Space Station Ahoy!

So Karen and I went out to watch the International Space Station skim our southern horizon and slide beneath the Moon Friday night (this passes for "Date Night" around our house; I'll bet there's some ladies out there right now wondering how they ever let me get away). I took a lousy movie of it:



(If you're having a hard time seeing a tiny point of light in a tiny digital window, take a look at the larger version on YouTube.)

I'm actually surprised and happy with how this turned out. First, I shot it with a simple little digital point-and-shoot in video mode, nothing sophisticated. Second, I did a dry run with a different camera (a Flip) during a very short ISS pass last night that failed utterly. Third, it wasn't long after sunset and the sky was still quite bright and hazy; I wasn't sure we'd see anything. All things considered, I'm very pleased.

The ISS didn't really look much different from an airplane, and you kind of have to think about what you're looking at for the impact to hit you. There are people on that thing. In space. People in space. 200 miles high. In space. In the five minutes it took me to walk home after shooting this, they'd already traveled halfway across North America. So: impressive!

As I mentioned before, the website Heavens Above can give you a list of all the times the ISS is visible from your house for the next 10 days. I think it's worthwhile to take 5 minutes to go outside, look up, and marvel.
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Yoe, Kids, it's 3-D Comics!

Just arrived in my mailbox is the new book Amazing 3-D Comics, edited and designed by Craig Yoe with a cover and introduction by the great comic book artist Joe Kubert. What a terrific book: a joyful, energetic, thoughtful celebration of the red-blue 3-D comics of the early 1950s, with both Kubert (who helped invent them) and Yoe providing historical context and technical insights into the process, along with pages and pages of actual 3-D comics carefully remastered by Yoe.

Incidentally, that link above goes to an Amazon page with a cover image that looks nothing like the actual cover. In fact, I couldn't find a decent image of the real one online and had to scan my own, which I think had the accidental benefit of capturing some of the 3-D quality of Kubert's beautiful lenticular cover image, one of the nicest I've seen.

I know Craig Yoe through Editor Charlie (Craig has done books for Abrams, including a great one on the comic strip Krazy Kat and its creator George Herriman) and I've never met anyone with more passion and appreciation for old comics, the more obscure the better. He's a writer, designer, publisher, creative director, historian, and unique character (I don't think he'd mind me saying that) who recently gave me a ton of free advice for Mystery Project X that I appreciated very, very much. He also told me how much care went into printing Amazing 3-D Comics, including the use of two extra Pantone inks (not cheap) in addition to the usual cyan, magenta, yellow and black, to try to present these comics in their best light.

In my opinion, Craig's hard work and attention to detail paid off. I thought Amazing 3-D Comics was a beautifully designed book that perfectly balanced information and entertainment, curated by two of the most qualified people on the planet. I read it with a smile and enjoyed it a lot.

I couldn't find a photo of Craig Yoe with me, so here's one I took of him with Editor Charlie instead. Craig's the one with superior taste in shirts.

Space Patrol Alert!

Attention West Coast Space Rangers! This Friday, August 12, shortly after 8:30 p.m., the International Space Station will be flying over your town!

Big whoop?

The ISS is always flying over somebody's town, and can cover a given area several times per week. In fact, this week and next offer my part of the planet several opportunities to see the ISS just before dawn or after dusk, when the sky is darkish and the station reflects the light of the Sun just over the horizon.

What makes this apparition special enough to trigger the Space Patrol Orange Alert is that the ISS will be passing very close to the Moon, which'll make it easy to find and could give someone a nice photo op. In fact, it looks to me like observers along a line running from Watsonville (Calif.) through Turlock to approximately Battle Mountain (Nevada) have a good chance to catch the station flying across the face of the Moon, which would be very cool indeed.

The website Heavens Above can provide times and sky charts for your area. The map at the top of this post is for San Francisco, and shows the ISS skimming just under the Moon. Tell the site where you live--either by entering latitude and longitude, searching for your city's name, or pinpointing it on a map (if you use the map, don't forget to also specify your Time Zone)--then pick "10 Day Predictions for: ISS," and it'll provide a list of all your viewing opportunities. This one is for 12 Aug starting around (depending on your location) 20:33.

So, Space Rangers stationed in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and northern Mexico: go outside this Friday night around 8:30 and watch the southern skies to the right of the Moon. The ISS should look like a pretty bright star moving at a fair clip from right to left. The farther south you're located, the higher in the sky it'll appear. You don't need a telescope, although some people have seen the station's distinctive H-shape through binoculars. If you haven't spotted anything by 8:40, you missed it. Better luck next time!

Don't forget to report your findings to Cap Crater at Space Command, and ad astra per aspera!

Astrophotographer Theirry Legault took this shot of the ISS transiting the Moon last December. Think you can do better? Give it a try!

When Worlds Collide

Not everyone will appreciate today's topic, but a very small number of the right people are going to lose at least an hour of their day and thank me for it.

"Forty Acres" was the nickname of a 29-acre (I know) movie studio backlot in Culver City, California active from the days of silent films into the '70s. It provided facades for western towns, small towns and downtowns. At various times it housed Tara from "Gone With the Wind," Stalag 13 from "Hogan's Heroes," King Kong's giant gate and Tarzan's jungle. The lot got its greatest sustained exposure as Mayberry over several years of "The Andy Griffith Show."

Demonstrating precisely why the Internet was created, many courageously dedicated souls--some clearly cursed with OCD--have combed through pretty much every television program and movie made during those decades to produce a meticulously cross-referenced visual catalog of Forty Acres. Want to see how the same street looked in "Superman," "The Andy Griffith Show," "Star Trek," "The Untouchables," "Land of the Giants," "Lassie" and "Batman"? These guys can help you with that.

I've seen the "Star Trek" episode "City on the Edge of Forever" a thousand times but never really tumbled to the fact Captain Kirk and Edith Keeler stroll past THE Floyd's Barber Shop from Mayberry.

Fair turnabout: in "The Andy Griffith Show" Opie rode his bicycle past the 21st Street Mission (note the sign in the window) where Kirk and Spock found a hot meal and the tools needed to build a computer during the Depression.

It's all at the Forty Acres website. If you grew up watching TV and films from this era, these streets may seem like old familiar friends to you. It took me a minute to get the hang of navigating the site; use the tabs at the top to select topics. Clicking on most photos magnifies them. It all interesting--like I said, for some tiny proportion of the population (I'm looking at you, Lynch and O'Kane)--but I thought the real gold was in the four-part "Virtual Tour."

I dunno. Maybe I'm not hooked up right.
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I, For One, Welcome Our New Robot Overlords

Somebody recently paid $5.8 million at auction for a unique pair of antique pistols. I think they got a bargain:



When our girls were 16, Karen and I took them on our first (and to date only) family trip to Europe, cruising around the Mediterranean. Very near the top of my list of most delightful discoveries was the National Museum of Monaco, which we stumbled upon just wandering around the city-state after forgoing the organized tours. We figured, "It's a museum, the price is OK . . . ehh, let's take a look." It turned out to be entirely dedicated to old dolls and automatons--ingenious wind-up robots built in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.

My girls and I approaching the Museum.

We had the place almost to ourselves and had just started up a staircase when a docent came rushing down, herding us with his arms and commanding us in rapid-fire French (which none of us understand) to turn around and descend. We wondered if we'd done something wrong and were being thrown out. But it turned out we'd arrived just in time for the tour, and our guide took us from display to display, wound them up, and stood back to watch our amazement. The automatons had the most incredible life-like action. Graceful, delicate, even poignant. Some of them breathed.

The automaton in the video below wasn't in our museum, but she's pretty representative of the sort of that was:



One of the things that interests and amuses me about history in general, and the history of science and technology in particular, is the subconscious arrogance most of us carry around. We seem to think we're smarter than all the generations that came before us. We're not. To paraphrase Newton, if we see farther, it's only because we're standing on their shoulders. Never, ever underestimate the ingenuity of a person in any century trying to solve a problem or make something work. Look at what skilled craftsmen could accomplish with gears and springs (and without electricity) two centuries ago!
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Weasley Punks

Except for occasional telepathy, my girls have never exploited their identical-twinness--no dressing the same, no swapping classes, no fooling their friends. The whole "twin thing" is a low-level buzz in the back of their lives that Laura and Robin tolerate when they have to.

This summer they're both on the "Special Events" staff of our County Fair. Usually that means minding the children's game area, working the Information Booth, or running whatever errands need running. This year, their boss Jane declared Sunday to be "Harry Potter Day" at the Fair, with specially themed decorations and contests, and encouraged her employees to get into the spirit.

And if it's Harry Potter Day and you're identical twins and you both happen to have ginger wigs at home, you really don't have much choice:

Meet Fred and George Weasley. Or George and Fred. I never could tell them apart.


Posted with their reluctant permission (thanks, girls!).

The highlight of my day was when a woman asked me, "Are you the Weasley twins' dad?" Yes. Yes, I am Mr. Weasley. Just here studying the muggles for the afternoon. Carry on.

Only kidding about the telepathy. I think.

Thanks to Jordan Rich and His Listeners

Welcome to any listeners of the Jordan Rich Show dropping by to check out me and my work! Since I'm drafting this in advance I don't yet know if I was a good guest, but I hope I didn't embarrass myself, my profession, my publisher or my country too much. And my sincere thanks to Jordan.

Here are some links to a few of my blog posts that are more noteworthy than others:

My very first, after winning the Eisner Award for Mom's Cancer (July 2005).

Mom's passing (Oct. 2005).

The New York book launch party for Mom's Cancer, my first (and still my favorite) big-time literary event (Feb. 2006).

My first time on radio, on NPR's "All Things Considered" with cartoonist Miriam Engelberg. I only mention it because Miriam's book Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person, about her fight with the cancer that eventually killed her, is the only other book sort of like mine that I unreservedly recommend. She was terrific. (June 2006)

The Norman Rockwell Museum invited me to the opening of an exhibition of comic art, the first time I'd seen my work hanging on a museum wall instead of piled on the floor under my desk. A career highlight! (Nov. 2007)

My first post on this here Fies Files blog, announcing Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? (WHTTWOT) (July 2008).

I spent an afternoon as "Cartoonist in Residence" at the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, which pretty much blew my mind. (Jan. 2010)

My thoughts on WHTTWOT winning the American Astronautical Society's Emme Award for Outstanding Astronautical Literature for Young Adults (Sept. 2010), plus a few follow-up thoughts (Nov. 2010). Another career highlight!

Last June I helped organize a "Comics & Medicine" conference in Chicago after being asked to speak at a similar event in London in 2010. Both were extraordinary conferences that mined the unexpectedly rich vein where storytelling meets healthcare. It sounds weird but it works. (June 2011)

Anyone interested in posts on specific topics such as how I approach cartooning can skim through the "Labels" to the right. I also put together a little PDF Press Kit that has more information about both of my books as well as reviews and more.

Finally, I'd encourage anyone interested in buying my books to check with your local heroic independent bookseller first. However, if they're unwiling, unable or already out of business, you can find my books online:

Mom's Cancer: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Chapters Indigo (Canada).

WHTTWOT: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Chapters Indigo (Canada).

To my regulars: sorry I've been too busy to blog as much as I'd like. Day job. It's gonna be like this a while. Many thanks to all.
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From Coast to Coast and All the Ships at Sea

I've gotten the nod to announce that I'm scheduled to be a guest on the Jordan Rich Show on Boston radio station WBZ 1030 on Friday, July 29! Since WBZ has a mighty continent-spanning 50,000-watt transmitter in addition to being part of the CBS Radio Network, the potential audience is enormous.

Bearing in mind that I'm always at the mercy of breaking news or a better guest turning up, I'll be Jordan's guest at midnight (Eastern) Friday night/Saturday morning and spend at least half an hour talking about graphic novels in general and my graphic novels in particular. I owe the gig entirely to Friend O' The Blog Jim O'Kane, who as the World's Foremost Authority on TV Single Dads has been Jordan's guest before and convinced him I was worth a listen. If this goes well, I might have to elevate Jim's status to "Benefactor O' The Blog." Sincere thanks to Jim.

Now where did I put my Les Nessman Correspondence Course?

I expect WBZ's facilities have improved since 1921.

Friday Outgoing

Electrons for Sale! Get Yer Electrons, Right Here!

Big publishing news, at least to me: Mom's Cancer is now available for the Kindle, with other e-book platforms to follow very soon! Within a week or two I should be able to direct you to similar offerings for the Nook, Nook Color and Sony Reader, with Apple's iBookstore to follow later this summer.

This has been in the works for a while and I'm very excited about it. I'm interested to see how my book works in electronic format--which may prove difficult since I don't actually own any of those readers. But my artwork is clean and open enough, and my lettering large and legible enough, that I'd expect Mom's Cancer to look pretty sharp.

I'm especially gratified that my publisher Abrams went to the effort. Mom's Cancer was published almost exactly five years ago (that's so hard for me to believe that I checked the math twice) and is now a backlist book that wouldn't ordinarily get a new lease on life. It's nice to see that Editor Charlie and his bosses still have some confidence in it.

We've also had some conversations about what could come next for Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow, including softcover (not this year for sure, but maybe next) and e-book editions. The latter would be an interesting challenge, since we went to a lot of trouble to use different paper stock and such that wouldn't translate to the screen. Simply digitizing the existing layouts wouldn't work. I've already told Editor Charlie and Abrams's e-book person that when the time comes, I want to work closely with them to get that right.

Pretty cool, eh? Some days I like living in the Future.

UPDATE: As of this morning, it's available for the Nook as well!
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Independence on the Hornet

I had a great Fourth of July with my daughters, who treated me to an afternoon and night aboard the USS Hornet, as apt a place as any to celebrate U.S. independence.

As I've mentioned before but wouldn't expect anyone to remember, my daughter Laura is a docent aboard the Hornet, which was decommissioned as an aircraft carrier in 1970 after recovering Apollos 11 and 12, and is now a dockside museum in Alameda, Calif. My other daughter Robin has since signed on as a museum volunteer (though not a full docent . . . yet) and they've particularly enjoyed staffing the ship for sleepovers by groups like Boy and Girl Scouts. Because they often work overnight, they've been assigned quarters--an honest-to-goodness officer's stateroom, which is where they invited me to spend the night after watching fireworks over San Francisco Bay at the end of the Hornet's big July Fourth Family Day. (My wife Karen opted out--something about peace, quiet, solitude, not sleeping on a steel floor, yada yada.)

The Hornet was really buzzing (heh) yesterday, with a couple thousand people enjoying a day of food, drink, bounce houses, bands performing on two levels (Hangar and Flight decks), plus an entire aircraft carrier to explore. I particularly appreciated meeting some of the other docents, generally older gentlemen who served on the Hornet or ships of her era and had very interesting stories to tell as well as nice compliments about my girls. As Karen and I say, it's like Laura and Robin have 50 grandpas. Then at night everyone gathered at the Flight Deck's stern to watch fireworks, which I honestly think were disappointing for some. Too low and distant. Not for me, though. Sitting in the cold bay breeze watching glowing dandelions of light puff into the sky was the perfect cap to a full day.

Flight Deck of the Hornet (facing the stern), laid out with picnic tables, a band stage, food and beverage tents, and porta-potties. The silhouette of San Francisco is visible on the horizon. If I'm not mistaken (and there's a 60-40 chance I am), I shot this photo in the very spot President Nixon stood when he welcomed Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins back from the Moon.

Looking the other direction toward the bow, where some aircraft and bouncy-houses were lashed to the deck.

My girls Robin and Laura on their way up the staff gangway. Laura did a four-hour docent shift yesterday, which is why she's in the navy and khaki uniform. Looking sharp.

Laura also took the time to give me a private tour of some parts of the ship normally closed to visitors that I hadn't seen before. Here in the Engine Room, I'm givin' her all I got, Cap'n! ("Bridge, she canna take any more!") Laura later explained that the two wheels I'm so desperately spinning controlled the "ahead" and "astern" steam valves, and by opening both simultaneously I probably would have blown up the turbine. This is why I don't service my own car.



I shot the above video walking from one end of the Hangar Deck to the other. PLEASE NOTE that at the beginning of the video I state that I'm walking from bow to stern. I'm actually doing the opposite. I knew that! Seconds before shooting this, I was standing out on the ship's fantail (i.e., the back end) and knew exactly where I was. I just misspoke. This is why I don't service my own garbage disposal or lawn mower, either.

A sorry attempt at artistry. Again, that's San Francisco in the distance, with the Sun setting behind the Bay Bridge (as well as a crane barge thing docked next to the Hornet).

While the Hornet's history of service during World War II, Korea and Vietnam make it an interesting historic artifact, it is the ship's service in the exploration of space that really gets me tingling. The video below is a quick survey of some of the ship's Space Age artifacts. I preface the narrative saying I shot it just for Friend O' The Blog Jim O'Kane, but everyone else is welcome to watch, too. I'll have a few notes on the other side.



The Sea King helicopter is the same type used to recover Apollo astronauts from the Pacific after splashdown. However, this is not the original #66, but was painted with its livery for use in the movie "Apollo 13." The Hornet acquired the chopper after filming and kept the paint job. The Apollo Command Module capsule CM-011A was used for suborbital tests in 1966. This very capsule was shot into space and recovered by the Hornet, and still has a big dent in its underside from drop-impact testing conducted after it returned. Also in the video is the Mobile Quarantine Facility, a modified Airstream trailer used to isolate astronauts returning from the Moon to protect the Earth from hypothetical space germs. This particular MQF was used for Apollo 14, which the Hornet did not recover; however, nearly identical trailers were used for the astronauts of Apollos 11 and 12, who were retrieved by the Hornet. The "Gemini Boilerplate" is a dummy Gemini capsule used for testing. It's tiny; hard to believe two men fit inside (the real ones, that is).

Me in one of the three most famous Airstream trailers in the History of Forever.

My daughter Robin took this photo of me and a random boy inspecting the interior of the Apollo capsule. He walked right up and explained everything to me. I posted this picture to my Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow Facebook page because this is exactly what my book is about.

My girls and I spent the night aboard ship and emerged around 8:30 this morning to find the Hangar Deck deserted. We took a chopper for a spin around the Bay and then went home.

Thanks to my girls for giving me an Independence Day that was more fun for me than Father's Day and Christmas put together! And again, if you're ever in the East Bay with a few hours on your hands and the remotest interest in any of this stuff, I highly recommend a visit to the Hornet. Ask for Laura.
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I Stand On Guard South of Thee

Today is Canada Day, giving me a rare chance to combine two of my favorite things: Canada, and William Shatner. Happy Canada Day! I love you guys.

Don't It Always Seem to Go . . .

Add to the long list of little 20th Century things that nobody will appreciate until they're gone: watching the odometer roll over. The darn things are all digital LEDs or LCDs now, and the enormous satisfaction of watching the tiny tumblers line up and push each other from 199,999 to 200,000, as my little '96 Honda's did yesterday, is going as extinct as the dial phone and casette tape.



Karen and I have been looking forward to it for months. Yesterday, with three miles to go, we found ourselves driving laps around an empty business park so we could savor the milestone. Slower . . . slower . . . nine, nine, nine, nine, nine . . . ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO! WooHOO! High fives all around!

My next goal is to get the car past 239,000 miles; then I can say I drove it to the Moon. Pay no attention to that little red "Maintenance" indicator. It just wants attention.