It’s an unusually busy Wednesday. Let’s see what’s doing.

• The annual SPX table lottery hits next week, although there appears to be some confusion. Nothing on the SPX page, but their Twitter account has retweeted people saying the lottery opens on February 12th and runs through the 26th. Last year, the Official Deal About The Lottery went up five days in advance, which means we should have this year’s iteration up, but don’t. If you want to get a table for 2018, I’d check the SPX site daily between now and Monday. Those who make it past the curation/lottery process will be in Bethedsa, Maryland, on 15-16 September.
• Meanwhile, the MoCCA Festival is coming 7-8 April in Manhattan, and details are firming up. Nothing specific on programming yet, and the exhibitors list looks like it might still be for 2018 (it’s missing names of people I know will be there, and there’s a future reference to a book debuting in 2017), but I’d expect all of that to be updated in the next two-three weeks.
• And TCAF, perennial favorite of everybody that’s ever been, comes up quickly after on 12-13 May in Toronto, and they’ve just done their first announcements for this year’s festival. Show posters (by Fiona Smyth and Ho Che Anderson) and featured guests (Anderson and Smyth are joined by fellow Canadians Cecil Castellucci, Michael DeForge, Michael Comeau¹, and Hartley Lin, as well as Eddie Campbell, Audrey Niffenegger, and Ron Wimberly). Given past years, expect the guest list to expand by a factor of three or more, with many more international (especially Japanese) creators to come.
• Not a festival, but still cool: Nick Park, clay animator extraordinaire, will be visiting the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco this Sunday, 11 February, in conjunction with his new movie, Early Man². It’s his first solo directorial effort on a feature-length film, and while there appears to be neither Wallace³ nor Gromit in sight, there will surely be plenty of oversized hands and teeth, and a surfeit of increasingly-elaborate sight gags.

  A presentation on the making of Early Man (featuring the animation leads) runs from 5:00pm to 6:00pm, followed by a conversation between Park and Pete Docter (Up, Inside Out) from 6:30pm to 7:30pm. Admission is free for CAM members, US$25 for the rest.

• New PBF! Take that, people who insist RSS is dead!
• Oh glob, this is entirely me. Randall Munroe has been spying on me, I can tell.

Spam of the day:

Of One whose heart for sinners broke: had a great deal more in it than a Gallery of Palaeontology;

This is, to be honest, more interesting than your subject line’s claim of free, live sex chat. Tell me more about the dinosaurs.

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¹ Not to be confused with also-Canadian Joey Comeau.

² Opening on the 16th; if every showing of Black Panther is sold out, you can still enjoy a trip to the movies!

³ Rest in peace, Peter Sallis.

Let’s take it nice and easy to start this week, this month, this everything.

• Katie Lane¹, legal counsel to the independent arts community, just can’t help helping. In response to an innocent bit of remarking how awesome she is from Steve Lieber, Lane has decided the appropriate action is to be awesomer still:
  

  Seems like maybe a couple people are curious about how creative contracts work. Sooooo…this week I’ll be sharing helpful info abt contracts on my Instagram stories. https://www.instagram.com/contractnerd/

  Make no mistake — this is Lane teaching people how to read contracts, skills that they might otherwise have to pay her to perform (and she likes reading contracts, so it’s a double-win for her when you do). She believes that all are better off when artists can do the simple stuff themselves (and for free), calling her (or her non-union Mexican equivalent) for the more challenging stuff only. Did I mention she’s awesome? Keep an eye on her Instagram this week for helpful tips.

• Speaking of helpful, Katie Lane would like to be helpful and show you how to do stuff in person, and people on both coasts will have opportunities to do so. In Boston, she’ll be at the How Design Live conference in May, and West Coasters can see her in San Francisco at Bond in March.

  Bond is a new conference for internet-living-makers, partially organized by Andy McMillan of XOXO renown. It looks to be a good one, with time set aside for attendees to meet up and work through what they learned in the programming, a breathing space too often absent from conferences. And hey! Jesse Thorn is gonna be there.

• Speaking of events full of cool people, Zach Weinersmith announced dates for the latest iterations of BAH! Fest today. Houston on 17 February (with Rob Den Bleyker), London on 17 March (with Boulet), and MIT on 22 April (with Max Tegmark). Tickets and/or idea submissions available/open now.

Spam of the day:

Plunge And Twist To Clean Paws

Okay, this is actually kind of clever. If only I didn’t have a dog that’s kind of an idiot about having his feet manipulated (which I attribute to racing track PTSD, screw you greyhound racing industry). Your URL isn’t a mass of unintelligible gibberish, but I’m still not clicking on any links. I’ll look for it in the pet store, though.

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¹ Light-ning Law-yer!!

Hey, you know what today is, besides Saint Groundhog’s Day? Yes, yes, it’s Friday, but it’s also a very special Friday for a couple of reasons:

• Ryan Qwantz North, the Toronto Man-Mountain himself, marks fifteen years¹ of moving words around T-Rex, Dromiceiomimus, Utahraptor, a Tiny Woman, and various others (sinister raccoons, sinisterer cephalopods, God, The Devil, Professor Science, Mr Tusks, etc) and thus constructing the world’s most formalist webcomic², Dinosaur Comics. North noted the occasion by, as is his wont, talking about Batman. This also marks the one time you can find a long-running webcomic and say Wow, the art on Day One was just as good as today!
• Two of the key players in the past decade-plus of great comics (and great comics creators) getting a wide audience and critical notice were, themselves, recognized and rewarded for their excellent work. :01 Books announced that Calista Brill and Gina Gagliano have been promoted to (respectively) Editorial Director and Associate Director, Marketing & Publicity.

  For much of the dozen years of :01’s existence, Brill has been the person that made sure the book made sense³ and Gagliano’s been the person that made sure you and I knew about them. It’s well-earned on both their parts, and I’m sure neither of them knew where that little four-person shop would be a decade later.

• Less of a happy vibe, but perhaps more of a timely one — Jim Zub writes just about every kind of comic you can imagine, but none has anticipated where the culture would be just before it got there as Glitterbomb.

  When it launched I was seeing the story as a parable of how fame and the pursuit of it corrupts the soul; now that two (of a planned three) arcs are done, it’s clear the book is even more about The Machine that seeks to feed that need for fame: those that crave being famous, and those that want to see others be famous (so they can love them until it’s time to hate them instead). It’s a Machine that particularly abuses and chews up women, and it’s a message that’s become particularly resonant since just about the time the first arc launched in Summer 2016.

  The collected trade of Glitterbomb‘s second arc (subtitled The Fame Game) goes on sale in four weeks, and I think you ought to strongly consider picking it up. The first book was about one person on her way out of the Machine’s notice; the second is about grabbing up somebody new to replace her, which makes the cold-bloodedness of the entire enterprise all the more apparent. No idea where Zub (and stellar artist Djibril Morissette-Phan) will go with the third and final arc, but if past scheduling holds, we’ll find out around August/September.

Spam of the day:

People ask me “Please, Sinister, I need your professional help” and I always accept the request, `cause I know, that only I can solve all their problems!

This comes from somebody calling themselves Frank Sinister (probably no relation to Simon Bar Sinister, staple of my childhood afternoon cartoon-watching), who claims to be a professional writer. Trust me when I say that the rest of his spam posting read even worse than the snippet I’ve included here.

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¹ Okay, technically it was yesterday, but North doesn’t update on Thursdays. I think we all feel the same way about Thursdays.

² Seriously, North sets himself more rules than a Chuck Jones Road Runner cartoon.

³ And yes, I’ve had some nits to pick with :01 editorial flubs — some minor, some more important — but overall, the quality of :01’s offerings have been top-notch, and some misses are inevitable (especially considering the fact that these books were likely in production while Brill was out on maternity leave and/or in the midst of ramping up from ~20 books per year to ~40 whilst simultaneously onboarding new editors).

Hey, y’all, it’s Hourly Comics Day, which means you should check out all the great work being done quickly by awesome people. What follows is not a comprehensive list (that would be impossible), but merely ones I’ve liked so far in no particular order; in many cases, they are threaded from the start, but in others you’ll have to browse through their feed.

Jeffrey Rowland

Magnolia Porter

Danielle Corsetto

Angela Melick

Lukas Dante Landherrshepherd

Tony Breed

Vera Brosgol

Kat Efird

Carey Pietsch

Jessi Zabarsky

Shing Yin Khor

KC Green

Abby Howard

Zac Gorman

Got others you think people should check out? Drop a link to the start of the thread down in the comments.

Spam of the day:

Lock in 2017’s Highest Annuity Rates

1. You sent this in January of 2018. Guess you’re still writing 2017 on your checks scams.
2. Your prominent use of Republican Party imagery is (red-white-blue-and-stars elephant; old white people) is not likely to make me trust you.

The fine folks at :01 Books sent me a copy of Is This Guy For Real? by Box Brown, and now I’m gonna talk about it. This is normally where I’d say that the review will contain spoilers, but I think that Brown’s work is uniquely immune that that concern; kinda of hard to have spoilers in what’s fundamentally a work of non-fiction.

At least, as much of a work of non-fiction as you can get where Andy Kaufman is concerned; that guy made it his life’s work to blur the line between fiction and reality with his every breath. The fact that people are still arguing over whether or not he faked his death more than thirty years ago shows the degree to which he messed with all of our heads.

ITGFR? will be immediately familiar to anybody that’s read Brown’s last couple of books; like Mr The Giant or Tetris, Kaufman is one of those cultural referents that everybody seems to know, but few know where they came from. The books feel less like formal biographies (if a video game can be said to have a biography) and more like oral histories, particularly this latest; there are many talking head inserts in ITGFR? from people who knew and worked with Kaufman, and their reminiscences make the notorious opaque Kaufman come alive.

This is especially true when you consider that the book is almost two parallel biographies — Kaufman’s public nemesis/real life friend, wrestler Jerry “The King” Lawler gets nearly as much attention as Kaufman does. It’s an effective treatment; instead of just covering Lawler in the context of his famed (and prolonged) wrestling feud with Kaufman (culminating in a famous, staged around-smacking on Late Night With David Letterman&sp1;), it follows his own pursuit of fame (which, like Kaufman, he was determined to achieve on his own terms).

Brown’s trademark chunky style serves the story well; it’s not particularly realistic to look at, which heightens the unreality of Kaufman’s life. As near as I can tell, every milestone of Kaufman’s career, and all of his major stunts² are included, making this perhaps the most complete look at what Andy Kaufman was like.

Is This Guy For Real? The Unbelievable Andy Kaufman releases on Tuesday, 6 February, at bookstores everywhere. Box Brown will tour in support of the book starting the following day and visiting eight cities in eight states over ten days.

Spam of the day:

Dear Partner..

Really? A 419 scam actually claiming to be from Nigeria? That’s old school right there.

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¹ I’ve long thought that Brown’s love of wrestling meant he was destined to write a graphic novel series that would serve as a definitive history of professional wrestling, but in going back to watch Kaufman’s Letterman appearances, I think that Dave might be a better topic. That clip of Kaufman is a perfect example of why; it was in the first year of Dave’s late night run, it feels small and improvised and weird (with an audible audience that seems to have accidentally wandered in from a public-access cable show), offbeat in the way that Brown’s best subjects are.

I’d love to see Brown take a whack at Letterman’s journey, but maybe that’s just because I remember how brilliant he was from the get-go. I remember watching his daytime show on its too-brief run, I remember the weird things he did in late night when I was in college (a rerun might be dubbed into Spanish, or the broadcast might rotate through 360° over the course of the hour), I remember watching Larry “Bud” Melman at the Port Authority and Crispin Glover’s meltdown (and the following show’s cold open) the nights they happened. The larger-than-life weirdos that could be included would make for a cracking read.

² One possible exception; I seem to remember an interview with Kaufman where he revealed that he regularly left filming of Taxi and went to his second job, bussing tables at a Hollywood cafeteria. Not sure if my recall is accurate, though.

The Cartoon Art Museum is getting back into the swing of hosting its events on its own turf, what with that long period of borrowing space now receding into the past. There’s some doozies coming up weekend after next, too; those of you in the greater Bay Area should seriously consider checking them out.

• Nate Powell has had a distinguished career in the comic arts, and then he became part of the history-making¹ team behind the March trilogy. He’ll be dropping by CAM on Friday, 9 February, to talk about both in honor of the exhibition March: A Graphic History Of The Civil Rights Movement, which will launch the day after tomorrow and run through June. The reception is ticketed, and tickets can be obtained in advance for the low, low price of US$10 (free for CAM members) via Guestlist. The reception runs from 7:00pm to 9:00pm.
• Later that weekend, in conjunction with her exhibit (a part of CAM’s re-opening slate), Nidhi Chanani will be dropping by on Sunday, 11 February from 2:00pm – 4:00pm. Part wrap-up celebration (hers was the first exhibit in CAM’s new Emerging Artist Showcase series), part booksigning (bring your copy of Pashmina), the reception is open to all who’ve paid admission to the museum.

David Malki ! is one of those guys who just sees ways to learn (or teach) stuff around every corner. For example, he went into his local comic store and discovered that unbeknownst to him, Dark Horse Comics was pushing old copies of at least one of the hardcover books he did with them last decade. This led to a discussion that touched on how people move around in the business of comics², the nature of rights reversions³, and a discussion of a common question:

What’s the best way to buy a book, in terms of benefit to the creator?

To which he has an unsurprisingly nuanced answer, laying out the possibilities (direct sales, fulfillment company, local store, giant internet discount retailer, secondhand; he doesn’t mention libraries, but I will) and how they will likely play out differently for different creators. It may have fewer flaming boats and/or friggin’ goats than many of the things Malki ! writes about, but it’s worth your while nonetheless.

Spam of the day:

Ticket 857799303

If the entirety of the message being in Russian weren’t enough to deter me from clicking on anything, the subject line surely would. The very large corporation I work for will not scratch its corporate (if metaphorical) ass without somebody logging a ticket specifically requesting the scratching take place, complete with a business case justifying the scratching, and a documentation trail that lays out the entire decision making process vis-a-vis asses and the scratching thereunto.

After one particular incident — I logged a ticket for a customer-impacting, revenue-affecting, show-stopping technical fault, complete with specific instructions as to exactly what needed to be done; half an hour later I received a reply that nothing could be done until a proper Subject Matter Expert was consulted and my request given technical clearance; four hours after that, I received an email that addressed me as the relevant SME and would I approve the technical fix that I had requested? — I swore undying enmity on all tickets of this kind. So no, whatever scam you’re running, my work day is a steaming morass of tickets, and I’m not going to be lured in by your claim to be one.

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¹ What with being the only comics artist (so far) to win a National Book Award, I’d say that history-making is an apt description.

² Nobody at Dark Horse told him because everybody he knew there has moved on since they worked together.

³ It’s a good thing, because it lets you publish things that would otherwise be entirely out of print. And, almost as an afterthought, Malki ! mentions that he has books in distribution through the Consortium Catalog (where one may find — among other indie publishers — 2dcloud, Alternative Comics, Conundrum Press, Koyama Press, and Iron Circus Comics; the latter is now offering the omnibus of Girls With Slinghots and a new edition of Rice Boy, giving them potentially wide distro for the first time). Want to get the best in indie comics in your local store? Point ’em here.

Dallas/Fort Worth International is my nemesis, the airport that makes no sense, the place with roads that allow no exit, the sanity-stealer … and I say that as somebody whose home airport is Newark. I have to head there in a couple hours, so let’s get this done.

• MoCCA Fest 2018 guests of honor have been announced, and Heidi Mac has the details before even MoCCA’s own site. I’m well familiar with Roz Chast and Mike Mignola, and I’m gratified to see that Nate Powell and Andrew Aydin (of March trilogy renown) are still being recognized for their contributions to John Lewis’s story, and I don’t know Argentinian cartoonist Liniers at all. Looks like a full length-and-breadth spectrum of creators. MoCCA Fest runs 7 & 8 April, in Manhattan, with a hilariously low entrance fee of seven bucks American.
• One of my favorite things that David Malki ! does each year is gather up corrections for a year’s worth of comics and post them for the edification of his readers. The 2017 errata is no exception, with minor fictions “correcting” some gags (#1288; A Real Stand-Up Friend — The rhinoceros is definitely not going to stop doing that), elaborate explications of real-world knowledge (#1285; In which Tax is a Team Sport — a nearly 500 word summary of modern economic theory presented as a counterpoint to the joke premise), and in one case, a sincere correction.

  Originally run as one of the Recipe Comix at Saveur¹, Malki ! did a fabulous reminiscence of his father, via the medium of the salad his father made; in the wake of his own son’s birth, he ran it again at Wondermark, which now features the correction. The original called for a cup of olive oil (!), which is a hell of a lot for a salad featuring the bulk of one head of lettuce, two tomatoes, and a cucumber. As Malki ! explains,

  I have never actually measured how much to use! I always just drizzled it over the salad before tossing. It’s about 4–5 seconds of drizzling, which probably comes out closer to 4–5 tablespoons³.

  Which is much more reasonable, and any that look to the recipe, please use the amended amount unless you like really wet salad. Also, please enjoy the side-by-side comparison at top, and see what other changes Malki ! made over the course of nearly six years.

Spam of the day:

Stripchat Cam Model and Gamer Girl Warlock Princess Bares All in New Interview

Wow. You are a very weird PR agency, if you send around a photo of the cam model in question and don’t even make it one that supports the premise of your headline. I’m not saying send around nudes, but a fully clothed (in very elaborate cosplay, good job on that) is undercutting the subtext (really, it’s just text), i.e.: she’s naked and might be naked for you some day, Gamer Boy. You’re not doing a tease, you’re pissing off the only people that might actually run your spam.

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¹ Thanks to the foresight of then-editor Helen Rosner, who among other things gave Lucy Knisley’s career a hell of a boost², and who has become a friend of the online variety. She’s since moved onto other things, but I was hurt to see the news yesterday that Saveur‘s publishers have instituted draconian layoffs at a profitable magazine that was doing bang-up reporting month after month.

² Rosner is a tireless proponent of the idea that food writing is, at its heart, travel writing, and sent Knisley on fabulous trips to do docu-comics about. Like ten days at a luxury safari resort in Namibia fabulous.

Rosner is also a writer of the highest order herself (and unremittingly hilarious), and made me swoon with a piece she linked earlier this week, writing about the influences and development process of a new typeface for Frere-Jones. Comics nerds are all at least a little bit type nerds, and you owe it to yourself to read that piece; it’s a legit marvel.

³ Depends on what you drizzle it from; my regular pizza dough features a six-count drizzle of olive oil from a gooseneck spout oil can, and it’s closer to 2 tablespoons.

What I think might be the longest read that The Nib has ever put up as a single update ran today; Andrew Greenstone has gone out and done participatory-type things and then done docu-comics on them, and today he brings the story of the days-long post-apocalyptic LARP known as Wasteland Weekend. It’s a cracking good read, and that’s before I consider that I know somebody that’s fought in Thunderdome. Take 20 minutes and enjoy the crap out of it.

• Sometimes, you gotta start ’em young in webcomics; it’s been a week or so and I have shamefully not yet congratulated Randy Milholland and his wife Stephanie¹ on the birth of their daughter. As befits a reasonably private guy (who has attracted some of the worst, most entitled, boundary-disrespecting “fans” ever), Milholland has shared some anecdotes, but no details on the lil’ replicant, so if you’re wondering about name or birth weight, too bad.

  By all accounts mom & child are doing well (indeed, she appears to be mastering skills at a terrifying rate), and I’m sure all of us wish them all the best. Some more than others — KB Spangler did a kickin’ guest strip for Daddy Randy today, whereas I’m just saying nice things about him².

• One of my favorite stories of recent vintage has been Ursula Ver … I mean, T Kingfisher’s Summer In Orcus (okay, okay, they’re the same person, and the TK name normally means a more adult bent to the stories than UV, which are decidedly kid-friendlier; I don’t see a whole lot of age range difference between, say, Orcus and Vernon’s Digger). It hit all the notes I want in a fairy tale (unsurprising, as Vernon/Kingfisher’s prose typically dig their way into my brain and wrap around the primitive structures, resulting in pure emotion³), and I’ve been recommending it to everybody ever since.

  The Kickstarter campaign to print what had been an online-only serial went up in July; the accompanying illustrations Lauren Henderson were gathered, the books (in both hardcover and soft) designed and printed, and fulfillment is happening now. I got my books (hardcover for me, soft for whichever niece or nephew I deem needs it most in the next round of birthdays) today, and I can’t say enough good about them.

  With those who Kickstarted getting their stuff in the mail, look for publisher Sofawolf to add them to their store in the near future. Okay, sure, it’s been available in e-book form for ages now, but you know what? Some books just demand to be held, pages flipped, corners bent, etc. Don’t sit on this one; it’s some of the best work of one of our best wordbenders.

Spam of the day:

Give The Gift Of Music! Rich, Room Filling Sound

I have a friend, an audiophile of note, who have more invested in his pre-amps than my wife and I do in both our cars combined. His speakers have a pricetag that resembles the student loans you take out to go to a top-tier med school. And you know what? In a blind test, I bet they sound better than these rich, room filling sound triangle speakers, but not hundred of thousands of dollars better.

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¹ She and Randy haven’t been public about her surname online, so I won’t be using it here.

² For now; within webcomics circles, my new baby gifts are well-regarded. Speaking of which, Randy, I need your new address.

³ Normally joy, but sometimes rage, despair, and murderlust; whatever the story calls for at the time, really

It’s been a long time coming but the Cartoon Art Museum is back, baby. Oh, sure, they’ve been open in their new home on San Francisco’s famed Fisherman’s Wharf since October, but big institutions like this haven’t really made a change until they have a party. Gala grand opening celebration time, y’all:

Cartoon Art Museum
Grand Opening Celebration
Saturday, January 20, 2018

Hellboy Tribute Signing: 6pm to 7pm
Reception: 7pm to 9pm

Tickets: $10 – $100, free admission for CAM members

Join the Cartoon Art Museum as we celebrate our new location at 781 Beach Street, near Ghirardelli Square, Aquatic Park and the Cable Car Terminus. After a two-year hiatus, the museum is thrilled to be open to the public again with our first round of exhibitions.

This party also serves as the closing reception for our Tribute to Mike Mignola’s Hellboy, which concludes Monday, January 29th. Several artists featured in the Hellboy tribute will be on hand to sign the Cartoon Art Museum’s limited exhibition catalogs. Special guests include Gary Amaro, Mark Badger, Lee Ballard, Nick Dragotta, Steve Purcell, Ben Seto, and Jon Way$hak.

The opening exhibitions (which went live on 28 October, CAM’s relaunch date) are A Tribute to Mike Mignola’s Hellboy (through 29 January), Smile! The Comics of Raina Telgemeier (through 19 March), and Emerging Artist Showcase: Nidhi Chanani’s Pashmina (through 12 February). Ticket available at Guestlist.

Hey, you know who would definitely attend the CAM Grand Opening Celebration if he were on the correct continent? David Morgan-Mar (PhD, LEGO®©™^etc). Alas, as far as I am from CAM being on the wrong side of North America, Morgan-Mar is not only on the wrong continent, not only in the wrong hemisphere twice, he’s not even in the correct season.

But he’s got other things to keep busy with; in this case, he’s trying to drive contributions to the collaborative webcomic Lightning Made Of Owls (which last updated … hmmm, 27 October 2017, the day before CAM reopened, which I find to be suspiciously coincidental), and he’s offering cold hard cash. Key points:

In 2018, we’re running a comic contest. With prizes! Prizes are for the best comics published in 2018, as determined by our readers:

First prize: AU$500
Second prize: AU$200
Third prize: AU$100¹

Send us your comic! Follow all the rules below under “How to Contribute”. Pay particular attention to the Characters and Copyright sections.

• You may enter multiple times. If you submit multiple comics in a very short time, we reserve the right to space them out (e.g. one per month) so other submitters get a chance.
• At the end of 2018, a nomination and voting system of contributors and readers will be used to determine the winning comics. (Details to be determined.)
• If practical, we will seek to collect the 2018 contest comics into a printed book collection, funded by Kickstarter, with all profits donated to The Jane Goodall Institute (an internationally registered charity).

You can send your your comic, chosen author name, and a text transcript to Morgan-Mar, also known as dmm, who may be found at a site dedicated to the memory of semibeloved cartoon character dangermouse, dot net. And presuming the planet continues to spin on its axis, Morgan-Mar indicates that the same will happen in 2019. Get crackin’.

Spam of the day:

Canvas Prints – Limited Time Offer, Up to 81% off!

You seem to have mistaken me for somebody that wishes to have art on his walls that isn’t on animation celluloid or Bristol paper. Good day, sir!

I said, Good day!

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¹ For those curious, the prizes are approximately US$392, 157, and 78 respectively (at current exchange rates). Canadian dollar amounts are 492, 197, and 98; Euros are 328, 131, and 66; pounds sterling are 290, 116, and 58; you can figure out any other units on your own.

• The TCAF application jury has ruled, and creators are being notified that they’ll be spending 12-13 May in Toronto; the exhibitor page hasn’t updated yet¹, so I went trawling on the sosh meeds for people saying they were accepted. Caveat: I’m not including waitlisted creators, I obviously didn’t get everybody, and naturally, there will be changes between now and blessèd springtime. But for now, expect to see some (if not all) of (in the order that I found them in my search):

  Rosemary Vallero-O’Connell, Sharean Morishita, Myisha Haynes, Mildred Louis, Taneka Stotts, Sophie Pass-Lang, Tony Breed, Chan Chau, Zainab Akhtar, Awuradwoa Afful?, Irene Koh, Dylan Edwards, Tess Reid, Shannon Wright, Meg Brennan, Jackie Reynolds, Angelica Maria, Allie Kleber, Christopher Sebela, Hope Nicholson, Anoosha Syed, Shing Yin Khor, Jayd Aït-Kaci, Kori Michele Handwerker, Melanie Gillman, Christian Ward, Megan Byrd, Becca Tobin, Sarah Horrocks, and Angel Cruz.

  (A quick perusal of those links reveals the changing face of comics, but maybe it’s a sampling/self-selection error; it may just be that women and POCs are better at saying look at me, I did a thing than white dudes and … yeah, no. Just made myself laugh out loud. It’s going to be a far less male, less white set of exhibitors than you’d find in nearly any comics show. Hats off to the showrunners for looking to the future rather than the past.)

  In addition to the individuals listed above, publishers including Fine OK Press, Retrofit Comics, and the Ladies Night Anthology will be present, and I imagine we’ll also see such TCAF stalwarts as TopatoCo, Koyama Press, D&Q, and :01 Books, all of whom will bring their own creative conspirators.

  And if you didn’t get in this year, remember that even the most well-known creators are basically on an every-other-year basis, and will remain so unless TCAF can find a venue that is 1) central; 2) free; 3) possessing about twice the floor space of the Toronto Reference Library and surrounding venues. So, basically, forever. Congratulations to everybody that will be heading to TCAF, and enjoy the crap out of the weekend.

• Even if you didn’t get into TCAF, there are things you’ll be able to enjoy in mid-May. For one, Shaenon Garrity is now running down horror movies, making an appropriate recommendation for every day of 2018.

  And assuming whatever movies for 12-13 May aren’t enough to distract you, you’ll be able to tell yourself It’s only four and a half months until Amulet volume 8. Kazu Kibuishi announced cover, title (Supernova), and sale date (25 September) yesterday in a talk with Heidi Mac. But there’s no better teaser than from series colorist Jason Caffoe:

  When I first started working full-time on Amulet I asked Kazu about the trajectory for the series and he said “at some point there will be giant robots in space.”
  I 100% thought he was joking.
  He was not. [emphasis mine for giant robots in space]

  Form an orderly queue, and try not to get trampled by kids who will be in a frothy state of excitement for the release.

Spam of the day:

Wait!… We have a Free Sample of Sams Club for you!

You have a little chunk of Sam’s Club on a toothpick for me to enjoy while shopping?

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¹ Nor would I expect it to, less than a day after notifications went out; some people are going to have to decline, the waitlist is going to shuffle … give it a week or so, it’ll be a definitive list.