The Book 4 Title Contest is Over
Well, I got a ton of suggestions from you folks, and noodled over a ton more of my own. After a big pile of time and consideration, I think I'm decided on what to call it, and wouldn't you know it, it's actually one of your suggestions! That took me by surprise, I can tell you. I've got some prizes to hand out, the book title to announce, and loooooong list of everybody's entries, and it's all right here.

Buy Books, People!
Seriously, maybe it's the February blahs, but the stream of book orders has slowed to the proverbial trickle. That means death! Somebody out there, for crying out loud, do the right thing. 

Additional stuff
Well, we got another movie review, this time of Kurt Russell's new L.A. cop drama Dark Blue. Plus, there's a clutch of new links in the links dump, so good, so fresh, so dumpy. 

And a couple of APE pictures...
First, a quick one from Vincent Bondy...

And then a couple from Book 4 title contest winner Owen Magee, first just a shot of me hamming it up at my booth...

... and then another shot showing off just how sweet my placement at APE was...

Owen's got a couple more pics at http://tardis.nu/~mageeol/photos/ape/ if you want to check 'em out.  Pictures!

Whew! I'm all updated out! Time to smoke and sleep!

Whoops! One more thing!
Just a quick note to let you folks know angryflower is shifting servers next week, so it might be out of commission for a couple of days. Keep trying if it's not working!

I've got a bit of a curve ball for those of you who check the archive page to see which cartoons are coming up next, since I did this one just last Sunday and rushed it into print while it's still "current." So, please enjoy 

Name Book 4 contest
Keep those suggestions rollin' in, folks, I've got a swack of them so far, and a couple of them are pretty good. When I'm done with the contest I'll put up a page with all the suggestions, and then you can see yours up there and laugh at how so many people could suggest such goofy things.

Additional stuff
Got a couple more movie reviews for y'all. First is The Quiet American, which I reviewed for See, and thus money, and the other is Daredevil, which will mark the first time I reviewed a movie for no money just cuz I thought my web readers might be curious to know what I think.

Plus
If any of you folks took pictures at APE with your little fancy digital cameras, I'm serious: I wanna see them. C'mon! And, as always, quit stalling and buy some books.

Okay, stuff, stuff. First we gots a brand new cartoon:

Pretty hilarious, right? And, even though this one isn't new, it's never the wrong time to cower in trembling fear and terror as

Can I just point out that, under the Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive attack, Iraq would have every right to attack the United States? I hear Hussein's got a whole room of magical lamps with powerhouse genies in every one -- imagine the devastation they could cause! Step lightly, America.

APE SMASHES CITY
Well, APE was a smashing success, I would say. My spot proved to be as cherry as expected, cherrier, even. The Concourse Convention Centre is a long hall, and with my table one of two actually facing the door, and with my table being one of the few with banners, bascially everybody who walked in saw a sea of tables and a big sign saying "Bob the Angry Flower", plus a guy in a flower hat underneath. Sweet, sweet publicity. I sold all the books I brought down, minus a couple I gave away, and I'd like to thank all the folks who came by and bought books, or even accepted one of my crappy handouts and is now checking out the site for the first time. Hell, why don't I thank everybody? Thanks, all. Alan Bamberger of San Francisco has some coverage of APE at his site, including a photo of me in the hat. If any of you other APErs have photos, e-mail me, for cryin' out loud, and I'll link to them or stick them up on the site. 

I finally got to meet God/man Lore Fitzgerald of The Brunching Shuttlecocks, beloved host of Angryflower.com and author of the me-illustrated and funny The Ratings. Bigger guy than I expected from the pictures in the book, frankly. I'd also like to point y'all towards M@comic by a Toronton fella named Matt B, with whom I spent a good chunk of the weekend, and I'd also like to thank Rachel from the Cartoon Art Museum for showing us why they say San Franciscans are some of the friendliest people in the world. Garsh, people are nice. And finally, I'd like to drool a bit thinking about the BBQ beef brisket I had at the legendary Tommy's Joynt at the corner of Geary and Van Ness in San Francisco. Commencing drooling...... now: Aarrallaalllarralllagallll soooo goooooooood....

Additional
No new movie reviews this week (though I've seen Daredevil already), but there's a couple more entries in the links dump if you want to check 'em out. A fella named Greg Hirsch has some webcomics to offer, as well as a link to his main page. As well, the mysteriously-named "David" has a fledgling web comic of his own, and he wants you folks to read it and love it. Why not find out if you can?

Book 4
I'm beginning to do some thinking about the fourth book, which I plan to have out for Christmas 2003. I've got some ideas, but I'm not married to any of them yet. So, without getting all lame on me, if some of you brighter ones out there could send me some suggestions as to what I should call it, that'd be handy. If anybody comes up with anything good enough to use, I'll give 'em a free book when it comes out. Hell, I'll give you all 4 books! How's that sound? Hell, let's make a contest out of it. Best three suggestions, even if I don't end up using any of them, get books. Go nuts.

Plus...
If you folks didn't read that traffic jam link I put up last week, you really should. I don't make a habit of recommending crap, y'know...

And...
Hey! Just because it's February doesn't mean you can slack off on buying books! Jeez, get with the program, people!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAPE!
Yep, I'm off to the Alternative Press Expo, this very weekend in San Francisco at the Concourse Exhibition Center at Showplace Square, 635 7th St. All you San Franciscans, and Oaklanders, and other folks of a Bob-liking disposure who happen to live in the area, come on down. Gather around my table, make me look popular, get your books signed by me and laugh your cares away. It'll be fun fun fun until daddy takes the T-bird away, as Jesus said once. 

More content!!!
We got another movie review here at angryflower.com. This one's for Spike Lee's new joint, 25th Hour, and it's a corker. Better still, I want to draw everybody's attention to a strikingly good article I found courtesy of Cruel.com. What's this great article about? Traffic jams, that's what. Sound boring? Trust me folks, it ain't. This is one of those sweet essays that starts out talking about traffic and ends up touching on wave dynamics, quantum physics, basic human morality and simple steps that tell you how anybody can make the whole world better. No shit, folks, it's a great read. Traffic jams. Word.

Anything else?
Well, as promised, there's a couple of movie reviews this week. Lessee, we've got Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, starring Sam Rockwell and directed by George Clooney, and we've also got The Pianist, starring Adrien Brody and directed by whatisname, Roman Polanski. And what the hell, it won't run in See for another week, but here's my review of Darkness Falls, while we're at it. Why not, right?

APE approaches, and man, is my table sweet!
I don't want to sound like I'm gloating here, but I got my table assignment for the Alternative Press Expo, and it's just about as awesome as I could have hoped. It's right in the front, facing everybody as they come in, next to funnyman Keith Knight. So here's a special call out to all my San Franciscan fans: Show Up! Crowd around my table like I'm a big star so other people will come over and want to know what the big deal is all about! And then they'll buy books, and I won't have to just throw 20 of them away before heading back home. That'd be pretty damn embarassing. This will be the first APE where I'll have copies of Everybody vs. Bob the Angry Flower (god willing), so I'm hoping there's still a whiff of novelty.

On Rants...
I just wanted to thank everybody who wrote in to agree with me that launching an attack on Iraq would be stupid and crazy and evil. And hell, I even wanna thank the couple of people who didn't agree with me. At least people are talking and thinking about this crap, asking some questions. And it's heartening to see opposition to this mass murder taking shape, getting organized. I participated in a peace rally last Saturday, and I admit I felt a flicker of hope, seeing thousands of my fellow Edmontonians brave the freeze to stand for something. Of course, hope turned to rage when I checked out CNN's asshole coverage of the US protests. In two hours of Headline News I spotted exactly one clip that actually showed from above the tens of thousands of people filling the streets, after which they quickly switched over to a generic shot of a dozen people with signs and never showed the throng again. So much easier to dismiss the protestors as fringey commie wackos when you don't show that there were 150,000 of them. Frankly, it's a tribute to the essential goodness and reasonableness of the American people that so many of them are against this war despite the truly outstanding torrent of bullshit and propaganda they've had crammed down their asses over the last little while. Rational Americans, I salute you. 

In other news, a comic:

More APE!
APE, of course, is the Alternative Press Expo, Feb 1 and 2, in San Francisco, and time is running down. Only a couple of weeks, now. Feels so good...

Additional...
No new movie reviews this week either, but next week I should have two, for Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and for The Pianist. Without tipping my hand before I post my reviews, I will candidly say that The Pianist = good.

And while we're at it, I'm gonna rant
The network news is all abuzz over the discovery of some empty missile warheads in Iraq, with everybody wondering if this is the hotly-awaited "smoking gun." Maybe I'm crazy, but to me a smoking gun is a gun with smoke coming out of it because it's been used to shoot something and kill people, y'know, like when somebody's started a war, rather than sitting there waiting to have one started on them? On whose borders, exactly, does Iraq have a army waiting to invade? And when did hiding missiles become a crime that demands the death penalty for thousands of innocent people? Before we all line up to make our own guns all nice and smoky, can't we just grab half a grip and not be the ones to start the killing (or pardon me, ramp up the killing, since we've already been bombing Iraq pretty much nonstop since 1991)? People get all excited over whether Hussein has these fabled "weapons of mass destruction," but what kind of destruction is it when you bomb a city into the ground and then smash the rubble into dust with tanks? Sounds pretty "massive" to me. How does the fact that you did it with a thousand bombs instead of just one make it okay? And while we're at it, when did people start thinking war was an acceptable tool of policy instead of a total fucking human disaster???

Still APE!
Yep, just another little note to promote upcoming appearance in San Francisco at the Alternative Press Expo, Feb 1 and 2. Should be pretty hot.

More stuff...
Well, the dry run for movie reviews stretches ever longer, though I should have a couple up next week. As for new links, for some reason people selling flowers on the Internet seem to want links from me, so I'm obliging. Here's http://www.send-flowers-2-her.com, and I've put the link in the dump as well.

And while we're at it...
I know, Christmas is over, the economy is tanking... who wants to buy books under these conditions? Answer: you do. Sure you do. C'mon.

APE!
A new year, a new convention cycle. First up is the Alternative Press Expo, held in rainy San Francisco, just past the very tip-end of Janaury, Feb 1 and 2, 2003. Barring adventures with customs and immigrations, I hope to be there, and who knows? I may even have some books with me. Not to sell, of course, but to give away as promotional items. Because selling them would be wrong.

Additional...
I've been kinda lazy at the ol' See these days, so I haven't written any more reviews recently, but I am gonna add a couple of links to the regular links page. First is What is Deep Fried, a damn funny and worthily angry comic strip that appears, like Bob, on the Internet. Second is Space Moose, which came up in conversation yesterday and I realized I didn't have a link to it. Bad Steve Notley! Bad! As well, there's another link in the dump.