Cartoonists With Attitude

Okay, I’ve taken the plunge into the cesspool of self-promotion and slutdom that is MySpace. Go check out my totally excellent taste in music and movies, or better yet, place a friend request.





http://www.myspace.com/slowpokecomics

*WE’RE OFF TO SAN DIEGO!!

It was way too crazy tryin’ to fire off a newsletter, so i hope folks see this blog and come out to the Comic-Con to say hello. I’ll be hanging out with the usual gang of idiots : Notley, Wheeler, Beland, Izumi and many more..




Psst..Garrett ..Don’t forget the grassy knoll!!

I have worked both as a grocery store cashier and web designer, so you would think I’d have no problem with those computerized checkout machines that are infiltrating supermarkets everywhere. But you’d be wrong. I have yet to pass through one of those automated gauntlets without exploding with rage.

This is not to suggest I am opposed to all forms of automation. ATM machines, for example, are pretty handy. But the “U-Scan” machines at the grocery store do not make life more convenient. Especially if you buy a lot of produce or bulk items. A couple weeks ago, Mr. Slowpoke and I were forced to go through one of these bastard lanes because we were shopping late at night, and the store literally had no human cashiers on duty. Among our purchases were two ears of corn. To simply to locate “corn” on the computer was a labyrinthine process out of the movie Brazil. Though we were eventually rewarded with the hilarious bot-speak: “YOU HAVE SELECTED… (long pause)…
CORN!!!
“

Don’t even get me started about the previous time, when the machine scanned an item twice.

The United Food and Commercial Workers’ union has an article on self-checkout machines worth reading. In addition to the threat they pose to a shrinking pool of working-class jobs, they make for highly demoralizing work:

Margaret Christy, an Atlanta Kroger cashier of nine years and member of Local 1996, can feel Kimbro’s stress—times two. She’s in charge of eight U-Scan checkouts: four larger-sized carousels for any size order, and four smaller-sized ones for 15 items or less.

“Customers sometimes get angry because I’m taking care of someone who has a check, and then another who has coupons. Some will just walk off and go to a cashier, or some will get nasty with me. It gets stressful, because there is only so much I can do with eight U-Scans. I’m told not to take it personally, but it’s hard not to when customers are yelling at me. It’s tiring.�

The article goes on to report that the IHL Consulting Group — a firm that collects data on retailing technology — found that “the actual transaction process is faster with staffed checkout because of the experience of the checker and the avoidance of delays from the security features of the self-checkout devices.â€? Yes, the UFCW has an interest in protecting jobs. But the article strikes me as fair-minded. So, Kroger and Giant: next time you force me to do your labor, I’d like to be paid for it. And health insurance would be nice, too.

A reporter for CampusProgress.org, a publication for progressive college students which runs my cartoons, has been denied access to the right-wing Young America Foundation’s annual student conference… by the very same YAF spokesman who has reported on Campus Progress’s events:

Yes—the same Jason Mattera who has refused Campus Progress a press credential for the Young America’s Foundation annual conference has twice written web pieces about the Campus Progress annual conference – the second time, just days after he denied me access.

Read all about it here.

It’s Here!

I feel like I’ve given birth.

Terry at NBM Publishing messengered over the first copy of SILK ROAD TO RUIN. With great trepidation, a flashback to the disappointment when St. Martin’s Press fucked up the printing of WAKING UP IN AMERICA, I opened the package and removed the book. Would the spot varnish on the blood splatters look OK? Would the matte jacket look good with the paper stock? Had the hardcover casing turned out OK? Were the signatures laid out properly–not always a given?

I needn’t have feared. SILK ROAD is, without a doubt, a fine-looking specimen. Over an inch thick, nice blacks, the graphic novellas look great, etc. Whew.

I think Terry, who says this is my best work yet, may be right.

Attendees to next week’s San Diego Comic Con will have the first shot in the nation of buying SILK ROAD TO RUIN. I’ll also be on hand to sign it. (And no, no, no–I’m not doing any panels or talks there. And yes, I would do one if invited. But I never have been and never will be, so please stop asking.)

Books will begin shipping to stores in August and should start appearing in two or three weeks. Now would be a good time to place your order with your local bookstore or online using the link above.

I think (crossing my fingers here…) that this is going to be one of my Big Deal kind of books.

SavetheInternet.com, the group fighting the telecoms’ efforts to control internet content, featured my “Web of Deception” cartoon on their blog yesterday. Note to the astroturfers at “Hands off the internet” — this is what an actual grassroots cartoon looks like.