Why would we we talking about Tim Gunn on an ostensibly webcomics-themed blog? Maybe because last night’s Project Runway season premiere featured Paul Southworth’s famed Threadless tee, The Morning After¹. The challenge was to incorporate one’s own pajamas into a piece of fashion, and one of the contestants happened to be sleeping in said shirt; here’s what the dress looked like, with a nice closeup on Mister Happy.

Heidi Klum was not entirely sure what to make of it, but you can watch for yourself [starting around 25:20 for the initial discussion of the clown, and again at 44:00 for the runway] and decide whether or not the clown got the necessary respect.

• In case you didn’t see the announcement, damn early this morning, Greg Dean posted a notice on Google+ that Harper Elizabeth Dean was born at 12:24am (GMT-7), and posted a picture of the little cutie giving a big yawn. Mother and father are undoubtedly really tired after more than 24 hours of actively havin’ a baby², but I’d bet they’d appreciate your good wishes.
• Speaking of well wishes: Today’s xkcd, with context from last autumn, and relevant touches here, here, and here. If you’ll excuse me, I have a check to write.

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¹ Or, as I’ve always thought of it, “Taste the Rainbow”.

² No permalink, but Dean posted 10:25pm (GMT-7) on the 27th that they were already in the labor & delivery, and Harper didn’t show until the wee hours of the 29th.

I received some books from some creators for review in the past couple of days, and here is what I think of them.

• First up, Runtime Error, the first Not Invented Here collection from Paul Southworth & Bill Barnes; this one caught me by surprise. Oh, not that the book was out, or the content — I read NIH four times a week as it comes out — but by how what I had been reading as four gags per week leads to mini story arc, no real interconnectedness strip actually turned out to be an overall arc linking everything strip. Desmond and Owen sprang onto page one, strip one fairly fully formed (yea, like unto Athena emerging from the brow of Zeus), but the entire rest of the strip evolved around them in a way that was much more planned than I originally noticed.

  Reading through 18 months of strips in one go, what I originally took for callbacks now seem more deliberately planned story beats, just waiting for the right time to reveal themselves. The characters and situations Barnes has pulled from his own experiences in the IT trenches will seem familiar (and somehow less annoying than their real-life counterparts) to anybody that’s spent time in the tech industry. Southworth’s clean, assured, cartoony designs tell you everything you need to know about the characters even when they’re silent. Damn good work from creators for whom good work is second nature.

• Secondly, we have Bacon’s Not A Food, It’s A Lifestyle, the second collection of Calamities of Nature by Tony Piro. Despite doing regular browse-by reads of CoN, I somehow never realized that Piro is a physicist by training, although it does make many of his strips make more sense. These are older CoNtributions, from 2008 and 2009, which leads to a few dated references, but as Aaron, Alp, Harold, and Ferd (joined halfway through by Raymond) mostly exist in a timeless space, these are pretty few and far between.

  Judging from a quick scan of the site, Piro’s more likely to put topical/technical strips into the hands of generic non-cast members or diagrams (and those that he leaves with the core cast aren’t quite so time-and-space specific), so that’s not so likely to be an issue when volume 3 comes out. IN the meantime, CoN features a strong, consistent visual style, with a sharp, character POV-driven humor, and occasional forays into impenetrable truths that are the funniest CoNtents¹.

• Thirdly, from across the ocean-sea², Good Ideas and Bad Decisions the second collection of Beardfluff by Rembrand Le Compte. I’ll confess that I hadn’t been aware of Beardfluff before Le Compte emailed to ask if he could send me a book, an oversight that I should be ashamed of. This is a journal comic (which has about as much in common with Le Compte’s actual life as Overcompensating has to Jeffrey Rowland’s) that has, as a major recurring character, a sentient floating beard with a sweet moustache. Clearly, this is a strip that was made for me.

  Weirdness and facial hair aside, Le Compte has a style that’s part ligne claire, part Perry Bible Fellowship, and part the result of Belgium’s most beloved industry. These comics are from May 2010 to May 2011, making these the fourth and fifth years of Beardfluff — time enough for Le Compte to grow from a decent cartoonist to one with a much more assured and darker sense of humor, as well as a refined visual aesthetic³.

  Quick note: a production error apparently caused one strip to go missing — it’s in author’s notes in the back of the book, but doesn’t actually appear. Relatively speaking, it’s not one of the stronger strips, so if suicidal pigeons not being included means we get beardy Batman or Edwin the Furry Gnome, that’s a tradeoff I can live with. I’m going to keep Beardfluff in my regular trawl list, and thank Le Compte for sending his book; it’s really enjoyable.

• Lastly, not a review, but a quick note that Gordon McAlpin’s (my ex-nemesis) first Multiplex collection, Enjoy Your Show, has made it into the local comic shop channel. At least, there were copies on the shelf at Midtown yesterday, and it’s a handsome, heavy-in-the=hand, richly-colored book. Pick one up for yourself or a loved one today.

Edit to add: Oh man you guys, I can’t believe I forgot to include this fact — the envelope that Rembrand Le Compte sent his book to me in was covered (as you might expect) with Belgian postage stamps. One stamp managed to picture both the Atomium and the Manneken-Pis. All that needs to be added to that stamp to completely embody Brussels is the Blake et Mortimer mural. I came across that beauty completely by accident when visiting Brussels, and it put me in a good mood for the rest of the day.

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¹ I can never think of Eleanor Roosevelt the same way again.

² Specifically, Ghent, Belgium, home to one of the most badass castles I’ve ever seen; from across the water, it seems entirely designed to look as sinister and oppressive as possible, reminding the locales exactly which foreign princes were in charge and don’t you forget it. Then again, my mind was still kind of blown from staring at the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb for a couple hours, so maybe I was just projecting the menace a little. Still, great town.

³ Also in those four years? Sweet beard.

Okay, gotta confess that I haven’t really been concerning myself with DC Comics and their apparent kerfuffle¹ regarding their line-wide reboot and almost complete out-shutting of female talent. This is mostly because I don’t read any of their comics.

But apparently the institutional DC response to this situation has been “Well it’s not like we know of any women that we could hire.” This has led to not one, but two distinct bits of complete and utter truth-to-power today:

1. An online petition² addressed to DC contains (as of the time of this writing) eighty-nine names of supremely talented creators; have fun at home and pick out all the webcomickers!
2. Aaron Diaz³ pointed out why many of these eighty-nine women, if approached by DC, might turn them down:
   

   If you’re a budding female artist with fresh ideas, why enter the industry doing the 15th reboot of an 80 year old property you don’t own?

My own reading of Diaz’s position places the most emphasis on the last three words: you don’t own. Let’s say that DC called everybody’s bluff and gave, say, Jess Fink the art gig on, say, Wonder Woman (a book which, incidentally, I would buy the crap out of, if only to hunt down every single hidden boner than snuck into the final artwork). And let’s say that Wondy became the biggest thing that DC’s seen in the past 30 years, books flying off the shelves, movie deals getting signed every which way, big blockbuster success all around.

Jess Fink is not going to see any money of that hypothetical movie. Maybe the Warners Entertainment checks give her the time to come up with her next original story, but that’s the most that it would do. The fame and fortune that these creators get will, almost without exception, come from their own ideas, their own creations, their own stories — stories with a beginning, a middle, and an end, not ongoing zombie properties.

DC wants to cut themselves off from some of the best creators, with the best ideas, making the best comics, out of a sense of faux ignorance? Awesome, they can knock themselves out. I’d love to be wrong about this. I’d love to see the amazing talents that DC claims not to know exist given free rein and paid not just with a rate, but with an ongoing stake in what they create. We all know it ain’t never gonna happen, and in the meantime, I can still buy a bunch of my comics directly from the creators⁴ and get to read things I haven’t seen a thousand times before.

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¹ I love that word.

² Those things never work, but are on occasion amusing to read.

³ The Latin Art-Throb.

⁴ Case in point: I just became the 300^th backer of the Narbonic Kickstarter campaign; a little late, I realize, but still two full days to go.

Do you like things? Do you plan to be around in the future? If so, you may enjoy these things which are Coming Soon!

• Coming so Soon that’s it’s actually already out, the Cloudscape Comics Society has been doing a series of really good anthologies and the latest one, 21 Journeys is now available at ecRATER. Vanessa Kelly at Cloudscape was kind enough to send me a PDF for review, and there’s some damn good work inside — what struck me most is that more than any anthology I’ve seen recently (with the possible exception of the final Flight volume), each story in 21 Journeys feels entirely in sync with the theme, but also distinct and reflective of the creator’s own unique voice. Outstanding work, well worth your time.
• Coming Soon to an RSS feed near you, Kris Straub will be following up the late, lamented Tweet Me Harder with a new podcast on the theory and practice of humor: The Humor Authority doesn’t have a launch date yet, but Mr Straub has never been one for delay when he sets his sights on a goal, so listen to the teaser¹ and be prepared for the forthcoming discussion.
• Coming as Soon as you like: your contribution to Buckonet, the crowdsourced site² helping the search for one Richard “Bucko” Richardson. You do know about Bucko, the dick-n-fart-joke murder mystery by Jeff Parker and Erika Moen? He’s run off in terror and the wiki is coordinating the search. If you see Mr Richardson, he is freaked out on absinthe and in fear of life, so report those sightings.
• Coming so Soon it’ll be here before you know it: not one, but two new Box Brown comics. On the one hand, you gots the new issue of Everything Dies, with an innovative “pay what you can afford” mechanism. On the other, Blank Slate Books will be releasing Brown’s newest original project, The Survivalist, in October. One of Brown’s strengths is to find people that he utterly disagrees with (cf: any of the modern stories from Everything Dies), research the hell out of their beliefs, and present them as fairly as he possibly can. Where he criticizes, it’s based on their words, logical, and not personal. I have to believe that this approach will carry through to his story of a paranoid conspiracy buff (who just happens to be right), and I’m looking forward to reading it.
• Coming … well, not that Soon, really, but worth putting on your calendar: the next graphic novel by Raina Telgemeier will be titled Drama, regarding middle school theater geeks, and be out in a bit more than a year. Countdown starts now.

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¹ Warning for those with delicate sensibilities: there is mild smack talk directed at EB White towards the end of this audio clip.

² I love these reader-driven projects, from the history of The Great Outdoor Fight (seemingly throwing some code errors right now) to the history of The Elemenstor Saga.

Everybody’s on the way back from San Diego, or back and recovering, trying to get their work out the door tomorrow. I’ll point out the mini update from the weekend, and few things I found today to be of interest:

• John Allison notes that today marks eight years of being his own boss. For those of you that require visual cues, that means that everything since Sipowicz showed up has been John working not for The Man, but for himself. Polite golf claps, everybody.
• A few words of wisdom from Evan Dahm on the state of webcomicdom:
  

  Comics as a whole are in the process now of gaining that legitimacy, and it’s because of the people doing good work in that medium, more than any other reason. Superficial aspects like deciding to call them “graphic novels” instead of “comics” don’t help. Good work helps.

  Webcomics are … in some ways becoming the new “indie” comics, and replacing the niche filled by minicomics and zines, bit by bit. Because it is effectively free and easy to put this stuff online, it will naturally have a lower signal-to-noise ratio than print comics, and a lower percentage of good stuff — and I hope it is always that way.

  If you are making or aspire to make a webcomic, take your work seriously, be engaged in it, and believe in it. Do good work, and be consistently critical of it so you will keep improving. You have your reasons for choosing this particular means of distribution, so own it: don’t think of it as a shortcut or an excuse to do anything less than the best you can. [emphasis mine]

  I’m intrigued by the bit in bold, because I can read it several ways:

  1. Dahm likes the free-wheeling, anything-goes nature of indie comics and hopes it’s never lost
  2. Dahm figures the lower quality work is a side-effect of a constant influx of new creators, forcing established talents to keep upping their game
  3. Dahm thinks it’s easier to compete for scarce dollars when the competition isn’t very good; there are others that believe in this interpretation

  Since Dahm’s conclusion is for there to be more good webcomics, I’m leaning towards interpretation #2 for the bolded bit, but still — they all have their appeal, and it’s hard to argue with any position that says I should have more high-quality comics to read for free. So everybody get on that making more good webcomics for me, ‘kay?

• Out of the violence that a terrorist¹ perpetrated in Oslo, one reader found comfort in a webcomic. No joke or snark here — well done, Mike and Jerry.

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¹ Per the definition used by the State Department I learned in my days studying national security: Premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience. Feel free to also refer to the perpetrator as a psychotic, murdering goddamn disgrace to humanity, but I will not name him and provide the notoriety and platform that he apparently craves.

The AV Club hit the Webcomics Pavilion at San Diego Comic Con and eavesdropped on a Phil Foglio portfolio critique.

I’ve watched Foglio do these at close distances, and it’s pretty much as Todd VanDerWerff describes, with one minor edit: Foglio always asks the aspiring artist if they really want a critique, because he will give them good and bad, honestly, and are they sure? I’ve seen people accept his critiques with varying degrees of grace, but I haven’t ever seen anybody get offended thanks to that preamble.

Just don’t ask Brad Guigar to do portfolio review. Seriously, don’t.

Let’s get some announcements out there before all the air conditioning overloads the power grid, takes down power and communications, and eastern half of the country devolves into barbarism and anarchy. If I don’t survive until Monday, it’s been a blast, and thanks to all my readers.

• There’s emails that get immediate attention when they cross my virtual desk — and given all that he’s done for capital-w Webcomics with ComicPress, Tyler Martin is fairly high up the Pay Attention list. In addition to designing the dominant webcomics WordPress plug-in and his own webcomicking (sadly over, it seems), Martin has done design and infrastructure work for more webcomicky sites than you can shake the proverbial stick at, and he wanted to share some news about one of those:
  

  Skywriter Media and Entertainment Group, and Roddenberry Entertainment are joining forces to develop an animated kids’ comedy series, Gene’s Journal, based on the hilarious webcomic created by Trevor Roth and illustrated by cartoonist David Reddick. Gene’s Journal is the untold, true story behind the adolescent years of Gene Roddenberry. It was during these years that Gene was continuously abducted by aliens for the extraterrestrial purpose of studying human beings –- all of his experiences recorded faithfully in his boyhood journal.

  There’s a lot more there in the usual corporate-PR speak, but that’s the gist of it; many congrats to Roth and Reddick. Oddly enough, I’ve been thinking about Roddenberry quite a lot this week, probably because of the recent episode of Neil deGrasse Tyson‘s podcast, where he spoke at length with Nichelle Nichols, which naturally meant that Roddenberry came up.

  Complex guy, ol’ Gene, had some cheesy ideas and some incredibly important ones. It’s a good listen, as is the second half of the interview with Ms Nicholls about her years of effort as a booster of NASA and the space program. Coming in the same week that Atlantis touched down and brought our current manned spaceflight program to an end (without an immediate successor), it’s inspiring and a little depressing at the same time.

• Not only are their people whose emails are automatically a priority, there are people whose actions are. Maybe the absolute top of the list is Scott Kurtz, who I find to endlessly fascinating: willing to take risks, to experiment with his business model in public, to get into more online arguments than is probably good for him (but where he’s also often making the best points, at least when everybody’s willing to step back and let their emotional responses cool off a bit). I enormously respect that he’s not afraid to offer up his mea culpas in public, and that he’s made a concerted effort to grow beyond his hothead tendencies.

  So when he announced today that he’s breaking one of the major taboos of webcomics, I paid attention. Specifically, he’s taking sponsorship dollars for in-strip content. Not ads, not side-strips that aren’t part of the “real” PvP, but honest-to-Hawking paid product placement. This can be done, very carefully, without coming off as a giant shill (in his announcement, Kurtz mentioned Mad Men as the exemplar of this¹), in part because:

  The PvP gang has played Dungeons and Dragons, gone to see every Star Wars film, quote Trek non-stop and choose Coke over Pepsi. I’m already doing it, I’m just not getting paid for it.

  That’s the key part there — Kurtz has spent a dozen years establishing the — for lack of a better term — credibility of his fictional characters; the longtime and casual reader both can easily discern the products and services that the characters use because it comes from who they are. At least a third of Brent Sienna’s character development comes from his Apple cultishness.

  If Kurtz can find sponsors that aren’t afraid to let him play with their brand (including making fun of them if it serves the story arc), sponsors that would make sense for his characters to interact with, then I can see this working. In the hands of a creator more … mercenary is the word I keep coming back to … this could turn very bad, very quickly.

  Kurtz, on the other hand, has a certain reservoir of trust built up in his audience: trust that he cares about the characters and story, that making the strip as good as possible comes first and foremost, that if it doesn’t work out in a way that betters the strip he’ll abandon the experiment.

  The announcement came today as the story arc that’s been running this week finally mentioned the sponsor by name — had Kurtz not done so, my guess is that he’d easily be halfway through the quarter-long sponsorship before people started to suspect there was a financial interest. I think that this is going to make Kurtz’s ad guys work harder than they ever have before, and it’s not clear to me that every quarter will have sponsorships that meet Kurtz’s criteria² lined up as the previous one expires.

  We’re going to see people trying this that don’t do it well, and any success that Kurtz has may not be repeatable. But as always, the dude is interesting.

• For those of in San Diego this weekend, you can see Kurtz on two panels, as well as others of interest to webcomics types:

  On Saturday, Kaja & Phil Foglio talk steampunk (room 23ABC, 10am); Kurtz talks digital disruptions with Mark Waid (room 8, 2:30pm); the Halfpixel Gang record Webcomics Weekly live (room 25ABC, 5pm), and then Mike & Jerry have the PA Q&A in the same room (6pm).

  On Sunday, Los Bros Nicholle talk Axe Cop (room 6DE, 10am); Keenspot get Keen (room 4, 3pm).

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¹ Although I think a better example might be a Mexican telenovela that’s set at an ad agency, and as a major plot thread is developing an ad campaign for Ford. The punchline being, the in-show ad campaign is actually being used by Ford in Mexico (or, more precisely, the ad campaign used by Ford in Mexico has been back-fitted into the show to create the fiction that’s where it was created).

² From the announcement:

• The product would have to be something I believed in.
• The product had to be something I would comment on in PvP anyway.
• The client would have to be forward thinking, and geek savvy, and be able to poke fun at themselves.
• The client would have to understand that the inclusion of their company into the strip would have to serve the greater story or humor.

Collectively, and individually, regardless of our history and (former) close friendship, I now hate you. We’re in a vicious heat wave in the Greater New York Mediasphere, with overnight lows above your San Diego daytime highs. It’s presently around 35 C (that would be 95 degrees for those of you using non-metric units) out there, with a heat index of 39 (102). Tomorrow the actual temperature is due to hit 38 (100) with a heat index of 43½ (110) friggin’ degrees.

And, as can be seen in the above photo, exclusively at Fleen, the exhibitors in San Diego (at least at the Dumbrella booth, #1335 on the floor) react to weather whose name is not a killing word by demanding that their tasty snacks and beverages be even colder. Such luxury! Cold drinks. So … cold. Okay, look, I take it all back, I love all you guys, just let me have one cold drink and I will be your best friend forever.

• As long as we’re all friends again, let me refer you to the booth listing/floor map for webcomics types, and point out that webcomicky panels today include the Rosenberg/Bell/Gran/Yates Q&A (12:30, Room 4) and the Cameron Stewart spotlight session (4:30, Room 4). For those of you planning ahead, tomorrow is light on webcomics, but there’s lots of other things to see just as the show ramps up to maximum crazy.
• Following up on an earlier, non-SDCC story, the We Love Webcomics show at San Francisco’s Double Punch Gallery is about two weeks away, and it’s getting bigger. John Allison has been added as a contributor, meaning that the awesomeness of the displayed works just increased by 17%. It’s scientific.
• Breaking news: Did you know that there was a new Perry Bible Fellowship that went up like ten days ago? I didn’t? I’d thought that Nick Gurewitch was putting most of his efforts into Trails of Tarnation and other video projects. I didn’t notice Gurewitch listed for any panels at San Diego this year (last year’s was a hoot), but expectations were never a real limiting factor for him, so I’d say keep your eyes open. He might be standing right behind you¹.

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¹ On a side note, way to drop today’s Drive on us when I’m not in San Diego to grill you on the broader implications re: the plot, Dave. Oh, and thanks in general — I was just starting to like the Fillopods a whole bunch and now the psychotic emperor is gonna have to murder them all. Meanie.

Even though I won’t be there for Preview Night, which kicks off in a few hours; even though time zones mean you’ll hear probably everything I do sooner than I can write it up, there’s still lots to talk about.

• For starters, Frank ‘n’ Becky are doing a for-real Little Golden Book! It won’t be out until next year, but this is the perfect followup to their LGB homage last year. Not only that, but if you go by their booth, you can see the sculpt for their first (forthcoming) vinyl figure, and maybe tell me what it is! And you can pick up the art book collected volume of Becky’s video game mural.
• Jim Zub would like you to know that the twelfth issue of his very funny sword-and-asskickery comic book, Skullkickers, will feature stories written by some of webcomics finest. Or at least Zach Weiner and My Evil Twin. In all seriousness (which really isn’t appropriate for Skullkickers, but whatever), the book is very funny, the five issue story arcs are just long enough to develop a plot without bogging down or losing the possibility of new readers, and taking a one-issue break after the arc to let creative friends play in your sandbox is a terrific idea. Make sure to pick it up (issue #9 is due in a few weeks, so look for this one in November or so.
• From funny comic to PZ Meyer-linked meme to handsome print in four days. Tony Piro hit one of those lightning-in-a-bottle moments since last Friday.
• Re: Today’s Sinfest; no reason, I just thought it was adorable.

Where to start, where to start? With the announcement of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s new book, Seconds? Or with pictures of Kate Beaton’s D&Q offering, which is either enjoyed by very small people or is a giant book? Or perhaps about the hot, new game that’s sweeping SDCC, courtesy of Marshall Willenholly? Or heck, why not the book trailer for Amulet 4, due this fall from Kazu Kibuishi?

• Okay, how about here — a couple of weeks ago, Chris Sims (professional Batmanologist and surprisingly astute analyst of pressing issues in comics) wrote a piece about how DC and Marvel should adopt aspects of webcomics. In reaction, a bunch of creators talked about what they’d pitch to the Big Two for ongoing, daily, fun-chuckles. Webcomickers invited to the party included Brad “The PUNisher” Guigar, Curt Franklin, Justin Pierce¹, Lucy Knisley, Shaenon Garrity, and the if-he-stops-comicking-he-dies Ryan Estrada². Each of these pitches that doesn’t happen is a wasted opportunity on par with Lois Lane, Girl Reporter.
• A couple of days ago, David Malki ! was “kind” enough to share an earworm with the world on Twitter (DO NOT CLICK HERE if you don’t want it to be stuck in your brain all day), so now I’m going to return the favor. David, check out what Kris Straub is doing in the current Starslip storyline. Now you have the Dick Wolf cash register sound³ in your head and can’t get rid of it! Ha ha, my evil plan worked!
• Last notes. Readers of this page may recall the name Øyvind Thorsby, who does webcomics that are funny, make creative use of space (click through the next dozen or so strips), and are (to be kind) populated with enormous heads. Thorsby dropped me a note that I wanted to share:
  

  Remember me? My latest comic is The Accidental Space Spy. It’s reached 100 strips. First strip here.

  Not remember somebody with maybe the metal-est name this side of Toki Wartooth? Heaven forfend! Anyhoo, the “space” in The Accidental Space Spy refers to the “outer variety with galaxies and aliens and things”, not the “let’s get creative with all the dimensions and mess with the readers heads” type (again, funny, make follow the link and click through to the end of the chapter). Thorsby’s line is thicker, smoother, and more assured, and the heads have settled on a size that’s less “disturbing” and more “quirky”. I’m going to enjoy catching up with this one.

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¹ Just give him Wonder Woman and let him write it like Wonderella; can’t be worse than most of what WW’s been subjected to for most of 70 years.

² Much like sharks must keep swimming in order to breathe.

³ Credit for that term must go to Richard Belzer. Also, be glad I gave you a link that doesn’t repeat the sound a bunch of times — after a half-dozen or so, a certain hypnotic insanity is known to occur in up to 19% of the population.