Comic-book writer Harvey
Pekar, whose autobiographical comic series American Splendor was made into a 2003 Oscar nominated film
starring Paul Giamatti as Harvey in addition to Harvey appearing as himself,
has been found dead in his Ohio home. He was 70.

Cleveland Heights police Capt. Michael Cannon says
officers were called to Pekar’s home by his wife Joyce Brabner about 1 a.m. Monday.
Cannon says Pekar had been suffering from prostate cancer, asthma, high blood pressure and depression. Coroner’s spokesman Powell Caesar in Cleveland says
an autopsy will be performed.
Pekar’s “American Splendor” comics, which he began
publishing in 1976, record his complaints about work, money and the day-to-day grind of life. The comic was done with stories from dozens of artists over the years in a wide variety of styles. Recently, the stories had begun to migrate to the web, as The Pekar Project.

He gained widespread notoriety from his appearances on Late Night With David Letterman, which can give you a video chronicle of the man. Here’s his last appearance on the show:

Our condolences to Joyce and the rest of Harvey’s family.

I’m probably the last
guy on earth who should ask this question… but… hell, is nothing sacred?

We’ve got us a big ol’ auction coming up here in New York
this coming week. Christie’s is going to bang off some stuff once owned by Roy
Rogers and Dale Evans.

OK, some of you know where this is going.

The cool stuff comes from the now-closed Roy Rogers and Dale
Evans Museum in Branson, Missouri, the latest in a long line of celebrity
failures in that remote resort town. They’ll be auctioning off Roy’s silver
dollar studded 1964 Bonneville convertible, worth maybe $150,000.
They’re also hammering the hand-drawn music for Roy’s theme song, “Happy Trails”
and they think it’ll go for maybe $500. That seems cheap. And, sigh, so does this.

Yep, they’re auctioning off Roy Rogers faithful companion, Trigger.
Back in 1965 Roy took him to the taxidermist and had his old pal stuffed and
mounted. That’s kind of… I dunno… weird.
And in an icky sort of way, too. I mean, stuffing your horse. Hell, I grew up
watching that horse on teevee! He even had his own comic book! It outsold damn
near everything published by DC at the time!

At least Roy and Dale didn’t live to see Trigger go under
the gavel. And I do not think they were stuffed.

But if there’re a couple slots open near Walt Disney…

This weekend, you’ll see ComicMix contributors Aaron Rosenberg, Robert Greenberger, Alan Kistler, Jen Rosenberg, Dayton Ward, Kevin Dilmore, and me (and possibly Ian Bonds) at Shore Leave 32, just outside Baltimore, MD. Come on up and say hi.

Or come to see Edward James Olmos, Katee Sackhoff, Torri Higginson, Kevin Sorbo, Catherine Hicks, Dominic Keating, Allyn Gibson, Ann C. Crispin, Bob Jones, Christopher L. Bennett, Dave Galanter, David Alan Mack, Eric Kotani, Gerri Leen, Greg Cox, Howard Weinstein, Ilsa J. Bick, Kathleen David, Keith R. A. DeCandido, Kirsten Beyer, Lawrence M. Schoen, Lorraine Anderson, Marco Palmieri, Michael Jan Friedman, Mike W. Barr, Peter David, Richard C White, Rigel Ailur, Roberta Rogow, Scott Pearson, and Terri Osborne.

It’s a fun show, and we hope to see you there.

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.