SANTA 17

On This Day: November 11 1975

Harry Dean Stanton: Died and tried September 16

Bilinda Butcher: Born and Drawn September 16

TODAY August 11 1942: Hedy Lamarr receives a patent (along with George Antheil) for the frequency hopping technology that would lead to Wifi

Hysteria #1: IT WAS TWENTY YEARS AGO TODAY

That I published my first comic, an anthology of short stories that began with this wordless sequence. Another case where comics expressed more directly what I struggled to do in prose.

Hysteria #1: DAY OF THE MERMAIDS

The first multi-page story for Hysteria #1, this was the kind of thing I had in mind when I started thinking of short story ideas as comics. It's a magical realist fable that kept on turning into a cut-rate Peter Carey story when I tried to write it. Driving the other way and using only pictures solved that problem.

TODAY: July 5 1954. During a break Elvis Presley noodles around a tune he likes, That's Alright by Arthur Crudup.

He picks up the pace and changes the words to suit the wilder mood he's started. Bill Black gets his bass and Scotty Moore picks his Gibson up again and they go for it. In the pause after the last chord smashes down Sam Phillips at the console says: Ok, boys, do that again and we'll record it.

FRANZ KAFKA: Born and Drawn July 3

TODAY: Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan Lose Radio Contact

NOSTRADAMUS: Born and Drawn July 2 (as postdicted)

HELENA OF MOSCOW: Born and Drawn may 19

MARTINE CAROL: Born and Drawn May 16

Clawscape: Noodled while listening to podcast

CLARENCE DARROW: Died and Tried March 13

DZIGA VERTOV: Died and tried February 12

RENE DESCARTES: Died and Tried February 11

Second glass o' wine (actually, it's a chianti so I could say. I finished him off with a niiiice Chiaaanti! but you're getting a cruddy philosophy joke instead.)

JOHN HURT: Died and Tried January 27

JAMES JOYCE: Died and Tried January 13

ALFRED RUSSELL WALLACE: Died and Tried January 8

GEORGE MACDONALD FRASER: Died and Tried January 2

HANK WILLIAMS: Died and Tried January 1