en tomspurgeon@yahoo.com 2009-07-04T00:30:00-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/compuserve_1969_2009/ I'm not going to pretend I can figure out this cascade of dates, but it seems that in some significant fashion the embers of what was once with early AOL (its eventual buyer, I think... maybe) one of the initial, commercial places on the Internet a lot of folks talked about comics have had water poured over them. I remember well the golden afternoons of 1994, when we crowded around our office's single linked-up computer to insult each others' children and to hash out which person tangential to comics was most dishonored by the Journal and in what way and why. Seriously, that old Comics and I think Animation forum was the least friendly place to alternative comics in the entire world. It was like going to a bar where within the first 30 seconds a bouncer would punch you square in the face. It was like a suggestion box people could poop in. This is sort of what it was like, except that you couldn't run away. Participation on the CompuServe forum led to at least TCJ's more general on-line presence, in the sense of Gilligan and the Skipper building a raft to get all the castaways off the island. It probably also drove a lot of other on-line efforts in a much more benign fashion. I will spend the waning hours of this getaway day thinking of Pat O'Neill and Don Labriola. Daily Blog Tom Spurgeon 2009-07-03T20:00:02-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/friday_distraction070309/ Daily Blog Tom Spurgeon 2009-07-03T18:00:00-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/scenes_from_the_aaec_convention1/ via Mr. Cagle, who holds the camera Daily Blog Tom Spurgeon 2009-07-03T16:00:01-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/your_danish_cartoons_hangover_update070309/ There's only one of these this time out: an invitation related the Danish Cartoons Controversy is cited as one of the reasons for the departure of a director and staff from a high-profile journalist protection agency in Qatar. Longtime RSF head Robert Menard and his staff have left the Doha-based advocacy and funds-dispensing group after what they claim is increased pressure from the government of Qatar. Critics of Menard say he never quite understood how to function within the conservative nation, and cite Menards decision to let Muhammed cartoon publishers Jyllands-Posten send staffers to attend a World Press Freedom day sponsored by the center. Daily Blog Tom Spurgeon 2009-07-03T15:20:00-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/go_look_ingemar_nystrom/ Daily Blog Tom Spurgeon 2009-07-03T15:15:00-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/todays_comics_masterpiece_watch/ * Dan Kois writes the first enthusiastic major mainstream press review for David Mazzucchelli's Asterios Polyp. (18 of you have since written in to remind me of this piece in EW, to which I respond "d'oh") * Bill Watterson's mid-'90s (I think) essay for one of the Krazy Kat collection is reprinted here. I was hoping when I saw the name it would be Watterson reading something, but I guess not. * speaking of Watterson, who made his own comics masterpiece with Calvin & Hobbes, the writer Nevin Martell sento word that if you e-mail him through he won't use it to spam you or anything but will send you a chapter from his forthcoming Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and His Revolutionary Comic Strip. I can't guarantee this isn't an offer from Satan himself, but it sounds genuine. Daily Blog Tom Spurgeon 2009-07-03T15:10:00-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/20_days_until_comic_con_international/ Daily Blog Tom Spurgeon 2009-07-03T15:05:00-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/angela_merkel_rates_cartoon_biography/ Okay, I'll admit it: this news story about a cartoon biography of Angela Merkel isn't much of a news story. I'm drawing your attention to it anyway because a) it sounds way more entertaining than that comic book about the Obama family's dog, and b) I made a solemn vow I would always provide blogging attention to any writer about comics that manages to employ the word "gormlessly." Daily Blog Tom Spurgeon 2009-07-03T15:00:01-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/if_i_were_in_vermont_id_go_to_this070309/ Daily Blog Tom Spurgeon 2009-07-03T14:50:00-08:00 http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/if_i_were_in_la_id_go_to_this070309/ Daily Blog Tom Spurgeon 2009-07-03T14:50:00-08:00