It would be a crime to sum up the career of Dennis Larkins by saying that, over the past fifty years or so, he’s moved from glorifying classic American images of the 1950’s and 60’s to using zany sci-fi characters to make classic American images of the 1950’s and 60’s appear terrifying. Equally heinous, though, would be to identify Larkins (who will be signing his new book Startling Art at the Jennie Cooley Gallery in Santa Fe next weekend) as “that Grateful Dead guy” because of the amazing but infrequent artwork Larkins has produced for the Dead since the early 80’s.

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Free Comic Book Day isn’t for another week, but this promo we shot with Daddy Needs a Drink columnist Rob Wilder’s son London is too adorable to postpone.

I’ll just have to repost this as the big day approaches.

Easter Greetings in my e-mail box from local master of the illustrative arts, Danny Green. click the image to enlarge.

This week Jett Boynton, creator of Animal Hat April, joins Chris Diestler to discuss their final verdicts on Watchman the movie.

No, it’s not your imagination. These Web casts are getting longer. And weirder. And hopefully better.

To give you an idea of how this works behind the scenes: I usually contact Diestler once a month that it’s time again to round up someone for the show. Then after three or four canceled appointments, I finally make it down to True Believers, where we spend about an hour filming the show on my Flip cam, a video camera that cost $100 a year ago. You can prolly get it used on eBay for a few bucks now. Then I go home and edit it as quickly as possible on Windows Movie Maker, while trying not to spill chai latte (from powdered mix) on my keyboard. When that’s done, and it looks all pretty, I uploaded it to YouTube, where it inevitably comes out pixelated and staticky.

Is it the lowest budget comics web cast in New Mexico? Absolutely. But it’s also the high budgeted one as well…it’s the only one as far as we know.

Anyhow, please post your thoughts, not only on our production value, but the style. Do you like seeing customers on the cast? Do you like hearing me behind the camera asking questions? Do you have particular issues (double-meaning there) you’d like addressed by the Panelists? Got a better host than YouTube to suggest? Post a comment or email me: davem @ sfreporter.com

Jolene Nenibah Yazzie, a graphic designer here at The Reporter, is featured this week in the Around the Mall blog for the Smithsonian Museums. Yazzie, who is a comic artist, has three prints in the National Museum of the American Indian’s Comic Art Indigène exhibition. Her work explores Native American superheroes (that’s a simplification) and it’s amazing.

I knew about Yazzie’s work, but I didn’t know, until I read the interview, that she’s also a skateboarder. Way to go on all fronts Jolene!