Good Night, Sleep Tight, Read Gabrielle Bell's Nocturnal Guests

Years ago, the expression "cute as a bedbug" was a thing people said.

Can we agree, you and I, that "cute as a bedbug" is the kind of thing only an insane person would say, in an insane fashion, insanely, and with great insanity?

Because ... well, over on her blog Lucky, cartoonist Gabrielle Bell (whose book Cecil and Jordan in New York I really dug, a couple years back) sums it up nicely: "[A bedbug] feeds by injecting its two prongs into your flesh, one of which deposits saliva full of anesthetics and poison while the other siphons up blood."

As for bedbug sex? There are no words.

Well, okay. There are several words, in point of fact. These include, but are not limited to, the words "sword-like penis."

BUT CUTE IS NOT ONE OF THOSE WORDS. Is my point.

Yet such are Bell's gifts that in Nocturnal Guests, a four-chapter webcomic depicting her latest battle with the demon Cimex lectularius, she manages to portray the little bloodsuckers as chummy, nobly resilient ... and sorta cute. Go, read.

Jeffrey Brown's Incredible Change-Bots Return

Jeffrey Brown made a name for himself with funny and sometimes wincingly truthful autobiographical comics. (Last year's Undeleted Scenes, a collection of shorter works, includes his Be a Man! series, which makes a great introduction to his singular style.)

I loved Incredible Change-Bots, his 2007 Transformers parody. (You can see a trailer for it here.) In a new interview over on Comic Book Resources, Brown previews the upcoming sequel, which looks like a lot of fun.

Brown was one of four cartoonists included in an exhibition that ran through the month of January at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art.

At New York's Museum of Sex, an Exhibition of Graphic (snerk) Art

Speaking of comics, and museums, and wincing:

Comics historian Craig Yoe, whose book about Superman co-creator Joe Shuster's late-career work drawing for-hire-fetish art we discussed a while back, has collaborated with New York's Museum of Sex on an exhibit devoted to naughty comics through the ages.

In this Comic Book Resources interview, Yoe talks about putting the show together. NOTE: Some of the art/descriptions in that link run a bit "Comics Aren't Just for Kids Anymore," if you get my meaning.

Now. Is it me, or does this guy talk only in phrases that practically cry out to be read suggestively?

Yoe said the origin of "Comics Stripped" stems from his work on the "Secret Identities" book, during which time he was in contact with Museum of Sex representatives. "We talked about touching base later. About three months ago we hooked up, did a whirlwind of research and borrowing and calling on people from around the world to lend artwork and artifacts," he said. "We pulled it together rather quickly, but I think the museum did a sensational job. It came out beautifully. I'm very, very excited about the exhibit."

Right? I mean ... right?

Okay, fine. I am twelve. Shut up.

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