Showtime is upon us; people heading to this weekend’s Baltimore Comic Con will be the first to find out who wins the Harvey Awards (with nominees from various field of webcomickry including but not limited to Dustin Harbin, Kate Beaton, gala host Scott Kurtz¹, and everybody that’s ever touched The Gutters). In case that doesn’t leave you awarded out, the Ignatz Awards will be handed out a few weeks later at SPX, and The Spurge² has the list of nominees; a quick perusal shows Box Brown taking multiple nominations, but honestly [web]comics and [indy]comics are pretty indistinguishable these days, so pert-near everybody on the Ignatz list is one of our tribe. Well done, everybody.

Oh, and speaking of the con this weekend, Bal’mer is home base for Super Art Fight, which promises yet another dip into supreme weirdness, plus Anamanaguchi. If you can’t make it to the Harvey Awards ceremony, this is a perfectly cromulent alternative.

• So about five minutes ago my phone spontaneously rebooted — technology, right? Anyway, I’m going to convince myself that in the couple of minutes that it was power-cycling and re-acquiring a signal, Senator Joseph Lieberman’s office was trying their darndest to get in touch with me regarding the message I left yesterday. And naturally, because things are very busy for the senator’s press office, they didn’t have time to leave a voicemail when they were unable to get through to me.

  Otherwise, I’d have to report that they haven’t yet produced a comment regarding Chad Love-Lieberman’s reasonably blatant art thievery. To see some of the artwork that this stellar example of humanity was claiming as his own, make with the clicky, and if you can identify the actual creator of any of the uncredited art, let the editors of that site know, as they want to give proper credit.

• Hey, you know who we haven’t heard from in a while? Steve Troop. I wonder if he has anything going on these days?
  

  Steve Troop wrote:
  Hi Gary!

  I guess he does!

  I started updating Melonpool again as a weekly Sunday-style strip as I move toward filming the puppet movie. So far, I’ve had 13 updates since the relaunch on May 20. My plan is to keep it as a weekly until filming is completed and then bring it back as a daily once the film is in the final editing stages — to kind of ramp up to the debut.

  Steve’s not the only webcomicker to dip his toes into movie making, but he might have been the first; Melonpool the comic, Melonpool the excuse to play with puppets, and Melonpool the movie to combine all the other Melonpools have been competing for Troop’s attention for most of the past dozen years, and the long journey for at least one of them has some ultimate destination in sight. Take a peek at his originals for sale (at a discount!) and maybe buy a few seconds worth of videotape, won’t you?

• Speaking of buying, first book jitters are something every serious webcomics creator has to confront someday; this week it’s Julie Faulkner, who launched the first collection of her gym-and-trainers themed Promises, Promises earlier this week. Starting Tomorrow is actually available today, or you could hit up Faulkner for a copy at Fan Expo (next weekend) or Word on the Street (late September), both in Toronto.

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¹ Who has publicly asked for people to vote for Kate Beaton and not himself in the Best Online Comics Work category; if he were to actually win, I look forward to hearing about an epic rant, followed by Kurtz dropping the mic and leaving the stage.

² Welcome back, Tom. Heard you’ve had a fun summer.

Oh, is it stuck in your head now? Too bad. A “friend” blackrolled me — I have to suffer, you have to suffer.

Not quite a month after close-of-submissions, the courageous Machine of Death 2 team (that would appear to be David Malki !, or at least it’s him doing the blog updates) have finished cataloguing the stories they’ve received. Here’s a hint as to why it took so long:

On the very last day submissions were open, we received more stories than the ENTIRE Vol.1 submission period.

To quantify that a little further:

[W]e received 6,373,643 words of submissions — if we published all of it, it would be longer than all the Harry Potter books and all the Lord of the Rings books and all the Song of Ice and Fire books and all of Stephen King’s Dark Tower books put together. [emphasis original]

For reference, that would require a total of 1958 submissions, with word counts ranging from 1 to 19,000 words; no conversion has yet been provided in terms of how many Mobies Dick, Wars and Peace, or Crimes and Punishment that adds up to.

In order to best serve the Machine of Death — I’m going to call it a phenomenon, for lack of a better word — Messers Malki, Bennardo, and North want to do a formal, rigorous survey of readers, but want to do it up right. If you’re experienced in such things, contact them via info, which is a mailing address at machineofdeath, a dot-net endeavor. One may also use that same point of contact if one wants to help playtest a prototype MoD card game. And finally on the MoD beat, one may use the similar submit address to enter the new MoD contest:

Write us some Fanfic Flash Fic — an ultrashort Machine of Death story in an existing pop-culture or literary setting. In honor of our friend Rosemary’s website 55 Word Stories, all submissions must be EXACTLY 55 words long. Enter up to three times. The deadline is August 30. We’ll post our favorites here on the blog next month!

There’s been a lot of discussion about women in comics — pardon me, I meant Women in Comics — of late, this latest round perhaps kicked off by DC’s stand on same, perhaps some by the just-concluded (and highly successful) Kickstarter campaign for the Womanthology¹. Something I didn’t realize about said ‘thology is that apparently the contributors aren’t being paid; from the Kickstarter page:

All money earned goes directly to printing costs and other fees such as postage of the book to all of you fine people!
[If the funding far exceeded the goal of $25,000, which by happenstance it did, by a factor of four] … my ultimate goal would be an expanded version of what this book is about. To create an organization that supports new creators and their creator-owned comics, helps fund them to complete their works, and get them out to major publishers for their chance to shine.

So, nothing about money going to the contributors of this book for work being done now. That, I suspect, is what prompted Meredith Gran to share her thoughts on how to develop and promote the careers women in comics, which is neatly encapsulated in just eight words:

Pay them. No, seriously. Pay them with money.

Exposure has been proposed more than once as a desirable thing for creative types, but as the eminently-quotable Rich Stevens has repeatedly said, People die of exposure. A quick look over my shoulder at the enormous bookshelves full of comics and graphic novels shows about a 60/40 split between the genders overall (favoring males), but interestingly that ratio reverses if you count only original, creator-owned properties.

Because I, and others, have paid these creators in money and not exposure, they’ve had the luxury of time to develop and hone their craft (along with the gift of deadlines, forcing them to learn not just to be good, but good and fast). Read Gran’s entire essay (really, it almost counts as more of a manifesto) and see if that core argument is anything but a fundamental truth. Bonus for those of you still not convinced that women can make comics: it works for creators of all genders.

• Here’s a happy thought about another creator that you can pay with money: Scott C[ampbell] has a new book coming out. And this time, it’s an art collection! Seeing as how I’ve only ever been lucky enough to attend one of his art shows, much of what’s contained in the forthcoming AMAZING EVERYTHING: the art of scott c is likely to be completely new. It’s set to debut at APE, 1-2 October, but you can pre-order it now. In Campbell’s words, the book will contain:
  • King of Kong
  • Zombie Fair
  • Home Slices
  • Cute Hunter
  • Building with the Bowies
  • Ninjas All Over The Place
  • Some rainbows and clouds
  • Great Great Grandshow inventors
  • Cliff Ogres
  • The Cutest Thing Ever
  • Tanks
  • Some drawings
  • Selections from my elementary school career

  I am looking forward to this like you can’t imagine.

• Finally, some guys that just might have enough money, but what the heck, pay them some anyway: the long-rumored collaboration/second webcomic from Mike Krahulik & Jerry Holkins and Scott Kurtz has come to fruition. The Trenches hints at the possibility of filthy continuity, one (1) update that hints at a sharp comic sensibility, and an absolutely gorgeous website design. Seriously, that stitching-on-fabric motif is really pretty.

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¹ I hate that name.

For starters, let me point out the Birthday Boys of Webcomics, Rick Marshall¹ (today) and Aaron Diaz² (tomorrow). You would be hard pressed to find two guys more in love with comics, more devoted to finding good examples of same, or more dedicated to improving their own skills within their respective roles (reviewer/promoter, writer/illustrator/teacher). Happy birthday, guys, I owe each of you a beer.

Pretty things for you to see, some of which I’m recommending purely on the basis of their creators’ past work:

• Rebecca Clements did a 24 hour comic, and it’s available for your purchase. Come Inside My Body is a choose-your-own adventure tour to the insides of Clements³. Her whimsical, Seussian style is ideal for what might otherwise be an unending parade of horrors, since let’s face it — our insides are pretty awful, disgusting bags of glop. Bonus points if you can tell which pages were done during the onset of no-sleep madness.
• Also on the recommended sight-unseen list, Tyson Hesse has a Kickerstarter campaign up, to support print versions of his Boxer Hockey and Diesel projects. There’s lots of price points with small incremental dollar amounts, with tangible dead-tree product available down to the $15 level.

  Guys, if you’re not familiar with Hesse, what you need to know is that he has a command of color that’s mindblowing. Check out his posters if you don’t believe me. That one guy working alone can produce work this pretty (and that printing technology is advanced enough that it can be produced without the need for a monastery full of illuminators) is surely proof that we live in the future.

• Recommended sight-seen: I’ve long been a fan of Tyler Page’s Nothing Better — it just reads so honestly that you could almost think that you were reminiscing about your own experiences, not reading about people that are totally made up and not real. Page is now turning that eye for verisimilitude to somebody that is real and not made up — himself, in the just-released first chapter of a full graphic novel titled Raised on Ritalin.

  Part memoir, part exploration of ADD/ADHD and the medicines prescribed to treat it, it’s eventually going to be a full book, but for now you can get a taste of what’s to come. So far it’s unsparing, uncompromising, and promises to read like a combo platter of Tracy White’s How I Made It To Eighteen and the psychiatric/science comics of Daryl Cunningham.

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¹ Will, and Holly.

² Who may need a new nickname, seeing as how the only reason he doesn’t have a promised update today is that he had to run off a pack of four would-be muggers yesterday. The Latin Art-Throb sounds great, but what do you all think about The Punkbuster?

³ She already did the ladyparts previously, so don’t expect a guided tour this time around. KLARBLARG, indeed.

Is The Untouchables the right visual reference, do you think? Might it be better to go with The Right Stuff? In any event, Messers Green, Hussie, Rowland, Jacques, and Stevens look like a band, and the article that the photo is attached to is better than average¹ for a newspaper story on webcomics. Nice job on the title of the piece — The New Webcomic Entrepreneurs — as that’s really the important thing about our community.

It’s not the fact that comics end up on the web, it’s that the people that put them up are in charge of the business aspects of what they do (or, as Randy Milholland mentioned in an unrelated tweet yesterday, I am a small business). The only thing I noticed that was kinda weird — the author of the article talked to five creators and mentioned two others by name, but none of them were ladies? Like I said — weird.²

• Speaking of entrepreneurship, got an email from Darren “Dern” Gendron, regarding a Kickstarting of a product niche I can’t say I’ve noticed before in webcomickry: board games. Sure, there’s some card games out there (most recently with respect to the Axe Cop³ supplement to Munchkin), but I don’t recall any board games. Scury Dogs: Pirates and Privateers looks to fill that gap, assuming that the rather more complex production issues of a board game (compared to a card game) can be overcome with the rather larger necessary budget.

  As of this writing, about $3600 of the necessary 20 grand have been raised, with just over a month to go. If you like boardgames but find that you’re getting bored with Catan⁴, take a look at the gameplay description that Gendron has at the Kickstarter page and maybe kick in some booty fer the cause.

• Newly noticed: The Chairs’ Hiatus by Matthew Bogart; it’s the story of a band, or what used to be a band. It kind of fell apart, and the members drifted away and have been living in various states of quietude and isolation. Now they’re meeting again face to face and remembering what they had, what they missed, why they got so angry, and what could possibly be forgiven. It updates somewhat irregularly, a half-dozen or so screensworth at a time, in tall, continuous-reading chapters (30 or more screens to the chapter, we’re a good way through the third chapter now).

  There’s not the “punch” you get on every page, but since multiple pages go up in each update, and the story is explicitly designed to be read in longform, that’s not really a shortcoming. The art is nicely composed, and the faces are simple enough to make reader identification with the characters extremely simple. I like this one, and I’ll be checking it irregularly, because I want to read big chunks of story, just like it was meant to be read.

• Did I mention that Digger volume 6 was available for purchase? Because it totally is, and given that the strip wrapped back in March, this is the last time I’ll get to tell you “New Digger volume available in exchange for money, you guys!” More to the point, two waves of signed copies will be put up for sale on 6 August, half of them at 6:00am and half at 6:00pm (GMT-5). Since none of my Digger copies is signed I’m not going to fight you for one; someday though, I will be in the same place as Ursula Vernon, and all six of my books will be there, and I will get signatures and or sketches, yes! Yes, I will!⁵

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¹ Although the dismissive parenthetical that “the name says it all” in reference to MS Paint Adventures? Very, very lazy.

² One possible explanation — all of the creators in the article live in Massachusetts except Randy Milholland, and he has a history of having lived there, so maybe that’s it?

³ Speaking of Axe Cop, let this serve as a reminder that tomorrow Axe Cop co-creator (elder half) Ethan Nicolle launches his second webcomic, BEARMAGEDDON. Not sure entirely what it’s about (bears, I’m guessing), but I have a feeling that somebody should alert Stephen Colbert.

⁴ Oh god that pun was completely unintentional, I’m so sorry. It’s all Brad Guigar’s fault.

⁵ For added effect, read that last bit in the voice of the deranged and highly-amusing Marlon Fraggle.

I received some books from some creators for review in the past couple of days, and here is what I think of them.

• First up, Runtime Error, the first Not Invented Here collection from Paul Southworth & Bill Barnes; this one caught me by surprise. Oh, not that the book was out, or the content — I read NIH four times a week as it comes out — but by how what I had been reading as four gags per week leads to mini story arc, no real interconnectedness strip actually turned out to be an overall arc linking everything strip. Desmond and Owen sprang onto page one, strip one fairly fully formed (yea, like unto Athena emerging from the brow of Zeus), but the entire rest of the strip evolved around them in a way that was much more planned than I originally noticed.

  Reading through 18 months of strips in one go, what I originally took for callbacks now seem more deliberately planned story beats, just waiting for the right time to reveal themselves. The characters and situations Barnes has pulled from his own experiences in the IT trenches will seem familiar (and somehow less annoying than their real-life counterparts) to anybody that’s spent time in the tech industry. Southworth’s clean, assured, cartoony designs tell you everything you need to know about the characters even when they’re silent. Damn good work from creators for whom good work is second nature.

• Secondly, we have Bacon’s Not A Food, It’s A Lifestyle, the second collection of Calamities of Nature by Tony Piro. Despite doing regular browse-by reads of CoN, I somehow never realized that Piro is a physicist by training, although it does make many of his strips make more sense. These are older CoNtributions, from 2008 and 2009, which leads to a few dated references, but as Aaron, Alp, Harold, and Ferd (joined halfway through by Raymond) mostly exist in a timeless space, these are pretty few and far between.

  Judging from a quick scan of the site, Piro’s more likely to put topical/technical strips into the hands of generic non-cast members or diagrams (and those that he leaves with the core cast aren’t quite so time-and-space specific), so that’s not so likely to be an issue when volume 3 comes out. IN the meantime, CoN features a strong, consistent visual style, with a sharp, character POV-driven humor, and occasional forays into impenetrable truths that are the funniest CoNtents¹.

• Thirdly, from across the ocean-sea², Good Ideas and Bad Decisions the second collection of Beardfluff by Rembrand Le Compte. I’ll confess that I hadn’t been aware of Beardfluff before Le Compte emailed to ask if he could send me a book, an oversight that I should be ashamed of. This is a journal comic (which has about as much in common with Le Compte’s actual life as Overcompensating has to Jeffrey Rowland’s) that has, as a major recurring character, a sentient floating beard with a sweet moustache. Clearly, this is a strip that was made for me.

  Weirdness and facial hair aside, Le Compte has a style that’s part ligne claire, part Perry Bible Fellowship, and part the result of Belgium’s most beloved industry. These comics are from May 2010 to May 2011, making these the fourth and fifth years of Beardfluff — time enough for Le Compte to grow from a decent cartoonist to one with a much more assured and darker sense of humor, as well as a refined visual aesthetic³.

  Quick note: a production error apparently caused one strip to go missing — it’s in author’s notes in the back of the book, but doesn’t actually appear. Relatively speaking, it’s not one of the stronger strips, so if suicidal pigeons not being included means we get beardy Batman or Edwin the Furry Gnome, that’s a tradeoff I can live with. I’m going to keep Beardfluff in my regular trawl list, and thank Le Compte for sending his book; it’s really enjoyable.

• Lastly, not a review, but a quick note that Gordon McAlpin’s (my ex-nemesis) first Multiplex collection, Enjoy Your Show, has made it into the local comic shop channel. At least, there were copies on the shelf at Midtown yesterday, and it’s a handsome, heavy-in-the=hand, richly-colored book. Pick one up for yourself or a loved one today.

Edit to add: Oh man you guys, I can’t believe I forgot to include this fact — the envelope that Rembrand Le Compte sent his book to me in was covered (as you might expect) with Belgian postage stamps. One stamp managed to picture both the Atomium and the Manneken-Pis. All that needs to be added to that stamp to completely embody Brussels is the Blake et Mortimer mural. I came across that beauty completely by accident when visiting Brussels, and it put me in a good mood for the rest of the day.

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¹ I can never think of Eleanor Roosevelt the same way again.

² Specifically, Ghent, Belgium, home to one of the most badass castles I’ve ever seen; from across the water, it seems entirely designed to look as sinister and oppressive as possible, reminding the locales exactly which foreign princes were in charge and don’t you forget it. Then again, my mind was still kind of blown from staring at the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb for a couple hours, so maybe I was just projecting the menace a little. Still, great town.

³ Also in those four years? Sweet beard.

Do you like things? Do you plan to be around in the future? If so, you may enjoy these things which are Coming Soon!

• Coming so Soon that’s it’s actually already out, the Cloudscape Comics Society has been doing a series of really good anthologies and the latest one, 21 Journeys is now available at ecRATER. Vanessa Kelly at Cloudscape was kind enough to send me a PDF for review, and there’s some damn good work inside — what struck me most is that more than any anthology I’ve seen recently (with the possible exception of the final Flight volume), each story in 21 Journeys feels entirely in sync with the theme, but also distinct and reflective of the creator’s own unique voice. Outstanding work, well worth your time.
• Coming Soon to an RSS feed near you, Kris Straub will be following up the late, lamented Tweet Me Harder with a new podcast on the theory and practice of humor: The Humor Authority doesn’t have a launch date yet, but Mr Straub has never been one for delay when he sets his sights on a goal, so listen to the teaser¹ and be prepared for the forthcoming discussion.
• Coming as Soon as you like: your contribution to Buckonet, the crowdsourced site² helping the search for one Richard “Bucko” Richardson. You do know about Bucko, the dick-n-fart-joke murder mystery by Jeff Parker and Erika Moen? He’s run off in terror and the wiki is coordinating the search. If you see Mr Richardson, he is freaked out on absinthe and in fear of life, so report those sightings.
• Coming so Soon it’ll be here before you know it: not one, but two new Box Brown comics. On the one hand, you gots the new issue of Everything Dies, with an innovative “pay what you can afford” mechanism. On the other, Blank Slate Books will be releasing Brown’s newest original project, The Survivalist, in October. One of Brown’s strengths is to find people that he utterly disagrees with (cf: any of the modern stories from Everything Dies), research the hell out of their beliefs, and present them as fairly as he possibly can. Where he criticizes, it’s based on their words, logical, and not personal. I have to believe that this approach will carry through to his story of a paranoid conspiracy buff (who just happens to be right), and I’m looking forward to reading it.
• Coming … well, not that Soon, really, but worth putting on your calendar: the next graphic novel by Raina Telgemeier will be titled Drama, regarding middle school theater geeks, and be out in a bit more than a year. Countdown starts now.

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¹ Warning for those with delicate sensibilities: there is mild smack talk directed at EB White towards the end of this audio clip.

² I love these reader-driven projects, from the history of The Great Outdoor Fight (seemingly throwing some code errors right now) to the history of The Elemenstor Saga.

Even though I won’t be there for Preview Night, which kicks off in a few hours; even though time zones mean you’ll hear probably everything I do sooner than I can write it up, there’s still lots to talk about.

• For starters, Frank ‘n’ Becky are doing a for-real Little Golden Book! It won’t be out until next year, but this is the perfect followup to their LGB homage last year. Not only that, but if you go by their booth, you can see the sculpt for their first (forthcoming) vinyl figure, and maybe tell me what it is! And you can pick up the art book collected volume of Becky’s video game mural.
• Jim Zub would like you to know that the twelfth issue of his very funny sword-and-asskickery comic book, Skullkickers, will feature stories written by some of webcomics finest. Or at least Zach Weiner and My Evil Twin. In all seriousness (which really isn’t appropriate for Skullkickers, but whatever), the book is very funny, the five issue story arcs are just long enough to develop a plot without bogging down or losing the possibility of new readers, and taking a one-issue break after the arc to let creative friends play in your sandbox is a terrific idea. Make sure to pick it up (issue #9 is due in a few weeks, so look for this one in November or so.
• From funny comic to PZ Meyer-linked meme to handsome print in four days. Tony Piro hit one of those lightning-in-a-bottle moments since last Friday.
• Re: Today’s Sinfest; no reason, I just thought it was adorable.

Where to start, where to start? With the announcement of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s new book, Seconds? Or with pictures of Kate Beaton’s D&Q offering, which is either enjoyed by very small people or is a giant book? Or perhaps about the hot, new game that’s sweeping SDCC, courtesy of Marshall Willenholly? Or heck, why not the book trailer for Amulet 4, due this fall from Kazu Kibuishi?

• Okay, how about here — a couple of weeks ago, Chris Sims (professional Batmanologist and surprisingly astute analyst of pressing issues in comics) wrote a piece about how DC and Marvel should adopt aspects of webcomics. In reaction, a bunch of creators talked about what they’d pitch to the Big Two for ongoing, daily, fun-chuckles. Webcomickers invited to the party included Brad “The PUNisher” Guigar, Curt Franklin, Justin Pierce¹, Lucy Knisley, Shaenon Garrity, and the if-he-stops-comicking-he-dies Ryan Estrada². Each of these pitches that doesn’t happen is a wasted opportunity on par with Lois Lane, Girl Reporter.
• A couple of days ago, David Malki ! was “kind” enough to share an earworm with the world on Twitter (DO NOT CLICK HERE if you don’t want it to be stuck in your brain all day), so now I’m going to return the favor. David, check out what Kris Straub is doing in the current Starslip storyline. Now you have the Dick Wolf cash register sound³ in your head and can’t get rid of it! Ha ha, my evil plan worked!
• Last notes. Readers of this page may recall the name Øyvind Thorsby, who does webcomics that are funny, make creative use of space (click through the next dozen or so strips), and are (to be kind) populated with enormous heads. Thorsby dropped me a note that I wanted to share:
  

  Remember me? My latest comic is The Accidental Space Spy. It’s reached 100 strips. First strip here.

  Not remember somebody with maybe the metal-est name this side of Toki Wartooth? Heaven forfend! Anyhoo, the “space” in The Accidental Space Spy refers to the “outer variety with galaxies and aliens and things”, not the “let’s get creative with all the dimensions and mess with the readers heads” type (again, funny, make follow the link and click through to the end of the chapter). Thorsby’s line is thicker, smoother, and more assured, and the heads have settled on a size that’s less “disturbing” and more “quirky”. I’m going to enjoy catching up with this one.

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¹ Just give him Wonder Woman and let him write it like Wonderella; can’t be worse than most of what WW’s been subjected to for most of 70 years.

² Much like sharks must keep swimming in order to breathe.

³ Credit for that term must go to Richard Belzer. Also, be glad I gave you a link that doesn’t repeat the sound a bunch of times — after a half-dozen or so, a certain hypnotic insanity is known to occur in up to 19% of the population.

You get more weird PR in the run-up to a major show — just now I received some promising something called ShatnerPalooza¹ to be taking place at San Diego Comic Con, which has me still shaking my head in mute amazement. Meanwhile, nearly everybody I know in webcomics is in a flying metal tube heading to SoCal (or at least trying to). We’ll just watch the Twitterstorm and Google-plusery happen at a remove, you and I, and pretend that we were there with the cool people.

In the meantime, please enjoy the following seminews:

• What with travelling most of Friday and all, I’m assuming that everybody’s seen the notification that the Xeric Foundation is essentially wrapping up its program of grants to get indy comics printed? Because webcomics, that’s why:
  

  The advent of essentially free web publishing has forever altered the way aspiring comic book creators can get their work out into the public eye. With this in mind, I have decided that it makes sense that the Xeric Foundation will no longer provide grants to self-publishing comic book creators, and instead devote all of its available grants funds to charitable organizations.

  There will still be one last grant-making cycle, though — to let everybody put together their best work, the usual November review will be skipped, making May 2012 the last-ever chance to apply for a Xeric grant. If you wanted bragging rights, now’s the time to get the proposal whipped into shape.

• Dated last week, but announced today: Joey Comeau and Jess Fink, neither of whom should be left unsupervised for obvious reasons, have joined forces. Be afraid, but also be prepared to enjoy the crap out of We Are Become Pals!, words by Joey and pictures by Jess.
• Rhetorical question for the philosophically-minded amongst you — is it blasphemy to merely repeat what a holy book actually says? How about if it’s illustrated … with Lego? The Brick Testament has been getting its first full book together, and pre-orders are open now (from regular vendors, not so much from BT’s own shop). My first piece of advice: get ready to purchase this book. My second piece of advice: given the bankruptcy court review going as I am writing this, you probably don’t want to order from Borders.

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¹ And I quote:

The centerpiece of “SHATNERPALOOZA” will be the World Premiere of The Captains – an Epix Original Documentary produced and directed by William Shatner. In The Captains, he travels the world to connect with each of the actors who have played Captains over the long life of the Star Trek franchise. Shatner recalls his own experiences in the role that made him a star by interviewing Patrick Stewart, Kate Mulgrew, Scott Bakula, Avery Brooks and Chris Pine while interweaving clips from their respective shows and movies.

Shatner. Interviewing. My head just exploded.