That’s not fair — like the man sang, Bozo was a freakin’ genius [NSFW lyrics, depdending on where you W]. These people causing me headaches, they’re no Bozos. Let’s focus on some people that could very well fall into the freakin’ genius category and call it a day.

• Awards updates — Kate Beaton was at a wedding, but that didn’t stop her from winning the Harvey Award for Best Online Comics Work (page to be updated Real Soon Now, no doubt) at Baltimore Comic Con. And Kaja & Phil Foglio (with colors by Cheyenne Wright); made it three for three and remain the only people to ever win a Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story. Congrats to Beaton, the Foglios, and Wright.
• The Modern Humor Authority (by Kris Straub) is gone and its domain squatted for good (no link, but I understand it offers a plethora of information about training to be a phlebotomist¹), but nothing that analytically brilliant ever completely goes away. Humor Authority is Straub’s new podcast on the theory and application of what’s funny with Straub and people who commit acts of humor in public on a regular basis — the first episode is now live, with Axe Cop/Bearmaggedon (co-)/creator Ethan Nicolle; it’s a wide-ranging and smart conversation (I keep thinking of Inside the Actors Studio), and I can’t wait to see who else goes into the chair. The best thing I can say about this still-nascent conversation series is that it entirely avoids the famous EB White² aphorism about the analysis of humor³.
• Not that long ago, the notion of “game related to webcomic” was a rarity. In the past few weeks, we’ve seen an Axe Cop expansion to Munchkin and a campaign to make a piratey boardgame, and now a new Kickstarter for a new card game. Difference — instead of being inspired by webcomics work, or the work of a webcomics creator, Borogrove is a card game that first appeared as a game within Kory Bing’s Skin Deep, and now might make the leap to actually being A Thing.

  Actually, that “might” is a bit more tentative that it should be, considering we’re three (3) days into the 30 day campaign and Bing has already raised (as of this writing) US$4459 of the $5500 required (or 81% of goal in 10% of time). I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the 500 decks are going to be made, and maybe a few extra. Those interested can check out the rules for Borogrove here.

• Side note: I picked up Gunnerkrigg Court Volume 3: Reason at my local comic shop last week, which led to an obsessive re-reading of all three books (and shortly, the couple of chapters since the third volume). Damn, Tom Siddell knows how to plant story hooks. I thought I was a pretty keen observer of life at the Court, but it’s only in reading the whole thing in a narrow timeframe that you really see how much he’s planned, and how many questions are yet to be answered. Wonderful stuff.

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¹ Really.

² The other one, not the webcomics-snarky one.

³ Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it.

Re: in the rundown of comics-related awards in yesterday’s post, I neglected to mention that the Hugo Awards are this weekend, but Christopher Baldwin reminded me in a comment. One might argue that the Hugos aren’t really comics awards, but some of our own — Howard Tayler, Professora & Professor Foglio — have been nominated in the category of Best Graphic Story, and we at Fleen wish them luck. Also, if anybody in Reno is reading this, find out if Howard’s still got the accent of doom¹.

• There are words in this next bit that I thought would never appear on this blog. See if you can guess what they are!
  

  Death At Your Door is just past a year old so we’re celebrating with an extra large strip with a killer recipe for head cheese.

  DAYD (last mentioned about six months back, in the context of noting how it’s a product of its place²) creator Rod Salm wasn’t kidding. Yum?

• Taking another dip into the past, SMASH was last mentioned about a year back, as creators Chris and Kyle Bolton were getting the first story arc (or “season”) ready for print, which gave them time to work up the second. With all that prep behind them, Season Two is ready to launch on Thursday 25 August; in the meantime, Season One has been replaying at the breakneck pace of a page a day, and is ready for your review so you’re all caught up. Go crazy.
• Want to know what I’ve been enjoying recently? Some longformish story webcomics in English, but done from outside the North Atlantic POV. I’ve been pointed to not one, but two webcomics from the eastern side of the Mediterranean, both of which are just far enough outside the everyday life/cultural reference points as to be really intriguing. Originally from Turkey (but currently residing in SoCal), Cihan Sesen offers up dystopian future sci-fi over at Spine: Blindknot; the comics themselves have a Moebius-like feel (unsurprising, as Sesen studied French before English), but with a sensibility that comes straight from his hometown of Istanbul.

  You ever been to ‘Stambul? Never changes. Bad old town. William Gibson wrote in one of his novels. I’m not so sure about the “bad” part, but I get what he was getting at. Much like New Orleans isn’t really part of modern America (it’s a damn sight older than America, and gives up its old ways kicking and screaming), it’s just New Orleans, Istanbul isn’t part of Europe, or even part of Turkey — whatever name the city has held at various times over the last couple thousand years, it’s always been apart and different and self-sustaining.

  The modern (or future) world can try to invade all it likes, but Istanbul will always be Istanbul, and it will give up its secrets and habits only long enough to convince you it’s changed. That sense of otherness — of thinking something is familiar and yet knowing in the far-back part of your brain how wrong you are — pervades Spine: Blindknot. It’s an unpredictable ride, one that not everybody will enjoy being on.

  And you know where you’ve got a set of traditions stretching back futher than Istanbul? Lebanon. Malaak is on the surface a superhero (actually, superheroine) story, but it’s really about Lebanon and the things that make it what it is. The title character gets her powers to protect the land and its people from Lebanon’s ancient guardians, who turn out to be the cedar trees that are so associated with the country.

  Creator Joumana Medlej takes her time exploring all of the mythic creations found in her homeland, characterizing the heroic stories of the past in the idioms of the present. Surely anybody that’s lived in Beirut in the past few decades can be excused for thinking that warfare and struggle never cease, but Medlej takes that theme a little more literally — forget militias and factions, there’s always been a battle for the heart and soul of Lebanon, and not all the combatants are human.

  What both of these comics have in common, more than geography, is the ability to take traditions, histories, worldviews that would be completely foreign to almost all of their potential audience, and make them understandable via storytelling styles that anybody that reads comics will find familiar. “Endowed with powers by the Cedars of Lebanon to protect the people and the land” is no more outlandish than “strange visitor from another world upholding Truth, Justice, and the American Way”, after all. Comics is its own language, one which any human tongue or culture can build upon; I expect we’ll be seeing a lot more creators like Sesen and Medlej in the future.

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¹ That strip may feature the highest ratio of Stompy Boots per panel ever; it’s a good thing Howard and Jennie like each other, or they could do some serious damage.

² That would be Manitoba. Beautiful city out on the prairie.

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

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

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

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

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

  Steve Troop wrote:
  Hi Gary!

  I guess he does!

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

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

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

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

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

From the twitterfeed of one Mister Chris Onstad:

New Achewood fanflow piece up. Hiatus end draws near, but here’s some Smuckles for you: http://bit.ly/dnX2v [empahsis mine]

We approach, in approximately seven weeks time, the tenth anniversary of Philippe standing on it and the launch of something that would eventually blow all our minds¹. Even if Onstad himself doesn’t feel that the strip really began until the introduction of three cats named Ray, Pat, and Roast Beef, we’re coming up on something numerically significant, and the end of the hiatus in close proximity to such an anniversary is making me take Emergency Mind Blow Prevention steps. For those of you utilizing the AssetBar premium content interface, there is apparently Smuckleness to be had. That can’t ever be a bad thing.

• Speaking of significant numbers, how do you like zeros? Say, three of them in a row at the end of an ordinal number indicating sequence of updates? Kel MacDonald joins the Four Digit Club today with Sorcery 101 #1000.
• Finally, for those of you looking to spend next spring in a west-coast mode, registration for the 2012 Stumptown Comics Fest opened today; Stumptown’s been one of the fastest-growing, smartest-run, and well-curated shows on the circuit for the past half-decade or so, and one that I must find a way to attend one of these days. It’s just there’s this whole country between me and Portland, dammit.

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¹ Thinking on early Achewood, those that saw the brilliance early on, and its enduring popularity among webcomics creators, I’m reminded of when Brian Eno remarked, Only five thousand people ever bought a Velvet Underground album, but every single one of them started a band.

Not on the MoCCA website, near as I can tell, but sent to me presumably because I’m on their press list: a comment on the 2012 MoCCA/Stumptown situation. Since it’s in the form of a letter to a non-specific recipient, I’m reproducing it here.

Dear Friends in Comics,

Next year our 2012 MoCCA Fest will fall on April 28-29, which of course also falls on the same weekend as Stumptown Comics Fest. For the last decade, both festivals have provided the opportunity to annually spotlight independent talent and alternative press exhibitors, with increasing success.

As many who have organized events can attest, it can be a difficult thing to get a venue in New York, or anywhere else, for that matter. I speak from personal experience, having coordinated the MoCCA Fest for the last two years from a volunteer capacity before signing on to the museum full-time. Ultimately, we needed to shift from our original tentative dates for MoCCA Fest 2012 to make it most attainable for our exhibitors and attendees. Was the change in dates unexpected? Definitely. Was it deliberately planned that way? Definitely not. Please keep in mind that even towards the very end of our negotiations, we still felt we would be able to keep our initial planned dates.

It is not, not would it ever be our intention to create a conflict of show dates, which benefits no one. Going forward, it is MoCCA’s intention to work directly with Stumptown to jointly address any questions that may arise from the overlap. You may be surprised with the solutions two coasts can come up with.

We do apologize if this puts a wrench into anyone’s plans to tour, exhibit, or attend both conventions– and we will work to address anyone’s concerns. To echo Indigo Kelleigh, unfortunate scheduling will not impact the quality of our Fest; you will still be able to expect great exhibitors, programming and attendance all weekend.

We look forward to seeing another banner year for both the MoCCA Fest and Stumptown Comic Fest next year, and thank you all for your support!

It’s signed by Jack Walsh, Museum Manager, which makes it about as official as you could hope. Would have been nice to see it a few days ago, but props to MoCCA for acknowledging the awkwardness of the situation. Here’s hoping that 2013 works out more smoothly.

Time to open up the ol’ Oxford Fleenic Dictionary, see what’s new in the language

• class·y [klăsˈē]
  Over the weekend it was announced by MoCCA that registration for next year’s Fest was open, but also that there was a change of date; the previously-announced 14-15 April, 2012 had become 28-29 April. Wee problem: that’s the same weekend as the long-since-announced Stumptown Comics Fest across the country in Oregon, and a week before TCAF. A lot of indy creators that might have done both MoCCA and Stumptown will now have to choose, and even those on the East Coast will have to decide if they want to be in New York or Toronto in the spring.

  After a weekend of speculation as to whether or not the MocCA people knew they were stepping into a particularly busy period of time (there’s no mention of it on their website, and consensus ran to “no”), Indigo Kelleigh (showrunner for Stumptown) stepped up with an announcement:

  I just wanted to state for the record, that I know the difficulties in arranging for a venue for an event of this size, and more often than not our own final dates are dictated by the venue’s availability moreso than our desired schedule. I can’t assign any malice to this announcement on the part of the MoCCA organizers, and I hope nobody else does, either.

  It is going to be a challenge for small press exhibitors, and obviously many will need to choose at which of the two shows to exhibit. Having two shows on the same weekend obviously removes one of them from many exhibitor’s schedules, and for those who rely on the convention circuit for income and promotional opportunities, this will clearly have an impact on their bottom line. To that end, we’re looking forward to working with the organizers of the MoCCA Art Fest to find ways to minimize that impact.

  The spring season has become crowded with conventions all over the continent, and I do look forward to continuing to communicate with the organizers of other conventions like MoCCA, TCAF, SPACE, SPX, Emerald City Comicon, STAPLE!, and APE to help ensure that scheduling conflicts like this don’t arise to inconvenience the exhibitors, or attendees, in the future.

  It would be nice to see a similar announcement at the MoCCA, but as has been noted here in the past, that show has been less organized in the years since it left the Puck Building for the Armory, and we may or may not see MoCCA get their act together. In the meantime, Stumptown opens for registration in a week, a bunch of creators have some decisions to make, and Indigo Kelleigh should be acknowledged for being the pro that he is.

• in·spir·ing [ĭn-spīrˈĭng]
  A wee tweet from Vera Brosgol (whose Anya’s Ghost retains my Best of 2011 designation even after the summer releases) caught my eye yesterday:

  I wrote a piece about my life for the Wall Street Journal Speakeasy blog

  You should read it, as it’s a nicely done bit about finding who you are is sometimes an awful lot like who you used to be, and that’s not such a bad thing. I particularly enjoyed reading Brosgol’s essay because it’s not so long now since the Journal ran a remarkably ill-informed opinion piece that essentially shit on the entire contemporary offerings of Young Adult publishing. I can’t say that inviting Vera to have her say is the result of some editor coming to their senses, but it would be nice to think so. In any event, there’s plenty of nonsense for those that desire it, in the form of one of the most amazing comments I’ve ever read. I’m going to quote it verbatim because it is beautiful. In reaction to other comments on Brosgol’s piece:

  Gary Ru wrote:
  You are Mankurts. Thank God that such as you (Mike&Rita) have left my country. Otherwise you would spoil till now in entrances of houses implementing the teenage complexes in powerless hatred to my country. Let your children watch the American cartoons, it’s possible once having something learnt they otmudohayout you by baseball bats as Tom does with Dzheri and will send you na her using the cleanest English language.

  In its own way, it’s also inspiring.

• o·pen bar [ōˈpən bär]
  Well, metaphorically at least. Open Fire!, a new collective of webcomics artists and writers, has launched and is holding a party to celebrate the event. This Saturday, 13 August, at 6:00-8:00pm Pacific (GMT-7), they’ll be broadcasting the festivities here (password: omgcomics), where you’ll be able to meet the creators and mingle with fellow lovers of our chosen artform. Remember: it’s poor etiquette to show up without bringing something, and try not to puke on anybody’s shoes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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¹ Will, and Holly.

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

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

Evan Dahm declared it’s Achewood Fanart Day and kicked it off good. There may be more on Twitter by the time you read this. That would be great. Not only is it Friday, but it’s been a long week and my wife’s out of town which means as soon as I’m out of here I’m in for hell of naps. Let’s hit it.

• Dave Kellett throws book release parties — this is a truth-fact. Once again, his latest book will be dropped onto an eagerly-awaiting world with a fabulous party in Beverly Hills which will feature free booze, free other stuff, two new books and cake bites which are also truffles. Also, he will apparently be premiering the trailer for the documentary (tentatively titled Hot Pen On Paper COMIXXX Action¹) that he and Fred Schroeder have been so hard at work on for a couple of years now.

  One day, I will attend one of these shin-digs². Oh yes, I will.

• Continuing on the theme of Fun Things that rock, everybody knows that The Blams is back, right?
• Last thoughts. The ToonSeum in Pittsburgh decided that just being a museum devoted to cartoons wasn’t geeky enough, so they’re upping their game by hosting monthly nights of geektacular TV. The inaugural event will be on Thursday the 18th, with screenings of The Muppet Show, The Adventures of Pete and Pete, The Simpsons, The Tick, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Mystery Science Theater 3000.

  Future installments will feature shows such as Black Adder, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, Fraggle Rock, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and The The Young Ones, along with classic cartoons. Particulars (which episodes, which version of the The Tick and Battlestar, etc) haven’t been announced yet, but they have said that MST3K will be the closer each night³.

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¹ Not really, but I’d kick in a significant chunk of money towards its completion if that were the case.

² Where I’m told one actually goes out back to dig up shins — cartooning and grave defiling have often gone hand in hand, historically speaking.

³ Keep circulating the tapes.

Although it’s only August (and therefore only half over), the one thing that I think it’s safe to say I regret this summer is that I didn’t get a chance to attend a certain class at CCNY and get to see Aaron Diaz¹ teach a class full of college students about webcomics. I’ve long admired Diaz’s art process blog, and I was eager (as a practitioner of the instructive arts myself) to see how he would do in front of an audience (if nothing else, he was sure to have the regulation sport coat with leather elbow patches).

While our schedules never meshed, the results of Diaz’s efforts are available to me (and to you) in the form of the webcomics created by his students:

At the end of the course, everyone was given the option to actually publish a webcomic of their as their final, and I’m going to share them here (because, after all, they won’t get the full experience unless someone’s reading their work online)! I highly encourage you guys to contact these artists and provide constructive feedback. Note: these are beginners, most of which have never drawn any comics before this course.

Keeping that in mind, I want to call out the work of Sharon Stokes, who produced a gag-panel comic called ‘Tis Race, for not only having an easy-on-the-eyes style (that is, she didn’t try for art beyond her abilities, and instead polished what she was capable of — I’d expect to see much more elaborate work from her in a year or so), but also for having multiple updates. Most of her fellow students managed a page or two (sometimes much more elaborate), but in only providing the beginnings of a story, it’s tough to see how they might follow through. Stokes put up five different gags with five different directions, which shows a certain flexibility. Plus, this is a legitimately funny joke, one that I’m surprised I’ve never seen before.

As for the rest — since a lot of creators send me links, I see a lot of beginner-level work, and none of what got posted by the class is on the low end of the beginner talent spectrum. As far as being interesting enough to make me check back without a reminder, Leon McKoy’s Desert Raine caught my eye; if none of the others did, well, I can count on one hand the number of single-update beginner-level webcomics that have over the past ten years, so no real failing there. Art will be refined, story beats will get more subtle, lettering, coloring, and spelling will all improve. With any luck, there will be more classes like this at CCNY, and we’ll be able to see the progression of these students and those in the future.

Also on the theme of lessons: Daniel Davis, maker of comics, prints, postcards, and the like, has shared some lessons learned over a half-decade of exhibiting at San Diego Comic Con, and he’s willing to share them with you. Key points you might want to pay attention to:

• Davis has run a profit each year at SDCC
• He’s also improved gross sales each year at SDCC
• He has a keen eye for things that could be done better (booth layout, payment solutions, visual appeal)
• He’s got the number of everybody that’s ever wondered, Should this be a shirt?:
  

  If you want to make a whole lot of money at the con, make prints/t-shirts based on a famous property that you don’t own, or mashup two hot properties. You’ll get some quick sales for sure.

  But I wouldn’t recommend it; it’s a short-term gain with no brand-building. You’re competing with tons of other folks doing exactly the same thing, it’s not memorable, I predict that eventually the big studios will shut down this sort of activity, and then you’ll have to start from zero all over again.

  It lacks story. “Why did you make X?” Oh, well I’m a fan of X.” That’s a boring story compared to being inspired, excited about your creation.

Read the whole thing, even if showing at a convention isn’t on your immediate list of things to do. There’s a lot of very astute self-analysis there.

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¹ The Latin Art-Throb, naturally.

Did you see this last night? From the twitterfeed of Eisner-award winning webcomicker (he does some other stuff, too) Cameron “Not Kristen Stewart’s brother, dammit”, Stewart:

New new new Sin Titulo!! http://www.sintitulocomic.com/2011/08/02/page-109/

Sin Titulo, of course, the moody, creepy, noir-ish creator-owned webomic that earned Stewart the Eisner last year; it’s been back-burnered for a while now as Stewart worked on various Batman titles, a Suicide Girls miniseries [NSFW, obviously] (once prompting famed Batmanologist Chris Sims to declare The only thing I want to see Cameron Stewart draw more than a naked hipster girl is a fully clothed Batman.) and his Assassins Creed project with studiomate (and current Eisner laureate) Karl Kerschl. But those other projects are either done or not breathing down his neck, and we get to see what a creator at the peak of his game can make when he’s creating for himself instead of drawing somebody else’s IP. Best of all:

[F]inishing Sin Titulo is now a main priority so that it may be published as a print book next year! There are still a few things here and there that might pop up so I’m not quite ready to go full-on 5 days a week just yet, but I will try to manage 3 or 4 updates a week until this whole crazy thing is finished.

HELL. YES.

• Irregular reminder that talented people are making recipe-providing comics over at Saveur magazine. Since we last mentioned the Recipe Comix series some three weeks back, Carly Mondardo has shown you how to hard-cook eggs without overcooking, Becky Dreistadt & Frank Gibson have sunk their Tiny Kitten Teeth into oyakodon, and Ryan North¹ delivers both a chili recipe and a philosophical meditation on the value placed by our society on flexing² within the usual six-panel confines.
• For those of you that were wondering (like me), New England Webcomics Weekend will return in NEWW3, when all is fresh and growth pervades the air:
  

  Webcomics Weekend 3 is on the horizon, but not in 2011. It will take place in early spring next year, just like the first NEWW.

  We organizers are feeling the crunch in ’11, so we’ll need the post-Christmas season to prepare. Sorry to delay things! NEWW3 will be great!

  In matters of NEWW, Meredith Gran equates to “word of God”, so there’s the answer. Much as I want NEWW3 to happen in a couple of months/next week/yesterday, already, I’d rather wait another couple months and have the show retain its laid-back magic feel than have it rushed and be a hassle for the organizers³. Block it out on your calendars, and see you there.

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¹ See also: Toronto Man-Mountain, The.

² Where “our society” really means “a society of sentient dinosaurs and tiny women”. For more on flexing, please consult the internet.

³ Especially if “hassle for the organizers” means that Gran wouldn’t have time to put together Octopus Pie updates like the one that dropped this week. Those panicked eyes hidden under the blanket are perfect.