Who is your buddy? Its ROM, the Greatest of the Spaceknights

Floating World Comics in Portland is hosting SPACEKNIGHT - A tribute to Bill Mantlo on December 6th, and all the artwork will be auctioned to raise money for Bill's care, a really worthy cause.

If you're in the Portland area, Floating World is at 20 NW 5th Ave, and you should really go by. I won't be there, but one of my pieces will be. I'll be posting the work here when its done, so should the spirit move you, go and bid it up as its a good cause. Jason Leivian is putting the whole thing on, so thank him by going by and eating whatever goodies they decide to put out. Bring your checkbook. Make it happen. Special Props to Jason.

Also, if you're in the mood, find David Yurkovich's tribute book with lots of great quotes about Bill and a great history lesson on Marvel in the 1970's.

Romance Panel Cavalcade & Astro City

That's My Skull has one of those posts that made me laugh so hard that I almost blew beer out of my nose. Yes, the dreaded comic romance panel cavalcade. Its that damn funny. You owe it to yourself to go over and appreciate the time that it took to find all those.

And no Civil War posts out of me today. This latest issue is such a mess that I'm finding my brain doesn't want to think about it.

Did pick up Astro City: The Dark Age and I realize that while I like Astro City a lot, none of the issues over that last year or two have grabbed me as much as the first couple storylines, such as the kree/skrull... er, Confessor and Astro Boy series, or even the short "The Nearness of You" which is one of the best short stories that I've run across in the last several years.

Did Astro City jump the shark for me? I'd like to think that it didn't. Kurt is just off telling a number of different stories, and the overly long one with robert Mitchum as the alloyed criminal simply went on too long, but that doesn't mean that I don't have some affinity with the characters. I think that his attention is a bit diverted, that's all.