A History of G.I. Joe RELAUNCH
posted 23 September 2026
After 15 years using the name “A Real American Book!” for my blog and social media, today marks a new name and a new look for those internet outposts, and the reveal of the title of my book 25 years in the making: A History of G.I. Joe. Thanks to web guy Harry Candelario, social media specialist Walter Wertz, and designer Brian Sauer.
Animation Mavericks trailer online
posted 21 September 2026
The trailer for our years-in-the-making secret documentary is live! And it garnered 40,000 views in its first week! And an article on Cartoon Brew! Not bad!
Panel at JoeFest
backposted to 27 June 2026
Mark and I, the Talking Joe team, moderated a panel at JoeFest 2026 in Augusta, GA. (That would be the world’s largest G.I. Joe convention.) We queried artists Robert Atkins, Brian Shearer, and Guy Dorian, Sr., and you can watch our panel here.
Larry Hama at Hub Comics
backdated to 11 February 2026
Ordinarily I don’t cross-post Hub Comics events here, but seeing as how I put this comic book together, here it is: Larry Hama, co-owner and co-creator of The Center Holds, signed at Hub Comics on Saturday, February 21st from 3pm to 8pm. Lots of folks brought G.I. Joe and Wolverine comics, too, and that’s okay!
The Center Holds in stores!
backdated to 11 February 2026
A comic book I’ve been developing for 15 years is at last available at your local comic book store! Go buy issue #1 of The Center Holds. Written by Larry Hama, drawn by M.D. Bright, colored by Josh Burcham, and lettered by Janice Chiang, The Center Holds is a 4-issue miniseries. I’m the editor, and we placed it at BOOM! Studios where Executive Editor Tea Fougner and publisher Michael Kelly moved it along.
Animation Mavericks in Variety
backposted to 16 January 2026
Our UPA screening in Los Angeles was covered in Variety, but the bigger news here is that filmmaker Kevin Schreck and I, along with animation director Rachel Gitlevich, have for three years been making a documentary about UPA in secret, and Variety announced that as well!
More about A Night of UPA
backposted to 16 January 2026
If you’d like to read about our UPA screening and panel near Los Angeles, I wrote about it over at my blog. It was great to finally meeting our animation director Rachel Gitlevich in person — in all the way from France! Director Kevin Schreck, Gitlevich, and I fine-tuned our event up to the last minute.
A Night of UPA @ Old Town Music Hall
posted 15 January 2026
On Thursday, January 15th, filmmaker Kevin Schreck and I are hosting a screening of UPA (United Productions of America) animated shorts from the 1940s and ’50s at the historic Old Town Music Hall in El Segundo, California (near LAX). Historian Jerry Beck will moderate a discussion with David Silverman (The Simpsons), Sylvie BosRau (granddaughter of UPA co-founder, Stephen Bosustow), Jorge R. Gutierrez (filmmaker), Tom Sito (historian), and Bob Kurtz (animator). Get tickets here.
Inanimate.com lives!
posted 15 January 2026
After a four year hiatus of broken links, misdirected root folders, and out-of-date HTML shenanigans, my website is fixed and rebuilt! It’ll focus less on things I drew in my 20s and more on my current film and publishing projects. Lots that I missed updating here on the index page, like the New York Comic Con announcement of my comic book with Larry Hama and Mark Bright! More on that soon. Thanks to web designer Harry Candelario for all the back-end help!
The Center Holds at NYCC
backdated to 11 October 2025
I attended New York Comic Con and took part in the “BOOM! Studios – 20 Years, Here’s To The Future!” panel where I announced a 4-issue Larry Hama/Mark Bright miniseries I’ve been editing for 15 years. The 40-page The Center Holds issue #1 will be out February 11th, 2026!
Technical problems here at Inanimate
posted 13 September 2023
Switching servers and still relying on an FTP site and Adobe Dreamweaver when I barely understand them is a triple whammy that Inanimate.com hasn’t weathered well. The whole site is still out there, somewhere, but I’ve got a root directory problem to solve. Maybe it’s time for a site-wide redesign? More soon. You can always find me on Facebook, Talking Joe, Atomic Abe, and ARealAmericanBook!
Elements of Cinema @ Brattle Theatre
On Tuesday, March 30th, I’ll return for my third hosting gig at Harvard Square’s wonderful Brattle Theatre. This will be a free screening with discussion (not a lecture, a discussion) for the Brattle’s “Elements of Cinema” series. We’ll screen René Laloux’s Fantastic Planet in 35mm, celebrating its 50th anniversary, and did I mention tickets are free?
Panel Discussion @ Fleet RISD Library
posted 20 October 2022
On Tuesday, October 25th at 6:30pm, I’ll be sharing the stage with Claudia Covert, Special Collections Librarian at the Fleet @ Rhode Island School of Design, and Bill Adler, Music Journalist and Hip Hop Documentarian, on a panel called Collecting Comics. Adler and I have each donated various comix and graphic novels to the RISD Library, and we three will talk about individuals and institutions collecting and curating them. Click here for the event flyer.
So Much Talking About Joe
posted 20 October 2022
With Mark and Jay Cordray, I’ve taken part in about 65 episodes of Talking Joe, wherein we talk new issues of IDW’s G.I. Joe and old issue of Devil’s Due’s G.I. Joe. Along the way we’ve interviewed interesting G.I. Joe creators like Josh Blaylock, Dan Jolley, Brandon Jerwa, Billy Penn, and Larry Hama! Pick Apple, Spotify, Podbean, Stitcher, or Google podcasts here, and listen to/watch our YouTube and YouTube audio episodes here.
Atomic Abe Videos are a Big Hit!
posted 20 October 2022
With creative partners Nick Nadel and Kevin Maher, I’m pleased to report that in just over two years our total YouTube views are over 2 million! Enjoy video essays like Behind the Backdoor Pilot: Daredevil/Thor and 3 Ways to Make a Shark Movie, or the 90-second award-winning festival favorite Crazy Mel’s Auto Emporium.
Inanimate.com active again!
posted 19 October 2022
I’m no Dreamweaver wiz, and the local site/remote site interface, with the vagarities of its FTPs and passwords, gives me the internet hiccups every year or three. So after 1.5 years of not updating this website — but sure wanting to! — I am back in. I’ll update tomorrow with some fun Hub Comics, pandemic-era, Talking Joe, ARealAmericanBook.com, and regular-Tim-art updates.
Co-hosting “Talking Joe” podcast
posted 22 February 2021
After a meaty interview for a special episode [Apple/Spotify/Podbean] of Talking Joe and the retirement of his partner, “Funky Bunch” Mark asked me to become full-time co-host. Our first episode [Apple/Spotify/Podbean] is on December’s G.I. Joe issue #276, our second [Apple/Spotify/Podbean] flashes back to the 2001 G.I. Joe comic relaunch (audio + images on YouTube), and we’ll alternate each week. Co-co-host Jay Cordray joins us for the Devil’s Due issues. Thanks, Mark, for this outlet!
Instagram + Cobrember
posted 12 December 2020
My book/blog and I have finally joined 2016 and are now on Instagram! Follow @arealamericanbook for more. First up: every day in December I am drawing and coloring an original piece featuring a member of G.I. Joe’s villain army, Cobra! This follows in the footsteps of Inktober and Joevember, if you’re familiar with those creative internet art memes. Cobra and Decemeber, remember the hashtag! #cobremeber
Atomic Abe launches!
posted 12 December 2020
With creative partners in the form of writer/producers Kevin Maher (HBO) and Nick Nadel (The Onion, Bravo’s Blind Date), I am pleased to announce our new endeavor Atomic Abe! That means comedy shorts like The 6 Types of Zoom Users, animation like Message From The Future, and comedy series like Behind The Backdoor Pilot featuring The Golden Girls and Star Trek! Click here for all the great work!
Book Update #39: Spring ’20
posted 09 June 2020
This update might be a lack of update. The first half of 2020 found me progressing very little as the world turned sideways and my teaching job moved to remote learning. But summer is here (no school!) and just in the last week I’ve started rewrites of Chapters 2, 3, and 4 with info dug up and interviews conducted since I “finished” them in 2009. Here’s the full 2019 year in review for more context.
Hub Comics renovations begin
posted 09 June 2020
You might follow Hub Comics on its website, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, so you may already know about our long-planned renovations! Most dramatically the awning has come down and staging will go up around the building, but this is good news! We’ll have order-by-phone for another few weeks for curbside pickup or local delivery, but we may then go dark for the summer — it looks scary but it’s all good news. (Here’s a last “before” look inside.) Click to the right for a photo of early progress.
