The importance of being Sluggo.
And then there was the time when I won the eBay auction for this awesome original Fred Hembeck sketch:
…which should be winging its way to my home via the tender mercies of the post office within a week or two. Can’t wait!
There was another recent Hembeck sketch auction that I was tempted by, but alas, couldn’t squeeze that into the budget this time around. Still recovering from Christmas an’ all, don’t you know. (Thanks to pal Dorian for informing me of these auctions…I spend so much time selling things on the eBay that I rarely do any actual shopping there!)
Speaking of Sluggo, which is a rare around these parts I realize, Boing Boing’s David Pescovitz put up a post about Sluggo expressing his inner beatnik. In the comments there, Twitter pal MrJM was good enough to remind folks about my Sluggo Saturday shenanigans, which Mr. Pescovitz responded by describing that little project of mine as “so much fun,” which was much appreciated.
Pal Andres also turns up in the comments, blaming me for hooking him on Nancy and Sluggo. I am an enabler.
One other person in the comments wonders if the two Sluggo beatnik panels presented there are from the same strip, or even by the same artist…and another person notes that he believes one of the panels is by noted Nancy-ologist Bill Griffith. Well, I can assure both these folks that 1) the panels are from the same strip, 2) the strip is by Ernie Bushmiller, and 3) the strip in question appears in Ernie Bushmiller’s Nancy Vol. 4 (a flip book with “Bums, Beatniks and Hippies” on one side, “Artists and Con Artists” on the other), published by Kitchen Sink Press in 1991.
But anyway…”hello” to any new folks popping in! I’m Mike, I sell funnybooks for a living, and I like Sluggo and Swamp Thing and All Star Batman and Robin. …Hey, wait, where are you going? Come back!
In other news:
- Benjamin Birdie, artist of America’s most beloved webcomic about a comic shop, The Rack, has started a new project entitled “Benjamin: Yesterday” in which he expresses the many moods of Benjamin Birdie in a daily sketch diary. No words, no “strips” as such…just a single drawing of Birdie being Birdie, every day. Very nicely done.
- Dr. Polite Scott has posted his Best (and Worst) Comic Book Medicine of 2010 awards, and it probably comes as no surprise which writer dominates the “Worst Medicine” categories. (Though the linked Superboy story — not by this writer — is amazing.)
- A Nice Cup of Comics – a Tumblr celebrating the intersection of comic books and the drinking of tea, which relaxes the mind and soothes the soul. And who couldn’t use a little of that, nowadays?
For some reason, beatnik Sluggo makes me very uncomfortable. It’s like he could be talking all hep one minute and sticking a shiv in my ribs the next.
Had I known about the Hembeck Swamp Thing auction, I would have proudly sniped the winning bidder and mailed it off to you post haste. However, considering the general esteem in which you are often held, I wouldn’t be surprised if the winner isn’t already planning on doing just that.
That’s a neat sketch!
In case you missed it, the comment thread had an interview with the real-life Nancy: http://wfmu.org/LCD/Early/nancyw.html
I guess I should be grateful both you and Existential Man didn’t know about the auction for the Hembeck Swamp Thing cover redo, because I’m the guy who won it… I’ve got a few of Hembeck’s sketch card cover repros, and this is one of his best. (Existential Man: the card is now proudly resting in my collection, and it’s not going anywhere. Sorry Mike.)
Methinks Sluggo found the cooking sherry…