Welcome to Falling Rock National Park, Book Four!

Gentle McBoners,

Today is a good day.  Why?  Because today I'm writing to tell you about the release of See America First, the fourth collection of my buddy Josh's comic--the official comic strip of McBone--Welcome to Falling Rock National Park.

Many of you are already familiar with the veritable (desert) garden of delights that is WtFRNP.  For avid readers, Falling Rock is your first destination every morning, an oasis of hilarity before the unbearable, soul-destroying reality of the workday sets in.  Others prefer to wind down the day with a Beefeater martini and a few panels of Falling Rock--a wonderfully potent combo that will make you forget your cubicle, the boss, the fax machine and the fact that the same, suffocating cloak of darkness will fall again tomorrow.  And next week.  And for the rest of your life.

Other lucky bastards have yet to experience the adventures of a giant, happy-go-lucky lizard, an owl with delusions of world domination, a chain-smoking, retired school teacher javelina and a languid yet ferocious mountain lion with artistic sensibilities. 

Sound good?  It is!  Sound too good to be true?  It's not!  And now is the perfect time for you to become (re)acquainted with the park, either by reading the strip every single day, or by purchasing your very own copy of Book 4!  The best thing about the second option is that Book 4 is printed with soy based ink and on recycled chipboard.  That's right, Falling Rock is completely guilt free!  Buy a copy. Hell, buy 10.  Supplies are limited, so act fast.  Trust me, McBoners.  Would I lead you astray?

By the way, Josh is also a writer of the highest order, and you can follow the peregrinations of his mind in blog form right here!

nwb

Sprucing Up the Old Place

Friends, if McBone is looking a bit different these days, don't adjust that dial!  Never ones to stand idle, we've done bit of remodeling, and we've got a brand new banner decorating the place.  Call it a new look for a new era, though perhaps you'll find it somewhat familiar as well.  You should!  It was designed by none other than the official cartoonist of McBone, and partner blogger, Kid Shay.  That's right, my buddy Josh accepted the challenging commission (the terms of which have yet to be hashed out in their entirety), and came up with a design that I think you'll agree is positively corking.

Always a talented artist, Josh has risen to greatness ever since selling his soul to the devil a couple of years ago.  Though he may regret that decision in the hereafter, we're glad he did it!  He's slapped a generous coating of his unique and ill-gotten ability right here, and we thank him for it.  Hey, hey, there's Stabbone and McGraw themselves, fully moustashioed and arrayed as they were before their mysterious disappearance in 1967.  Behold the skyline of the greatest city in the Midwest, Cleveland. Terminal Tower, Key Tower, the AT&T Building, Jacob's Field...it's all there in painstaking detail.  The historic Hope Memorial Bridge spans the foreground, linking downtown to the west side and the warehouse where Stabbone made his infamous last stand.

And there, like Godzilla walking among the skyscrapers, is Chan Marshall, watching over our little blog and making sure that everything in the McBoniverse reamains, as it has been since 2007, mayonnaise-free.  Don't cross her!  This gal breathes fire.

McBone is honored to have Josh's art gracing the top of our blog.  We couldn't be happier with it and we hope you like it too.  For those of you who hate change, don't worry.  We're still chock full of that good old-fashioned, extra chewy McBone wisdom.  Come get it while it's hot!

nwb

A Comic Strip Manifesto

These days, the funny pages are about the most depressing part of a newspaper, and, hoo-boy, that's saying something. Recessions, wars, the Cleveland Browns--none of it compares to the mindless waste of paper and ink that is your average daily comic section. Oh, you'll find the occasional gem (Get Fuzzy, Doonesbury) jammed between the Cathys and the Garfields that dominate the syndicates, but really, if Beetle Bailey disappeared tomorrow, would anyone ever notice? Would anyone care? By now, we really know what Hi and Lois has to offer. And how about Ziggy? We got him 30 years ago, we get him now, and he's just as astoundingly lame as he ever was. Blondie has been running for 75 years, for crying out loud. He's been making the same goddam sandwich all that time. It's not funny, and yet it remains in the funny pages. And of course when we do finally get a new strip, it's Prickly City, for the love of Pete.

My point is: all of these total crap comic strips (I'm talking to you Hagar. You too, Wizard of Id) have been around since the dawn of time. They may have been good once. They may have been groundbreaking in their way, but now they're just taking up precious space.

Well, I'm here to tell you, gentle McBoners, that we don't have to settle for the medocrity. You have an alternative, and it is created with love in Portland, Oregon.

My friend Josh Shalek has been drawing Welcome to Falling Rock National Park for the past 4 years. Today McBone is pleased to announce the release of his third book. Perhaps you never heard about the first two. I can't say I blame you. You were too busy not lauging at Curtis.

Welcome to Falling Rock National Park (the official comic strip of McBone) takes place in a desert in the southwestern United States. Within its borders live four creatures of such towering imagination, that only a cartoonist as highly talented and bearded as Josh could have created it. With just a few panels, Josh creates a universe of chain-smoking javelinas and megalomaniacal owls that will get you thinking (as any truly great comic strip should) but also--and this is the real trick--laughing.

So, I'm not asking you all to click on this link or this link and buy Josh's book(s). I'm telling you to. Like now. Right. Now.

No, seriously though. Times are tough for everyone. Take heart! You can read a month's worth of the strip for free by clicking right here. We at McBone think you'll agree: Falling Rock, like other comics that are original and provocative and funny, belongs in the papers where we all can see it. Hell, do you think a transfusion of new blood will actually hurt slumping newspaper sales? I think not.

So, sorry, Sally Forth and B.C., and but you've been put on notice. For every Family Circus, there are a hundred struggling cartoonists trying to get a toe hold. Let's take back the funny pages and turn them over to new talent. Falling Rock is a great place to start.

nwb