Category: News

Clifford Meth is not a nice guy.

That doesn’t mean he’s not a good guy. Anybody who puts as much time as he has helping out comic book creators in need, like William Messner-Loebs, Dave Cockrum, and most recently Gene Colan, is clearly a decent human being (and yes, he’s also written things for ComicMix in the past).

But he’s not a nice guy. He’s clearly spent a certain amount of his life contemplating what Nietchze had in mind when he spoke of the abyss. He’s a card-carrying Neutral Good. He’s passionate, acerbic when needed, and his writing has a taste like sulfur and gunpowder.

Which brings us to the new short story collection, [[[The Whorehouse Madrigals (of Hank Magitz)]]] from Clifford’s publishing house, Aardwolf Publishing.

I tried to not be the guy here reviewing it, I consider Cliff a friend and didn’t want the conflict of interest. But two people I handed it to wrote back and said that the book just wasn’t for them. The hasteed to point out the book wasn’t bad, but definitely not to their taste. I couldn’t argue with them.

Now that said, I think it’s a funny book. But if the title isn’t a tipoff, it’s not a book that can be shared with your maiden aunt. Think of the tone of these stories as like Harlan Ellison, but mean. James Thurber this ain’t.

To give you an idea, here’s an adaptation of one of the stories inside, “Korean Math”– and for ghu’s sake, it is in no way safe for work. But if you have a black sense of humor, you’ll like it. Following a frustrating “massage incident,” author Hank Magitz calls
Charles Windsor-Smith, his publisher, to complain…

When the world is in trouble, leave it to us nerd to give up some hard earned cash for cool causes. With the gulf coast being drenched in more oil than it takes to straighten Harry Osbourne’s coif… Venture Bros. color-stylist Carly Monardo made a call to action for web cartoonists to donate original art to be auctioned off on eBay, with 100% of the profits going to the Colbert Nation Gulf of America Fund.

The first auctions went live on Monday, July 5th, with new 5 or more artists being added each day. Response has been extremely positive and fans seem enthusiastic to bid on their favorite creators’ work. The final set of auctions will launch tomorrow, July 9th (Friday). Each individual auction lasts for a total of 10 days.

Monardo was inspired to organize the event after seeing how successful her colleague Thomas Bayne’s animation auction had been. Bayne’s auction (which has already raised thousands of dollars for the Gulf Of America Fund) featured original production drawings from Venture Bros., many signed by creator Jackson Public and members of the show’s cast.

The Web-Comics Auction has attracted talents from around the world, including fan-favorites Kate Beaton (“Hark! A Vagrant“), Anthony Clark (“Nedroid“), Christopher Hastings (“The Adventures Of Dr. McNinja“), and Michael “Mookie” Terracciano (“Dominic Deegan: Oracle For Hire“). There are even contributions from non-cartoonists, such as Brandon Bird, who was recently profiled in Newsweek for his bizarre celebrity portraits.

The official web-site for the auction has a full list of contributors, a schedule with links to each live auction, and links to additional information on the charitable fund the profits will be donated to. It is located at http://www.lasagnachildren.com/Gulf.

A century ago today, the Fight of the Century was fought.

Today is the centennial of the fight between the first black heavyweight champion of the world, Jack Johnson, and the former heavyweight champion James J. Jeffries, who retired undefeated. The fight took place on July 4, 1910 in front of 20,000 people, at a
ring built just for the occasion in downtown Reno,
Nevada.

Jeffries came out of retirement to fight Johnson, saying, “I feel
obligated to the sporting public at least to make an effort to reclaim
the heavyweight championship for the white race… I should step
into the ring again and demonstrate that a white man is king of them
all.” Jeffries had not fought in six years and had to lose weight to get back
to his championship fighting weight. Johnson proved stronger and more nimble than Jeffries. In
the 15th round, after Jeffries had been knocked down twice for the first
time in his career, his people called it quits to prevent Johnson from
knocking him out.

The “Fight of the Century” earned Johnson $65,000 and silenced the
critics, who had belittled Johnson’s previous victory over Tommy Burns
as “empty,” claiming that Burns was a false champion since Jeffries had
retired undefeated.

If you’d like to know more about Jack Johnson, we are proud to present The Original Johnson. You can start from the beginning, or read the latest installment in our serialization online… and if you’d like to jump ahead to the Fight of the Century, Sports Illustrated has an excerpt available in this week’s edition of their iPad app.