Correction The entry appears below originally and mistakenly ran yesterday; there was no strip on 23 February 2006, leaving us all in a cruel, two-day interval where we did not know what happened after Ray ripped a guy’s face off. We at Fleen regret the error and run the correct entry below with the appropriate image above

This day in Great Outdoor Fight history: Ray faces up to what he’s done. Watching Cody Travis eat heavily sauced pastas cannot possibly be more unpleasant than that pun I just dropped, I’m so sorry. Let’s just go check out The Tenmen and forget I said anything.

• We are nearing the end of the 30 day campaign for the Smut Peddler Double Header, and my initial guess that the books would clear US$150K (and therefore page rates of US$130) has come true, what with the balance sitting at US$152K as of this writing.

  The per-backer average continues to exceed that of the prior two Smut Peddler Kickstarts, although the backer count is about a third lower than that of SP1024, so the total for these two books will likely fall short of that tome’s US$185K. The midpoint of the projected finish for this campaign was US$162.5, and history shows that Spike’s audience is more than capable of making up nine grand in six hours, but we’ll see. In any event, hooray porn, many people are going to be very happy some time around the end of summer.

• And looking back a year to the batshit insane success of the Exploding Kittens Kickstart, part of what Matt Inman, Elan Lee, and Shane Small said as that funding wrapped up was that they expected to spend two years or more on the project. Now fulfillment is done (and has been for half a year or so), but we got some inkling of what the EK team is up to on (where else?) Twitter:
  

  Psst … #TheCrate is now open http://explodingkittens.com/thecrate

  Following the link, The Crate is described as:

  The Crate is our Secret Club.
  If you get in, we’ll send you cool prototype stuff we’re working on.
  FOR FREE.

  Between now and 11:59pm CST on Friday night, if you catch their attention with a special professment of love for the Exploding Kittens, you get in. This looks to be an ongoing endeavour and shows every indication of going past the promised two years (we’re coming up on the end of Year One, anno kitten, after all). More details at The Crate’s site, but at this point, I’d say an entire line of casual card-type games are in our future. Go nuts.

• Not Kickstarter related, because not everything is Kickstarter related: Nimona — right beloved by all who have read it — has been included in the nominations for the 2015 Nebula Awards, specifically for the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy.

  It appears to be the only work of comics in any category (unlike the Hugos, the Nebulas do not have a category for words + pictures), and the Andre Norton Award appears to be the most hotly-contested (every other category has six or seven nominees, the ANA has nine), so Noelle Stevenson is by definition a longshot … but given all the other prestigious awards she’s been nominated for (and the Eisners are still pending¹), Stevenson’s no stranger to tough competition. Here’s wishing her luck, because it really is a damn good book.

Spam of the day:

Monster Energy Women’s Ultra Mixer brings together like-minded musicians, artists and media tastemakers in entertainment, lifestyle/fashion/health/fitness/sports/business as well as women that are key industry players in an intimate setting. The evening offers a unique opportunity for a small group to meet and share ideas with other women working in entertainment that are ultra-connected as well as re-unite with friends.

Two things: first, the boldface-underline is original and consistently used in the original email. Second, they want me to RSVP to an event strictly limited to 40 people, for moving/shaking/tastemaking women in the entertainment industry.

Should I tell them?

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¹ Yes, yes, she was nominated last year, for Best Digital/Web Comic, a schizophrenic category that mashes up presentation and format. I think the Eisner voters might actually understand what they’re voting for if Stevenson gets a nomination in a print category.