It’s A Miracle, I Can See Again (ooh yuck, I DO look that bad)

Wow, getting reading glasses makes all the difference in the world!! Okay, yes it makes me feel like the little octogeriatic folks that go to K&S at 4 in the afternoon for supper, but I can read again. No, not just on the computer (thank goodness for 400% zoom settings), but I mean read stuff that clever people write!

And I can work my crosswords again, too!! Amazing little experiment though: I still can’t figure out 95% of the clues even if I can see them!! So much for brain exercises, I think I’ll stick with Scooby-Doo and trying to figure out who dunnit!!

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So moving on it’s time to introduce this week’s überclever interviewee. She comes from a Land Down Under, so please welcome

Telling Stories and Making Things Up, Too

An Interview with Illustrator Lesley Frances Vamos

Lesley is relative new-comer on the pro tour but has talent coming out of the top of her hilariously striped socks! With a skill set that ranges across the spectrum of graphic arts and illustration as well with a style that’ll catch your eye at first glance, the future is so bright she... well, she better put on some sun block and get under something shady ASAP!

I’m sure you’ll find her work as exciting as the Nixon family has over the past weeks, including little Julia (days, mere hours away from age 7) who has just fallen head over heels with Lesley’s style. And along these lines, we bring you a special treat in the article as well!! Enjoy and good on ya!!

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Moving on to this week’s ‘Shout Out’s’:

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Our first ‘Shout Out’ is the rarest of the rare in that we are pleased to give a double shout-out to the very creative Christoph Niemann.

First, as many of you know, love and share with absolute strangers you come across, Christoph continues to put together one of the most clever and original blog collections as featured in the New York Times. Check out one of his latest offerings under the title of ‘Red Eye’, a visual diary documenting a flight from New York to Berlin (with a layover in London).

Amazing indeed if you consider that most of us spend our flights either arguing for another Bloody Mary or whispering curses against the fellow passengers hoping they are sucked out of a window and never heard from again. Needless to say, Christoph’s work is much nicer than that!!

In addition, our 2nd Shout-Out also goes to Christoph, who deserves a big round of clap-clap because he has been chosen a 2010 inductee to the ADC Hall of Fame, administered by the Art Directors Club, New York. Christoph is being honoured along with several other top-flight illustrators, educators, photographers and business leaders in the field. Awesome stuff for sure!!

To read more about Christoph and his terrific work, please take a look at our interview which you can find here.

Our third shout-out may or may not qualify (let's call it an echo-out) but we feel like shouting out about it. We recently signed up as Facebook fans for one of our favourite purveyors of tales of the totally cool, namely Dark Horse Comics (a great palette of terrific titles, including Hellboy, ‘nuff said).

Well, lo and behold we were scrounging through their picture albums when we came across a collection of none other than Jesse Reklaw’s works! Now granted it’s not the newest collection (last updated it seems in March of last year), but to find 27 fully readable sets in his ‘Cartoon Tour Diary’ made all our mining expedition very worth while. Check it out!

To read more about Jess and his unique approach to comics and art of all kinds, please take a look at our recent interview which you can find here.

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FAVOURITE-DESIGN-STORY-OF-THE-WEEK!!

For those of you that have been following the ‘Little Ziggy’ phenomena (at least via Facebook as we haven’t updated the blog in a few days... and yes, that was a shameless plug if there ever was one), you know that

(a) October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and that

(b) this means a lot to the Ziggy Nixon staff since we know quite a number of women that have breasts, including an amazing pair of heroes that have survived this terrible disease.

So we’re very excited to see the participation of the Comics World, too, in this arena. Please check out

http://www.comicsgopink.com/

which will 'take place' on October 10th in many of your favourite strips (we said strips Charles, not strip clubs).

Interestingly enough it is also Climate Change Awareness Day on the 10th, so just think of it as doing what you can to keep Mother Nature as healthy as we possibly can (I mean, she’s a mom and ergo no doubt possessing of said boobage, no?)!!

See you next time true believers!! Aloha!!

Epilogue:

Oh and to all of you newspaper folks that pulled the fantastic ‘Non Sequitur’ for MENTIONING Mohammed – not drawing mind you, just mentioning it – shame on you!!



Let’s ignore for a moment that ‘Non Sequitur’ is one of my must-stop, uh, stops every single day of the year. Let’s ignore the fact that the joke wasn’t even that good on the overall NS scale of hilarity. But this goes against everything that any SANE person should be fighting for, namely tolerance, understanding and respect ON ALL SIDES of the equation!!

If people can’t take it the way they dish it out, well, phooey!! Get with the plan you dopes!!

P.S. Mohammed, Mohammed, Mohammed!! Pull that!!