The latest episode of Animals in Midlife Crises is up at The Rumpus.

The second episode of Animals in Midlife Crises is up at The Rumpus.

It’s Opening Day for the New York National baseball team. Luckily, they’re in Miami, as it’s snowing in New York today. They’ll be playing the Marlins, a team that they will win more games than this year. The all-pitch-no-bat Phickle-Phanned Phils conquest of the league gets underway this afternoon against Astros. Their fierce Ibanez-led lineup should crush the Mariners single-season wins record. The good news is, that because of the majority of casual baseball fans gross overstatement of the Mets despair, they are guaranteed to exceed expectations for the first time in since Bobby V was in the dugout.

Anyway, Aaron Burch just posted his annual baseball issue of HOBART. I remember living in Tokyo about sixyears ago and stumbling upon the issue then, it was the first time I read HOBART (I got sucked in). Now, in 2011, I’m a contributor to Burch’s Baseball Annual. Go here to read two baseball themed atrocities.

For the first time in my life I have a comic strip (with jokes and everything). I’m doing it with good ol’ Lincoln Michel and we’re calling it “Animals in Midlife Crises.” The first episode is up at THE RUMPUS and they’ll posting a new each Sunday for a while.

It’s a bit later than planned, but it’s still awesome – this morning we just posted the fifteenth issue of Action,Yes. We’re getting old, but this one feels young again. After a year’s worth of selections from submissions, we’ve curated and handpicked an issue the way we used to. Go and check it out. I endorse it all, but one feature of the issue I’d like to draw your attention to are the comics by a selection of artists that I think are really challenging the form’s definition (Jason Overby, Dane Martin, Blaise Larmee, and Scott Longo), and give the medium a shove it’s needed since some self-satisfied complacency kicked in ten years ago, when everybody started loving “graphic novels.” Look for more work like this in future issues. (Actually, if you have work like this-comics that f’ things up-send them to me. My email address is here.)

List of assassinating contribs:

Abelkop/Broder/Césaire/Eshelman/Arnold/Chabrier/Cotner&Fitch/de Lima/Foley/Fox/Larmee/Leong/Longo/Martin/Mullen/Norðdahl/Overby/Peak/Piznarik/Stumpf/Toshiko/Angles/Wang/Ward

This little book was a freebie with COMIC ART magazine a few years back. It’s my favorite book about comics. Finally, you can buy your own copy.

Go here if you want to learn more of my thoughts about things that I may or may not have already told you about, including that ATROCIOUS city Baltimore.

If you’re around on Sunday afternoon, it’d be great to see you at the 440 Gallery, which is a cool space on 6th Ave in Park Slope. I’m reading with my good friend Dan Groves, which I’m really looking forward to. He just published an excellent book, The Lost Boys. And he’s in my new fantasy baseball league, which is called ‘Dreams vs. Robins.’ (Looks like it’s gonna be a tough league; there are already teams called The Assassins and the Crushers.) Also looking forward to reading with Nadia Kalman, and checking out the new show that the gallery is opening that day.

Facebook invite.

This week, six more atrocities have appeared on the Internet. Three of them are up at a fairly young, but already old favorite magazine, The Collagist. That’s a site worth checking every month. Matt Bell puts a lot of work and precision into his curation, and the result is one of the rare web zines that reads with particular unity. (Matt once, off the top of his head, described his new issue to me piece and piece, and I was shocked he could do that from memory. He said, “I’m sure you could do that with an issue of Action,Yes.” Kind of him to think so, but no way.)

The other three are in a journal which is brand new to me, called Wag’s Revue. Check out the journal’s set up, kind of an online paper journal. The editors seem to have a real ambition for their magazine. I expect this one to grow. Read about them here.

…I did not meet my senator, but I did take some pictures.

Jaded Ibis had toys.

This reading was a lot better than it smelled.Oh, look! It’s the girl from the puzzle!

Justin Sirois explains to Debra Diblasi how RED DEAD REDEMPTION made him “teary.”

“Hey! I’ve got a Publishing Genius of an idea!”

“Wait. You don’t mean we should?”

“That’s right. Let’s stand up on this rock and invite writers to come read at this zoo!”

Mike Young: “I’ve got this thing about food. I could yell it.”Luckily Blake had this thing about goats and James is really into goats.

And here’s Michael Kimball who happened to be doing a reading at the zoo that afternoon.

Amy is more aware of the camera than Sasha.

Now Sasha trumps Lincoln in camera awareness.

Hawking Gigantics.

Great trip for Greg. He got a new job.

Tim prepares to read with me, despite the lurking presence of a mime named “Davis.”

The Hoyas won. By two. Should have been by more.