Hey, welcome back from the long weekend (those of you the States), or just to a random Tuesday (everybody else). Got some things to recommend to you, in the positive and negative senses.

• Maritza Campos and Bachan’s Power Nap is a weird, wildly creative, half-hallucinatory romp o’ fun, and they’re presently crowdfunding their second print collection. A bit atypically for webcomics, they’re doing the Power Nap collctions in a thinner, Euro-style presentation rather than the thick, halfway-to-omnibus style you get in American comics (print and web).

  Naturally, it’ll be full color, the better to make all those gorgeous dreamscapes pop. And I would be remiss to not point out that five readers have a chance to make a cameo in the strip, presumably to be killed in some horrible, hilarious fashion. I positively recommend you get in on this while the gettin’s good (the campaign will run for another 36 days, after that no promises you’ll be able to snag a copy).

• Following up on our earlier story, it appears that the Cartoon Art Museum has nailed down the talent list for this week’s Night of 1000 Sketches, likely the last fundraiser to take place at CAM’s current location in the Mission District of San Francisco.

  Remember, that’s this Thursday, 10 September, from 6:00pm to 9:00pm, with tickets ranging from US$10 to US$100 (the more you pay, the more drinks, sketches, and goodies you get). Tickets are available here, along with a list of the 36 artists who will be sketchin’ their hearts out¹ to benefit CAM’s venue shift. Anybody in the greater Bay Area on Thursday, I recommend this one most positively.

• I also want to positively recommend that you check out the ongoing blog tour for Ben Hatke’s Little Robot, which will be landing here at Fleen on Monday. In the meantime, check out the other places that are talking about Hatke’s latest (and possibly most personal) children’s book at the blog tour HQ.
• Know what’s positively hilarious? Watching people at the website of a comics syndicate trying to wrap their brains around the comics of Jon Rosenberg², selections of whose Scenes From A Multiverse started running at GoComics yesterday.

  My favorite was from the individual who described SFAM as, quote, Mediocre newcomer to gocomics [sic], unquote. Moments later the same person flagged as a favorite this Heathcliff comic, and today was puzzled by a Peanuts strip due to not knowing what the word pompous means. Recommend Rosenberg’s comics for the giggles, double-recommend the confused reactions for double-giggles.

• I promised some negativity, so here we go. I got an email that insisted I had signed up for news from a self-described film production company (I didn’t) that thinks it’s very important for me to tell you about a contest they’re running to design a spaceship for a movie that they say is going to have a Kickstarter, but doesn’t yet. So let me tell you about it.

  The rules tell what they want (broad outlines for the spaceship, deadline, etc), but don’t say boo about rights or what they do with the entries that don’t win. The awards section specifies that the winner will get to do a bunch of stuff:

  – You get an opportunity to have your design included in the TRIBORN universe.
  – You will have an opportunity to work with the production design team as they model and build from your design
  – You will get to design the interior of the cockpit that will be built into a set.
  – You get a special credit in the movie as a concept designer.
  – You will get a one day pass to set in the Los Angeles area during the making of this movie with the opportunity to meet Ricco Ross, plus other cast and crew members. You will see your design in action, get photos of yourself on the set you designed, hang out with cast & crew, and get some other free swag (travel and lodging not provided).

  Anybody want to tell me what’s not included in that list of fabulous prizes? Like maybe compensation (above and beyond the promised free swag) for getting to work with the actual paid people, and getting to do additional design work? They aren’t even promising the bullshit reward of exposure³ because the only exposure they’re offering is a special credit in the end credits of a movie that nobody is ever going to see and which means exactly jack.

  Oh, but they get to share your design on their websites and social media, so the more they get people to draw for free, the more content they have to draw eyeballs to their site (their rules don’t specify you get so much as a link back). So I recommend most heartily that you submit entries to them that consist of a spaceship that resembles the words FUCK YOU, PAY ME.

  I doubt they’re the sort to learn their lesson and resolve to do better, but pointing out how much they suck could at least be amusing.

Spam of the day:

Update Account (Final Notice)
You received this mandatory email service announcement to update you about important changes in services.
Your account gary[at]fleen.com will be terminated if you don’t respond immediately.

You mean the account that I control will somehow be cut off if I don’t click on your link? Wow, how does that work?

_______________
¹ In order to make the name of the event not be a tremendous lie, they will each have to draw approximately 28 sketches, or a bit more than 9 per hour (or one every 6.5 minutes) during the evening. Give an artist a drink ticket and they’ll probably make the sketch 37% awesomer.

² The soulkeeper.

³ Quoting again, as we must, Rich Stevens: People die of exposure.