I, the Jury Duty, by Elayne Riggs
It’s been a hell of a winter for me. Under the Lennonesque heading of life being what happens to you whilst you’re busy making other plans, the latest in a series of stumbling blocks that have come between me and my ability to participate more in ComicMix’s news section — including the still-ongoing detox from my former job (which kept calling me back in through the end of last year), the nearly-full-time search for a new means of income, and a nasty lingering flu – was last week’s call to jury duty. It was inevitable, but given my temporary unemployment period I’m glad it happened when it did. It’s been over four years since I last served, and now it’ll be another four years at least until they call me up again, which should gladden any potential employer.
I had no excuse to postpone this, but I still wasn’t looking forward to it. The one time I’ve actually served on a jury was on a criminal case, a murder trial, and we wound up convicting the accused, during a time when the death penalty was still in effect. The knowledge that I and my fellow jurors may have contributed in sending this guy to the electric chair, however guilty we may have thought him for his crime, unnerved me to the point where I don’t think I can ever serve again on that sort of a criminal case.
I was lucky in subsequent call-ups, in that most of the cases where my name came up for the jury pool were civil ones. One was settled before it commenced to trial, and I got out of the pool for the other one, I think, because I knew Cheryl Harris. You see, folks, you never know when your comic book connections will come in handy! Cheryl and I had both held the Membership Secretary position on the Friends of Lulu National Board, and saw each other socially besides, ever since our CompuServe days. But in this case I had to admit, during the initial jury questioning from the attorneys and the judge, that I also knew that she worked in the Bronx County court system, and so I was excused back to the jury assembly room and my name wasn’t picked again during that round.
In those days I think the typical jury service, if you weren’t picked to go on a case, was three days, and you got $15 per day which the state sent to your employer and your employer deducted from your paycheck, or something like that. It works differently with each state, and the rules seem to change all the time. As a matter of fact, this round even the venue changed. (more…)
It used to be, if you wanted to reach for the comic art form for your sex education you had to send a couple bucks to those want ads in the back of the cheesy magazines for “Comics – the Kind Men Like!” That stuff was a bit distorted; well, in the case of the ones that featured [[[Popeye]]], I’d have to say they were quite a bit distorted.
is a sweet and sensitive series that focuses on the psychological aspects of sex as much as – actually, more than – the mechanics. The story is about a young couple, Makoto and Yura, who met through an arranged “marriage meeting.” This is sort of a counseled dating service, but one where the ultimate intent of marriage is upfront. The two 25 year olds dated, liked each other, got married, and only then discovered they were both virgins with a lot of understandable insecurities and a lack of any clue.
According to Variety, Dimension Films has just 
In today’s brand-new episode of 
Previously on ComicMix, there’s been some cool new Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull news including the exciting 
Even though the film only has a director and one actor confirmed so far, has no finished script and hasn’t even started shooting, it already has a release date locked down. To what lucky film am I referring?
Previously, my ComicMix colleague Rick Marshall 
or 
The writer and artist behind my favorite graphic novel of last year, Top Shelf’s Super Spy, just announced the two projects he’ll be working on this year.
