This is happening Friday night 11/5. Its three bucks. Its awesome. You better come!!!! 7pm to Midnite = KICKOFF PARTY / Live Comix Reading with Dean Haspiel, Paul Pope, Jeff Newelt aka JahFurry, Jen Ferguson, Seth Kushner, Joan Hilty & Joe Infurnari. DJ Pulphope (Paul Pope), DJ CrossHatch (Brian Heater) + live performances by Americans UK & Charles Soules Band http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=100206190049185

I’ll be reading Vs. so don’t you dare miss this!

Tomorrow at 5pm I’ll be appearing at the Dumbo Arts Fest Digital Summit Double Feature. After a scintillating talk by Douglas Rushkoff, the Act-i-vate crew will storm the stage to do semi-theatrical readings of their comics. On the bill are Dean Haspiel, Simon Fraser, Seth Kushner with Carlos ‘Mare139′ Rodriguez, Jeff Newelt and myself. I’ll be reading my short story written with Alexis Sottile, Vs.

Afterwards there will be a party and wine tasting at Brooklyn Oenology of the 2009 Riesling, Friend, featuring label art by Jen Ferguson.

All around it promises to be great way to close out your weekend festivities. I hope to see you there!

At long last the Radar Documentary dedicated to SMITH Magazine’s webseries, Next Door Neighbor, is available for viral proliferation! And here it has infected my blog! Enjoy the show!

To embed this video, use the following code:

<div style=”background:#000000;width:498px;height:423px”><embed flashVars=”playerVars=showStats=no|autoPlay=yes|” src=”http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/bg-3015272/radar_one_next_door_neighbor.swf” width=”498″ height=”423″ wmode=”transparent” allowFullScreen=”true” allowScriptAccess=”always” name=”Metacafe_bg-3015272″ pluginspage=”http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash”></embed><div style=”font-size:12px;”><a href=”http://www.metacafe.com/watch/bg-3015272/radar_one_next_door_neighbor/”>Radar One – Next Door Neighbor</a> – <a href=”http://www.metacafe.com/”>For more amazing video clips, click here</a></div></div>

The folks over at The Girls Entertainment Network have discussed every Eisner nomination this year. That means that they have been kind enough to give my Next Door Neighbor story, Vs. with Alexis Sottile, a closer look. Here’s what Jill had to say:

Vs. by Alexis Sottile & Joe Infurnari, smithmag.net/nextdoorneighbor/2008/12/08/story-18/

The best way to describe Vs. would be to call it “Green Eggs and Ham” on acid.

Mostly in black and white, dashes of color in key panels make it a wild ride for the eyes. Artist Joe Infurnari was nominated in this same category last year for his work on The Process, but this time around he’s got a co-writer, Alexis Sottile, for this off-the-wall look into the dangers of renting. Vs. is part of SMITH Magazine’s Next Door Neighbor weekly web comics series and tells Infurnari’s real-life horror stories from his various New York dwellings. Of course, there is a slight twist: it’s in verse. But don’t even think of reading this one to the kids before bedtime. Here, in Infurnari’s own words, is what you can expect: “My terrible run-ins with vociferous fowls! Frankensteinian pooches! Tentacled jam bands! Drunken cro-magnons! Pill-pushing werewolves and many, many more!”

He admits he wasn’t the greatest at coming up with rhymes, but that’s where Sottile came in. She compliments Infurnari’s personal woes, which are smoothly narrated even as his Hulk alter-ego slowly emerges. As an extra bonus, Infurnari has posted a “director’s cut,” if you will, on ACT-I-VATE—where he tells the story behind each page. –Jill aka TheNerdyBird

Thanks Jill! To read the rest of the reviews, click here!

“Smith is known for high quality work and for getting the work published,” said Smith literary agent ICM’s Kate Lee, “and publishers that do graphics know this.” Shooting War, the first webcomic published on Smith, was published by Grand Central Publishing in November 2007 and A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge by Josh Neufeld will be released by Pantheon on August 18th. Current projects being serialized on Smith are Next Door Neighbor, an anthology of next-door neighbor stories edited by Dean Haspiel, and Graphic Therapy, an autobiographical graphic series by Emily Steinberg.

Publishers Weekly posted an interesting piece about webcomics this week. In it they talk about the many ways SMITH Magazine has used webcomics to tell unique personal stories. SMITH magazine success stories, Shooting War and A.D. New Orleans After the Deluge provide context for the site’s current projects including Next Door Neighbor. They even acknowledge Alexis Sottile’s and my recent Eisner nomination for Vs. Click here to read the article.

As some of you may remember, I had the good fortune of having a story included in the Next Door Neighbor series of webcomics at SMITH magazine. Well, the good folks at Radar did a small, 3 minute documentary about Next Door Neighbor and the whole comics scene happening at Deep6 and XOXOs. Yours truly played the crazy and for my efforts, I get a little love from the camera. Click the link above to watch the episode.

Many thanks to Alex, Lance and the rest of the crew at www.radar.workbookproject.com for their hard work and talent in putting together this piece that makes all of us look so good.

This Monday December 8th, I’ll have a story up at Smith Magazine as part of their online anthology of Next-Door Neighbor Stories edited by Dean Haspiel. Titled, Vs, this story was written by Alexis Sottile and I back in the day and it is a harrowing tale of my cryptozoological New York rental history! See! My terrible run-ins with vociferous fowls! Frankensteinian pooches! Tentacled jam bands! Drunken cro-magnons! Pill-pushing werewolves and many many more! IT’S ALL 100% TRUE MEMOIR COMICS AT THEIR FINEST! See you there!