The webcomics blog about webcomics

Things That I Am The Last Person To Tell You About

So I got an email about two weeks back — in celebration of several birthdays that are pretty close to each other (one being that of the very sexy Rich Stevens, who turns 34 today), there was gonna be a party at the Eastworks building (lunar base of Dumbrella, TopatoCo, and more comics types that you can shake a stick at) featuring all the arcade games that Stevens and his mailroom minion Melissa have been acquiring in anticipation of opening a cafe/arcade. Said party took place this past Saturday, and there were snacks, and booze, and machines on freeplay, and awesome times to be had. I also picked up an interesting piece of intel regarding a book deal and thought, Huh, that makes perfect sense; in fact, it’s so obvious I must have heard it elsewhere previously and everybody knows it. Hold that thought a moment.

Said intel, it turned out, was not common knowledge, and was broken by The Spurge as a scoop (since confirmed by the principals) this morning, which left me smacking my head in exasperation because honestly, sometimes I don’t even rise to the level of hack webcomics pseudo-journalist. Clearly, I haven’t pseduo-journalised enough, and must pseudo-journalise more. Said scoop, naturally, being that Kate Beaton (everybody’s favorite) has been picked up for publication by Drawn & Quarterly (again, just about everybody’s favorite) for the publication of a fancy hardcover collection of her work. However, the interesting-est part of Spurgeon’s report was, for me, this tidbit near the end:

Beaton’s representative Seth Fishman has sold UK rights to the book to Jonathan Cape, and will further represent the work to international markets.

Which, again, is just one of those things that makes sense. For the past couple of years everybody that speaks English and talks about [web]comics has been raving about Beaton’s work, so why shouldn’t it have appeal around the world? We at Fleen congratulate D&Q and Beaton for their partnership, and Tom Spurgeon for actually having journalistic instincts. For myself, I will just note that I was indulging in a couple of happymaking influences, so perhaps it was inevitable that it slipped my mind.

(By the bye, today being the actual birthday of Mr Stevens, he’s got a free shipping sale until the day is up, and a special story for your enjoyment.)

  • In other news that I am not the first person to tell you, the first Dark Horse collection of Axe Cop is wonderful (yes, I’m weeks late, but my local shop just got it back in stock). When the creation of Los Bros. Nicolle was brand new, I wrote the following:

    Having thoroughly enjoyed AXE COP episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 0, and 5, I am only left to wonder a) at how good they are, and b) if all of us were that creative at age five and just had it beaten out of us.

    It’s that second thought that came back to me as I was reading Ethan Nicolle’s between-chapter notes in Axe Cop Volume 1 — at one point, he describes his work with Malachai as “a race against puberty.” At some point, Ethan figures, Malachai will lose that anarchic, creative streak (or maybe discover girls) and then there’s no more Axe Cop. Here’s hoping that the feedback and encouragement that Malachai’s receiving means that his imagination doesn’t get tamed.

  • Last bit of bears-repeating today — the latest iteration of Super Art Fight hits home turf The Ottobar in Baltimore next Friday, 21 January, at 9pm. And although not a sanctioned event, SAF will be at MAGFest 9 in Alexandria, Virginia this weekend in its portable aspect. Details, as usual, at the SAF website.
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