The Three Paradoxes, Hornschemeier's new graphic novel, to be published in June by Fantagraphics, employs multiple narratives and continues his "fascination with the subjective world," he says. "I'm interested in the deterioration of memory and the nature of first-person accounts." Is there a unifying element to the variety of artwork and color schemes in his work? "My style has a kind of Midwestern openness," he says.

Some Other Day is a strange snapshot of several lives in small-town Texas and how they're affected by what looks like a cosmic event but turns out to be something a little more grounded in reality (if still kind of odd.)

It's a lot of story to bite off in this small package, and most of the stories come to something of an abrupt end, but there are some very true, effective moments in each one as well. Kelly's artwork perfectly matches this blend of mundane, everyday and more outrageous happenings, and he's got great storytelling skills as well as a style that reminds me of early work from both Steve Rolston and Mike Norton, two Oni Press mainstays. I see promising futures for both of these guys.

Wipe the golden tear from your mother dear, and raise what's left of the flag for me

Interesting footnote: The gentle voice recording over the light jazz music was offering pro-Social Security reform propaganda. No kidding. Talked about how changes need to be made soon to help social security for the year 2042 and beyond, and also explaining how each generation pays into the next, with the extra amount put back into the account, etc.

This is insane. Who knew Social Security administration was republican?

For the record, Social Security can correct itself, because when a surplus of workers pays into a smaller amount of retirees. The surplus is put back into the fund, which accounts for those times when the retirees are greater than the workers. And since my generation is considerably smaller than either the baby boomers ahead of us and the younger generation behind us, the administration is not giving the whole picture. Even though people are living longer, my generation is having few children. It works out. The problem comes when the federal government borrows from Social Security and is unable to pay back into it. The problem is deficit spending and an unbalanced budget. Thank you Bush.

Also, it is misleading to say that Social Security will "run out of money". It only means that in the next fifty year or whatever Social Security will hypothetically cease to be profitable-- which medicare is already in the situation. Why aren't we working on medicare reform?

"This expo is the biggest thing I've ever accomplished," he (Chris Nicholas) continues. "It's been a hell of a learning experience for me, a lot of groping through the dark and figuring out what needed to be done. But everybody's been pitching in-- Gary Bartos and Nate Southard. Manton Reece, who designed our Web site. The Zine Library people, everybody, I couldn't even name them all. And the response has been really encouraging, from here and out of town, and, yeah, it's gonna be great. Like I said:It's gonna be a party."

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