Author: Ruben Bolling

Apparently a group of senators are pushing a provision into a military funding bill that would allow indefinite military detention of suspected terrorists, whether noncitizens, legal permanent residents of the US, or US citizens.

 

One would hope that this would be struck down as unconstitutional by an objective, nonpartisan Supreme Court.  Maybe we'll get one some day.

 

But we can trust the authorities to only detain real, bad-guy, murderer, "24"-style terrorists under this law, right?  It would never be used in an authoritarian way to silence domestic dissent or remove undesirables, right?

 

Interesting that there's a report that the DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY  was involved in the planning (at least) of the crackdown on the Occupy movement, although it's hard to see how that operation on peaceful citizen protesters fell under its purview.

 

And interesting that it's been reported that the New York City police used a COUNTER-TERRORISM pretext for the media blackout of the Occupy Wall Street eviction.  As reporters were being pushed away and/or arrested, one was told the area was a "frozen zone," a term typically referring to an area that's being secured because of possible terror threats.

 

 

 

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Hollingsworth Hound, in "Zero-Sum Gaming"

 

Click here to read.

 

 

 

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This week, Mark and I talk with funnyman Michael Kupperman.

 

On the podcast, I say many things, 6 to 14 of which are nice things about the comic strip Cul de Sac, by Richard Thompson.  The price on this oversized trade paperback is an UNBELIEVABLE bargain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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ONE DAY ON CAPITOL HILL

 

When I got the idea for this comic, I was wondering whether I should do it as a "News of the Times" fake news story, or a "Counter-Earth" installment, but I settled on a format using a narrative structure, because I wanted the story to unfold; I thought it would be funny for the reader to see the tea gas canister and register the shock of the one-percenters, as it happened.

 

I somehow ended up with the faux Mad Magazine format — some old Mad features, particularly Don Martin's — would start with a title panel "One Day at… etc."  And I also thought that using a very cartoony style would be a good counterweight to the violence.

 

So I wanted to get an old Mad font from the 50s and early 60s for the lettering.  I'd tried before to match it for other comics that used this format, but had never gotten it just right.  I actually emailed a friend who is an editor at Mad, to ask what font they used back in the day, and he wrote back basically saying that they've asked the same question, and they have no idea.  In the digital age, it may not exist!

 

But he and his colleague had some suggestions for approximations, and with some manual modifications, I think I finally got it EXACTLY RIGHT this time.

 

 

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What a blast doing these Gweek podcasts is turning out to be.

 

This week, the gang interviews John Hodgman, who I now think belongs to some other species (homo sapiens anecdotus?) for his uncanny ability to speak extemporaneously on any subject with eloquence, impeccable diction, unerring grammar, and most importantly, great humor.  Dude's FUNNY, and a marvel on a podcast.

I was in the fourth seat, so I tried to stay mostly in the background, but had great fun rolling along, and chiming in where I could.

I should note that toward the end of the podcast, when I agree with John about new superhero comics, it was mostly because of what I've read about them; I haven't read many new superhero comics at all.  But the reason I haven't read them is consistent with John's point; they seem too bogged down by decades of the characters' history, continuity and reinterpretations.

Anyway,

Here is John's new book, which I am halfway through, and find delightful and hilarious.

Here is the new edition of Mark's great book.

Here is some info about the book I spoke about, My Friend Dahmer, by Derf Backderf.

And here are some juiceboxes, great fun at parties. It's nice to know that there isn't a deatil about John's and my Great Meeting that was too small to escape our notice.  (By the way, I know a guy in Pasadena who can hook you up with some pre-Prohibition era juiceboxes that are sublime!)

 

 

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