Halfway through the fourth chapter, I had to put this down for a while. My heart has gradually opened to the people of Croatia, which I prepared to make my adopted country last year. Can you imagine a country where no asks your ethnicity, one day, and then, a couple years later, you watch everything you own burn and hide in fear with your family because of an ethnic cleansing? I am still ferreting out the details of those times. I don't yet know the full history that drove the Serbs to follow Milosevic's plans, nor what complications led to the long-delayed U.N. response. Take this story of this one family...then imagine this happening to 200,000 people, with 150,000 more interred in camps! Even if there are more sides to this story than are here told, it's not surprising where Kubert's sympathies lie, nor is there any denying the privations detailed herein. Some may criticize Kubert's scratchy style, but I think the worn look works well with the world-w

The next day, they returned to Aurora, to get directions to the hangout Sarah told them about. She said she hoped to see them there Thursday night. They also helped themselves to a deep purple cloak, a scarlet hair bow, and a stack of Zon, Cosmic Knight From Beyond comic books for a dime apiece. (Art, Lue Lyron -after Sal Buscema) That night, and for several afterwards, they lie reading them, butt-to-butt, on the palette they had made from blankets, on the living room floor. Save for the lawn chair Troy had brought them, there were never any furnishings, except for the shower curtain they bought in the drug store on the first floor. Sometimes they snuggled up to read just one, together, narrating aloud. Gina enjoyed the Shakespearean flavored dialogue of the cyborg Zon, as well as his tormented, unrequited love for Sandy Davis, as he defended her small West Virginia town from disguised aliens that fit into the unsuspecting lives of Clairionville. His mission to clear Earth o

Late that afternoon, Lewis felt sympathy for his new bride’s queasiness, and offered to pull off at a convenience store. He found it interesting, to ponder what encounters each one might hold, what kind of people worked at each one and frequented each one. When you are from out of town, after all, you never can tell what makes one better than the next. There is a self-contained feeling with long road trips, as one encounters places never seen again, passing through. This particular stop contained a real blast from the past. There, on the magazine rack, just as they were years ago when he mowed lawns and saved the pittance of grade incentive money from his parents. Comic books! He tried not to dawdle in getting a cold drink and snack back to the car. His choice was obvious: a big reprint volume of stories, starting with a triple-sized issue that came out a couple of years before he could earn money to buy issues of his own. He smelled the air floating down from the red

Two days later, the phone rang. It was his dear college friend Von, wishing him a happy wedding. “Hey, what’s up?” Von started. You could never have guessed English was his second language. A steady diet of American and British programs, and liberal use around his home in Sri Lanka, had prepared him well for his American trip. After his initial shyness led him to be dubbed “The Brown Recluse,” he never missed a chance to come to the drawing room or the bars and diners on the Strip and socialize. “So Peter Parker’s found his Mary Jane?” “She’s in my web, Von.” “Well, don’t let her slip away,” he quipped. “No bridge diving without a bungee! Although I can understand a girl diving off the George Washington Bridge to get away from your diatribes.” “Aw, get stuffed, Von. She’s such a sweet, down-to-Earth chick. I can’t wait for you to meet her. We met last month.” “Wait, are you doing this for a green card or something?” joked Von. “Yes, and I rushed the date before

While we usually do naturalistic comic book art and portraits, we were more than happy to break out caricature and cartoons for Jovita's Graduation Party! It was great, kicking off summertime in a great atmosphere, dazzling the cheerful crowd with our humble talents. We loved sending people home with our unique cartoon keepsakes. rocketbadoom@gmail.com or integr8dsoul@gmail.com is the hook up, if you want to invite us! Our fees are very reasonable---and flat! We sing and play, as well, if you want live musicians. https://sites.google.com/site/badoombadoombadoom/ has just SOME of the songs we play, and we can add more with a little notice. We had too much fun. The guests sometimes made us laugh, as much as we made THEM laugh! On the spot, we were taking pieces of dialogue from our conversation to spice up the drawings with word balloons. We did a few realistic portraits, as well. We offered "silly or serious?" Naturally, lots of people just said &