Amazingly, this fella named Eric Verner got himself a ding-dang Bag tattoo (for those of you coming in late, Bag was the largely non-verbal, floating friend to Jeremy, long ago of my creation).

I'm flattered beyond belief, but I still think this was an incredibly bad idea. Like, i like Alley Oop, but the amount of regret I'd experience after awakening to find an Alley Oop riding a Dinny on my inner thigh would be monumental.

Then again it's not like I've got this Bag tattoo on my skin, so let the fella do what he will ... or ... or wait, is it? Is this tattoo like the video in the Ring? Like, you see it and a week later you get it on your own skin, or maybe you die? Oh good lord, I hope not.

Anyway, Eric's earned hisself a drawing, that's for sure.

==

In other news! The Star Wars vs Batman auctions on eBay are ending very soon (as in tomorrow), so there's still a chance to snatch up a Batman-on-a-Tauntaun pic ridiculously cheap (although you have to consider the expense involved in explaining to your friends what the hell it is you just bought, which makes the real expense something like a bazmibillion dollars). Also, apparently the Indiana Jones trading cards are on their way back to their artists, so I'll be posting my artists returns fairly soon (assuming they get to me more rapidly than the Clone Wars cards came back - ah well).

And then and then: Lest I forget, the next Seattle Drink 'n' Draw will be Friday, January 23 at the Old Pequliar in Ballard, starting around the usual time of 7:00-7:30 and running til we all fall asleep (which is around eleven o'clock for me). We'll bring the paper, you bring your participatory spirit and whatever you've got which most closely resembles a functioning liver. Ciao!

Welp, you convinced me. I'm honoring the offer, since they offered their honor, and as of January 28, Calamity Jon will officially be a Seattleite¹

Hooray! Now I have a million things to do, as opposed to the mere ten thousand I had to do before this. Chief among these things is divesting myself of troublesome possessions, so it's once again one of those darn days when I ( sell off a bunch of my old comic books and trade paperbacks! Hooray! )

Also, I've counted about four-hundred illustrations and sketchbook pages which I'd rather not haul all the way to Washington with me. That includes this fairly recent and never-before-seen nekkid lady pinup piece (it's behind a cut tag, although it's probably safe for work - in my peculiar style, it's all nudity with no naughty parts showing. Yay me! It's like I've never seen boobies before): ( Naked Lady Alert! Naked Lady Alert! )

I've also listed several sketchbook pages, the whole shmear of which look like this:

• The aforementioned nekkid lady drawing.


• Superman and Mister Mxyzptlk!


• The Tiny Avengers!


• The Tiny Justice Society!


• More nekkid ladies!


• and


• Jeremy all rampaging and stuff!

It is the height of conceit to list Jeremy after the naked ladies, like he's somehow a bigger seller. HISTORICALLY INACCURATE, is what I am...

More to come, surely. And thanks to everyone for your feedback on Seattle, it helped make up the minds around here, unmade as they were (as are the beds, but they're still unmade. Let me know if you can help with that).


¹This means that I will look down right now and forever. What will help is if you look like you learned to dance from a series of still pictures.

Hey all,

Well, the Little Batman auctions went gangbusters, thanks to everyone! I actually feel pretty bad, because some folks got savagely outbid in the last twenty-four hours. It is for this totally altruistic reason that I am listing another batch of Little Batman full comic pages, available here. The pages in question are:

• Little Batman <3'ing the heck out of Bats (Inspired by a scene from Batman:Year One and Batman Begins)


• Little Batman's Busy Day


• Little Batman having a bad dream.


• And both of the Little Batman's Rogues Gallery pieces (1 and 2)

In other news where I sell things that have endless monkey scribblings all over 'em, I've gotten started on the sketches for folks who buy copies of Jeremy: The Complete Strip Collection. I didn't put a deadline on these things, so let's say that for every copy of the book you buy before December 15 (which is when I'll be sending out the lion's share of the sketches), then I will get to you a nice, lean cut of draw-ring. Also, you certainly can make a request by way of what you'd like the sketch to look like, many folks have. Here's two which will be going out in the mail tomorrow:

   

You can get your copy of the book here, if you're so inclined (by the way, it's crawled all the way to #70 on Lulu's list of Comics & Graphic Novels top sellers. So, you know, that's neat!)

Thanks folks! Ciao!

OH WAIT, I DONE FORGOT! I realize that there aren't five or six people from Tucson or surrounding areas reading this journal, BUT I will be signing this Saturday at Charlie's Comics from 11am to 6pm, alongside a whole buncha other dudes from other comics, I kind of don't have the list handy. Charlie's is located at the corner of Craycroft and 22nd, right around the corner from the peeler bar where I used to draw intently in my sketchbook and neglect to look at the dames. That makes it eligible for Historical Monument status, both as a testament to the burgeoning career of a young, fat artist, and also as something my therapist clearly needs to talk to me about. Anyway, see you on Saturday!

Say, wondering what to get that difficult-to-shop-for individual for Christmas, Hannukah, or some other equally-made-up-but-not-as-dear-to-our-self-delusions-as-the-others much-derided holiday? Well, have you considered a copy of Jeremy: Just Turned Nine - the Complete Strip Collection, the 188-page omnibus of every comic strip and many full-page comic-book sized adventures of America's favorite little boy made out of criminal corpse parts? No? You haven't? I can't imagine why not. It hurts my feelings that you didn't consider it. You owe me an apology.



With a beautiful full-color cover and an equally beautiful (in its own way) black-and-white interior, you get every strip and pre-2008 comic book appearance of Jeremy hisself, along with a sketchbook section. Notice I said pre-2008? That's because there's a new collection of Jeremy comic stories coming out in April, 2008, and this is your chance to get ahead of the complicated backstory (there isn't one) and read some of the strips from which I'm recycling punchlines (there are a few).

And hey, to sweeten the deal, order before Dec 15th and I'll do you up a nice Jeremy sketch as a thank-you! You'll all have to drop me a line and let me know you ordered one, because this is all Print-On-Demand and it happens invisible to my beady little eyes, AND I'll have to trust you, I guess, but that's the spirit of the "some other equally-made-up-but-not-as-dear-etc-etc-etc..." season!

2008 will be the year of Jeremy (assuming it's an otherwise uneventful year and the new stories are much much better than I expect them to be, in any case), so hop on board the bandwagon now! Citizens caught in public without a copy of this collection will be subject to prosecution to the fullest extent of the law! Jeremycrime 1984!

Oh, also, what a gift, right? You can give them away, or buy a couple dozen, shellac 'em, and make a huge Jenga out of it. That's if you like to give Jenga as a present. Otherwise, you'd just be being weird...

Hey, I hadn't checked in on Jeremy: The Complete Strip Collection in a little bit, but I'm very pleased that it's jumped nine spaces in Lulu.com's listing of its Best-Selling Comics & Graphic Novels since I last checked. Currently number 88 with a bullet - a slow-moving bullet that will probably peter out in a couple of more progressions, most likely, but a bullet nonetheless.

Copies are, of course, still available -- because it's print-on-demand. Taa-da!

Attention friends, acquaintances, enemies and nemeses! It has been many months in the laying out and designing, and probably a year or two later than is any damn good to anyone, but nonetheless I can finally present ...



The Collection contains all 170 Ignatz-nominated Jeremy strips, as well as the stories from Gumbo, Boo:Halloween Stories, the Dandelion minicomic, plus The Boston Molasses Disaster and Jeremy's Halloween stories, a-a-a-and additional sketches and doo-dads. Here's what raconteur and maniac Leonard Pierce had to say about Jeremy:

"Jeremy is a charming book about a Frankenstein boy. I like it, and I pretty much hate everything, so what are the odds that a dick-suck like you is going to find anything to criticize? It's funny and the characters are classic and it's occasionally moving and the drawing is pretty good so quit wasting time, and walk up to that mouth-breather behind the counter and hand him your twenty dollars. PS I don't get a royalty so send me some money too."

Then here also is what Leonard Pierce had to say when I told him that I couldn't put any swearing in the book, and made him do it again:

"Jeremy is a charming book about a Frankenstein boy. I like it, and Uma Thurman, my girlfriend, does too. I once wrote a much better introduction, but Calamity Jon lost it and made me write this via instant messenger, which I believe is the same way that Faulkner worked. This is the point at which I would normally swear, but he won't let me so he can market this book to kids. What do I care? I don't have any kids, and neither does my girlfriend, Batgirl. Just buy this wonderful book so Jon can give me some money."

That there's a couple of very nice reviews! I probably will not be giving him any money.

The Strip Collection is published via Lulu.com, which is a print-on-demand service and which has published a couple of other books I've picked up. I received my proof copy yesterday, and it looks just fantastic. I've made a few changes, and finally the thing is available for buyin', woo woo!

Now, the one problem with Print-on-Demand is that I can't sign any books as they go out. Fortuitously, one of my favorite cartoonists in the whole wide world, Kris Dresen, also happens to have a new book on Lulu, and she figured out a way to get around the lack-of-autographs thing; If you buy a copy of Jeremy:The Complete Strip Collection and would like it signed, drop me a line with your mailing address and I will send you one of three signed cardstock bookplates, of your choice ( (pictured below). )

Easy-peasy!

So there we go, I have finally gotten the complete Jeremy strips published, I guess I can probably die in peace now. Like, within the next fifteen minutes or so. And, Of course, if you'd like to read the last fifty Jeremy strips fo' free online, you can find them at my Comicspace page. But then you wouldn't have this enormous, gear book to pollute your bookshelf, and wouldn't that be the suck?? Trust me, it would be.