After last year’s six-block riot, unauthorized pyrotechnics and public acts of indecency, I wouldn’t've thought the organizers at Emerald City ComiCon would invite me back. Maybe because I promised that Darlene would accompany me and keep me on a tight leash? Who can say? (And I don’t want to tempt fate anyway.)

So yes, Team Cool Jerk will be at ECCC the weekend of March 13 and 14, in the Small Press area. I whipped together a map showing the quickest route to Cool Jerk!

I’ll have stacks of Cool Jerk collections Hodabeast and Chickadoowa on hand, as well as Doc Splatter Ominous Omnibus (NEW since last year)! And speaking of new, how about T-shirts? Awhellyeah. 24-Hour Comics? You betcha. Buttons, Post-It notes & sticker sheets? But of course! And as always, I’m ready to add some original art to your sketchbooks, too!

Looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones… even Sasquatches.*

*Not Sasquatches

I just shipped a book order out this weekend. Not terribly newsworthy in and of itself, and normally not worth mentioning in my blog, but this a little different. It was to Greece.

A few years ago at San Diego Comic-Con, I met a fellow named Dimitris Sakaridis. He came up to my table and checked out my comic. Either he liked what he saw or my mind-controlling brainwave emitter worked, because he bought a copy of Hodabeast. While I was signing it off to him, he signed up for my weekly e-mailer.

When Hodabeast was distributed via Diamond in 2008, I spotted an online recommendation from Greece. It was in Greek, but I used Babelfish to “translate” it:

COOL JERK VOLUME 1: HODABEAST (Hornco Press – p285) Only that I know for this comic he is that editor, Dimitris [Sakaridis] it worships him. (Unless I tangle him with some other… Hopefully not). That means that exist enough probabilities it is really good. Judge better alone you. (Editor’s Note: No, you do not tangle him. COOL JERK is his exceptionally entertainer, astute comic strip and author, Paul Horn, which I [personally] knew in San Diego, it is a horribly cool type – and by no means jerk. Buy this comic!)

So this week I got an order from Dimitris, with these strict instructions: “Please, please, please, could you make it “to Dimitris – a real cool jerk!”? Thanks!” Due to a PayPal snafu (my fault), I didn’t have an option for overseas shipping & handling (i.e. $0), so I essentially made about $2 on the sale. But no worries. I let Dimitris know his book was on its way. He replied shortly afterward:

Hey Paul!

Thanks for the heads up. I’m actually trying to promote Cool Jerk to everyone I know here, since 2007. I met you briefly that year in San Diego Comic Con. You were actually the first exhibitor/creator I met on preview night and I’ve always been sorta emotionally attached to your strip. It being really cool and well made helps a lot!

I’ll do my best to convince other people here to order your books. Fix the shipping charge thing soon.

Best wishes
Dimitris

P.S.: Seriously, I feel bad about the no shipping thing. If I don’t manage to get more people to order your books, I’ll order a few more myself and start giving them away to those I love as gifts.

Nice guy, that Dimitris. People like him make the world a smaller place. And to all of you readers from outside the U.S., I fixed that shipping glitch so YOU’LL HAVE TO PONY UP SOME EUROS LIKE EVERYONE ELSE!

EPILOGUE: I’ve learned Dimitris is a reviewer and one of the head honchos at Comicdom, Greece’s premier comics news site. Also, he’s spearheading Greece’s only comic convention, ComicdomCon. If your travels take you to the birthplace of Heracles, Pythagoras and the Olympics, do what you can to help support the industry, won’t you?

Since my checks evidently didn’t bounce, I can now share the official schedule of Cool Jerk comic-con appearances in 2010 (so far; Cool Jerk may attend a ‘con or two later in the year. Any suggestions?):

Emerald City ComiCon • Seattle
March 13 & 14
Cool Jerk’s second ‘con appearance in the land of Twin Peaks, coffee conglomerates and sasquatches.

WonderCon • San Francisco
April 2-4
Fourth year in a row! Look for Team Cool Jerk in the same spot as always (Artists Alley, across from the Furries yiff pile)!

Phoenix Comicon • Phoenix
May 27-30
Delighted to be back for the first time since 2006!

Comic-Con International • San Diego
July 21-25
Eight years in a row, in the same spot as always (Small Press K10, next to the restrooms and vomitorium)!

So mark your calendars, put in vacation time, book those flights and bring your wallets!

Wednesday’s Cool Jerk signing at Burbank’s House of Secrets was terrific. Erik and Paul (the owners of HoS) are übermensch and their shop flat-out kicks ass. Patton Oswalt stopped in twice, but alas, no Cool Jerk for him. Was kinda hoping the cast from The Big Bang Theory would wander in (Darlene and I were part of the live-studio audience the night before).

It was grueling, having to hang out IN A COMICS SHOP FOR 9 AND A HALF HOURS! And even though the weather was frightful (torrential flooding, lightning, waterspouts, locusts), I’d estimate close to 300 people stopped in to get their weekly four-color hook-ups. A testament to how awesome House of Secrets is.

Special thanks to all the people that stopped by my display and/or picked up a book or two: Jenn (and for bringing in her cupcakes), Sarah, Jodi, Ed, Todd, Dan, Jared, Drew, Rob, Art, Chris, Daniel and Amy (House of Secrets’ ambassador of good will — see photo)!

Take out your Sharpie and mark your calendars, Los Angelenos!

I’ll be signing at House of Secrets on Wednesday, January 20 from 11 am until the store closes at 8:30 pm. Owners Erik and Paul were gracious enough to give me the green light to stink up their store for a day, allowing me to sell my full library of Cool Jerk and Doc Splatter books IN PERSON. What better way to meet a comic creator than to drop some folding money and get a book (or three) personalized to you with a signature and sketch?

House of Secrets is located at 1930 Olive Ave. in beautiful Burbank (home of Bob Hope and the potato ball). See you there!

You’re looking at the first significant redesign of Cool Jerk’s online HQ in a decade. It isn’t the official launch, as there are still plenty of links that dead-end and I still need to upload a few more years’ worth of strips into the archive. But it’s close enough for my comfort level.

Among the new features: Below each strip you’ll see Tags (a work in progress), Comments, access to archived strips without leaving the home page, the ability to follow Cool Jerk via RSS subscription and the ability to share a particular strip via Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc. Now I can add commentary to each individual strip, too. Plus, you can click on a Sunday-sized strip and BOOM! It blows up to actual size!

Hope you enjoy what you see. More to come! Stay ‘tooned!

Happy New Year from Team Cool Jerk!

In true Cool Jerk fashion, I’m here to help my friend and Marvel Girl, Sarah Kuhn pimp her book One Con Glory. Ms. Kuhn’s novel follows the adventures of Julie — a journalist — and her quest to obtain an uber-rare Glory Gilmore action figure at where else? A comic-con.

It’s full of win. Buy it from Nerd Alert Press.

When I cartoon, I cartoon for me. Which is to say, I’ve found in the past that I’m not much of a team player when it comes to taking instruction… unless I ask for it.

There was a time when some Powers That Be at The San Diego Union-Tribune considered running Cool Jerk each week. Negotiations broke down fast when I was told, “We can have your characters go to some of the area bars and clubs and talk about how the bands are!” Yeah… no thanks. Armpit and Puppy are not going to shill for Canes, Brick by Brick or The Casbah.

Now when I did Cool Jerk for the Reno Gazette-Journal, I didn’t get any marching orders from editorial. When I started Cool Jerk, I tried to tie it in with the center-package (lead) story on the teen page. And after a while, Cool Jerk marched to its own drumbeat, and here we are 18 years later.

But when I cartooned for The Daily Sparks Tribune, it was an open team-up with the editor, Randy Frisch. In fact, he’d come up with the target (usually a political figure) and an outline of an idea, and let me run with it. That worked for me, as I didn’t (and don’t) really follow politics.

Another exception to the rule is a project I did with comics writer/blogger/luminary Kevin Church. It’s as close to a professional collaboration as I’ve had, as Kevin supplied an actual screenplay for me to work from (a much different animal from “Let’s do a gag on water rationing” — no disrespect, Randy). It’s called “Copy Protection,” and we got it up and running just in time for Halloween. I’m pretty proud of it. I’m no Neal Adams, but that’s kind of the point, Kevin told me. He liked my style of Cool Jerk and Doc Splatter and thought it’d be a good fit for his story. And it’s a good story at that. I actually started feeling remorse for a couple characters by the end of the third reel.

So go check it out — it’s a quick read. WARNING: unlike Cool Jerk or Doc Splatter, it’s Rated PG-13 or R, and probably NSFW.

Here we have Chris Gore of G4TV, hanging out at the Cool Jerk table. He wrote the foreword to my third book, Doc Splatter Ominous Omnibus, which debuted at San Diego Comic-Con. He was really gracious to Tweet his location so his many stalkers followers could find him at my table. The banners behind me are brand new, thanks to my longtime friend and Cool Jerk ally Nikki at Instant Sign Center, Reno, NV.

And speaking of gore, here’s a “booth babe” for some “chicks with chainsaws” thing.

Here’s comics writer/blogger/gadfly Kevin Church (with drink) and Santa Barbara’s favorite pop culture pundits, Lance & Carla Hoffman. Every single photo I have of Kevin has him drinking something (see inset).

Here’s Eric again with a sketch of Doc Splatter chainsawing everyone’s favorite emo vampire Edward Cullen (his request). “Twilight” was this year’s favorite punching bag.

Spider-Woman and Magneto stopped by to pick up my Cool Jerk books Chickadoowa and Hodabeast. Then they zapped me with a combo venom blast/magnetic pulse and took off.

A drawing of Mr. Pinkle for a girl’s sketchbook.

You’ll remember my friend Shay from last year, dressed as Molotov Cocktease. This year she’s rocking the Dark Phoenix thing.

Yes, that’s Megan Rae in a Dalek dress. She’s holding a plunger and an eggbeater. Check out the shoes. HILARIOUS!! One of my favorite costumes!

That would be director John Landis giving me the thumbs up, because he asked me to sign his copy of Doc Splatter Ominous Omnibus. (It’s dedicated to him, after all)

Aw. One thing you can count on at Comic-Con are couples who want to pose for photos. Here’s Batgirl and Batman (circa 1960s TV), Orion slave gal and Captain Christopher Pike and Jean Grey as Phoenix with her mentor Professor X.

Here’s a funny moment: Mrs. The Narrator Darlene, our friends Superfro and BavarianErin and O.G. Poway Posse founding member Nathan eyeballing a 6′3″ walking bunny rabbit. No lie.

Did I lie?

I usually can’t get away from my table but for a minute or two, but luckily I was able to squeeze off pix of Dr. Mrs. The Monarch (from “Venture Brothers”), Magma from the New Mutants (I think) and old-school Black Canary.

Speaking of “Venture Brothers,” here’s a squad of henchmen.

nd before you know it, POW! Jay Garrick (the original Flash) kicked some ass!

Darlene was able to get shots of most of the “True Blood” cast! Michelle Forbes, Rutina Wesley, Deborah Ann Woll, Anna Paquin, Alexander Skarsgard and Stephen Moyer. There were more cast members but after Darlene got the pix of Stephen the lens got all foggy (YOU know what I’m talkin’ about…!).

Here’s O.G. Poway Posse founding members Ben DiAnna modeling the brand-new Cool Jerk shirt, with his brother Joe in the background dropping a Photobomb.

The Poway Posse is ever-expanding! Here’s Dana, Robert, Ben and John, chillaxin’ at the Cool Jerk table before heading off to causing trouble.

More couples! Here’s Black Widow and Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Scarlett and Snake Eyes from G.I. Joe, and a couple of reprehensible hooligans (barely) wearing matching outfits.

That’s me and Robert Englund! You’ll remember him as the benevolent visiting alien Willie in the acclaimed TV mini-series “V.” I gave him a copy of Doc Splatter Ominous Omnibus. (It’s dedicated to him, after all)

Here’s Darlene and me flanking our friend Robyn Bremner at the Marvel booth, where she was working that weekend. She gave us maple syrup from her native land (Canada).

No shortage of “Venture Brothers” characters getting cosplayed at the ‘Con. Here’s Dr. Mrs. The Monarch with her Pupa Twins.

USAToday Pop Candy’s Whitney Matheson with her copy of Doc Splatter Ominous Omnibus. OMG! She’s so awesome! *swoon*

Probably the most-photographed person at Comic-Con, here’s my dear friend Jessica as Pikachu. Once she heard that her male twin Pokéyman was a recurring character in Cool Jerk, she jumped onto the sign-up sheet and joined the ever-growing army of Cool Jerk subscribers!

Another one of the most-photographed people at Comic-Con (proof: look behind my right arm), here’s The Lollipop King from “South Park.” I actually know his secret identity and he’s a good pal. I have to confess, I lost a little bit of my innocence that day — I saw things I can’t unsee (and neither can YOU!).

Cool Jerk subscriber Wren as Zatanna. I might be mistaken, but I think she was working for Stark Industries a couple days later. (Wren, if I’m wrong, pls. correct me!)

Vermont’s ambassador of keen fashion style (and new Cool Jerk subscriber) Gina D’Angelo with a copy of Hodabeast to read on her long flight home. She was dressed in Dr Girlfriend’s mall outfit.

As always, here’s a little somethin’ somethin’ for the ladies. That’s Nightwing, evidently on his day off from patrolling the alleys of Blüdhaven.