FEARnet: CAT BURGLAR BLACK is one of the "Top 9 of '09"!

Thank you to FEARnet for listing CAT BURGLAR BLACK as one of the "Top 9 of '09" in their Comics & Graphic Novels division. It's an honor and a (nice) surprise!

Top 9 of '09: Comic Books and Graphic Novels - FEARNet

A Gallery of Christmas Cards

Here is a selection of my Christmas/Seasons Greetings cards from over the years, mostly from the 1990s and early '00s. These were made to be sent to illustration/comics colleagues and clients. One of the earlier ones here, from 1992, was done on a letterpress (shown at the top). Others were simply done at Kinkos and some I did using Cafe Press. A couple were actually assignments -- Christmas cards for other people (like Fantagraphics or The Seattle Rocket) -- that I then revised and used as my own.

I did cards every year from 1992 until just a couple of years ago, but I don't have any left in my files from some years. I especially liked drawing Santa Claus for some reason. The one with the magician and his rabbit is from the year I had a strip featuring those characters running in Nickelodeon Magazine (I loved doing that strip, but it only lasted for about ten 2-page episodes...sigh). Nowadays, of course, anyone can create their own cards on their computers and print them out themselves on really nice paper -- that's still amazing to me. It's pretty cool, actually...

Anyway -- HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

DELPHINE Examined

Thank you to Ng Suat Tong for his thoughtful and insightful 7-page (!) review of the DELPHINE series on the (brand new) website for The Comics Journal:

Review: Ng Suat Tong: Delphine # 1-4 « The Comics Journal

Top: Blurry snapshot of original cover art for DELPHINE #4 I took for reference before sending them to the publisher...

A (slightly dated) look at PSYCHO SANTA MOVIES (from 2003)

Here is a strip I did for the Seattle weekly, THE STRANGER in December 2003. Yes, there has since been a surge in Christmas time horror movies and many (!) more have made since then. But at the time these films almost seemed to be the product of a by-gone era, believe it or not. And, no, these may not be the most scholarly (or accurate!) descriptions of the films, since I did this strip mostly from memory (not to mention on a deadline - so please consider that when casting a critical eye on the thing!). Even just six years ago, some of these films were hard (for me anyway) to track down to re-watch, so most descriptions are based on the one or two times I saw the films myself, which was years earlier. I say all of this because I know that nowadays anyone who wishes can find out everything they wish about any of these movies online and there may be some who could find much to quibble about (yes, I know the blonde wasn't actually wearing a green top - or anything actually - when she got stuck on the antlers, etc etc), but I ask you, dear readers, to please consider the spirit in which the strip was done -- with a sense of humor rather than as a serious piece of film criticism (!). Plus - on a deadline -- Did I mention that?

The COMIC BOOK BIN concludes its reviews of the DELPHINE series with a look at the final issue...

Sample quote: "The first two issues of Delphine, Richard Sala’s reinvention of Snow White, were sparkling macabre gems. While the third could also be described as such, it was in the third chapter that the story took a turn into darker territory. It was then that the narrative point of view began to ask questions about the traveler’s relationship with Delphine. The readers only see Delphine as she is related to them by the traveler. He is obsessed with Delphine, and that makes everything about his narration suspect, which keeps the readers unbalanced. The bewildering events of this fourth volume race towards a stunning conclusion, one that is quietly horrifying, yet terrifying in its sadness.

The fourth book is a must for those who have read earlier issues, but it will make the uninitiated really want to read Delphine from the beginning.

Grade: A"

Richard Sala's Delphine #4