Michael Avolio
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michaelavolio.bsky.social
Michael Avolio
@michaelavolio.bsky.social
Silver Spring, MD

Indie cartoonist making comics.
Autistic and in constant physical pain.
Former theater artist. Forever cinephile.

Buy my comics and paintings at michaelavolio.etsy.com. Support my comics work at patreon.com/michaelavolio.
Pinned
Art prints: michaelavolio.etsy.com
(Plus comics, paintings, and other art!)
Reposted by Michael Avolio
Now through December 2nd, everything in my Etsy shop is 25% off — comics, paintings, art prints, original comic art pages, and drawings! Buy a gift for someone else, or just get a little something for yourself. Free shipping on orders over $35!
michaelavolio.etsy.com
November 24, 2025 at 2:44 PM
I read enough about the Variety "100 best comedies of all time" list to know reading the list itself would only annoy me.

My favorite comedies include Duck Soup, Steamboat Bill Jr, The Cardboard Lover, Wag the Dog, The Muppet Movie, The Man Who Knew Too Little, Bullets Over Broadway, & The Jerk.
November 24, 2025 at 4:56 PM
SOLD
November 24, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Now through December 2nd, everything in my Etsy shop is 25% off — comics, paintings, art prints, original comic art pages, and drawings! Buy a gift for someone else, or just get a little something for yourself. Free shipping on orders over $35!
michaelavolio.etsy.com
November 24, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Reposted by Michael Avolio
Instagram permanently deactivated my account because I told too many fascists there to kill themselves. So I had to create a new account, with no access to my followers/following lists. My new account is: instagram.com/michaelavoliocomics
November 13, 2025 at 4:07 AM
Drawn and Quarterly is having a sale on their website December 1, with all books 35-50% off.

Fantagraphics is having a sale on their website through tomorrow of 30% off their gift guide selections and then 40% off almost everything on November 24 with free domestic shipping for orders over $75.
November 22, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Chris Van Hollen is one of my senators here in Maryland. He's consistently standing up against Trump & is one of the rare members of Congress not taking AIPAC money. Van Hollen even went to El Salvador to check on a constituent who was illegally abducted & imprisoned by Trump & company at CECOT.
This guy has his finger on the pulse of his party's base in a way that others in his caucus unequivocally just do not
November 21, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Jordan Crane talked process, theory, practice, drawing, and printing in one of my favorite New York Comics and Picture-Story Symposium meetings the other night. I found this fascinating and inspiring. Looking forward to his interview in the next Comics Journal.
youtu.be/EtM0ZGQAJ_c
Jordan Crane, November 18th, 2025
YouTube video by New York Comics & Picture-story Symposium
youtu.be
November 21, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Saw the new restoration of The Hidden Fortress at AFI Silver today. These new Kurosawa restorations look lovely, & they seem to be doing good business, which makes me happy as a cinephile who's glad so many people are seeing Kurosawa films & as someone who wants my local arthouse theater to make $.
November 21, 2025 at 12:51 AM
I got a print copy of the schedule for AFI Silver's new European Union Film Showcase. Of particular interest at first glance: A Magnificent Life, Young Mothers, Made in EU, Magellan, The Visitor, The Birthday Party, Testament of Ann Lee (70mm) & Petzold's Miroirs No 3.
silver.afi.com/events/detai...
AFI European Union Film Showcase | AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center
silver.afi.com
November 21, 2025 at 12:48 AM
Happy birthday to our greatest living filmmaker, Martin Scorsese.
November 18, 2025 at 1:18 AM
self-portraits from over the years
November 16, 2025 at 7:04 PM
I have no use for the people arguing we aren't living under a fascist government. The US is like Germany in the 1930s, and insisting that it's not fascism just because we aren't Germany in the 1940s is of little value except to point out that things can still get worse.
November 16, 2025 at 6:57 PM
This reminds me, Clowes has a wordless cameo near the end of Eddington. He's sitting there in the last Emma Stone scene. Clowes is friends with that filmmaker, Ari Aster, who's talked about Clowes in interviews.
Whatever you’re doing, assume Daniel Clowes is doing something much cooler 😎
November 15, 2025 at 5:00 AM
Instagram permanently deactivated my account because I told too many fascists there to kill themselves. So I had to create a new account, with no access to my followers/following lists. My new account is: instagram.com/michaelavoliocomics
November 13, 2025 at 4:07 AM
Martin Scorsese interviews Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi about the latter's new movie, It Was Just an Accident.
youtu.be/1tav1MUblM4
Jafar Panahi and Martin Scorsese on It Was Just an Accident and Rebellious Filmmaking
YouTube video by Film at Lincoln Center
youtu.be
November 13, 2025 at 12:45 AM
The restoration of Throne of Blood looks incredible! My first time seeing the film on the big screen. I saw Seven Samurai in the theater last year and Ran earlier this year and am planning to catch Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Rashomon, and High and Low there too, and maybe The Hidden Fortress.
boxd.it/bGEP3r
A ★★★★★ review of Throne of Blood (1957)
In this, one of the all-time best Shakespeare adaptations, Kurosawa streamlines the narrative of Macbeth (most notably by removing all the Macduff material) and makes many bold and creative choices. T...
boxd.it
November 12, 2025 at 6:34 AM
The Criterion Channel has added a Tatsuya Nakadai set: www.criterionchannel.com/starring-tat...
November 12, 2025 at 12:05 AM
Pope Leo's four favorite movies: Two films in which Nazis are the villains, one in which a wealthy capitalist is the villain, and one in which a bad parent is the villain.
The whole list is anti-Musk.

(The Sound of Music, Life Is Beautiful, It's a Wonderful Life, and Ordinary People.)
Pope Leo has shared his four favorite movies of all time, as the Vatican prepares to host dozens of actors and directors in a “World of Cinema” gathering on Saturday at his official residence. See which films made the pope's list. nyti.ms/4p3exK9
Pope Leo Shares His Favorite Movies Ahead of Vatican Event
The list leans heavily on uplifting classics.
nyti.ms
November 11, 2025 at 10:46 PM
My Instagram account got disabled Saturday night because I told too many fascists on there to kill themselves. I appealed the decision and am waiting to see if IG restores my account, or if I have to start over with a new account. There's no way to write anything in the appeal — it's just a button.
November 11, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Reposted by Michael Avolio
It might be low stakes for society if an artist or gallery administrator can’t parse an obviously fake story as fake. What happens when enough structural engineers or drug researchers or infectious disease doctors or law makers can’t tell what is real, what is plausible?
November 11, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Tatsuya Nakadai (1932–2025)

Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Harakiri, High and Low, The Face of Another, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, Kagemusha, Ran, The Human Condition, Kill!, Sword of Doom, Kwaidan, The Wolves, The Inheritance, and even one shot of Seven Samurai.
What an intense actor.
What a career.
November 11, 2025 at 6:24 AM
Artists who like drawing with fun pens or razor blades, grab one of these! I got the earlier model without the pump, & it's a fun challenge to draw with. I got it because I was looking for something like the parallel pen to use with archival ink, but its curve allows for more line weight variation.
Less than two hours remaining on my pen sale!
Short clip of the blade pen in action, featuring music by me!

(also featuring my hands, which look like a pair of workers gloves you’d find in a peat bog)

These pens are on sale until midnight on Monday, 10% off with the code TENTENTEN!

thingsbydan.myshopify.com

youtube.com/shorts/g8pB2...
November 10, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Farran Smith Nehme @selfstyledsiren.bsky.social introducing the silent film Saxophone Suzy at AFI Silver — opening night of their 2025 Classic Film Weekend!
November 7, 2025 at 12:10 AM