Okay, let’s review the facts: By 12:06pm EDT yesterday, I was already emailing people about how easy the SDCC hotel registration process was. By 12:06pm EDT today, I have heard exactly squat from them about my room reservation, and I gather I’m not the only person in this situation. Ain’t nothing in my spam folders, the same email address successfully delivered information from Travel Providers in prior years, and I am becoming annoyed. I also note that the hotel page seems to have reverted to the same system used in prior years; make of that what you will. Let’s move on to happier things.

• High volume demand for limited product: check. Actually sending an email acknowledging order: check. History of making good on what the email says you will supply? Check. I look forward to my Fat Pony Figurine from TopatoCo; in an alternate dimension where merchandise is handled by the SDCC hotel people, I will die of old age while still waiting to find out if I get one or not.
• Excellent idea from Jennie Breeden: Oglaf [NSFW] cosplay at Dragon*Con.
• This was possibly an overshare on the part of Danielle Corsetto, but man was it funny. Also: Angela Melick, keeping it polite.
• Hell. Yes.:
  

  Bryan Lee O’Malley’s SCOTT PILGRIM VOL. 6: SCOTT PILGRIM’S FINEST HOUR, is published by Oni Press and features 248 pages of evil-ex butt-kicking in the easily digestible digest format for the low, low price of $11.99. Available at your local comic shop or bookstore Tuesday, July 20th, 2010.

On any other day, the newly-revealed poster for Scott Pilgrim vs The World (“An epic of epic epicness”) would get pride of place up top, but this isn’t any other day. This is the day (well, okay, last night) that John Keogh, after many teasers, has dropped the last Lucid TV on us, and it’s a masterpiece. Last one to leave Jim Belushi Memorial Hospitul, turn out the lights. And may I note that the flashing logo on the side of JBMH will always remind me of one of Chuck Jones’s better sight gags.

• In other news, I’ve been meaning to mention this for a couple days now — Jim Zubkavich has been responsible for a lot of projects with his UDON Entertainment studiomates, and as of a week ago, that includes a new mini-series that is a) licensed from b) a fighting video game series that c) I’ve never played. I still enjoyed the hell out of it, because as Chris Sims rightly notes, You can never have too many ninjas.
• Last up, a philosophical diversion. Anonymous (as you will see in a moment) writes:
  

  Hello Gary,

  So recently I’ve been trying to get under control the large (for me) amount of hits one would get when they google my name, for a couple of reasons, mostly being the fact that they were created during an adolescent time of my life (my adolescence) and would like them to be kind of, well, removed. With the internet being like an infinite attic that everyone can shuffle through I would like my presence to be something more conscious, if you know what I mean. Could you please take a few seconds out of your day and just delete my last name ([redacted] from [redacted]) from the post copied below? I would be most grateful!

  [link redacted]

  Thank you!
  -[redacted]

  This is actually a bit of a dilemma for me — while it would be trivially easy to remove one word from one post, we at Fleen have had a long history of not retroactively de-publishing content. No matter how stupid, abusive, or misinformed the content (and that’s from us; the comment threads can get downright evil), it stays up because it’s a record of what actually took place. Corrections have been logged, of course (very minor things like typos and bad punctuation without notice; more weighty things like rewordings or retractions via strikethrough), but no comment or posting has ever been taken down.

  There is one caveat to that last statement, actually. At the height of the Todd Goldman Shitstorm of Aught-Seven, with lawsuit threats a-flying, one poster contacted me with a request that a comment be deleted because he’d submitted it from work, and was afraid if the lawyerin’ got out of hand, his employer might terminate him. I did so, and he resubmitted the same comment from his home computer, so the net effect was zero (aside from the chill in the air that expressing an opinion can be dealt with so harshly).

  Anonymous’s request reminds me a lolt of the story of “Peter”, who legally changed his identity to get away from Google searches; I take it as a given that the words and works that we craft should be things we are willing to stand behind, but must we be tagged with associations forever? I also take it as a given that everybody — every. body. — was an idiot as a teenage for instance (you really can’t help it, what with the hormones and the brain not being all the way cooked). Anybody with a smidge of self-awareness looks back on those years and slowly shakes their head with a muttered comment thanking [insert thankable entity] that they aren’t like that anymore. Heck, I find the process of growing, changing, and maturing (kicking and screaming all the way) means that any random interval of the past, from last week to third grade, is likely to leave me wondering how I could be such a dick back then and I hope I’m not like that now. So the line about an adolescent time of my life rings true for me.

  Ultimately, the full identity of Anonymous isn’t part of the story — not like a more prominent figure would be. And while the no-depublishing rule was something I set in stone for myself when Fleen started in 2005, if we are to grow, change, and mature, then we must be willing to revisit our ironclad beliefs as situations and circumstances warrant. Request granted, and we’ll take such considerations under advisement in the future.

Well, me and my dog will just have to have fun by ourselves. So there.

• In what’s becoming an annual tradition, Kate Beaton is nominated for a Doug Wright Award, recognizing the best in Canadian comics and graphic novels. Last year, she took the award for Best Emerging Talent, and this year she’s nominated for the Pigskin Peters Award, which recognizes experimental or non-narrative comics, for Never Learn Anything From History. Mark my words, in a few decades they’ll just retire this one and create a new award named after her. The awards will be presented at TCAF, 7pm on Saturday, 8 May.
• Webcomics character (and creator) cameo day over at Shortpacked!, as David Willis ramps up the romance inherent in toy collector circles. In case the storyline isn’t offensive enough to those threatened by THE GAY, allow me to draw your attention to the pre-orders for Shortpacked!’s third book, appropriately titled Shortpacked! Is Totally Gay, with cover art to match. Because honestly, the only thing more homoerotic than GI Joe is Top Gun.
• The finest comic retelling of the Twelve Labors of Herakles since Matt Wagner brushed up against it is now up for pre-order. What, you didn’t realize that Gastro and Phobia were telling stories parallel to the oldest of Greek myths? Even once you knew that Alcides was in the storyline? Yeah, I’m guessing that G&P did all the work, and Big H got all the press.

You know who is more self-contrasting than anybody else in webcomickry? Josh Lesnick. On the one hand, he works mightily to keep the adult side of webcomics economically viable for creators (perhaps putting so much effort to the advantage of his associates that he neglects the success of his own works), struggling against things PayPal and credit-card processing policies that shy away from anything even vaguely hinting at naughty bits.

On the other hand, his loose, scribbly style is made for the absolutely cutest, most innocence-projecting images possible, without quite slipping over the line into diabetes-inducing treacle. Good samples of both sides of Lesnick’s work can be seen at Pink Snow Bunny [sometimes NSFW, but so very cute; also: moustaches].

And now, the full cute potential has been unleashed in tribute to his fellow creators. Ladies and gentlemen: Josh Lesnick presents Webcomic Pony Party. It’s mare-velous.¹

• It took me eight “turns” to get through the latest Dresden Codak, with a couple of free rolls thrown in for good measure. I’m only now realizing that Latin Heart-throb Aaron Diaz may have meant me to use something other than a six-sided die. I’m pretty sure I have some other geometric solids around here somewhere.
• One of the better webcomics to hit in the past year has been Odori Park; while it doesn’t feature axes or the cops that love them, it conveys a pretty strong sense of creator Chris Watkins’ life and experiences … heart, if you will. With a first anniversary coming up, Watkins has a call for guest strips out. Anybody interested, deadline is Monday.
• Almost missed it: Weregeek’s second book is up for pre-order until tomorrow, and if you’re going to be at EmCity, creator Alina Pete will be there with copies in hand. Lots of other creators there too, with lots of new and con-specific goodies. Those in the great Pacific Northwest, let us know how it goes.

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¹ I’m so, so sorry.

ROFLCon II (30 April & 1 May, at MIT; that’s my anniversary weekend, so I think I’m gonna have to miss it) now has an official shirt. Oh, but it is glorious. Obviously the work of the very sexy R Stevens, riffing on Antonia Neshev’s now-ubiquitous design, and printed by the same design shop that did the original, so no concerns about anybody ripping off anybody. Hooray!

• As I mentioned back in the autumn of last year, xkcd volume 0 was chock-full of puzzles that I intended to let other people solve. And solve them they have, at long last.

  As I suspected at the time, the puzzles scattered throughout the book were smaller components of a larger puzzle, and the final pieces were put together yesterday by xkcd forum member aspragg, who announced the solution to the meta-puzzle (needless to say, spoilers ahoy). Word of the solution will no doubt spread like wildfire, but if you don’t want to know, don’t read the footnote.¹

  In the meantime, it’s still up in the air whether the Dinosaur Comics cipher from last week will take as long or longer to solve.

• In other news, looks like James Kochalka will have his videogame. The Kickstarter campaign for Glorkian Warrior has reached its goal with 13 days to go; in Kochalka’s words, Any pledges beyond our goal will help make the game even better!, so if you were planning on kicking in a couple bucks, you still have time.

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¹ Solution proposed: (more…)

For those that enjoyed the Jess Fink covers yesterday, we’ve got more eyecandy for you today (this time from Hurricane Erika), along with some process porn. Is it weird that I, who creates no visual art, cannot get enough of this image-building? Anyway, it all builds up to a tentacle-rich conclusion, and should be available in time for TCAF.

• Okay, not exactly webcomics, but I’ma go with it anyway. Andrew Farago, the oft-mentioned on this page curator of the Cartoon Arts Museum and champion of [web]comics in general, wants to raise some money for the museum and is willing to put his pride on the line to do so:
  

  In honor of the Cartoon Art Museum’s current exhibition, Batman: Yesterday and Tomorrow, CAM Curator Andrew Farago is turning back the clock to 1989. Or, to be more specific, he’s turning his head back to 1989. If the Cartoon Art Museum receives $5,000 in donations between now and the evening of April 2, Farago will shave the famed Bat-Symbol into his hair at the Museum’s annual WonderCon weekend fundraising party, just as many Bat-Fans did in the months leading up to the release of Warner Bros.’ 1989 Batman film.

  “My mother thought it was a bad idea 21 years ago, and I’m sure she’d still think it’s a bad idea today. I’ve had plenty of bad haircuts before, but this is the first one I’ll be getting for a good cause,” said Farago.

  Not mentioned in the press release is the reaction of Farago’s wife, who will likely find the prospect of a Bat-Head husband to be either irredeemably stupid or rad beyond all measuring; I’m betting on the latter, actually. Donations can be made through CAM’s website, Facebook pages, tinyurl, or by mail to the Cartoon Art Museum at 655 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94105 (please indicate “Bat-haircut” in the subject line, and don’t forget to deduct it from next year’s taxes).

• So we’re less than a month until the Jesus Pad completely changes comics (both print and web varieties) or doesn’t. In the meantime, I have to believe that those that might be most impacted are publishers currently trying to distribute for-pay material electronically, but not going through any of the mega storefronts to do so.

  Case in point: iPulpFiction.com, distributing some fairly big name authors, at really low price points, what appears to be be online-only material. At least, their new graphic novel, The Cobweb Dective Club is described specifically as “an online graphic novel”, and I can’t find any references to eventual dead-tree versions (while they’re advertising the iPad as a viewing platform, near as I can tell, they maintain their own payment system).

  General question for all of you early adopters — if you buy an iPad and oh look, no iPhone tethering to avoid having to purchase a second data plan — are you likely to then also pay to third parties, or will the ongoing costs drive you more toward free content? I’m trying to get a sense of what you’re willing to purchase.

• Quick reminder: Danielle Corsetto signing in Dallas tomorrow; details here.

Let’s just right to it, shall we?

• Jess Fink gave us a treat on Saturday: the covers for her two forthcoming (i.e.: this summer) books from Top Shelf: We Can Fix It (a memoir of Fink’s time-travel exploits) and Chester 5000 XYV (hot, hot Victorian robo-erotica) (warning: contains wang, both organic and robotic). I love both of those pieces, but the Chester cover just might be my new favorite thing ever. How Fink can do something so sexily charged and yet balance against a certain demureness, I’ll never know.
• There’s a couple of major centers for cartooning scholarship in this country: SVA, of course, CCS and SCAD are fast establishing themselves, and CAM is the public face. But for good old-fashioned throw yourself into the collection stacks archivery, you really have to go with Ohio State University’s Bily Ireland Cartoon Libary & Museum, which is undoutedly the premier collection of comics in the country, with maybe only the Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée to rival the depth and breadth of its collection. The entire stack of original BONE pages is just one of the treasures that OSU has.

  Every three years, they have a festival and academic conference on cartooning; the tenth one will be in October, and there’s some interesting names on the presenter list: Matt Groening, Roz Chast (the best and most prolific New Yorker cartoonist since Charles Addams), Gene Yang, and some guy named Kellett. Kellett’s particularly an interesting choice because he plans to speak in response to a speech at the same event 21 years ago by some guy named Watterson. As Kellett puts it:

  At the 1989 Festival, Watterson spoke of the incredible potency in comic strip cartooning: This rarest of arts that let one artist, one voice, speak to millions. This artform that lets the personal outlook shine through, where so many other mass media arts do so by committee.

  I want to speak to his concerns about the space allotted comic strips in newspapers; about zombie comic strips still being drawn long after their original creator had died; about why so many features have stale, interchangeable voices; or why so many are merely advertisements for dolls and greeting cards; or why comic strips in general have been on this slow, downward trend of diminishment in American life for the past 20-30 years

  Because basically, I’m going to talk about this incredible change of fortune for the comic strip. I’m going to talk about Webcomics.

  Note to self: see if the limited seating at the festival includes press access or not.

• The hottest writer in webcomics is now six: Happy Birthday to Malachai Nicolle.
• The donation drive to benefit Cheyenne Wright is underway here. From Phil Foglio:
  

  Originally it was feared that he had congestive heart failure, which was surprising, as he is in his thirties and a quasi-vegetarian. It has since been disclosed that there is a fucking virus (Coxsackie B virus) that can cause it, and you don’t even have to eat 2 pounds of bacon every day. He is doing better, but can only taste lemons, and is under the illusion that he has a pet squid named ‘Renaldo’. We ascribe this to dosage issues with his medication.

  That’s just what Foglio wants you to think, as I happen to know that he’s prejudiced against squid. All kidding aside, Phil & Kaja Foglio, and everybody that works with them, are stellar people and if you have a few bucks to spare, there are far worse things you could spend it on. How much food and shelter do you need anyway?

• Finally, from Danielle Corsetto, jet-setter extraordinaire, news that the new, previously-unnamed New Jersey comics show now has a name, and a date, and a guest list! Wild Pig Comics II presents Wild Pig Comic-Con, May 15 & 16, in Springfield, New Jersey, complete with Ms Corsetto, her partner in infamy, Randy Milholland, David “I did exclamations before Malki” Willis, a stack of other web- and print-comickers, and the latest iteration of Super Art Fight. Total cost to you for all this? FIVE BUCKS. Seriously.

Everybody’s gearing up for Emerald City Comicon, with a more-than-healthy contingent of webcomickers slated to be in attendance. Alice Bentley has done her usual bang-up job compiling a list of said reprobates, with the TopatoCo crüe providing a handy-dandy map of where to find their associated creators.

Speaking of TopatoCo, they’ll be sponsoring a special Live ! performance of Tweet Me Harder ! starring Kris Straub and David Malki ! at the night-before pre-party. Judging from the Dr McNinja book release party in San Diego last summer, TopatoCo know how to throw a serious party.

• Wired weighs in on the nature of webcomics (haven’t found a link at their site, so enjoy a photo instead). Not sure that I get the claim that Octopus Pie tends towards esotericism and Achewood towards accessibility, but what the heck. Jump in and start quibbling.
• Webcomic book review reviews book of webcomic. Recursive film at eleven.
• I need a ruling on awesomitude. Is this more or less awesome than this? Both feature doctors with blades on motorcyles, although one does also feature helicopters, which are known to be severely awesome. Show your work and give examples.
• The second part of the guide to effective Ustreaming (brought to you via the efforts of Rob Tracy, driving force at Webcomics Community, and rumored backup Thunderbird pilot) is now available. All who wish to broadcast their arting, have a gander here.

For those that didn’t see Tim Tylor’s comment in yesterday’s post, there’s an arguably happy ending to the Hot Topic/Kawaii Not dust-up:

About Hot Topic: All Kawaii Not merchandise there is OFFICIAL – and is good news for me and Kawaii Not. Turns out there was a miscommunication issue between me and my licensing company, but that has all been settled. So the bottom line? If you buy Kawaii Not at Hot Topic, you support me and the craziness! Hooray!

Yay for Megan Murphy; I still say that Hot Topic needs to clean its procurement process the hell up.

• It’s specifically for days like this that I don’t require people who make things I like (or people I know personally, for that matter) to get along with each other — I can like them separately just fine. If Gabe & Tycho’s take is that Jesse Thorn is likely a serial killer, I can live with that. Heck, Rene Engström can’t stand Radio Lab (although I don’t think she’d accuse Jad & Robert of having heads in their fridge). I can be the one guy that likes webcomics and public radio, that’s cool. In fairness, Jesse’s take on the PA situation is here.
• Overdue public thanks: the fine people (mostly, Gina Gagliano) at :01 have put me on their review copies distribution list, and I am being presented with more fine graphic novels than I can keep up with. Recurring themes: plucky teen girls, World War II, awesome cover designs by Colleen AF Venable, and a number of webcomics-related artists doing fantastic work. Proper reviews to be worked up.
• Know what just turned five years old? The Daily Grind Ironman Challenge; five years on, and seven webcomickers are still in the running for more than a thousand bucks. Literal updating machines have been out of the running for more than four years, and the last challenger to fall by the wayside did so more than ten months ago. How long can they last? How long can this madness continue?
• As long as we’re acknowledging longevity, congrats to David Malki ! on 600 installments of Wondermark, with one of those optical illusion deals that never works for me. DAMMIT.

Note to self: Park cars at the street end of the long-ass driveway prior to snowstorms. Dumbass. Also, ow my back.

• Box Brown’s Everything Dies now up for ordering.
• See this? It’s the Blank Label homepage. Once it had a more-than-passing resemblance to the main title screen of The Brady Bunch, with characters from nine different creators there. Then the Halfpixel guys left, and of late Paul Taylor wandered away, and now we find a general jumbling of the roster. Gone: Greg Dean and Howard Taylor. Still there: David Willis and Steve Troop Added: Spike and Kel McDonald.

  I’ve spoken to several of the principals, and they report that this shift in membership is just the way that their respective businesses have developed; no animosity reported, there won’t be throwdowns on the show floor at conventions. Picking up McDonald in the aftermath of the Keenquake seems logical, as does the addition of Spike (given that she’s been a member of Bomb Shelter, Love Shack, and as many as fourteen other collectives, some of which don’t exist yet).

  In fact, the only loser in all of this is me, as I no longer have one convenient page to read so many comics on. I now must click between multiple tabs and subscribe to multiple RSS feeds, which as any reasonable person know, is practically the same as living under a fascist dictatorship. Clicks! On tabs! This does not fit well with my busy lifestyle! Also, I fear change.¹

• Update: Cheyenne Wright is much better than he was previously reported to be. In the words of Kaja Foglio:
  

  [I]t appears that what he has is some weird virus that only imitates the symptoms of congestive heart failure.

  So that’s definitely the good news of the good news/bad news pairing. The bad news would be the costs associated with finding out that Wright’s heart isn’t failing, toward which end the previously-mentioned fundraiser is still on.

• Finally, KC Green threw us a massive update to the Anime Club saga today. How massive? How about 173 panels worth? No permalink yet, but dang that’s good stuff, and now’s the time to get caught up, because it promises in the last panel — To Be Concluded.

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¹ Not really. Congratulations to all involved.