The relaxation of restrictions for those who are fully vaccinated¹ means that centers of comics scholarship are beginning to make programs and exhibitions available again. The two premiere such institutions are the Cartoon Art Museum and the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum; they’ve both been extraordinarily responsible about their re-openings², and each have things going on/coming up. Let’s talk.

• Starting in Columbus, Ohio and The Billy, a new exhibit will open on 19 June and run through Halloween (coincidentally, the same timeframe as the second half of their Pogo retrospective), and it’s on a topic that is likely near and dear to your heart. The Dog Show: Two Centuries of Canine Cartoons will be curated by comics historian and cartoonist Brian Walker.

  Before you get the idea that he’s a second-generation guy who only got a syndication gig with a zillion newspapers by inheriting it from dad³, I mean, he is, but he’s also a legit historian. I happened to be in Brussels when the Comics Art Museum was running an exhibition he curated on 100 years of American comic strips, and it was really good.

  He’s got an encyclopedic knowledge of newspaper strips, and if you’re going to do an exhibition on any particular topic drawing from that medium, he’s going to be one of the go-to experts to mount the show. Sure, the description talks about editorial cartoons, comic books, magazine gag strips, animation, and more — they’d be almost hilariously short-sighted to not include Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man, f’rinstance — but the show art clearly focuses on newspaper strips. Finally, Odie gets his chance to shine without that lasagna-swilling bastard stealing the spotlight.

• And over in San Francisco, CAM is offering a free online event this Sunday, 4:00pm PDT, talking about the cartoon counterpart to dogs. Kitty Sweet Tooth: A Conversation with Abby Denson and Utomaru will bring Denson (writer) and Utomaru (artist) together to talk about their new graphic novel for younger readers (available everywhere from First Second).

  The online event will involve a reading, drawing demo, and more; registration for the online event is required but free, and those who purchase a copy of Kitty Sweet Tooth via the registration page will get a bookplate signed by Denson and Utomaru. In the meantime, check out Utomaru’s website (linked above) — the art hits the exact middle point between Harajuku street fashion, Hello Kitty, and Scott Pilgrim — bright, a little chunky, always something else to catch the eye, no matter how many times you look at it.

Spam of the day:

[moneybags emoji x 2] The approval was successful. Hello. Hired you on the Internet.

Those are some of the most terrifying words I’ve ever read.

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¹ And, in parts of the country, the more reckless relaxation of all restrictions.

² CAM is open to the public Saturdays and Sundays with capacity controls. The Billy is open by reservation on weekends (Museum part, but presently closed until 18 June) and by appointment for limited weekday hours (Library part).

³ He is a part of what Josh Fruhlinger has dubbed Walker-Browne Amalgamated Humor Industries LLC in recognition of the fact that Mort Walker (Beetle Bailey, Hi & Lois) and Dik Browne (Hi & Lois, Hagar The Horrible) were close collaborators, a tradition that extends to their respective sons.

The next 6-8 weeks have a stack of graphic novels about to drop and I wanted to spend a little time talking about some of them, and their creators. Some of these I’ll have seen advanced review copies of, some I haven’t, and in any event these aren’t going to be reviews — they’re going to be me talking about stuff that looks really friggin’ good so that you can look for them in your local shops. First up: a pair of creators whose work we at Fleen are big fans of.

• It’s been a while since Vera Brosgol had a full graphic novel, but she’s been giving us amazing children’s picture books since then — Leave Me Alone! and The Little Guys are favorites among the younger members of my family — and she’s about to gift us with another.

  Memory Jars is about a young girl who discovers that she can keep anything in jars, safe and whole exactly as it is now, forever. You never have to give it up, you never have to say goodbye. Or, as Brosgol put it somewhat more compactly, [I]t is about canning and death and yeah — there’s some melancholy in there. If a child is ever to gain an appreciation for the ephemerality of life, the fact that all we know will someday cease, there’s hardly a gentler way to learn that with this book. There’s also jam, so that’s cool.

  Although Memory Jars does not release until Tuesday next week, Brosgol will be doing a live reading and drawing chat thing tomorrow at 7:00pm EDT¹ with LeUyen Pham, with An Unlikely Story of Plainville, MA sponsoring (registration here). Copies of Memory Jars purchased through An Unlikely Story will come with signed bookplates (while supplies last), as will copies from Brookline Booksmith (Brookline, MA). Green Bean Books in Portland has signed and sketched copies; try getting awesome extras like that from Jeff Bezos. You can’t!

• We’re a little further out from the release of Molly Ostertag’s The Girl From The Sea — it’ll be in stores a week after Memory Jars — but there’s still time to get your orders in with your local retailer. If you need convincing, the first scene is up for sneak peek and it is terrific at setting up the story. We don’t know where things will go after these few pages, but we know that there’s all kinds of details about Morgan Kwon’s life that we want to know. It’s master-level storytelling economy and proof that Ostertag really thinks about how to structure a story.

  More proof, if any were needed, is over at Ostertag’s alt Twitter account, which is mostly devoted to gayifying Tolkien — I have been reading the various chronicles of Middle Earth for about four decades and cannot believe I didn’t see just how romantic Frodo and Sam are — where she’s shared some of her process work for her latest short gay hobbits comic.

  Thinking about how to compose the pages, thinking about how to end the story, showing off the things she’s figured out on her own make for a better comic in her character-drive mode. Watch how the basic idea becomes a paragraph of idea outline becomes panels. The thing that I never thought about before but which makes perfect sense in retrospect² is her pacing rule of thumb: if the outline has the word and in it, that means a new panel.

  Well, that and the rule about where the reader’s eyes will progress in the panel and how to guide them. And how panel height conveys time. And how words can indicate physical closeness in characters. It’s almost like drawing a hell of a lot of great comics will make you better at drawing great comics³.

Spam of the day:

1 tsp of THIS forces poop constipation out of you – permanently?

That sounds explosively traumatic and permanently disabling. Maybe just improve your diet and get some live-culture yogurt instead?

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¹ I know the tweets says 3:00pm PDT which would be 6:00pm EDT, but the promo image and registration page say 4:00pmt PDT and 7:00pm EDT respectively, so that’s what I’m going with.

² Getting a lot of that from Ostertag, it seems.

³ And it’s also almost like Ostertag has spent way too much time in Appendix C of The Lord Of The Rings, and knows from the family trees that Sam has an older sister named Daisy. Not that I’d know anything about that.

For the second year in a row — thanks, antimaskers, deniers, antivaxxers, and general covidiots! — the Queer Comics Expo is going to be held virtually, and that means it’s time to get ready for the celebration in the Venn diagram where the circles are marked QUEER CULTURE and COMICS. That little slice of overlap is a lot of fun.

Tickets are on sale now, with a US$10 early bird for those of limited means¹, a US$16 regular weekend pass, and a US$55 VIP package (the latter includes a one year membership to the Cartoon Art Museum, otherwise access is the same regardless of payment level); a little birdie told me that discount code CAMPRIDE will let you save on the costs.

Programming on Saturday kicks off at 11:00am (all times PDT, given the fact that QCE and CAM are San Francisco-located) with a spotlight on keynote speaker Vincent Kao, and follows with the announcement of Prism Awards finalists, panels on mental health, furries, and Thirsty Sword Lesbians (the italics indicate a direct quote). From 6:00pm-7:00pm, there’s and online cocktail party (bring your own) with participants matched up for quick 1:1 conversations about everything.

Sunday programming kicks back in 11:00am again, with discussions involving Paige Braddock & Hilary Price, Latinx queer comics, art demos, body positivity, and more. A full list of speakers is at the ticket link, and the programming will stream at cartoonart.org/qcexpo. For those actually in the Bay Area, the Cartoon Art Museum is open weekends from 11:00am to 5:00pm.

It may lack the around-the-city, multiple-venues approach of the Before Times, but it looks as if it’s gonna be a party nonetheless, and that may be what everybody needs as much as anything. Open your wallet, block out some time, and have fun.

Spam of the day:

The main feature of the new Zoomshot Pro tactical zoom is the possibility of obtaining 4k quality in your photos from a great distance against very defined targets, or for panoramas.

I’m guessing that by describing this aftermarket cellphone camera lens as tactical, you’re hoping that I’m the sort of dude that automatically associates that word with manliness and therefore your toy is a must-have, rather than the sort that took an optics class in nerd school and therefore knows you need completely different kinds of lenses for zoom and panorama imaging. Fuck you for assuming I’m the former.

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¹ And the Cartoon Art Museum, partner and primary fundraising beneficiary of QCE, is asking potential attendees to contact them for other options if ten bucks is too much (email QCExpo at cartoonart, which is a dot-org). They really want you to attend more than they want the money.

… One the other, you got to admire the hustle. Kathy Peterson would like you to know that Kidnapped By Gnomes has hit 300 strips total, if one considers both the before & after of an epically productive hiatus¹, and also that KBG is taking part in the virtual TCAF, including an appearance in the exhibitor room on 13 May from 5:00pm-7:00pm. Two books on sale, a third premiering, and I have to check that my blogroll isn’t actually changed — those little geeks are persistent.

And since we’re talking about the reigning Queen of Hey Remember When That Webcomic Launched, maybe we should mention one of the Kings. A looong time ago, one of the most complex (in terms of topic matter and visuals) webcomics was A Lesson Is Learned But The Damage Is Irreversible by David Hellman and Dale Beran. They did maybe the last ALILBTDII over at The Nib, where Beran also posted some heartbreaking comics essays about his experiences as a teacher in Baltimore in times of unrest. He did a book about how the worst areas of the internet shitposted their way to an authoritarian government, too.

And lately, he’s been running a comic that he made during quarrantine on Twitter, about a page a day, starting here. It’s called Arthur Pendlebroke, 1st Level Mage, and it’s seemingly about a guy who finishes grad school and discovers his parents never told him about his invite to wizarding school a dozen years ago, and being the oldest recently-graduated wizard in a world of too many roomies and the gig economy.

I say seemingly because Arthur leaves the story after about four pages and a couple of his friends (one of our mortal realms, one decidedly not) have to hunt him down find him you know what? Hunt him down might actually be accurate. He was supposed to take them on a Trader Joe’s run, and now he’s in a goblin palace, you see. Probably. Might be dead. Might have to kill him. Hard to tell.

It’s a hoot and a half, and I recommend that you read along until you decide, Self, I can’t stand this one page a day pace! and drop the five bucks it’ll cost you to grab the whole thing on Gumroad.

Spam of the day:

Vaccine Shedding Testimonies along with Vax Death and Illness Pics/Videos
[lengthy list of bullshit and Bible verses]

I am going to find you, come to where you are, and shed all my vaccine detritus on you until you are irredeemably contaminated and God hates you. Hail Satan.

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¹ Attending med school and doing a residency would have been enough for most folks, but coming back to doing a webcomic while serving as an emergency medicine doctor during a pandemic? That’s gotta be a record of some kind.

Kind of snuck up on us, didn’t it? But it’s Mother’s Day weekend, and that means TCAF. whether in-person (someday) or virtual (again). There’s lots going on with a mix of pre-recorded and live video events, Zoom room exhibitor hours, and a vendor’s marketplace. Some sessions will require registration, and all are subject to TCAF’s Code Of Conduct, so no griefing.

Things that caught my eye (all times EDT):

Friday, 7 May
Kickoff Session
Pre-recorded, premiering on YouTube at 7:00pm.

Saturday, 8 May
Make Comics Your Way With Story Planet
Live online (register here) geared for grades 3-6 as the panel and participants create characters & a story. 1:00pm

Sunday, 9 May
Molly Knox Ostertag Spotlight
Pre-recorded with live Q&A (register here), featuring a reading from Ostertag’s new graphic novel, The Girl From The Sea. 3:00pm.

Monday, 10 May
Rage, Apathy And Satire In The Black Creative Realm
Abdul Ali, Ben Passmore, and Richie Pope live (register here) talking about the meaning and challenges of being Black and creative. 3:00pm.

Tuesday, 11 May
Boulet Spotlight
Live talk (register here) with Peterbirkemoe. 5:00pm.

Protest Comics
Ho Che Anderson, Derf Backderf, and Nate Powell in a pre-recorded talk about the need to present dissent, and the responsibilities that entails. Premieres on YouTube at 7:00pm.

Wednesday, 12 May
Nagata Kabi Spotlight
Creator of the groundbreaking My series of autobio manga (My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness, My Solo Exchange Diary, My Alcoholic Escape From Reality) in a pre-recorded conversation with Deb Aoki and interpreter/comics translator Jocelyne Allen. Premiering on YouTube at 7:00pm.

Thursday, 13 May
Health (S)Care: Personal And Global Perspectives
Everything from traumatic brain injuries to the big and small ways that COVID-19 has affected all of us. Live panel discussion (register here) at 4:00pm.

Friday, 14 May
Life Into Comedy
Where autobio meets humor, or mining real-life experiences for various degrees of fictionalized funny. Shary Flenniken, Meichi Ng, Thom, Yuko Ota & Ananth Hirsh, moderated live (register here) by Boum. 8:00pm.

Saturday, 15 May
Closing Panel
When else are you going to get to see Katie Skelly, Jaime Hernandez, Aubrey Sitterson, and Chris Moreno hold forth on their love of professional wrestling, comics about professional wrestling, and the history of women in professional wrestling? Never, that’s when. Live (as all the best wrestling is; register here) and refereed by S-Quire Johnson. 5:00pm.

Libraries & Education Day
A separate track for librarians and educators (register here) on Friday, 14 May, with keynote speaker Jeff Smith kicking things off at 9:00am and a full day of programming following.

Of particular note are a mingle session with reps/creators of Scholastic Canada, Penguin Random House, Harper Collins, Fantagraphics, and Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group + First Second (12:30pm to 1:30pm) and Comics Publisher Speed-Dating with a series of quick presentation on new releases from NBM/Papercutz, Renegade Arts Entertainment, Highwater/Portage & Main, and Arsenal Pulp Press (4:00pm to 5:00pm).

Naturally, there’s lots of other sessions during the day about the kinds of material that comics in the classroom excel at, but librarians and teachers making contact with the creators and publishers behind the comics has been, in my experience, a uniquely fruitful thing.

Spam of the day:

Every person who did this 30-second trick after brushing their teeth, experienced a dramatic rejuvenation of their gums AND rebuilt their teeth…

Or you could just floss. It’s easy, it’s cheap, it saves you a mountain of headaches — some literal — and doesn’t require to mix three common household ingredients (why do I get the feeling two of them are ammonia and bleach?).

One of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my purchases of comics was waiting until the March trilogy was complete, as it gave me the chance to purchase all three at once from Nate Powell at MoCCA, and tell him how much his work meant to me. It was a quiet moment at the table, nobody else looking to buy or talk for about ten minutes, and the respect that Powell had for his creative partners Andrew Aydin and Congressman¹ John Lewis suffused the entire conversation.

Powell will forever be associated with March² — rightly so — but he’s done plenty of work on his own for years. For those that need a quick primer, you can find a exploration of how fashion (in the sense of what we want our clothes to convey about us) ties into toxic masculinity and fascism, or maybe a look at people for whom global warming is neither abstract nor in the future. There’s a strong tendency towards thoughtful consideration of complex issues, and a sense of seeking justice in Powell’s work, and all of it resonates with emotional heft, not least because of his tendency towards abstract, implied panel gutters (check out the page previews here, here or here, you’ll see what I mean immediately).

And with a new collection of comics essays³, Powell is talking about his work, the message he wants to share, and the world he wants to see. Save It For Later is the book of the month at The Nib (buy it from them and you’ll get a signed bookplate, while they last), and they’ve got a talk with Powell up at their YouTube channel. Also: Powell in conversation with Eleanor Davis (courtesy of Politics & Prose), and an upcoming Q&A with the Monroe County [Indiana] Public Library on Sunday, 16 May at 2:00pm EDT (register here).

That ten minutes that I spent talking with Powell was an experience that I still think back on — it’s the sort of conversation that makes you want to think hard about things and make decisions that will bend the arc of your life in directions that benefit others. Check out the interviews he’s done, sign up for the session in ten days, and see if it doesn’t lead you in some new directions (which may or may not involve good trouble).

Spam of the day:

Scientists at the Dental Study Institute in New Jersey have quickly run some tests and CONFIRMED the mixture is legit and that it indeed eliminates cavities in a very short time. [emphasis original]

There is no “Dental Study Institute” in New Jersey. There is a Dental Studies Institute, but they don’t have scientists; they are an instructional company that teaches dental practice personnel required continuing education courses. The only test they’re running is on the students, to determine if they learned enough about herpes to get their 5 CEUs.

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¹ And strong contender for Greatest Living American Of The Past Century, alongside Mr Rogers and Dolly Parton.

² And, undoubtedly, Run once it releases.

³ I’m still waiting for my copy, which is also your occasional reminder that Diamond’s entire comics distribution business is extraordinarily craptacular.

The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (hereinafter: “The Billy”) has an upcoming event that is free, but strictly capacity limited, for Saturday, 15 May at 2:00pm EDT. It’s a comics drawing workshop with Hyejeon Jeon, recently graduated from OSU with her MFA, and working as a freelance illustrator while doing comics (not all of which are available in English, sorry!).

Okay, so there’s lots of comics-drawing workshops from The Billy, or CAM, or similar organizations. Why did this one catch my eye? Because of the primary medium participants will be asked to work with, which makes for an interesting rule, and as was established on this page way back in small times, rules prompt creativity¹.

The rule is that these comics will be drawn on sticky notes. Small space, but you can move them around and see new ways to make the story work. The object of the workshop is to produce a mini adventure story, but before that you’ll stretch your creative muscles with sticky note drawing games.

Registration is strictly limited to 25, so hop on that quickly if you want in. The session isn’t being recorded, but if it’s popular (and if it produces a deep enough waitlist), maybe the folks at The Billy can run it again or even make it recurring. It looks like a lot of fun, and you have to respect any workshop that includes on its list of things to bring:

• Sticky notes or note cards (any small pieces of paper works!)
• Your trusty pen or pencil.
• Optional: tea and snacks because one cannot create on an empty stomach.

They get me. All skill levels welcome, recommended for those 16 and up.

Spam of the day:

Recently, I have figured out that you are a big fan of porn and enjoy watching “XXX movie”. I think you know what I mean … I have managed to edit a few clips, where you eagerly cum, and I have included the films you were watching while masturbating. You transfer $1750 USD in Bitcoin equivalent to me and I once the payment is received, I will immediately delete all the evidence against you. So, here is my Bitcoin wallet: 1NTAPV7fYhWqNjwZmaDnJwdCSUSCYS6fhF

Okay, so 1) Everybody watches porn; b) I don’t have a webcam on the computer that I use for watching porn, and the webcam on the other computer is covered by a hard plastic shutter; III) I’m publishing your fakemoney wallet so that people can flood you with requests for money and fractions of fractions of fakecoins until you are so bothered you decide to leave behind your life of petty scamming and resolve to be a better person, maybe join a youth group or something. Otherwise, fuck off.

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¹ I swear to you that it is a coincidence that the linked post is from exactly 15 years ago. Weird how life works out sometimes, innit?

Also, I may have been doing this for too long.

Some of my favorite webcomics are autobio (possibly fake autobio), or are autobio-inspired fiction, at least at their beginning. Even if the creator doesn’t do work that’s even vaguely autobiographical, drawing on personal history (and the realness of feelings thereunto) can enrich fictional characters, bringing them to life in ways that completely made up folks don’t necessarily have. Learn to tell the story of yourself is bound up with learn to tell your own stories¹.

Which is why this caught my eye:

Learn how to transform your personal experiences into visual narratives in our new Comics Journaling workshop. Next session is Sun., Apr. 25, with special guest @hiHelloHans — writer, digital creative, and lifelong maker of auto-bio comics.
More info at http://guestlist.co/events/680421.

That from the Twitterfeed of the fine folks at the Cartoon Art Museum, San Francisco, who are running a series of online seminars aimed at teens (let’s say 14+) and adults who are creative-minded and comics-loving. You don’t have to be a great artist to do autobio! Take a look at Harvey Pekar’s stick figures, which certainly lack the polish of his art partners, but which still express the personal viewpoint that was at the heart of all of his stories.

We’re halfway through the CAM seminar series; Cartooning My Day and Cartooning My Life took place on 11 and 18 April, respectively. Sunday, 25 April will be Cartooning My World, and Sunday, 2 May will be Cartooning My Self; each seminar starts at 4:00pm PDT, runs for an hour and a half, and costs US$20. Reservations have to be made by 5:00pm PDT the previous day, with links sent to participants no later than 2 hours before start time. Speaking of time, be on time, as nobody will be admitted more than 10 minutes after start time.

And while programs like this will be more effective in person once the pandemic isolation ends, I can’t help but think that making at least some programming of this nature available online will make the outreach and education offered by CAM (and other institutions) much broader than it would be otherwise.

There’s countless people that live a world away from San Francisco that would jump at the chance for some of the workshops CAM offers, but which are restricted by time, distance, and room capacity. Here’s hoping everybody makes an effort to include them in the future.

Spam of the day:

This weird-looking food reverses dementia
Though bizarre, Harvard researchers have discovered a shocking link between your sleep and the onset of Alzheimer’ s.The big question is – do you sleep on your side or on your back?
Dr. Will Mitchell, DOM, MS Nutrition

Make up your mind! Are you going to steal my identity by promising a food that cures dementia (first line, signature of fake nutritionist) or by promising a positional cure for Alzheimer’s (bit in the middle). It’s not too much to ask that you keep your bullshit stories straight instead of intermixing them.

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¹ I’m thinking at the moment of a young adult of my acquaintance who’s got a universe of family stories to tell; they just need to set pencil to paper and tell them. Your Naruto-inspired pseudomanga epic? Million of those. Your story of you is unique.

I mean, I love Wes Anderson’s movies as much as anybody, but here at Fleen the words French and dispatch mean that Fleen Senior French Correspondent Pierre Lebeaupin has news for us from The Continent. Take it away, FSFCPL!

On the 13th of January 2018, Boulet made it publicly known he was interested in working in animation in Los Angeles. Heh, I should point him to Natalie Nourigat, who famously wrote the comic book on the matter¹ … I thought. Wait a minute, didn’t she also famously tell us not to let fear stop us from traveling based on her time in Europe and France in particular? Could it be that … nah, that’s too far fetched; OK, I will make a check on her web presence solely to alleviate any doubt: there I should be able to quickly find elements to disprove that theory …”

And that is how I found out about Natalie and Boulet: as if the fact she was treating it as an open secret on her own social media presence wasn’t enough, I quickly found incriminating photo evidence anyway.

Boulet had been telling us for some time already of his long-distance relationship with his girlfriend, of which we only knew that she works at Disney, and how he was able to live with her in Los Angeles for sessions of about three months, which I assume were bound by the limits of a tourism visa. That made sense: vacation time is notoriously limited in the US, even at Disney, while on the other hand Boulet as a comic book creator can work from pretty much anywhere.

There had also been hints of him being restless and dissatisfied with what he could do in comics, both artistically and career-wise: for instance, he has never shied away from expressing his solidarity with the self-publishing movement, but couldn’t see himself following the same path.

In the years since, he has worked a day job in a studio). Created animations on his own. Built up his portfolio. Kept going to Los Angeles whenever he could. And worked on his visa application.

And then came the March that never ended.

After a few months, once it became clear that international travel restrictions wouldn’t be lifted unless and until vaccination were widespread, the campaign Love Is Not Tourism was able to make inroads and convince some countries to allow travel for people who could show evidence of being in a transnational relationship.

Evidently, the US with their then-current administration was not moved. But that kind of cruelty was not enough for them, as they went as far as to summarily crush the hopes of the few whose visa applications had been able to proceed, without warning (look for hell).

In the end, she had to take a leave from work and come to France (who was more receptive to their plea) so they would be able to rejoin, even though he was much more mobile work-wise. They had to take that opportunity to get married in these conditions (which meant limited attendance, among other constraints) so that they wouldn’t depend on the goodwill of Bloody Mary to see one another in the future.

Then a new administration took power despite violent attempts to the contrary, and as March looped back into March he was finally able to come back the the US, and I believe their marriage ought to be enough to allow him to stay there, resume looking for work, and generally live the dream.

Congratulation, Gilles and Natalie. Your travails may not be over, but you definitely won a big battle and have earned some rest and time together, and I wish you all the possible happiness for years and years to come.

Last minute: Angoulême just cancelled for 2021. Given current guidance from French authorities, and how the EU has been having trouble effectively securing vaccine production, this isn’t surprising; for instance, earlier this week Japan Expo Paris just announced their own cancellation. It’s unclear what will happen to the Grand Prix for 2021, which was supposed to be announced at that time.

Thanks to FSFCPL for his sleuthing-out of the story, and congrats to the happy couple finally having love win out over the great orange idiot.

Spam of the day:

[large block of Korean text] (BTC Wallet): 1EwKoVaiFm4rXtHynT8X5qE1RVhJVBxwC4 [large block of Korean text].

That’s the first time I’ve gotten the Saw you whacking off through the webcam you don’t have, pay me US$1500 in Bitcoin blackmail scam in a different character set. Oh but look! A Bitcoin wallet ID in Latin characters! It would be a shame if it got flooded with bogus traffic. Yep, just a real shame.

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¹The link is slightly anachronistic: back then it existed only as a digital download on Gumroad.

One good, one bad today.

• Let’s start with the good news! Jeff Smith has been a webcomicker since before there were webcomics; when BONE started, indie self-publishing basically was webcomics, ging direct from creator to audience, without editorial or corporate intermediation. For a while in the past decade, he was a webcomicker literally, with a little project called Tüki: Save The Humans, which updated a couple times a week at his website, and was collected into a couple of floppy comic reprints. It won an award along the way that I was of two minds about, but then again — so was Smith.

  But Smith’s been prone to repetitive-stress injuries, and he was instrumental in the establishment and execution of CXC, which is more than a half-decade of work now, and Tüki’s planned hiatuses stretched longer and longer. He’s just a draw-an-issue kind of guy, not draw-three-pages-a-week.

  Or at least he was — from an announcement today:

  And now this year, the 30th anniversary of BONE #1, I’m going to announce my newest self-published project: Tüki: Fight For Fire [transcribed from video]

  No more webcomickin’, no more single-issue-at-a-timin’, Smith’s done Tüki as a full-length graphic novel that is all ready to go for a July release (which would have been a nice SDCC debut, had there been an SDCC), the actual 30th anniversary month. But because he and publisher/wife/general boss of a person Vijaya Iyer absorbed lessons about the webcomics model and Kickstarter and all of it nearly a decade ago, Smith’s doing something new: T:FFF will be Kickstarted. The campaign goes up on 4 May (mark your calendars), and I imagine we’ll get more details on the book between now and then.

• A’course, in a good news/bad news situation, there’s always got to be bad news, and hooooboy is this one bad:
  

  COVID-19 vaccine site in Northern California closing for two days to host anime event

  What.

  One Facebook commenter suggested SacAnime labeled its event a “swap meet” rather than the more typical “convention” to circumvent the state’s COVID-19 restrictions. Under the state health department’s reopening framework, convention center events are supposed to remain closed in all counties — but swap meets can proceed at up to 50% of normal capacity in counties classified in the red tier of COVID-19 activity, as Placer is.

  WHAT.

  You know what? Let’s take the most generous possible interpretation and pretend this isn’t causing a disruption to vaccinations. It’s a hell of a stretch, but let’s pretend. Why in the everloving godsdamned fuck are you holding a mass-attendance event at a time when we’re on the verge of a third — hell, maybe fourth — wave of COVID and we’re in a godsdamned race between vaccination and variants? Why are you holding a for-damn-sure superspreader event?

  I saw on Twitter a comment that anybody that wants to go to a con this year should be allowed to, but in doing so they give up the right to attend any for the next year, so that those of us who have prioritized the public good over but I wanna don’t have to put up with them once it’s safe to be in groups again. I think that’s wrong.

  I think it should be three years.

  When this pandemic is over, if you were somebody that just had to have your animes at the expense of everybody else’s safety — or you protested masks because freedom, or you required indoor dining — do yourself a favor and never admit that around me. I’ve had way too many patients that were way too harmed over the past year, it’s your fucking fault, and I will lay upside your head with a Halligan bar and not feel even a little bad about it.

Spam of the day:

Dos and dont’s for a healthy liver

Even more than the fact you’re about to try to steal from me based on bullshit fake science, I’m am offended by your apostrophe use. What the hell are you even trying to do? Fix that shit, will ya?