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.

_______________
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.

_______________
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.

_______________
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.

_______________
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?

We at Fleen mentioned a short while back that Comic Con International had declare SDCC 2021 to be virtual, and that a shortened version of the con would happen in November.

Over the weekend they posted this:
San Diego — San Diego Comic Convention today announced dates for their November convention. Comic-Con Special Edition will be held as a three-day event over Thanksgiving weekend, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, November 26-28, 2021 at the San Diego Convention Center. It is our hope that by Fall conditions will permit larger public gatherings.

That from the front page of CCI, which does not feature permalinks to their announcements, so it may be gone at whatever time you go to the page. Regardless of the ephemeral nature of the announcement (and more on that in a moment), you have to be wondering exactly how high whoever thought this was a good idea was at the time. Thanksgiving is the quintessential American holiday, everybody that was responsible didn’t gather with their family last November and is not going to skip a second year, and it is the busiest travel weekend of the year.

I had been waiting for the dates to weigh if maybe it was worth going out to cover the return of SDCC, but this? No. Even in a truncated, weekend-only format, the stunning lack of recognition that it will be difficult and expensive to travel or obtain lodging, and that every exhibitor will not only have to forgo their own Thanksgiving, but to handle the cross-country logistics in one of the busiest weeks of the year?

CCI seems to have heard the blowback, as their front page presently has the announcement pushed down by a more recent posting, justifying their decision:

When reviewing dates for an in-person event, it was clear that available meeting and exhibit space would limit our options. Of the dates presented with the fewest restrictions, Friday through Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend seemed to be the best balance of available space and our envisioned event. As longtime fans ourselves, we have attended many conventions over that holiday weekend, opting to spend Thanksgiving day with family and the rest of the weekend with friends and our families of choice. [emphasis mine]

You know what? Good for you. But that presumes you can see family and then travel locally enough to attend a con that weekend. But this would require vendors to show up on Thursday (or Wednesday, or earlier given the competition for travel) to be ready to go on Friday. A local show is not the same as one that — despite protestations to the contrary — will be expected to provide a national- (or even international) scope show, in term of attendees and exhibitors/guests.

While this is not unusual in the convention trade, we understand this choice is not optimal for everyone.

Damn right it’s not optimal. And I can’t think of a single creator that, in the words of Wonderella, would choose you over grandma’s sweet potatoes. This ain’t it, CCI. You absolutely did the right thing canceling in-person SDCC for July. Expecting anybody to show up to exhibit at what you’re now describing as never intended to be the large gathering reflective of the summer event — with monumentally higher travel costs and time commitments, and presumably far fewer fans to make back their costs from — is simply folly.

Time to admit it was a stupid idea and cut it loose before too many people try to make travel arrangements that they’ll have to cancel later. The only way this makes sense is if you pitch it as Hey, San Diego people who’ve never seen the inside of Con before! This one is for you! and turn it into a community-first event.

Spam of the day:

Free jewish singles

Is that free as in these Jewish singles come gratis, or free as in they need to be freed from confinement? If it’s the latter, are the non-singles doomed to imprisonment forever?

I’ve spent too much of today arguing with my cable company (punctuated by a network glitch about ten minutes ago that has my computer convinced that there is no internet connectivity despite the fact I am typing these words to you), which is actually atypical for me. They’ve been very good as a cable company, but for the past coupla days they’ve been absolute shit as an internet company.

One good dude in the right department (which took me far too long to get to, after multiple false starts), though, so I’m presently awaiting a call back from retention about fixing my problem rather than telling them to get their crap unattached from my house and never darken my doorstep again. Hear that, Cable Company? You get my money because Feraz treated me like a human.

But there are many things on Long Island apart from the historical origin point of my cable/internet provider, some of them good. There’s … oh, the Unprintable Satanist Ritual Killing², that’s good. Jon Rosenberg is from there originally, too. And for our purposes today, the hamlet¹ of Syosset and the library therein.

They’re going to be having an online confab of cartoonists tomorrow evening, 7:30pm EDT, via Zoom. The event goes by the name of Celebrity Drawful, and features Danielle Corsetto, Michelle Ngyuen, Jey Odin, and Shivana Sookdeo. Audience members get to judge which artist does the best job of interpreting ridiculous prompts, and it should be fun for all.

Spam of the day:

We are a marketing provider of the American Bar Association Blueprint. We are offering Law Firms a free no obligation website evaluation.

My dudes, what made you possibly think this is a law firm? I am but one useless man and therefore a disgrace.

_______________
¹ This is an actual municipality type in New York state.

² Unprintable because when the news folks went out to the alleged Satanic ritual killing ground, they found a large rock spraypainted with the words SATIN LIVES. Even the depths of Satanic panic, people couldn’t wrap their brains around kids being so misinformed about their alleged Prince Of All Flesh. Hail Satin.

Only tangentially related to webcomics but I regret nothing, except that I wish I could have found a trophy that was even more sarcastically small. Onwards.

• She said it wasn’t going to be a regular comic, just a one-off gag sketch, but Abby Howard just could help returning to the idea of giving your pets People Juice and sending them to school. School 4 Petz is small, pure gag cartooning, often without text, each a perfect distillation of funny. Lately, dreaded continuity has snuck in with Lil’ Paulie, and the desire to worldbuild has manifested.

  Since I think that Howard will keep to her promise to not make School 4 Petz into a thing, I’d say bookmark that Twitter thread, as I also think that now and again Howard will have a fleeting idea and half an hour later there will be another wonderful three or four panels. Plus, you know, if she ever did make School 4 Petz into a thing, there are artists out there who make bank with the Anthrocon crowd and catering to furries in exchange for cash is way more productive and ethical than, say, involving oneself in cryptoart Ponzi schemes.

• With vaccine distribution ramping up (something like a quarter of adults in the US have had at least one shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, and the J&J single-administration vaccine is just starting to roll out), people are naturally looking forward to what the social aspects of life will look like when it’s safe to gather in groups again.

  If you forced me to make my best prediction, I’d say today — knowing that everything could change tomorrow — that the end of summer would probably support the holding of reduced-capacity cons. 100,000+ people together for four-five days? No. But a space that held that many people allowing for 50K or so, I think that might work.

  The megacons of the Spring and Summer will probably not happen in their traditional form this year either, but the smaller festival-type gatherings? Not MoCCA in April, but I’d say better than even odds on SPX in September. The SDCC-alike in November seems like a safe bet, too. However, I will absolutely never criticize organizers for playing it safe because a) we just don’t know, and b) they have to make their best decisions based on the best information available months in advance.

  Thus, the announcement that CXC will go virtual again this year, with exhibitor applications available starting tomorrow. From Boneville, which has the news in advance of the CXC page:

  Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s expo will be an online showcase with programming track that will air primarily on a CXC Discord channel and potentially other CXC streaming platforms. CXC will not charge a tabling fee for the expo.

  Those accepted as CXC exhibitors will work with CXC to provide programming that will air on Discord and other channels during the weekend of the show. CXC will provide training and support on using Discord and will also provide online support available throughout the weekend of the show. Additionally, CXC may also request that exhibitors participate in additional panels or programs during the show weekend. These programs may be scheduled in advance, and participation is optional. Honoraria will be paid to all exhibitors participating in programming, whether it is a panel, presentation, or Discord event.

  As with prior years, CXC’s exhibitors will be chosen via a juried selection process. We will notify those selected via email, and have a waiting list for those not selected.[emphasis original]

  That’s how you do it, and can I say it’s beyond past time for comics conventions to compensate those on panels and programming. If there’s not the cost of badges/travel to provide, then payment is the right thing to do, even if it’s a modest amount.

  Once things get back to in-person, this idea should be retained and spread — sure, the established shows will provide travel, lodging, and appearance fees for the biggest guests, but if you’re providing programming you should get something as well. Props to the showrunners in Columbus (Tom Spurgeon would be proud), and hopefully everybody else will get with the idea.

  The exhibitor application for CXC 2021 will be linked at the show’s blog starting tomorrow.

Spam of the day:

Impossibile trovare l’indirizzo di posta elettronica immesso. Verificare l’indirizzo di posta elettronica del destinatario e provare a inviare di nuovo il messaggio. Se il problema persiste, contattare il supporto tecnico.

Darn. Looks like I won’t get to carefully consider your offer (in Italian) about getting Bitcoin worth 100,000 Euro. Darn.

There’s some creators that I just smile when they have something new going on, or something new to share. Got some smiles going today that I thought I’d share.

• Doing an enormous, complex, emotionally-deep (not to mention sometimes fraught) story that doesn’t pay the bills around your other paying gigs¹ takes a lot of planning and patience. Barbarous (by the absolutely stellar team of Ananth Hirsh and Yuko Ota) wrapped up it’s first “season” of five story arcs six months back, followed by a series of guest–illustrated side stories until end of last year, and resuming today.

  But more importantly, we’ve had a couple of teaser images for the forthcoming Season Two, which makes me believe that Ota and Hirsh are getting ready to drop some new plot goodness on us. How excited am I for the return of Barbarous in any form, but especially Season Two? I momentarily mistook guest illustrator Niki Foley’s page today as the start of the new season, as her style is reasonably close to Ota’s. In any event, today a side story, and soon the triumphant return and hopefully some comeuppance for a twerp who pissed off the wrong people. I can’t wait.

• I will never not wake up and want a new comic from Jeffrey Rowland. Never So much so that I’ve apparently been invading his dreams, and while I understand on an intellectual level that running the company that makes it possible for dozens of webcomickers to make a living, when he can find a moment to chronicle whatever a couple of weirdos (chosen from at least seven different cohorts of weirdos) are up to, it’s always worth it.

  And in the past couple of days, those weirdos have been Dug (the groundhog), Sheila The Horse (the horse), and Observation Duck. Everybody feel good for these weird animals that live in the center of the Earth as they try to live their dreams and live with the consequences of same.

• You know who is the most relentlessly positive person on the planet, just so invested in the idea of you being as happy as she is and determined to make the whole world more joyous? Colleen AF Venable. Doesn’t matter if the you in question is a reader, a fellow creator, or a bunch of bats that she traveled halfway ’round the world to help care for. Come Monday, Venable will be in a YA-GN Zoom meetup with fellow creator Mark Crilley to launch his latest, mention her most recent, and generally show the process behind making awesome graphic novels.

  The session will be hosted by Book Beat of Oak Park, Michigan, who will have signed copies available for in-person pickup or mailing. Fun time kicks off at 5:00pm EDT on 15 March, 2021, with free tickets available now (or just watch the stream at Book Beat’s Facebook page). Venable’s always a delight in conversation (something I discovered exactly 13 years ago as of Monday and her Crilley convo), and I suspect this discussion will be no different.

Spam of the day:

Basically we provide full turnkey solutions to launch your very own online betting website with real money odds and casino where you controll winnings, players and everything else?

So instead of running this solution yourself, where you are the house and the house always wins, you are going to sell it to me, so I can be the one with the guaranteed winning? This tells me you are not able to make money even with a casino, which puts you in some pretty rarefied company, and bodes ill for your venture.

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¹ Not least being their co-writing duties on Pixels Of You, due in November, with art from JR Doyle.