Two of my friends are sick (1 dengue, 1 general plumbing) so Dr. Weeks has been making some house calls.

First quiet evening by myself in weeks, just soaking in the silence, letting thoughts coalesce. Read letters and some manga at Sanctuary, a nice Japanese restaurant here in Siem Reap.

I’ve gotten a letter all the way from Texas! Rick Bradford (of Poopsheet fame) sent me “I am what I am”, a little zine about his personal life. Thousands of people are doing this on weblogs, but printed matter STILL trumps web wankery every time. I read it in a nice restaurant, having some udon noodles, listening to jazz. Hard to do that with a blog.

Speaking of the printed word, I’ve published a book. It’s a hardbound copy of earlier issues of QuickDraw, plus the website and assorted travel writings. It’s big, since the printer fucked up and printed the pages single sided. If you want a copy I’ve got a stack of about twenty, printing’s cheap here.

Have also gotten a big chunk of the latest Top Shelf comics from Brett Warnock. Thanks heaps Brett! Coming back from Australia and then getting these goodies I’m really on a comix high.

Reading Ricko’s reviews, enjoying Brett’s goodies, thinking back to the Australian comix milieu, and with an ever growing stack of comics from Cambodia, am trying to put pieces of the puzzle into place.

There is no small press scene in Cambodia. Or rather, everything is small press. It’s all very seat of the pants, but it’s not done by disaffected literate hipsters. People who publish want to make it, they want to be mainstream and successful. They publish because they have to.

There is clearly some intersection to be made, some interaction to occur. But the people, places and content are so different. It doesn’t seem obvious just yet.