Those in NYC this weekend should visit the 2008 Howl Festival in Tompkins Square Park. The festival attracts more than 100,000 visitors to the clubs, galleries, parks, streets, and theaters of Manhattan’s Lower East Side in an explosion of dance, film, food, music, performance, painting, poetry, sculpture, and theater. The majority of the events are from today, Sept. 5, to Sunday, Sept. 7, and there are way too many for me to list here, so check out their retro website at www.howlfestival.com.

The event you should really try to come to is next Wed., Sept. 10, at St. Mark’s Church, a "comix" panel called "Inside Out: Self and Society in Comic Art". Moderated by the inimitable Calvin Reid, the panel includes David A. Beronä (author of Wordless Books); DC/Vertigo editor Pornsak Pichetshote; and artists Jill Tamaki, James Romberger, and yours truly; with more TBA. We’ll be discussing trends in autobiography, journalism and social critique in graphic novels. Of course I’ll be mostly talking about "A.D."

Should be fun; hope to see you there!