Hello, Southland Cool Jerk readers! Please take the day off work on Wednesday, October 5. Tell your boss you’re coming down with The Bug. But don’t say it’s The Comic Bug… because that’s where you’ll be heading to attend my store signing!

So come on down to lovely Manhattan Beach! I’ll be there from 5pm-8pm to lure unsuspecting comics buyers into the Cool Jerk universe. I’ll have ALL my books on hand — including the brand-new Cool Jerk OMG Color! Vol. 1 — ready to personalize to you or a loved one with a signature and a spiffy character drawing! I realize many of you may already have some/all of my books, but do you have a Cool Jerk t-shirt? Or a Canvas Panel? I’ll have those on hand as well!

And have I got a deal-sweetener for you! My friend and comics/graphic designer colleague justJENN is partnering with me and she’ll be providing some of her DELICIOUS CUPCAKES! (They’re so good, they were the Official Cupcake™ of the Paul and Darlene Wedding™!) You can’t buy them, tho— because they’re FREE when you buy a Cool Jerk collection (Hodabeast, Chickadoowa, Bimboozled, Doc Splatter Ominous Omnibus), a Cool Jerk t-shirt or Canvas Panel!

If that wasn’t mouth-watering enough, I’ll be offering these bitchin’ deals:

• Buy one Cool Jerk collection for $12, get a FREE CUPCAKE! (already talked about that)
• Buy any two $12 Cool Jerk collections for $20! And you get TWO FREE CUPCAKES!
• NEWBIE DEAL: Buy Hodabeast AND Chickadoowa for $20, get Cool Jerk OMG Color! Vol. 1 FOR FREE! PLUS TWO CUPCAKES!
• Buy all three $12 Cool Jerk collections for $36, get Doc Splatter Ominous Omnibus FOR FREE! PLUS OMG Color! PLUS FOUR CUPCAKES!

Geez. I should make all that into a chart. Speaking of, here’s a map I whipped up so you’ll know how to get there!

And here’s the Facebook invite, if you’re so inclined to RSVP.

Looking forward to this! Hope to see you there!

(That’s “Taking Care of Business,” as Elvis would say)

A couple weekends ago Darlene and I attended my 25th high school reunion in Carson City, Nev. This is the first one I’ve been to since the 10th in 1996 (I didn’t know there was a 15th, and I missed the 20th in 2006 because it was the same weekend as San Diego Comic-Con). It was a lovely affair, and I got to meet up and reminisce with many friends and former classmates, and even finally meet a few face-to-face for the first time. The festivities— ranging from a barbecue at Mark Funke’s home to golf and meet-ups at bars and restaurants— started Friday afternoon and lasted through Sunday. We only had time to socialize on Friday.

It was a lot of fun and doubly so to introduce Darlene to many kids (yeah, I know we’re all in our early forties… it’s a habit) I used to see in classes and pal around with. A couple kids (Wendy Johnston and… oh, jeez I forgot!) mentioned they still had my first business card from when I was a senior. Wow! How cool is that! Darlene hadn’t even seen that one before, so she suggested my next blog post should showcase my freelance business cards.

So here we go!

Here’s my first freelance business card, from my senior year. “86 RULES, DUDE!!” Can you tell I didn’t have access to a Macintosh?? This little beauty was created with a Sharpie marker (a dull one, by looks of it) and was likely created in less time than it took for me to write this paragraph.

I like to think I had other freelance business cards during college… but I did not. I probably used one of the business cards I created for the UNR Sagebrush newspaper staff, which also had a self-portrait on it. Regardless, here’s a set of six freelance cards from 1990 (photos taken by Greg Moyle).

When I moved to San Diego in 1994, those cards became obsolete. I didn’t have freelance business cards until I started professionally exhibiting at San Diego Comic-Con in 2003, and I would just use Cool Jerk cards (reminder to self: do a blog post showcasing all those cards). But after I quit The San Diego Union-Tribune in 2006, I realized I needed a card that showcased my mad infographics skillz, yo. So that’s when I created the current card.

Fifty years ago on this exact date, the first issue of The Fantastic Four (above) hit the newsstands. If you were around back then (I wasn’t) and had a couple of nickels, you could’ve ended up buying a comic book that became the most important comic in the last half-century.

That’s not an exaggeration. With Fantastic Four #1, writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby ushered in The Marvel Age of Comics, a.k.a. Marvel Comics. You know… Spider-Man, Hulk, Thor, X-Men, Iron Man, Captain America,* Dr. Strange, Avengers, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Punisher, Howard the Duck and Blade (all of which have also been made into motion pictures, or soon will be). The FF started it all.

* “Captain America? But he was around in the 1940s!” Well, it’s like this — With Fantastic Four #4, Lee and Kirby reintroduced Namor the Sub-Mariner, a WWII-era character published by Timely (the predecessor of Marvel Comics). A few months later, the Fantastic Four had become so popular that the Human Torch earned a solo spin-off in the pages of Strange Tales. And a few months after that, Lee and Kirby brought out of the Timely archives another popular character from the 1940s, Captain America (actually, it turned out to be an imposter) to battle the Torch. Reader reaction was tremendous so the “real” Cap was reintroduced into the Marvel Age of Comics in Avengers #4 (March 1964).

In early summer of 1978, I was riding bikes with my buddy Scott in Haslett, MI. We each had a buck of spending money and I distinctly recall us wandering into Jim’s Party Store (in Michigan at that time, “party” meant “liquor”). We each bought two comic books and a Faygo soda, which I think ran exactly $1.00. My choices were Fantastic Four #197, Avengers #174 and Grape. Scott chose X-Men #112, Defenders #62 and Old-Fashioned Root Beer.

Fantastic Four was the first comic book I ever bought and I liked it so much, I decided to keep getting it each month. For 33 years. I also liked it enough to get the 196 issues that preceded my first purchase (plus annuals, etc.). Ended that quest in 1997. So yeah, I guess you could say I’m a fan.

I’m certain many others are commemorating this anniversary, too. I won’t even try to compete with their prose. I’ll just say that through thick and thin, I’ll be getting this book each month indefinitely.

Happy birthday, Fantastic Four!

(ps I was going to upload another heart-stopping photo of me eating a raspberry-filled powdered donut while flipping though Fantastic Four #1, but I didn’t want to risk getting the camera all sticky.)