and legendary sources but adds invented incidents to round out Eucles’ character and elevated dialogue to heighten the epic atmosphere: “The gods have laid a feast both bitter and sweet before me.”
Marathon hits bookstores and comics retailers June 19th.
I’ve been remiss in posting here about the latest updates of Time Fucker. Last thursday saw the second installment with the penultimate third arriving tomorrow. For those who didn’t get in on the ground floor (let’s get real people this is seriously basement quality humor) the first installment is available here.
Brigid Alverson, writing for the School Library Journal, has included MARATHON as one of it’s Spring Graphic Novel recommendations. Here’s the skinny:
YAKIN, Boaz. Marathon. Illustrated by Joe Infurnari. First Second. June 2012. pap. $16.99. ISBN 9781596436800.
Gr 7 Up—Yakin tells the story of the first marathon runner, a former slave who carried vital messages between the rulers of Athens and Sparta before and during the Battle of Marathon. Although recommended for ages 12 up, this book has some violence and a (tasteful) bedroom scene that might make it inappropriate for some readers.
Marathon hits stores June 19th, 2012.
That’s right! All you salivatin’ salacious sci-fi afficionados will finally be…SATED!
I feel like a I usually write in this blog with a certain whiff of snake oil salesman. That’s because I’m generally uncomfortable with tooting my own horn unless I do it a little tongue-in-cheek. Not with Time Fucker, however. The few times I’ve mentioned it, my language has been histrionic to say the least…
I’ve made claims that it will change the course of comics history forever.
Why? Because I’m really excited about it, and I’m overcompensating for my own insecurities. This project has always felt dangerous because of it’s audacious title and content (you’ll see what I mean) but also because it’s very personal. I don’t often write but when I do, it’s because it’s really something I have to get off my chest and for all it’s insanity and levity, Time Fucker means a lot to me. Love it or hate it, this is my sense of humor and it’s very very wrong. The image to the left explains how Time Fucking works and believe me when I say that this only scratches the surface.
Okay, I’m doing it again!! Always with the huckstering! Thursday April 5th at Tripcity.net look for this image for the first of four installments throughout the month of April. Each subsequent Thursday will continue this first Time Fucker tale titled, “I’m Taking this Laying Down!”
Thanks for your continued support.
Robot 6, one of the blogs over at Comic Book Resources, has a regular feature by Tim O’Shea called Talking Comics with Tim. In the latest installment, Tim talks to Glenn Eichler and myself about MUSH! Sled Dogs with Issues. More interview than review, it’s an interesting piece and I encourage you all to go read me wax rhapsodic or rap idiotic depending on your point of view. Here’s a little taste…
O’Shea: Question for the both of you, there appear to be metaphorical fences in this book (between people and between the dogs), in addition to the physical fences. Would you agree?
Infurnari: When I read the script, I was reminded of how in art and literature natural landscapes have often represented the depths of the human psyche. There’s something about the dark bottomless fathoms of the oceans, the mysteries of the forest or the wide open expanses of sand or snow that spark our imaginations. In Mush!, the barren isolation of the Alaskan landscape sets the scene for a story about the dogs’ psychological state and ultimately our own interior lives as readers. The fences in this story are boundaries preventing the dogs from being out in the open on a run where they are most happy. The trail is their bliss and the fences that keep them from it mark the breeding area of their issues.
Eichler: Well, definitely. No one can ever know or meld with another person (or dog) entirely, and the isolation in which they all live just throws those differences into brighter relief. But that same isolation also creates fences that enclose the people and the dogs, forcing them together because they really can’t get away from each other. I’m saying the book has a lot of fences. It’s best to read it with a pair of wire cutters.
O’Shea: Glenn, not to get bogged down in details, but naming one’s dog is often a challenge. You really did a good job of naming the team of dogs in this story, did that come to you quite easily as you developed the characters or was it challenging with certain characters?
Eichler: I hate naming characters as a general rule, but I tried for a mix of the silliness and anthropomorphism often found in the names that real people give their real dogs. I also wanted to touch on the way people will give their puppies names that turn out to be either perfectly descriptive of their adult personalities, or utterly wrong.
O’Shea: Glenn (from the book’s acknowledgements you thank the dogs “who talk to him when he sleeps”) how long have you heard the dogs talking to you?
Eichler: I didn’t write that. The dog dictated it.
To read interview in its entirety, click here.
