Let’s check in with our friends at the (somewhat vagabond) Cartoon Art Museum, since the lack of a permanent exhibition space doesn’t slow them down. Three things from them about the next while that you may be interested in.

• This Saturday, 11 June, their Cartoonist In Residence¹ will be Ajuan Mance: artist, English professor, destroyer of stereotypes, and actual person that most sounds like the head of a great House from Game of Thrones². The residency will be at FLAX art & design store’s location in the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, from 11:00am to 2:00pm; details may be found here. And after her public residency event, Mance will be headed over to Comix Experience on Divisidero Street from 4:00pm to 7:00pm to continue the conversation. Both events are free and open to the public.
• Next Saturday (18 June) and Sunday (19 June), the Queer Comics Expo will be running at the SOMArts Cultural Center from 11:00am to 5:00pm, and they’re partnering with the Cartoon Arts Museum for some unique ticket packages. Purchases at the VIP levels (Unicorn: US$65; Double Rainbow: US$101) will include admission for the weekend for two or up to four people, respectively, and include a one-year CAM membership (single or family, respectively).

  There’s also a unique (at least, I’ve never seen it before) Pay It Forward ticket that for US$10 allows you to fund a weekend ticket that will be passed to a Bay Area LGBTQ nonprofit so people who otherwise couldn’t go get to attend. Finally, all proceeds will benefit CAM, so Bay Areans take a look at this one, yes?

• By partnering with the American Bookbinders Museum, CAM will be offering its traditional summer Cartooning Boot Camp: four sessions (two hours per day, Monday through Friday) will cover a specific topic, for a small group (up to 15 campers) of 10-15 year olds (those younger or older will not be admitted. The four sessions will be:
  • Character Design with Ellis Kim, 27 June to 1 July
  • Storytelling with Matt Harding, 11 to 15 July
  • Book Making with Ellis Kim, 25 to 29 July
  • Game Creation with Matt Harding, 1 to 5 August; note that this is related to board games

  Materials are included in the US$135 fee (but naturally, students may bring their own sketchbooks and supplies if they wish), and CAM members get a US$35 discount. Registration and detailed descriptions at the links above.

Spam of the day:

Sneakier Gtyrrell cPurchasegTabuOnliner ;) unpublished

I’m reminded about that line in Blazing Saddles about authentic frontier gibberish.

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¹ Yes, yes, the residence is borrowed space, but that’s what these things are called.

² Seriously, that is a great name one that’s going to stick in my head. I’ve encountered maybe three people with names that have reached out and demanded my attention to that degree in my adult life.

Lots of things going on today, so let’s just jump into it.

• Kelly Tindall has been around the webcomics game for a while, what with Strangebeard for three-four years now, and the diary comic Adventurers (which follows the everyday excitement that life offers when you’re a kid; it starts with his daughter aged one year). The former got its first print collection a while back, and a campaign is running to do the same for the second now. It’s down to the home stretch and right on the bubble of succeeding or not — which is something that happens to [web]comics projects every day, so why am I paying attention this time?

  Short answer: Tindall’s got some really cool friends who are supporting him. The foreword to the Adventurers collection will be written by Darkwing Duck creator Tad Stones, and every order will include mini prints by animator Elliot Cowan and comics legend Tim Sale. If creators that skilled like Tindall’s work, you ought to give it a serious look.

• Speaking of Canadian gentlemen in the webcomics game, Karl Kerschl has recently found time in his schedule to get back to The Abominable Charles Christopher and that means the story of our favorite big-hearted sasquatch (and all the side critters in the forest) is coming to an end. From Kerschl’s twitterfeed:
  

  50% off ALL Abominable Charles Christopher books! Gotta make room for the next volume! https://werehouse.ca/collections/brands/karl-kerschl …

  Catch that? Next volume. I am clearing space on my bookshelf in anticipation already, but it’s a hard decision as to what needs to go in order to fit in Charles Christopher’s third hardcover. It might have to be the comprehensive reprints of The Spirit.

• Still with the Canadian dudes, Ryan North is less than a week from the release of his second chooseable-path collaboration with some hack named Shakespeare, Romeo and/or Juliet. He’s been running art excerpts over at his Tumblr (a tiny fraction of the illustrated endings and waypoints from some amazing artists), and on release day, he’s having a party in Toronto:
  

  REMINDER: I’m throwing a BOOK PARTY next week, with COOL ARTISTS, and you should come!! https://www.facebook.com/events/1602452860067750/ ..

  That would be on Tuesday, 5:00pm to 8:00pm at The Beguiling, with a half-dozen of the contributing artists. I’m still collecting signatures from the artists in To Be Or Not To Be: That Is The Adventure, so getting a head start on that would be great if I could be in Toronto which I can’t.

• In case you don’t love Rich Stevens enough, consider the following:
  

  I don’t actually remember when I started my comic, so I just celebrate Quitting Day

  Dude knows what’s important — the day you stop working for The Man¹. That day, bee-tee-dubs, would be today:

  ??? I just celebrated 14 years since quitting my job to do comics. Today is a good day to join my store email list! https://confirmsubscription.com/h/i/0FB98FB2EAA783F3 …

  [Those three emoji at the start of the quoted tweet, which may not render for you, are captioned as Shortcake, Pile of poo, and Love letter, respectively. Dude also knows his brand.] Happy Quittiversary, Rich.

• And finally, readers of this page know that I recommend what I like, and I don’t expect you to plunk down cash on something that I don’t feel is worth it; I won’t ask you to lay out money or effort on something that I wouldn’t. But today, I’m going to ask you for a small amount of effort that I can’t do myself.

  FedEx is giving out a series of grants to small businesses, chosen by popular vote, with winners getting up to US$25,000. Voting is open to anybody with a Facebook account, which never fails to annoy me when it’s used as a universal identifier because not all of us have Facebook accounts, dammit. And by us I mean me and I know that makes me a weirdo.

  But I’m sharing this with you anyway because I learned about this grant contest via Rosemary Valero-O’Connell (who I may have mentioned once or twice in the past couple of months), as she’s part of a comic artists collective that’s part of the contest.

  You can vote for Out Of Step Arts by clicking here, once per day, until 13 June. As of this writing, they have fewer than 80 votes, and that is not going to cut it. If you’ve got a Facebook account, give a click, spread the word, and repeat for the next eleven days. Do it for the children.

Spam of the day:

Re: Your Current Debt

Is measurable only by scientific instruments that can see very, very small things. If you were really a financial-services firm you’d know that, wouldn’t you, “Bridget from cardholder services”?

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¹ Not that all iterations of The Man are as Manny as others. Case in point: Spike Trotman is no longer the sole employee of Iron Circus Comics.

Like one of those flowers that’s all pretty and colorful dripping in nectar and then WHAM it’s snacking on insects.

The flower, in this case, is a series of monthly Drink (nectar) and Draw (pretty, colorful) events, to be hosted by TopatoCo in the run-up to TopatoCon II (the TopatoConenning). I’m actually not sure who the insect is in all of this, other than the possibility of the hangover one is likely to have after a night of drinking with cartoonists¹.

The fun (and oh my, it will be fun) will go down on 8 June, 6 July, 10 August, 7 September, and 12 October, which is to say either the first or second Wednesday of each month, with different guest creators each time. The first one being just a week away, I feel I should share that it will feature KC Green², starting at 7:00pm and running until 10:00pm. As will surprise absolutely no one, it’ll be held at Eastworks in Easthampton, and will feature a cash bar, prizes, games, and fun.

Guests for subsequent Drinks and Draws have not yet been announced, but I did notice interest from various cartoon-type people in the original announcement, and mentions of desiring to attend future dates. It would be premature to try to hold anybody to a specific date. Keep an eye on the TopatoCon twitterfeed for definite announcements over the next several months

Oh, yeah, and this guy will be there next week, and likely in the following months. What more could you want?

Spam of the day:

New Golf Club – Never Hit a Bad Shot Again!

Seeing as how I never intend to play golf, I guess I don’t need a special club to avoid bad shots.

______________
¹ Honestly, I’d rather go round-for-round with Tokyo salarymen.

² Who remains the most fearless cartoonist I’ve ever seen work — bare paper, brush, no pencils, no prep, just straight from his outer synapses to permanent record.

I mean, for those of you in the US; others don’t celebrate Memorial Day on Monday and so this will serve as a reminder that there likely won’t a post on Monday, what with parades and cookouts and such.

• Those others include Our Friends To The North, Canadians, such as the immensely skilled Tony Cliff¹, who got to share some good news yesterday:
  

  We’re delighted that Disney has bought the film rights for @TangoCharlie’s amazing DELILAH DIRK graphic novels: http://deadline.com/2016/05/delilah-dirk-and-the-turkish-leuitenant-graphic-novel-disney-movie-1201763479/ … !

  Here’s hoping that Disney don’t ignore the most important fact about Ms Dirk: she is no princess, or if one must treat her as such, she is of the self-rescuing type. Please, please, please don’t make the semi-enthusiastic (but mostly unflappable) Mr Selim the hero of the piece. It’s Delilah’s show, and while he’s no mere sidekick, he is definitely the junior partner in adventure. Thankfully, it’s planned to be live action, so there need not be an I Wish song up front for Delilah to lay out all her hopes and dreams.

  Congratulations to Tony Cliff and also to the movie-going girls of the world, who will hopefully soon have one more swashbuckling hero of their own to look up to (with the obligatory note that option does not necessarily mean gets made any time soon. We’re still waiting for BONE, for goodness sake, not to mention Amulet, Agnes Quill, Odd Jobs, Last Blood, The New Kid, and You Damn Kid. The options on Nimona and Castle Hangnail are too recent for anything to have happened yet).

• Speaking of Memorial Day weekend, the National Cartoonists Society are having their annual meet-up/party, and around 30 hours from now we’ll know who this year’s honorees for webcomics will be. To refresh you, the nominees for Online Comic — Long Form are The Creepy Casefiles of Margo Maloo (Drew Weing), Drive (Los Angeles resident Dave Kellett), and Octopus Pie (Meredith Gran, her second nomination in the five cycles the awards have been offered). The nominees for Online Comic — Short Form are Bouletcorp (Boulet), Kevin and Kell (Bill Holbrook), and Sheldon (LArDK, again).

  If I have my records right, only Meredith Gran and Vince Dorse have been nominated twice in the NCS Online — Long Form category, and Dorse has previously won² (and also isn’t nominated this year). The lesson seems clear: get two nominations in Long Form, and you win, so I’m going to preemptively congratulate Gran, while wishing all the nominees the best of luck.

• Speaking of Dorse, his two nominations were for Untold Tales of Bigfoot, which has wrapped up its run as a webcomic and is seeking a new existence in print. You know where this is going — the Kickstarter’s been up for a couple of days, and while only about 100 people have gotten in while the gettin’s good, Dorse’s extremely modest goal of US$8000 means he’s more than halfway there with nearly a month to go. It’s really a neat story, check it out.

Spam of the day:

Strathmore Professional Network — Congratulations! You’ve been selected to Join

Join what? The Bristol Of The Month Club? I don’t actually draw comics, so that’s not the most … what? Oh, it’s a sleazy Who’s Who ripoff that will not only charge me money for the privilege of including it in an allegedly prestigious directory that nobody will ever see, but will also facilitate the theft of my identity? Yeah, no.

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¹ Also including Christopher Bird who commented on our story regarding his Patreon to correct our suppostings regarding the finances of Al’Rashad. Namely, he and illustrator Davinder Brar worked that project without pay, hoping for sales down the line. Fleen regrets the error.

² Interestingly, over Meredith Gran, the last time she was nominated.

For those wondering, the Octopus Pie Volume 4 launch party last night was a lot of fun; I’m not going to do a write-up here, as much of what I was told by Meredith Gran, Mike Holmes, and fellow attendee Evan Dahm hasn’t been announced yet. Rather than run the risk of mentioning things they want to announce on their own terms, I’ll just say that they’re all working on Cool Things that you will love. Look for them on the con circuit this year and ask ’em yourself what they’re up to.

Instead, let’s talk about other things that have come up.

• At the launch party, I was pleased to make the acquaintance of a young lady that came because (as she put it) she’s grown up reading the likes of Gran, Beaton, Munroe, and other lights of webcomickry. She had stickers of her original character (Bus Man … possibly Busman, or Bus-Man¹) and sent me a PDF of a short story she recently completed on her Tumblr. Her name is Sam[antha] Schroeder, you can see her portfolio here and her comics here.

  There’s so many people making comics — at every stage of their individual artistic journeys — that finding one whose work you want to share is always a Good Thing; I’m sharing Schroeder’s doodles and comics (there’s not much there yet) because I think it’s great to follow somebody from the beginning. A few years one and she’ll probably be embarrassed by this work, but that’ll only be because of how much she’s progressed.

  The story I mentioned is a sweet-natured look at what it’s like to be a not particularly grim reaper² who’s wondering about whether all those reapings are fair. It’s charming, and you can find it at these links.

• It’s been not quite five years that Tyler Page (creator of Nothing Better) has been working on his medical memoir, Raised on Ritalin (of a piece with other personal stories about health, like Tracy White’s How I Made It To Eighteen or even Raina Telgemeier’s Smile), which recently hit its final chapter. It’s a book that’s undoubtedly changed in the time it took to produce, and it’s now possible to read the entire thing at once.

  And for those of you that hate hitting the Next button a few hundred times in a row, you can get a hardcopy:

  HERE IT IS: @Kickstarter for Raised on Ritalin – A Graphic Novel/Memoir about #ADHD by tyler page http://kck.st/1WfH1k4 #kickstarter

  It’s probably partly a shift in the openness with which people are now willing to discuss mental illness, partly changes in psychiatric diagnoses and treatments, and partly who I hang out with these days, but things like ADHD and depression weren’t things I knew that people had — actual people, that is, people I knew personally — before about a dozen years ago. A lot of your favorite creators have been open about the challenges they face with psychiatric conditions, and that’s a tremendous help for people that don’t know why their brains work the way they do. Lots more people need to get that help, and Raised on Ritalin has to potential to provide that help.

  It’s not just the story of Page’s diagnosis and what ADHD means to him personally; it’s a biography of the disease and the drugs that are used to treat it, as well. It’s an important story, and it’s only going to get to the places it needs to be³ if it’s in a printed and bound form. And that will only happen if a measly US$6000 gets raised in the next month or so.

  Page is already about 40% of the way to goal, but he really needs to go way over goal — that’s what will allow not only physical improvements to the book (he cited better paper, for one), but to print enough copies that the people who don’t yet know that they need it will be able to find it in places that can help them³ in the future. If you know somebody that lives with ADHD or any other mental condition, if you want to learn more (because you’re a good person and have a sense of empathy), you could hardly find a better starting place that Page’s book. Pledge, spread the word, and share your copy when you get it.

• Happies Birthsdays. The aforementioned Raina Telgemeier (I did mention her … just scroll back up and you’ll see) and Becky Dreistadt are having birthdays today. Actually, it’s a good deal more extensive that just two people; 26 May is apparently the most popular birthday in indy/webcomics:
  

  @beckyandfrank @CoryCasoni @TomTomShimShim @JNoze + @the_kochalka @NickBertozzi @bannister01! #birthdaysquad

  To be clear, in that tweet Telgemeier is replying to Cory Casoni, who is not one of the co-birthdayists; that still makes for at least seven people celebrating today, which makes today The Best. And you can get in on the celebrations, either by tweeting and maybe getting an advanced copy of Telgemeier’s next book, or by sending Dreistadt a picture of a cat to make her happy.

Spam of the day:

New York Comic Con

Nope, we’re done. Don’t find my presence to be helpful to your strategy of selling people to advertisers? I don’t have to read your emails any more. Bye, now.

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¹ However you spell it, Bus Man has the best superpower for an urban environment ever; whenever he needs to get somewhere, regardless of schedule or time of day, a bus will pull up and it will be an express to his current destination.

² She’s still a reaper, mind you, but not the doom-and-gloom kind.

³ Libraries, therapist’s practices, school counseling offices, etc.

This one, as you probably suspected, tonight to the east of the East Village, in honor of Meredith Gran’s fourth collection of Octopus Pie. The fifth will be the last, wrapping up the remainder of the series. It’s not going to be long, and I urge everybody to start working through the stages of grief now to get a head start. Me, I’m still bargaining, figuring if I say enough nice things to Mer tonight she’ll decide to keep at it.

Speaking of Meredith Gran, know where she’ll be in October? I do:

TopatoCon would like to welcome special guests @cassieclare @granulac and @tomtomorrow !!! http://topatocon.com/exhibitors-and-guests/

Gran, Tomorrow, and Clare join previously announced special guests John Allison, Holly Black, Sarah Andersen, and Ryan North. Reminder that creators have until Friday to apply for exhibitor slots so get on that and I’ll see you there.

Spam of the day:

Carlos Vives & Shakira in “LA BICICLETA”

On the one hand, I really don’t know how I wound up on the distro list for a bilingual recording-industry PR agency; on the other, I think both bicycles and Shakira are pretty nifty. It’s a dilemma.

Mixed bag today.

• Well, there goes that. I have attended every iteration of New York Comic Con since its inception on a cold, snowy, overly-crowded February weekend (nearly a full year before this here blog launched), either working the CBLDF booth, doing my reportage, or both. The Javits Center is finally becoming navigable again, and while webcomics have almost entirely absented themselves from the floor, there are still a few to be found.
  

  Dear Gary Tyrrell,

  Thank you for applying for a Press Badge for New York Comic Con 2016. We have reviewed your application and based on NYCC’s Press Registration requirements, we are unfortunately unable to provide you with a Press Badge for NYCC 2016. Due to the growth of the Show and demand for Tickets, NYCC is utilizing a more intensive application process for qualifying members of the Press.

  While you do not meet our criteria for a Press Badge this year, we encourage you to attend NYCC 2016 as a Fan. If you would like to attend NYCC as a Fan in 2016, please complete our Fan Verification process at NewYorkComicCon.com/FanVerification. You may also apply for a Press Badge again in 2017. [emphasis original]

  Well, they spelled my name right, at least.

  I think I’m okay with this¹. It’s not been entirely clear if the “Fan Verification” process (which has come in for criticism for being overly intrusive) would have applied to press badges, but if it did I’d have been declining the opportunity to give up all my personal info again to glob knows who for glob knows what purposes. Also, I find the implication that Reed Pop will possibly give me a press badge in the future hilarious; I don’t fit their Big Media focus anymore and that’s not going to change in the future. I don’t begrudge the folks at Reed for that, by the way — it’s their show, they can extend free admission to whomever they wish.

  To be honest, the crush of huge, barely-comics comics shows has been something I’ve braved to see people I want to see in as large a grouping as possible, and that’s something I still do at San Diego². Heck, I can see more people I care to see at MoCCA or TopatoCon, and I suspect I’ll be heading to SPX more regularly, and adding TCAF to my rotation. Easy transportation via the train right outside my front door aside, the appeal of NYCC had reduced to the point I was doing a single day trip per year anyway, and I don’t see myself spending fifty bucks to continue that. Been cool, NYCC; see you around.

• Happier news: tomorrow will see the release of three webcomics-related trade paperbacks. The third Unbeatable Squirrel Girl collection (Squirrel You Really Got Me Now, by Ryan North and Erika Henderson, with an assist from Joe Quinones and Chort Zubaz) drops from Marvel, and the third Wayward collection (Out From The Shadows, Jim Zub, Steven Cummings, and Tamra Bonvillain), and the fourth Octopus Pie collection (with new strips printed for the first time, from Meredith Gran) both come to you courtesy of Image. As a reminder, Gran is having a pop-up celebration tomorrow night on the Lower East Side. Good stuff, straight to your friendly local comics shop.

Spam of the day:

Secret Brain-Enhancer Used by the Elite

Why, yes I’d very much like to see results like improved memory and brain from your completely opaque, no-disclosed-ingredients, unregulated smart pill that will absolutely not poison me.

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¹ Apart from the Seemingly Random desire to Capitalize Words. What the Heck?

² Although there’s no speculating how much longer that will last. If I lose the home base of the Dumbrella booth, it may not be worth the travel time and cost any longer.

The transition week between TCAF and VanCAF is wrapping up, that second CAF is set to launch tomorrow, and there will be (as previously noted) oodles of deeply skilled comickers hanging around The Roundhouse for the next two days. Let’s mention a couple of things for those of you that aren’t in the Saltwater City.

• Surprise: New Softer World, new Softer World, new Softer World. And not the only one! From Emily Horne, the non-Joey Comeau (and most likely saner) half of ASW:
  

  It’s been about a year since we sank this ship, and for the next couple of weeks, we’re raising her up again. Watch this space over the next few Fridays to see the last of the extra comics we promised in our Kickstarter!

  For any of you who missed the Kickstarter, Anatomy of Melancholy will be available for sale very soon. We’ll post in this space the moment it’s available!

• Surprise: TopatoCon Part The Second is just about five months out, and applications have been extended a week. Want to be part of the weirdest gathering in the Pioneer Valley? Now’s the time to make your plans.
• Surprise: It’s sunny out after a dreary week, and I get to go chase the squirrels out of my beans. They apparently don’t want to eat the new and fragile bean plants, but they’re digging the hell out of the surrounding soil and undoubtedly messing up the roots. Friggin’ squirrels.

  What? I never said they’d all be about webcomics.

That’s all. We’ve earned a weekend of respite. Be good to each other, people.

Spam of the day:

Ovarian Cancer Patient Wins Huge Verdict Over Talcum Powder Usage

My guess is that if you’re getting talcum powder on your ovaries, are probably applying too much.

When I first checked social media this morning I was surprised when Twitter told me I had 456 unread tweets; usually an overnight is good for fewer than 200, given the number of people I follow and their sleep patterns. 250 would be a lot for one night, above that indicates something stupid happening in a Republican presidential debate that I didn’t stay up for or somebody influential kicking it.

This time, however, it was down to one person — and if you’re gonna do a serious tweetstorm, this is the one to do. [C] Spike [Trotman] has been on top of the Rat Queens brouhaha¹ and last night during her typical small hours worktime decided on a course of action:

In light of Rat Queens disappointing everybody: Women/NB creators, tweet me w/links to your cool comics starring tuff gals. I’ll RT.

There was an immediate flood of responses and Spike made with the retweets, blowing up my timelines, pausing for a while to catch some sleep before resuming some hours later. I’d be hard pressed to estimate how many creators she retweeted, but I’d say probably in the vicinity of 200-300 before giving it a rest about eight hours later. Best of all? I recognized a mere handful of the comics that got the RT treatment (and by that I mean literally five), so there’s a lot of new comics to check out.

Probably most of them aren’t great, because most of everything isn’t great. But I’ll betcha there’s 20 to 50 in that grouping that damn good to excellent, just waiting for anybody that’s got the time to start collecting links. Anybody that’s really enterprising could Storify the list; do it for the children.

In other news:

• My evil twin announced pre-orders on his next book open on Monday along with a deadline to provide shipping info for this last Kickstarter and another deadline to register for the chance to take a tropical cruise with him. If you can think of something better to do for a week in September than spend it on a ship with my evil twin, sipping on fruity drinks and learning about writing, I don’t know what it is.
• Speaking of Kickstarts, Dante Shepherd² announced that he’s doing another page-a-day calendar for 2017, seeing as how the 2014 one was a success³. Kickstarter went up a couple hours ago, with the able help of TopatoCo and Make That Thing.
• Heh, when I went by the MTT page to check on Shepherd’s calendar, it told me that Jess Fink’s second Chester 5000 collection will finish its funding round in 69 hours. Yes, I am perpetually twelve years old.
• Finally, KC Green and Anthony Clark are making the best weekly-updating comic publishing today (BACK) and they are not the sort to screw around with pre-orders or crowdfunding. No! They are men of action and when they want to print a collection of their work they by Glob go out and print it and and pay John Keogh and Britt Wilson for enhancements to the book and then they sell it, financial risks be damned. As a result, you can now purchase a copy of BACK Book 1 from the web’s finest boutiquery so go do that.

Spam of the day:

Stunning waterfront property in Michigan’s majestic Upper Peninsula
Private setting with convenient location to ATV / snowmobile trails.

Translation: no roads, no utilities, you will die out here alone. Also, for a significant portion of the year, the Upper Peninsula is cold as fuck.

_______________
¹ Long story short — a comic about female empowerment had its original artist yanked from the book after a domestic violence arrest; other artists have since filled in. A hiatus announcement led to the current artist indicating she was removed from the book in favor of the original guy returning — meaning an abusive husband would again be drawing a book about women that don’t put up with shit, yikes.

On a personal note, literally two days before the news broke I picked up Rat Queens trade paperback one on the recommendation of my niece and loved it, having been unaware of the unsavory reputation of the original artist, and was planing on purchasing the second and third collections but now I’m not sure.

² Who is his own evil twin, or at least his own dark reflection. Which one is more like Batman?

³ He was kind enough to send me one — it took up so much space on my desk. This is not a tiny page-a-day, it has heft and also terrible jokes.

… and I’m going to have to drive through it up ol’ I-95¹. Let’s make this brief.

Over the past three months, the full run of previously-published Octopus Pie (by Meredith Gran, who remains Best At Comics) has been republished by Image in three handsome volumes; in a little less than two weeks time, the fourth book in the series — never before published material! color! — will hit the shops and Gran’s having an event to celebrate:

I’m hosting a pop-up event for the release of my new book, Octopus Pie Volume 4!

This is the first time in years that brand new OP material has been in print, and I’m damn proud of this book and hope you would like a copy! They will be for sale at the event, in addition to Volumes 1-3, a bit of TBA merch, and original comic art on the walls!

That’ll be on Wednesday, 25 May (release day!) at Creations Gallery, 89 Avenue C (corner of East 6th) in Manhattan, from 6:00pm to 9:00pm. You can RSVP at the Facebook event page (which I would do except I’m not on Facebook — Mer, barring disaster I’ll totally be there), and come enjoy some Good Times.

And a few days after, Octopus Pie will be considered for the Online Comics — Long Form division award from the NCS at the Reubens weekend in Nashville; Gran’s got some formidable opposition in her category, but I think with some luck and gumption, she’ll wake up the following day a Broadway star!

I may have gotten a little ahead of myself there, but for reals — tell your local comic shop you want a copy of Octopie 4 because it’s full of great comics.

Spam of the day:

Hi my name is Emily and I just wanted to send you a quick note here instead of calling you.

Who the hell are you and how did you get my number.

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¹ If I don’t make it, tell KB Spangler that I died in battle with her nemesis.