Legion of Substitute Mimis team captain Pat Donley has opened up TIME TUNNEL COMICS again at 300 Mt Lebanon Blvd, Lebanon Shops, in Pittsburgh PA. And it's awesome to see Nick of T.emporal I.mprobablity M.anagement E.xpeditions back in service.

Thirty-Three Facts You May Not Know About Larry Young:

...inspired by this link.

• He collects screen-used and replica movie props.

• In high school and college was known as "Wedge" because of the angular shape of his face:



• His name means "victorious one" or "crowned with laurel" in Old English.

• His favorite meal is mesquite-smoked cow grilled on his smoker in his backyard in the fog.

• His first comic book work "Astronauts in Trouble" was given the nod in 2000's YEAR'S BEST FANTASY AND HORROR, 13th Annual Edition

• He has read every Ian Fleming James Bond book, and all of the John Gardner's. He's seen every Sean Connery movie except for DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE.

• Still has the two quarters from the first mail-in from the inaugural PLANET LAR fanzine offer.

• Spent two years cutting granite in rural Georgia.

• His favorite snack is a THREE POUND LOBSTER. Heh, no, that's a joke between me and my nephew. I guess I'll have to say dry roasted cashews.

• The most exotic food he's eaten is braised ostrich.

• He can write Klingon better than he can speak it.

• Has never seen an episode of AMERICAN IDOL.

• Favorite drink? Lemon echinecea lemonade.

• Has promised Mimi to cut down on processed meat but loves pepperoni like it took a bullet for him in The War.

• Most appreciates the actual cowbell Robson gave him because of the whole "more cowbell" thing as his son whangs that thing like he's telling the colonists that the British are coming.

• Knows the small print in the banner on a Budweiser can by heart because of a poker game 25 years ago wherein his pal Sully busted out with it and he was losing enough that he stopped playing until he'd committed to memory. And he can say it to this day. Ask him.

• His favorite book is Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. No kidding.

• Thinks MASTER AND COMMANDER is the best STAR TREK movie ever made.

• Was really into MAX HEADROOM before all the rest of you.

• The bar in his office was hand-made by his paternal grandfather in 1928.

• Charlie Adlard has more books published through Larry's own company than he himself does.

• His favorite films are 2001 and Blade Runner, Planet of the Apes, and Zero Effect. Basically, anything with spacesuits and clever writing.

• Has a Moebius Arzach original.

• Wrote a Star Trek special for MTV in 1992 and did some on-air voice-overs.

• Thinks David Bowie is over-rated but quite enjoys that "Space Oddity" song.

• Met Mimi at a roommate referral service when she came in looking for help finding a place to live.

• Has never lost at Stratego. Not once. Not even as a kid.

• Thinks the English toffee-flavored roast from Safeway is God's own coffee.

• Has no problem memorizing facts, but remembering numbers is beyond him.

• His son is a serial hugger. Which is better than a serial hitter, but, dang, Walker, give your friends their space.

• Thinks Flock of Seagull's "I Ran" is an awesome song, and will bop uncontrollably to it when it plays.

• Still has his dad's basketball uniform from 1952.

• Always thought he'd end up a novelist in a house on Cape Cod, but is a graphic novelist on the beach in San Francisco. So, you know, that's pretty close, considering.

• Drives a 2005 Honda CRV that has "Do you feel like I do" and "Driver's Seat" permanently cued up in the CD player.

The guys over at Cosmic Comix tell you about Dugout: "The book is only 88 pages but Beechen does a great job in quickly establishing the characters. He manages in a very short time to set up Cookie, the manager, as the loveable loser who is just trying to get one last break. The supporting cast is full of lively characters including ex-baseball players trying for one last shot at glory, cons just trying to escape, and of course a love interest. Beechen also fills the book with all sorts of baseball imagery including various scenes where Cookie 'strikes out.'

"Personally, I really liked the imagery because I got it. I’m not always good at the subtle hints and I’m sure I missed some but I enjoyed the ones that were there. Beechen also litters the book with many one liners and all sorts of 'ball' jokes. Overall, Beechen created a cast that I quickly liked and cared about.

"Bello does a great job on art, too. He handled the baseball scenes quite well and it helped to establish the games in context. My only quibble is that the blacks were occasionally 'pebbled.' I don’t know who decided to break up the blacks but it looks like little white dots are periodically sprayed on the backgrounds. At first I thought it was a printing error, but it’s too consistent so it must have been planned. I’m sure it’s done for effect but I felt it distracted from the art itself.

"This is a light-hearted romp that’s a lot of fun to read. If you like feel-good sports stories then this is a graphic novel that will entertain you for a Sunday afternoon."

+++++

Stalwart Tony Isabella, in the November 3, 2008 issue of Comics Buyer's Guide, gives Dugout five out of five: "Adam Beechen has written fine scripts for DC Comics titles, but it’s in his more individual work where he truly shines. Dugout [AiT/Planet Lar; $12.95] is a surprisingly touching baseball story wrapped around a cool caper thriller.

"1960. The Los Angeles Pioneers are the worst team in the big leagues, outmatched on the field and at the box office. Beset by the imminent loss of his job and his bone-crushing gambling debts, manager Cookie Palisetti has one chance to save his career and his limbs. He has to spring his star pitcher from prison. Palisetti’s plan revolves around an exhibition game with the prison team and an escape tunnel that’s been four decades in the making. Add a cast of great lead and supporting characters on both sides of the fence, suspense on and off the field, a bit of romance, and the terrific black-and-white art of Manny Bello. The result? Beechen hits this one right out of the park."

Ain't It Cool's Ambush Bug totally gets where we're coming from: "Charming is a good word to describe this book. DUGOUT takes place in a time not seen in many comics, and that’s the type of story AIT/Planet Lar seems to specialize in. In 1960, a down and out baseball manager decides to do the impossible: break an all-star pitcher out of prison. The main character and said down n’ out baseball manager is Cookie Palisetti, and what makes this charming book work is that the author, Adam Beechen, makes him a likable guy. You end up rooting for this poor schlub throughout this entire book, no matter how morally wrong or outrageous the scenarios become. Like I said, you don’t see many books like this on the shelves today. I would say it had a sitcom type feel to it, but nowadays that type of description has a negative connotation. I guess this has one of those good old I LOVE LUCY style scenarios--the type you used to see in fun romps set in that era on the silver screen or on TV. It’s no surprise to me that AIT/Planet Lar is the publisher making this one happen, since the company has been publishing high quality books that defy categorization from the beginning. DUGOUT reads like one of those old time comedies/tragedies that you might catch on a Sunday afternoon on AMC. Did I mention it’s full of charm and wholly original? Well, it is. This book, and any book offered by AIT/Planet Lar for that matter, is the remedy for Big Two Comics burnout."

+++++

My good pal Rich Starkings snapped this one of me at APE last weekend:


..wearing noted crazyman Jason Neuman's legendary "fanboy" shirt. Man, I love wearing that thing at cons. Send Neumie an email and tell him to start making these things again. Mine's getting a little old, and I know you want one, too.

+++++

...and even Little Dude got into the act: "Walker was helping out at the AiT table when he wasn’t napping."


APE was a blast, as usual. Holmes' Omaha Perez is a great guy to kill a weekend with.

Lecturas ReCOMICdadas has a great review of Badlands up. Marione gives the nod to Steven Grant, as a writer "who moves as a fish through water" which I thought was an exceedingly evocative compliment. And comparing Vince Giarrano to Charlie Adlard and David Mazzuchelli only underscores his esteem of the work. But, me, I liked the last paragraph: "Me parece increíble la cantidad de obras de calidad que existen inéditas en nuestro país." and "Espero que no, aunque sinceramente, si ocurriera, me lo tendría merecido por no leer La Patrulla X como todo hijo de vecino." were particularly good observations, if you ask me.

+++++

Coincidentally, "It's incredible to me the number of quality works that go unpublished in our country." and "These deserve to be read like The X-Men by everyone." are subjects I sort of touch on in my latest interview with Marc Mason over at The Comics Waiting Room. It's worth clicking over to that, as there's lots of stuff about my kid, comics, new Astronauts in Trouble, comics, Brian Wood, comics, retailers and backlist, and comics. Here's a quote that should start you off: "I guess I'd have to say that I prefer GNs over floppies for all sorts of reasons. It's the difference between watching a movie and catching a TV show. When we put out a GN it's an event, and the thing's in print for as long as it's contracted for. That's sort of a big deal for a small press like ours with a hundred titles available. We take the economic risk so the retailer doesn't have to. Our retailing partners and distributor and me are making money today on an idea I had in 1998. By contrast, monthly books have about a five day sales window, on the racks. Sure, a retailer pays his rent with the latest iteration of Batman, but no one's coming in to buy Detective #237 because they read an article about it in Variety or online somewhere. But a retailer can get 13 bucks for a copy of, say, White Death, just by showing it to the kid who just brought up the latest Walking Dead to the counter."

If you don't check in with Beyond Race, you should. They have pretty good taste in comics, at least.

Matthew J. Brady reads his Black Diamond and metaphorically puts his pedal to the metal: "But it helps to have somebody like McMillan to splash some water on you before you jump into the pool, because simply reading the back-cover summary won't prepare you for the story within. Larry Young seems to promise a 'love-letter to the 1970s drive-in movie,' but he delivers something much stranger, more of an examination of storytelling, full of misdirection as to where the plot is headed and what it's really all about... Overall, I don't know if I could recommend this unreservedly; it's too quirky and strange for somebody expecting a bunch of car chases or something. But if you're willing to open your mind a bit and try to let Young's weird energy in, it's incredibly enjoyable, and unique enough of an experience to be pretty noteworthy. If that sounds like your kind of thing, well, you've probably already read it, but if you haven't, do check it out."