SCOOBY-DOO #145 Available Today

SCOOBY-DOO #145 is available at a comic book store near you today. It feature's the story "Man of a Thousand Faces" written by me with art by the great Robert Pope. It's a story which pits traditional make-up effects and monster suits vs CGI. Who is the villain? Is it make-up maestro Rick Baker? Jack Pierce? Tom Savini? Someone else? To find the answer, the Mystery Inc. gang must search for clues among dozens of familiar props from classic Hanna-Barbera tv shows of the 60s and 70s. Don't miss out.

For a look inside go here.

Donald Duck Turns 75

Here's the second three-dimensional collage I've done. This one is in honor of Donald Duck's 75th birthday.

Donald debuted on June 9, 1934 in the Silly Symphony cartoon "The Wise Little Hen" then rocketed to stardom two months later when he stole the show from Walt Disney's biggest star in the Mickey Mouse short "Orphan's Benefit." He was soon remodeled from his more duck-like physical depiction into the form that has remained more or less unchanged since 1937. He's starred in more Walt Disney cartoons than any other character, with those in the late 1940s and early 1950s, mostly directed by Jack Hannah, being most of the better ones.

During World War II, Donald starred in numerous cartoons about life during wartime with some truly great ones depicting Donald in the role of an enlisted man, er, duck. He also starred in two feature length films that were made as part of an effort to build the relationship between the United States and South America. This was particularly important to Walt Disney, since the studio was losing money on its feature films because Europe was occupied with the war and essentially closed as a market for showing movies.

Donald had quickly eclipsed Mickey Mouse as Walt Disney's biggest star, and at one point was almost eclipsed himself by his onscreen antagonists, Chip and Dale. Other rivals created to give Donald some variety beyond contending with his nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie, such as Spike, the Bee and Bootle Beetle never really caught on.

When the Donald shorts were discontinued in the mid 1950s, Donald went on to to appear on television, but his real life outside of the movies was in the countless numbers of comic book stories he starred in, where cartoonists, particularly Carl Barks, really developed his personality far beyond the squawking ball of short fused temper and nasty prankishness that made up so much of Donald's onscreen persona.

The Dapper Dans Revisited

Kevin Kidney gave me some photography advice, which I followed, and not surprisingly given how great Kevin's work looks, it turned out to work really well.

I rephotographed my three dimensional collage of the Dapper Dans and the colors are much truer to the actual colors of the collage. Now I just need to, lterally, iron out the wrinkles on the background and I'll be all set.

Stop by tomorrow for a new 3-D collage.

Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals

When I was a kid, only one thing rivaled my love of monsters, and that was dinosaurs. I couldn't get enough of them. The desire for the Marx dinosaur playset, and Santa actually delivering it, is my most vivid Christams memory. "Turok: Son of Stone" about a pair of Native Americans trapped in a prehistoric world wasmy favorite comic book.

I also had plenty of books about dinosaurs. These I devoured, memorizing what are now outdated, erroneous facts about them as well as their long names and distinguishing characteristics. I know I was not alone. This was a common practice among kids for many generations, sadly now replaced by memorization of minutia involving Pokemon characters. I still have many of the books from this period of my life, and have a fondness for them. One book, above all others, rose to being my favorite. This book was "Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals" by Darlene Geis with illustrations by R.F. Peterson.








Long before I owned it, I coveted it. On visits to a local bookshop, I'd look at it and always ask for it. At some point the answer was that I could have it when I learned to tie my shoes. This was the one developmental area that confounded me to tears. I just couldn't get it. I even had a record that was supposed to help me learn. The record came in a vinyl case that opened to reveal a cartoon rabbit with felt fur and vinyl boots with actual laces, which you were supposed to practice tying as you listened to the instructions on the record. Crossing the laces and making the "x" ? No problem. Making one bunny ear, then running the bunny around the tree and back into the rabbit hole so you finished with a rabbit with both ears? No matter how hard I tried or how much I practiced. I couldn't do it. I actually remember the moment I finally learned to tie my shoes. It was on the last day of first grade. Walking down the hallway to the buses for dismissal, I noticed my shoe was untied. No teachers were around to help me. With panic that I'd miss my bus and be trapped in school for the summer, I simply knelt down and tied it on the first try. I got that book that very afternoon, and best of all, with school out had all summer to pore through it. I still have it.









Author, Darlene Geis, also wrote another favorite of mine, "The How and Why Book of Dinosaurs" The How and Why series was one of my favorites, and I still love to look through them for their illustrations. She wrote many other children's books as well as recipe books. She eventually went to work for Harry N. Abrams as an editor and writer where she edited a number of Disney titles including the popular anthology "Walt Disney's Treasury of Children's Classics." She also wrote "The Joys of Wine" and an encyclopedia of quilts. She dies in March, 1999 at the age of 81 in a fire in her Manhattan home.

As for illustrator R. F. Peterson, I could find no information.















"Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals" took on further significance for me not too much longer after I acquired it. It was the first thing I owned which I ever saw in a movie. The movie was "King Kong vs Godzilla." This was the American version of it, the only version I'd know until adulthood.


When "King Kong vs Godzilla" was acquired for American audiences it was heavily reedited. All character development was cut. "Humor" was added, scenes were reordered, the score was replaced, mostly with music from "the Creature from the Black Lagoon," and following the formula used when "Gojira" became "Godzilla, King of the Monsters" starring Raymond Burr, new footage of reporters was added to comment of what was happening in the story. While the Raymond Burr footage was cleverly integrated and served a purpose in tying together reordered and trimmed scenes, the news reporter footage added to "King Kong vs Godzilla" merely seemed to bring the movie to a halt whenever it began to get interesting.

A reporter operating from the United Nations news center would, often erroneously, comment on the scenes we just watched. In one of these cutaway scenes he introduces us to Dr. Arnold Johnson, curator of the New York Museum of Natural History and an esteemed authority on prehistoric animals. To show his authority, he explains his theories on Godzilla using a children's book. This one:










This is laughably absurd to an adult, but less so than the theories he suggests. It would be like seeing an entomologist on CNN commenting on a devastating invasion of gypsy moth caterpillars by holding up a copy of Eric Carle's "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" (well, not so bad since "Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals" is informative, educational, and non-fiction; a science book for kids, but you get the idea).

As a kid however, I was beside myself with excitement seeing a book I owned in a movie with King Kong AND Godzilla in it no less.










One of Dr. Arnold Johnson's speculations was that Godzilla was a cross between a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a Stegosaurus. Forget any issues with interbreeding, but not only does this authority combine two animals that did not exist at the same time, but he pointed to the Allosaurus on the cover to represent the Tyrannosaurus. Even I caught this at a young age, making this most likely my earliest encounter with bad science, or sloppy research in a movie, and proving that adults are not infallible.

My kids put me to shame

After months of neglect on my part, I've begun to scan some past artwork my kids made to post on their blog. First up are a pair of monsters meant to help people have good dreams. These were done about a week ago and already my kids are proving that they can outdo their dad when it comes to collage.

To see the full images go here.

Please leave them a comment.

Scooby-Doo for Hanna-Barbera and Classic Monster Fans

This is just a heads up for the next issue of SCOOBY-DOO, which will be available in comic book stores on June 10. I don't usually promote these in advance, but felt like this would have some appeal to adults as well as kids, particularly adults with a fondness for Hanna-Barbera cartoons of the 1960s and fans of special make-up effects in monster movies, two groups to which I consider myself a member.

The story, titled "Man of a Thousand Monsters" is about the slow death of practical make-up effects in favor of, usually, less effective CGI effects. The story is set at the Hanna-Barbera Studios, which I've treated in the past, and continue to do so here, as a physical live action studio like Warner Brothers or Universal Studios, and where their stable of cartoons were all live-action tv series and feature films.

The prop department, as seen below in the panel with fantastic artwork by story illustrator, Robert Pope, is a treasure trove of thinly disguised Hanna-Barbera props. There's the robot spider and jet from "Jonny Quest" one of the motorcycles from "Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch," "Speed Buggy," "Frankenstein Jr.," anvils, tnt, mousetraps, picnic baskets from "Yogi Bear," the Grape Ape's costume, Touché Turtle's sword, the guitar used by Quick Draw McGraw in his El Kabong disguise, Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har's balloon, Dick Dastardly's car, Rosie the Robot from "The Jetsons," and my favorite "Wally Gator." There's also a couple of items that look like they came from a certain superhero's cave. There's more on subsequent pages too.
















Along with a "King Kong" reference, there are a number of classic, and contemporary horror references as well. Three make-up artists appear in the story. Recurring character, Time Sevine (named after Tom Savini), Jacques Pierce (named after classic Universal make-up artist Jack Pierce) and Rick Broiler (named after make-up legend Rick Baker). There's also an appearance by contemporary monster suit actor Doug Jones (here as Doug Bones).













Again this issue is available on June 10th. You can still let your local comic book retailer know that you'd like an issue put aside for you.

The Birthday of Three Horror Legends

Peter Cushing was born on May 26, 1913.

Christopher Lee was born on May 27, 1922.

Vincent Price was born on May 27, 1911.

While only one of them is still with us, I raise my glass to all three.

News for XOMBI fans

Now that this is up on the DC Comics site, I guess I can let the cat out of the bag. BRAVE AND THE BOLD #26, scheduled to appear in comic book stores on August 19th teams up DC's supernatural agent of punishment; the Spectre with Milestone Media's immortal weirdness magnet; David Kim aka Xombi, although he never actually goes by that name.

Not only was this a great project for me to write because the story is illustrated by Scott Hampton and the cover is by Mike Kaluta, two of my favorite artists, but it was a chance for me to bring back the character I'm best known for after a twelve year absence. XOMBI ran 22 issues between 1994 and 1996 with an additional Hanukkah special illustrated by Guy Davis which has never seen print and was critically acclaimed, and well received by many comic book professionals including Neil Gaiman, Mike Mignola, Alan Moore and Harlan Ellison. It was not widely received by the general comic book reader though it did develop a devout following of intelligent readers. When the book was cancelled I NEVER thought I would be writing it again, especially after so much time had passed.

Out of all the work I've done, XOMBI is the thing I'm asked about more than anything else, even now. With that in mind, it gives me great pleasure to actually have some news to tell people regarding this series.

Of course the next question will be, what's next for XOMBI? Will there be more?

I can't say.

The best thing to help insure that there's more is to visit your comic book store and reserve a copy now, so that they know there is interest and order more for their store. After you've read it let DC know you want more, especially Dan Didio. Tell your friends to read it too. Spread the word. If you make enough noise and let me know what you did, there could be a prize in it for you.

In Comic Book Stores Today

SCOOBY-DOO #144 hits stands today. It contains the latest installment in my "Velma's Monsters of the World" series. This time the monster is the Aniwye, drawn by Karen Matchette.

The Dapper Dans in 3-D

About a month ago I decided to attempt my first dimensional collage. Overall it went a lot more smoothly than I'd anticipated. Apparently years of making things out of cardboard and tape actually turned out to have a practical value for me, so it wasn't too hard to figure out the extra mechanics to make it dimensional. Even so, there are some things that I wish I had done differently. I still think it turned out pretty well for a first attempt.

While I enjoyed it, I don't think I'm about to embark on a switch to more dimensional collage. I really like the flat work that I've done. I think I will decide on a case by case basis which route to go.

The only thing I really don't like about this format, is I can't just throw the finished piece on the scanner in order to replicate it. Photography is now necessary, and I've learned that it's really tricky photographing artwork. Lighting is particularly difficult. The type of bulbs can change the appearance of the colors in the piece. The blue here, in particular is way off from how the actual blue looks. The second image gives a better sense of the actual colors, but even that is still off. In reality the blue is much more vibrant. Because I used reflective magazine paper for some of the collage, it would project a glare if I used a flash, or lighted it more directly.

At some point I'll get this photographed properly and repost it.

The subject for this piece is the Dapper Dans, the barbershop quartet that strolls up and down Main Street at the Magic Kingdom in Disney World. There are Dapper Dans at Disney World as well, but this group is particular to the Orlando, FLA park because they are standing around the barber pole that can be found there.

I have no idea it the non-USA Disney Parks have their own Dapper Dans.

For Mothers

I posted this photo a couple of years ago. It was taken in Culver City, CA around 1998-1999. What says happy mother's day better than getting mom her own casket?

Runny nose, could it be...?

I've been sniffling non-stop since I woke up. I'm sure it's just my allergies, but with all the sensationalistic reports about swine flu, you never can tell. Let me just take a look in the mirror here...OH MY GOD, I...I...I've grown a beard!

Actually, I shouldn't belittle an influenza epidemic. There's already a decent body count in Mexico, and if people start dropping here in the U.S., I'll probably be one of them.

The image is by one of my favorite artists, Daniel Lee

I've still been too busy, and too lazy when not working, do put together any of the posts I've been meaning to, so go take a look at his work in lieu of mine.

In the meantime, hold on, it looks like there's a couple of kids dancing around and squealing with laughter on my front lawn.







"Hey, you girls! Go play somewhere else. I'm trying to work in here!"

Rustling Husk

I've been alternately too busy and too lazy to put together any new posts. This gives me the excu--opportunity to share with you something from one of my old notebooks.

This is the first sketch I did for the Rustling Husks. These creatures are homonculi hitmen magically created from thefrustrated death throws of flying insects trapped between window panes. This makes them angry and nasty. Their heads are paper wasp nests. They have no eyes. Their body's are likewise hollow, hidden beneath a long tan raincoat. They have metallic six-fingered hands and a blade tipped tail made of vertebrae. They speak in faint whispers lost in a buzzing sound of white noise. Ther movements sound like dry leaves or crackling egg shells. They smell like nutmeg and cloves.

Their weapon is a screaming cannon, a magical handgun made of bone which makes a sound like the distressed noise of screaming rabbits when fired. This gun is formidable because it teleports the hit region of its target someplace else, making it almost always impossible to heal.

These creatures appeared in XOMBI, a supernatural adventure comic book series I wrote in the mid-90s for Milestone Media. I will most likely be posting more about XOMBI in the coming weeks.

Bafflements and Pet Peeves

I came a across a common phrase in a book I was reading earlier, a phrase which drives me nuts whenever I read it, or hear it spoken. This got me thinking about a few other things which boggle my mind or drive me crazy when I encounter them.

1. When you are buying donuts, or some other pastry at, say a big chain coffee merchant, you'll notice that the clerk/barista/baker/whatever thoughtfully uses a piece of wax paper to pick up your selections, protecting you from the germs on their hands, while placing your baked goods in a bag for you. Then you will see them also place the piece of wax paper covered on one side with their germs into the bag with the food. Why bother in the first place? Why not just use their bare hands?

2. On another hygiene note, why do the doors of public restrooms open inward? You enter a bathroom, conduct your transaction, wash your hands and go to leave only to discover that to get out, you must grip a door handle in order to pull the door open. So, even if you wash your hands, as all employees must do, you're putting your clean hands right on a handle covered with the filth left behind by every single person who didn't bother to wash their hands. Wouldn't it be wiser to have a door that pushes outward when leaving the bathroom, so that you could shoulder it open or something?

By the way. I have no phobia of germs.

Those were a couple of things that baffle me. Here's some stuff that really aggravates me.

3. I can't stand it anytime that anything or anyone, even for comic effect, refers to chimps, bonobos, gorillas, or orangutans as monkeys. They are apes. King Kong is an ape. Curious George, "the curious little monkey" is not a monkey. He is an ape. Note the lack of a tail on his behind. I realize that "monkey" is a much funnier word than "ape." It is not funnier then "bonobo." Hearing this drives me absolutely ape$#!+.

4. "You can't have your cake and eat it too." Yes you can. What you can't do is eat your cake and still have it afterwards. You can have your cake and do whatever you want with it. Once you've eaten it, there's only one thing you can do with it which is why whenever I see this phrase written as it is most commonly used, it also drives me ape$#!+.

That's all

for now.

Give me time though and I'm sure I can think of a few others.

A Day of Mysteries, Monsters and Excitement!

Cryptozoologists rejoice! Today's your day if you visit a comic book store near you.

I have stories out today in two comic books, both of which deal with cryptids.

First up, in CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK #36, "The Secret Saturdays" lose a member of their family when V.V. Argost kidnaps Komodo and takes him into the heart of his lair. This story is illustrated by Will Sweeney. In a companion piece to this story, "The Secret Saturdays" creator, Jay Stephens provides the artwork for the cryptipedia entries on the various craetures seen in the main story.

Over in SCOOBY-DOO #143, Velma provides an entertaining look at a sea monster lurking outside of Vancouver; the cadborosaurus. The artwork here is provided by Karen Matchette and Mike DeCarlo.

Kids and Comics - Part2

The second half of Daniel Crown's excellent article on the current state of the comic book industry and its attitude towards children is now up at Wonderchroma.com. The first part can be found here. I was pleased to be able to participate in this article so go check it out.

Self Portrait - 3rd Grade

No that's not Ernie from "Sesame Street" with his hair combed for class picture day. That's me!

To follow my earlier post here's a self-portrait I did a few years later. If memory serves me in this case, it was done in third grade. The early 70s plaid pants and orange shirt bothe serve as all the anthropological evidence I need. Of course, I have another clue which comes in later.

For those concerned about my well being, I am not really a club-footed hunchback with no eyebrows. Neither do I have one massive orange and pink nipple and one green nipple. They are both green.

The reason I'm sure this is from third grade is I distinctly remember Mike Simpson, really pissing me off by drawing those nipples on there and ruining this fine piece of art. The orange blob over my pink nipple was actually a failed attempt on my part to cover up the unwelcome additions.

Our New Digs

Almost all of the cardboard boxes have disappeared, and we're pretty settled into our new place.

I don't really have any pictures to show yet except for the handful below. Some of these I took. Others were provided by our realtor. If there are leaves on the trees, then I didn't take it.












Here's the back of the house taken from across a small pond that runs along our driveway. The driveway is almost a mile long. Thankfully there hasn't been much in the way of snow since we've arrived, since shoveling it is out of the question, and I haven't hired a plowing company.

I kept thinking this place will be awesome to decorate for Halloween, but I don't foresee many trick-or-treaters bothering to make the hike even if we take down all the "no trespassing" signs with the images of ferocious guard dogs on them.













This is my poor attempt to photograph the ceiling of the "foyer." It's a little gaudier than I'd like, but the statues and decor remind me a bit of the Lon Chaney version of "Phantom of the Opera."















The reason that photographing the foyer ceiling is so hard is that this guy gets in the way. I've had this guy in storage for years, and finally have a space big enough to accommodate him. It really gets a reaction out of people when they first walk in the front doors and come face to face with him.










For me, the biggest selling point of this house was that it came with a built in library with enough room for all of the books my family owns and even with plenty of room for new acquisitions. This room took us the longest to unpack, and the organization of our books is still haphazard at best.








This was described as a "sitting room." Compared to some of the other rooms, including my wife's dressing room, it is pretty small, but it's central to rooms that we do use more, so it does get its own use. One of the drawbacks to moving into a larger house is discovering that you don't have nearly enough furniture to fill it. I'm sure by the time humans settle Mars we'll finally feel suitably furnished.











When I was a kid the idea of having an indoor swimming pool was an exciting dream of mine. As an adult, I doubt I'll use it much. It doesn't get a lot of light for most of the day, and I grew up swimming in the ocean, so ponds and pools don't hold much attraction for me. My kids are thrilled though.










The gardens are supposed to be amazing when they come in. There's even a hedge maze (which needs some serious attention), a treehouse, a bunch of animal topiaries, and a bunch of "Alice in Wonderland" inspired statues and settings. I haven't really ventured out to see, or photograph them all yet, but I imagine it will be pretty amazing in a few months when everything is blooming.


No photos of my office yet either. It's still a work in progress, but it's in a turret and it has a secret entrance!

Interpretive Nature Walks

I clipped this from the newspaper about seven years ago. I find the juxtaposition between the headline and the photograph from a separate article to be really amusing.

In Comic Book Stores Today

One of the wonders of writing for anthology comics like CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY, is that a long period of time can pass between when I write a story and when it sees publication. When I say long periods of time I'm talking about a range between several months and occasionally a few years. It all comes down to balancing the story types, featured characters and available page counts of an individual title. Sometimes, the amount of time that transpires between when I write a story and it sees publication is long enough that I've even forgotten the story in question.

Such is the case with issue #55 of CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY, available today, and which I've not yet seen. The solicitation copy reads:

Written by Robbie Busch, John Rozum, Sam Agro and Scott Cunningham; Art by Robert Pope, Cindy Morrow, Scott Roberts and Andy Suriano; Cover by Robert Pope
Bloo enters a joke contest, the Powerpuff Girls play in the Professor's lab, Dexter makes breakfast the hard way and Adam and Jake join the band!

Based on the order of listed writers and the order of listed stories it appears that I'm responsible for the writing part of the Powerpuff Girls story which looks to have been drawn by Cindy Morrow. However based on the very basic description, I have absolutely no idea what story this is, or how long it is.

This, by no means, should suggest that this story is subpar. It just means that my once steel trap like mind is now more like an aluminum sieve. When a story shows up that I've forgotten about, I'm usually pleasantly surprised to be reaquainted with it. So, if the Powerpuff Girls strikes your fancy (or the fancy of your kids) drop what you're doing and run out and get a copy of this comic book now, before it's too late.

Kids and Comics

Wonderchroma.com, a webzine devoted to music and geek culture debuts today. Among the contents is the first part of an excellent article by Daniel Crown on the comic book industry built on an audience of children and now, possibly doomed because it now ignores children as potential readers. Daniel interviewed me for the article which includes much of my insight on the problem. Part one can be found here. Part two will appear in next week's issue.

My Family

This drawing labeled "My Family" was done when I was in kindergarten. I think this single image explains a lot about me. I am the one in the middle. Surrounding me are a giant bat, a ghost, some other flying figure, a green-skinned Frankenstein's monster type, and a mad woman. The back of this sheet of paper is taken up by an enormous drawing of a spider web with a fat red spider in its center, and my initials rendered with a backwards facing "J."

In Comic Book Stores Now

Scooby-Doo #142 is available in comic book stores today. It sports this nice atmospheric cover by Robert Pope and Scott McCrae and a story that I wrote as well. It's an installment of my popular "Velma's Monsters of the World." This time the monster is the Chenoo which lives in the American Northeast, just where I recently moved to. The excellent artwork is by Scott Gross and Jorge Pacheco.

1980s Saturday Morning Animated "Watchmen"

Whether you are planning to see WATCHMEN this weekend, or not, you really ought to watch this terrific opening title sequence created by Harry Partridge for the non-existent 80s cartoon series made from the graphic novel. This is pretty perfect and funny and has a catchy theme song too.

Settling In

Having been run out of Ann Arbor, I'm just resettling on the East Coast, waiting for my possessions to catch up with me. Once they do you can expect a whole bunch of exciting new posts, most likely beginning towards the end of next week.

It's That Time of Year

The ballot has now been posted for the 7th annual Rondo Awards celebrating all things classic horror. Voting ends March 21, 2009. To vote, go here.

In Comic Book Stores Today

CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK #34, available today, contains a story I wrote featuring "The Secret Saturdays" as they and Hibagon investigate a destructive cryptid in Japan.

Our President in Action

This is old news to most of you by this point, but I've been too busy to post this. So, in case any of you haven't seen this, my favorite series of pictures of our Commander in Chief come from Japanese toy company Gamu-Toys. The page is down on their website which may mean that this high quality unlicensed action figure has been quashed.

Fortunately O Wicked Glee has made the page available as a pdf file. If you haven't seen this, it's definitely worth scrolling through the entire thing. It only gets better as it goes.

The page can be downloaded here

In Comic Book Stores Now

I forgot to mention in my update that SCOOBY-DOO #140 is now available in comic book stores. It features three stories, all written by yours truly, with artwork by Joe Staton, Horacio Ottolini, Robert Pope and Scott McCrae.

If the cover looks familiar to anyone that's because it's a complete reprint of SCOOBY-DOO #103 from February 2006. So, if you, or your young'ns are long time readers, you might want to double check to make sure you don't already have this material before buying it again.

SCOOBY-DOO is set to resume printing all new material again next month.

Update

My apologies for all of the cobwebs around here.

Back in October I announced that this month would be full of annotations about various classic horror movie references and inspirations in issues of SCOOBY-DOO that I wrote. Where is this exciting series, you wonder?

Postponed. All of my SCOOBY-DOO comics are packed up in a shipping container which was hauled off to a storage facility today until it is shipped to my, as now, undetermined, new home in Massachusetts which I'll be moving to sometime this Spring. I still plan to post these S-D annotations at some point after my move is complete and I've settled in at the other end.

Aside from packing up most of our belongings and loading them into a shipping container during a week of subfreezing temperatures and about two feet of snowfall, I've also been extremely busy with work.

I'm working on a lot of stuff right now. Some of it is still secret. The rest of it involves most of the characters you see below.

Postings here will be sporadic, at best for the next few months, but I;ll try and update as I can.