Venus - the Morning Star

I dreamed I was descending through the thick clouds that make up the dense atmosphere of Venus, the Morning Star.

I remember actively wondering why I wasn’t poisoned by the heavy doses of sulfuric acid and carbon dioxide in the air.  Or why I wasn’t crushed by the extreme PSI press of its oppressive gaseous canopy.

As I neared the rocky surface, I heard Russian radio transmissions still being broadcast, apparently, from a 1970′s era Venera lander, when the Soviet space program sent more than a dozen probes to Earth’s sister planet, becoming the first human devices (that we know of) to enter the atmosphere of an alien world and beam back pictures of its exotic surface.

Venera 7 lander

I landed in a crouch, Spider-Man style, and the first thing I noticed was all the volcanic activity.

This was, indeed, a tortured world, ill-suited for any sort of life, let alone human habitation.

All the more surprising, I mused, that I should find a man-made structure on the planet’s surface.  Even stranger, this structure was a night club.

It was an exclusive night club.  Probably the most exclusive in the solar system, judging by the gorgeous women leisurely sauntering through its lounges and dancing on its dance floors.  Forget the poison air or the crushing atmosphere, it was clear to me that I had no business being in this VIP club.

The whole club was lit up by ultraviolet black lights.  I think, even, the whole of Venus was lit that way.  I did a bit of follow-up research and I later discovered that Venus’ surface was first mapped using ultraviolet light to penetrate its thick clouds of CO2.  Curious, since I didn’t know this before I had the dream…

Color image taken from the surface of Venus by the Soviet Venera 13 lander

The goddess women in the club all wore lacy white underwear and little else.  Being Venus, it was rather hot and humid.  And their white underwear phosphoresced under the black lights, making them look like glowing angels, all the more ethereal and unattainable.

I couldn’t help but stare.

And when a table of glowing angel girls noticed, I overheard one say to the other, “What’s he staring at?”

“I’ve never been to Venus before,” I said to them as I walked past.

Then I heard an underwear goddesses remark, as I turned a corner, “Oh, so you’re lame.”

It’s less like being on the Internet than it is like being IN the Internet. Wut wut?

Allen Ginsberg brings some serenity to a tense scene - art by Antonio Maldonado

Whew! Who’da thunk being prolific would be so much work?

Been letting the blog fall a bit by the wayside while I cranked out an Airfighters script for Moonstone. It was somewhat large in its scale. But I really ought not say too much more about it as it’s still quite early in the production process and too soon to tell just what, if, indeed, anything, will come of the script I turned in.

It was a gas to write a pulp-style WWII epic, whatever the as yet unknown specifics of the outcome might be.

Meanwhile, been working to keep the webcomics coming out consistently, which brings me to the meat of today’s post…

THE POWER OF “OM”

This week in Chicago: 1968 (HERE to read it or HERE for your mobile device), as dusk falls on Lincoln Park and the first day of the Festival of Life comes to a close, the question of whether to challenge Mayor Daley’s 11pm curfew is raised.

Art by Antonio Maldonado.

Master Jesus ninja kicks the money changers out of the temple - art by Steve Bialik

A DEN OF THIEVES

Master Jesus is back again this week with episode 3 – four pages of righteous rage!

When the Master Jesus finds money changers in the temple, tossing them out is the easy part.  But what will the Roman Legion have to say about the rabble rousing young carpenter from Nazareth interrupting the otherwise easy flow of commerce in Caesar’s provinces?

Art by Steve Bialik.

Master Jesus visits the astral plane - art by Steve Bialik

This week my partner, cartoonist Steve Bialik, and I launched Master Jesus, our collaborative heresy that takes the form of a webcomic.  We update every Sunday (get it? Sunday?) with a new 3-to-4-ish page episode.

Here in episode 1, the Master Jesus fasts in the desert and visits the astral plane.  But watch your back, MJ!  Danger lurks around every hyper-dimensional corner.

The Master Jesus webcomic is hosted at the Nerd City podcast website.  It was so cool of Max and Ben to lend me some bandwidth and the eyeballs of their audience for this goofy little cartoon blasphemy.  But I knew when I approached them with the idea that if there were two cats crazy enough to receive and relay the strange signals I was transmitting, Max and Ben are it.  They do one of the funnest, wildest, most spontaneous and entertaining comics and pop culture podcasts on old mother Interent; Nerd City broadcasts out of a local pizzeria/brewery on the North Side of Chicago.  And it’s always a blast whenever they let me come on.

the mysterious biker beats some ass in Chicago: 1968 - art by Antonio Maldonado

Also this week, my other webcomic, Chicago: 1968 (HERE to read it or HERE for your mobile device) continues to be updated with new content.  Our Lincoln Park biker beat down action sequence concludes.

My partner on Chicago: 1968 is cartoonist Antonio Maldonado.  Tony’s really good at choreographing fight scenes.  So click on over and enjoy.

But the violence in the Chicago: 1968 webcoomic isn’t there for cheap thrills and entertainment… well, not ONLY cheap thrills and entertainment.  The “Festival of Life,” as it was called, held in Lincoln Park as a counter-convention to the official gathering of Democrats in the International Amphitheater on the South Side of the city – a “convention of death,” some said – was an unnerving juxtaposition of celebration and battle royal.

Here’s some footage of a Yippie concert by the proto-punk band MC5 taken by the U.S. Dept. of Defense!  Were these G-men grooving to the music or gathering intelligence for some sinister conspiracy against the power of Rock n’ Roll? –

– Pretty neat, huh?

That popped into my inbox one day from my “chicago 1968″ google alert.  Most of the stuff that comes in is junk, but there’s some gems to be had.  Like this flickr pic of a young lady modeling at the 1968 Chicago Auto Show; I’m a sucker for groovy 60′s gals –

– Yep. Wish I was captain of a starship with a bunch just like her.  “Mad Men” does its Emmy-worthy job of recreating the fashions of the early 60′s, when men were men and women were women, but when things loosened up in the late 60′s, well, that was pretty cool, too.

I just approved Kurt’s final design.  We’ve got a logo for “Master Jesus,” a forthcoming webcomic by Steve Bialik and me, to be hosted on the Nerd City podcast website.

And it looks like we’re gonna be launching Master Jesus, episode 1, out into the Internets in the next few days, so do stay tuned for that.

from Chicago: 1968, pg.75, by our current artist, the ultra sexy Antonio Maldonado

On behalf of myself and the rest of the Chicago: 1968 staff, I would like to extend heartiest congratulations to one of our own, Jenny Frison, who was artist on Part One of our little webcomic epic, and who, just this past Monday, was honored with a Harvey Award nomination for best cover artist of 2009.

Wow.

And damn does she find herself in some esteemed company, with Mike Mignola, Frank Quitely, et al.

Double wow.

Clipped from the Harvey Awards website:

BEST COVER ARTIST

____ Jenny Frison, “THE DREAMER”, IDW
____ Mike Mignola, “HELLBOY: THE BRIDE OF HELL”, Dark Horse Comics
____ Michael Avon Oeming, “MICE TEMPLAR: DESTINY, PART I”, Image Comics
____ Frank Quitely, “BATMAN AND ROBIN”, DC Comics
____ JH Williams III, “DETECTIVE COMICS”, DC Comics

The winners of this year’s round of Harvey Awards are announced Aug. 28th, 2010, at a ceremony held at the Baltimore Comic-Con.  Congrats again, Jenny.  Frank Quitely’s Batman and Robin covers were pretty awesome, heh, but, of course, you’ve got my vote.

Exciting as that news is, we here at the Chicago: 1968 offices are pretty well acquainted with prestige.  Why, even while engaged in what seems like drudgery, we’re practically tripping over reminders of glories past and present.

Case in point: I was recently sorting through all my books and comics in preparation for last weekend’s big move into me and the wife’s new digs, and I came across a bagged and boarded copy of New Men #1, which some of you might even remember from the halcyon days of the early 90′s boom era of Image comics.

April, 1994... brings back some memories, don't it?

Guess what I saw when I checked out the credits on the inside cover?

See? I can't letter worth a damn. Which is why I need Kurt.

Kurt Hathaway has been our letterer since day numero uno, and he designed our “Chicago: 1968″ logo, too.  As you can see, the man has quite a comics pedigree.

A new Chicago: 1968 installment went up this week.  Click HERE to read it.  Or HERE to read it on your iPhone or mobile device.

Click HERE to read the Chicago:1968 webcomic, or HERE to read it on your mobile device…

From Abbie Hoffman’s autobio (one of them) Soon to be a Major Motion Picture:

As I walked past rows of police with my hair concealed under my hat, sometimes wearing a pasted-on moustache, I knew if they had recognized me they would have broken my bones on the spot.  What they didn’t seem to know about was the back door, from which I escaped out into the streets of Chicago and moved through the city. After the curfew a hippie walking the streets was about as safe as a Jew in Hitler’s Berlin…

…That morning as I was getting dressed I took a lipstick and wrote the word “FUCK” on my forehead.  I didn’t feel like having my picture in the media that day.

Yesterday afternoon I heard Rush Limbaugh complain about media’s coverage of the heatwave in the Northeast, charging, essentially, that it was all so much ado about nothing; that, obviously, it tends to get hot in July. “Big deal.” The same essential message was repeated by the local talk radio hacks (Don and Roma on Chicago’s WLS 890 AM, if you were at all interested) this morning. “They’re a bunch of whiners over there in Pitsburg and Baltimore,” was the essential jist of the right wing ranting at sunrise.

On the other side of the political spectrum, on progressive talk radio, two shows – Stephanie Miller in the morning, and then Ed Schultz in the afternoon – were trash talking the airline industry, accusing them of having unsanitary planes and treating passengers poorly.

Seems like the PR organs of both political parties are sticking close to the bullet points these days. Probably has lots to do with the election in November.

Republicans trying to undermine climate change science. Democrats busting the chops of anti-union industries. You’d expect it, but you wouldn’t expect them to be so transpartent about it.

Wait. Nevermind. Yes you would.