The Book of Boy Trouble II (or maybe The Son of Book of Boy Trouble?) is officially headed your way in the fall of 2008, again from the wonderful people at Green Candy Press. This book will actually be comprised of all-new work and will be all in color as well – exciting, no? I mean Yes? I will be posting more in the weeks and months ahead as details develop, so stay on the alert! The artist roster will feature many familiar Boy Trouble faces as well as some fresh new ones. I hope you will be looking forward to this as much as we all are.

I would be remiss if I didn’t take the time to put in plugs for a couple of great queer comic anthologies that debuted recently – one that actually appeared about like, 6 months ago, and another that just hit the scene in the last couple of weeks.

First off, the one I should have trumpeted way sooner, Editor Tim Fish’s Young Bottoms in Love, is a beautifully-produced, all-color 386 page paperback collection of the eponymously-titled anthology web series. The artist roster here is impressive: Howard Cruse, Brett Hopkins, David Kelly, Craig Bostick, Abby Denson, Justin Hall, Jay Laird, Randall Kirby (no relation), Tim Piotrowski, and Paige Braddock, among many others. However, this is also a real showcase for Tim Fish’s wide-ranging, impressively versatile artwork, placing him around the very top of the heap of the gay cartoonists who have emerged in this decade. Tim has been a real force to be reckoned with, and it’s easy to see why with even just a quick glance at his many comics included here. The production values throughout the book are high, the artwork and writing are by turns funny, entertaining, beautiful, silly, thoughtful, perceptive, touching, hot, campy, etc., etc., and all proceeds from sales go to charity. What are you waiting for? Order here.

Jennifer Camper’s Juicy Mother 2: How They Met has just hit stores at last, after a long and frustrating stint in between-publishers limbo (Manic D Press is now at the publishing helm, much to everyone’s relief). This edition is well-worth the wait, as it is even better than the first volume, IMHO. For one thing, it clocks in at about 150 pages, nearly twice the size as before. JM2 features work from Michael Fahy, Alison Bechdel, Robert Triptow, Joan Hilty, Leanne Franson, David Kelly, Howard Cruse, GB Jones, Justin Hall, Ivan Velez, Jr., and Victor Hodge, as well as work from folks who may be less familiar to some, like Tristan Cowan, Carlo Diego Quispe, Serpilla, Erika Moen, and Scott Treleaven. The publisher describes it all thusly: The only current publication that showcases comix by queer artists, the ground-breaking graphic novel Juicy Mother 2 contains richly drawn tales that examine LGBT life from new perspectives: killer dykes chasing romance, a superhero tranny, how Hothead met Chicken, homeboys in love, lesbian internet hook-ups, West Hollywood parties, kids with queer parents, and many other unexpectedly funny depictions of how like-minded individuals have found each other for love, lust, and heartbreak. Thoroughly entertaining adult comix for gender pirates and sexual outlaws, Juicy Mother 2 contains depictions of sweet sex, rough sex, and confusing sex.

It’s all pretty great, sez me, so get this one too. Oh yeah, I have a 2 page story in here, illustrating a funny piece by Lawrence Ferber about debauched West Hollywood parties in either the late 80s or early 90s (hard for me to make the distinction between the two sometimes!). We all look forward to Juicy Mother 3, for shure! Go Jen!

In lieu of anything of real interest to post from me personally right now, I thought I’d throw this beautiful passage from the very end of Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse on here, one of the best pieces of writing ever depicting an artist’s transcendence through the act of creation:

“Quickly, as if she were recalled by something over there, she turned to her canvas. There it was - her picture. Yes, with all its greens and blues, its lines running up and across, its attempt at something. It would be hung in attics, she thought; it would be destroyed. But what did that matter? she asked herself, taking up her brush again. She looked at the steps; they were empty; she looked at her canvas; it was blurred. With a sudden intensity, as if she saw it clear for a second, she drew a line there, in the centre. It was done; it was finished. Yes, she thought, laying down her brush in extreme fatigue, I have had my vision.”