Almost everybody’s busy with the Apple product announcements going on today, so it’s a boring day for me; I mean, the only Apple product I own is a second-generation Nano that’s still got the Stuff Sucks Gelaskin wrap on it. Let’s see what’s happening within webcomicdom.

• In case you hadn’t heard, David Malki ! has a sofa that needs a good home. Okay, fine, he’s calling it a couch, but if we call it a sofa, we can make the obligatory Zappa reference.
• There are few people who have done as many different types of comics as Dylan Meconis, and there are even fewer people that I could stand to be stranded on a desert island with. She’s got an amazing line, a keen sense of story (whether serious or comedic, short form or long), and is just a little bit evil¹; she also knows more about Star Trek than you do, just deal with it. Today’s her birthday, which means I get to appreciate her even more than normal. Happy Birthday, Dylan!
• Going to SPX this weekend? One of the issues that has dogged the show since its move from downtown Bethesda to the northern, highway-ish reaches of town has been the relative lack of food options within easy distance of the convention hotel². It’s not really that there’s no food to be had, but it is spread across a divided road and a bunch of strip-malls; as a result, it was a delight to see the official SPX tweet-feed contribute to the likelihood that attendees and exhibitors might end up well fed:
  

  The amazingly talented @yaoxiaoart did us a huge solid this year. She created a beautiful food map for SPX! pic.twitter.com/4nGX5RESMW

  It’s less “map” (in that it’s not a representation of places and their locations relative to landmarks) and more “illustrated guide”, but it’s still wonderful. Click through to help make your plans.

• Ron Perazza has been involved in comics, particularly the digital/webcomics-adjacent end of them, for a long time. He was the driving force behind DC’s Zuda, and if that was an imperfect experiment, it was a case of a large publisher trying something at least. He also involved himself in the production end of things at Marvel in the wake of the Zudaplosion and shakeups at DC, and has continuously — I believe, at least — been trying to find ways to bring major publishers into closer accord with independent creators, without screwing them.

  Today, he takes that (largely self-defined) mission to a place where it might actually take root:

  So this is new. I left Marvel. Today was my first day as Creative Director for Amazon Publishing. I’m pretty excited about the whole thing.

  Watch this closely; particularly, keep an eye on to whatever degree Perazza can influence how Amazon runs comiXology. Good luck with the new gig, Ron — do good work, and we in New Jersey are sorry to see you decamp to sunnier climes³.

• Seriously, it’s a nice sofa, and there’s totally a map under the right-hand cushion that leads to pirate treasure.

Spam of the day:

In just a week you will reduce 4″ guaranteed.

I’d think less of this if it weren’t from the same people trying to sell me other stuff to add 4″ guaranteed.

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¹ She may have encouraged me to take a picture in front of a Portland food truck pod to send to Rich Stevens knowing that it would evoke massive feelings of envy in him. She’s the devil in my ear, whispering to me that I should live my life in the most amusing fashion possible.

² This is almost an unfair complaint, as downtown Bethesda is practically wall-to-wall restaurants, with representatives of just about every world cuisine imaginable. I surmise this has to do with the proximity to Washington, DC, and the many embassies therein; if you’re tired of cooking for the ambassador and want to take a whack at running your own place, the town is full of diners that readily accept new national dishes.

³ That is purely a metaphorical statement; today it appears to be sunny in Seattle and it is cloudy in New Jersey; I gather that much of the year it is suicidally drizzly in the Pacific Northwest.