Dave Sim's blogandmail #39 (October 20th, 2006)

ED THE SOCK AND LIANA K SIGNING AT PARADISE COMICS IN TORONTO TOMORROW NOON TO FOUR PM

3278 YONGE STREET


ALL THIS WEEK THE BLOG & MAIL

[THERE'S MORE FOR YOU

…IN TODAY'S…

BLOG & MAAAILLL]

IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE

LAST SEVENTEEN

SIGNED & NUMBERED

JAKA'S STORY

FIRST PRINTINGS

ORDER NOW!

Click on www.followingcerebus.com

and specify S&N Jaka's Story


(regular edition always available; Diamond item # STAR00359)

Major, Major, MAJOR Applause for Mr. Jimmy Gownley the Cartooning Pride of HARRISBURG, PA. It's really great to get to be this age where I can honestly say that I remember Jimmy when his work was pretty much of the fanzine level variety. A very, very determined creator who was launching his series Shades of Gray back in the early 90s just when we were starting up the Spirits of Independence Tour and he booked himself in for a number of those stops. I'm not sure how many of them, but I've got the cancelled cheques for his table reservations. It was one of those situations where I really didn't have the heart to tell him that he didn't really seem to have it in the talent department. No offence, Jimmy, I enjoy your book, personally, and it's nice to see someone being really productive but there isn't much progress from issue to issue and I'm afraid you just might be wasting your money on transportation, table costs, printing and pointless aggravation in general. I've certainly faced my share of indictments for encouraging cartoonists like Jimmy or, at least, for not DIScouraging them.

Jimmy will correct me if I'm wrong, I'm sure, but I think it was either the second or third SPACE (www.backporchcomics.com for details about SPACE 2007 in April of next year) where he came up to me with the first two or three issues of Amelia Rules!—which looked really, really good. I flipped one of them open and then flipped, myself.

GAH! FULL COLOUR!!! ON GLOSSY PAPER!! I looked up at him, stricken. He laughed. "I know, I know…" And then went on to explain why he thought it had to be in full colour and how with the computer technology these days, it wasn't THAT much more expensive. Sharp look. He laughed again. Well, okay, yes it is MORE expensive and it is a LOT MORE expensive. And more time-consuming, of course and…

And at that point he started to fade from my consciousness into that WAH-WAH sound the teacher makes in the Peanuts animated cartoons and I was just looking over at his lovely wife, Karen (Hi, Karen) who rather gamely and ruefully smiled back at me from behind their very professional looking table display of however-many-issues and all I could think was, "Jeez, how many different ways can one guy find to cut his own throat?" I just hoped that the next SPACE would find him, sheepishly and sensibly set up with a stack of #5's and 6's NOW ALL IN BLACK AND WHITE ON SENSIBLE ECONOMICAL NEWSPRINT.

And, guess what? It never happened. Sometimes I would see him at SPACE and sometimes I would get a package in the mail. The first six issues. Then the first seven issues. Then the first eight issues. Always on glossy paper, always in full colour. The sort of guy who will just keep battering his head against a piece of granite because he's pretty sure that the granite must be getting tired by now (BAFF! "It's okay, Karen" WHONK! "I don't think" KRAK! "it can" KRONK! "take" THONK! "much more!" WHAK! "of this").

And now, here I sit with the first three volumes of Amelia Rules! Roughly three hundred pages each, give or take a couple of dozen pages. All in full colour, all glossy paper, all Korean state-of-the-art high grade hardcovers. All still self-published. Yep, it's still Jimmy and Karen's Renaissance Press (www.ameliarules.com ).

"Side-splittingly hilarious. Highly recommended for all ages" Library Journal

"A Peanuts for the 21st Century" Comics Buyer's Guide.

"Unwraps a kid's-eye view of life honestly, poignantly, and with a hefty dollop of melodrama." Booklist

It really is a perfect on-ramp for kids into the comic store environment and I hope the stores will really think seriously not only in stocking these in depth but in having some nicely battered up reading copies about four feet or so off the ground.

It's one of those things you don't really get to see except in retrospect:

Jeez, Jimmy.

That block of granite didn't stand a chance.

What do you MEAN? What do they COST?

They're the LAST SEVENTEEN SIGNED & NUMBERED FIRST PRINTINGS

OF JAKA'S STORY

JUST ORDER THEM AND LET MR. VISA OR MR. PAYPAL, YOU KNOW, SURPRISE YOU.

CORNER THE MARKET AND PUT YOUR KIDS

THROUGH COLLEGE! BUY HALF OF THEM AND PUT YOUR KIDS THROUGH HIGH SCHOOL!

PARDON? OH, IT'S REALLY NOT HOW YOU DO THINGS?

ALL RIGHT. ALL RIGHT. THEY'RE THIRTY BUCKS EACH PLUS FIVE DOLLARS POSTAGE

www.followingcerebus.com

(regular edition always available; Diamond item # STAR00359)

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REPLIES POSTED ON THE CEREBUS YAHOO! GROUP
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If you wish to contact Dave Sim, you can mail a letter (he does NOT receive emails) to:

Aardvark Vanaheim, Inc
P.O. Box 1674
Station C
Kitchener, Ontario, Canada N2G 4R2

Looking for a place to purchase Cerebus phonebooks? You can do so online through Win-Mill Productions -- producers of Following Cerebus. Convenient payment with PayPal:

Win-Mill Productions

Or, you can check out Mars Import:

Mars Import

Or ask your local retailer to order them for you through Diamond Comics distributors.