Happy Halloween…Zombies!

No one I know loves zombies more than my friend Karl Kesel, Portland comic artist, writer, inker, you-name-it-he-does-it-especially-if-it-involves-zombies. He even participated in the infamous Zombie Run, though he didn't emerge from the carnage unscathed, if you know what I mean.

Today he's released his latest effort, a serial zombie adventure at Thrillbent called City of the Dead, made in collaboration with Ron Randall and with colors by Jeremy Colwell and Grace Allison.

Tune in!

The Last Cul de Sac

I have a confession to make about a habit of mine, one I engage in daily and that I rarely mention: the first thing I do in morning…well, the first thing after I take the dogs out to pee, make coffee and feed the critters…the first thing I do when I finally sit down with a cup of coffee is open up the paper to the comics page.

Yes, my name is Kathleen and I'm a daily comics reader.

There, I've said it.

Over the last year or so, after my friend Karl mentioned it was his favorite strip, I started reading a little comic called Cul de Sac. It's so understated, with its sketchy lines, jiggety font and subtle characters, that it had never drawn my attention. But once I started reading it, I was hooked.

On Alice and her penchant for dancing on manhole covers. On her brother Petey, who spends most of his time on his bed reading comics (of course) and monitoring his ranking on the Picky Eater scale. And on the other characters who populate their world, like their mom and her habit of wearing loud Christmas sweater, hapless Dill whose brothers may someday blow up the planet, Miss Bliss, the preternaturally perky preschool teacher…the list could go on and on.

But this last Sunday's strip was to be the final one, due to Richard Thompson, its author, having been diagnosed recently with Parkinson's disease, which has made it impossible to continue with his work.

Selfishly, I'm sad to lose these little characters who've been a part of my mornings. And I'm sad for Thompson, whose brilliant mind made them come alive on the page. But I'll still open the paper every morning and read my comics, glad that I got to know Alice and her friends if only for a little while.

Cul de Sac comic above by Richard Thompson from Sunday, Sept. 23, 2012, and Nov. 25, 2007. Read his blog here.

Livin' in the Blurbs: A Piece of Pie & So Much More

Hillsdale's Palace of Pastry, aka Baker & Spice, will be celebrating National Pie Day with a weekend of pie-related fun on Jan. 21 and 22 to benefit our neighbors who may not have enough to eat. The weekend also happens to fall on the seventh birthday of this most delicious of Portland institutions, so to make it into a real Pie-A-Palooza they're donating 25% of all pie sales to Neighborhood House's Emergency Food Box Program. An unprecedented array of pies will be available whole or by the slice, including Lemon Meringue, Boston Cream, Banana Cream, Butterscotch Cream, Peanut Butter, Lattice Topped Apple Blackberry, Double Crusted Pear Raspberry, Chocolate Cream and Coconut Cream. (Drooling yet?) So make plans to drop in, have some pie and help a neighbor!

Details: Baker & Spice 7th Birthday and National Pie Day Celebration. Sat.-Sun., Jan. 21-22. Hours: 7 am-6 pm Sat., 7 am-3 pm Sun. Baker & Spice, 6330 SW Capitol Hwy. 503-244-7573.

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The Oregonian has done a soft launch of its Oregon News Network, a partnership between the paper and community blog partners to build what they're calling "an online town square." I was honored that GoodStuffNW was chosen as one of the partners to kick off the project, along with local luminaries in categories like Lifestyle & Food, Arts & Entertainment,  Outdoors/Recreation and Public Affairs. The network will evolve as it gears up, adding new partners and cross-pollinating with various sections of the paper, so check in and see what happens.

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My friend and renowned comic book author, illustrator, inker and crazy Mad Genius Karl Kesel, he of the heartwarming zombie Christmas tale Johnny Zombie, has launched a second online web comic called SECTION ZERO. Begun a dozen years ago by Karl and his friend (and another renowned guy) Tom Grummett, it experienced a sudden comicus interruptus in the middle of its six-episode arc. In an interview with Wired columnist GeekDad, Kesel describes the comic this way: "Section Zero is a combination of all my personal, quirky favorite things. Start with equal parts Challengers of the Unknown and Fantastic Four, add in copious amounts of strange phenomena and atomic monsters, stir with high-octane Jack Kirby energy, pour into Tom Grummett’s magic drawing pencil. Enjoy!" I think I will! (Full interview here.)

Oozing Talent

Today, Halloween, is a red-letter day for readers of GoodStuffNW. Not because I'm going to be handing out extra-large bars of extremely expensive Recchiuti chocolate to the first 1,000 trick-or-treaters who ring our bell. No, much as I'd love to, I'm not doing that. Bad for the teeth, you know.

It's because today is the debut of a brand new web comic drawn by my neighbor and friend, Karl Kesel (left, with his wife, Myrna). Karl is one of those people you meet at the dog park who seems like the nicest guy ever…always pleasant and smiling, petting your dogs and asking after your family. Then after a few chance encounters you find out he's a famous comic book artist known for his work on seminal characters like Hawk and Dove, Superman and Batman. But he doesn't tell you that…he just says he works on comics, and you have to Google him to find out exactly what he's talking about.

So, to get to the point, today he's debuted his much-anticipated (by me, anyway) website, Mad Genius Comics, with the first installment of a heartwarming little zombie Christmas story called Johnny Zombie. Instigated, oddly enough, by the decision on the part of Karl and his wife, Myrna, to adopt a baby.

"That was the tipping point," he explained. "It suddenly became about my legacy, and what I could leave behind for our son or daughter. I plan to do any number of characters and concepts at Mad Genius. Some of these comics will be drawn by others, some I’ll draw myself, and I wouldn’t rule out me drawing someone else’s story, but I’ll always own or co-own anything that appears on Mad Genius Comics. Remember— I’m doing this for the kid!"

Enjoy!