The webcomics blog about webcomics

It’s A Good Day For Books

D+Q have generously made a nine-page excerpt available [click for PDF]. I got as far as the first comic (shown here) before laughing out loud.

Books, books, bookity-books!

  • Oh yes, it’s here at long last! It of course, is the long-awaited Step Aside, Pops! from the stellar Kate Beaton, and by here I mean in general release since I haven’t snagged a copy at Fleen Central yet. Nevertheless, I’m willing to give this one a big ol’ recommendation on blind faith on account of Our Kate is the most reliably funny person working in comics today. Go get it.
  • Oddly, one place that you can’t get Step Aside, Pops! is on comiXology, who announced earlier today that Drawn + Quarterly (Beaton’s publisher) is now distributing nineteen books through the e-comics platform, but I guess not on day-of-release. I went to see if D+Q had any remarks about this (aside from the canned quotes from publisher Peggy Burns in the press release), and it appears not¹.

    Anyway, the D+Q books available via comiXology at launch include work by Peter Bagge, Lynda Barry, Chester Brown, Guy Delisle, Tom Gauld, Gilbert Hernandez, Miriam Katin, Rutu Modan, Anders Nilsen, and Brian Ralph.

  • Setting what may be the world land speed record for getting a Kickstarted book designed, printed, and to backers, Matt Bors announced that Eat More Comics will definitely be at SPX (so drop him an email if you’re a backer and want to pick it up in person), that Make That Thing will be shipping immediately on receipt of their inventory, and that if you weren’t a backer, you can put in a pre-order now at TopatoCo to be shipped after the KS backers are shipped, estimated to be 5 October.

    As a reminder, the campaign closed on 12 August, 34 days ago. Books will be place in hand on Saturday, four days from now. Five and a half weeks is unheard of in Kickstartistan, a country where late deliveries in the months-to-years timeframe are not particularly rare. Kudos to Bors, The Nib associate editor Matt Lubchansky (who related stories to me of book layout and custom comic drawing), and everybody else that’s had a hand in showing what a little organization (or, more likely, frantic all-nighters) can accomplish.

  • Finally, I’ve seen it mentioned several places, but Colleen AF Venable was the first I saw to mention it, so credit to her. Noelle Stevenson’s print collection of Nimona made the longlist for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.

    Previous graphic works recognized by the NBA include American Born Chinese (finalist, YPL, 2006), and Boxers & Saints (finalist, YPL, 2003), both by Gene Luen Yang; Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? (finalist, Nonfiction 2014), although none has yet snagged the highly-respected honor. Here’s hoping Stevenson is the first, if only because the NBA could use a winner that espouse the most useful philosophy I’ve ever seen:

    I’M A SHARK AAAHH

    Frankly, I can’t think of a better message for Literature to convey to Young People.


Spam of the day:

DID YOU GET MY EMAIL?

Oh, my. “Mrs Grace Fernandez”, who really wants to give me US$20 million, is getting impatient and following up to make sure that I got the earlier spams that went straight into the trash. Gotta almost admire the thoroughness of a thief that sends follow-up messages.

I declare BOGO on Spam of the day!

Dear Valued Customer, You have a new security of Wells Fargo. please Follow the link below now to confirm your details

Wow. Wow. You know what? If I’m stupid enough to click on that hot mess, I deserve to have all my money stolen. Just … wow.

_______________
¹ Also, their website doesn’t load at all in my preferred browser — complaints about not being able to open secure transactions — and other browsers don’t let me so much as click on links without activating Flash and that ain’t happening. Great publisher, wonderful books, disappointing website.

Kate Beaton did a Q&A on Tumblr the other day. In general, the way she talks to her fans online makes me think that she is basically the best person ever. http://beatonna.tumblr.com/

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