Yesterday saw the announcement of not one, but two webcomics book collections that will debut at TCAF; the creators will be there, smiling for two days while undoubtedly selling out of their stash of readables, so I’d advise against waiting until end of day Sunday to make your purchases.

• First up: Chester 5000 XYV, the super-sexy, nearly wordless Victorian smutparty (and I mean that in the bestest way possible) from Jess Fink. A year and a half ago, it was announced that Top Shelf were picking up Chaz and friends, then a looong time went by before the release date got locked down. What wasn’t known before: it’s a hardcover! A shiny, shiny hardcover. Obligatory disclaimer: Chester contains numerous, clear, totally hot depictions of wang and lady-bits, frequently meeting each other to great, sweaty effect. It’s getting warm in here.
• Also coming out yesterday: the new Dr McNinja collection (originally slated for June release, then 18 May) is now set to drop in Toronto, and go on general sale on 11 May. Christopher Hastings is having a few site problems right now, so I can’t show you a picture from the bonus story (by Benito Cereno and Les McClaine) that Hastings has been waiting to show the world for an entire year. Let’s just say it features the entire McNinja clan driving heavily armed snowmobiles, with the exception of Doc’s sidekick, Gordito. Gordito, as always is riding his faithful ‘raptor, Yoshi — and Yoshi is driving a heavily armed snowmobile. The next twelve days cannot pass quickly enough.

Fleen congratulates Hastings and Fink¹, and encourages all attendees of TCAF to buy so many of their books. Buy them so that Fink and Hastings have to worry if they need to explain to US Customs why they’re carrying so much cash money into the country.

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¹ It is a rare treat to be able to write about Fink and not have to mention whichever lowlife is stealing one of her designs this week. The countdown to the Todd Goldman “accidental” release a Chesteresque design starts now.

What with the big stage show last night off his plate, David Malki ! ran the risk of having free time, so it only makes sense to announce that Machine of Death 2 is in the works.

What with the guy in charge making Sailor Twain and hosting Zahra’s Paradise, :01 are now even more fully in the webcomics biz.

The sparse net access that I had yesterday would go away, leaving my tapping at my phone to post.

Many things today:

• The Hugo Award nominations are out and as expected, Schlock Mercenary (by Howard Tayler, aka my evil twin) and Girl Genius (by Phil and Kaja Foglio aka the most charming people in the world) both have print collections up for Best Graphic Story. It’s worth noting that Tayler is also nominated in the Best Related Work catgory for Writing Excuses, a podcast that he produces with Brandon Sanderson and Dan Wells.

  Rounding out the webcomics-related activity, Randall Munroe has been nominated as Best Fan Artist, which seems an odd fit, but it’s apparently been a category with a history of odd fits so that’s all right. Those with memberships (excepting the “Child” category) to the World Science Fiction Convention (this year in the form of Renovation in Reno Nevada) are entitled to vote on the winners, to be presented in August. Fleen congratulates the webcomicky nominees.

• Blank Label gets a little larger today as Gordon McAlpin (aka my sporting bet nemesis) brings Multiplex into the fold. In terms of visual style, storytelling style, and update schedule, this seems like a nice, complementary fit for BLC’s current members, Kel McDonald, Spike, and David Willis. Welcome aboard, Gordon.
• I see on my regularly-consulted 2011 edition of the Wondermark calendar that today marks the 8th birthday of Wondermark. One wonders if such an odd confluence of inputs — Victorian era woodcut art, David Malki !’s persistently clever wordplay (with the occasional foray into sac ants for variety), and a sense of go-for-broke creativity — could have been predicted to persist for so long and to have birthed opportunities for so many side projects. Curiously, no mention of this milestone appears on the Wondermark site, presumably because Malki ! is too busy putting together the last elements of tomorrow’s Machine of Death Live Stage Spectacular.
• We’re down to less than three hours until the second set of Chris Yates original webcomics-series Baffler! puzzles go on sale. This week’s haul includes an adorable kitty by Becky Dreistadt, ninjas by Sam Logan, and entirely SFW Chester by Jess Fink, a leapin’ McPedro by Danielle Corsetto, a typically bulgy-eyed pug by Dave Kellett, a pixel T-Rex by Ryan North, and an all-business Sheriff Pony by Jeff Rowland, all of which may be seen here. My favorite part? The cactus-shaped piece (a Yates trademark) in the McPedro puzzle. They go on sale today at 4:00pm Mountain Time (UTC-6) at the Baffler! store.
• Pre-orders are up for Zach Weiner’s first SMBC collection, Save Yourself, Mammal!. Given more than 2000 strips in the SMBC archive and this being the first collection of said strips, it’s of necessity taking a best-of approach. Which means that you’ll find no eh, it was okay strips included just because they fell in the same week as a couple of real rib-ticklers (the non-continuity aspects of SMBC make this fairly easy to do).

  As previously noted, 100% of the profits from SY,M will go to Donors Choose to fund classrooms across the US and help support the development of the next generation of tech nerds; what I didn’t see mention of before is that the book is being released under a Creative Commons license (specifically, Noncommercial 3.0 Unported), and that given the books have to be ready for the launch party in just under two weeks, your pre-ordered copy should ship starting a mere two weeks from today. All hail Weiner and the mad geniuses behind breadpig, because they know how to get things done.

Logistical note: work will, for the next couple of days, take me to the premises of a large financial institution that shall remain nameless¹ and which will provide me no net access aside from what I eke out on my phone. Minimal, severely delayed, or entirely absent updates are anticipated, and we at Fleen thank you in advance for your patience.

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¹ But the name rhymes with scold man; snacks, which sounds like notes that could be expanded into a pretty interesting update in a story-oriented comic, possibly Skin Horse.

Holiday weekend for some. Short day at work for others. Last day before weekend EMT duty for me. Let’s do this.

• Advance notice: John Allison has a holiday week coming up, and might like to feature the work of talented, less-known webcomickers at Bad Machinëry. Send him an offer (but please, no finished artwork) via the electronical mail addressing system designated john at the domain scary go round, which is a dot-com, with the subject line “strong>Better Than The Breeze Through The Twigs.
• Short notice: Super Art Fight, like the doom-proclaiming supervillain in a capes-and-punching comic, returns once more to wreak havoc. Those of you in Charm City can drop by The Ottobar (aka the villain’s secret volcano lair) tonight to get in on all the shenanigans. Doors at 9:00pm, show at 9:30, twelve bucks to get in and enjoy the mayhem.
• I spent some time yesterday telling you at length why Anya’s Ghost is the best comic of 2011. What I didn’t tell you is that the good folks at :01 were also kind enough to drop me an advanced copy of Level Up by Gene Luen Yang (words) and Thien Pham (pictures). Spoilers ahead, y’all.

  Appropriately enough for a book that concerns the education of its protagonist at length, both Pham and Yang teach high school when not making comics. Also in the amazing coincidences department, Yang and Pham dedicated Level Up to their brothers, both of whom work in medicine and thus fulfill the role of “good Asian sons”.

  And that’s what the book is really about — expectations placed on Dennis Ouyang from a young age to be a good son, to “eat bitterness” and become the doctor he is expected to be. Expectations that stand in stark contrast to his entirely ordinary kid desires to play Nintendo, desires he puts to the sides as he is expected to, until his father dies of the same disease that felled his own father. Dennis discards the expectations and falls into the videogames he denied himself and doesn’t surface for another three years.

  That’s when things get weird. Having discarded one life for another, Dennis careens back and forth between the extremes of games and medicine, each time he rejects one for the other he loses one of his lives in the metaphorical videogame that is his life. It’s only when he runs out of lives and opts to Play Again? that he realizes you can’t live your life solely for yourself, nor solely to the expectations of others. The realization comes after a reveal as to the true nature of the (rather bossy and obnoxious) angels that have been herding him towards his destiny, angels that might be a psychological manifestation of guilt, but might be real.

  Much like Yang’s American Born Chinese, Level Up is all about the experience of growing up Asian in America, but this time it’s less about the expectations of society and the struggle to fit in around the casual (and not-so-casual racism) found there, and almost entirely about family and the expectations that originate within the walls of home. It’s thoughtful, it’s revealing, and it’s got a lesson that every YA reader should take to heart. Also, it’s got the rarest of all things — an extended, non-gratuitous poop gag. Kids are gonna love it, and adults will see things that escape the younger readers. Level Up releases on 7 June, is a quick-reading 160 pages, and comes highly recommended.

For those of you that are in a hurry, I’m going to lead with a tweet I wrote immediately after finishing Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol:

Just finished “Anya’s Ghost” by @verabee & about to read it again. Going to preemptively declare it the best comic of 2011 now.

Not that I was surprised by how much I loved the book; everybody that’s received an advance copy and written or blogged or spoken about it has raved, and when I saw display copies on the :01 Books table at MoCCA Festival, I had to force myself not to pick one up because I knew that I would turn into a booth barnacle, unable to put it down until I’d read it cover to cover. Gina Gagliano at :01 was kind enough to set me up with my own advance copy, which proved my suspicions about the depths of my monofocus were correct. I’ve read this book cover to cover four times in the last 18 hours; it’s just that good.

For those of you that want more than that, read on but be aware: these be spoilery waters. Actually, I’m going to try to keep the plot details to a minimum, because this book deserves to be read with all of its twists and turns intact, but there is an obvious place to start, right on the cover: there is Anya, and there is a ghost — not the ghost of Anya (who is very much alive), but a ghost that decides to hang around Anya. The relationship between the two is one of the core elements of the story, and it shifts in fits and starts (just as relationships do, particularly when you are a teenager and That Way About Things).

But Gary, I hear you cry, I thought you said you would try to minimize spoilers, and now you’re telling us what Anya’s like! No spoilers there — just go back and look at the cover again, and tell me that Brosgol hasn’t distilled the very essence of the disaffected teen into so very few, very simple lines. The slightly slumped posture, the grumptacular shape of the mouth, the affectedly world-weary eyes all convey everything you need to know about Anya (namely, that you already feel sympathy for her mom, and that if Anya ever grows out of this stage she will look back at this part of her youth and cringe).

Now take a look at Anya’s Ghost (she gets a name later, don’t worry) and the contrast in character that’s evident — smiling, one finger up to the mouth conveying some sense of minor mischief or coquettishness, but fundamentally light-hearted and free as much as Anya is heavy and burdened by life.

Except you know from looking at Anya that her burdens aren’t as severe as she thinks they are, and if her outward appearance is quite reflective of reality, what differences might there be between how Anya’s Ghost appears and what she actually is? Mischief comes in many degrees, after all, and ghosts tend to hang around because there’s something they can’t let go of. They want something badly enough to transgress the usual way of things, and having those wants frustrated for how many years before you die, and then how many more afterwards? That requires a determination that few can stand against. The cover image speaks of the battle of wills (and will-nots) that’s brewing in a New England suburb.

(It should be noted here that apart from the incredibly evocative art that Brosgol supplied for the cover, the physical book cover — by the incomparably talented Colleen AF Venable, of whom this page has spoken numerous times — is a thing of beauty. The lines depicting Anya’s Ghost are embossed on the cover, giving a physical reality to her insubstantial existence, and interestingly a physical reality defined by absence. The letterforms that spell out the words Anya’s Ghost are debossed, rising up above the surface of the rest of cover, leaving Anya herself behind and intruding into the reader’s space. The use of layers here echoes the layers of the stories that Anya finds herself navigating and it’s a brilliant design.)

Let’s share one more bit of artwork from the book — this is from the inside front cover, and it’s a damn good example of how well Brosgol can reveal a character’s mood and inner thoughts without using a word. I was particularly drawn to the eyes, and how much can be conveyed by those circles and a few incidental lines. Heck, for most of the book, Anya’s Ghost doesn’t even have pupils, but she’s convincingly portrayed across a range of moods from “innocently needy” to “murderous rage”.

That spectrum of different personalities applies to pretty much all of the characters, whether its “self-absorbed” to “maturing as the result of bad decisions”, “nerdy and annoying” to “I was like you”, “object of aspirational crush” to “what a jerk”, and “why are we friends” to “why are we friends after not being friends for a bit”. The progressions feel natural, unforced, and less the result of changes in the characters than the result of peeling away layers and looking a little deeper.

The only thing about looking a little deeper? Sometimes what we find isn’t pleasant, and sometimes the difference between a ghost (that wants what it wants and will do whatever is necessary to achieve its wants) and the person that ghost used to be is little more than a pulse and a bit of solidity. Surfaces don’t always reflect depths, and learning that lesson turns out to be more important to Anya than all the biology exams and physical-fitness evaluations in gym class. Luckily, most of us learn those lessons with fewer supernatural threats than Anya has to deal with.

So here we are, nearly 1000 words into this thing, and I still haven’t said anything yet about the wicked sense of humor that Brosgol brings to the story¹, about the chill you’ll get down your spine when you see the Crazy Eyes, the little details in Anya’s Russian immigrant home life that make her feel so fleshed-out, or the painfully real path that Anya navigates as a modern teenage girl dealing with social pressures and body issues. I could go on for another 1000 words and still not address these adequately, so let’s just finish up with the facts: Anya’s Ghost goes on sale on 7 June. It is 224 pages long, was written and drawn by Vera Brosgol, and is the best comics work of 2011.

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¹ Those unfamiliar with how sharp Brosgol’s humor can be are encouraged to watch her animated short, Snow-bo.

There are some webcomics books that I should like to commend to your attention. I also have a couple of non-webcomics books (at least, not directly webcomics books, but by creators with webcomics in their histories) that I will be commending to your attention at some length in the coming days. Oh yes, I shall.

• If you are like me, then you enjoy little in this life as much as the work of John Allison. Bad Machinëry (I do like the look of the children’s adventure story books denoting the chapters) is a delight, and the earlier Scary Go Round was an integral part of my daily entertainments. It’s over, it’s done, but even Allison can’t resist revisiting logical story hooks, thus last year he took a peek back in time as “Dark” Esther de Groot went to university and encountered an entrenched power structure that can only be dealt with by punchings. It is mathematically equivalent to awesome, and it is now available in non-electric form for a piddling £4 plus shipping. Actually, I’m not sure that four bob is piddling, what with the US dollar tanking and all. Ah, hell, in for a pound, in for more pounds, because you can personalize for another eight quid.
• As long as you’re breaking out the plastic, may I recommend you save some for the forthcoming new edition of Rice Boy? It’s been sold out for some little time now, but Evan Dahm’s Kickstarter to fund the new printing has achieved approximately 250% of goal (with three days left to go); per Dahm’s twitterfeed, the excess funds raised means that the new printing will number 3000 books, instead of the 1000 in the first printing. For those that enjoy the finer things (or those that already own Rice Boy and are obsessive completists), there will be a first-ever hardcover edition, in a limited run of 200 books.
• Know what else today needs? An anthology. The Couscous Collective put out the FOREST themed volume (their first) at APE), and they’re following it up with the SPACE themed volume, which launched last weekend at Stumptown. For those of you that might fondly recall Narbonic, Shaenon Garrity (Radness Queen of the East Bay) has included the first original Narbonic in five years. For those that like to plan ahead, the next Couscous collection will be on the theme of OCEAN, and will continue the twice-a-year, APE-and-SPX schedule.
• Not book, but worth mentioning: anybody that had doubted that Robert Khoo had managed to whip Penny Arcade into a real business, consider the most recently-announced Child’s Play fundraiser: a golf tournament. There will be beverages and snacks and powered carts, but please remember to adhere to the expected behavioral norms of the golf course. Nobody wants to be that guy that embarrasses everybody else.

Contrary to the occasional snarky aside on this page (always meant in good fun), the newspaper comic is not entirely dead or devoid of creativity. Strip cartooners still exist that push the limits of craft, given the limitations of editorial dictates, space, declining revenues and deadlines, cartooners who know that having restrictions can result in more funny, cartooners who aren’t just phoning it in so they can make their 11:00am tee time.

Among modern cartoonists (web, newspaper, and other), it’s pretty much agreed that Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson¹ is the epitome of the strip craft. And Richard Thompson is the subject/honoree of a project that could use your assistance, if you’d be so kind.

If you’ve seen Thompson at a convention (I saw him on a particular interesting SDCC panel in July 2009), you may notice that he has a sometimes better, sometimes worse tremor in his hands (aside: I can’t think of a more terrifying thing for a cartoonist to face, yet his lines are confident and controlled). What I didn’t know when I saw Thompson speak (although he had announced it about a week earlier) is that he has Parkinson’s Disease.

It’s chronic. It’s degenerative. It can lead to cognitive problems in the late stages. It has treatments that are of varying efficacy, but no cure.

Thompson’s friends would like your help teaching this “pain in the fundament” who’s the boss. As part of the TeamFox initiative to support Parkinson’s research, there is now a Cul de Sac fundraising team, but the organizers aren’t asking for your cash (at least, not just yet). They’re asking for cartoonists to donate original art (on the theme of Fun) to support a book that will be used to fundraise:

We are inviting cartoonists like you to donate original art made especially for a book about Parkinson’s awareness in Richard’s honor. Part of the profits from the sale of the book would benefit the Michael J Fox Foundation (MJFF), and the original art will be auctioned as part of the fundraiser with all of auction money going to MJFF. Additionally, there will be a limited number of deluxe edition books signed and numbered by Richard Thompson.

The theme is going to be fun. It is your take on the Cul de Sac characters. Please run with them; deconstruct them, parody them, confuse them, cubisize them, psychoanalyze them, draw them in your own strip, whatever tickles your fancy. Enjoy. Open up your heart and just create something out of the ordinary, maybe not with your own characters, but this is an opportunity for you to let your talent to shine in a wide range of ways.

Please write a little text as well, if you would. Not necessarily about Richard or PD, but inspiration, technique, influences, determination, strength, spirituality, etc.

By all accounts I’ve ever heard, Richard Thompson may be the nicest guy in cartooning; to hear that he’s inspired others to take such a creative, positive approach to giving that sonofabitch disease the finger seems entirely in character for him. Contact information is on the TeamFox page, and I’m suggesting to webcomicdom that we ought to absolutely bury the organizers under more artwork than can possibly be included in the book, artwork that will still be auctioned to support research. Give it your best shot, and do something in honor of a master craftsman whose work you should be studying closely if you aren’t already.

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¹ Not the Richard Thompson who has the nimblest guitar-picking fingers on the planet, but wouldn’t it be awesome if it was?

Meredith Gran, at the Pizza Island panel, in response to the question, “How will the studio defend itself in the zombie apocalypse?” — I’m gonna die.

I trust that puts all of the zombie nonsense to bed once and for all. What else can we learn from this year’s MoCCA Festival?

• It’s easy to spend a lot of money on good stuff. In the photo up there, one may find mini-comics by Box Brown (Everything Dies 4, 5, and 6), Sophie Goldstein (her work apart from Darwin Carmichael Is Going To Hell is simultaneously more moody and more lighthearted, with one mini dealing with the pitiful few survivors of a global holocaust, the other with a mildly disgruntled cat), Kel McDonald (partnering with Marie de France to do a take on a fairy tale of the sort that used to exist prior to Grimm and Disney prettying them up — secrets, betrayals most foul, and righteous vengeance involving a de-nosing) and the NERD Comics collective (on the theme of Darwin).

  One may also find books by Sylvan Migdal (Curvy 1 and 2), Collen AF Venable & Stephanie Yue (Guinea PI: Pet Shop Detective 3), and Evan Dahm (Order of Tales 3). One may additionally find prints from Kate Beaton, Meredith Gran, and Yuko Ota & Ananth Panagariya, along with a small piece of evidence that I am fated to die by TRUCK. That’s right, David Malki ! had an actual MACHINE OF DEATH into which I willingly placed my hand and received my fate.

• Nearly all of the above (as well as those without wares that I had not yet purchased) spoke of what’s coming up — Migdal’s new comic will feature a Victorian lady dealing with planet-destorying space opera; Malki ! spoke about the expected rush of audition tapes for the rapidly-approaching MoD live stage show; Dahm spoke about the scope and scale of his current storyline (Vattu will be larger than any Overside story yet seen), as did Latin Art-Throb Aaron Diaz (Dark Science will be longer than Hob, but not ridiculously so).

  Ota & Panagariya may be announcing a very interesting print in the future, so keep your eyes peeled for that. The newly-free Frank Gibson promised numerous amazing projects with Tiny Kitten Teeth (and life) partner Becky Dreistadt. Scott C is busily brainstorming new Showdowns every day, and Tracy White and I had nice talk about How I Made It To Eighteen.

• You meet the nicest people at these things; waiting in line for the Pizza Island panel, I met a charming young man named Zach who will shortly be launching a new webcomic that sounds intriguing, and may have a niche to itself. Think Bryant Paul Johnson’s now-wrapped Teaching Baby Paranoia, only actually true. Alternately, think documentary, but shorter and less investigatory than Darryl Cunningham‘s muckraking (and I use that word in the most complimentary sense).

All in all, quite a lot for one day. What else is going on in webcomics today?

• Long run: Achieved! Chris Daily’s Striptease (which bears the distinction of being the first webcomic whose creator I ever met, waaaay back at the first MoCCA Festival, speaking of closed circles) hit 1000 strips today. Ten and a half years (more or less), radically changed art styles, a cross-country move, a collaboration on a second strip (itself more than four years old at this point) and a marriage can’t keep the true-hearted webcomicker down. Well done, Chris.
• Return: Achieved! Karen Ellis’s long-hiatused Planet Karen (fewer than a half-dozen updates since November of 2009) popped back today, with the promise of maybe more strips in the future? PK had been one of my favorite autobio webcomics, and I do hope Ellis is able to find the time to keep up with it.
• Free Stuff: Achieved! Dave Kellett’s self-published Sheldon collection, Literature: Unsuccessfully Competing Against TV Since 1953 (which you may have heard got an Eisner nod last week), probably isn’t in as many hands as some of its competition for Best Humor Publication, so Kellett’s making it easy for Eisner voters to read. Got a data connection? Got 12 MB of free drive space? Voting in the Eisners? Then download a PDF of Literature here so that you can give it due consideration.

  I’m guessing that there’s no way for the download server to know who’s actually an Eisner voter and who isn’t, so Kellett’s essentially giving his book away for the next couple of weeks (there’s precedent, as when Ursula Vernon was nominated for Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition back in 2006, Digger was subscription-unlocked to allow voters to examine her work). If you’re taking advantage of the freebie and like what you see, won’t you consider buying a copy? I’m sure Dave (and his young daughter, who likes things like food and shelter) would thank you.

Regarding the brouhaha over the comics-themed issue, Tony Ortega, Voice editor, had this to say:

I wanted to have a big special comics issue, but I had a limited budget. So in a well-meaning effort to make this work, I asked some cartoonists to provide work without compensation. In the last couple of days, it’s been pointed out to me quite clearly that this was not the best way to help out the cartooning industry. The thing is, we’re not a company that expects people to work for free for the exposure. And I’m making this right: I’m paying all of the artists in the special issue.

And hopefully buying them beers and working with them again soon.

Rest of the publishing industry: please follow this example.

• Hey, lookit that, the Eisner nominations are out, and there are some notable names from the world of webcomickry. Over at Best Publication for Teens you have Raina Telgemeier‘s SMILE, a book often championed on this page, which of course started as a webcomic. Likewise, Barry Deutsch’s Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword, which started on Girlamatic.

  In the realm of Best Humor Publication you have Dave Kellet’s Sheldon collection, Literature: Unsuccessfully Competing Against TV Since 1953, and Julia Wertz’s Drinking At The Movies, a original graphic novel but direct offshoot from her webcomic (formerly known as The Fart Party, now rechristened Museum of Mistakes). Similarly, Jason Little’s Motel Art Improvement Service (over in the Best Graphic Album — Reprint category) is a collection of his storyline from the ongoing Bee.

  Then, naturally, the Best Digital Comic is entirely ongoing webcomics, with nods for Karl Kerschl (The Abominable Charles Christopher), Travis Hanson (The Bean), Tracy Butler (Lackadaisy), Caanan Grall (Max Overacts), and the pseudonymous duo of Amir and Khalil (Zahra’s Paradise) getting the nod.

  Here’s what’s most satisfying to me: the do-it-yourself, no publishers, no distributors, entirely creator-owned model is creeping out of the webcomics category (which, as we’ve argued before probably shouldn’t be a category of its own, but let’s not rehash that now) into the other awards. Kellett’s nominated book didn’t come from a publisher that was looking to get in on “this web-comics thing” — he produced and put out the book on his own. Look for this to continue in future years.

• As long as we’re talking about DIY publishing, get yourself over to Olly’s Organix and pre-order the new Octopus Pie book. Listen at Home with Octopus Pie contains more than a year’s worth of comics that have never seen print before, and now that Meredith Gran is back to self-publishing (following her Random House sabbatical), the enterprise is both potentially more rewarding for her (nobody else to split the money with) and more financially taxing (nobody else to pick up the printer’s bill).

  The book ships next month, and even if you’ve never read Octopus Pie before (and if that is the case, what the hell is wrong with you?), just the cover should be enough to pull you in. That is some goddamn gorgeous work, and it only gets better on the inside. Git. Order.

The Village Voice, in either an incredibly ballsy “fuck you” to an entire industry, or an incredibly clueless display of irony, answers its own question.

Namely, If Cartoons Are So Big, Why Don’t They Pay?, the title of the four page surface-treatment of the economics of cartooning. Right in the middle of page 2 is the answer:

Also, many of the artists in this issue aren’t getting paid, but have contributed work for the exposure¹. [emphasis added so you can’t possibly miss the important bit]

Dear The Village Voice, you could have done a one-graf blurblet and accomplished the same thing. Here, you can have this one for free:

If cartoons are so big, why don’t they pay? It’s because publishers [including us] would rather put together an entire issue focusing on cartoons, but not pay cartoonists for their work. Works for us, sucks to be them. The end.

• Let’s shift gears to happier thoughts, shall we? Raina Telgemeier, genial chronicler of dental trauma, got to share some good news yesterday regarding fellow Comics Bakery members John Green and Dave Roman (the latter being Telgemeier’s husband):
  

  Finally announced!! @yaytime & @johngreenart‘s TEEN BOAT to be published in full color by Houghton Mifflin.

  For those of you not in the know, TEEN BOAT is an all-ages, very funny, occasionally touching web/print comic that tells a universal story: that of a typical teen who also happens to be a boat. Also, in a stunning proof of the proposition that there’s nothing that the internet can’t ruin, Googling “teen boat” also leads to a porn site that involves alleged teens gettin’ extra naked on a boat.

  Please don’t confuse the two if you’re trying to share Green & Roman’s work with your mom, the local librarian, kids that you know, your grandparents, or pretty much anybody that you’d be willing to shake hands with and not immediately want broad-spectrum antibiotics. For more on the good kind of teen boat, the announcement, some comic excerpts, and a video trailer can be found at The Beat.

• The thing about the bad kind of teen boat is that — like so much unimaginative modern naked media — it leaves a bad taste in my mouth (yes, yes, “That’s what she said”, moving on) from its exploitative, power-disparity POV. There’s quality naked media out there, by the likes of Jess Fink [NSFW] or Erika Moen [NSFW-ish], stuff that’s personally revealing, romantic, tender, and/or funny.

  Another good provider of quality naked media (although that’s far from the extent of his talents, having done by my estimation far less naked media — nakedia? — than non-naked) is Sylvan Migdal, who’s never been satisfied with doing just one comic at a time. Seeing as how Curvy [NSFW or not, depending on the page in question] is in the depths of storyline, it’s naturally time for Migdal to launch another comic, which will apparently happen on 1 June.

  Judging from the teaser, I’d say this one is towards the fully-clothed end of the spectrum, albeit the global catastrophe that’s hinted at might change social mores. Proceed with caution at place of employment, and with full enjoyment elsewhere. If you’re dying to know the naked-people quotient of the new strip, you can ask Migdal this weekend at MoCCA Fest, where he will be tabling.

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¹ People die of exposure.