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I can not wait to see what Dada poet/standup comic/Internet legend/funny-book reviewer Abhay Khosla is going to say about Cold Heat. Even if he hates it, this will be awesome.

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Please advise.

Can this possibly be any good?

I want to know before I buy it like a sucker.

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The ultimate mark of COMICS COMICS is that I can hand it to any comics fan, and no matter their interests or depth of knowledge, they will both learn something new and have an established belief challenged.

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As most of you know, this is the week Comics Comics 3 is supposed to be shipping to finer comic stores, and early reviews are in!

Tom “The Comics Reporter” Spurgeon calls it “lovely-looking … full of engaging essays where writers stake out a unique aesthetic position and then defend it. A lot of comics coverage leaves off that first part. The third and best issue.”

Joe “Jog” McCulloch (who, as a contributor to the issue, is perhaps not completely trustworthy) calls it a “fine newspaper of comics information and festivity”, and further claims, “It’s a scientifically proven fact that a copy of Comics Comics can heal a multitude of diseases if pressed against the offending portion of the body, though it’s gotta be a sick body part, not just offending.”

Last but not least (well, technically, I guess it is least), Newsarama’s Chris Mautner ranks the issue as “pretty good”. But he also says there are “lots of crack reviews”, which sounds very good to me.

Next post: less hype, more blog.

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It’s the Robert A. Heinlein centennial or something. He wrote some good stories and books, and I think his reputation is deserved, but for the most part, Heinlein was never my cup of tea. Too weird, and not in a way I could really identify with. Everyone was so competent all the time. Stranger in a Strange Land was pretty mind-blowing when I was thirteen, though. Nipples going “spung” and all that. Or was that from a different book? (Kurt Vonnegut wrote about Stranger for the New York Times here.)

Anyway, Jesse Walker recently posted a link to a comic strip adaptation of one of Heinlein’s novels that ran in Boys’ Life magazine (the magazine “for all boys”, but really a propaganda vehicle for the Boy Scouts).

Which reminded me that Boys’ Life was one of my earliest sources (besides the Sunday newspaper) for regular cartoon reading. Most of it wasn’t very good. I never found Pedro (the magazine’s burro mascot) amusing, no matter how hard I tried. Lots of lousy camping-based gag cartoons. And Tom Swifties are not only not comics, but also not funny.

But the long-running adaptation of John Christopher’s Tripods series? That was some spooky stuff.

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This is just to remind you that the new issue of Comics Comics should be arriving in stores this week!

This time around:

*Sammy Harkham interviews Guy Davis (and they collaborate on a beautiful new cover)

*The legendary Kim Deitch explains the Meaning of Life

*Dan has some bones to pick with the Masters of American Comics show

*David Heatley and Lauren R. Weinstein in conversation (they also collaborated on a brand-new oversize drawing)

*The long-awaited (by me) conclusion to my article on Steve Gerber

*The beloved Joe McCulloch on Mutt and Jeff

*An illustrated list from Renée French

*An amazing back cover by Marc Bell

*Plus a terrific new redesign from Mike Reddy, the debut of our new letters page, hilarious Matthew Thurber cartoons throughout the issue, somewhat more careful proof-reading, reviews of The Avengelist, Casanova, “Curse of the Molemen”, GØDLAND, The Immortal Iron Fist, Reading Comics, Ronin, Self-Loathing Comics, Swamp Preacher, and more!

We will also try to offer it for sale here on the site very soon.

Does YOUR favorite store carry Comics Comics?

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Check out the new short video thing at the Cold Heat site.

Color separations!

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Henry Darger isn’t really a comics artist, I suppose, but his work is at least somewhat related. Close enough, anyway, to justify showing this creepy (and inappropriate?) dessert version of one of his hermaphroditic Vivian Girls.

These cakes are currently being sold at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, to commemorate a Darger exhibit there.

I’d like to see more cakes like this—Jim Woodring would work well, I think. Even better: Rory Hayes.

(Via Serious Eats.)

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In the second part of my apparently cursed essay on Steve Gerber from the new issue of Comics Comics, there is a small error that needs correcting.

Gerber and Jack Kirby’s parody of John Byrne, Booster Cogburn, appeared in Destroyer Duck, not Stewart the Rat.

I regret the error, obviously. Please mark this correction on the page when you purchase your issue, and let us never speak of this again.

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Apparently so. This is almost embarrassing, though at least we’re safe from the ghost of Fredric Wertham.

In our cred’s defense, I don’t think this blog-rating thing can read cartoons. That should have gotten us a PG at least.

(Via some stupid online dating site.)