Fifteen Heart Attacks, page 6

From this point on, all the pages are entirely written and drawn by the amazingly incredible creative ball of energy we know as Maximum Traffic. Students of Newave and Obscuro will notice what care he took to  mimic my drawing style in certain instances in order to have some sort of continuity in the inevitable anarchy of the open jam.

Max is a brilliant star in the comix universe. I am so glad I got to meet him in person last year at SPACE in Columbus, thanks to Bruce Chrislip and Bob Corby making my trip possible.

SPACE 2011 Report, pt. 17

Before leaving Columbus, Bruce and I paid a visit to the Thurber House, once home to one of America's great cartoonists and humorists, James Thurber.

Naturally on a Sunday it was closed, but I enjoyed the Thurberesque dog art in the yard.

What a nice way to end a day of celebrating comic art.


Back in Cincinnati we viewed old photo albums and laughed at pictures of ourselves from the old Seattle days running around the sunny slopes of yesterday.

Many thanks to Bruce and Joan, and Bob Corby for hosting this visit.

SPACE 2011 Report, pt. 15

Bob Corby (left) and Kel Crum (right) invited me to participate in a reading of our comix. The panels were displayed on a screen as we narrated them. I was a little frightened at the prospect but the experience was more fun than I expected.

Kel told me he sometimes feels like an oddball among oddballs, which brought my reply that means he just doubled his odds. A professional in the radio world, Kel did a great job reading his work. Kel's stories lent themselves well to out loud reading. One tale included his main character, Cornelia. My favorite was the comic about the fellow who kept having his head fall off.

Bob Corby was next. Bob is the organizer of SPACE, which must be a very big job. His humor is gentle and personal. He read from his mini, Why I'm Not Musical, a comic with great graphics that really fit the mood of the narrative.

I read from Ambergris, which meant I had to sing a little. I'm sure my local friends and family will cringe when I say that, since I'm known as the second worst singer in the world, after Jim Jarvis (another McCleary guy). Then I read "Edgar Cayce Talks to the Dead," and finally "How Cats Got That Way."

It wasn't until that morning that I figured out exactly how the tune of the Ambergris song went. And I didn't know how Morty the Dog's voice was going to sound until I actually started reading the cats story.

Thanks to Kel for instigating my participation and to Bob for his great patience in guiding me through the technology of sending my work ahead of time. The resulting fun was worth the anticipatory nervousness.