Oh man does it feel good to be back in the swing of things. A whole bunch of stuff went by in the past ten days that I’m never going to catch up on, so I’m declaring an Informational Amnesty and giving myself a pass. If you sent in email about something that happened in that timeframe, I’m very sorry that the moment has passed. From here, we look to … THE FUTURE.

• In the immediate future, the biennial Toronto Comics Art Fest runs this weekend, with a slew of indy- and web-type comickers in attendance (and even more that’ll be there for the fun of walking around). Tell everybody I said hi.
• In the even more immediate future (like, now), there’s a new webcomics meme that’ll be especially resonant for those of you that grew up in the northeastern quarters of ‘Merica: it’s Fudgie the Whale week! For those of you going Wha?, Fudgie the Whale is one of the theme ice-cream cakes you can get from Carvel ice cream shops, one of the finest of all Zombie-American-run corporations, and a beloved cultural icon in its own right.
• Even more now-ish, something for all you webcomics consumers of merchandise to consider: US postal rates are going up next week, so if you get your buying in now, you can maybe save a couple bucks on shipping.
• Finally, in that part of the future that is so immediate that it slips back and actually becomes the past, it’s been a good week for webcomics books arrivals — Octopus Pie volume 3 (An Interstate Oasis), Phables volume only (Who Needs Trees When You Have Green Awnings?), and Kate Beaton volume one of God I hope many (Never Learn Anything From History) have all arrived in the past week, and were invaluable in trying times. Particularly wonderful are the personal connections I feel for these three books:
  • I own two pages from the Octopie book
  • I have heard the story about Brad Guigar losing his shit in traffic in person
  • I have dibs on one of the originals in NLAFH if Kate Beaton ever decides to sell her originals (and in the meantime, the paper stock is so heavy, it’s practically an archival print on each page — were it not sold out, I could buy another copy and carefully cut out every page, giving myself suitable-for-framing wall decor)

  Seriously you guys these books are so good, you should buy the first two right now and subscribe to the Topatoco Twitter account to learn when NLAFH is back in print, or pick up one of the copies reserved for MoCCA or TCAF, which brings us full circle to … THE FUTURE.