Friday morning. Where is my oatmeal?

There's been much discussion of Colleen Coover's controversial new comic Banana Sunday. I'm confident that the message I posted to Newsarama on page two of this thread should clear up any lingering difficulties.In all the talk about new stores like RIOT opening up, I haven't seen any mention of the two fantastic new shops we have here in Portland: Bridge City Comics and Cosmic Monkey Comics.

On Hahn.

From David Hahn: three pages of his current project at Vertigo. A Pete Woods interview with sketches, at The Pulse.Jeff Parker talks to the press about his Fantastic Four stories.

Monday, playing catch up.

Everything you need to know about the net in two sentences: "I discovered MuggleNet that first-ever afternoon and I went in the chatroom, and it was so funny. I was treated with outright contempt." - J.K. Rowling on her first visit to a Harry Potter chatroom.Over on the TCJ board, someone asked a question about learning to ink with a brush. I wrote the following reply which I hope might helpful

It's late on Friday, so of course I'm blogging.

First things first- there've been lots of questions about Jeff Parker. The answer is he's fine. He's taking care of some family business back east, working on a bunch of scripts for Marvel and reportedly conducting experiments to resolve the age old conflict of tractor versus fire safe. We were bewildered, too.Nonetheless, we understand that many of you were disappointed that he wasn't there at

Post con.

We're back. Everyone seems to agree that the show went extremely well. I might write a bit about what I remember, but I don't think I'm going to do the sort of big con report Parker and I have done over the past few years. You've all seen pictures of the Elvis Stormtrooper at this point; one more wouldn't add much to the conversation.Maybe the best part of the con was spending time with Jim

I'm at the Clambake.

It's almost midnight in San Diego. Preview night wrapped up nicely, and I've already got a bunch of sketches lined up. First up: The Iron Giant. Now that's a nifty commission. Matthew Clark was absolutely pelted with business. It looks to me like people are finally noticing what incredible work he's doing. Parker, alas, won't be at the show this year. He's heading East to deal with some family

New. So new.

My pre-con news: A new short story comic from my publishing imprint Cold Water Press.FLYTRAP Written by Sara Ryan, drawn by me. It's the first of a series of linked short stories. This one's called Juggling Act. It's in the same format as Me and Edith Head- sixteen pages in a cardstock cover- and it'll be as poorly distributed as that book was initially, which is to say that you can get it

Thursday afternoon

Local illustrator Terri Nelson's been working with us at the studio. You can browse through some of her work here.News from David Hahn. He's writing a story for X-Men unlimited number 11. It features the original X-men. I didn't get the artist's name, but I'll post it when I get a chance to ask David. David's own art can, of course, be admired at Hahn Dynasty.Nice article about Oni Press up at

Reviewing Parker

The critics weigh in on Jeff Parker's Marvel debut, Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #4.Three big thumbs up: Spider-fan , Comics Nexus, and Silver Bullet. More Parker Marvel material can be found this week in Amazing Fantasy #10, debuting the Vampire By Night feature. And when you're all Marvelled and Parkered out, pick up Teen Titans #25 for some of the sharpest art yet by Matthew Clark, who's