Last night I dreamt I was a secret agent seeking the real headquarters of Fox News

You know you're a political news junkie when... you dream you're a secret agent with super powers hunting down the real headquarters of Fox News in an underwater bunker.

But let me backtrack.

I just woke up from a really weird-ass dream:

In the dream, I was a mild-mannered art preservationist. I was working in a poorly-lit library, poring over old art-history books to get a feel and context for some ancient mural I would be in charge of restoring. I was talking to my new boss, chatting about this and that, when I realized it was lunch time--clearly, that meant it was time to go hunt for the secret headquarters of Fox News!

So I get on some fancypants silver bullet-looking train heading way fast way out of town. There's a lot of suspicious types on the train, but also just regular commuters and family. Unlucky for me the only empty seats are behind two jerks in plain suits. It becomes clear they are jerks when they lean their seats back so far they are practically horizontal, and my knees are completely crushed. I ask them to move the seats up because I'm losing feeling in my legs but instead they repeatedly raise and lower the seat back, essentially punching me in the knees repeatedly.

So I slam the seat up to get out of there, pushing one dude hard into the seat in front of him.

He bites me on the nose.

I start screaming about how I'm going to call the police and he's screaming that he's going to sue me and I get out of the seat and go to the back of the train. All the empty seats are covered in packages, and the large family whose packages these are claims they're waiting for friends to sit there. Typical.

The only other empty seat is next to some sleeping shirtless dude lying halfway over the other seat, so I gingerly sit on the edge of this seat and feel my unfortunate nose--not broken or bleeding, but damn sore.

Suddenly the train stops at some random out of the way town and the plaid suit guys and others get off. I realize I'm starting to run out of lunch break so I decide to get off, take the other train back, and hunt Fox News another day.

But when I hop off the train, there's a big wooden building with barbed wire and cobwebs and the words "Fox News" handpainted in toddler-class hand-lettering, looks like the fake front on a movie set. And the building is empty.

Then my train rushes by on a nearby track and I see everyone else who was looking for Fox News realize they've missed it and start running after it. I run for a bit too, but when I start losing my breath and losing sight of the train, I remember that I can fly.

Unfortunately, the plaid suit guys see me flying, and when I fly over their heads, one of them pushes me, sending me skidding through the air right into the path of an oncoming helicopter.

I manage to dodge the helicopter but then found myself on a bridge in the path of an oncoming train. I jumped away onto the railing but there was some crazy car chase going on with some gangster silver-gray 1930s kind of car coming at me with machine guns blaring, and an airplane coming from another direction...

So I jumped. Into the water. And immediately felt a vise-like grip tighten around my ankles, pulling me down into the dark water.

I thought I was going to drown. But moments later I found myself in an underwater waiting room. Apparently I could breathe underwater. It was a crowded waiting room, with lots of folks in line to hunt down Fox News' secret underwater bunker.

So I took a ticket.

And then I woke up. Yeesh! I can't even escape Rupert Murdoch in my sleep!

Seriously though, I bet I had this dream because I worked as an information graphics journalist for three years at the excellent Wall Street Journal (the news side, not the editorial page, of course!) and was horrified to hear about Murdoch's recent $60-a-share bid for Dow Jones. As for the art preservationist bit, I fell asleep last night reading a book about Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry murals.

We now return to our regularly scheduled blogging and cartooning...

Read more after the jump...

Review copies of Attack of the 50-Foot Mikhaela now available! + tentative release date

So the tentative official release date for Attack of the 50-Foot Mikhaela: Cartoons By Mikhaela Reid (i.e. the day you'll be able to start ordering it on this here fine web site) is May 11. It may be sooner, it may be later! But I'm going to need some serious help promoting this thing, for several reasons:

• Although it will have a real ISBN and all that, it's self-published, and I'll primarily be selling it through Lulu.com and this website.
• I'm not sure yet if I can actually afford to sell it on Amazon.com, since they charge a whopping 55% commission fee, which would basically mean I was paying them several dollars per copy.
• HOWEVER, if there's enough interest in the book, I can print enough copies to sell it through Amazon and still make a tiny bit of $$ per book. So we'll see!
• I don't have a distributor, and I'm quite nervous about trying to distribute it to actual stores, since that could mean returned and unsold copies I have to refund.
• But I do have tons of postcards I printed up, and I do plan to see if I can get the book into niche/specialty stores--queer/feminist/leftwing and suchlike bookstores would be good. If you know of any good ones, drop me a line! (cartoons@mikhaela.net)

Anyway, if you could do any of the following, my eternal gratitude is yours:

• Since I'm primarily selling it through the web, I'm particularly interested in sending review copies to blogs with lots of devoted readers who would be amenable to its contents. If you believe you fit this category, please drop me an e-mail (cartoons@mikhaela.net).
• But of course I would still love to be reviewed in print! So the above applies to print journalists/outlets as well!
• I would also LOVE love LOVE to do interviews with any blogs or online outlets (and print or radio outlets, of course). So let your writer/blogger/radio friends know!
• I'm nervous about trying to set up any solo events or signings, but I may try to set up some type of joint events or slideshows of some kind with Masheka and maybe other CWA members. Events at nearbyish colleges, bookstores, etc. I'd love to speak to any Gay/Straight Alliances in high schools (or colleges), too. I'm also happy to do entertaining digital cartoon slideshows in the New York/Massachusetts/Connecticut/Philadelphia type area (basically, anywhere I can reach by bus).

So yes... please help an angry cartoonist out! I'll have postcards, web ads, promo materials and emails and other tools that should make it reasonably easy for anyone who wants to help!

Read more after the jump...

Mikhaela (and Masheka) featured in press on Other Heroes

The Associated Press did a brief piece on the " OTHER HEROES: African American Comic Book Creators and Characters" show currently up at Jackson State University in Mississippi, and they called me today to ask for permission to use a photo of my cartoon from the exhibit.

(Just in case it's not already clear from my photos and self-portraits, I'm not black--I was included in the show because I frequently draw black characters, and the show was about black comics creators AND characters. I explained this to the photographer and suggested he might want to use a different image, but he said he wanted to use it anyway and he was also using images from two of the black cartoonists from the show, Kyle Baker and Mshindo Kuumba).

Anyway, here's the photo of my cartoon "Let Them Eat Toxic Sludge" on Yahoo News. Fun facts: I drew the cartoon at 3 a.m. after coming home from a 2005 Katrina benefit show featuring Dave Chappelle, Q-Tip, Dead Prez and Talib Kweli.

Update: The Freedom Gravy cartoon was also used to illustrate a more detailed story in the Jackson Free Press, and they fittingly discussed my work and Masheka's work (not to mention Keith Knight's work--go CWA!) in the same paragraph:

Almost every viewer should find something in the show that resonates. My favorites include a poster by Mikhaela Reid advertising “Freedom Gravy,” the Bush-family solution to the post-Katrina food shortage in New Orleans and coastal pollution problems all at once. “Let Them Eat Toxic Sludge!” the poster proclaims while a wrinkly, pearl-wearing Barbara Bush offers a green spoonful of Freedom Gravy to a young black girl, saying, “Open up dear—I’m sure this is much nicer than what you people are used to eating.” Also interesting is Masheka Wood’s “Ask CEOs” comic strip, where she asks hideous white male CEOs “How do you spend your $13,000 an hour?” Replies from the executives range from the hilarious—“Imported cashmere wipes for my delicate buttocks.”—to the disconcertingly realistic—“Oh ya know, buying politicians and whatnot.” By juxtaposing both types of answers, Wood asks a pointed question: “Which is more outrageous: Cashmere butt-wipes or buying out politicians who are supposed to represent our best interests?” Also noteworthy for his biting political and racial satire is Keith Knight, whose understated visual style allows his wry observational genius to shine through.

Read more after the jump...