You should go read Rich Tommaso's Web of Comics.

I sort of know Rich Tommaso but not really. It's been a few years since I've seen him and I doubt he would remember me. I sat beside him at the very first convention where I set up as an artist with a minicomic. He also lived/worked across the street from a bookstore I worked at in Atlanta around the time his book The Horror of Collier County came out. He and Jon Lewis were in the store enough for me to recognize them as 'those dudes that made comics'. (Lewis was doing Robin at the time.) At the time I was just wrapping my brain around the idea of drawing comics for real and giving up on the idea that other people might volunteer to draw them for me. So, here was Tommaso, a guy from my town making comics, so I tracked down a lot of his stuff. Rollercoaster, Clover Honey, Let's Hit the Road and even Cannibal Porn. I really liked all that stuff and became a fan. I think Tommaso's stuff is very underrated. My theory on that is that indie comics have really been in love with the full length graphic novel at least since Blankets broke big. Tommaso's works have been more along the lines of short stories and it seems to be a lot harder to turn those into hits in the indie world. I mean, how many examples can you think of? Eightball? Individual stories in Love and Rockets? And... umm... well, I think that's it. Personally, I love the shorter stories and Tommaso is great at them. His stuff reads like really great episodes of the Twilight Zone and that's about as nice a thing as I can say about an entertainment product. But who cares about my opinion when you've got teh intonets? Unlike me, you don't have to track down Tommaso's books though special order clerks. You can check it out for free right here on teh intronets. Tommaso has launched/re-launched a website/bloggie-thing. It looks really great. I love the way everything is formatted. It's pretty ambitious. You should check it out for yourself. Right now.

Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith