Friday. Last day off work of vacation, weekend a-comin’. Let’s do this.

• Re: Penny Arcade‘s PATV season one finale. Wow. Just watch it.
• Re: Skin Horse book2 pre-order on Kickstarter ends in 23 hours (as of this writing). Hint: the minimum pledge that will get you a physical book (which includes a sketch) actually works out about the same as what you’d pay for a non-sketch edition of the book once you take shipping and handling into account.
• Re: The unique ability of comics to reach audiences (particularly those underserved by traditional media); sometimes this approach provokes a WHAT reaction that may undermine the intended message, but sometimes it works really well. For an example of the latter, may I refer you to Adrean Clark’s Eight Ways To Be Deaf?

  Originally run as a B&W webcomic, 8 Ways is now fully colored and available as an e-book, with print coming next month. This is how you teach somebody about your culture, cause, or goal — organically, with a bit of humor, and remembering that people are people. Over-the-top cliched demonization? That just gets you laughed at. Not “with”. At.

• Re: Missed it entirely. Blank It, the webcomic forced to be creative by trapping its only characters in an infinite, featureless plane, has shaken things up first by constraining the characters, then by transferring the cast to the opposite of the infinite, featureless plane: the interior of a box. Interesting.

For reals, there is almost nothing guaranteed to make me smile as much as Kate Beaton’s take on Wonder Woman. And with it comes the news that she’ll be contributing to Marvel’s Strange Tales II anthology. Let’s see what else is coming up, shall we?

• Otakon is coming up, oh, tomorrowish, and lots of webcomics folk will be involved. On the Official Guest List we find Clarine Harp, anime voice actress & producer, and the real life counterpart to Something*Positive’s Aubrey. In San Diego, I met the real life version of Jason (also in that strip), found him charming, affable and pretty much like strip Jason, so draw your own conclusions. Randy Milholland tells me that his readers sometimes approach Ms Harp very politely, utter some kind words, and back away without making eye contact, possibly in fear of their lives. I want to see that happen in person some day.
• J Baird of the Create a Comic Project also sends along a list of webcomics-related programming events at Otakon, including two he’s running on manga-making and the use of comics in literacy. Full details after the cut. Lots of webomickers in the Artists Alley, as well (and even some that will be squatting boothspace with others); tell ’em I said hi.
• Here’s a name that long-time readers may recall: Øyvind Thorsby; creator of the nearly 600-installment Hitmen for Destiny, which upended the notion that art is necessary to a webcomic with its weird, compelling story. Thorsby is back with a new webcomic — onewhich features neither three-and-a-half dimensional fight scenes (click forward for about a dozen strips) nor throat-inflation fetishism (at least, not that we get to see) — called Lies, Sisters, and Wives. It’s a complete story in 34 strips, and it reminds me of nothing so much as a French bedroom farce — think Feydeau’s A Flea In Her Ear with enormous heads.

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By the time I get through all the stuff I brought home (purchased, given, and would have been given but Gina Gagliano told me it would be waiting for me when I got home and she was right)¹ from San Diego, webcomics will be over, done, a quaint form of amusement from Ye Olde Dayes. So in the meantime, here’s what’s going on:

• Box Brown is taking a creative leap and ending the comic that he’s best associated with; Bellen! is in the midst of breaking down the boundaries between the real Box and the thinly-disguised Ben, and when that’s done, it’s over. The good news is that this is so Brown can concentrate on the very interesting and creatively-fulfilling Everything Dies, which will become a webcomic in addition to a print series.

  This, I think, is what web/indy comics allow that print/corporate comics don’t — the ability to wrap up a story or strip, or turn it into something completely different, and let the creator not get subsumed by the creation. Look back at the early days of comic strips, and you’ll find creators that let one strip finish and another take its place all the time. Today, get into the papers with a big enough hit and that’s it — you’re locked in forever (I believe the legal term is in perpetuity) and long after you’re dead, something you thought might last for a decade is still be put together by the former assistants of former assistants or children and grandchildren.

  The ability to change direction, try an experiment on a whim, or get out on top and do something new? I think that flexibility is the unique characteristic that answers Valerie D’Orazio’s concern that webcomics might have come and gone. Les webcomics sont morts, vive les webcomics.

• Speaking of the web/indy vs print/corporate divide, the first question from the Webcomics Lightning Round Pseudo-Transcript has been getting a lot of attention, and it may be time for a clarification. Chris Eliopolous rightly comments:
  

  [T]here are a couple of us in print comics, also trying to make a go of web comics as well. Karl Kerschel, me, Skottie Young has given it a go. I’ve always been taught not to take one path-diversify. Web and print aren’t opposite ends, they are different venues.

  And I’ll have to say that this confusion is more on me than on Brad Guigar. I was typing as fast as I could, but answers were condensed and I’m pretty sure that if we asked Guigar for a clarification of his position, it would be that no one creation is both print- and webcomics; certainly a given creator can work in both worlds. Fleen apologizes for the confusion.

• Speaking of the flexibility to try something new — Meredith Gran’s Octopus Pie collection provides a case in point. Covering more than 200 comics that ran over a period of a year and a half, the shift of tools and techniques is apparent, and it’s a delight to see Gran switch from pencil and pens to purely digital to her current arrangement of pencils on the Cintiq and final production with brush on Bristol. Providing a different example of flexibility, a year ago Gran decided to update Octopus Pie with whole story arcs in a massive update, but now has decided to go back to three times a week:
  

  In August, Octopus Pie is going back to a 3-a-week update schedule. …[M]ainly comes down to productivity. I know I can do way more pages on a self-imposed deadline.

• Speaking of August, one of my favorite webcomics, A Girl and Her Fed comes back from a short house-moving hiatus next week. The second part to the story kicks in then, and I’m hoping there are lots of opportunities for creator K Brooke “Otter” Spangler to use the word stabby. It’s a fun word.
• Following up on our story last week, here are the details on the new publishing ventures for Girl Genius: starting next year, three major new ventures with three publishers will spread the tale of madgirls and madboys further and wider than every before.
  
  1. Night Shade Books will publish prose novelizations of the series, starting with the first volume in Spring 2011 and subsequent volumes in 2012 and 2013. At the same time, Brilliance Audio will be releasing audio adaptations of each of these novels.
  2. TOR Books will launch their new graphic novel line in Fall 2011 with a color omnibus edition of the first three Girl Genius volumes even as Studio Foglio is publishing volumes 10 and 11, completing the first great arc of the Girl Genius saga.
  3. Finally, Alpha Entertainment (couldn’t find a link) of Copenhagen will begin publication of a Danish version of Girl Genius, in their new magazine, Comic Party in spring 2011.

  Finally, various game licenses are expected to be released in 2011: the Girl Genius ‘The Works’ card game is in for a reissue, and iPhone and Facebook games are in development.

Tomorrow: catching up with all the emails.

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¹ You can find these fine wares from the following cool people.

• Purchased: Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour by Bryan Lee O’Malley; Octopus Pie: There Are No Stars in Brooklyn by Meredith Gran; Penny Arcade: The Halls Below by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik; Templar, AZ: Trouble Every Day by Spike; Flight 7 edited by Kazu Kibuishi; Much The Miller’s Son Books 1 & 2 by Steve LeCoulliard; Drive: A Hero Rises by Dave Kellett; Overcompensating: A Dangerous Obsession by Jeffrey Rowland; Chainsawsuit 3 and F-Chords by Kris Straub; Android toy by Andy Bell.
• Given: Shi Long Pang book 1 by Ben Costa; SMBC Theater DVD by various; Tent Sale by Ian Jones-Quartey.
• Would Have Been Given But: Brain Camp By Susan Kim, Laurence Klavan, and Faith Erin Hicks; Koko Be Good by Jen Wang
• Missed Them When I Took The Earlier Photo, Dammit: Super Stupor #3 by Randy Milholland (given in conjunction with original art purchase); Family Man volume 1 by Dylan Meconis (previously ordered, picked up in person).

SDCC wears more heavily on my aged, stooped body every year, so please forgive the lateness of this post; it’s also going to be a big one, to cover my travel tomorrow, and then I can see about actually reading webcomics again. I’ve fallen a bit behind in the last five days.

• First up, news from Zach Weiner, who was at his booth with fellow SMBC Theater principal James Ashby. It was a bit odd meeting Ashby, as he’s specialized in playing some monumentally unlikeable characters on SMBCT, and I found him to be affable, funny, and not at all somebody who would kill me at the first opportunity. Probably.

  Weiner and Ashby presented me with a copy of SMBCT’s first DVD compilation, and it looks like an hour and a half of pure, distilled fun. I can’t say for certain, since the netbook that I’m travelling with has no optical drive, but it’s getting watched at the first opportunity. Weiner also shared the news that one of his previous projects (Captain Excelsior, with Chris Jones on art) is getting a book release via IDW — look for it in October, or heck, just pre-order it now.

• Speaking of pre-orders, I bumped into Ben Costa of Shi Long Pang, who was kind enough to gift me with a copy of his brand new (you can still pre-order, actually) first book. All I can say is hoo, the Xeric grant gives you a lot of options when it comes to printing your book. It’s got a gorgeous, solid visual appeal, the colors are vibrant or subtle as required, and the paper stock is thick and satisfying. It even smells good. This is going to require a leisurely read to provide a more worthwhile review, but for almost 200 pages, full color, in hardcover? $20 is a steal.
• Speaking of new print ventures, Ryan Sohmer had some interesting news about his first non-comedy comics work. BOOM! Studios will be publishing a Sohmer-penned, Jean Diaz-drawn 6-issue series (with the possibility of ongoing) called Messiah. Sohmer described it as the story of an ordinary guy called by God to be the new messiah — but not the first one. Turns out, God’s been calling messiahs for millenia, but gives them free will to redeem and save the world or not. Capitalizing on Diaz’s work with Mark Waid on Incorruptible, Waid may end up editing Messiah, which would just slightly be a good thing.
• Speaking of good things, Jeff Zugale came by to talk about some of his projects, and has said that there are discussions for a print/poster release of The Greatest Painting In The History of Art.
• The Webcomics Lightning Round panel produced a lot of information in a very brief timeframe; to keep this page from bogging down, the “transcript” (it’s not a word-for-word of what was said at the panel, but it’s as close as I can make it) is below the cut, and it’s a long ‘un. Groundrules: Brad Guigar, Robert Khoo and Scott Kurtz were given 20 seconds to answer each question, with no repeat answers — if one panelist agreed in essence with another, he just said so and moved on. Answer durations were enforced by Airhornsworman official timekeeper Erika Greco (PA designer extraordinaire), who cut off the panelists with an insistent WOOOP if their actual answer went on too long.

  The panel was held in a room with a posted capacity of 500, and was pretty much full up; however, it became apparent during the panel that a portion of the audience were camping out for a LOST panel that was being held next in the room. This earned multiple digressions onto the topic of LOST by Kurtz, each of which led to at least one forlorn LOSTie slinking out of the room, presumably upset by spoilers. That was awesome.

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But for now, I’m busy transcribing the Khoo/Kurtz/Guigar panel, and have news to share from Ryan Sohmer and Zach Weiner. Good stuff, I promise.

Okay, no photos and limited links — it’s just too painful fighting with the spare wifi available to me, which frequently achieves speeds measurable in the double-digit KB/sec. The hub of nerdery and modern cultural passions is in a location that runs on dial-up. If there are errors of formatting, I’ll fix it later.

• The thing about Nick Gurewitch is, you never know how much of what he’s doing is a put-on. He started his presentation with the immortal words, “Does anybody have a laptop? Can it burn DVDs?” and proceeded to put the final technological touches on his talk there in the room. Okay, that was probably real.

  To fill time while the DVD burned, he started with an open Q&A, which was punctuated by a very polite conversation with an attendee to one side of the room who was engaged in a very loud cell phone conversation.

  If you were to script out a scene with a clueless person having a loud, interruptive conversation in an inappropriate setting, and then having to explain to the person on the other side of that conversation that he was being told to stop having this loud, interruptive conversation, and made it feature the most socially graceless protagonist acting in the most socially graceless manner possible? What actually happened in room 5AB would be rejected by the script editor for being too cliched and stereotypical.

  I honestly don’t know if that was a real socially awkward person (and how many of those do you find at Comic Con?) or a minor entertainment for our benefit; call it 50-50 either way.

  The actual presentation led to conclusions that were drawn so broadly and so obviously for laughs (yet so seriously, earnestly, and in the manner of most academic papers I’ve read) that Gurewitch was clearly having fun with us — but like most of his works, there was a kernel of truth at the center that was fascinating and insightful.

  Namely, in a multi-panel comic (and this is extended to final scenes/shots in movies and other staged entertainments), the final panel is a summation of all that goes before it. It encapsulates all of what previously happened and could in many cases stand alone as a single-panel gag. This perspective hadn’t occurred to me previously, and has had me looking at comics more carefully since yesterday; it’s an interesting idea and maybe an universal phenomenon.

  Gurewitch also dropped some hints about his current projects: his next book will be a graphic novel “the size of a wallet”, done with a “scratching” technique that hurts his hand; as a result, production is a bit slow, and it’s due out at “some future Halloween.”

  He also shared some cartoons that he’s finished for the BBC’s online arm (produced through a subsidiary of Endemol, the UK-Dutch production company that owns massive entertainments like Survivor); these are due to go up next month under the series title Sometimes This Happens, and they are hilarious (particularly the ones set in outer space, and one featuring a bear animated by the awesome Rebecca Sugar).

  Gurewitch is also writing a lot of movies, has just finished a draft of a feature film, and is likely to do some comics sooner rather than later — he has ideas sketched out that need to be finished. Likely none of those comics will be what he described as the most awful idea for a comic [he] ever had:

  A giant penis and a giant vagina say “let’s fuck”, and they have little human beings where genitals would be, and the little people have a sophisticated conversation.

  Nicholas Gurewitch, ladies and gentlemen — there’s nobody else like him.

Booth busytimes kept me from the other presentations I wanted to see, but there was plenty happening to make up for it.

• The California Board of Equalization — aka the tax collector, aka The Man — was on the floor at the start of the day, and presumably throughout show hours. They were checking vendor’s permits, getting descriptions of offerings and employee counts, and generally making sure that the state will get its cut. This is the first time I’ve seen them at Comic-Con, so vendors that haven’t had an encounter with them (and by “they”, I mean a very nice guy with a tablet computer and a moustache), keep your paperwork handy.
• I was lucky enough to see Karl Kerschl when he found me at the Dumbrella booth; as he isn’t boothing this year, it was probably the only way I would have run into him. As you may know, he and fellow Transmission-X studiomate Cameron Stewart are just back from St Petersburg on a research trip for their current project, a comics adaptation/extension of the Assassin’s Creed videogame series.

  The three-issue comic is due out in the fall, and Kerschl says they will likely be working on it extensively until end of the year, then hopefully have more time for creator projects. Projects like clearing the backlog of sketch editions of the Abominable Charles Christopher books (he’s got about 100 still to do, and working on them as fast as he can — believe me when I say it’s worth the wait, because what Kerschl calls a “sketch” is unbelievably delicate and complex and beautiful), and Stewart’s newly Eisner-minted webcomic, Sin Titulo. Naturally, Stewart’s most serious competition for the Best Digital Comic award was Kerschl, which will doubtless lead to happy good times back in their Montreal studio.

• Erika Moen, fans, rejoice. DAR! is deeply missed, but she gave me the lowdown on the two (two!) new projects that she’s working on, which should see online debuts in the coming months. The first is a “dick and fart joke murder mystery”, and the second a young-adult graphic novel featuring ayoung woman whose sketchbook comes to life. I’m not sure I can think of a better story hook for a graphic novel than fighting ones own sketches to save the world.

  In both cases, she’s collaborating with a writer, and in both cases the early art that she was gracious enough to share with me is some of the best comics work she’s done in her career. Also, she’s selling original pages from DAR! for ridiculously low prices; I came this close to buying the original of Junk Waxing Party, and still might if I can find a safe way to transport it. Even if it doesn’t go home with me, I now know why the dude at the junk waxing party has a squirrel on his head. Good times.

Up today: Webcomics Lightning round at 5:00pm in room 8; Robert Khoo, Brad Guigar, and Scott Kurtz answer questions on all aspects of webcomicking without bogging down in details and rat-holes. I’ll be trying to get as many notes as I can.

“I’m sure Jeph Jacques was responsible.”

WIth those damning words, Sam Logan laid responsibility for his difficulties getting to SDCC squarely at the feet of his greatest rival. What should have been a routine trip from Logan’s home in British Columbia to the airport in Bellingham, Washington was fatally compromised by “delays at the border”, which caused Logan to miss the only flight of the day to San Diego, and necessitated a 2000km roadtrip, accomplished in 22 hours. Reached for comment that his minions had been responsible for the delays at the US-Canadian border, Jacques said, “I wouldn’t say that they were officially my minons.”

In less menacing news, Fleen can confidently report:

• The various members of Dumbrella met the public in their annual roundtable session, with an emphasis on the changes to their work and working styles — Jon Rosenberg has shifted his focus from continuity storytelling to new creations each week; Andy Bell has worked with a top corporation to bring a mascot to 3D life; Chris Yates has partnered with a major manufacturer of puzzles to bring his designs to the mass market; Meredith Gran has done a very similar thing in compiling her self-published books into a new compendium via a top-line publisher; and Rich Stevens remains Rich Stevens, bouncing from project to project and becoming a one-man movie/TV costumer’s supply shop.

  The other practical upshot of the session: working on items that gain a mass-market consciousness is that they can take over your identity. To a degree, Rich Stevens is now known as “the Scott Pilgrim shirt guy”, Andy Bell as “the Android guy”, and Chris Yates as “the poop sign guy” (all of which items are available for purchase at the Dumbrella booth, #1337; NB: Fleen is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dumbrella Hosting. This disclaimer may contain forward-looking statements that should not be relied upon as definitive guidance; consult a financial professional before making any investing decisions, and see a doctor if you experience erections lasting more than four hours).

• Kazu Kibuishi has the most adorable and good-natured child in southern California, and possibly the entire time zone. Impressively, before I could even offer to come back later when he didn’t have an armful of offspring, he sketched and signed my copy of Flight 7 while holding his infant son in the other arm. This will someday be known as the “Juni Maneuver” and will eventually form one of the qualifying tests for the Master Comics Artist certification.
• Ever wonder what WOWIO (no link) was doing with all the money it wasn’t paying to webcomickers for a very long time (although, to be fair, they have paid up since)? Me too. Thank goodness it wasn’t anything frivolous like saving up for a party yacht.
• The TopatoCo party was more fun than a crowd of webcomickers & webcomics fans plied with overflowing platters of little hamburgers and tiny hot dogs, and beer and champagne in abundance. No, wait, that’s exactly how much fun it was, with Jeff Rowland and Sam Logan holding court at a banquette piled high with books for the early part of the party, and a general migration to the nominally fenced-in porch in the latter portion.

  It was from this vantage point that the Scott Pilgrim party bus was observed to arrive at the same venue, as even fancy-pants Hollywood types want to be as close to a TopatoCo party as possible (it’s rumored but unconfirmed at this time that Michael Cera tried to crash, but was turned back by TopatoCo’s hired goons).

  Making it past the goons was Hope Larson, who dropped some tantalizing hints about her magical girl graphic novel (with Tintin Pantoja on art) and A Wrinkle in Time adaptation, due in 2012 and 2013; it’s a bit early in the process to be entirely certain, but at this point it’s about 98% certain that both of these books will continue the trend of each Hope Larson project somehow managing to be even better than the one before it.

Up today: the Nappy Hour panel with Keith Knight, Spike, and Dwayne McDuffie (10:30 in room 3; by the time you read this you should be heading up there); the Nicholas Gurewitch panel (3:30 in room 5AB) and the Archaia panel (6:30 in room 9; Tom Siddell of Gunnerkrigg Court, whom I spoke to only briefly at the TopatoCo party, will be part of the panel).

Okay, gang — with onsite WiFi still indeterminate, cell tethering that needs additional work, a hotel that doesn’t feature free network connections, and 6000 people in the Scott Pilgrim line between me and the press office, my webcomics reading this week is going to be severely backlogged. With luck, postings will go up when I want them to, and at worst you’ll have to wait a bit for photos. I’m confident that you will deal.

• So Spike found herself talking with one Mr Morgan Spurlock (of Super Size Me fame) on preview night — he’s doing a film on Comic-Con and doing lots of interviews this week. Although she’s under an NDA, she was able to tell me that she spent about 15 minutes talking to Spurlock and 15 more getting pictures taken. She probably won’t know until the movie comes out if any of her footage made it in.

  She also (probably wisely) declined my offer of a dollar to reenact the “Black Rage” speech from Chasing Amy for the cameras. Asked to sum up the experience, she offered, “I had a good feeling [about the interview]; it didn’t feel like a, ‘Holy shit, look at the freaks movie’.”

• Details forthcoming when the formal press release hits, but Phil Foglio informs us of big happenings with Girl Genius. In addition to a series of digest-size reprints (each comprising three regular volumes, in a smaller trim size and keeping the full color), there will be a novelization series and an audiobook series. Much is still up in the air — like who will read/act out the adventures of Agatha Heterodyne — but all in all, these moves promise to spread Girl Genius into new audiences in a reasonably ambitious manner.
• Finally, in a bold move to expand the TopatoCo empire, Jeffrey Rowland crossed no-man’s land and staked out an extraterritorial claim on the unoccupied SMBC / Cyanide & Happiness booth. Reportedly, SMBC honcho Zach Weiner had difficulty obtaining his exhibitor badge (which perhaps would have allowed him access to the exhibit hall in time to challege the TopaptoCan claim) and the C&H guys were nowhere to be found (possibly due to nefarious reasons).

  Having negotiated his way onto foreign booth-soil by means of both persuasion and compulsion, Rowland obtained for himself treaty rights to the underoccupied booth and planted his flag. When Weiner raised protests regarding his treatment, Rowland was heard to exclaim, “Payback! It’s reparations!” Weiner was then herded onto a reservation and provided with smallpox-infected blankets.

Coming later today: the Dumbrella panel, 11:30am in room 3, to be moderated by yours truly. Also, we’ll crack open the web of intrigue that attempted — and failed! — to keep Sam Logan out of the US and away from the show. Could his longtime nemesis Jeph Jacques have been involved? Come back to find out.

For those who care, you can find me in these places, or else out bothering webcomickers in acts of almost-journalism, and politely stalking a last few artists for my “Beards and Moustaches” sketchbook (I’m thinking the next theme will have to be “Dinosaurs” — which means that Ryan North can draw exactly the same thing in the new book, minus the moustache). When in doubt, try under the big Webcomics banner or the Dumbrella booth (#1337). Also, please be aware that posting will be at weird times this week — I’m going to experiment with posting multiple times during the day, but that won’t always work out.

• I’d just like to note that if you’re going to be stuck in Newark Airport for a delayed flight, you could hardly have better company than School Bites creator Holly G and her husband, Jim Balent [that link SFW, after that you’re on your own]. Ms G and I have always seemed to be on the same EWR-SAN flight each year, which possibly means that we’re destined to be super-best-buddies or something.
• News of the first day: the aforementioned Webcomics Section will be getting distributed.
• Oh, that’s just … it’s just wrong that I laughed at today’s Dr McNinja. Chris and Carly, you are very, very bad (and funny) people
• Finally, Dave Kellett joined the 3000 Strip Club. I constructed that sentence purely for the confusion of future search-bots and historians. Chapter Six of the definitive Dave Kellet biography (copyright 2206) will contain a lengthy digression on the contrast between his family-friendly comics and his preferred leisure-time activities.That’s what you get for trusting Future Wikipedia, Future Historians!

Okay, time to head to the Convention Center. Pray for Mojo.

Assuming this posts when it’s supposed to, I’m on my way to San Diego, and the yes-there-are-still-a-few-comics-there convention therein. Since I haven’t hit dirt in sunny California yet, I’m not 100% certain what’s going to catch my eye, but consider the following a primer, if you will, of things available in Webcomics Land, which will be purchased by me and probably should be by you.

• First priority: Octopus Pie: There Are No Stars in Brooklyn; inexplicably, I failed to pre-order this, so my first task will be to remedy that error.
• Chainsawsuit 3 and F-Chords; yes, and double yes.
• Drive — A Hero Rises; I’ve been digging Dave Kellett’s Saturday-only sci-fi comedy, and can’t wait to get my hands on this first collection.
• Flight 7; like there was any question.
• Overcompensating — A Dangerous Obsession; been waiting years for this.
• New Super Stupor! Yessssss.
• Templar book 4; a printer’s screwup prevented these from being at MoCCA this year.
• Penny Arcade book 6; when the hell did that come out oh man I am slipping.
• Oh, and there’s an obscure little indy book called Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour, perhaps you’ve heard of it? On that note, what the hell, nearest large bookstore to my house which is a Barnes and Noble? Amazon or Borders would have delivered that book to me today (although not before I got on the plane), and you aren’t getting it in until August 3rd? The used bookstore around the corner from my house will have it by then. Hell, there’s a chance that Borders at EWR had it, and I’m reading it right now instead of in fourteen days.
• On the already got it list: The Infinite Pendergast Cycle, Tiggerbuttah, and pretty much the entire back catalogs of Sheldon, Evil, Inc., PvP, Girl Genius, Shortpacked!, Wondermark and I think I might have a problem you guys.

There’s likely lots of others that I’ll be picking up and I just don’t know it yet — various creators have mentioned “con exclusives” and “special surprises”, and so far I’m only committed to books. There will surely be cool toys from Andy Bell, and Scott Kurtz has one too, and there may be the opportunity to pre-order books that are forthcoming, and there are all sorts of things that I’m certainly forgetting right now. So if I overlooked you, mea culpa, and now’s your chance to sell me something.