Halloween week is upon us! So before I watch Its the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown tonight…

…I thought I’d share some pics of a party that Jeff, Vijaya and I attended last Saturday night. (I’m so gonna be in trouble for this...)

Here are the lovely Condiment couple, Jeff and Vijaya!

Here’s Vijaya laughing it up with our friend Tim.

And last, but certainly not least…we received this awesome picture of Fone Bone! This is a homemade costume that a loving mom made for her son Jack, for the big day! GREAT JOB ERICA!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE! Let the "ketchup" jokes begin!

As excitment swirls around the film version of WhereThe Wild Things Are, MTV explores other misunderstood monsters. Bartleby makes the top of the list as one of the five most misunderstood comic book monsters! You can read all about it here.

Just got back from the Retailer Summit in Baltimore on Tuesday where I met and talked with over three hundred comic shop owners and managers from all over North America. Got a lot of great feedback on RASL, which was nice. Above is the art for the cover of #7, which will be in the Diamond catalog for items shipping in Feb. Starting with #7 next year RASL will begin shipping bimonthly. The second collection, RASL 2: The Fire of St. George should drop in April. Amazing color from Steve, huh? Wild!

One surprise for me at the summit was learning that so many comic shops were doing well with the BONE color editions from Scholastic. For some reason, I thought those were mostly being sold into bookstores, schools and libraries, but I heard differently this week! So thank you, retailers, for continuing to support for BONE.

Another happy event last weekend was Terry Moore’s win at the Harveys. ECHO won for best new series! Much deserved! Terry has worked hard to bring that story to life, and we’re all crazy proud of him!

Yesterday was fellow Ohioan Harvey Pekar’s 70th birthday. As part of a surprise for Harvey, I, along with about 90 other cartoonists, drew Harvey Heads. The portraits were unveiled yesterday on SMITH Magazine’s (no relation!) website called The Pekar Project.

Witney Matheson at USA Today’s Pop Candy Store covered the event.

So Happy Birthday, Harvey.  And thanks; you are a unique and fascinating artist, and comics is a better place because of you.