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.

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.

_______________
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.

You know when we don’t get blizzards? September. I long for September. And just in case September is too boring, what with the lack of white death from the skies, there’s a new con on the horizon that looks to be of particular interest to those of you reading this — think one part NEWW, one part ROFLCon, and one part trade show, if the not-quite professional society that Brad Guigar is building at Webcomics Dot Com were to escalate to face-to-face seminars.

It’s called Intervention. The goal here is to focus on those that make their art (whatever form that may take) and/or living via Internettery. And since getting a new con off the ground is an act of utmost optimism mixed with desperation, you really want a whirlwind of energy driving the whole damn thing; fortunately, anybody that’s ever spent time around sometimes webcomicker/sometimes glamazon Onezumi has spent the next ten minutes trying to catch their breath, so that’s good.

And since the programming track has an emphasis on the How do I make this work? aspects of Internettery, it’s a good thing that Oni’s married to Harknell, who keeps a number of webcomics hosted and happy and knows whereof he speaks. In particular, I’m told that the Web Development Track will feature real-time tutorials — walk-into-a-room-and-two-hours-later, new-website-configured-with-CMS-and-comics-updating type tutorials (with an equivalent spin to the Art track).

Oni & Hark had a pretty long run on con staff with Katsucon before spinning off to roll their own, and it’s my understanding they’ve got the help of a lot of experienced show-runners, so that’s good. Nevertheless there has to be a special challenge in any new show, and this one looks to come down to time and location: Intervention will run September 10 – 12 at the Hilton in Rockville, Maryland, or about 1.8km and zero hours from SPX the same weekend.

This is either going to make getting the audience in tricky at best, or create a reinforcing feedback loop as people make their way up and down Rockville Pike between the two shows. With Intervention’s emphasis on electronic, and SPX’s on print, it might actually provide a nice complement, as perhaps the after-hours programming at Intervention (plans are for round-the-clock programming) will. Might the two shows mesh well together? They might, rabbit, they might.

• In other (sadder) news, Cheyenne Wright, colorist of Girl Genius, has fallen ill, and it doesn’t look great right now; we’ll let Kaja Foglio take up the tale:

  The doctors are not yet sure what’s wrong, but it’s actually sounding fairly alarming. We’re quite worried.

  I will be setting up a fund-raiser (yes, probably more wallpapers, to start with) to help out with the medical bills. Freelance artists are, after all, notorious for their lack of health insurance. (Of course, if you just can’t wait for me to post those wallpapers, you can always send money directly to Cheyenne’s PayPal address).

  So, yeah. If the pool of webcomickers and freelance artists could get organized in one place with enough names for it to form a viable population for a health insurer to want to provide policies, that would be awesome. In the meantime, click back one page from that link and see what a difference color makes.

• For anybody that’s ever doubted that Lore Sjöberg is a comedic genius, I have four words for you: depeleted uranium beholder statue. Alternately: The Cyborg Name Decoder, which Lore has now ported to the iPhone and is available for your amusements. I don’t have an iPhone, but dang if this kinda doesn’t make me want one.

At one point in life, snow was fun, and not the icy harbinger of my doom, and oh look — more on the way. Let’s find that silver lining together, shall we?

• The latest My Space Dark Horse Presents includes a pair of absolute gems by Graham Annable and the Yuko Ota/Ananth Panagariya combo package; both of them are tales of love gone creepy (pay careful attention to the last panel of “Callie Eats Feathers” and tell me you don’t feel a little shiver up your spine). Take that, Valentine’s Day!
• For those of you in the Rochester, NY area, the Rochester Institute of Technology will be hosting a talk (it’s free!) by Nick Gurewitch and Chris Onstad entitled Internet Famous: Comic Time with Nick and Chris. The fun kicks off Wednesday, 10 February at 8:00pm in Webb Auditorium on the campus of RIT.
• Could this be the end of Little Dee? More than five years in the woods with the critters, and she still remembers her old home. There’s still some weeks of story, but this is definitely the endgame.
• Lastly, we brought you word last week of a new CMS for webcomicking being developed by some of the habitués of Webcomics Community. Rob Tracy informs us today that BlkKnight is calling for beta testers willing to give Comic Reef (for use with a PHP/MySQL hosting solution) a whirl. Those interested, please contact Mr (Ms?) Knight, also known as blkknight1007, which is an address to be found within Google’s email. It’s a company.

Will this be the last time I feel the need to talk about Raina Telgemeier’s stellar new graphic novel, SMILE? Maybe! I mean, there’s the launch party next week at Rocketship in Brooklyn, and it’ll certainly be making the rounds of the awards at shows for the next year or so. But it’s out now, I’ve gorged myself on it, and you should too.

Here’s the deal: I know Raina personally. I met her as an adult, I never knew the sixth-grader who when through a nearly five-year ordeal to repair a busted set of teeth. I know firsthand that things turned out okay, but I still found myself flipping pages in the grips of the story, wondering if it would all turn out okay. I winced with Young Raina, hurt with her, triumphed with her, and around the corners of memory of my own dental dramas, tasted way too much blood with her as I read along.

SMILE is more than the tale of one person, it’s a Hero’s Journey from gangly still-a-kid to almost-adult; the teeth are the hook that the story hangs on, but it’s really about the pain and effort to grow up. It’s telling that at times, Telegemeier draws herself as still looking like her 12 year old self, while her friends seem to already be grown women — have any of us at that age not wondered why we seem not to be as at ease with ourselves, not as grown-up as those around us?

SMILE is also the book that’s destined to put a stake in the heart of Highlights for Children, which has haunted every pediatric dentist’s and orthodontist’s office since the Truman administration. It struck me as awful, ugly, insipid, and insulting when I was 7, and I was desperately convinced that some day, somebody would come up with something better to read while waiting for the guy with the drill to call my name. If there’s anything on this planet that would improve trips to the dentist than a story that says, “Yeah, I was sitting where you are now, I went through the pain, and the headgear, and the teasing, and it turned out okay, promise”, I can’t imagine it.

A few side notes before we wrap up today:

• What The Hell?! Con is scheduled for Greensboro, NC this weekend, but a major storm system looks like it might smack the area, at least peripherally. As NC native Otter puts it:
  

  [P]lease check the main page and the weather reports before you [head to the show]. North Carolina has a Zero Tolerance policy for snow and since a minor dusting of flurries is expected, there’s a chance the convention might be canceled. Check, check, triple-check, and save yourself the gas!

• Good couple of comments in the followup to yesterday’s story of Karl Kerschl’s woes. ComicPress is a terrific product, but as a dominant player, it runs the risk of monocultures everywhere — susceptibility to disease. As Rob Tracy (also mentioned in yesterday’s dispatches) notes, Webcomics Community is working up some ComicPress alternatives, which can only be a good thing.
• Finally, nice pro-tip at Wapsi Square today: when causing a supernatural event, convince the cops that nothing happened by babbling about flying saucers. Works every time!

I see a book-buying trip in my immediate future.

• Are mini-things the new merch trend? Erika Moen made a whole bunch of mini-characters for various webcomickers as fan art, and she’s done all those tentacle-themed sculptures (the anemones are gorgeous, if sadly not for sale). Sean Archer has gotten into the game of pocket art with representations of his own Milo the Cloud. If you’re shy on space, this could entirely be a thing.
• Early news of the UK Web & Mini Comix Thing is drifting in, with Peter Vine now officially first out of the gate with “I’ll be there with my friends” notification. If you head up to Mile End on 27th March (unfortunately, I’ll be at Pax East that weekend; I really have to pencil The Thing in for one of these years) you’ll be seeing the likes of Rose Loughran, Steve Dismukes,and German Erramouspe). As Vine noted:
  

  If Kate Beaton is attending then it must be good.

  Indeed, but there are easily a half-dozen draws at the show just as compelling.

• Webomics and webcomickers (indeed, much of our modern society) appears to orbit the Robot Juice; for those (such as myself) who have never understood the appeal of the The Bean, the world is a lonely and judgemental place that shuns our kind. What of the noble, gentle-steeped leaf of Camellia sinensis? Well, our time has come. Adagio Teas have commissioned Katie Sekelsky (of the twice-weekly SF story Magpie Luck) to produce a new, tea-themed webcomic for their monthly newsletter, Tea Muse. Tea Tales (first installment here, hopefully an easily-accessible archive in the future) provides an illustrated look into some of the quirkier areas of tea’s history; it is both suitably pretty and sufficiently weird for anyone.

There’s going to be a comedy-and-art show going on in NYC tonight, for the benefit of some Haitian relief organizations; there’s some ridiculously talented people attached, so it’s ridiculously sold out, but there’s something you could get in on, were you so inclined. Namely, an art auction that accepts electronic bids. The art above (by the inimitable Scott C., so don’t even think about trying to imit him) will be part of the former, and perhaps the latter (the website appears to be running a little behind), so check back often if you want a chance at it.

One place you’ll definitely have a shot at an original by Mr C. would be his newest gallery show, entitled Everybody, all the time, kicking off in London on 4 March. Take it from me, if you go to the premiere, half the art will be sold out by the opening, so if you suspect you might like to purchase, get in touch with the gallery ahead of time for the show catalog.

• I saw that yesterday, Webcomics Dot Com (subscription required) ran a list of places to send your press releases, and as I’m on that list, I figure a quick pro tip to make those releases more interesting is a good idea. Let’s not forget the basics — you need to tell me up front who you are, what you’re talking about, and where to find it. A couple of quotes that are ready to be cut/pasted are good. Make with the proper punctuation, spelling, an dgrammar, ’cause I ain’t spending no time making yer stuff gooder [that whole sentence: sic].

  But if you can make the press release fit the theme of whatever you’re promoting, that’s good. Case in point:

  A new semester of comics on “pictures I drew in class” has just begun! If you jump in now, you won’t have any make-up work to do later in the semester! You might even get extra credit for checking it out … and don’t worry, the past two years of comics are still online, so you can catch up if you want.

  You can find the comic [here] — and an intro to this semester [here] .

  This webcomic follows fifth-year college student Ali through the excitement of a university education. When she doesn’t pay attention in class, her grades suffer but you win!

  Featured this semester:
  -Wacky adventures in ARCH 3514: Textile Space! Will Ali hurt herself on a sewing machine? Only time will tell!
  -Serious business in REL 4324: Islam & the Modern World. Is Ali going to make it? Maybe!
  -Lots of time for drawing in COMM 3204: Multicultural Communication! Will Ali strangle someone because of the things they say in class? Probably!

  Thanks for checking it out! No Force-Add form required.

  College-experience themed strip, so references to making up work, registration, and semesters in the release. Even without reading Pictures I Drew In Class, I have some idea what the strip is about and whether or not I want to visit it.

• From the completions/new beginnings department, Kevin Moore has wrapped up In Contempt, his self-described experiment of creating a commercially viable political webcomic, which has (in his estimation), Um, not worked out. Bummer, because there were some pretty decent cartoons along the way (with much better art than is usually found in editorial offerings), even if there was a distinct lack of Crying Statues of Liberty and overlabellings in Moore’s work.

  On the other hand, this leaves “Moore” time (ha, ha!) to work on Wanderlost (née Sheldon the Pig), which sports a new storyline (good for jumping on), new website, and perhaps a more frequent update schedule. On balance, a pretty good trade.