I will be exhibiting at this year's S.P.A.C.E., which stands for Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo, on Saturday March 1 and Sunday March 2 at the Aladdin Shrine Temple in Columbus, Ohio. I'll be sharing a table with my good friend Johnny Ampersand. I won't have a brand new issue of my comic "Spudd 64" but this show will mark the Ohio debut of my collection of drawings entitled Some Day The Dream Will End. I'll also be drawing a short story that Dara Naraghi for the next PANEL anthology, which should debut at the show as well. I haven't been to S.P.A.C.E. since 2006, the year before it became a 2 day show, so I'm hoping for an interesting weekend. If you're going to be in town, stop by the table and say hello. It will be nice to see a few of the old faces again.
Matt K.
All I can think after reading this howlingly funny list is "God damn! The truth must really hurt." These oh-so-true comic book customer cliches were lovingly created and presented to the world by Tim O'Neil, the main behind the blog The Hurting. I've been working one Saturday a month in a large, mainstream, superhero-oriented comic shop for the last 5 years or so, and I can safely say that these are so true of some people that it's terrifying. Now, step into the mind of the comic book fanboy and learn of his thoughts...
--Windows should be covered in posters or with palettes of longboxes stacked high.
--When I see retailers making a point to cultivate casual customers, I feel jealous and unwelcome.
--I like to be able to look around the shop and see isolated, sullen loners buying their comics.
--I like feeling that the majority of people who buy comics have long ago ceased to love the hobby and instead regard it as a parasitic forces in their lives.
--I like knowing that my fellow customers and the clerks in my store hate the hobby as much as I do, and hate it for the same reasons: I hate comics because of the person they made me.
--I wish that all of comics had one single face so I could see it scream as I drowned it in a bathtub.
--And whenever I see a child with his mother I think of the fact this his mother had to have sex to make that child.
--I like it when comic book stores do the bulk of their business with advance orders through Previews, because the formality of a catalog transaction reminds me of prostitution.
--I like comic stores that have a large portion of their floor space devoted to role playing games because it reminds me that there are people in the world more loathsome than myself.
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People who go to comic book stores on a regular basis desperately need to feel that they belong somewhere, because the alternative is to acknowledge that no one would care if they died tomorrow.
--If I hear someone discussing anything related to comics, I have to interject my opinion.
--If I cannot prove the strength of my opinion through reason, I will increase the volume of my voice.
--If I cannot prove the strength of my opinion, it means I am less of a person, because this is all I have.
Those were my favorites, but you can, and should, read the full list here.
Matt K.
Christmas is now long past, but this year Rudy and I got one of the best Christmas gifts ever. On the Saturday before Christmas, a mysterious box was left at the door to our apartment. Rudy and I took it upstairs and opened it to discover that it contained two heavy plastic bags full of water, one with an enormous tadpole and the other with a furiously swimming little frog. There were a few plastic envelopes, cannisters, crystals, nuggets and plastic habitat containers as well, along with a bunch of paperwork. A few minutes were spent sorting everything out, and finally it became clear that these two amphibians were our new pets, sent to us from Grow-A-Frog by our good friends Stephanie and Kevin. We got everything set up and found them a new home in our strangely spacious bathroom, which is probably the warmest room with the most stable climate in the apartment. A bit of research showed that our new friends were laboratory-grown African clawed frogs, and you can actually see the 3 tiny black claws on each rear foot. Apparently it is impossible to tell the gender of a tadpole, and very difficul to tell with frogs until they reach sexual maturity, so we were forced to choose gender-neutral names. The frog was christened Freddie, after Freddie Mercury (since Rudy had been listening non-stop to Queen) while the tadpole was named Ozzy, after Ozzy Osbourne (since Rudy was also listening to loads of early Black Sabbath). Here are some photos of the happy event. First, all the stuff that arrived..
Next, the Stage 1 container with blue Nutri-Sand for Ozzy the Tadpole...
Here is Rudy looking at them both in their new homes. The candle is between the two containers so that they don't see each other yet, and can get used to their new surroundings in peace and solitude...
Here is a better close-up of the two containers. You can barely see Ozzy in the upper left portion of the small container, and that's a pretty good shot of Freddie in the container on the right. I can't believe how small she was back then! She's already doubled in size!
Rudy and I never imagined that frogs could be this exciting, but they really are. Ozzy is now a small, almost transparent but steadily growing frog, while Freddie is now unmistakably female and getting larger daily. She eats like a glutton and has almost outgrown her tiny tank in a little over a month. This weekend we'll be moving her into a new 5 gallon home, which will more than quadruple her available swimming space, and Ozzy should eventually follow. I never realized this, but Rudy has never owned a pet in her entire 32 years, so this is the very first time that living things are depending on her for their very survival. It's a heavy responsible, but still very cool.
Matt K.
I'm back! I took some time off for reasons that would probably be boring to recount here. None of that matters anyway, because now I'm back and there's even more to look at. I made a few changes around the site, so here's a rundown of what's new...
--I removed the eight photos of rockets and missiles that I took when I was a child.
--I added eleven 35mm photos to the photos page. As a warning, there is some artistic nudity, so view with caution. I created these images several years ago when I had a darkroom of my own and since I will soon have a new darkroom, I am excited about sharing these photographs for the first time online.
--The ongoing comic "Spaceman," written by me with full color art by Steve Black, is back on the site, with improved navigation tools to make reading easy. Check it out in the "ongoing comics" section on the comics page of this site.
--Now, for the first time ever, you can read every single page of every single issue of my own comic "Spudd 64" on that same comics page, in "the saga of spudd 64" section. As I complete new issues, I'll also post them there as well.
--Also, you can read nearly every single comic I have ever worked on, also on the comics page, in the "completed comics and stories" section. These are mostly short pieces I've done for other anthologies and occasionally with other writers as well as some of my own earliest comics.
--A new contact page and photograph! Ha!
Also, there are a few more exciting changes coming soon. In a week or two, I will have my own storefront on Etsy where I will be selling comics, art books, and art. I'll make an announcement when it's done. Within the next month, I'll start posting pages from another ongoing comic I am doing with my good friend Johnny Ampersand. He is writing it and I am drawing it and it will be called "Pilgrimage: The Transmigration of Hank Ferguson." It's gonna be great. Finally, there will be more art and 35mm photography very soon.
Thanks for visiting the site again. I used to update this "news" page almost every day, and it turned into something like a personal journal. I'll be resuming those daily updates, so if you want to know the mundane details of my pretty normal life here in the Midwest, keep checking in.
So what do you think of that?
Matt K.