scary art-related events for 10/31-11/1 and news

- Gallery Hop is Saturday night in the Short North.

- Junctionville Studios is hosting Por Vida!, a Day of the Dead celebration, Saturday night at 10PM.

- The OSU Department of Design celebrates its 40th anniversary this Saturday.

Plus:
- The Highball Halloween parade is tomorrow night beginning at 6pm on High St.

- Not an event but it's an interesting story: there are billboards around town featuring the work of a New York photographer that are causing a stir.

- And while it's not exactly on-topic, it is definitely noteworthy: the Grandview movie theater is coming back!

Jeff Stahler at PM Gallery

Friday night, I was on my way to the pre-Mid-Ohio Con party at Barley's. (No offense meant to Panel, the party's sponsor, but it wasn't quite as good as the GOGs of old. GOG being the Great Ogre Gathering, the pre-con parties put on at the Laughing Ogre comic book shop by its former owners. At least one year, I skipped the con, but made sure to make the party.) Before I left home, I discovered an ad in Columbus Alive! touting an opportunity to meet Jeff Stahler. Jeff is the editorial cartoonist for the Columbus Dispatch and was at the PM Gallery that night signing copies of 21st Century Confusion: A Moderately Confused Collection, the latest collection of his syndicated panel daily comic Moderately Confused and kicking off an exhibition of several MC originals, which, if you've got $200 burning a hole in your pocket, you can purchase.

The exhibit consists mostly of cartoons that were part of a caption contest sponsored by the Dispatch and include the winning reader submitted punchline. A few panels with Stahler's punchlines are included as well, and those ones also appear in the book.

I picked up a copy of the book, complete with Stahler's autograph, and handed him in return a copy of my own Wasted Paper, collecting the first year of my web-comic Wasted Potential.

The Stahler exhibit at PM Gallery is slated to run through October 30.

Thumbs Up: Laughing Ogre Thumbs Down: Mall-i-vision

Comic book lovin' West Virginian writer/journalist David Welsh, notes in his blog that he visited Columbus this past weekend and "had a delightful shopping experience at The Laughing Ogre – good selection, friendly staff, etc. " He also came across two other comic shops but was disappointed to find they weren't open (during their posted "open" hours, too!).

Also of note:

There once was a funky, interesting neighborhood called The Short North in Columbus (think Dupont Circle in Washington) that seems to be kind of a victim of its own success (as is Dupont Circle, which has too many pricey shoe stores to be funky and interesting any more). It’s kind of gone mall, if you know what I mean.

Yes... I know what you mean and it is very sad for those of us who think character is more than just a pretty face.