§ Stan Sakai recounts a gathering to remember Dave Stevens:

If you think Dave was a handsome man, Scott revealed he was even better looking as a woman as he found out when Dave was dressed for a Halloween party by two transvestites. Ed Wood himself was at the event. Bill Wray told of how Dave was stalked by Michael Jackson after storyboarding Thriller. Dave enjoyed going to diners, and at one time revealed he wanted to give up art for a no-pressure job as a short order cook. Mark chimed in that it would have taken him three weeks to make a meat loaf, but it would have been the best meat loaf you ever ate.

People brought Dave originals, about two dozen, that covered his history from Russ Manning assistant, to early Hanna Barbera days to The Rocketeer, to Raiders of the Lost Ark storyboards, to an oil painting done in his last few months. There was an auction of three signed prints with the proceeds going to hairy cell leukemia research. The one signed by Dave and Bettie Page went for $1300.

§ Rick Marshall has some warm memories of working at Wizard:

It’s probably worth mentioning that I was only able to get the go-ahead for the original series on Wizard’s site after: A) explaining what “webcomics” were to the rest of the Wizard editorial staff; B) explaining that yes, people do indeed read these “comics on the web”; and C) showing them that the interviews I had already run on the site (before I bothered to broach the subject with the higher-ups) had actually received more traffic than the latest “Smallville’s Hottest Babe” feature.

§ Some very touching remembrances of the late Muriel Kubert in the comments on this post at ComicMix.

§ Dark Horse profiled at Apple.com…:

§ Willie & Joe review at NPR.

§ Spot the subtext: Kim Nicolini does what had to be done and gives Wanted a good old symbollic reading:

Speaking of “getting the job done,” the job that needs to get done in this movie is freeing ourselves from the yoke of capitalism and the impotence it forces on us. Funny that not a single review I read of this movie refers to the Big C Word, but dang if this movie isn’t about the poor worker bee labor slaves needing to break free from the stranglehold Capitalism has on their lives. It’s all about rising up to take the motherfuckers down with guns and exploding rats.

§ Kristy Valenti recalls that female cartoonists didn’t start in 2000:

By 1995’s Twisted Sisters 2: Drawing the Line, Noomin and the contributors had buffed up their chops in a big way: not only are most of the stories perfectly realized in and of themselves (Debbie Drechsler’s “Sixteen,” Tyler’s “Migrant Mother,” Kominsky-Crumb’s “Codependent Ski Vacation,” Gloeckner’s “Minnie’s 3rd Love” and one of my favorite comic shorts of all time, Lay’s 12-pager in which a bitter woman mutated by toxic waste wins a “can you draw …” contest and becomes “God For a Day”), but many of the contributors seem to be hitting personal high-water marks: Kristine Kryttre’s wordless scratchboard “Friend,” Dame Darcy’s “The Story of Lilith,” Penny Moran Van Horne’s scratchboard “Psycho Drifter,” Mary Fleener’s cubist ode to surfing “Boogie Chillun!” and Noomin’s confessional “Baby Talk.” There’s not a clunker in the bunch, and overall, page layout, design and readability has improved.

§ This is very sad and disturbing. [Via Journalista]