My Other Website
Reviews
D. G. Stewart for World Comic Review— Wow, this is the kind of review every artist dreams of getting!
Videos
The Fear Mongers movie on Vimeo— transformation of the Modern Tales webcomic into an animated feature with atmospheric music.
Comics
Dummart — the website for Gary and Laura Dumm, local Cleveland celebrities and two of my most important role models! Gary and I worked for many years as a creative team, illustrating for American Splendor and many other comics; I provided the pencils and he provided the professional sheen of inking and lettering that was and still is a delight to the eye!
Bruce Chrislip — Author of The Minicomix Revolution, 1969-1989, owner of some of the most fabulous sketchbook collections on the planet, a great artist and a good friend.
Michael Neno — A great artist and sensational inker with a decidedly post-modern sense of humor.
Clark Dissmeyer — One of the great visionaries of the classic minicomix era, Clark is still going strong. Even J. G. Ballard is not safe from Clark’s satiric pen!
Scene by Scene with Josh and Dean — a podcast examining every frame of the American Splendor movie. Hosted by Josh Neufeld and Dean Haspiel (two notable American Splendor artists who have gone on to illustrious careers), the podcast also interviews a number of American Splendor notables, including yours truly.
The Red Hook — Dean is also the creator of this notable webcomic series that makes startling use of infinite canvas.
King Cat by John Porcellino– Porcellino is one of the great minimalists in comics. Unlike other minimalists, his work doesn’t emphasize frontality, and tends to have a three-dimensional feel. His writing is also quite minimalist, and explores subtle, nuanced themes of personal relationships, experiencing nature, and philosophy.
Steve Conley’s The Middle Age — Steve is a super-talented illustrator and colorist best known for Astounding Space Thrills and The Middle Age. He’s also one of the most supportive people in the history of independent comics, from the early days of the internet when he created Comicon.com, to the present day when he publishes many instructional videos on YouTube.
So Buttons — Jonathan Baylis’ humorous autobiographical series is a light-hearted tip of the hat to American Splendor.
Ten Earth Shattering Blows — A super-fun webcomics series I discovered through the cool webcomics collective Spider Forest. The artist/author, who goes by the monicker nuclearpasta, has created one of the most action-packed adventures I’ve encountered in a long time. The spectacular vistas of this comic shatter the myth that all webcomics can be retrofitted to view on a mobile phone! I did a fan art piece for TESB, shown below.
Lore Olympus — I’m kind of surprised that I’ve only heard of Lore Olympus a short time ago; it’s the most popular series on Webtoons, with over 1 billion views and 6.1 million subscribers. I happened to click on it when I started publishing on Webtoons and was looking for examples of style and technique. What I discovered is one of the most significant works of comix I’ve seen in a long time. Read more –>
Leisure Town — One of the best early webcomics has an amazing photorealistic style with toy animals standing in for humans. Artist Tristan Farnon’s humor is deeply angry and nihilistic. Unique and unforgettable, a masterpiece! My review–>
Scott McCloud — Visionary artist and comics medium theorist, who’s led the way in Understanding and Re-inventing the medium.
Independent Comics Shows
S.P.A.C.E. — The oldest and most genial of independent comics shows. Kudos to artist Bob Corby for keeping this great Columbus tradition going!
Cartoon Crossroads Columbus — Impressive 4-day festival that strives to promote comics as a serious artform– without being stuffy! Supported by the local The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum and a lot of other arts organizations, this is the prototype for community-supported comics art festivals of the future.
Small Press Expo — One of the largest independent comics shows, located in Bethesda, Maryland.
Pekar Park Comic Book Fest — A great summer festival dedicated to the memory of American Spendor creator Harvey Pekar. Held on a wide section of sidewalk on Coventry Street, this is the only independent comics show I know of that the general public attends. Almost everybody here knows who Harvey was, and many have anecdotes to share!
Genghis Com Cleveland — This show has struggled during the Covid years, but hopefully it is getting back on its feet with new sponsorship and a new venue.
Writing
Scribophile — A writers’ website that has an ingenious system for getting your stories critiqued in exchange for you critiquing other stories. The advice from the critiquers is often insightful and helpful. Almost all the comics I’ve published recently started as short stories that were critiqued on Scribophile.
The Story Shack — This started as an illustrated flash fiction site; I provided several illustrations, and published Phantom Lake there. Now the publisher has branched out with an online random name generator and other services that help kick-start the writing process.
Everyday Flash Fiction — a prolific publisher of quality “flash” fiction (stories no longer than 1000 words). They’ve published several of my stories– The Secret, Bed of Glass, and Reynard and the Water Nymph.
Services
Mixam Print Services — this is the printing service I’ve used for my print anthologies. Great quality and low prices for small print runs!