November 30 -  Well, November's done, and, with it, Military Comic Book Character Month here in the ol' WOMP-Blog.  Tonight's final character, Sgt. Rock, shares a common trait with many from the others I've listed so far...and it's not one which you may be thinking of.  In spite of the penchant to recycle, reimagine, or restart comics characters these days, there once was a sense that some characters, especially those from a historic period (other than our own) might actually die.  In fact, it was always the plan.  The Viking Prince may be cool and all, but, despite what a recent animated Justice League Unlimited episode would have you believe, he died centuries ago.  Back in the day, before the more serious efforts to sew all characters from one publishing company into a single tapestry of continuity, characters were developed in relative autonomy from others.  That's what made crossovers so much fun, seeing how disparate "realities" could be cobbled together (the classic "Earth Two" solution being a prime example).  During that long ago period, only a select few super-folks would be under any intra-company continuity restraints, and even those were of the "keep the status quo" sort (I mean, come on; how was Spider-Man having all of those Marvel Team-Ups, with characters as diverse as Man-Thing and Captain Marvel, all while continuing to conduct business as usual in the non-synced storylines of The Amazing Spider-Man, Peter Parker The Spectacular Spider-Man, and Spidey Super Stories?).  Back then, a book's creative team was the primary source of all creative decisions.  One such book was Our Army at War, featuring "break out" character Sgt. Rock.  Although more or less created by Bob Haney and Ross Andru, there is little doubt that Rock eventually "belonged" to editor/writer Bob Kanigher and artist Joe Kubert.  As they teamed to tell stories of dynamic realism, they began to see Rock as a metaphor for the effect of war itself.  Toward that end, it was always their wish, and Mr. Kanigher's assertion, that the grizzled Sergeant, and all other members of Easy Company, would die in combat on the last day of World War Two.  Kanigher went so far as to suggest that Rock may have been the last man killed.  In researching (and rereading) the characters I've listed here this month, I found that to be a common desire amongst the creators of other battle-weary soldiers - that the characters be killed in fighting on the final day of their respective conflicts.  Some of this is just the desire to wrap things up with a poetic, gritty finale, but it also came from a desire to have us see those characters for what they were meant to be; real.  OK, so no-one ever had as many unbelievably close scrapes as Rock and still survived (for example, he used to shoot down the Luftwaffe's best strafers with hand-held machine guns), but, each story taken individually, he was still just a guy, a real guy, who couldn't fly or teleport or whatever.  In fact, he was often pretty beat up (being temporarily blinded in one memorable storyline).  And that was the point.  These characters were not meant to go home, get a job at a gas station or grocery store, and get back to paying bills.  These characters were representative of what a war steals from its combatants; first innocence, then hope, then fear, then humanity, and, finally, life.  This general theme has pervaded war stories in other media (the movie Platoon and the final episode of M.A.S.H. come to mind), but never so intimately as with a character who has "lived" with us for so long....and, as it turns out, not completely yet anyway.  Sgt. Rock's publishing demise lapped over into the rise of uniform publisher continuity, so he was never allowed to die.  He has been seen as a CIA bureau chief who teams with Batman (ridiculous on so many levels), and an 80-year-old General now in charge of the Pentagon...under President Lex Luthor (only slightly more believable)!  What a disservice.  Sgt. Rock is not just some fictional entity to be utilized for profit and plot.  He is an effigy...a eulogy...for men who fought, and died.  To remove him from that theater would be like having Abraham Lincoln fight alongside a starship captain (er...sorry;  Star Trek on Nick at Nite again).  No, he is not a superhero, nor even a hero.  Rock was, and should always be, a continuous epitaph to the common man in uniform who found himself in the line of fire during World War Two.  Of course, that seems to be how DC is handling him now, having published Sgt. Rock; Between Hell and a Hard Place, Sgt. Rock; The Prophecy, and so forth - all of which were big sellers, proving that the character is still as strong as his name suggests.  And, here is that name, the last Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - Sgt. Frank Rock!

November 29 -  More thoughts about Dave Cockrum tonight...sorta.  As I was watching CNN Headline News this afternoon, they actually discussed Mr. Cockrum's passing, even reporting that his wife, Paty, had said that he died wearing his Superman pajamas, under his Batman blanket (a touching note, which honestly choked up the anchors).  My admiration for Dave Cockrum went up another notch when I heard that...but why?  Since then, I've been thinking about what traits, gifts, and quirks inspire me to admire someone.  I came up with a lot of interesting characteristics, which I was going to share with you, but, as a list, it was pretty long and boring.  Also, when it came right down to it, I realized that I am less inspired by someone with a single, predominant positive characteristic, than I am by someone who balances varying degrees of good and less-good traits, resulting in an overall positive aggregate.  I admire Thomas Jefferson...but not his slave ownership.  I admire Stan Lee, but, well...not his slave ownership (and, on a side note, might I add one simple observation to the eternal argument about who did what during the early days of Marvel; regardless of how things were done, and irrespective of the fairness of the situation, Marvel always, ALWAYS, listed creator credits, from Day One, and those credits invariably say "Written by Stan 'The Man' Lee."  That doesn't make it right, or even true, but, if I worked for a place that had "Jim Smith, Chief Executive Officer" painted on the door, then, no matter how much of Jim Smith's job I actually did for him, at least I'd know what the score was.  That happens a lot in any business, but especially in cartooning, where uncredited assistants and "ghosts" are the norm.  But I digress...).  Most of the people whom I admire have struggled to be more positive than negative, and, in that struggle, became unique, maybe even quirky, individuals.  In fact, "individuality" is right up there with "sense of humor" as traits I most admire.  And speaking of individuals with a sense of humor brings me back to Mr. Cockrum and his Superman PJs.  How cool, how sweet, how apropos, it is for a comic book legend to have such a comic book ending.  Oddly poetic.  Well, now I'm off to get some work done.  Maybe someone out there will admire me for my work ethic (yeah...sure).  Here's your Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - Gen. Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross!

November 28 -  The status is still quo here at WOMP Headquarters.  Nothing is worse, but nothing's better.  I suppose that is, then, "good," but it seems like every time I feel that way, things get worse (just to keep me grounded?).  I'm still pretty depressed by Dave Cockrum's passing.  I never met him...at least not in person.  To me, he was just one of those magical names on the credits pages of some of my favorite comics.  To know now, though, that he was a real man, who died too soon (only 63), and in financial difficulties due to his protracted illness, makes him even more magical to me, not less (as some might imagine).  Let me try to explain.  Just in case you didn't know, Mr. Cockrum created, among other things, many of the most famous X-Men, and fundamentally redesigned virtually all others.  I mention this because I read a beautiful, bittersweet story about Mr. Cockrum today (reported by Katrina A. Goggins for The Associated Press).  In a nutshell, Mr. Cockrum and a friend, Clifford Meth, attended one of the recent X-Men movies together.  This alone is remarkable, as Marvel had given Mr. Cockrum no royalties, nor even real credit, for characters which he'd created (some, like Nightcrawler, imagined years before he even drew his first comic).  Yet, there he was, suffering from advanced diabetes and virtual poverty, seated at a local showing of a multi-million dollar production based on his dreams.  During the film, Mr. Meth noticed that Mr. Cockrum was crying.  "Dave saw the movie and he cried...not because he was bitter," Mr. Meth said. "He cried because his characters were on screen and they were living."  In spite of his plight, and all other reasons to be sorrowful, or spiteful, he was so joyful that he was brought to tears.  Like I said, I never met him...but can there be any doubt that he was, at least a little, magical?  In honor of Dave Cockrum, here's one of his creations, and Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - Cap. Skyler "Sky-Wolf" Wolf!

November 27 -  Our cat, Carolina, is a little better today, even showing many signs of "normalcy" (which, for her, is still pretty strange).  Her improved condition has freed me from "sick watch," allowing me to get a lot of work done.  Among other things, I've now made some extremely preliminary plans for Fallfire 4, and set up a display of Fallfire 3 entries at the Prairie du Chien public library.  Yep, toss in a much appreciated day off from the dumb "real" job, and two episodes of Heroes on TV (one being last week's episode, which I'd missed, replayed on the SciFi Channel), and today was on it's way to being "good."  Then I found out that comics legend Dave Cockrum had passed away yesterday.  I read it in a posting on CBGXtra.com by O.F.O.WOMP, and Comics Buyer's Guide Trail Boss, Brent Frankenhoff.  Instantly, I had a flood of memories of Mr. Cockrum's distinctive art.  Many things stand out for me.  Some are just those little nuances here and there that attract an artist's eye (or even mine), but the aspect of Mr. Cockrum's work which is most memorable for me, and which virtually insures his legacy, was his knack for, and career of, designing costumes.  Many of the most beloved images from my early comics reading are direct results of Mr. Cockrum's imagination and creativity, like when Nightcrawler became a swashbuckler, or when Ms. Marvel got her new, sexy (now classic) suit, or whenever the Starjammers dropped in on the X-Men.  There is something indefinable, yet instantly recognizable, about a Cockrum design, even when drawn by another artist.  Even in this day of "realism" in comics, computer generated art, and revision after revision, Dave Cockrum's influence can still be felt.  Godspeed, Mr. Cockrum.  You will be missed.  My condolences to family, friends, and fans.  Here's your Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - Lt. "Captain" William Storm!

November 26 -  More pet troubles.  Carolina, litter sister to Danny (who passed away two years ago now), has been sick for about a week.  Last night, she seemed to be noticeably worse.  She's very subdued today, preferring to sit virtually motionless rather than curl up or walk around.  We are very worried about her, especially after having so recently also lost our rabbit.  If she doesn't improve by tomorrow, we'll take her to the vet.  It's no fun, all of this worry and heartbreak.  The good times with our pets seem to be no match for the overpoweringly sad emotions felt when we lose them...although they are, of course, commensurate.  That's not to say that Carolina is that sick, but, you know...they're cats.  Eventually, we're going to have to suffer through losing all of them.  And probably several others through the rest of our lives.  As I've been thinking about it, it occurred to me that The WOMP Staff and I are the only couple I know who don't have kids.  Within the past year, every last O.F.O.WOMP, in-law, co-worker, or whoever, who is part of an established couple (conventionally referred to as "married") has joined the ranks of the others who'd already entered parenthood.  We're the last hold-outs of free living!  When I worry about my pets, I imagine that all of you reading this think "You're worried about a sick cat?  Try having a sick kid!  You have no idea what worry is!"  And that's true; I don't.  That a parent suffers this permanent state of worry for the rest of their lives is something that must so fundamentally change a person that they turn into their own parents, like Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Mom.  Me?  I'm so emotionally unstable that a sick cat keeps me from getting work done.  I can't excuse it, only confirm it.  The love I have, and receive, from our pets can't compare to what we'd feel toward/from our own children, but it's still real, and it's all we have.  So, please forgive me if it disrupts the WOMP-Blog once in awhile (like it did yesterday).  Hopefully, our kitty is going to get better, but I thought I'd better warn ya.  Hmm.  That's not much of a posting, but I've got to go check on Carolina now, so it will have to do.  Here's your Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - Master Sgt. Ernie Bilko!

November 25 -  Yoips...another skipped day.  Sorry.  Here's what would have been the 25th's Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - Cap. Frank Castle!

November 24 -  It's the day after Thanksgiving, so here are some leftovers...

- Remember when Dennis Hastert, then still Speaker of The House, was here in Prairie du Chien?  It turns out that he is building a home nearby, in anticipation of his retirement.

- Speaking of remembering P.d.C., do you recall the incident involving the evacuation of our neighborhood?  The guy who caused it all has been sentenced to jail time for the event (three years?).

- Oh, and the most recent power outage?  The one that went "BANG!?"  That was an unlucky squirrel who unwittingly completed a circuit on an overhead powerline. 

- A recent, quick calculation, by Rivertown Fine Books owner John Malcom, revealed that the cost of hosting my L. Frank Baum book signing (ads, books, etc.) exceeded profits of the event by about $7.00, which he considers to be a success.

- The owner of Orion Computers, sponsor of the Fallfire 3 "Over 30" award, also gave two extra prizes at the Fallfire awards presentation event!  In addition to Eric Gillitzer, special prizes went to Natalie Heiring (also the Second Place winner) and Christine Panka.  How cool is that?

- The WOMPmobile, that dear, old piece of junk that I've been driving in spite of the knowledge that it will soon suffer a catastrophic failure, is truly on it's last legs.  Yes, yes...I've been saying this for months now, but it's finally here, no matter how hard I've tried to postpone it.  To describe what's wrong with it, it would be easier to tell you what's still working; the headlights and brake lights are fine, the left blinker still blinks, the fan is running again (even without heat), and, on rare occasion, the engine still runs whenever it finally starts.  That, by the way, hasn't happened in four days.

- Mmm...real leftovers!  The Staff and I just polished off the last of our "take home plate."  If the meal on Thanksgiving was a novel, tonight's snack, of tiny concentrated amounts of every item from the menu, was a perfect little haiku. 

That's about it for tonight, I guess.  Here's your Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - Pvt. Eric Koenig!

November 23 -  Happy Thanksgiving!  Well, of course it is now well into Friday, the 24th, as I type this, but "Happy Thanksgiving" anyway.  We had a great day, in spite of my shift at the dread "real" job.  The WOMP Staff and I went to my parents' house, where we had a truly traditional feast, complete with the little kids' table, the expected menu, and my Grandpa Fry.  Grandpa actually gave us quite a scare as he tried to maneuver his new rolling walker up the two steps into Mom and Dad's house.  He put the walker on the top step, then attempted to use it to pull himself up.  We were just walking up the driveway when we saw my 97-year-old Grandpa slowly falling backward!  We ran up, but, by the time we got there, he'd already done a sort of slow roll onto his back (never hitting his head, nor anything else very forcefully).  We carefully picked him up, and helped him into the house.  He seemed none the worse for the action, but it shook me up quite a bit.  Inside, once Grandpa was seated in a nice chair, I nervously asked him how he was doing.  Without missing a beat, he said "Oh, I have my ups and downs."  A big smile hit his face, and we laughed for two minutes.  Ah...family.  And you wonder why I'm the way I am.  Anyhoo, keeping with tradition, I now present my 2006 list of -

Top Ten Things For Which I'm Thankful (Besides The Obvious Stuff, Like Health, Friends, & Family)

10) Star Wars movies

9)  rechargeable batteries

8)  Febreze

7)  animal shelters

6)  MapQuest

5)  the color blue

4)  conversation

3)  the USPS/DC Comics superhero stamps

2)  Abraham Lincoln

1)  sight

Well, I'm off to eat a nice turkey sandwich!  Here's your Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - Snake-Eyes!

November 22 -  I don't get to listen to music much anymore.  In years past, I daily spent hours listening to the radio, watching music video networks, or playing stacks and stacks of records.  Somehow, over the last five years or so, those hours have dwindled to minutes.  Now, for whatever reason, I'm lucky if I hear a single, entire song in any given twenty-four hour period, and the chance of that song being one which I enjoy is about one in seven.  That means that I only hear around one "good" song per week, and, of the fifty-two of this past year, only three were new to me.  I mention all of this because, as I thought about it today, it occurred to me that this downward trend has mirrored the similar decline in my comics-reading.  But why?  With comics, I had chalked it up to the prohibitive cost and relative scarcity of new comics, and the lack of time required to "waste" on re-rereading "old" comics from my collection...but, with music?  Radio, TV, and old records are all free (well, "free with other bills," I guess), so cost is not a factor, and I've got any number of music playing devices literally within arm's reach of me as I type this, so neither is ease of access.  I gave this all some more thought and soon realized that many of the simple pleasures of my life have been trickling away from me in recent years.  Tonight, I'm alarmed by all of this unwelcome change.  What's at its root?  Is this some sort of inevitability of getting older?  No, I don't think so...but I can't be sure, I suppose.  Is it a sign of depression?  That seems more likely, I guess...although I don't feel any more, nor less, depressed than usual.  So, what's going on?  I'm still befuddled, partly by not having noticed this pattern until now, but mostly because I think I have an inkling of what may be going on.  I think that I'm losing touch with my dreams.  While that may sound like the opening line of a pretentious poem, I think that it may be true.  And, by "losing touch," I mean that I am not just getting further and further away from being able to realize those dreams, but I'm also less and less clear as to just what they even are, or were, anymore.  The dreams of youth can sometimes be based on imagined levels of "completeness" which are perceived to be most advantageous for attaining happiness.  With age, the very concept of "completeness" becomes ridiculous (as everyone, especially an artist, learns that continued growth is actually a key to enjoying life).  That, and it takes so little to make me happy now.  An entire day can go from bad to good for me with just a single photo of a cat, or the sound of a riverboat whistle, or a smile from a pretty girl (The WOMP Staff, in case you're wondering).  I've either lowered my expectations or I've happened upon some sort of crazy parallel world where I don't have to be a famous comic book artist to be happy...or some combination of the two.  My boyhood dreams now seem, like the stuff I listed last night, to be quaint nostalgia.  And what does this have to do with not hearing music as much as I once did?  Well, I've unwittingly rearranged my life to preclude any extraneous chance to "escape," which listening to music, and reading comics, used to provide me.  Dreams require dreaming, and dreaming requires escaping daily, conscious life.  I may be over-reaching here, as we all go though periods of more and less interest in those things which we enjoy, but I can't help feeling that it's all related, especially since everything seems to have happened at the same time and rate.  Who knows?  Maybe I've just been too busy.  In fact, come to think of it, it also all coincides with writing The WOMP-Blog (probably the true culprit)!  Hmmm.  Maybe I'd better just wrap this up by posting your pre-Thanksgiving Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - Cap. Janos "Blackhawk" Prohaska!

November 21 -  I guess it's "Nostalgia Night" here at the swingin' WOMP Pad.  Co-workers at my dumb "real" job are generally fifteen or more years younger, or fifteen or more years older than I, so any off-the-cuff references to Pop Culture that I make either must be from 1995 or 1965 if I hope to connect with them.  If I happen to mention something from my own distant youth, I'm met with more blank stares than usual.  While this may be the small price I pay to work with the people I do, it really struck me tonight that I've become embarrassed by "my generation."  Now, don't get me wrong; in general terms, I've ALWAYS been embarrassed by my generation.  For example, between my tenth and twentieth birthdays, I suffered through the age of disco, the rise of the New Wave, and the terror of "hair" bands (not to mention MTV...which I just did anyway).  Anyone who remembers where they were when they first heard A Flock of Seagulls can understand why I've always been embarrassed by the times I have been lumped into.  That said, however, I had, maybe three or four years ago, started to see those times as charmingly goofy, memorably unique, and even quaint.  I'd stack Madonna and Prince up against any Pop performers from any period.  In my opinion, the era of my youth was just as important, and insipid, as any other.  Recently, though, because of my inability to talk to anyone my age, I've begun to feel like my youth was spent in some sort of strange cult, of which I am now rightfully ashamed.  Tonight, then, I'm going to try to reclaim the validity of my nostalgia by providing to you, dear WOMP-Blog reader, a rambling list of some of the stuff that I remember "fondly"...as you may, too, if you graduated high school while Ronald Reagan was President;

President Ford, Shrinky Dinks, Chic, The Greg Kihn Band, Jaws, American Bandstand, Newhart, Bosom Buddies, Captain Lou Albano, bellbottoms, station wagons, candy cigarettes, alligator shirts, skinny ties, Nerf balls, President Carter, Margaret Thatcher, sitcoms, Three's Company, The Electric Company, aspirin, rollerskates, red-white-and-blue basketballs, Pete Rose, Pee Wee Herman, Purple Rain, Bill Bixby, AMC Pacers, Indiana Jones, Dallas, Bo Derek, Captain Kangaroo, Conjunction Junction, The Amityville Horror, Pop Rocks, Diet Rite, Jiffy Pop, Dynomutt, the Sarlacc, Sleestaks, Sid and Marty Krofft, dune buggies, Clara Peller, AM radio, 45s, record players, eight tracks, cassette tapes, Bananarama, banana seats, The Banana Splits, wax bottles, The Super Friends, YMCA, pulltabs, Camaros, Muhammad Ali, Don Pardo, Walter Cronkite, Waylon Flowers and Madam, Mac Davis, Kojak, The Rockford Files, President Reagan, M.A.S.H., Roots, Barney Miller, Micronauts, Twiki, The Black Hole, The Human League, The Thompson Twins, Tawny Kitaen, Gregory Harrison, Cheryl Ladd, John Belushi, Phoebe Cates, Rupert Holmes, Ned Beatty, Christopher Reeves, The General Lee, the agony of defeat, the smell of cigarettes everywhere, Brooke Shields, Shields and Yarnell, The Captain and Tennille, Hall and Oates, duck and cover, Merchant and Ivory, Etch-A-Sketch, rotary dial phones, Steve Martin, CHiPs, Lobot, Donna Summer, kung fu grip, TV dials, antennas, CB radios, The Muppet Show, Andy Kaufman, Frankenberry, Count Chocula, Freakies, Morris the cat, Funions, Munchos, Pringles, Grease, Lite Brite, Kareem Abdul-Jabar, Dr. J., Coach K., Mr. T, Stacie Q, ELO, Bee Gees, Pink Lady, pink plastic flamingos, Wonder Bread, Pong, Space Invaders, Cosmos by Carl Sagan, Omni Magazine, subscriptions, letters, postcards, Close Encounters of The Third Kind, Young Frankenstein, Phil Donahue, Rocky, Bluto Blutarsky, Bread, leg-warmers, HR Pufnstuff, Billy Idol, McGruff the Crime Dog, Pink Panther, dens, air hockey, Quisp, Cap'n Crunch, King Vitamin, Reggie Jackson, Arthur Fiedler, Welcome Back Kotter, Hawaii Five-O, Hawaiian Punch, Kool Aid, Screaming Yellow Zonkers, fondue, Fonzie, Fozzy Bear, Flintstones chewable vitamins, typewriters, sleep, Big Little Books, sideburns, cutoffs, clogs, and TV station sign-offs with The National Anthem.  Here's another, your Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - G.I. Joe!

November 20 -  Ugh.  I was so sick, again, still, yesterday.  This is getting ridiculous,  Today at the dread "real" job, I nearly fainted...twice!  Tonight...er, well, it's now after 9:00AM on the 21st, but it's my "tonight" still....tonight I've been doing a little better, with some medicine and energy drinks inside of me.  I felt good enough, in fact, to get a lot of the Fallfire 3 follow-up paperwork done, and get a head start on some more caricature drawings.  This is a lesson (one I'm dead-positive I've blathered about before) for any freelance artist out there; sometimes, you just gotsta work even when you're sick.  Or, in my case, sometimes I getsta work when I'm not sick.  Whatever.  Now, I suppose I should try to get some rest.  Here's your Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - Rittmeister Baron Hans von Hammer!

November 19 -  No fun; my cold has reasserted itself, and I spent my "relaxing day off" coughing and sneezing and groaning...as did The WOMP Staff, who finally contracted the same illness.  Oh, well...at least we got to watch the NASCAR Nextel Cup finale.  Congratulations, Jimmie Johnson!  Here's your Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - Corp. Thaddeus Aloysius Cadwallader "Dum Dum" Dugan!

November 18 -  Well, I survived my extra-long day of art doings.  As I type this, it's actually 4:30AM on the 19th, so my report may be disjointed, and probably cut short at some point, but I did want to tell you all a little of what happened.  First, the book signing at Rivertown Fine Books went well, but slowly.  I signed about ten copies of The Collected Short Stories of L. Frank Baum, and about six or seven each of the 2004 and 2005 Ozianas.  Not a blockbuster day, by any means, but fairly pleasant.  I was especially happy that many of the people who came to get the books had never been to the shop before...meaning that I was more of a help than a hindrance to their business.  It's such a great shop, too.  The owners, John and Diane, had spent a lot of time prominently arranging a great number of rare comic book and cartoon related books in anticipation of the event, so the whole place looked like a comics museum (or Brent Frankenhoff's house...same thing).  I tried to keep from being intimidated by the original Charles Dana Gibson prints, first edition Jules Pfeiffer books, and collected volumes featuring cartoon characters from Henry to Dick Tracy, and from artists like Bill Mauldin, Al Capp, and R.F. Outcault.  Yes, I tried...to no avail.  Oh, well.  By about 4:00PM, I had overstayed my welcome, so I beat a hasty retreat back to WOMP H.Q. to gear up for the Fallfire 3 event at Simply.  The WOMP Staff and I began to set up displays of the contest entries by about 5:15, which is good because folks started filtering in moments later.  At 7:00, I interrupted everyone's conversations to present awards.  There was a pretty nice turn out, with around seven contestants and twenty supporters in attendance.  Representatives from two of the co-sponsors of the contest were also on hand.  Ramona, from Blackhawk Junction, and Kris, from Picture This, assisted in presenting their awards.  I also had all attending artists talk about their works, and one read her poem.  As a special "thank you," I also gave little paintings to the sponsors and the owner of Simply.  These were "series paintings," done on copies of a single original ink drawing, to which I then applied colored inks (kind of like watercolors).  I even gave away the original drawing, to Heather De Bruin, the teacher who had been instrumental in involving PdC high school students in Fallfire 3.  There were some surprising "no-shows," too, but I am reserving my chastising until I'm sure they weren't abducted by aliens and forced to fight a Gorn, or something (sorry...Star Trek marathon on Nick at Nite).  All in all, everything went pretty well.  I'll post a more full report on the Events page at www.fallfire.org, but, for now, I'm exhausted, so I guess I'll just wrap this up with your Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - Cap. Simon Savage!

November 17 -  SO much busier tonight!  I have to start my day in about three hours, so I'm going to forego any real entry, in favor of sleep.  I hope to see you at the L. Frank Baum book signing and/or Fallfire 3 event later today (Saturday, the 18th).  Until I do, here's your Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - Col. Robert Hogan!

November 16 -  Oh, so busy!  Work, work, work!  I'm about 90% ready for the Baum book signing event, and somewhere around 78% prepared for the Fallfire 3 event.  I know that I technically have another day to wrap everything up, but a large chunk of that will be eaten up by the dumb "real" job, so I've got to plan ahead a bit.  Toward that end, I'm going to just wrap this up now with your Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - Pvt. Beetle Bailey!

November 15 -  Ahoy-hoy, everyWOMP.  Howzit goin'?  Cool.  Me?  Well, I'm still stupidly sick.  In fact, I am -

Sick and Tired of Being...Well, You Know

I feel like I'm always cold

Yet I sweat through my clothes like a wick

You've probably already guessed I'm

Sick and tired of being tired and sick.

My sneezes are like eruptions

My coughs, from a cannon fired

And, not just because it rhymes, I'm

Sick and tired of being sick and tired.

I'm woozy, weapy, wobbly, weak

And I'm having real trouble just seeing

I'm really starting to feel like I'm

Just sick and tired of being!

Worst above all other conditions,

And no-one around me can doubt it,

Is that all my complaints have made you

Sick and tired of hearing about it!

Now, here's your Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - Cap. Steve "Balloon Buster" Savage, Jr.!

November 14 -  I'm a little better now, both in health and mood.  Thankfully, I think that I'm working my way out of the general malaise that has overtaken me recently.  Stuff happens; move on.  And so I shall.  It is now VERY late in the day of the 15th as I type this "November 14" entry, but I wanted to post it anyway, just to get back on track a bit.  Things are really popping for me this week, culminating, I assume, in the L. Frank Baum book signing and the Fallfire 3 event, both this Saturday.  I also have several smaller art commissions to be completed between now and then, and much more interest in my services than I'm used to (due, perhaps, to the extra on-line exposure provided to me by Official Friends of WOMP, Brent Frankenhoff and Tim Seeley?).  Whatever the causes for the sudden uptick, the end result may be total exhaustion.  I'm already down to less than three hours of sleep per day, and it's DAYS before the busiest part of my schedule.  Thankfully, I'll also have Sunday off from the dread "real" job, so I should be able to recuperate while watching the last NASCAR race of the season (Go Matt Kenseth!  Or Dale Earnhardt, Jr.!  Or Kevin Harvick!  Or, well, even Jimmie Johnson...I guess I don't care so much who will win the championship, as much as I hope that it will be an exciting finale for a change).  For right now, though, I'm going to just wrap this up with your Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - Lt. Johnny "Navajo Ace" Cloud!

November 13 -  Hey there.  I'm really "down" today.  I've greatly disappointed one of my supporters, and I don't know if I can fix the situation.  It's all my fault - although, to be fair, it happened because I have been sick (as you've read for the last week) and swamped with work, including extra stints at the dumb "real" job.  Still...still, I should have found a way to prevent it.  I'm working on patching things up, but I think I've really blown it.  I feel so rotten, so lowly, that I just couldn't post anything last night (it's now 3:00PM on the 14th, and I go to the dread "real" job at 3:30).  I did update the WOMP Character of The Week (see it HERE), but, otherwise, succumbed to my flu and depression.  The next few days will be so busy, that I may not ever really get out of this mood, but I'll try.  Now, though, I'd better wrap this up with your Military Comic Book Characters Of The Day - Gunner and Sarge (and Pooch)!

November 12 -  BANG!  I was just wrapping up some more caricatures at the extreme tail end of my day, at around 4:40AM, when I heard a very loud "BANG" from outside, after which the power went out! AGAIN!  I stumbled to the door so that I could run outside to find the source of the explosion.  Whatever had happened, it wasn't specifically connected to WOMP H.Q., since I could see that the street lights were out for about three blocks in any direction.  Whew...at least our house wasn't on fire or anything.  When I came back inside, The WOMP Staff had been jerked out of a dead sleep by the sound, then frightened by my unexplained absence.  I explained to her what I knew, set our battery powered back-up alarm clock for her, and gave up on any idea of posting a WOMP-Blog entry...or doing anything else other than just going to bed.  Now, at 11:00AM, the power's back, but I'm still confused as to what the heck happened.  I hope to find out more later today.  That reminds me to tell you, dear WOMP-Blog reader, that you're invited to the official Fallfire 3 event to be held this Saturday, November 18th, at Simply, a cafe in Prairie du Chien, from 6:00PM to about 9:00PM.  Any attending artists are asked to bring their Fallfire entry originals with them if possible, where they will be placed on display with others.  Dinner hours have been extended especially for the event so that attendees and their guests can, if they wish, order from the usual menu before a short program begins at 7:00PM (so bring your money!).  Prizes and awards will be handed out to winners, and all artists may be asked to say a few words about their works.  Please come to share your experiences with your fellow participants!  Simply is located at 204 West Blackhawk Avenue, Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin 53821.  More information (including a map to Simply) can be found on the Events page at www.fallfire.org.  If possible, please RSVP by e-mailing fallfire@johnmundtesquire.com.  I hope to see you there!  Now, here's your Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - Pvt. Sad Sack!

November 11 -  Veterans Day.  The most appropriate day to talk about War Comics.  I know that I devote a large part of my comics musings to superheroes, but I'm really a fan of all kinds of comic books.  As a kid, I lived through the tail end of the era of War Comics, and they had a tremendous effect on me.  While some (and some of my favorites at that) were flights of odd fantasy, like those featuring the impossibly bizarre Creature Commandos, most were stories of average, if grizzled, men who were just doing what they had to do.  These stories were such a welcome departure from rock-em, sock-em superpowered brawls and overblown super-rhetoric.  While I might have wished to be like Batman, I wondered if I might be like Sgt. Rock.  By the time I was reading comics of World War One sky battles and World War Two frontline grunts, the blind patriotism of earlier comics had been replaced by weary, and wary, anti-war stories clearly inspired by the specter of Viet Nam.  No heroic, musclebound G.I. was posing dramatically in front of a line of men shouting "Let's give 'em Hell, boys!"  These characters were just guys; cowering, complaining, rotten, stupid, blundering, exhausted, and, often, much more heroic guys.  One Sgt. Rock story that I remember illustrates this pretty well.  It was about a new, inexperienced "gung-ho" lieutenant who was endangering Rock's battle-tested unit with worthless commands straight from the ineffective training manual.  Rock tries to explain why such tactics won't work, but he is rebuffed and put on notice.  The Joes, who all know better, do as they are told anyway, and, after many needless deaths, total disaster is narrowly avoided only when they all finally take matters into their own hands, ironically saving the lieutenant's life in the process.  Eventually, the lieutenant, now demoted, understands the magnitude of the effect of his blind arrogance, and, by story's end, he, too, is a battle-scarred soldier who looks on his fresh-faced, by-the-book replacement with the same kind of haggard face that had greeted him.  It's a formulaic story, as many War Comics are, but it has a certain poetry to it.  It follows the logic that you feel in your gut more than in your heart.  And that's what the best War Comics stories affect; your gut - that dark, trembly, adrenalized pit of your soul and sum of your fears that really motivates you, in spite of whatever else you like to imagine.  And, for all of the flowery prose and fiery propaganda that has been written about soldiers at war, the truth is that good war stories are really about you.  How would you react in the same circumstances?  Would you have the brains and the dumb luck to survive?  Or would your gut fail you?  For me, I'm glad that I've never had to learn that lesson first hand, but, throughout history, too many people have had to find out the hard way.  To them, I dedicate this Veterans Day entry, and the Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - The Unknown Soldier!

November 10 -  Happy WOMP-Blog Day!  Yep, the WOMP-Blog has finally graduated from toddler to child on this, it's third birthday!  Three years of this...it's like some sort of miracle that I've stuck with it.  It hasn't always been easy (for example, I am still sick...like very), but it has often been fun.  To commemorate the event, I offer here my list of...

Top Ten WOMP-Blog "Firsts"

10) First Entry - November 10, 2003 (something about The Packers and...what was I trying to say?)

9)  First Whine - November 11, 2003 (complaint about a sore back and a lack of ideas)

8)  First Skipped Day - November 28, 2003 (I must have had a good reason...like being sick?)

7)  First "Dread 'Real' Job" - January 13, 2004 (I called it the "dreaded 'real' job")

6)  First Contest - December 10, 2003 (to win "pen test" artwork)

5)  First Posted Story - September 28, 2004 (the recently reprinted Those Kind of Guys)

4)  First "Top Ten" - December 31, 2003 (Top 10 "Top Ten" Lists With Only One Thing On Each List Instead of Ten)

3)  First "...Of The Day" - November 29, 2005 (Comic Book Character of The Day - Little Audrey)

2)  First "Official Friend of WOMP" - March 22, 2004 (Aaron Uglum)

1)  First Reference To My Wife As "The WOMP Staff" - December 31, 2003!

There will probably be several more "firsts" as I continue my "daily" postings, so I hope you'll be here to share them with me.  You, in fact, might have been the most important, if undeterminable, WOMP-Blog First; the first WOMP-Blog reader!  Here is your Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - PFC. Gomer Pyle!

November 9 -  Yoips!  Someone is Googling me!  For some reason, the number of daily hits on any given page of the WOMP-Site went from an average of three to a sudden twenty, thirty, or more.  At first, I chalked this up to the ending of the Fallfire 3 contest (the fallfire.org page, for example, had sixty-five total hits over the last two days).  Then, my own automated Google alert for news articles featuring the word "Mundt" hit upon a story that wasn't about Victorian writer Clara "Luise Muhlbach" Mundt, former South Dakota Senator (and distant cousin) Karl Mundt, NPR personality Todd Mundt, or the Mundt who is accused of killing his neighbor someplace in Florida.  Nope, this time it was about ME!  And it's not even about Fallfire 3, my impending book signing, nor even my legendarily freakish third eye on the back of my neck.  Nope, this time, it was about me, creator of The Adventures of Monkey!  Shocked, I followed the link to an interview with Official Friend of WOMP, and superpowered comics creating monkey, Tim Seeley!  Seems that Devil's Due Publishing, quick on the heals of their wildly successful How to Publish... series, has tricked Tim into writing his own book, How to Be A Comic Book Artist...(Not Just How to Draw).  For some reason, he mentions me in the interview!  Check that out by clicking HERE.  It's pretty cool!  Tonight, I'm still pretty sick, but this unexpected notoriety made me feel a little better...although the news that, although rare, not only can people get mumps twice, but that both my uncle and my own Mom did, has since made me a hypochondriac mess.  Sigh.  That's the way it goes, I guess.  Tomorrow...well, I hope to talk about War Comics stories, as I've been teasing for about a week now, but I already know a little secret about the next WOMP-Blog entry...a secret that most likely will postpone that report yet again.  Tune-in in twenty-four.  Now, though, it's time for your Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - Col. Steve Trevor!

November 8 -  I've said it before, and I will say it again (right now); being sick is so stupid!  I don't know exactly what I have, but it's somewhere between a cold and the mumps.  It's annoying, painful, and just so stupid!  Thankfully, I had the day off from the dread (but, at this point, still necessary) "real" job, so I've been able to convalesce, a little.  Speaking of mumps, all of this reminds me of when I actually had that oddly named malady when I was a kid.  I may have talked about this before, but just humor me; I'm sick.  Anyhoo, it was way back in the day, when Disco was King, the President was a genius, and The Net was something used to catch The Fish or The Butterflies.  If you've never had the pleasure of being afflicted with mumps, let me try to describe the experience.  Mumps is a nasty viral infection of the salivary glands, which causes bone-warping swelling under your jaw, crazy fever, hearing loss, and, in my case, a state of semi-delirium.  My case of mumps actually affected my left side worse than my right, so I sort of listed to one side, causing a sort of dizziness that prevented me from standing well and walking more than a few steps without falling down.  Fun!  Bed-ridden and miserably loopy, I was left with nothing to do but read and draw.  You never know what events from your childhood will have lasting influence on your adult life until you are deep into that adulthood.  It's only recently that I've recognized that my Mumps Period led to my love of the works of Ogden Nash (based on his collection of poems, Bed Riddance), my distaste for polka (thanks to the constant, and unwelcome, polkafest on my Mom's just-out-of-reach radio), my still increasing hearing loss (by high school, I'd already been told that I'd be completely deaf one day), and my understanding of how to tap into my own imagination (easily the best thing to come from being sick).  My drawings from that period are marked by unusual, trippy imagination, unrestrained by the hobbles of sense and logic.  One drawing (and I'm almost positive I've talked about this before) features a swirling sea of energy, trapped in which are, among other things, a Frankenstein frog, a singing lamp-cannon, and a midget French chef named Pifi.  Really.  Later, when the mumps had moved on, I looked at those drawings and thought "What the heck was I thinking?"  And that's the secret; I wasn't thinking, I was just letting the inspiration flow directly from the creative corner of my brain to my right hand, unfiltered.  It's almost as if creativity itself had infected me along with the mumps.  Since then, I have learned that I can play with the amount of "logic" that mixes with that flow of inspiration.  That, in all truth, is what I find to be the most fun aspect of what I do.  Often, when I complain about drawing (and I do, all the time), it's because the technical, craft side of what I do is not anywhere near as proficient nor interesting to me as is the pure creative process.  The last half of my life, in fact, has been a struggle to bring those two elements closer together without sacrificing either.  And it all stems from being sick.  Hmm.  I'll try to keep that positive thought in my head every time I go into a dry, searing, hacking cough or an achy, pitiful moan.  Ugh.  Well, I'd better get some more bed-rest, so here's your Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - Sgt. Michael Lee "Combat" Kelly!

November 7 -  Today, while the rest of the nation has been voting for inconsequential stuff like governors, senators, and representatives, I have been in agony!  I'm as sick as a dog, which hasn't helped, but the agonizing came as I tried to decide who won the Fallfire 3 contest!  There were so many great entries that it was nearly torture to have to pare the list down, first by half, then a "top ten," and finally a small handful who actually became the winners.  And those winners are (drumroll please)...

- First Place Award - Megan Reed for "Nature is Beauty"

- Second Place Award - Natalie Heiring for "Leaf Looker"

- Picture This Award for Best Photographic Entry - also Megan Reed's "Nature is Beauty"

- Orion Computers Award for Best Entry from an Artist Over 30 - Eric Gillitzer for his (untitled?) poem

- Blackhawk Junction Award for Best Entry from the Tri-State Area - Skywalker Payne for "Fallfire"

- AmericInn Award for Most Unique Entry - Kelli Boylen for "Autumn Necklace"

- Founder's Award for Special Achievement - Kenneth Durril for his untitled poem in the tanka style

I could have given each of these prizes to several other entries as well...it was so awful to have to pick just one winner of each award.  Also, I still haven't actually counted the total number of entries (around 30...just a good guess) because some are actual works, which are in careful stacks all over WOMP H.Q., and some entries were submitted on-line, so I haven't really seen them all in one place yet.  That also made the decisions difficult.  Strangely, I had no problem judging a painting against a poem against a photograph, or whatever.  I have a pretty strong idea of what this contest means to me, so the entries were measured to that, each receiving a sort of "1 to 10 scale" rating within that measurement.  That's a bit of an oversimplification, but it is a fair characterization.  Now, as I watch the late, late election results, I am happy to see that at least MY contest has wrapped up in a single night, and everyone knows who the winners are!  Now, I'm off to get some bed rest.  As I sleep, maybe I'll continue last night's dream about the invasion of Europe.  It may help to think about tonight's Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - Pvt. Gabriel Jones!

November 6 -  It was a semi-perfect storm that kept me from posting over the last few days.  Sorry!  Beyond the normal stuff that often keeps me from blogging (laziness, work, squirrel attack, etc.), I have been consumed by Fallfire contest stuff AND a stupid cold.  Both seem to be ending as I type this (late in the morning of the 7th).  I will continue with my deathless musings regarding "War Comics" later, but I'm going to acquiesce to the forces that are pushing on me for now, and just wrap this up with your Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - PFC. Edward Marks!

November 5 -  Yep, another no-show.  Sorry.  Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - Pvt. Duane Doberman!

November 4 -  Oops!  Here's what would have been the Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - Lt. Jeb Stuart!

November 3 -  I was originally going to call this month's "...Of The Day" feature your War Comic Book Character Of The Day.  Then I thought that I couldn't, at least not right now, even appear to be promoting war.  However, I could, and do, support the men and women of the armed services.  And, when it comes right down to it, these characters aren't "war" characters, per se.  They are, rather, characters in military uniform who happened to be involved in war.  What they do, and where they go, may be affected by the battles they are ordered to fight, but who they are is decided more by the battles within.  That cliche, so often used, still holds true.  Their spirit and character are less defined by their experiences than they are revealed by them.  That also works for all heroes, villains, and the rest of us who are somewhere in between.  In that way, the wars in "War Comics" have always been allegory for the trials and tribulations of life in general.  War is sometimes described as a lifetime's worth of experiences crammed into a few months.  War is life, and death, in the extreme.  The characters caught in that extreme are laid bare.  There is no room the masks or subtlety of normal life.  If you were secretly a jerk as a civilian, the secret will be out very quickly during war.  In fact, your personality is often pushed to the nth degree.  In this way, even fantasy figures like The Iron Major and Sgt. Rock are still seen as some of the most realistic comics characters because actual historic figures, like scar-faced Nazi commando Otto Skorzeny and World War One's conscientious everyman soldier Sgt. Alvin York, really lived lives that make comic books look like...well, like comic books.  So, with that idea now firmly in my mind, I amended my plans for this month's postings.  I settled on "Military" so that I could include characters who operate outside war, or even any particular branch of the service.  Also, even though I envisioned this as a tribute to Veterans' Day, there will be some characters who are not U.S. soldiers.  Some will be foreign fighters, and others will be outright villains.  Keep in mind, then, that this is just a list of characters...not endorsements of their fictional actions.  Tomorrow, I hope to write about the stories in the comics themselves, but, for now, I'll leave you with your Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - Capt. Willy Schultz!

November 2 -  I don't have much for ya tonight.  I'm just wrapping up a ten hour stretch of sitting at my drawing desk...where I was actually drawing stuff (it's not like I just sat there for ten hours...although, you'll have to admit, even that alone would be grueling!).  Since it's 5:00AM, and my back is complaining loudly (and don't even get me started about my aching rear-end), I think I'll just post your Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - Pvt. Steve Rogers!

November 1 -  Things are pretty good here, in spite of the sadness that dominated our work day at the dumb "real" job.  I know nothing more about the untimely passing of my co-worker's daughter, so, for now, I want to move on to other things, if I may.  Of course, now I can't remember any of the things I thought I was going to talk about...so I'll just stall for time by telling you that there's a new WOMP Character of The Week.  Her name is Memoria (not the best name, but read about her HERE and it will make more sense).  Hmmm...what else?  Well, I can tell you that I haven't even added up the total number of entrants in this year's Fallfire contest.  There are several, though...like around thirty.  I've tried not to look at them in advance of the judging, so I won't have a total until later this week.  Um...oh, why can't I remember what I was going to talk about?  I suppose that I can blame the late hour for my temporary memory loss (it's just past 6:00AM as I type this)...or maybe I can blame Memoria, as long as I'm talking about her.  Whatever the case, I guess I'll just wrap this up for now (after which, I am sure to remember).  In conclusion, to honor Veterans' Day later this month, I offer here the first of this month's Military Comic Book Character Of The Day - Sgt. Nick Fury!