Here are a couple snazzy new POPGUN 4 web banners PLUS the cover web banner with the Diamond Order Code (DEC09 0379, by the way) from PREVIEWS — which you can give to your fine Local Comic Shop to make it easier for them to pre-order you a copy!

Ooooh… cannot wait. War Machine!!!

On this day of thanks, when all of us but the vegetarians and vegans and non-Americans are eating turkey, I wanted to rock some positivity and write about five things that I’m thankful for right now in this misadventure that is currently my life…

1. I’m preemptively thankful that today I’m going to eat the fuck outta some turkey and the hell outta some sides and the crap outta some pie today. Seriously, when I’m doing eating, there will be no more fuck left in that turkey, no more hell left in the sides, and no crap left in the pie. Woo!!!

2. I’m thankful that no one seems to hate me anymore. Well, there’s that one… but, well, no one where I live or with whom I communicate on a regular or semi-regular basis. That’s good, because I surprisingly, despite my behavior, don’t like being hated.

3. I’m equally thankful that I  don’t currently hate anyone. That’s a big deal. Carrying that crap around is exhausting, so it’s a relief to be hate-free. Life is short, so forgive what you can and just move on. That’s my unsolicited advice.

4. Boy am I thankful that robots haven’t taken over the earth and enslaved the human race. Today wouldn’t be any fun at all if we were doing backbreaking labor per the orders of our robot overlords instead of stuffing our faces with family and loved ones. Wait… that read wrong. I’m not referring to cannibalism. I mean… stuffing our faces with good food whilst being around our family and loved ones. Sans slavery under robots. Thanks for that.

5. I’m very thankful that, despite everything that’s gone wrong or been tough for me this year,  I still have hope. It’s a good emotion, and one that I used to lack a bit. It’s easy for me to get down, especially when things have gone the way they’ve gone this year past, but I’m hopeful for the future. That’s a big thing to be thankful for (or, more formally, “for which to be thankful.)

Eat lots of turkey and stuffing and pie, readers! Happy Thanksgiving!!!

For POPGUN 4 (out 02/10/2010), we’ve asked our contributors to create a web banner for their story. Below are the ones we have so far. Check out that variety! Feel free to download ‘em and use ‘em in your signature whenever you post on a messageboard or on your website or any other cool way to spread the word on the interwebs… Thanks!

Do you ever watch CSI: Miami? The one with the ginger dude who should be living in a swampy bog somewhere, not in a sunny place like Miami? I don’t. I don’t know anyone who does. Yet it’s, I think, the most watched show in the world.

Do you ever wish you were Paul Rudd? Because I do. Not all the time, but sometimes. Well, all the time, but I don’t THINK about it all the time. He’s just so damn funny — and also, by most standards, handsome. Funny AND handsome? What the hell? That’s absurd. So, I kind of want to BE him. But then I get lost watching him in movies and think… do I want to BE him? Or be WITH him? Am I in love with Paul Rudd? Suddenly my world is all topsy turvy. Dammit, Paul Rudd! Ya’ got me all confused!

Do you ever think you should know more about the real world? I wish that sometimes. I know about comics and movies and whatnot — even comics I haven’t read and movies I haven’t seen. But do I know about that healthcare bill stuff? No. And I should because I need some healthcare! And, what, is the environment still in trouble? Or are we not worrying about that anymore? What about cell phones? Do they cause brain tumors? I don’t know! I do know that Dick Grayson is now Batman in the comics. How does that help me?

Do you ever feel sorry for Brandon Routh? He’s the guy that played Superman in Superman Returns. Man, when word of that movie first came out, everyone was so excited. You know who was probably most excited? Brandon Routh. An unknown actor cast in a HUGE movie from a famous director — playing the greatest superhero — no! The greatest fictional character of all time. Stardom was just around the corner. Then the movie… didn’t tank or anything, but it didn’t do well enough. No one was fired up about it. Now many people downright hate it. And where is Brandon? He’s still acting, but he’s not a huge star. I just kind of feel sorry for him.

Do you ever wonder why the hell you feel sorry for Brandon Routh? I do! I mean, he’s doing fine. He’s handsome, married to a cute lady, acting steadily. I’m the asshole with no steady paycheck, typing silly blogs in bed at 1:07 PM on a Tuesday afternoon when I should be working on stuff that pays or something. Who am I to pity Brandon Routh? He doesn’t need my pity!

Do you ever wish you could travel through time and  set your younger self on a better track? You know I wish this, people. My answer has been “yes” to all of my questions (except for the CSI: Miami one). Man, I mean, I’m doing okay, but there are so many dumb choices I made that… if only a future version of me had told me to zig instead of zag a couple of times. I might be wearing a tie right now. Married? Maybe. I dunno. Rich? Possibly. And how selfish is that? All the things that could be done with time travel, and I’m just thinking of myself. Dammit, lack of time travel!

Do you ever think you could be a great dancer if you just relaxed? I totally could be, man. Not a bad dancer now, but… I could be so great. Graceful, even. If I could just relax.

So, getting bloggy and occasionally writing about my real life has gotten me into, not trouble — but “spots.” Maybe even “tight” spots. Not often, but once in a while, I’ll get feedback or a reaction from something I’ve written that will kind of catch me off guard and then make me worry about what I’m doing with my bloggy writing and not sleep very well.

It’s reasonable to deduce that this just happened again recently. The funny thing is that I write personal, bloggy kind of stuff way less than I used to. (This could be tied to the fact that my lazy typin’ fingers write way fewer words in general than they used to.) To be honest, I didn’t know anyone even read this site. (Well, I get an occasional response on the LiveJournal mirror posts from this site, but other than that… ? Not taking the interwebnetwebswwwsnets by storm.)

On one hand, it’s nice to know that I have readers I didn’t know I had. On the other… well, fuck. Opened my big mouth on the webs, and now I’m… ah, I don’t want to get too personal, I suppose. I guess that’s what journals are for — the kinds with lined paper and little locks on the covers, not the kind that are posted on the www for all the 1st “w” to see.

That’s what I’m now thinking for myself, anyway. Other folks blog about very personal things, and it works out for them. There are times when I wonder if it’s just a cry for attention, but so what? I guess that’s what all writing is. I’ve read stories and essays about people I’ve never met and felt like I was prying, but, hey, they posted it. And sometimes what they’ve written will relate to me, so I figure that might be why they’re doing it. Not necessarily for attention so much as to go, “Hey, if this happened to me, it might’ve happened to others, so I’ll just write about it so some readers don’t feel so alone.” I get that. And I’ve done that.

But when the reaction you get surprises you in a disappointing way from someone you didn’t even know was reading, well, that gives you pause. Actually, I don’t want to speak for you, so replace each “you” in the previous sentence with: “I,” “me,” “I,” and “me” — in that order, por favor. Of course, it’s not like some bloggy post is going to change the outcome of something as important as… ah, there’s just no way an off the cuff blog of mine could change a mind… maybe it can just sometimes confirm a mind already made up… just be that last bit of info needed. Or something. I dunno. Shouldn’t any more lose sleep over it.

This has happened in the past in funny ways, too, though. Years and years ago, back when I only had one or two gray hairs and 230 lbs would be a cause for alarm, not celebration, a reader was convinced I faked a Scottish accent at a part-time job and got into shenanigans that I thought were super far fetched after reading one of my old “Pure Lard” columns. Having fun with first person stories of my life — some lies, some truth, some a mix — always did kind of amuse me.

Still, I now have it in my head that getting bloggy might’ve just cost me something important to me, or at least played a small part. Helped a decision I thought already made become solidified, resolute in the opposite way I would’ve liked it to go. Even if I thought it was already resolute before I wrote the blog. While I am always hoping for reactions to my writing, I kind of wish I hadn’t learned of this particular one. I would rather not know, but now I do, and it’s knocking around in my head.

So, what’s the solution? Just post funny links, advertise my comics, ninja poetry, and maybe some clearly ridiculous stories that no one could think were true? Maybe. I’ve always had an uneasy relationship with my personal business and the internet.

Ah, dammit. If only I wasn’t so open / starved for attention.

Apparently I missed a Swell Season here in Hell A recently. I liked Once and also saw them at this music festival called Bonnaroo and found them to be delightful. Adding to the delights in this clip is Jason Segel, he of Forgetting Sarah Marshall and How I Met Your Mother (on which he plays a character named Marshall. Wacky.) fame, who sings a fun little song he done wrote about sleeping with Swell Season fans and the size of his penis among other things. He gives out a phone number that he claims to be his, too, so interested folks should call it — but “only if you’re disease free”…

Oh, Conan… your show makes me happy.

Looks like a huge month! And lookee here:

POPGUN, VOL. 4 OGN
featuring JOCK, JEFFERY BROWN, ERIK LARSEN, TOM SCIOLI, JM KEN NIIMURA, FRANK STOCKTON, JESSICA FINK, SALGOOD SAM, MATTEO SCALERA, CHRIS MORENO, MARK ANDREW SMITH, DEREK MCCULLOCH, JEREMY TINDER, ELIZABETH GENCO and more!
edited by D.J. KIRKBRIDE, ANTHONY WU & ADAM P. KNAVE
cover BEN TEMPLESMITH
FEBRUARY 10
512 PAGES / FC
$29.99

POPGUN is back with another eclectic collection of established fan favorite creators and rising stars coming together for a new edition of the Harvey Award-winning graphic mix tape! From high-octane action to heart-tugging drama to laugh-out-loud comedy, this collection has comics you’ll love: over 500 full color pages of them!

Big goings on over the weekend! On Saturday, Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool broke the news that Ben Templesmith is the cover artist for POPGUN 4, and it is indeed a glorious cover!

Then, on Sunday, Mr. Templesmith posted a very cool blog showing his process in the creation of this gorgeous eye candy! It’s an interesting read filled with some great images showing the development of this image. Wonderful stuff.

And the POPGUN 4 site (courtesy of web guru Tim Daniels) is live! On it is a complete list of our wonderful contributors (including Jeffrey Brown, Jock, Erik Larsen, Thomas Scioli, and nearly 80 more talented folks) plus FIVE FULL COMICS FROM POPGUN 4 — FOR FREE!

POPGUN 4, a full color 512 page behemoth of a comic anthology, will hit shelves courtesy of Image Comics on 02/10/2010. Ask for it at your local comic shop or bookstore to order it! The Diamond order code will appear along with a snazzy solicit in the December issue of PREVIEWS!

I’ll be posting more on this as we get closer to the release date. All of  Team Popgun is very excited! If you’re a fan of previous volumes, this one is the biggest and best yet, so please help us spread the word!

Hooray for comics!