Books, Blogs, and Brain Clouds

No. 43 (February / March 2026)

Contents:

-My Latest Projects

-Blog Updates

-Hopefuls Spotlight

-Reader's Corner

-A Brain Cloud

My Latest Projects

1) My biography of Marvel Comics writer and editor Mark Gruenwald is finally out in the world! It's available at https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/M/Mark-Gruenwald or any of the places you get books.

2) Related to that, I forgot to mention back in February that I had the pleasure of serving as a reader for Jason Olsen's Mark Gruenwald's Quasar: Cosmic Gem of the Marvel Universe, which is a deep dive into Mark's most personal comic book work. If you enjoy reading about Mark, this is a good place to go next!

2) I've been spending most of my creative time and energy on my comic strip, Zuzu the Groundhog. Each "chapter" (between 7 and 12 strips) tells a complete story. I've finished six chapters so far, and am posting them one per month on social media. You can also read them here: http://comicsbypaul.com/

Blog Updates

On my music blog, I've just wrapped up a seven-part series called "A Beginner's Guide to Yacht Rock." I've come away from the project with a very narrow but thorough definition of what qualifies a song or an artist as Yacht Rock. Here are the first two entries to get you started: Introduction and Top 25 Yacht Rock Songs.

Hopefuls Spotlight

The most exciting thing to happen in Hopefuls-land in awhile: Spymob have reunited and are recording new music. Their social media has what appears to be album or single artwork, and there's a video with a tantalizing snippet of a catchy new song.

Reader's Corner

In February and March I read the Wicked prequel Elphie and a memoir by John Gallant, father of one of my favorite cartoonists (Gregory Gallant, aka Seth). I'm currently reading Stephen King's 1983 classic Pet Semetary.

In comics I've been catching up on the latest happenings in Aquaman, Justice League Unlimited, and the X-Men books.