Blogs: Author Archive

| Image by From www.zippythepinhead.com Compared to the loss of dozens of newsroom jobs, the dropping of a full page of comic strips is bupkis. But when one of those strips is Zippy the Pinhead, well, I can’t just stand by and stay silent. To be honest, I go hot and cold on Zippy....
Read more »

Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History Written (mostly) by Harvey Pekar, art (mostly) by Gary Dumm, edited by Paul Buhle (Hill and Wang) I hate to inaugurate my comics reviewing on the S/Hitlist with a pan, but, wow, this is dire. If there’s one thing we’ve learned since the American Splendor movie,...
Read more »

Berni Wrightson’s Gosh Wow! 3 Whether or not you want to learn how to draw, surf on over to local cartoonist Brian Ralph‘s guest blog at publisher First Second’s site. We’re not sure if Ralph’s advice is actually helpful–it’s basically “draw a kidney bean”–but this short comics story is just about the cutest thing...
Read more »

There’s nary a better online time-waster around right now than the two comics on the relatively new ComicMix web site from Baltimore-area cartoonists Mark Wheatley and Marc Hempel, whom comics heads know as the team behind the 1980s series MARS (and as contributors to City Paper‘s recent comics jam). First off, check out writer...
Read more »

In the cover feature, photographer Frank Klein and writer Stephen Janis get watched, along with neighborhood residents, by the Baltimore Police Department’s ever-growing number of surveillance cameras. Andrew Byrne is monitoring the cameras at Manifestor.org. More anarchic action against the cameras can be found at the Independent Media Center. Andrew Buchanan, at The Christian...
Read more »

As you’ve probably heard by now, thanks to the Sun‘s Jill Rosen, among others, the convention center HQ hotel is pretty much a done deal. Well, there goes our $305 million. To find out how it happened, dig deep in the Sun‘s “Hilton Proposal” mini-site , which includes good stories on the success and...
Read more »

In the cover feature, Gadi Dechter goes long with the history of Galaxy tall tee. No links there, really, but in Mobtown Beat, Ryan Grim goes fishing with various groups, both environmental and sporting, trying to save the Chesapeake Bay’s menhaden population, including but not limited to the Maryland Saltwater Sportsfishermen’s Association, the Chesapeake...
Read more »

In The Sun, Jennifer Skalka does the wide reveal of an unexpected, though not surprising, political comeback: that of former state senator Larry Young (as hinted at earlier in these pages), who was kicked out of the state Senate in January 1998 for a bunch of ethical violations. Young’s said to be considering a...
Read more »

On the cover, contributing writer Ron Cassie rides with local bike messengers in the Cycle Messenger World Championships in New York. And also the Baltimore “alley cat” race dubbed the Courier GangBang. For more pictures of that July 9 race, go here and, for more Baltimore courier photos in general, here. In Mobtown Beat,...
Read more »

Thanks to the Third Floor’s recent nuptials, blogging has been less-than-sporadic around here the past few weeks. Please forgive; today we’re starting again in earnest. Baton Pass: Marin Alsop’s appointment as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s new music director (starting in ’07), and the surrounding brouhaha, may be old news, but it’s still worth taking...
Read more »

Change of Scenery: If not for the events in London, surely the changes at Central Booking would be getting more attention. But maybe not? How many changes-at-the-jail stories have there been over the past few years? No Hope: Also interesting in today’s Sun, Grant Huang and Arthur Hirsch report that the Anti-Defamation League will...
Read more »

On the cover Washington City Paper?s Dave Jamieson gets government grants with question-mark-suit/free-money infomercial guy Matthew Lesko. Lesko, of course, has a blog, though it (ahem) hasn?t been updated in a while. For more on his troubles with the New York State Consumer Protection Board, MSNBC has a pretty good story. In Mobtown Beat,...
Read more »