Please MIND Cow Boy and Bat Man

 Here's an update for page 78 - bringing back the villains from earlier (much earlier by now) in Part One. Max Von Sydow and Jason Miller from the Exorcist were my models for the Sadducees - though if you were to look at them, of course, you'd probably not "see it." Dustin isn't based on anyone in particular.

(You'd probably be surprised to see who the other characters are based off - ask away, I'll tell you).

The directors of the mysterious murderer chasing Evelyn, Casey and Howard is revealed to be Dustin Mugabe by his directors in Damnit Mugabe. Hope you like it!

See more by following the links:

• Fundraising Faux-Pas,
• King Street Capers
• General comics (updated May 5)
• Tomb of the Undead(updated Apr. 29), or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Graphic novel news
Described as "Deadwood for kids," Cow Boy is cute ... but read how this story has a hard look at the price people say for choosing to be moral, and melancholy. Also, read how Lost co-creator and showrunner Damon Lindelof found his way to being involved with Jeff Lemire and a new Batman digital novel. Lastly, read about the thick and intense data being crammed into each issue of MIND MGMT - so much the author says reading it all in one sitting "might be hazardous to your mental health."

'Cow Boy' By Nate Cosby And Chris Eliopoulos: More Than Cute [Review] 
Matt D. Wilson
Comics Alliance

Speaking with Chris Sims and me on the War Rocket Ajax podcast a few weeks ago, Cosby described Cow Boy as "Deadwood for kids." Thematically, that's a pretty good comparison. Both stories take a hard look at the price people pay for choosing to be moral, and have a pretty strong underlying sense of melancholy as a result.

Click to read more.

EXCLUSIVE: Damon Lindelof On His And Jeff Lemire's "Batman" Digital Comic 
Jeffrey Renaud
Comic Book Resources

What happened was that I basically became obsessed with Jeff [Lemire]. [Laughs] I read "Sweet Tooth" and was like, "Holy shit. Who is this guy?" I googled him and found out about "Essex County," so I ran out and grabbed the collected edition and read it cover to cover. Then I tweeted about him and about how awesome "Sweet Tooth" was. And then, he tweeted back at me, we exchanged email addresses and just started talking to each other.

Click to read more.

Matt Kindt Shares the Secrets of "3 Story" & "Mind MGMT" 
Shaun Manning
Comic Book Resources

The series ... deals with questions of how we perceive the world and how those perceptions are manipulated, and Kindt said this will play out through the series' episodic format.

"I think a lot of the inspiration for how I'm telling the story this time around came from the actual format that the story is in," Kindt said. "At this point it seems like there's no one making monthly comics anymore. The monthly comics come out but they're mostly written for trades. So I'm actually trying to make a 24-page comic that is a satisfying read all on its own. To me, that means making something that takes a while to get through. And something that will take multiple readings to get everything out of it.

[....] So the inside covers/back covers have super dense stories and there are back cover ads with secret messages and that actually work as a bigger puzzle (when you put the first six issues together). And I'm writing a MIND MGMT field guide that I'm threading into the borders of each page -- guide excerpts that give you insight into the MIND MGMT organization but also serve double duty by commenting on the actual page you're reading. I'm hoping it's dense. I did a similar thing with 'Super Spy.' I was writing that book as a weekly 8-page comic. Each week had to stand on its own. And then when I put it together in the eventual graphic novel it became this crazy dense puzzle-box of a book. 'Mind MGMT' is following a similar path, I think. I think it will be way healthier to read this book in monthly installments rather than waiting for the collection -- that might be hazardous to your mental health."

Click to read more.

Lady, Go Hammer on Comic-Con and Gaiman's commencement

Here's an update for page 77. It's a quick study in regret and forgiveness - it shouldn't be considered disingenuous, I simply wanted the pace to keep up - so it had to be quick and dirty.

Dr. Casey Miller confronts Dr. Howard Bolam for everything that's happened to him so far in  You Son of a Bitch, Bolam! I hope you like it!

See more by following the links:

• Fundraising Faux-Pas,
• King Street Capers
• General comics, (updated May 5),
• Tomb of the Undead (updated Apr. 29), or the
• Mugabe comic strip (Pinocchio parody)

Graphic novel news
Neil Gaiman shares his vision while receiving his honorary Ph.D. in fine arts at the University of the Arts', thanks to his career as a "cartographer" mapping the world just beneath our "waking life." In other news, PopMatters.com interviews author Rob Salkowitz on his upcoming new book, Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture, which sounds very interesting. Finally, classic graphic novel character Mike Hammer will be restored posthumously after his creator Mickey Spillane passed away in 2006.

Neil Gaiman’s singular vision 
Tirdad Derakhshani
Philly.com

Neil Gaiman has spent a career mapping out the myths that make our world worth living in.
A cartographer of the fantastical, terrifying, chaotic, and sublime world beneath our waking life, he perfected the graphic novel into a work of high literary art with The Sandman (1989-96)... On Thursday, Gaiman, 51, delivered the commencement address at the University of the Arts’ graduation ceremony, where he also was awarded an honorary Ph.D. in fine arts.

Click to read more.

Writing to "Rain Dogs": Talking With Rob Salkowitz #2 
shathley Q
PopMatters.com

While I’m talking to Rob Salkowitz about his June 10-released Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture my mind drifts exactly to Frank Miller at the peak of his creativity, and to Family Values. Rob attempts rarely before seen—a business book that’s relevant for readers and enthusiast of popculture, and a popcultural book that’s instructive to business analysts. He talks openly about how his passion as a comics fan engaged him to undertake this project. And how his profession as futurist and business analyst allowed him the tools to interpret and describe the very crossroads of flux the comics industry now finds itself in.

Click to read more.

Max Allan Collins on new Mike Hammer novel, “Lady, Go Die!” 
nerdblog
blog.newsok.com/nerdage

“Of the half-dozen substantial unfinished novel manuscripts in Mickey Spillane’s files, this was perhaps the most exciting find,” Collins said in an email interview with The Oklahoman. “It’s the second Mike Hammer novel, begun in 1945 shortly after he completed ‘I, The Jury.’ It’s unclear why he set it aside, but he may have been told by an editor that until ‘I, The Jury’ came out, there was no need to finish a sequel. And when it came out, ‘I, The Jury’ was not initially successful — in hardcover, it was a disappointment. But when the paperback came out, Mike Hammer was suddenly a sensation.”

Click to read more.