It’s one of those words with entirely too many definitions.

• Hey, have I mentioned that MoCCA Fest is this weekend? Because it totally is, and I will be roaming the crap out of the show floor¹ on Saturday². Look for a healthy contingent of webcomickers and their natural allies, including the various B9 creators, Magnolia Porter, Lauren Zukauskas, Mike Isenberg & Oliver Mertz, David McGuire, Sophie Goldstein, Sylvan Migdal, Oni Press, Top Shelf, and :01 Books — who will be debuting Lucy Knisley’s Relish, which it seems everybody loves.
• Let’s take a trip to the picture show, as The Economist examined closely the efforts of Freddave Kellett-Schroeder to navigate the waters of Fair Use in the production of Stripped. It says something that the vagaries of US copyright law would get such a close reading in a London-based magazine, but I’m not sure if I can articulate exactly what it says.

  It’s probably very insightful and about midway between the ubiquity of US-made media and the inability of the newsy segment of that same media to do in-depth reporting on issues raised in odd corners of the culture. Anyhoo, as of this writing there’s just under two days left to help get more sound and video clips into Stripped, if you should be so inclined.

• From the movie show to the reality show, Stripped to Strip Search:
  

  [Regarding surprises during the production period] Khoo echoed this, noting especially how Krahulik hit a particular point where his respect for The Artists became a major influence on his participation.

  Well! We know what Robert was talking about now, don’t we? My regard for Mike Krahulik [SPOILERS in that link] has jumped several notches with his insistence that he would not [redacted] the losing Artist’s contribution in Strip Search elimination #3.

  Very tense episode, and had Khoo not said in previous interviews that every day resulted in an elimination, I would have bet good money that this would be a candidate for playing a “nobody goes home” card. We at Fleen want to congratulate Lexxy Douglass and Tavis Maiden for sharing their best work with us; you both rock.

• Dang if it doesn’t make my heart sing as Chris Onstad decides to show us he’s getting the (metaphorical) band back together:
  

  Achewood’s hiatus has been the stuff of much speculation, and the lack of information from me has contributed to this. In some cases, silence on my part was construed as disregard; this truly was never the reason for it. Some of my personal struggles became all-consuming and needed addressing. We can go over the unsavory details later. I’m grateful—and lucky—to be able to tell you that these are, after a long, dark tea-time, behind me. But during this period, many of my relationships suffered. Some were with my readers and supporters. For you affected by my difficulties, I sincerely apologize. Please know I’m working to restore that relationship —- first and foremost by addressing the second cookbook —- and will have good news on that to share with you soon. [emphasis mine]

  Chris, all is forgiven if even one of those recipes in the second cookbook is even half as good as Perfect Oven Fries Every Time.

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¹ Which is small enough that I’m not bothering with table numbers here.

² Sunday I’m helping to skills-test a class of EMT students, finding out who’s learned how to not kill their patients.

The first one is: No April Fool’s Day gags at Fleen. No, wait, the pants thing, that would be Rule To Live By #0, then the April Fool’s thing can still be RTLB #1.

RTLB #φ: It’s always appropriate to say Happy Birthday, so let’s note that Christopher Wright has, as of yesterday, been doing Help Desk for seventeen (occasionally irregular) years, making it one of the Grand Old Webcomics.

RTLB #e: You can never have enough Jeff Smith, ever. Much as I loved his turn towards sci-fi/horror and his turn on Captain Marvel, when I think “Jeff Smith”, my eye inevitably turns towards my gilt-edged first printing of the hardcover BONE one-volume collection because BONE is the best and I’ll fight any man-jack among you says different. And now we get word that Smith is returning to humor/fantasy, and he’ll be doing it as a webcomic called Tüki Save The Humans:

It will be about the first human to leave Africa. It takes place about 2 million years ago during the Ice Age and Africa has been turned into a desert. Everyone is trying to stop Tüki –- the Animal spirits, other humans, and more.

Looking to do this in color from the beginning. Plans to release it weekly online as free webcomic, and eventually releasing the chapters or arcs for sale. Jeff said he would need to have at least 6 months of the book in the can before he started to make sure he stays on schedule.

Big props to Smith for thinking in terms of maybe the most impressive webcomic buffer ever, and finally I get what Smith’s wife and publisher, the very smart Vijaya Iyer, was hinting at last year at SDCC when we talked Kickstarter and webcomics and I had the distinct pleasure of introducing her to a mess of people who have figured out the webcomics model.

RTLB #π: Optimism wins out, maybe? I first noticed the Jeff Smith announcement because of a tweet from Faith Erin Hicks, which reminded me that it’s time to again talk about Hicks’s collaboration with Prudence Shen, Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong. NCPGW has been running since the fall via :01 Books online-to-print curatorial site, and it rapidly approaching its conclusion (eight pages of battlin’ robots mark today’s update, starting here).

Now here’s the thing: I know how NCPGW ends, because :01 Books were kind enough to send me a review copy a couple weeks back in advance of the 7 May release date. No spoilers, but I can say that although Shen and Hicks have been thoroughly debunking the titular assertion for more than 250 pages¹, I will say that the conclusion is satisfying, reasonably non-painful for the protagonists, and arrived at entirely fairly.

It would have been easy for Shen to make things too easy for her band of barely-speaking-to-each-other rivals, and she avoids it deftly. Along the way, we get a terrific exploration of friends that aren’t really, enemies that are really, the absolute terror that’s engendered by cheerleaders, and the universal utility of Richard Ayodade.

If this sounds kind of awesome (and it is), and if you plan on being at the MoCCA Festival this weekend, be sure to drop by the :01 table and tell ’em how much you appreciate their providing a platform for such terrific work from such talented creators. I sure will be.

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¹ Anybody that has seen or read any story, or lived in any way whatsoever, will be able to tell you that phrases like Trust me and This will absolutely work and Nothing can stop us are full of deception. Especially when used in proximity to references to industrial-strength weed killer.