Tonight I’m headed to Chicago on a bus provided by National Nurses United to cover the protests surrounding the NATO summit this weekend for Cartoon Movement, an internet publisher of editorial comics and comics journalism.

It’s my first time in journo shoes (ok, homemade sandals) and I’m crazy excited. Also reasonably nervous. Hopefully ear plugs aren’t a totally useless defense.

Why are people protesting NATO? Just to hazard a guess, I’d say it probably has something to do with stuff like this:

The American military claimed responsibility and expressed regret for a[ NATO] airstrike that mistakenly killed six members of a family in southwestern Afghanistan, Afghan and American military officials confirmed Monday.

The attack, which took place Friday night, was first revealed by the governor of Helmand Province, Muhammad Gulab Mangal, on Monday. His spokesman, Dawoud Ahmadi, said that after an investigation they had determined that a family home in the Sangin district had been attacked by mistake in the American airstrike, which was called in to respond to a Taliban attack. . . . The victims were the family’s mother and five of her children, three girls and two boys, according to Afghan officials.

And that was just last week.

Stay tuned, and follow me on Twitter for regular updates.

[Update:] Check out this roundup of what’s already going on.

Frank J. Barbiere and Luke Radl serve up “The White Suits” in “Dark Horse Presents” #11, which gets the coveted final-position slot for the issue and lets the comic end on a strong note. Set in 1988 Moscow as its citizens struggle to survive, Barbiere writes about a young woman whose courier job might just get her killed as she delivers to a dangerous situation. Barbiere uses his eight pages to tell a complete story that maps out the rise and fall of the action quite effectively. While I’m not often a fan of spot-coloring, Radl nails it here; the black and white look makes everything feel instantly drab and lifeless and the momentary glimpses of color are eye-catching and effective. I’d absolutely read more by these creators.

wizard is Oz:

Any comic that begins with Francesco Francavilla, Ends with Joe Kubert School graduate Luke Radl and is stuffed full of Steve Niles, Evan Dorkin, Tim Seely, Neal Adams and a host of other amazing creators is OK by me.
…
[P]ossibly the most visually stunning story comes right at the end, as Luke Radl beautifully illustrates a story by Frank J Barbiere from their future project “The White Suits”. [I]t is a poignant noir tale about mafia and the choices people make in life.

Technorati:

The White Suits is the tale mostly likely to step up its game.

Inside Pulse:

I don’t know what the deal is with ‘The Way Out’, a story ‘From the Pages of the White Suits’, which is set in Moscow in the late 80s.  It’s about a young female courier who gets caught up in some madness involving gangsters and soldiers.  I don’t know if this is the beginning of a new series, or is a stand-alone story, but it has my interest.  Luke Radl’s art is very nice in Frank J. Barbiere’s story.

This is a promo piece that will be available exclusively this weekend at C2E2 from Frank Barbiere, and next Wed at Forbidden Planet in NYC where we’ll be signing Dark Horse Presents #11 – I will also be sketching.

Top was from the commuter rail back out to Lowell after the April 1st #TakeBackDewey action. Left is part of the day care and a building across the street from me, and right is the back of a building in Framingham.

I was hired months ago to work on the artwork/website for the upcoming documentary on corporate tax evasion and the protest movement against it We’re Not Broke. During the editing process (and after being accepted to freaking SUNDANCE) the executive producer decided to go in a different direction with the title styling. I was disappointed because I really liked this, but that’s the way stuff happens sometimes.

Check out this awesome interview with the filmmakers from Citizen Radio.

For some reason the version they put out with the lettering is really blurry, so I included that too.

There were all kinds of technical hang ups as usual (I do all of the coding and maintenance, as well as design, and I often learn as I go), but everything is up and running very smoothly now and I’m very proud of the new site.

The new shows will begin posting next week and they’re going to be awesooome, and as always, totally free. Support independent media and become a member or donate. :)

I took an online class from the Center for Inquiry last month and I offered to do volunteer artwork in exchange for reduced tuition. They took me up on it, but ultimately decided not to use what I came up with for what they requested. I think they felt like it didn’t adequately reflect the image CFI tries to project which I totally understand. I hope I get a chance to work with them in the future.