MetaChat - "My bed wasn't on fire -- this time! But I wasn't fooled!"

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09 September 2007

"My bed wasn't on fire -- this time! But I wasn't fooled!" My favorite story from the unjustly forgotten anthology comic Wasteland, written by Del Close and John Ostrander, drawn by Don Simpson.→[More:] "American Squalor" packs a lot into nine pages: framed as a parody of Harvey Pekar's American Splendor, and based on a monologue by Severn Darden, it's an interesting take on fear and anxiety that's stuck with me ever since I first read it in 1987. Often when I'm getting wrapped up in worries I think to myself "And how do you know your bed isn't on fire?". Enjoy!

post by: Lentrohamsanin at: 10:17 | 5 comments

Is there some way to blow up the pictures to make the words intelligible?

posted by mischief 09 September | 11:30

THANKS, Lentrohamsanin. This is great stuff. A spot-on parody of both Pekar's writing and Crumb's art, and entertaining to boot. I was never able to read American Splendor when I was a kid, as it depressed me too much. Way too real.

Is there some way to blow up the pictures to make the words intelligible?
posted by mischief 09 September | 11:30

Click "ALL SIZES" (and the magnifying glass icon) mischief. Of course, from there you have to Back to move to the next image. Slightly clunky navigation.

(In the past I've always lamented having first to click the image then click "ALL SIZES" on Flickr -- often when I'm reading John's [Interrobang's] daily comic -- but more and more I'm thinking Flickr is GREAT to showcase comics. Really, your only good other option is to ftp a comic to the Web in pdf form, which allows for zooming and panning out, and loses no image quality. I have a bunch of classic comics that influenced me, mostly out of copyright or too old to be objectionable, that I'd like to post somewhere on the 'Net, maybe on my website under the heading "Copyright Infringement.")
;-)

posted by shane 09 September | 12:19

Click on the thumbnail and then click on "all sizes" above that. "Large" or "original" should be pretty legible. Sorry, there was probably a better way to get these online than in a Flickr set, but it took me forever to get my ancient beast of a scanner working that I didn't have time to think up a better display strategy!

posted by Lentrohamsanin 09 September | 12:22

Sorry, there was probably a better way to get these online than in a Flickr set...

If someone knows of a better way than Flickr or a pdf (other than something complicated that Scott McCloud might do with his micro-payment webcomics), please let me know!

Ya done good, Lentrohamsanin.

posted by shane 09 September | 12:28

Very cool; thanks for posting this!

posted by me3dia 09 September | 13:51

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