I’m mostly sitting here, trying to get work done in time to run out to the bookstore and pick up a copy of The Hidden Witch by Molly Ostertag, which is only the sequel to my favorite book of 2017. As soon as it’s obtained, you may expect a review here.

But that’s not all that’s going on this Halloweeneve, there’s other news from other webcomickers, and as is so very common these days, the most interesting work is being done by women. Let’s see what’s going on.

• I mentioned The Hidden Witch, right? Just wanted to be sure.

• Abby Howard, who produced my favorite book to date about dinosaurs, and my favorite book to date about pre-dinosaurs, answered both a question that I had and also my dearest wish. One may recall that in the review of Ocean Renegades I remarked:
  

  I’m going to guess that Ms Lernin and Ronnie make one more appearance in the Earth Before Us series, as there’s still the Cenozoic Era to explore. Ronnie loves the cute critters, I can’t wait to see what she loves in the Age Of Horns, or how she feels about the now-extinct glyptodont (giant armadillos) and megatherium (ground-dwelling enormo-sloths³).

  (The footnote referred to the fact that we can thank giant ground-dwelling sloths for avocados. Really!)

  And now we have our answer:

  This month I’ve been working on the inks for Earth Before Us 3, which will be out next summer~

  With an illustration of extinct mammals, giant rhino-like critters that in some cases dwarfed our modern elephants. Hooray! This is what I wanted, but boo! Judging by the release of the first two Earth Before Us books, it’ll be August before I get to read it.

• Because if I missed mentioning The Hidden Witch, I’ll just kick myself, y’know?

• I forget, do you need two unusual, related events to declare a trend, or three? Because I’m declaring a trend on webcomickers taking over legacy comic strips. We all know that the pseudonymous Olivia Jaimes has, over the past six months, shown us how good Nancy can be, and revealed a fundamental truth that all suspected but none could articuate: Sluggo is lit.

  Now Joey Alison Sayers has shared the news that she’s taking over a comic strip that’s arguably even older than Nancy¹:

  I’ve been sitting on some big news for a little while. I’m happy to finally be able to share it with you!
  Alley Oop Will Return (Spoiler Alert)

  And I’m incredibly lucky to be working with the brilliant @lemonworld

  Okay, so maaaaaybe I oversold the women run comics now, deal with it crybabies angle just a bit, as Sayers is partnering with Jonathan Lemon of Rabbits Against Magic on art. I absolutely don’t want to get into the false dichotomy of whether art or writing is more important in comics/comic strips, because they’re incomplete without the other. But my point stands — women pretty much are running comics, and that’s a damn good thing.

  That aside, uh, aside, Sayers tells us we should see the new Alley Oop come January. It’ll be a tall order, seeing as how the strip’s been in reruns since the start of September, and has 80+ years of history behind it².

  The great thing about Jaimes’s run on Nancy has been an acknowledgment of life in the 21st century while returning to the reality-bending heyday of Bushmillerian weirdness. I can only imagine what Sayers and Lemon will be able to do, but I suspect that in the new year we’ll find a breath of new life, excellent beefy-armed cavepeople, and awesome dinosaurs.

• Seriously, though — go get The Hidden Witch.

Spams of the day:

Need a Loan? | Bad Credit? | Loan Options

and

Ready for Takeoff? | Private Jet Charters

In the past 24 hours, I received both of the spams above, which both sport the same bullshit “click here or write to us at this address [in Cyprus] to be removed from these mailings” bit at the bottom. Spammers, you are not targeting me very well. Do you think I’m a deadbeat in need of a usurious loan, possibly involving a pay day, or do you think that I have the money to throw around on private jets?

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¹ Arguably because while Alley Oop started in 1932 and Nancy in 1938, that’s the date that the title (and focus) shifted to Nancy from her Aunt Fritzi. Ernie Bushmiller had been running Fritzi Ritz since 1925, and the strip had been created in 1922 by Larry Whittington.

² Even more, considering the many side trips via time machine in the strip’s continuity.