Merry Christmas! Mine was pretty good. Every year we watch It's A Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve if we can, and every year I'm reminded that it really is a completely awesome movie. I think Frank Capra's "Capra-corn" reputation is a little undeserved. Most of his movies have such bleak circumstances that the usually uplifting endings seem very welcome and sincere, and not at all over the top.

But anyway, I hope you all had a great holiday, and thanks so much for reading! That's your christmas present to me.

(Okay, maybe that sentence was a little over the top, but I mean it.)

Oh man, it's almost time for Death Pool! I only got Joey Bishop this year. I had lots of good ones, too. Jerry Lewis, I love you, but I cannot fucking believe that you are still alive.

Just wanted to say that this page is one of my favorites of all the ones I ever drew.

Nona's got "Black Beauty" there. Dean Martin claimed that was the only book he ever read, besides comic books. (He loved Batman.)

...Look, I love Dean Martin, okay?!

Josh is every boy I knew in high school. Every white boy, anyway.

I just made a Sketch page, but it's not linked on the main page yet. For now, you can find it here. There's only four things up there now, but there's a lot more coming.
Last blog entry I recommended the movie Dog Day Afternoon. This time I'm gonna suggest Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. It's a very early Scorsese, and sort of atypical because it's about a single woman and her son. This was also a huge huge inspiration for The Good Crook, or at least I think it was. It's a good one, and much much better than the TV show it spawned (Alice.)

It's also a little closer to being a christmas movie for the whole family. But not totally. There's swearing. Kids swearing. (That's one of my favorite things.)

You might notice a link to a Good Crook holiday card I made above the logo there. I think it came out pretty okay! I might use it as my regular holiday card except for it has guns in it.

The other day I watched one of my favorite movies again for the first time in probably a year, Dog Day Afternoon. If you like this comic I strongly recommend it (not that this comic is anywhere close to that movie in terms of ... goodness). Al Pacino's character in that movie was a huge inspiration for Jackie, especially visually. There are some major differences, though. For instance, Jackie is not a young, gay bank robber. So, y'know. It's also worth it just for John Cazale's performance (he was Fredo in Godfather). He'll break your heart, but doesn't he always?
So anyway, Dog Day Afternoon: It's a perfect holiday movie for the whole family! (Not really.)

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! I'm really late on the Scott Pilgrim train but seriously it may be the coolest comic book of all time. I didn't want to read it before because I thought it was about anime hipsters, and it kind of is, except somehow really good.

I've been looking forever for my sketchook with all the concept work I did for Good Crook. I just found it yesterday, so I'll put up a sketches section really soon. It's a Thanksgiving miracle!

Hey, everyone! I hope you're enjoying the comic. Please don't hesitate to let me know what you think, whether it's by emailing me or on this blog. There's no "chapters" in this, because I want it all to be more sort of cinematic or something, but this page does mark the start of the second thirty-page installment block, so I guess you could call it part two if you want.

There's been two mob movies released recently, We Own The Night and American Gangster. I thought both of them had a raging case of Trying Too Hard To Be Goodfellas syndrome, which is only marginally more tolerable than Trying Too Hard To Be Pulp Fiction syndrome. We need some new brand of mob movie for everyone to rip off. The age of the gritty, realistic mafia and the hip, self-aware mafia is over. It is time for an earnest, whimsical mafia movie that's sweetly charming and vaguely magical. James Cromwell can star as the grumpy, strict old don who learns to love again with the help of his bright-eyed, inventive new consigliere.

Well, it sounds awesome to me.