I think we’re lacking a unifying theme today; let’s just mention stuffs that caught my eye.

• Christopher Butcher — manager of one of the best comic shops on the planet, importer of otherwise-unknown Japanese creators and creations, showrunner of TCAF, self-confessed Canadian, and all-around stellar gentleman — has a treat for us. Not being content with having one kick-ass show poster for this year’s TCAF (by the always delightful Kate Beaton¹), Butcher has announced a second kick-ass show poster by Kazu Kibuishi. Like much of Kibuishi’s work, it’s a mix of Moebius and Miyazaki and it’s gorgeous.

  And, as it turns out, Butcher’s plans originally called for a third show poster, but Fate intervened:

  Unfortunately due to scheduling conflicts our friend Chip Zdarsky won’t be able to produce a planned third poster for TCAF this year.

  This is either a tragedy or a lucky break, or possibly both simultaneously.

• Fresh off of this year’s Emerald City Comicon, some advice for newbie exhibitors from Dylan Meconis, who only wants the best for you. In this case, handy advice about how to set up your table so that people will want to give you money, in one handy diagram. On any other day, Meconis’s pictogrpahic would have been the header image for the day, but Kibuishi has to take that crown today. For your convenience, we have it here for your clicking pleasure; I’ve been around a lot of booths in my day, but the standing mat is always something I forget² about, so it’s helpful even to non-newbies. Thank you, Dylan!
• From the Pingback Desk, we at Fleen see that Morgan Wick has his own take on Homestuck’s up-wrapping, one that is significantly different from ours. Hardly a surprise in that Wick set out to do what perhaps no other writer on webcomics has done: follow and review Homestuck, as long as that would take. I can’t speak to the mind of Homestucks (the uberfans) on the ending of Homestuck (the cultural object) with anything near the authority that Wicks can, as he followed the story through twists, turns, fits, and starts; he has a distinctly different perspective on the meaning of the story — and especially the ending — will have for the long-time reader.

  I can say that it will definitely be remembered as a formative influence on those long-time readers (you pretty much can’t pull down a hefty fraction of a million words and not have it rub off on you), whether they were satisfied with the ending or no. For those now in their teens or early twenties who followed along, it will certainly be as influential as the original Star Wars trilogy was for me³.

  I can also say that Wicks’s assertions notwithstanding, I am neither from Highgarden nor a manufacturer of replicants. Tyrrell has two Rs, dammit!

• Is Randall Munroe the first webcomicker to get name-dropped by the President of the United States? Certainly the first one to do so in person at the friggin’ White House, during remarks about the annual White House Science Fair. Completely and utterly without any sarcasm — Thanks, Obama!

Spam of the day:

Wireless Security Cameras

Would those be the same wireless security cameras whose Internet of Things chips are so insecure that there are websites that now let you stream images of the inside of other people’s homes any time you want? Pass.

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¹ Chronicler of her mom, dad, ponies, and babies, and nemesis of stupid superheroine costumes.

² Your convention center will likely have a concrete floor, and even those with carpeting will not have very thick cushioning underneath.

³ Or, let’s be honest, WKRP in Cincinnati; the Thanksgiving episode is probably the single most important half-hour of culture in my life.