My American Splendor and Bill's Most Excellent First Week of the Term

My semester began well, which is always a good thing to happen, setting the stage for what will be a must successful term.  

Former students in my Graphic Novel class--Sam Atkinson and Dawn Plympton--brought me a wonderful gift they had purchased from Joyce Brabner, the wife of the late Harvey Pekar, the great cartoonist of American Splendor Fame.

In addition to the doll that Brabner stiched, the package included a couple original volumes of the comic, including the one pictured on the left that includes an episode of Pekar's famous interviews on the David Letterman Show, discussed in the Washington Post.
 
In the fall, I will use American Splendor in class in addition to spending time talking about Pekar's significance.  And I will invite Brabner to campus. 

In addition to the Harvey Pekar Doll, the first week of the term also brought me a beautiful painting of Owls by PSC Art Student Melissa Pollard.  The mixed-media work now hangs in my office.

And to top off the week, word reached me from the Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies that my essay, Zombies Along the Malecon, a critical analysis of the Cuban film Juan of the Dead, will appear in the next edition of the journal.