Going through the spam filters just now, the vast majority of the (trapped, never to see the light of day) submissions were shilling for Yves Saint-Laurent. Apparently, the spammers in question have never seen how webcomics people dress.

• Speaking of brand identity, I received a press release this morning that led to some momentary confusion. Here’s the subject line:
  

  For Immediate Release: FROM THE GUTTERS interview webseries launches

  Naturally, my mind went to The Gutters, the Ryan Sohmer + rotating artists editorial comic on the funnybook industry; it was an especially easy assumption to make on account of Sohmer’s got a Kickstarter campaign going right now to bring The Gutters back from hiatus¹, and Sohmer’s got a history of messing with interview/documentary filming in the funnybook industry, as well as a habit of launching projects off of Kickstarter stretch goals. So naturally I thought Sohmer’s got another platform for telling people what he thinks, I bet he talks to some cool people.

  Nope. Different gutters.

  Writer/editor Jamie S. Rich is hosting “From the Gutters” — a new original online show featuring in-depth video interviews with comic-book industry professionals. The nine-episode first season debuts on YouTube on Oct. 4 — with a special sneak-preview event set for Portland’s Rose City Comic Con on Sept. 21.

  As an editor, Mr S Rich was a big part of early Oni Press, and has done regular novels, graphic novels, illustrated books, and regular ol’ comics since going freelance. He’s going to have some good thoughts on the funnybook industry, and talk to some cool people² at the From The Gutters YouTube channel.

  Reached for comment about the possibility of brand confusion, Sohmer said I hope they enjoy the daily e-mails requesting a quote on 2 feet of K-Style gutters with 3 x 4 inch downspouts so that’s all right, then. Here’s hoping in season two, Mr S Rich invites Mr Sohmer on From The Gutters to talk about The Gutters as well as the relative merits of K-Style gutters. I’d watch that twice.

Speaking of confusion, I was confused the other day when I said:

Two weeks ago, Angela Melick¹ suffered a break of the wrist of her drawing hand. I just wanted you to see how she’s managing with her allegedly “off” hand. Naturally, Kory Bing’s coloring job is a big help, but Jam deserves a nod for how much she’s improved her non-dominant art skills so quickly.

• Not about the art being amazingly good for the injury, that’s true; no, I got Ms Bing’s role wrong, and I have no excuse because it was there on the page clear as day and I misread it. Fortunately, Ms Melick caught my misstep:
  

  Thanks for your kind words today but Kory is *inking* for me :), I coloured. The lines look way worse without her good work.

  I’ve corrected the original piece, and apologize to Ms Melick and Ms Bing for the mistake; I will maintain that the colo[u]ring job is also far better than anything I could manage with my dominant hand, so the gist of my original praise remains. Namely, Jam is awesome and I eagerly await the day she can again throw down the Right Hand Rule³ with the rest of us.

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¹ It’s the rotating artists bit that makes The Gutters so expensive; Sohmer’s got to pay people outside the Blind Ferret organization and he’s attracted some big-name talent since the very beginning. It would also be a good idea to point out that regular The Gutters colorist Ed Ryzowski has been award-nominated for his work here, as well as working on Looking For Group, Evil, Inc, and Terminals. It’s fair to say that he’s a big part of the success of these comics, and I hope he don’t come cheap.

² Season one guests are said to include Matt Wagner, Ming Doyle, Becky Cloonan, Dave Stewart, Micheal Avon Oeming, Mike Allred, Ted Naifeh, and Bob Schreck.

³ AKA the enginer’s gang sign.