The Very Special Episode of webcomics known as Machine of Death week wraps up the only way it could, with a moral:

And then, the #1 book — TODAY, at least — is Machine of Death. And it’s a — collected stories about, you know, people who know how they’re gonna die. Haowww!

So you have DEATH — I know it’s called Life, but what a life it is, really! It’s a culture of death! OR, “How do we restore ourselves?”

These are the — this is the left, I think, speaking. This is the left. You want to talk about where we’re headed? We’re headed towards a culture of death. A culture that, um, celebrates the things that have destroyed us.

Whoops! That’s the opposite of a moral; that’s a somehow-embittered multi-millionaire crabbin’. But hey, since I voluntarily listened to three minutes of Glenn Beck (first and last time), you get to read a portion of the transcript. You’re welcome. Here’s the moral:

A young entrepreneur, the son of a self-made immigrant small-business owner (a God-fearing Protestant who’d married a girl from a family of missionaries), had a crazy pie-in-the-sky idea. Having learned the rudiments of business by working since he was small in the family store, he struck out after his goal, investing himself into something he really believed in, inspiring both colleagues and strangers to join his cause even as “big business” slammed door after door in his face. For years he toiled long into the night, gradually growing his own small business by being as honest, kind and creative as he could manage. Ultimately, in a tremendous Rudy-like moment, he and his ragtag band of reg’lar folks — for one glorious day — accidentally made the twelfth book by the multimillionaire host of “the third-most-listened-to show in all of America” debut at #3 on one single bookseller’s list, rather than at #1.

This couldn’t be any more heartwarming if it came from Dad Brady himself. But even better than heartwarming (and this is where Malki !, North, et. al., catapult themselves into the pantheon of heroes) is what could be happening next:

We also realized that we had an opportunity here to gain a level. We could have struck a deal with a publisher, potentially even a lucrative one, that would have been nice in the short term and could probably have led to interesting places. But we have larger goals than just signing a book deal, and we realized we could play the long game here, not just for our benefit — but for the benefit of our friends and colleagues in webcomics as well.

And so in the last few days, using resources offered to us that previously would have been absolutely inconceivable, we have laid the groundwork for a complex but amazing publishing/distribution structure that, in the future, should hopefully allow us to get not just Machine of Death, but also all TopatoCo-published and TopatoCo-partnered books into regular bookstore/retail channels, both in the U.S. and abroad.

That right there is the game-changer, and I have no doubt that what we hear next will be worth all the Beck-grousing in the world. If you contributed to Machine of Death, I’m buying you a beer.
Edit to avoid confusion: The “I’m buying you a beer” bit applies to those whose work in included in Machine of Death, not the 5000 of you that bought it.

• The last word on Machine of Death and Glenn Beck (whose producers were hittin’ up Malki ! for free copies).
• Via Randy Milholland: Squishable (makers of Red Robot, T-Rex, and Yelling Bird) have a webcomic now!
• Even more Top Ten lists, this time about The Future of Art. Coming soon: Top Ten Top Ten Lists of ___ in Comics.
• Baffler! commercial staring this guy (see 0:50), formerly seen in the commercial for the Poop Sign.
• Everybody booze up and riot!

• Machine of Death spent a good portion of today still #1 at Amazon, and presently is #3 behind Keef and Glenn Beck (who apparently pitched a hissy fit about not being #1 on day-of-release and exhorted his followers to leave their apocalypse bunkers long enough to beat those scraggly death-adorers). Conclusion: AWESOME.
• Via yesterday’s comments: a response to Shaenon Garrity’s manifesto by Larry “El Santo” Cruz, in the form of Ten Things To Know About The Future Of Webcomics.
• Speaking of Ms Garrity, her Lil’ Mell is back! Woo, Wednesday fun!

Okay, hungry now.

Firstly, a quick note: work will take me to a no-internet zone for the next couple of days; any updates that occur during the day will be tapped out a character at a time over cell tethering, or very late. Please adjust your brains accordingly.

Secondly, everybody remembers that it’s Machine of Death Day, right? As of this writing, it’s #2 on the Amazon sales charts in the category “books” (as well as #1 in “science fiction anthologies”, and #3 in “literature & fiction”), and you can help push it over the edge to #1 right here.

Thirdly, today is the 40th anniversary of Doonesbury, which would under normal circumstances immediately qualify it as dead wood on the comics page, except most newspapers run it in the Op/Ed section these days, and but for the fact that it’s not being written/drawn by ghosts or the no-talent [grand]children of the originator. Garry Trudeau continues to bang out the strip and comment on the state of the country (and the world), and occasionally opine on comics themselves:

Slate: Where is the comic strip headed in the post-daily-print-newspaper age? Is the medium healthy?

Trudeau: No, we’re all in free-fall together. And Web comics don’t seem to be an alternative, unless you’re uninterested in making a living. There are so many entertainment alternatives to comics now, I’m not sure they’ll be much missed. In their heyday, comics were a dominant force in popular culture, but that’s over.

There’s not much future in being a strip artist now. That’s quite a turnaround in fortunes, because presiding over an established syndicated comic strip used to be the closest thing to tenure that popular culture offered. If I were starting out now, I’d probably continue on the graphic design trajectory I was on before I got sidetracked with comics. Colbert-like TV would be OK, too, except you have to be brilliant. I advise young cartoonists now to get into graphic novels—or head for Pixar. [emphasis mine]

When I read that bit that I’ve helpfully bolded for you, my first thought was a paraphrase of something the inimitable Rich Stevens (speaking of whom — massive close-out sale on the only pop-culture t-shirt measured in radians) said at SPLAT! back in 2008 which boils down to Think you can’t make a living at webcomics? Good! Less competition for me.

The people who are going to make a living at webcomics are already making a living at webcomics. Scott Kurtz had the best take on it, though, and you should go read what he had to say:

[W]e need not get angered by his comments until we’ve decided which you’re he’s talking about.

Personally, I take his comments to mean that Webcomics are not an alternative for he and his colleagues. And he’s correct. It’s not a viable alternative for them at this point. [emphasis original]

Even better was Kurtz’s take on something a bit further down in Trudeau’s comments:

Honestly, if anything in this interview upset me it was the following sentence:

“…presiding over an established syndicated comic strip used to be the closest thing to tenure that popular culture offered.”

Boy, isn’t that the truth? And isn’t that the real reason that syndicates are getting less and less for their features every year? Because presiding over an established syndicated comic strip is tenure for both the creator and their syndicate partner. Just put it on auto-pilot until the artist dies, then get a new artist and put the auto-pilot back on.

In this interview, Garry discusses his friends Gary Larsen and Bill Watterson, both who felt the time had come to retire from cartooning. And having read interviews with both of those cartoonists, they seem like creators very uncomfortable with the idea of “tenure.” But again, how feasible is it for a cartoonist with 20 plus years under his belt to re-invent what they do or start from scratch?

Bravo, Mr Kurtz, bravo. That would have qualified as the best comics-related bit of thought that saw print yesterday, but for the inconvenient fact that Ms Shaenon Garrity (Funk Queen of the Pacific Time Zone and surrounding domains) busted out a manifesto of things to know about the future of comics (formulated while “occasionally sober”). Her item #1 (Newspaper comics are dead) ties nicely to the points above, but don’t miss out on the rest. While lots of people have (rightly) been talking about #8 (The line between fans and creators is razor-thin), #9 (They are mostly girls) and #10 (They are very good at making comics) and her cautions to publishers to make ready, I was most struck by:

5. But there is a canon. As best I can determine, the majority of comics-loving people under 30 have at least a passing familiarity with the following:

Calvin & Hobbes

Bone

Naruto

Death Note

Watchmen

…and a handful of webcomics, but the latest big thing in webcomics shifts so frequently that I can’t even add titans like Penny Arcade and xkcd to the list with any confidence.

Is this the canon I would have chosen to lead the next generation into the great big beautiful tomorrow of comics? Probably not, but it’s not bad. Definitely better than the canon I cut my teeth on, which contained far more Batman than was healthy for the nerds of Generation X.

Verrrrry interesting.

From Steve Lieber, re: Underground getting scanned at 4chan:

Pictures help us learn.

Those Etsy sales mentioned in Lieber’s graphic? They’re fulfilled by Hurricane Erika, who is even now working her fingers to the bone to get you your orders. If you ask extra nicely, maybe she’ll give your copy a hug!

• Missed it, tipped off by Lesley Davidson: Webcomic Alliance member/1977 The Comic creator Byron Wilkins regularly contributes to the Two Guys Talking Webcomics podcast (also a Webcomics Alliance member site), which is part of Kurt Sasso’s TGT Media. Together, they’re spearheading a reasonably unique project — Webcomics: What’s Cooking?
  

  … is [a] cookbook that will feature dozens and dozens of recipes from popular webcomic creators showcasing a variety of recipes from Breakfast to Dinner and a few things in between!

  The cookbook will feature a full page, custom created comic from each participating artist along side a favorite dish or beverage. From Alien Cupcakes to Alamo Queso to Chicago style Deep Dish Pizza, you are sure to find a dish that will satisfy your hunger. The concept behind the cookbook is “Feed Your Family, Feed the World”. You purchase the cookbook and receive all these wonderful recipes to create for your family or friends and the proceeds from the project go to Canadian and American National Food Banks to help feed those in need.

  Orders available starting 30 October at the TGT Media site, with delivery in time for the (US) Thanksgiving season; while you’re waiting for next Saturday to come around, feel free to peruse the list of contributing webcomickers.

Know what’s a good age? Twelve. Kids have a bit of rationality and ability to hold a conversation, and haven’t quite hit the full depths of their teen (or ‘snotty’) years. It’s possible that twelve is the last time you’ll be able to tolerate a kid for a half-decade or more. Also? Krishna Sadasivam’s PC Weenies have been around in one form or another for twelve years now. That’s like 328 in internet years.

• Krishna, unfortunately, won’t be able to make it to New England Webcomics Weekend 2 (Electric Boogaloo) in a couple of weeks (having previously committed to Up!Fair the following week), but if you’re going to be at NEWW2 (EB), your life just got a little easier:
  

  Thanks to you folks buying tickets, we’ve found a small budget to run a hotel shuttle to Eastworks from the Clarion Hotel in Northampton. You should please use the shuttle if you can rather than drive over to help cut down on traffic and parking at the show.

  Rather than waste money on a real driver, you’re getting a cartoonist. R Stevens of Diesel Sweeties is a local and has volunteered to ride the bus. The “R” stands for “Richard” and you can look for this jacket:

  The NEWW Shuttlecraft will run from approximately 9:30AM-12:00 noon both Saturday and Sunday of the show.

  There will also be a return shuttle directly after the show. We’ll work those hours out at the event in case things run late.

  I can vouch for Mr Stevens; aside from being the sexiest man in webcomics (narrowly edging out The Toronto Man-Mountain and El Beardo), I’ve ridden in vehicles piloted by him, and he’s a safe and courteous driver. All aboard the sexy bus.

• Word comes via Twitter that Jeph Jacques has made a couple zillion readers (including, perhaps the odd college-age cute girl) very happy, with his announcement of A Very Special Book:
  

  QC VOLUME 1 GOES ON SALE SOME TIME TOMORROW AT TOPATOCO.

  This would be the book covering the early days of QC (with a fair amount of re-drawery), which means that volumes 2 through whatever still have a good six years of strips to catch up on, so plenty of pages still to go, y’all. TopatoCo haven’t posted the info yet (as of this writing), but when they do, odds are good it’ll be here.

• Update to the somewhat recent Machine of Death update: the book is now available via Amazon (and in future, other outlets), but the compilers request that you not buy it until Tuesday, October 26th. Let’s let Mr Malki ! do the explaining:
  Here is the significance of October 26 specifically:

  It only takes a few hundred sales in a short time to become a Number One bestseller on Amazon.com.

  So even though the book is available for purchase now, we want to concentrate all the attention onto October 26. Blog about it, tweet about it, invite your friends to the Facebook event — just spread the word that October 26 is the day to buy Machine of Death on Amazon.

  The simple truth is that we probably can’t compete on the shelves at Barnes & Noble alongside every other book in the world. The agents and the publishers are right; it might not work for a mass market. That’s okay. We don’t need to sell it to everyone. We don’t need to sell 100,000 copies; we don’t have the rent on a New York office to pay for.

  We only need to sell it to you.

  On October 26, we want to send a message that a little project dragged kicking and screaming from “crazy idea” past “it’ll never work” all the way to “By God, they actually did it” can make a big splash. We’re internet people; you are too. We want to prove to all the people who said “this will never sell” that internet people make things happen. [emphasis original]

  Hell, I’ve waiting four years, I can wait another five days to place the order. See you all at Amazon on Tuesday.

Hey look at that — Despot Killroy makes a return in the pages of Wonderella, we find out what Dark Esther’s been up to in the Scary Go Round miniseries, Giant Days, and parties get scientifically quantified thanks to T-Rex. Cool stuff, but let’s talk about the printed page for a bit, shall we?

I recently came into the possession of a book and some minis thanks to the kind indulgence of a pair of webcomics creators — usual deal with review copies — I will make an effort to read them, no guarantee of a good review (or even a review, period), but in this case I’m happy to say that both of them grabbed me.

• The first of them, Misery Loves Sherman by Chris Eliopolous, was no surprise, because everybody that reads MLS’s daily updates already knows it’s the most Calvinesque strip out there today. By that, I don’t mean that Eliopolous is copying Watterson’s work, just that the joyous, anything-goes feel of Calvin & Hobbes comes through clearly. Instead of a stuffed tiger that responds to his wishes, young Sherman has actual aliens, a vivified action figure, and the literal embodiment of Death hanging out with him (in most cases, he’d rather that they didn’t). Mom and Dad are aware of this, and mostly take it in stride.

  It’s fun, it’s well done, and it’s clear that Eliopolous (one of the foremost letterers in comics, and busy writing all-ages semicontinuity books for Marvel) also has the chops to work within the four-panel world. It’s not an easy thing to go from having double-page spreads to having to make everything clear (and yet not hopelessly minimal) in just a few side-by-side boxes.

  And, like just about every major-publisher artist/writer that works on webcomics, it’s clear that Eliopolous has a love for characters that he’s created himself. Much fun, and much appreciated, especially given that if Eliopolous ever had too much work, it’s Sherman — which surely qualifies as a labor of love — would be the most logical item to be cut in order to free up time. As long as he has the time and inclination to mess with Sherman, give him your eyeballs.

• Less familiar to me was the work of Michael Jonathan; I’d done fast reads of his Eros, Inc. (which, despite the name, it completely and totally safe for work — honest!), but hadn’t previously seen his other comics work. Starting off, three diary-style minis of Michael Jonathan is Jewish, detail a trip that the author took to Israel with a group of artists in Dec 2009 — Jan 2010.

  Done poorly, a diary comic of this type could be little more than being forced to look through a casual acquaintance’s vacation slides, but Jonathan does a good job keeping the story rolling, bringing in enough of his own questioning, doubts, and ultimate rejection of the religious part of his Jewishness (while finding even more to enjoy in the cultural part) to keep the narrative brisk and compelling. The most recent (third) volume of MJIJ brings the trip up to approximately the halfway point, and I’m eager to find out what else Jonathan has to relate of the story.

  Along with the autobio comics, Jonathan sent along two minis related to the aforementioned Eros, Inc. (a company of cupids, doing the work of Love and getting people together). Not having been a close reader of the parent story, I could get hints of the character & backstory provided by The Greatest Road Trip of All Time, but I’m fairly certain I’m missing story beats I would otherwise be picking up.

  By contrast, The Afternoon Before Chanukah requires no knowledge of plot or characters and drops the reader into a beautifully crafted (to look antique & distressed) rendition of Clement Moore’s famous poem, culturally & temporally shifted. Kudos to Joanathan’s long-time friend from back home, Brian Carroll of Instant Classic, who had a hand in the design of TABC.

  Rounding out the package o’ fun is a one-shot mini, mixing indie rock/folk/fantasy/kung fu in the story of a bard looking for the most kick-ass instrument of all time, so that she may become the most kick-ass musician of all time; preview here. Jonathan notes that this may be the first entry in a short series, and I’m witholding final judgement until this one has more context. Right now, it seems a little … isolated. The broader framing story of E,I served TABH and TGROAT well, and Quail: The Song of the Blackbird EP seems slightly lost without that framework. That being said, nice job by Jonathan on making music an integral part of the story. I’m not certain that the tunes that popped into my head fit any of the songs that the characters sang on the pages, but the fact that they spontaneously generated in my frontal lobes says he’s doing something right.

  Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t note that Michael Jonathan knows how to do brand identity. The “I Am Michael Jonathan and These Are My Comics” construction shows up on his website header, linking buttons (“… And This Goes To My Website”), his business card (“… And This Is My Business Card”), even his personal stationary¹ (“… And This Is My Letterhead”). ; it’s eyecatching, it’s consistent, and it’s adaptable to lots of different presentations. “I’m Michael Jonathan And …” is something you’ll likely be seeing in the future, so go give his work a good look now.

_______________
¹ Super-duper bonus points to Jonathan for including a cover letter with his comics, providing me with a list of included comics and handy directions where to find the rest of his work — the easier you make it for reviewers, the more likely they will write about your stuff)

A number of things are heading your way; of course, you should keep in mind that some horizons are closer than others.

• Last year, Ryan North represented webcomickry at the annual Reflections|Projections conference, hosted at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign‘s chapter of the ACM (who are an official, important group of tech types). North’s talk was entitled (and I quote) GUYS, LOOKS LIKE IT’S WACKY TIME, and was apparently exactly the capper that the weekend’s serious discussion needed. So how to top the presence of the Tallest Man in Webcomics?

  How about with the Second Tallest Man in Webcomics, and make up the difference with the Tallest Man in Webcomics with a PhD? The former, Jeph Jacques, will be presenting How To Become
  A Successful Internet Cartoonist In Three Easy Steps (Not) from 6:30pm to 7:45pm on Saturday, and Jorge Cham will let you in on the secrets of the Academic Stimulus Package from 7:45pm to 9:00pm on Friday. If this trend continues, next year they’ll probably need to book four or five talents, including Malachai Nicolle on somebody else’s shoulders.

• Also this weekend, this time in Baltimore: Super Art Fight 8 rolls into the Ottobar Friday night at 9:00pm, with Jamie Baldwin, Nick Borkowicz, Chelsea Grose, Michael Bracco, Bryan Prindiville, Chris Impink, Josh Taylor, and Jamie Noguchi. Musical entertainment will be provided by the rapper laureate of webcomics, videogames, and all things nerdy, MC Frontalot. Expect thrown elbows and a bare-knuckles Sharpie fight before the night is over.
• In case you hadn’t heard, the previously-reported on Captain Excelsior book from Zach Weiner and Chris Jones has a new name. Seems that “Excelsior” has a pending trademark application in relation to comics, and not wishing to get stuck in a protracted unpleasantness, Weiner and Jones have elected to shift the name of the super-powered jerkwad to Captain Stupendous. Funny thing? As far as I can tell, the guy most associated with The E Word doesn’t seem to be involved with the people filing the trademark. Weird, huh? Anyway, look for Captain Stupdendous the week of 20 November, and tell him a) he’s a dick, and b) you’d like to buy his book, please.

New York Comic Con happened over the weekend; there was good stuff (such as God-given right of New Yorkers to have food delivered straight to their tables on the show floor — are you listening, San Diego?) and less-good stuff. Of the less-good stuff, some would have been out of the control of con staff (such as construction scaffolding in the Javits Center that cut the show floor in half, requiring narrow, easily-blocked tunnels for foot transit), and some within the con staff’s purview (such as Artist Alley’s posted map listing creators by seat number instead of by name).

In other words, it was upwards of 100,000 people in a compact area for a period of time (and hey, 100,000 people, what was with some of you dropping your garbage on the floors at will, you suck), and probably went about as well as could be expected (okay, I did see one surly-looking dude in the custody of the NYPD by the escalators, but at least nobody got stabbed).

I did a lot of walking around the show floor for pretty much all of Saturday (although that was nearly impossible for a few hours in the middle of the afternoon), saw a bunch of creators, engaged in commerce, and caught two relevant panels. Here’s the short version while the longer discussion is getting prepped.

• Books, Books, Books
  Dave McElfatrick, newly welcome to these shores, and his Cyanide & Happiness cohorts (Rob DenBlyker and Matt Melvin; Kris Wilson didn’t make it) watched 450 books sell out by Saturday afternoon.

  Meredith Gran’s Octopus Pie: There Are No Stars In Brooklyn‘s cover art was used for the design of a pretty hefty percentage of the attendee badges. Looked great.

  Some guy apparently now will be releasing his books through some fancy-pants big comics company (congratulations, Chris Hastings!).

  Picked up KC Green’s The Blood Cloud, Anthony Clark’s Beartato and the Secret of the Mystery, Evan Dahm’s Rice Boy and Order of Tales books 1 & 2, and Colleen Venable’s Guinea PIg 2: And Then There Were Gnomes. I was gifted with a copy of Dahm’s mini, Waiting In Surya/The Tethered Isle, and Chris Eliopolous’s Misery Loves Sherman. About 7kg worth in all, and my back is still protesting hauling it all around.

• Met up with all of the above, plus Zach Weiner and the SMBC Theater Crüe (including James Ashby, JP and Jenny Nickel, and Kelly Weinersmith), Karl Kerschl & Cameron Stewart (whose Sin Titulo will — fingers crossed — be seeing book form in about a year), Brad Guigar and Scott Kurtz, Ryan Sohmer, Lar DeSouza and the rest of the Blind Ferret mob, Rosscott, Mohammad “Hawk” Haque, Jon Rosenberg, Sam Brown, Andy Bell, Kean Soo, Andrew Hussie, Becky Dreistadt & Frank Gibson (who showed me an absolutely gorgeous, as-yet unused guest strip for Anders Loves Maria), Chris Butcher, Magnolia Porter, Tom Siddell, and I know I’m forgetting others, sorry.
• Met a really nice guy named Matt Lubchansky, who’s doing a pretty nifty and relatively new webcomic called The Adam — it’s about a guy that’s mildly (but insufficiently) super-powered and unable to make it as a crimefigher, so he slides into a more backward dimension (ours) to pursue heroics. Good hook, really enjoying it so far.
• Speaking of Matts, Jen Babcock pointed me to the doings of Matt. Murray, one-time President and Executive Director of MoCCA, current principal of Sequential Arts Collective, and the world’s premiere Smurfologist. Seems that since he doesn’t have to keep comics fans from dying in a fire any longer, Mr Murray is working on a definitive scholarly book on said Smurfs. Innn-teresting.
• Panel Discussion 1
  Rob DenBlyker had the SMBC Theaterites on a panel, asking them various questions about their process (they all do everything), their inner furries (James is a panda, JP a monkey, Jenny a grizzly, Kelly a nematode, and Zach wants us all to know the correct term is fursona), who has to paint James red for his turns as the Devil (whoever’s around; the first time it was Kelly & Zach, in a trailer at a fish research facility, aka “Kelly’s job”), and future plans (there has been a broadcast pilot shot; the second DVD is due in a couple of months; there will be animation alongside live action in the future).

  Quote of the Session: Asked from the floor about how much money the SMBC Theater actors/crew get paid, snorts of derisive laughter followed, until Jenny remarked, Your laughter is all the payment we need (cue more laughter).

  Quote of the Session runner-up: Asked from the floor how he comes up with something new every day for the comic, Zach explained that he reads widely, and If you steal from a dead person, it’s like creating.

• Panel Discussion 2
  The Guigar/Kurtz/Roberts discussion on Digital vs Print got off to a slightly late start (the previous panel finished on time, but attendees mobbed speaker Dr Michio Kaku) and turned out to be less about any kind of vs, and more about Okay, here’s where we are, where do we go next?, and was a very productive talk. There’s a lot to edit down from that talk (hopefully by tomorrow), but let me leave you with a teaser from Guigar:

  Originally this session was supposed to be between print and web. My conceit has always been not print vs web, but corporate vs independent. Print has always been about generating business through a corporate structure, where webcomics is independent. Now the question is, what’s going to replace webcomics? Do [iPod-style] app comics replace webcomics, and does that mean a return to the corporate side from the independent side?

• Not at NYCC
  Latin Art-throb Aaron Diaz updated his comic art blog with an absolutely stellar discussion of the importance of silhouette. This one’s mandatory reading, kids.

The first of October is a big webcomicsversary date, marking nine and six years of Achewood and Girls With Slingshots, respectively. Do yourself a favor and check out those first two links, then do the compare/contrast thing on the second pair; don’t forget to show your work and as always, spelling counts. Oh, and don’t blame me if you end up on an archive binge or two.

• Skin Horse, by contrast, is a bit less than three years old. But if you add it to the five and a half plus years of its predecessor, Narbonic, you’re going back a good decade or so. And furthermore, Skin Horse’s second book is newly released, at least for those who backed it with Kickstarted pre-orders. Everybody else, I imagine copies will go up at the Couscous Collective store eventually, but not until after I have my copy, moo-ha-ha-ha. Anyway, pick up Volume 1, and by the time you’re done with it, you can probably get Volume 2. Also, book launch party at Borderland Books in San Francisco on Saturday the 23rd at 5:00pm (or see if Shaenon & Jeff will sell you a copy at APE the week before).
• Marissa’s Bunny has popped up again, this time with the Blind Ferret (although it’s been there for a good long time, I hadn’t noticed until Sohmer’s post on same). Previously seen at PAX and Tim Buckley’s house, the little lapin is emblematic of a need for your attention and generosity (and if there’s one thing that webcomickers are, it’s generous to those in need). Thanks to Jordan Anderson for the head’s up.
• Amazing coincidence department: Colleen Doran is apparently running a Project Wonderful button ad on Fleen today, and I was going to draw your attention to a tweet from Mike Russell this morning recommending you head over to Ms Doran’s site and check out her epic tale of Bad Publishers:
  

  If you’ve never read Colleen Doran epic (and instructive) saga of bad-publisher perfidy, remedy this oversight here

  Ms Doran has recently made said tale of perfidy (what a great word) much easier to follow, and it contains much wisdom for those of you looking to make your comicking into a business. I was once taken to task by Mr T for asserting that [A]ll contracts are inherently about ensuring that — if needed — you can cut the other guy’s heart out and he’s legally obligated to provide the blade; a quick read over Ms Doran’s experiences with Bad Publishers provides a plethora of anecdotal evidence.

Update to add: make that 20 — Dr McNinja is five today.