Helpful correspondent Zoe sent me links for a t-shirt company called Dirty Microbe which advertises on a lot of webcomics sites. She’s wondering if their Cutty the Razor owes anything to Randy Milholland’s Rippy the Razor, or if their pixel pirate shirt resembles that of R Stevens. My opinion? Cutty and the pirate shirt would be tough to prove, but the fact that the Jolly Roger there is composed of pixels when the rest of their line isn’t is somewhat telling.

Since the ire of the webcomics community is now well and up, I’m wondering if we need a clearinghouse for suspected webcomics theft sightings. On the one hand, the word could get around that webcomics creators and their fans won’t stand for theft of their property. On the other hand, it could devolve into mindless bitching over what constitutes parody, fair use, and reworking vs. outright theft. What do y’all think?

You be the judge: Goldman. Greenfield. And Todd? Talking trash about Kelly is one thing, screwin’ with America (by way of Holland)’s Webcomics Sweetheart will get you set on fire in certain corners of the interwebs. Angry mobs, please form an orderly line to the right.

And the great thing is, even if Todd-o can be shown to have not ripped off Greenfield (say, this image shows a clear history of having been produced back before Stuff Sucks started), it doesn’t matter. The default assumption on everybody’s part now is that whatever Goldman “produces” is stolen from somebody with talent and vision. He’ll pretty much never be able to claim original authorship on anything again. That sound you hear is a petard gettin’ hoisted.

And we make it at last to the wind-down, which weary resignation is a recurring theme when talking about San Diego Comic Con and Sunday, whether considering advance planning or the actual experience. Sunday remains the kid-themed day, with lots going on for the younger fan of comics, not to mention the wild rush to finish up commerce before things that getting torn down until next year. And hey, Con ends at 5:00pm, so there can’t be panels that don’t start until 9:00. I think …

Sunday
Food Network’s Chef Duff Goldman
10:00 — 11:00, Grand 10 & 11, Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina
I love that dude, and the joy he brings to creation. I may just go check this one out.

Space Wizards: The Quest To Define Speculative Fiction
11:00 — 12:00, Grand 12 & 13, Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina
Wait, there’s a panel about Space Wizards, and they didn’t invite Jon Rosenberg? That’s messed up.

The Adventure Zone: Murder On The Rockport Limited! Graphic Novel
11:00 — 12:00, Room 7AB
Two McElroys (Travis and Clint), Carey Pietsch, and Satine Phoenix talk about the brand new graphic novel adaptation (it releases the day before Preview Night).

140-Odd Years Of Looking At The Future
12:00 — 1:00, Room 25ABC
Junior high school me, with a serious habit of ’60s-and-later hard SF, would shit himself at the possibility of being in a room with Larry Niven, David Brin, and Greg Bear (who, at 17 or 18, was one of the founders of SDCC). The topic will be time travel, and discussion will be guided by Dr Travis Langley (professor of Psychology, Henderson State University).

Growing Up with Comics: Introducing Younger Readers To Graphic Storytelling
12:00 — 1:00, Room 28DE
One of my great thrills in life is giving a stack of graphic novels (some exactly age appropriate, some that require stretching a bit) as a birthday present as part of my grunkle duties. Last year I watched a seven year old forgo a water fight on the hottest day of the year when she say I’d given her a copy of The Witch Boy². So I imagine a good deal of the discussion from Cecil Castellucci, Sarah Graley, and Amy Mebberson will be variations on Put comics in front of kids and let ’em rip, but they’ll find much smarter ways to express that thought.

iPhones And Wands: Can Tech And Magic Coexist?
1:00 — 2:00, Room 25ABC
Clarke’s Law gets a workout from the likes of Gene Ha, Maya Kern, Katie O’Neill, Bree Paulsen, Carey Pietsch, and Ursula Vernon, with moderator Lilah Sturges.

Short Form Comics For Every Reader
1:00 — 2:00, Room 28DE
There is a certain irony in inviting Randall Munroe to this panel, given that probably his most famous comic¹ took four months to play out and has an entire wiki built around its 3102 frames. But join Sarah Mirk as she talks to Munroe, Aminder Dhaliwal, Ebony Flowers, Kevin Huizenga, and Sophie Yanow about getting ideas across in just a few frames.

Super Asian America
2:45 — 3:45, Room 5AB
Do me a favor. If CB Cebulski shows up to bother Andrea Walter, CB Lee, and Wesley Chu, somebody smack him.

Wonder Women CEOs — Female Owned And Operated Comic Publishers
3:00 — 4:00, Room 7AB
Quoting here: One day a female comic publisher will be standard — until then, we have Wonder Women! Hoo-howdy, that’s a crappy topic sentence, and whoever wrote it needs to re-evaluate where they are in life. As previously noted, it’s women that do the nuts-and-bolts work of getting comics out, and as the big two become less relevant because their corporate masters see the money brought in from Wednesday sales as a rounding error, the small companies are going to fill those niches. Hear about the revolution in the offing, and try to convince Sandy King Carpenter (Storm King Comics), Enrica Jang (Red Stylo Media), D Lynn Smith (Kymera Press), and C Spike Trotman (Iron Circus Comics) that you’ll be useful to the new regime. Comics is about to be a women’s game, and the dudes currently running things are placeholders.

Spam of the day:

Bring Your Doorbell Into the 21st Century 2.4g WiFi connectivity, Android and iOS compatibility, image capture technology

I have a bell. I also have glass up and down the front door, and other windows that look out on the front door, and a dog that loveloveloves new people bouncing up and down scrabbling at the front door.

Under no circumstances am I bringing your shit-security, hardcoded-admin-credentials Internet Of Things thing into my house. Fuck outta here with that nonsense.

_______________
¹ Depending on who you’re talking to, of course. In my day job, it’s more likely to be a discussion of scrubbing SQL inputs or computer voting being an inherently bad idea.

² Certain of the grand-nieces and grand-nephews have had to be informed by friends that not all graphic novels come signed and sketched by the creators.

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.

Even when Patreon isn’t dropping news, they’ve cast a long shadow over webcomics for the past week (the last time I spent so many days on a single topic, it was the Great Todd Goldman Lawsuitapalooza of Aught-Seven). I’ll leave you to find the public posts of creators asking (begging?) for clarification from Jack Conte, Sam Yarn, et alia, which shouldn’t be too hard — just chuck a rock at your favorite social media platform and you’ll find some.

Instead, let me take a suggestion from Faithful Reader Robonun and point out that maybe not everybody has seen the good news: Randy Milholland — the absolute sweetest guy you could ever hope to meet — is gonna be a dad in the immediate future. On the one hand, that kid is going to have the coolest, most humane (but simultaneously profane) father possible. On the other hand, it’s Randy, so garbage people are out in force.

I don’t know what it is about him that makes terrible, terrible people of almost every self-identified, persecuted subgroup decide momentarily that Milholland is one of them, then discover that it was all projection on their part, then decide it’s an act of vile betrayal and determine he is the enemy of all that is good.

In this case, militant childfree types (who were already pissed that he brought kids into the strip, without making it clear that this is surely going to ruin the lives of anybody adjacent to the little carpet apes) have greeted the news that Milholland and his wife are expecting with all the grace and tact of a caffeine-crazed MRA/MAGA/GamerGate/incel/anime superfan/brony type¹ being told that somebody doesn’t like that thing they like.

Honestly, Randy does nothing to encourage terrible, terrible people, but they seek him out. I suppose we should be grateful, in that he draws all the detritus to himself, sparing the rest of us from their attention. He’s a human crap umbrella.

So assuming that you, by reading this page, are a rational person², and also assuming that you are able to recognize that other people do not have the desire to be exactly like you are and this does not invalidate their right to exist, and further assuming you get the laugh-chuckles from Milholland’s work, consider dropping him a note of congratulations, and encouraging him (as we at Fleen do) to take all the time he needs in this period of immense adjustment to a new mode of life. The comics are free, he owes us nothing, and we owe him at the least thanks.

Oh, and all four issues of his excellent superhero comic³, Super Stupor are now available for digital download. If you read these and don’t feel like Punchline is the greatest hero character of the 21st century, you and I will never understand each other. Just, uh, maybe don’t leave the comic around for any kids if you don’t want them to know about Mind’s Eye and his truth fucking power.

What? I said they were excellent, not that they were all-ages.

Spam of the day:

4 FreeViagara tablets with each order

Oh yeah? What if I’m ordering … I dunno, something very specific to kids? Whatever makes you sound horrible because man, you’re sounding sketchy as hell.

_______________
¹ Do I repeat myself? Very well, I repeat myself.

² Also? Very, very attractive.

³ It legitimately is my favorite cape comic except maybe Robinson’s Starman, Nextwave, Patton Oswalt’s Welcome To The Working Week, and issue 10 of All Star Superman.

Looks like the weekend at San Diego Comics Con is gonna be quiet compared to Thursday/Friday; not that there’s any less programming per se, just that the descriptions provided didn’t reach out and grab me or seem particularly relevant to the purpose of this page¹.

Saturday Programming
Comic Book Law School 303: A Helping Hand
10:30am — 12:00pm, 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, Room29AB
With (all together now) Box Brown, who really can talk about other things, a discussion of history and education topics. Moderated by NPR’s Petra Mayer, the panel includes MK Reed, Alison Wilgus, Tillie Walden, and Landis Blair.

BOOM! Studios: Discover Yours
12:30pm — 1:30pm, Room 24ABC
I mentioned a stealth BOOM! panel on Thursday, and here’s an overt one (also featuring John Allison), and the offer still stands: one dollar American cash money to anybody that asks why BOOM! pays so poorly and (perhaps more importantly) so late. Filip Sablik, president of BOOM! publishing and marketing will be present, so this is probably your best chance to speak truth to power.

Superheroes and Comics Can Transform Learning
1:00pm — 2:00pm, Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library
Lots of variations on this theme from year to year, but how many feature Jorge Cham? Sadly, his We Have No Idea co-author, Daniel Whiteson, doesn’t appear to be part of the panel.

Unconventional Comics
1:30pm — 2:30pm, Room 8
Did you know that there are comics without superheroes? (I am paraphrasing the original description only slightly) Gemma Correll, Melanie Gillman, Simon Hanselman, and R Sikoryak in conversation with Cartoon Art Museum curator Andrew Farago.

Spotlight On Box Brown
3:00pm — 4:00pm, Room 4
Like this, for example: Box Brown’s a huge wrestling fan, and the interview for this session will be conducted by Uproxx’s pro wrestling editor, Brandon Stroud. Let Box Brown stretch his conversational legs!

Sunday Programming
Steven Universe: Art & Origins
10:00am — 11:00am, Room 29AB
What’s this? A small scale Steven Universe discussion? Rebecca Sugar, Ian J-Q, and zero voice talent? I think I just found my new must-see panel.

The Not-Keenspot Panel
I always mention the Keenspot panel, but when the title talks about how your Bobby Crosby-helmed YouTube show is taking over the Keenspot panel slot? Yeah, no, calling shenanigans on that. You can find it easily enough, though — it’s the actual, literal last panel in the programming list.
[Editor’s note: Keenspot impressario Chris Cosby disagrees with my characterization; you may find his rebuttal below in the comments.]

Spam of the day:

We miss you! Check out our 90% off Clearance
Oakley – Simple design of fashion and sports, can get model very good got-up face.

You miss me, alleged legitimate vendor of Oakley sunglasses? I think we both know my got-up face is fair/middling at best.

_______________
¹ For example, an hour with Duff Goldman? I’d be all over that, but it doesn’t have much to do with webcomics, y’see.

For those that keep track of such things, today marks the last day of the ninth consecutive year of wondering what could possibly be defamatory; tomorrow will be the start of Year Ten. When all is said and done, on the day that this page turns out the light and puts the chairs up on the tables, I will be proud of one thing: we didn’t pull down the Purple Pussy story or any of its related reporting. Still, given the choice, I’d rather have not been threatened with a potentially ruinous lawsuit by a jumped-up millionaire with delusions of grandeur.

At this point I think it’s safe to say that (lawerly bluster aside) there never was anything defamatory towards Todd Goldman vis-a-vis his habit of selling art that was remarkably identical to that of other artists, and also that the United States needs a federal anti-SLAPP statute. To those of you that offered your support at the time and since — from the comfort of friendship to acts of defiantly mirroring pages out of the reach of US court orders¹ — I remain grateful. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: webcomics has given me the best friends in explored space.

Spam of the day:

thingCHARGER Use THIS To Charge Your Devices Without Cables or Outlets

Without cables or outlets? Do you pull the electrical fluid from the very aether? I say! [insert photo of jowly man with muttonchops and a HARUMPH epxression]

_______________
¹ As performed by William George, or The William G as his nom de webcomics; he did a much-missed (by me, at least) webcomic called Bang Barstal at the now-shuttered Graphic Smash². Living in South Korea (or sometimes Canada), Mr G would have been able to thumb his nose at attempts of Goldman to make him take down his mirrors.

² This is why the Wayback Machine exists; hopefully some traces of Bang — the love child of Mojo Nixon and Kevin Matchstick — exist there still. He was too good for this world.

Bang, I mean. Pretty sure that William G is exactly as good as this world requires and not a bit more or less.

Yes, there are other things to mention, such as the news that TCAF announced another six guests (including Gene Luen Yang), and Christopher Hastings is getting another Marvel miniseries. Those are good bits of news, go revel in their newness.

• Probably nobody on the floor of MoCCA Fest has had as precipitous an upward trajectory as Noelle Stevenson; I first met her two years back when Lumberjanes #1 was fresh on the shelves and Nimona was not yet nominated for the National Book Award or optioned for the big screen. I asked her how she follows all of that up and she mentioned she has a book in development with HarperCollins called Four Wizards¹, as well as a second project she can’t talk about yet. I told her something I told a number of creators — I can’t wait to see what she’s doing in five year, ten years, because she’s just getting better.
• Despite the presence of a booth helper with a name tag reading Gina Gagliano, the beating heart of :01 Books (and the woman who sends me enough review copies to drown an average-size ten year old) was repping the imprint in Houston during MoCCA weekend; no matter, as the booth was in the good hands of Danielle Ceccolini.

  Ms Ceccolini came on board in 2014 to replace departing book designer Colleen AF Venable; print lead times being what they are, it’s only been in the last six months or so that I’ve seen Ceccolini’s name in :01’s offerings, so we’re just starting to get a sense of how strong her designs are (especially given that a number of her designs have been on continuing series — such as The Olympians or Glorkian Warrior — that had an established look and feel).

  Case in point: Faith Erin Hick’s The Nameless City (out today), which sports an absolutely gorgeous design to go with the engaging story. If you ever wanted to read a graphic novel (for, let’s say, tweens and up) that reminds you of all the best parts of Jeff Smith, Hayao Miyazaki, Gene Yang, and Kazu Kibuishi in one book, this is the one for you. Or rather, the first of three for you, since it’s a planned trilogy.

  Between that deal, the numerous Yang offerings each year (including the Secret Coders series with Mike Holmes, second volume due soon), and the Science Comics line, it seems like :01 is on track for a good deal more ambitious a release schedule than their recent history of 18 – 22 books a year. It’s a hell of a lot of work for four people, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see that they need more hands to keep their well-deserved reputation for quality.

• Ken Wong was somebody I’d intended to go see on the floor, as the description of his origami comics — comics where the physical, three-dimensional presentation becomes part of the story — intrigued the hell out of me. As it turned out, I walked by his table somehow not noticing the enormous ORIGAMI COMICS banner, but my eye was caught by the cover of what turned out to be the single nerdiest comic I’ve ever read: Bonetti’s Defense — I Know Something You Don’t Know About Swordplay In The Princess Bride. It’s exactly what it says on the cover: a picking-apart of the slight dialogue (and careful choreography) of the epic duel between Inigo Montoya and the Man In Black on top of the Cliffs of Insanity.

  Drawing on what I’d always assumed to be throwaway names (in the screenplay and the original book), Wong finds the historical Bonetti, Capo Ferro, Thibault, and Agrippa and talks about why their teachings are appropriate to the scene in question. And because anything nerdy that you’re nerding out over can never have too much nerding, he finds likely historical referents for fencing masters McBone, Sainct, MacPherson, and Morozzo. Wong even figures out who the most probable inspiration for the Dread Pirate Roberts was.

  It’s not necessary to read Bonetti’s Defense to enjoy everybody’s favorite movie², but it gives a sense of satisfaction to realize how much William Goldman, Rob Reiner, swordmaster Bob Anderson, and everybody else cared to make things right even if only one guy in Brooklyn would ever realize how right they were.

• Not far from Wong’s table, I did the I was going to look for you and didn’t realize you were here and something on the table caught my eye deal a second time, when I came across Azure. In this case, the catch-my-eye factor was provided by a stack of onesies with dinosaurs on them.

  I’m very sorry to say that I can’t find a link on Azure’s site for these because they are adorable and my gosh, did I just have a grand-nephew born like ten days ago? I believe I did, and young Collin is going to be well-equipped with a dinosaur onesie and small prints with dinosaurs on them because you can never start a love affair with dinosaurs too early.

There were students everywhere. I saw tables either officially representing schools, or filled with students who came from particular schools but not in an official capacity, including (but likely not limited to) Parsons, FIT, Pratt, SVA, Syracuse, CCS, Moore, and at least one high school club.

The students themselves ran the gamut from shy and retiring to immensely outgoing; from art student chic to lacking even one piercing or visible tattoo; their work fell into every conceivable genre and style, from I’m mostly inspired by what’s on Crunchyroll this month but haven’t quite figured out anatomy yet to a noir mystery starring snails³.

But there was one (from the far lands of Minneapolis) that stood out from her contemporaries; her work had an assurance, a confidence that I wouldn’t have expected from one so young (and who had only been doing comics for about three years). One whose work I realized I had seen before and (foolishly) had not bookmarked at the time. One who has Big Things happening in the immediate future, and whose future work I am looking forward to as much as Noelle Stevenson’s, one who I think is going to make as big a splash in the industry as Stevenson, Hicks, Telgemeier, or Larson.

But I’m over 1000 words as it is, so come back tomorrow and we’ll talk about Rosemary Valero-O’Connell.

Spam of the day:

Diffuse threats with this recently released technology

You mean I should make them ever less and less concentrated, until they are spread over such a large volume as to be indetectable? Or given the rather rah-rah tactical machismo of your imagery, did you mean defuse? Either way, it’s just a damn flashlight, bunky.

_______________
¹ Or possibly 4 Wizards, or For Wizards; it was noisy and I didn’t ask her to spell it.

² Oh hush, you know it is.

³ The same creator’s other works were all shiny and sparkly, which prompted me to suggest that to my knowledge, nobody has yet combined noir story structures with the Lisa Frank aesthetic and she should get right on that.

So normally I don’t expect to first find [web]comics news from my habit of following the Popehat twitterfeed.

Let me back up a moment.

Popehat is a group blog, dealing mostly with legal issues (particularly First Amendment and free speech issues), where most of the content comes from a gentleman of approximately my own age named Ken White. I don’t agree with every position that White holds, and find myself at near-visceral levels of disagreement with some of his co-authors; some of them are pretty absolutist in their libertarian beliefs¹, but at least I know what I’m getting into when I see the author’s name at the top of posts².

Regardless of any political disagreements, I have the utmost admiration for the work that White has done in defending First Amendment rights, as well as his remarkable facility with creative profanity³ and the snarktacular edge to his writing that verges on the sublime. I first became aware of White (and Popehat) during the Matt Inman/Charles Carreon dustup, and I certainly wish I’d known of him when we at Fleen received a lawsuit threat from Todd Goldman back in 2007 (followed by, as of today, 2664 consecutive days of governing ourselves accordingly).

So it was via the estimable Mr Hat that I saw a comic book artist named Randy Queen (whom I had never heard of), who created something called Darkchylde (which I have never read), has his boxers in a knot over the inclusion of some of his more choice images on the Escher Girls blog (dedicated to identifying and critiquing crappy artistic representations of female anatomy) at Tumblr.

So he sent a DMCA takedown notice, which Tumblr complied with without notifying the blog’s owner (this may or may not have happened if the images were hosted on a privately-owned domain), who goes by Ami Angelwings. Despite having an extraordinarily strong counterclaim (the blog was pretty much engaging in the definition of Fair Use), Ms Angelwings opted to not contest the takedown, and posted about what had happened in a pretty damn measured and calm way.

But Mr Queen couldn’t let that stand, so he issued a second DMCA takedown notice, this time against the post that truthfully reported the fact that the first takedown occurred. Now remember, the DMCA is a legal tool that allows content owners to force the removal of their work from other sites on the web that infringe on their property rights; it is not a tool to fight tender feelings. Queen has no copyright interest in being identified as suffering from butthurt. Nevertheless, Tumblr has apparently removed all repostings of the challenged blogpost, although (as of this writing) the original remains up.

You know how sometimes people don’t know when to stop digging? Since Angelwings won’t go away and shut up about what is (factually and verifiably) happening to her, Queen is now threatening to get lawyers involved and throwing around the word defamation. Just in case the various sites that the image up top links to decide to take down the image of the email that Queen sent to Angelwings, here’s a local copy. The part that gets to me is this:

Instead of simply removing the content you do not have the right to electronically distribute, you wish to push further, and publicly challenge my right to protect the perception of my IP as it exists today. [emphasis added]

Where to start, where to start? Hey, Randy, hate to break it to you, but the perception of your IP is not something you have the right to protect. I’m happy to refer you to Eric Burns-White for a remedial lesson in the Death of the Author, but let’s try a more direct approach. Right now I’m perceiving your IP; try to protect it. Nope, not working. I’m perceiving it all I want, and forming my opinion about your grasp of anatomy, composition, panel layout, and the rest. Better yet, forget the IP and try to protect the perception of you, Randy Queen, because as of right now typing your name into Google results in a host of critical press before it gets to your actual IP.

I’m counting four critical stories before the Wikipedia article about your comic and that ratio is not going to improve any time soon. Hell, the io9 story titled Comic Artist Uses DMCA to Bully Escher Girls is presently the #2 Google result for DMCA. Queen has earned the ire of pretty much the entirety of comics press, and guaranteed that the next several projects he tries to launch will garner coverage that includes some variation on:

Randy Queen, who in 2014 attempted to strongarm the Escher Girls Tumblr into removing references to his DMCA takedown notice but was met with a widespread backlash, has announced …

That’s if he can get coverage at all; after all, if Queen can protect the perception of his IP, what role is there for the comics press to review or pay attention to his efforts? Unless he can find a comics news site that will run the review Queen writes of his own work, we have no guarantee that he won’t come after us next. Cut your losses, Randy — your email “got hacked”, you’ve “had a bad reaction to medication that caused temporary erratic behavior”, or some other face-saving walkback is your best shot now.

Or, you know — keep doing what you’re doing, because that always works.

Spam of the day:

will white wine vinegar go bad

There’s an interesting philosophical hook to this question, atcherly — on the one hand, you could say that white wine vinegar has already gone bad, in that it’s no longer fit to be described as white wine, but on the other hand, it’s achieved the best possible vinegarness and doesn’t deviate or degrade from that state. For more on this I refer you to the master.

________________
¹ A philosophy that I find to have some interesting ideas on the surface, undergirded by immense illogic. I will, however, credit those Popehat contributors with whom I disagree with a remarkable degree of internal consistency, a strict adherence to logic, and a willingness to engage contrary opinions in good faith. I ain’t ever drinking their Kool-Aid, but I imagine that arguing with them over a beer or two would be both highly entertaining and likely educational.

² This happens less so on the twitter account, where it’s not always evident who is writing.

³ My life was forever changed the day that I saw White invite the TSA to snort my taint.

So I have this deal with Becky Dreistadt and Frank Gibson: when I back their Kickstarters and qualify for a Becky painting, I tell her Do mine last. I know you’ll get to it when you can, clear out everybody else’s before mine. I know that she’ll always have literally a couple hundred paintings to complete, and I have long suspected that not having the pressure to get all! those! paintings! done as quickly as possible means that I’ll get something worth the wait.

Case in point — tiki greyhounds, which I received yesterday and caused me and my wife to squeal with such delight that our own greyhound was startled. It is honestly the most happy-making art I’ve ever seen in my life and I wanted to share it with you all.

• Speaking of Kickstarters, one started a few hours ago and is (as of this writing) approaching the 82% funding level with most of 21 days still to go. I speak, naturally of Johnny Wander Book 3² by Yuko Ota and Ananth Panagariya, and I applaud them for a couple of things:
  • The book is basically done; we’ve seen things like Yuko’s design work for the cover over the past month, and Ananth has put together many, many books; the campaign is basically to manage pre-orders, not to support the creators while they make the book.
  • And also to put an earlier book back in print; while there are still copies of JW volume 1 to be had, one of the things you need to do as an independent publisher is make sure you keep enough inventory on hand for the next _____ months of selling.
  • Panagariya and Ota are doing something I’ve been wanting to see for a while — they’re compressing the time for the campaign down to just three weeks. I’ve often wondered if longer campaign times allow interest to wane, and if a shorter one would create a sense of urgency because you need to do it now or miss out. I don’t think anybody would actually be crazy enough to put up a Kickstarter for the 72 hours I once suggested as an experiment, but I’m betting that the right project with the right audience could make a killing on a one- or two-week campaign. After all, in the time it’s taken me to write the last three paragraphs, the campaign has cleared 87.6%, and will likely be at goal by the time I’m done writing.

  Anyway, JW volume 3, it’s wonderful stuff (almost as wonderful as tiki greyhounds), go get in on that while the getting’s good.

• I followed a link over the weekend (sorry, can’t recall who posted it, but I suspect it was probably Colleen Doran) to a law blog with a focus on marketing and technology, where I discovered something that does not yet appear to be entirely settled case law: can an offhand comment in an email suffice to create/change contracts? Even to the extent of giving up copyrights? The particular case cited by the author, Eric Goldman, seems to indicate not, but there appear to have been other cases that decide in the other direction. Goldman says he hasn’t yet decided to implement a standard disclaimer on his emails, but thinks that it might be a good idea. For those of you who like boilerplate:
  

  Nothing in this email is intended as an offer and the author disclaims any intention to make an offer or create an enforceable agreement through any email messages. Any agreement with the author of this email must be in a signed paper document!

  As always, please consult with a trained legal professional if questions of rights or contracts are something you have to deal with, and make sure you don’t give anything away by accident. Giving things away by accident makes tiki greyhounds sad. =(

• Know what makes tiki greyhounds happy? 97% and rising.

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¹ Because nobody will appreciate a good gander at this like The Tiki Queen of the East Bay. Please note that I do not seek to challenge her for tiki collection supremacy, as she has devoted her home to tiki in a way I could never match, and that’s before you consider the contributions by both Sergio Aragones and Stan Sakai.

² Disclaimer: I provided a blurb for JW volume 2, and I happened to see Ota and Panagariya just yesterday. Feel free to read into those whatever you’d like.