“I’m sure Jeph Jacques was responsible.”

WIth those damning words, Sam Logan laid responsibility for his difficulties getting to SDCC squarely at the feet of his greatest rival. What should have been a routine trip from Logan’s home in British Columbia to the airport in Bellingham, Washington was fatally compromised by “delays at the border”, which caused Logan to miss the only flight of the day to San Diego, and necessitated a 2000km roadtrip, accomplished in 22 hours. Reached for comment that his minions had been responsible for the delays at the US-Canadian border, Jacques said, “I wouldn’t say that they were officially my minons.”

In less menacing news, Fleen can confidently report:

• The various members of Dumbrella met the public in their annual roundtable session, with an emphasis on the changes to their work and working styles — Jon Rosenberg has shifted his focus from continuity storytelling to new creations each week; Andy Bell has worked with a top corporation to bring a mascot to 3D life; Chris Yates has partnered with a major manufacturer of puzzles to bring his designs to the mass market; Meredith Gran has done a very similar thing in compiling her self-published books into a new compendium via a top-line publisher; and Rich Stevens remains Rich Stevens, bouncing from project to project and becoming a one-man movie/TV costumer’s supply shop.

  The other practical upshot of the session: working on items that gain a mass-market consciousness is that they can take over your identity. To a degree, Rich Stevens is now known as “the Scott Pilgrim shirt guy”, Andy Bell as “the Android guy”, and Chris Yates as “the poop sign guy” (all of which items are available for purchase at the Dumbrella booth, #1337; NB: Fleen is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dumbrella Hosting. This disclaimer may contain forward-looking statements that should not be relied upon as definitive guidance; consult a financial professional before making any investing decisions, and see a doctor if you experience erections lasting more than four hours).

• Kazu Kibuishi has the most adorable and good-natured child in southern California, and possibly the entire time zone. Impressively, before I could even offer to come back later when he didn’t have an armful of offspring, he sketched and signed my copy of Flight 7 while holding his infant son in the other arm. This will someday be known as the “Juni Maneuver” and will eventually form one of the qualifying tests for the Master Comics Artist certification.
• Ever wonder what WOWIO (no link) was doing with all the money it wasn’t paying to webcomickers for a very long time (although, to be fair, they have paid up since)? Me too. Thank goodness it wasn’t anything frivolous like saving up for a party yacht.
• The TopatoCo party was more fun than a crowd of webcomickers & webcomics fans plied with overflowing platters of little hamburgers and tiny hot dogs, and beer and champagne in abundance. No, wait, that’s exactly how much fun it was, with Jeff Rowland and Sam Logan holding court at a banquette piled high with books for the early part of the party, and a general migration to the nominally fenced-in porch in the latter portion.

  It was from this vantage point that the Scott Pilgrim party bus was observed to arrive at the same venue, as even fancy-pants Hollywood types want to be as close to a TopatoCo party as possible (it’s rumored but unconfirmed at this time that Michael Cera tried to crash, but was turned back by TopatoCo’s hired goons).

  Making it past the goons was Hope Larson, who dropped some tantalizing hints about her magical girl graphic novel (with Tintin Pantoja on art) and A Wrinkle in Time adaptation, due in 2012 and 2013; it’s a bit early in the process to be entirely certain, but at this point it’s about 98% certain that both of these books will continue the trend of each Hope Larson project somehow managing to be even better than the one before it.

Up today: the Nappy Hour panel with Keith Knight, Spike, and Dwayne McDuffie (10:30 in room 3; by the time you read this you should be heading up there); the Nicholas Gurewitch panel (3:30 in room 5AB) and the Archaia panel (6:30 in room 9; Tom Siddell of Gunnerkrigg Court, whom I spoke to only briefly at the TopatoCo party, will be part of the panel).

Okay, gang — with onsite WiFi still indeterminate, cell tethering that needs additional work, a hotel that doesn’t feature free network connections, and 6000 people in the Scott Pilgrim line between me and the press office, my webcomics reading this week is going to be severely backlogged. With luck, postings will go up when I want them to, and at worst you’ll have to wait a bit for photos. I’m confident that you will deal.

• So Spike found herself talking with one Mr Morgan Spurlock (of Super Size Me fame) on preview night — he’s doing a film on Comic-Con and doing lots of interviews this week. Although she’s under an NDA, she was able to tell me that she spent about 15 minutes talking to Spurlock and 15 more getting pictures taken. She probably won’t know until the movie comes out if any of her footage made it in.

  She also (probably wisely) declined my offer of a dollar to reenact the “Black Rage” speech from Chasing Amy for the cameras. Asked to sum up the experience, she offered, “I had a good feeling [about the interview]; it didn’t feel like a, ‘Holy shit, look at the freaks movie’.”

• Details forthcoming when the formal press release hits, but Phil Foglio informs us of big happenings with Girl Genius. In addition to a series of digest-size reprints (each comprising three regular volumes, in a smaller trim size and keeping the full color), there will be a novelization series and an audiobook series. Much is still up in the air — like who will read/act out the adventures of Agatha Heterodyne — but all in all, these moves promise to spread Girl Genius into new audiences in a reasonably ambitious manner.
• Finally, in a bold move to expand the TopatoCo empire, Jeffrey Rowland crossed no-man’s land and staked out an extraterritorial claim on the unoccupied SMBC / Cyanide & Happiness booth. Reportedly, SMBC honcho Zach Weiner had difficulty obtaining his exhibitor badge (which perhaps would have allowed him access to the exhibit hall in time to challege the TopaptoCan claim) and the C&H guys were nowhere to be found (possibly due to nefarious reasons).

  Having negotiated his way onto foreign booth-soil by means of both persuasion and compulsion, Rowland obtained for himself treaty rights to the underoccupied booth and planted his flag. When Weiner raised protests regarding his treatment, Rowland was heard to exclaim, “Payback! It’s reparations!” Weiner was then herded onto a reservation and provided with smallpox-infected blankets.

Coming later today: the Dumbrella panel, 11:30am in room 3, to be moderated by yours truly. Also, we’ll crack open the web of intrigue that attempted — and failed! — to keep Sam Logan out of the US and away from the show. Could his longtime nemesis Jeph Jacques have been involved? Come back to find out.

For those who care, you can find me in these places, or else out bothering webcomickers in acts of almost-journalism, and politely stalking a last few artists for my “Beards and Moustaches” sketchbook (I’m thinking the next theme will have to be “Dinosaurs” — which means that Ryan North can draw exactly the same thing in the new book, minus the moustache). When in doubt, try under the big Webcomics banner or the Dumbrella booth (#1337). Also, please be aware that posting will be at weird times this week — I’m going to experiment with posting multiple times during the day, but that won’t always work out.

• I’d just like to note that if you’re going to be stuck in Newark Airport for a delayed flight, you could hardly have better company than School Bites creator Holly G and her husband, Jim Balent [that link SFW, after that you’re on your own]. Ms G and I have always seemed to be on the same EWR-SAN flight each year, which possibly means that we’re destined to be super-best-buddies or something.
• News of the first day: the aforementioned Webcomics Section will be getting distributed.
• Oh, that’s just … it’s just wrong that I laughed at today’s Dr McNinja. Chris and Carly, you are very, very bad (and funny) people
• Finally, Dave Kellett joined the 3000 Strip Club. I constructed that sentence purely for the confusion of future search-bots and historians. Chapter Six of the definitive Dave Kellet biography (copyright 2206) will contain a lengthy digression on the contrast between his family-friendly comics and his preferred leisure-time activities.That’s what you get for trusting Future Wikipedia, Future Historians!

Okay, time to head to the Convention Center. Pray for Mojo.

Assuming this posts when it’s supposed to, I’m on my way to San Diego, and the yes-there-are-still-a-few-comics-there convention therein. Since I haven’t hit dirt in sunny California yet, I’m not 100% certain what’s going to catch my eye, but consider the following a primer, if you will, of things available in Webcomics Land, which will be purchased by me and probably should be by you.

• First priority: Octopus Pie: There Are No Stars in Brooklyn; inexplicably, I failed to pre-order this, so my first task will be to remedy that error.
• Chainsawsuit 3 and F-Chords; yes, and double yes.
• Drive — A Hero Rises; I’ve been digging Dave Kellett’s Saturday-only sci-fi comedy, and can’t wait to get my hands on this first collection.
• Flight 7; like there was any question.
• Overcompensating — A Dangerous Obsession; been waiting years for this.
• New Super Stupor! Yessssss.
• Templar book 4; a printer’s screwup prevented these from being at MoCCA this year.
• Penny Arcade book 6; when the hell did that come out oh man I am slipping.
• Oh, and there’s an obscure little indy book called Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour, perhaps you’ve heard of it? On that note, what the hell, nearest large bookstore to my house which is a Barnes and Noble? Amazon or Borders would have delivered that book to me today (although not before I got on the plane), and you aren’t getting it in until August 3rd? The used bookstore around the corner from my house will have it by then. Hell, there’s a chance that Borders at EWR had it, and I’m reading it right now instead of in fourteen days.
• On the already got it list: The Infinite Pendergast Cycle, Tiggerbuttah, and pretty much the entire back catalogs of Sheldon, Evil, Inc., PvP, Girl Genius, Shortpacked!, Wondermark and I think I might have a problem you guys.

There’s likely lots of others that I’ll be picking up and I just don’t know it yet — various creators have mentioned “con exclusives” and “special surprises”, and so far I’m only committed to books. There will surely be cool toys from Andy Bell, and Scott Kurtz has one too, and there may be the opportunity to pre-order books that are forthcoming, and there are all sorts of things that I’m certainly forgetting right now. So if I overlooked you, mea culpa, and now’s your chance to sell me something.

Where to start, where to start?

• Latin Heartthrob Aaron Diaz has an art-technique blog now. I’m no kind of artist, but I’m fascinated by what he’s had to say.
• Final tally on the Web-Comics Auction for the Gulf: $3867, if my math is correct (and rounding off those pesky cents). Well done, all the bidders; thanks for your generosity, contributing artists; and big super-special thanks to Carly Monardo for organizing the whole damn thing.
• Final updates have been made to the SDCC Webcomics Find-O-Tron; anybody that didn’t get in updates, you’re on your own.
• Then there’s this: yesterday’s My Cage (link may go away in future; permanent capture here), a newspaper strip, threw out some love to a few webcomics stalwarts. I’m sure that the majority of those that read it in the paper were confused, but for those that decided to do some digging — welcome. Thanks to My Cage creators Ed Power and Melissa DeJesus, and to Phil Foglio for tipping us off.
• Finally, the rumors were (as widely whispered last week) true: Axe Cop and Dr McNinja are teaming up, with Chris Hastings drawing three pages to run at Axe Cop next week, and Ethan Nicolle drawing three more running at Dr McNinja the week after. Even better — the story is a true collaboration between Hastings, and Malachai Nicolle, age 6, and possessor of the wildest comics imagination this side of the DC in Silver Age. This is likely the greatest crossover ever.

How many horribly bodytype-inappropriate Isaiah Mustafa cosplayers do you think we’ll see in San Diego? On the other hand, anybody that manages to cart around a working shower stall will officially win everything.

• With the latest wave of auction completions from the Web-Comics Auction for the Gulf Coast imminent, barring any wild jumps in the last minutes of bidding, guaranteed contributions hit at least $1552.37. Remember that less than a day remains to get originals from the likes of Nedroid and Kate Beaton, and all auctions will close in less than 72 hours.
• Newest confirmed location for San Diego: Tom Siddell at the Archaia booth, #2635; be polite, he’s going to be about seven time zones out of synch.
• I picked up the latest Megatokyo yesterday, and I have to say, I think I’ve got to fundamentally change how I approach this one. I’ve been following MT online for nearly 10 years now, through art and creative team changes, six volumes, four publishers, and I don’t know how many hours of reading, and something’s got to give.

  It’s not the update schedule (Achewood is at least as randomized, and there’s extensive psychological research that says regularity is less compelling than randomly-spaced events that drag us back in when we’re just about to give up) that’s putting me off; it’s not the art, which sometimes features a low enough contrast between foreground and background as to make action hard to follow (my brain can elide over those pages and just continue once the contrast comes back). No, it’s the decompression.

  This latest volume, comprising chapters 9 and 10, which took three years to produce, covers two days worth of story. The one chapter = one day formula means that in the past decade, we’ve seen less than a fortnight’s worth of days where things actually happen. Much like Brian Bendis-scribed comics where storytelling (and especially dialogue) get so stretched out that it takes longer to read a page than the story-time it’s meant to convey, Megatokyo has slowed to the point that I just need something to happen.

  It’s still going to be in my bookmarks; hell, I’m probably going to pick up book 7 whenever that releases — but I’ve turned off the part of my brain that worries where the overall plot is going. I don’t think I’ll get the reward of random, unconnected gags again, and I can certain appreciate the effort that Fred Gallagher obviously puts into each update, but I’m not reading it for the story anymore. And this leaves me curious — anybody else read stuff that they’re disengaged from, but don’t quit entirely? Answers on a postcard.

For example, there’s this, which is totally not related to San Diego — Marvel (yep, that Marvel) is looking for a web software architect, with the relevant description being:

As a Web Software Architect, you will help define the architecture for Marvel’s interactive digital products, consisting primarily of the Marvel.com collection of Web sites and various mobile offerings. You will be involved in the design and development of cutting-edge Web applications, defining system architecture to achieve scalability and reliability goals, and researching new technologies for our evolving business systems.

Which, once translated from jobpostingese (subdialect: I know a bunch of different business phrases and think I can translate that into IT-speak) sounds somewhere between “you just have to overhaul our main site” and “we’re a year or more behind comiXology and LongBox Digital, and you have to catch us up”. Combined with the recent de-Zudafication over at DC, it looks like the big publishers are trying to figure out what they want webcomics to be (which isn’t necessarily what webcomics are). Many thanks to Friend o’ Fleen Brett “Small g, no period dammit” Porter for the story tip.

• Updates to the SDCC Webcomics Locate-o-Tron continue apace, particularly concerning the news that Doug TenNapel tweeted that his booth will be hosting a certain officer of the law with a stick-mounted cleaver.
• Speaking of tweeting, Christopher Hastings mentioned that Some kid named Malachai sent me a story to draw?, which led to much speculation confirmed by Ethan Nicolle: Axe Cop and Dr McNinja team-up!
• Speaking of San Diego, Scott Kurtz promo’ed his show merch debuts, and much as the vinyl figures look awesome, the line that jumped out at me was:
  

  PvP book 8 will be debuting at the show. This is your first chance to pick up the latest volume of PvP and I’m very proud of this collection. It collects all the strips from 2008 and is the first PvP collection I’ve self published since 2001 (more on that at a later date). [emphasis mine]

  That “later date” turns out to be today, as the press release has been seen all over the comics blogosphere today (for example, with Brigid Alverson). Somewhere in my stacks, I still have Kurtz’s previous self-published work, and I always wondered in the back of my head how long it would be before he returned to the world of DIY.

  With a wealth of experience and advice from his studiomates to call on, I imagine that the mechanical presentation will be better than we’ve seen in the past, and since it’s all on him, I suspect that he’ll push himself to a schedule that’s both regular and on a short delay from on-line presentation. Self-publishing can be a headache, no doubt, but every self-publisher I’ve spoken to is pretty glad to have that control.

• Oh, yeah, and there’s the return of The Webcomics Section, this year coordinated by Jorge Cham, who’s so dedicated to the idea of a webcomics-themed giveaway that he did the wrangling work despite the fact that he won’t even be at San Diego. Four pages of four-color goodness on genuine newsprint, yours for the grabbing pretty much anywhere in webcomicland for the duration of the show, or until we run out.

Whew, I think I’ve finally caught up with everything that should have run yesterday. Onwards to things that didn’t crop up over the weekend tomorrow.

• Now available for your purchasing pleasure — Spacetrawler originals at the low, low price of $80, which is a damn bargain, especially considering that the originals are sepia-toned, not just black and white.
• Still running in Portland: Trek in the Park 2; while waiting for Khaaaaaan!! to overact, please enjoy some fanart from the always-interesting Bill Mudron and Mike Russell
• The good folks at the Cartoon Art Musuem wish to remind you that they will be at San Diego Comic Con, booth 1930 (Master List o’ Webcomickers amended to include this fact), and will be running the Fourth Annual CAM Sketch-a-thon Thursday, July 22 through Sunday, July 25, 2010. There’s a huge-ass list of highly skilled cartooners who will be taking part (including more than a few who make regular appearances on this page); for a $10 suggested donation, they will do their absolute best for YOU.
• The Dallas Webcomics Expo is back for a second year of fun come August (God willin’ an the creek don’t rise), and this year they’re adding a charitable component. To benefit the Texas Scottish Rite Hosptial for Children and Bryan’s House, DWEX will be conducting an art auction, and all are welcome to contribute originals within the show guidelines (at least 8″ x 10″, nothing R-rated, pleased). Submission form here, [PDF], and they’d like to physically receive the art by the 12th of next month (or bring it with you if you’re attending).
• Speaking of art auctions, as of time-of-writing, the Web-Comics Auction for the Gulf is sitting at a total of $3031.95, with a little less than two days to go on the first batch of art. Far be it from me to drive The Wedge of Envy between artists, but I am forced to note that at this time, Anthony Clark‘s contribution is currently out-pacing that of Christopher Hastings by fifteen dollars.

  Clark, of course, is the colorist of Dr McNinja, which sort of makes Hastings his boss. Will keeping these bid amounts where they are affect their working relationship? It could! It could destroy their sense of mutual respect and a beloved webcomic at the same time. Somebody better start a bidding war if Dr McNinja is to continue!

• Below the cut is a list of SDCC programming sessions that may be of interest to those working (or seeking to) in webcomickry. Actually, everything tagged webcomics is available here, including some things that are only marginally related to Our Interests. What’s called out are sessions that either weren’t tagged as webcomics-related, or were and I wanted to make sure you saw them.

(more…)

A pair of followups for you all this Monday morning:

• Dale Zak, who you may remember from a fast-moving backlash against an iPhone webcomic-reading app that he released and then almost immediately withdrew, has come back for Try Two.

  This time, his app seems to be more explicitly designed (or perhaps just more accurately described) as an RSS reader, and doesn’t appear to be using the names of webcomics in his promotional blurbs (which had been one of the loudest points of protest last time).

  Given that I don’t have an iPhone/iPad and can’t test-drive the thing myself, it does appear from casual inspection to follow all of the ethical concerns one would want from such an endeavour. Thoughts?

• Also, there’s been a recurring discussion in the community about spec work, particularly a flavor where a “contest” harvests work from lots of creators but may or may not ever pay out. NPR’s On The Media considered the pros and cons of crowdsourcing in a story broadcast this past weekend that’s worth a listen.

In other news, lots of convention news.

• The run-up to San Diego Comic-Con continues apace — programming highlights will be discussed tomorrow, and there are a few more additions to the Webcomics Exhibitors List. In addition, Becky Dreistadt and Frank Gibson appear to be supplementing the (ridiculously underpriced) Tigerbuttah book with Tigerbuttah plushes. Hopefully, Customs doesn’t become so enchanted with these cute lil’ guys that they “confiscate” the entire supply for themselves.
• New Show On The Block Intervention scored a bit of a coup: Molly Crabapple will be bringing Dr Sketchy’s Anti-Art School to the show as both a discussion panel and a full-blown three-hour event with free admission for con attendees. Artists, however, are encouraged to reserve one of the limited (though free) slots at the front of the room, where sketching will be easiest.
• Baltimore Comic-Con will again host the Harvey Awards, with MC duties again provided by Scott Kurtz (who will have to work pretty hard to top his performance last year, which killed). The Harveys announced their nominees, and of interest to webcomics fans are certain names:
  Misery Loves Sherman creator Chris Eliopolous for Best Letterer (for his comic book work)

  Steve Hamaker (with lots of webcomics at his site) for Best Colorist (for his work on BONE)

  Longtime webcomicker Kazu Kibuishi for Best Original Graphic Publication For Younger Readers (for the second Amulet book)

  Flight 6 and ACT-I-VATE, both done by more webcomickers than one can reasonably count (for Best Anthology)

  A.D.: New Orleans After The Deluge (for Best Previously Published Graphic Album, the “previous” being online)

  Oh, yes, and the category for Best Online Comics Work:

  Kate Beaton’s Hark A Vagrant
  Steve Ellis, David Gallaher and Scott O. Brown’s High Moon
  Nathan Schreiber’s Power Out
  Scott Kurtz’s PvP
  Cameron Stewart’s Sin Titulo

Finally, some congratulations are in order:

• To Blank Label Comics for their spiffy new homepage
• To Angela Melick, engineer, webcomicker, and now no longer a planner of weddings

Whew! Is that everything? I think that’s everything. If I missed anything, promise I’ll get to it tomorrow.

Lotta stuff coming up in the immediate future. Let’s dig in.

• Waves of webcomickers are, even now, making their way toward ConnectiCon, including all the fine folks listed here. A pretty significant subset of them will be heading home after the weekend and then promptly u-turning their way cross-continent to San Diego in — urk — eleven days time. Before they do, though, keep an eye out for Super Art Fight, both in Hartford, and in SAF’s secret underground lair of Baltimore next weekend for SAF7.
• Speaking of San Diego, they’ve not only got booth numbers now attached to the exhibitor list (highlights below the cut), but the schedule of events is going up, and it’s personalizable this year. I’m going to be playing around with this a bit this weekend — I’m particularly interested to see if it detects schedule conflicts and lets me know that the BONE panel probably runs over the start of the Dumbrella panel (which I usually get drafted to moderate).
• Also: holy crap, TopatoCo got a new client, and it’s Jhonen freakin’ Vasquez.

Below the cut: as complete a list of webcomics-related folks as I could find. If there are any missing or incorrect entries (especially where people are sharing space), let me know. The small map previously posted fits into the big one here. (more…)