I don’t know if it’s because yesterday was Canada Day and Canadians are still dealing with the aftermath of their celebrations, or because tomorrow is the observation of Independence Day and Americans are getting a head start on their celebrations, or because San Diego preview night is less than a week away, but it is dead out there today.

(Actually, I do know why it’s dead out there today. It’s combo of:

• The news that Sonia Manzano¹, aka Maria from Sesame Street has announced that she’s retiring from the show after 44 years and we’re all preoccupied with thinking how much she influenced our lives while feeling bad for future generations that won’t get the same experience. Also, what about Luis? Oh my glob are they going to split up? Is Maria going to die? Next it’ll be Bob that goes away and they may as well pack up the set, I can’t even.
• The fact that my internet is hell of acting up today, with certain sites — minor sites, like Gmail — intermittently refusing to load, while the work laptop is just fine when it’s on VPN and the phone is just fine when it’s on cell data. Yep, this one’s on you, Verizon, and since your phone process makes it basically unpossible to actually reach a human being (much less one that knows how to actually fix things), I’ll just have to ride this one out and I hate you².)

So let’s look at some things coming up a bit later in the month, yeah? They’re both at the Cartoon Art Museum because good on them keeping up the programming while simultaneously prepping for their involuntary move of location.

First up, Thursday, 16 July from 5:30pm to 8:30pm, CAM will be holding a master class in Comic Book Storytelling, conducted by Alan Gordon (who’s worked on some indie comics called Fantastic Four and Captain America). It’s going to set you back US$50 (US$40 if you’re a CAM member) and will teach you scripting and storyboarding.

And then a couple weeks later, from 27 July (that’s a Monday) to 31 July (Friday), you can send the late pre-snotty stage kids (call it 10 – 14) with intermediate art skills to Cartoon Boot Camp, each day from 11:00am to 1:00pm³. This session is on Constructing Comics, and will teach the full set of skills: developing a story, rough layouts, illustrating, and creating a final comic. They’ll look at different formats (comic book, comic strip, manga) and create an original during the week. This one costs US$135 (US$100 for members) and includes basic materials, but feel free to send your sprogs with their own sketchbooks and tools.

Both classes are at the Cartoon Art Museum, 655 Mission Street in San Francisco, which I must stress is a great space. If you possibly can, take the opportunity to check it out before it has to pack up for new digs. Oh, and if you’re going to be at SDCC next week, be sure to drop by the Cartoon Art Museum booth (#1930) and toss ’em a few bucks drop by to see curator Andrew Farago at one of the panels he’ll be moderating (Comic Strips in the Modern Era on Friday; Working Together: Writers and Artists and Kids’ Comics on Saturday). Feel free to thank him for the great work the museum’s done, too.

Oh, and remind me to drop a note of thanks to Sonia Manzano for teaching me to count to ten in Spanish when I was wee. My favorite number is still ocho.

Spam of the day:

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You know what else my gut bacteria are responsible for? Keeping me alive. I think I’ll maybe not take your snake oil and maybe die as a result, thanks though!

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¹ How did I not know until today that she was in Death Wish with Jeff Goldblum? Kids, do not go exploring her complete filmography unless your parents are around, okay?

²That you refers to the incompetent human being that Verizon won’t let me reach, not you personally. You’re lovely.

³ Actually, the reservation page says it’s until 2:00pm, not 1:00pm. Better check what time you need to be there to pick up your kid so you don’t get done for abandonment or something similarly stupid.

Man, before we even get to the fact that it’s Canada Day and wish well to all our friends north of the border¹, there’s so many things to be happy about. I can’t even decide which would be most important, so I’m just going to hit these in chronological order.

• In the past few days (call it a month or so on the early end), I’ve received packages full of joy from three separate Kickstarts: Evan Dahm’s lovely illustrated edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (now available via TopatoCo), Jon Rosenberg’s long-delayed² Goats book four, and Zach Weinersmith and Boulet’s Augie and the Green Knight, all of which are more beautiful than could have been hoped. Thanks for those, guys!

  For those keeping track at home, this brings my Kickstarter backing record to 49 projects, of which 1 was designated “no reward”, 36 fulfilled, 5 are due for future delivery, 3 are late less than a month (it’s the first, after all), 3 are in the vicinity of a year late (two for what I consider to be good reasons, one I’m mentally writing off) and 1 partially fulfilled three years back for a project that’s gone tits-up. Call it 36/44 success rate, or 81%, which I expect to bump up by the end of the month, and again by end of summer.

• Meanwhile, yesterday David Willis started dropping hints of a new comic which hinted at the future erosion of his famous buffer. Then he dropped the proverbial other shoe:
  

  So on May 27, as I was trying to preregister for BotCon through my phone because our damned Time Warner wifi was having outages AGAIN, Maggie got back from the doctor, noted that there was, in fact, an Ultrasound due that visit despite our expectations, and then handed me this little printout, saying, “Here’s a picture of our baby.”

  And after pausing a bit, she pulled out another little printout and said, “And here’s a picture of our other baby.”

  It’s Twins! David and Maggie become at least the third webcomic couple to bring twins to bear³; previous twin-having webcomickers Jon Rosenberg and Ryan Sohmer were at press time reportedly pointing vaguely in Willis’s direction and laughing hysterically that at least they got to practice on single kids before having to learn how to be parents to twins before weeping uncontrollably. I think that means Welcome to our totally fun club!

  We at Fleen congratulate Willis on his impending great fortune, and are calling for predictions as to how far his buffer will slip. We’re taking 85 days in the pool.

• But the news that will resonate outside our community hit after things wrapped up on the east coast; reports were seen (first in Deadline, later in other corners) that both Kris Straub and Jeff Smith have new Hollywood deals. Straub’s case is perhaps further along, as it was announced that Max Landis will be producing a horror anthology for SyFy, the first season of which will be Candle Cove. Straub has struggled in the past to be recognized as the author of this particularly unsettling piece of fiction, with occasional claims that the short story was in fact true from people who are overly credulous, misremembering their own childhoods, or possibly both.

  Meanwhile, a production firm named a vet of AMC to head up their TV unit, and one of the first projects that’s being examined is an adaptation of Smith’s RASL. A story that mixes art thievery, dimension hopping, Nikola Tesla, and existential horror, RASL is about as different a followup to BONE as could be imagined. It would be a while before we see it hit the screen, but in tapping RASL and Candle Cove for adaptation, it appears that the entertainment complex is showing a willingness to explore wholly original ideas and has an idea of who might be a good source for them.

  Which got me to thinking what webcomics would make a good TV series. Achewood or Wonderella could absolutely rule on [Adult Swim], A Girl and Her Fed could do well on a basic cable channel with experience in showrunning (say, A&E or AMC), and I’m convinced that the Henson Workshop people could do something really good with Monster Pulse. I’m not sure how far we are from effects being able to do justice to any of Overside stories, but Skin Horse maybe could be made to work. Any other ideas? Leave ’em in the comments.

Spam of the day:

cheater detox

I know those words, but can’t figure out they mean together.

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¹ AKA future ruthless overlords.

² The campaign for which coincided with, more or less, a high-risk pregnancy and birth of special-needs twins, who have defied every possible odd to be happy, healthy, distressingly clever young men. Well done, Team Babies!

³ It appears having a long-running webcomic must now be added to the contributing factors for having twins, such as being a twin yourself.