This is definitely one of the weirder Look at this awesome thing we’re doing! emails I’ve ever gotten. Usually, those emails are garbage from start to finish, from creators or companies that haven’t really accomplished anything, desperately trying to get attention and grab traction; maybe it’s an interesting and worthwhile project, and the announcer is just not skilled in the subtle arts of self promotion. Sometimes it’s damage control. Sometimes it’s fluff.

And sometimes, I can’t tell what they’re trying to do, which is all the more puzzling in this case, because it’s from BackerKit. You know, the after-campaign pledge manager app that lets your crowdfunding folks modify their rewards? It just works like it’s supposed to? Nice part of the modern creative community’s infrastructure. It starts out reasonably:

The BackerKit team is proud to announce the official launch of The Creative Fund! We believe awesome ideas come from everywhere and everyone.

They link over to a post at Medium about what their new venture is attempting to do:

A driving force for independent creators over the past decade has been crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter, which provides a space for ideas to get funded. However, we believe there is room for the online creative economy to become more diverse and accessible to all creators, especially those just starting out. This is why we are launching The Creative Fund, which supports the entrepreneurial spirit of all independent creators, one dollar at a time.

I get it so far — a fund that supports crowdfunding projects, which contributes to the health of the ecosystem and coincidentally may prompt some campaigns/creators to reach a size where they need BackerKit. Win/win, right? But that last line? They mean it literally. From the email again:

The Creative Fund supports every independent creator that launches a Kickstarter project for one dollar.

Or, per the Medium post, more precisely:

After carefully considering what was in our ability to support creators on Kickstarter, we decided to pilot The Creative Fund by pledging $1 to each and every project on the platform. After one month and thousands of heartfelt responses, we felt the need to make this pledge a reality.

One dollar to each project on Kickstarter. Wow. I just … what?

One dollar is not going to be the make-or-break for anything. A bunch of no-hope projects that are poorly conceived will see BackerKit (they’re big time important!) dropping a buck in and figure they’re doing much better than they really are. It reminds me of the geniuses that think they can game the KS algorithms by all pledging a buck to each other’s projects in a ring of mutual success, all suddenly getting elevated to the front page as widely funded, or newly popular, or whatever.

And I’m not sure it’s as simple as one project = one buck. Back to Medium:

Now, we are kicking things into high gear and we invite everyone to join us in making a difference. That is why we are launching The Creative Fund on Patreon, so supporters like you can easily join the cause. For every $2,000 we raise, we will pledge an additional dollar to each new project. 100% of the funds raised goes towards independent creators around the world.

Okay, there’s a possibility to actually have an impact here, where if they make absolute amazing bank on Patreon, they could be contributing potentially tens or hundreds of dollars to KS projects. Not sure what that’s going to accomplish, honestly, if everybody gets that much as seed money, it doesn’t help to distinguish worthy or interesting projects from chaff. In any event, they aren’t making amazing bank on Patreon. As of this writing, the Patreon is currently getting US$192¹.

I mean, giving a buck to a project that’s already succeeded (since non-successful projects will have the pledges returned) is a kinda nice gesture, but that’s all it is. And if it ever does become an amount that a creator might notice/appreciate², it’s not because BackerKit/The Creative Fund is doing so, it’s because they’ve convinced a bunch of other people to give their money not to specific projects or creators, but to the idea of Kickstarter.

It feels like they’re trying to get some feel-good PR off of the contributions of other people. At least they’ve got some guidelines so that if you decided to participate, your money isn’t helping to (in a small way) support a projects that’s (their words here) not evil.

Anyway, the Medium post is here, the website is here, the Patreon is here; I can’t help but think I’m overlooking something pretty basic, because honestly, I can’t see what this effort accomplishes, except to move money around in very small increments at some considerable effort. If I’m radically misunderstanding things, please let me know.

_______________
¹ On the Patron page, this make it clear they mean US$2000 per month, not US$2000 raised.

² Say, an extra twenty, with no reward to fulfill, meaning you can get a couple pizzas for your friends that are helping you with a pledge mailing party? Nice.

This is the oddest unsolicited email I’ve ever received. I can’t really say it’s spam, since it’s not trying to separate me from my money. It’s also not the usual breathless PR dreck, in that it’s not promoting the launch of a bad movie, a bad comic, a bad collectible, but rather a country.

Chile is gonna be at SDCC, y’all.

Tales of fantasy, crime and mystery; these are part of the proposal that Chile will present between Thursday, July 19 and Sunday, July 22, at the San Diego Convention Center. For the second consecutive year, Chile will be present as the only country in Latin America to exhibit in Comic Con San Diego.

I must have missed it last year, but Chile is taking an interest in promoting its national artistic efforts in the comics arena. I’ve seen national groups (either official, or via a cultural society) many times at the festival-type shows (especially MoCCA, where by my recollection France, various Scandinavian countries, Italy, Portugal, Israel, Taiwan, and other countries have sent representatives), but I don’t recall it happening at one of the big tier comics (and let’s face it, mostly not-comics) shows.

Honestly, I always love going by the national culture tables, because sometimes it’s just really good work, and sometimes there’s something undefinably unique to the range of work, something that’s indicative of the national character.

In the 49th annual Comic Con International: San Diego , Chile will be represented by graphic humorist Alberto Montt, illustrator and comic artist Catalina Corvalán, the prominent cartoonist and graphic designer Germán Adriazola; and the editors Emiliano Navarrete and Oscar Salas of the editorials Biblioteca de Chilenia and Dogitia Publishing, respectively.

Chile (or, more precisely, the Chilean Trade Commission) will be represented at booth 5526, which is right by entrance B2 on our 2018 floor maps. They’ll have representative work and a showcase of the styles and history of Chilean comics, which has more than a century’s history (or so I am told). I’ve included a couple of images from the delegation’s catalog up top so you can decide if you want to browse by. If nothing else, I intend to give them an unequivocal welcome to the US, because screw nationalism. Comics are an international art form, and I’m glad to see them making the trip.

Spam of the day:

Chronic News: Cannabis Coffee Now Available!

Hey, look! Two stupidly popular things I don’t care about combined into one thing I can not care about. Efficient!

Sometimes, it’s the details that catch you.

For example, I saw a notification via the Tweetmachine of a crowdfunding for an Eisner-nominated webcomic to get a print collection. Now, I could tell you that the detail was the lovely bit of lettering in the title — The Carpet Merchant Of Konstantiniyya — that jumped out at me. Delicate, flowing, the double-y grabbing the eye. It could be the color, it could be the immediate focus on the cover of a woman of middle age with heavy eyebrows cast as a notable character, although she appears to be behind (perhaps supporting) the likely title character. That guy absolutely looks like a carpet merchant. Or that bat. That bat is gorgeous.

But, no. What caught my eye was something else. Let’s look at that tweet again:

Support my comic’s kickstarter!
If you like POC-centered historical fantasy, a fresh take on the vampire genre, & pretty historically inspired comic layouts, this book’s for you! https://unbound.com/books/the-carpet-merchant-voli …

88 backers, & 15% funded!
(if you buy 2 books you save on shipping)

What caught my eye was the lowercase-k kickstarter, and the link, which is not to Kickstarter, but to Unbound, which crowdfunds books specifically. Reimena Yee might be the first, but she won’t be the last — Kickstarter has just been aspirined, kleenexed, xeroxed, googled. The proper name has become the generic term¹.

Oh, and the comic is damn pretty, too. It’s only at 20% funding so far, but Unbound doesn’t appear to be time-limited like Kickstarter campaigns; the books are funding because the creators pitched to editors, who agreed to take them on. It’s a mix of crowdfunding and traditional publishing, and while I haven’t seen it make inroads into comics and graphic novels (I only found 12 instances in the four or so years of Unbound’s existence), I’m going to keep an eye on it in future.

And, I imagine, somewhere in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, they’re going to be keeping an eye on lowercase-k usages of Kickstarter. Sometimes, being ubiquitous is a lot of work.

Spam of the day:

OFFICIAL, LIMITED EDITION PANTERA MINI-GUITARS AT SDCC

Rumor has it Stryper wanted to do this too, but Pantera beat them to the punch.

_______________
¹ Also on the list of now-generic terms? Comic Con. Just saying.

Here’s the remainder of what looks interesting on the SDCC program schedule this year.

Saturday
Using Graphic Novels To Help Cope With Bullying
10:00am — 11:00am, Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library
Educators, podcasters, and graphic novelists (Raina Telgemeier, Molly Ostertag, Christina Stewart) talk about dealing with bullying via comics.

Comic Book Law School 303: Beyond Trademarks And Copyrights
10:30am — 12:00pm, Room 11
Part three.

Comics And Geek Items For The Blind And Visually Impaired
1:00pm — 2:00pm, Room 2
Totally blind martial artist, competitive surfer, and unashamed geek Joshua Loya and actor/audio book narrator/writer Scott Brick share what options exist for nonvisual entertainment. I was hoping to see Sky McCloud (geek from birth, and blind filmmaker) on here, but I guess the organizers don’t know her.

The Comics Revolution
1:00pm — 2:00pm, Room 29AB
Mark Siegel built up :01 Books, and he’s just getting started. Come hear what he’s got to say and what he’s looking to do next.

The Adventure Zone Graphic Novel
2:00pm — 3:00pm, Room 28DE
Here there be McElroys, and Carey Pietsch who has dealt with more Tumblr shitheads than can be counted without resorting to imaginary numbers.

20 Years Of Magic: Inside Harry Potter
3:00pm — 4:00pm, Room 6DE
The artists (including Kazu Kibuishi) and editors of Harry Potter cover & interior art.

Spotlight On Scott McCloud: 25 Years Of Understanding Comics
4:00pm — 5:00pm, Room 29AB
Twenty five years. Twenty five years? Yeesh. Twenty five years.

Bubble: Monsters & Ass-Kicking With Hollywood Stars
5:00pm — 6:00pm, Neil Morgan Auditorium, San Diego Central Library
Are you listening to Bubble? It’s really funny. Featuring a third McElroy, cast members (Alison Becker, Cristela Alonzo, Eliza Skinner, Mike Mitchell), creator Jordan Morris, and America’s Radio Sweetheart, Jesse Thorn.

Studio Ghibli My Neighbor Totoro Screening
7:00pm — 9:15pm, Horton Grand Theatre
I’m guessing this is separately ticketed. If you’ve never seen Totoro on the big screen, you owe it to yourself.

Sunday
A Life’s Work: Long-Term Comic Projects
11:00am — 12:00pm, Room 25ABC
Andrew Farago from the Cartoon Art Museum talks to Lynn Johnston, Jason Lutes, Scott McCloud, and Terry Moore.

Spotlight On Tillie Walden
11:00am — 12:00pm, Room 4
Jen Wang and Tillie Walden had awesome 2017s, and they’ll talk about all of it.

1, 2, 3, . . . 20?! How To Create (And Survive) A Successful Graphic Novel Series
1:00pm — 2:00pm, Room 11
Jennifer and Matthew Holm (Babymouse series, Sunny series), Raina Telgemeier (Smile, The Babysitters Club), and Molly Ostertag (The Witch Boy). Hey, they let Molly out of the library!

Chef Duff Goldman: Culinary And Fandom
2:00pm — 3:00pm, Grand 1 & 2, Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina
I love Duff Goldman, because he loves what he loves and makes no bones about it. But I probably won’t get to see this because it’s up against the most webcomicky session of the show.

Comics Of The Internet: The Memes, The Myths, The Legends
2:00pm — 3:00pm, Room 29AB
Yep, this one. The title is a distraction, I think. Includes Matt Kolowski and Kiersten Wing from comiXology, with Hope Nicholson, Megan Kearney, Nick Franco, and David Malki ! (whose name in the program listing inexplicably omits the !).

The Keenspot Panel
4:00pm – 5:00pm, Room 7AB
I’m omitting the title, because it’s clickbaity, designed to delight some and enrage others to the disadvantage of both. You can look it up if you follow the link. But it has to do with Trump, and the fact that Keenspot has been doing comics that are OMG pro Trump but wait maybe they’re satirical but maybe they aren’t OMG.

I guess I can admire the unapologetic mercenary crassness of it all, but you know what? Screw that. There’s taking a stand, and there’s trying to ride a wave of cultural divide to the detriment of all just because you can. I’m past that shit and I hope you are, too.

(Cue annual comment from Chris Crosby about how I’m an idiot in 3 … 2 … 1 …)

Spam of the day:

Do U WANT 2 “HANG” OUT WlTH ME??

Those quotes puzzle me. Like in the newspaper strip Curtis, which is about a pre-teen black kid whose stodgy dad always complains about “rap” music — like any late-40s black guy in the world is going to be offended by rap, or pronounce it in quotes to indicate derision. It’s just … weird, man.

Friday looks busy, looks to have multiple interesting panels at the same time, and includes a couple of things that look … yeah. We’ll talk.

Friday
The Power Of Nonfiction Graphic Novels
10:00am — 11:00am, Room 32AB
Thi Bui, Abby Howard, Alex Irvine, Clifford Johnson, and Peter Tomasi in conversation with Travis Langley.

The Black Panel
10:00am — 11:30am, Room 5AB
Okay, there’s some interesting people on this one, but I think they may need to get a bigger room because GEORGE MUTHASCRATCHIN’ CLINTON will be there. He’s gonna bring THE FUNK.

Graphic Novels: From Eisner To Explosion!
10:30am — 11:30am, Room 24ABC
And overlapping with the previous two, Scott McCloud, Jeff Smith, and Emil Ferris on the evolution of the graphic novel and what the future holds with moderator Paul Levitz. Have fun running back and forth.

Comic Book Law School 202: “Someone Just Made Me An Offer. Should I Refuse?”
10:30am — 12:00pm, Room 11
Second session, pure crack for geeky lawyers and wannalawyers.

Publishers Weekly: Crowdfunding Ethics And Evolution
11:00am — 12:00pm, Room 28DE
I don’t believe I’ve seen a discussion of crowdfunding ethics before. This could be interesting. Calvin Reid, Kel McDonald, Josh O’Neil, and attorney Jeff Trexler, with Camilla Zhang from Kickstarter.

Girl Power Comics: Middle-Grade Fiction For Girls (And Boys)
12:00pm — 1:00pm, Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library
Or I could just stay at the library all day. Gigi DG, Molly Knox Ostertag, Yehudi Mercado, and Jennifer and Matt Holm.

Autobiography In Graphic Novels
3:00pm — 4:00pm, Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library
Still at the library: Raina Telgemeier, Jarrett J Krosoczka, and Tillie Walden.

Spotlight On Jen Wang
3:00pm — 4:00pm, Room 9
While I’m on record that there were issues with The Prince And The Dressmaker, Jen Wang remains one of the best graphic novelists out there. Ask me how much I love Koko Be Good; go ahead, ask me! In discussion with Cecil Castellucci.

LGBTQ Graphic Novels
4:00pm — 5:00pm, Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library
Library again, with Aminder Dhaliwal, Molly Knox Ostertag, and Ivy Noelle Weir.

Handling Challenges: Bans And Challenges To Comics
5:00pm — 6:00pm, Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library
Library again, and maybe your only chance to hear from Gina Gagliano before she remakes the industry. Also featuring Judd Winick, Charles Kochman (editorial director, Abrams ComicArts), Candice Mack (teen services manager, Los Angeles Public Library), and David Saylor (VP/creative director/trade publishing/editorial director, Graphix).

The State Of The Industry: Animation Superstars
5:00pm — 6:00pm, Room 28DE
With all the shakeups going on in animation right now, particularly with all the women stating that they’ve had it with the shit they’ve put up with for too godsdamned long, I half expect to see a mob forming after this panel, demanding the industry do better. ‘Bout time, too. Includes Brooke Keesling (animation talent recruiter; director of communications and culture at The Animation Guild), Dave Thomas (not the Wendy’s guy, he’s dead), Katie Rice (John K nemesis, and good on her), Jorge Gutiérrez, and Ashley Long.

Best And Worst Manga Of 2018
6:00pm — 7:00pm, Room 4
A couple of my favorite people are on this one: Brigid Alverson and Christopher Butcher, along with Zac Bertschy and Deb Aoki.

Creator Origins: A Candid Conversation On How It All Began
6:00pm — 7:00pm, Room 9
C Spike Trotman sighting #3, along with Matt Kolowski and Kiersten Wing (from comiXology), Tim Seeley, Mike Norton, Sam Humphries, Alti Firmansyah, Magdalene Visaggio, Mark Sable, and Kristian Donaldson.

The Passage
6:00pm — 7:00pm, Room 6A
I have no idea what this about, but it says Mark-Paul Gosselaar will be there, and I’ll pay you a dollar if you ask him what he thinks of Zach Morris Is Trash.

#METOO To #TIMESUP: An Action Summit For Comics
6:30pm — 7:30pm, Room 8
Amy Chu, Sarah Gaydos, Taneka Stotts, Lilah Sturges, Aminder Dhaliwal, Pia Guerra, and Joan Hilty are, I suspect, going to give zero fucks and plenty of damns. Those wanting comics to revert to being by, about, and for straight white dudes approach at your own risk.

Breaking In And Monetizing Your Comics With Webtoon
7:00pm — 8:00pm, Room 4
I am deeply conflicted about Webtoon. I’m not sure I can articulate why. The fact that they promote a creators contest (never a good sign) in the description for this session is one reason. The focus on monetization from the beginning, instead of building good work, is another. Your mileage may vary.

Web Comics: The Four Panel Frontier
8:00pm — 9:00pm, Room 29AB
Searching for Alan Truong produces many results for a lawyer in British Columbia, an internist in New York, a choreographer, about ten or twelve other unrelated people, and eventually a guy who hired a PR firm to announce he’d been doing a twice-weekly strip for five years, and referred to himself unironically as Creator and Chief Officer. JR Gervais shows up as a client of A fully licensed management and PR company and with a single issue credit at Comic Vine and another single issue at comiXology. I can’t find evidence of either of them exhibiting at the show either. So maybe take their advice with a grain of salt as they (quoting here) take you through their 20-year overnight success and offer their insight into the limitless potential of this new-old medium.

Spam of the day:

Would you like 5,000 visitors coming to your website in one week?
These are people interested in your business category.
High quality website traffic at an affordable price.

Man, I’ve got traffic. My Project Wonderful balance after having ad boxes up for a dozen years reaches to nearly three hundred dollars. Woo, rolling in it!

It’s that time again, when San Diego Comic Con starts to release schedules for the panel programs that will be starting in, oh, two weeks time. As has been the trend in recent years, the web-specific programming is all but gone, but there’s still going to be stuff that looks interesting, or has interesting people talking. That’s what we’ll be focusing on.

Preview Night
Teaching with Comics: An Interactive Workshop for Educators
4:00pm — 6:00pm, Room 11
And the legal lessons conclude with fan-centered issues: Fair Use, fanfiction, fanart, fanfilms, and fansuchlike.

Real Life On The Page
12:00pm — 1:00pm, Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library
This is a first — a event on Preview Night that looks interesting. Representatives of Stanford, Portland State, an d Southern Illinois Univsities, along with University of North Carolina, talking with folks from MIT Press and a charter school company.

I’m giving this a recommendation because I think there will be come good talk at this presentation, but please take anything said by representatives of a charter school company (one with a manager from Bain — Mitt Romney’s predatory investment company — on the board of directors) with a grain of salt. If I get over there, I’ve got some questions about why the entire charter industry seems to fail at their primary task while enriching the owners and senior officers of the charter companies.

Thursday
Border Narratives: Voices From Beyond The Wall
10:00am — 11:00am, Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library
Art always has been, and always will be, political. San Diego is this close to Mexico in geographic terms, but further away than ever in all other senses. Listen to what people who experience that distance have to say.

Writing And Drawing The Past
10:00am — 11:00am, Room 32AB
History in comics and treating it right; includes Thi Bui, Jason Lutes, Noah Van Sciver, and Jen Wang.

Comic Book Law School 101: “I Have This Cool Idea . . .”
10:30am — 12:00pm, Room 11
As in previous years, three sessions dealing with IP law, and good for 1.5 hours of continuing education credit for California lawyers.

Spotlight On Lynn Johnston
11:00am — 12:00am, Room 32AB
Fun fact: I once sold Lynn Johnston a POOP sign.

Oni Press Presents: Your Best Pitch Yet
11:30am — 12:30pm, Room 8
C Spike Trotman sighting #1, on a panel with Oni Press’s Ari Yarwood (executive editor )and Sarah Gaydos (editorial director of licensed publishing), Christina “Steenz” Stewart (editor, Lion Forge), and others.

Marvel Animation: Marvel Rising
3:15pm — 4:15pm, Room 6DE
I mention this only becuase the panel will include forthcoming Squirrel Girl actress Milana Vayntrub, and I love how all the success Squirrel Girl has had makes the correct heads explode in astonishment and horror.

YA Comics FTW!
3:30pm — 4:30pm, Room 4
The best original graphic novels being made these days are pitched to a YA audience. Panel includes Jen Wang, Scott Westerfeld, Molly Ostertag, and Tillie Walden.

Original Graphic Novels: From Concept To Creation
5:00pm — 6:00pm, Room 9
Ideas, everybody that creates stuff tells us, are the easy part. See how to execute with Aminder Dhaliwal, Emil Ferris, Thi Bui, Tillie Walden, and Larry Marder, moderated by Jessica Tseang.

Karoke Komix: Sing Along With Bob The Angry Flower!
5:30pm — 6:30pm, Room 4
Webcomic-adjacent panel! Sort of!

Superstars In Children’s Graphic Novels
5:30pm — 6:30pm, Room 26AB
Molly Ostertag again, with Nina Matumoto, Jarrett Krosoczka, Aron Steinke, Ian Boothby, and some guy named Jeff Smith, did something called BONE?

Comics PR And Marketing 101
6:30pm — 7:30pm, Room 8
C Spike Trotman sighting #2, with Chip Mosher from comiXology, Elsa Charretier, Hope Nicholson, Richard Starkings, and Abigail Jill Harding.

The Annual Comics Journalism Panel: Chronicling The New Comics Canon
7:00pm — 8:00pm, Room 23ABC
Included because it was one of two (2) programs I found so far that mention the word webcomics. Panel includes With Heidi Mac, Valerie Complex, Rob McMonigal, Kat Overland, and Fred Van Lente.

Webcomics Advocates And The Webcomics Gathering
8:00pm — 9:00pm, Room 23ABC
And this was the other.

Spam of the day:

MultipleEeyoregasms 648 factors uploaded 1 month ago sent by Jesuspet

I am honestly at a loss to decide which part of that text is creepiest.

Okay so our Friends To The North celebrated their big holiday already, and we here in ‘Merika won’t until tomorrow, but the holiday doldrums are well upon us. Not much going on, but there is one thing to keep an eye out for in the coming weeks:

On July 17 we’re Kickstarting The Nib Magazine, a 100 page print quarterly. The first four issues — Death, Family, Empire and Scams — have been in the works all year and we will hit send to the printer the second it’s funded.

All new comics every issue — journalism, strips, Nib crew, Intercept journalists, names from mainstream comics. I can’t wait to drop who is on board.

That from The Nib editor and driving force Matt Bors, who’s shepherded the editorial/reportage comics site from (intermittently neglected) Medium section to big-ass book to recurring calendar to animated series, the contributors to which keep showing up in consideration of various awards.

You’ve got two weeks notice. Be prepared.

And I just realized that I haven’t discussed this year’s Eisner nominations, on account of they came out while I was at Camp. As we’ve seen in the past forever or so, the distinctions between Best Digital Comic and Best Webcomic are confusing and/or confused, and which are described as:

For the Best Digital Comic category, works must be longform — that is, comparable to comic books or graphic novels in storytelling or length. Webcomics similar to daily newspaper strips, for example, would not be eligible. Digital comics should have a unique URL, be part of a webcomics site, or otherwise stand alone (not be part of a blog, for instance).

So webcomics are defined by what they aren’t rather than by what they are, but for the most part they’ve come to largely be creator-owned work without publisher gatekeeping (although there are a couple of fascinating exceptions in the Best Webcomic Category. This year’s nominees are:

Best Digital Comic

• Bandette, by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover (Monkeybrain/comiXology)
• Barrier, by Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin (Panel Syndicate)
• The Carpet Merchant of Konstaniniyya, by Reimena Yee (reimenayee.com/the-carpet-merchant)
• Contact High, by James F. Wright and Josh Eckert (gumroad.com/l/YnxSm)
• Harvey Kurtzman’s Marley’s Ghost, by Harvey Kurtzman, Josh O’Neill, Shannon Wheeler, and Gideon Kendall (comiXology Originals/Kitchen, Lind & Associates)
• Quince, by Sebastian Kadlecik, Kit Steinkellner, and Emma Steinkellner, translated by Valeria Tranier (Fanbase Press/comiXology)

Best Webcomic

• Awaiting a Wave, by Dale Carpenter and Nate Powell, features.weather.com/us-climate-change/arkansas (The Weather Channel Digital)
• Brothers Bond, by Kevin Grevioux and Ryan Benjamin, www.webtoons.com/en/action/brothers-bond/list?title_no=1191 (LINE Webtoon)
• Dispatch from a Sanctuary City, by Mike Dawson, https://thenib.com/dispatch-from-a-sanctuary-city (The Nib)
• The Tea Dragon Society, by Katie O’Neill, teadragonsociety.com (Oni Press)
• Welcome to the New World, by Jake Halpern and Michael Sloan, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/26/opinion/sunday/welcome-to-the-new-world.html (New York Times Sunday Review)

I’ll go out on a limb and say that Carpenter & Powell, and Halpern & Sloan were doing Work For Hire; I’ll also note that O’Neill’s The Tea Dragon Society is functionally indistinct from what the Eisners call a Digital Comic — to the extent that she and it are also nominated in the category of Best Publication for Kids (ages 9–12).

Outside the immediately applicable categories, you’ll find Giant Days (John Allison, Max Sarin, and Liz Fleming) nominated as Best Continuing Series, Spinning (Tillie Walden) in both Best Publication for Teens (ages 13-17) and Best Reality-Based Work, What Is Left (Rosemary Valero-O’Connell) in both Best Single Issue/One-Shot and Best Coloring, and Elements: Fire (edited by Taneka Stotts) in Best Anthology¹.

The Eisner Awards will be presented on Friday, 20 July, as part of San Diego Comic Con. Best of luck to all the nominees.

Spam of the day:

Only here the choice of young girls for every unique guy and completely free! They are wettest slaves, they will and want implement everything you command !

I’ve often wondered if there was some way to make Russian mail-order bride spam not the ickiest thing in the spam filters, and … ick. Just ick.

_______________
¹ Presumably, if it wins, Stotts will have Shing Yin Khor devise some means of breaking up the statue into components that can be distributed to the contributors.

Hey, y’all. Time for the SDCC floor map and guide to Webcomickers (and similar-thinking folk). The San Diego Comic Con’s exhibitors list and floor map [PDF] are up, and it’s time for the annual trawl to figure out where people will be. As usual, the map at the top of the page runs from low booth numbers to high, North to South, right to left, and we’ll be zeroing in on the usual cohort of folks.

The North Half Layout Is The Same
It’s on the right side of the overall floor map, and apart from a logo change or two, the booth numbers and major players correspond to the same layout as last year:

The Webcomics, Small Press, and Independent Press Pavilions remain reasonably accessible from the “B” lobby. Let’s break ’em down.

The Last Stand Of Webcomics?
It’s entirely the same as last year: centered roughly on booth #1332, you’ll find a majority of the webcomickers who will be at the show within about a 1.5 aisle radius; some are slightly outside the orange area, but not too far. Those that return are all in the same spots, barring any changes to the map and listings.

Notes:

• No news yet on which TopatoCo creators will be along; we’ll update once we know.
• Hachette (1116), Harper Collins (1029), (1117), and Simon & Schuster (1128) remain in Publisher’s Row; :01 Books (2800) and Macmillan Children’s Publishing (2802) continue to colonize the corner with the bend, where their lines (remember, Check, Please! and The Adventure Zone: Here Be Gerblins are both about to release) will not obstruct main aisles.
• 1232 and 1235 remain, as last year, assigned to Flex Comics (muscle bros hang out there) and Pulsar Entertainment LLC (whose home page prominently features the words MONETIZE YOUR BRAND!), respectively. Inertia, I guess.
• Dumbrella this year will only be Rich Stevens and Andy Bell; much like last year, another exhibitor will be sharing the space, but the name is not announced yet. It’s kind of like gong to a concert, and each band has fans that thinks their favorite is the headliner and the other is the opening act.
• Word on the street is that C Spike Trotman will be at the show, but not tabling. In other news, Hell freezes over.

Small Press Abides
Right by the Webcomics section is Small Press. Here you should find:

• It appears that Ben Costa, of Shi Long Pang and Rickety Stitch fame will be sitting this one out.
• Shing Yin Khor has said she’s gonna be there — who are you doing to believe, her or, the exhibitor list which presently omits her? is listed in the Small Press area under The Center For Otherworld Science, which actually makes perfect sense.

From the Small Press section, you’re close by:

Notes:

• Gallery Nucleus will feature arty types when they aren’t hanging out at Mondo down in booth 835. Keep an eye out for your Scotts C, your Beckys and/or Franks, and alumni of the various Flight anthologies. Oh, and they’re listed in the guide as Nucleus Studios.
• No confirmation yet on which webcomickers will be at the BOOM! booth when, but I’d expect a pretty strong rotation.

Now head back toward the “B” Lobby into the Independent Press area and you’ll find Terry Moore at Booth 2109, which is split (in accordance with tradition) with Jeff Smith (who remains the best). You’re also not too far from the Jack Kirby Museum at Booth 5520 which, yes, is a very large number but is actually just inside the B1 entrance. Weird, right?

Going back to that larger map of the northern half of the exhibit hall. Wedged in between the Marvel and Image megabooths you’ll find Keenspot in Booth 2635.

The Far End Is Exactly The Same
There’s still some neat stuff if you keep wandering past the video games, Star Wars, Legos, and suchlike.

Give yourself half an hour or so, try not to spend all your money on Copic markers (Booth 5338), and you’ll find both Udon Entertainment, and The Hero Initiative (at Booth 5003). Katie Cook will be at table HH-17, but she’s one of the holdout folks in Artists Alley — it’s mostly comic book types these days. Even Jim Zub won’t be around this year, but considering he’ll still be sleeping off the jetlag from doing a show in South Africa, that’s understandable.

Offsite
Every year for the past half-decade the amount of stuff you can see outside of the exhibit hall has grown; I’m guessing we’re only a year or so away from complete parity. If you know of anything especially good, let us know and we’ll add it here. Otherwise, just wander the city and see what you got.

Spam of the day:

SDCC 2018 Exclusives: Game of Thrones® Pop! Funko and Dorbz

Sorry, plenty of dead-eyed, soulless homonculi wandering around the hall, don’t need to add any to my luggage.

Also, why did this come to my personal email address, and not the one I supplied to SDCC for my press credentials?