There are things afoot, mostly tangential to webcomics qua webcomics, but possibly of interest to people that read this page on a regular basis. A page which, I have been recently informed, shares a name with a number of other things also called Fleen.

Looking at primacy, it appears that the McSweeney’s reference dates to early 2001, the sci-fi epic to 2008, and the tessellation tool to earlier this year. While this page in its current form began in December 2005, the name was chosen merely because fleen.com was still owned by Jon Rosenberg, it being used for the Fairly Large Electronic Entertainment Network as far back as 1999 as a portal for some webcomics creators that you may have heard of. Given those dates, it appears that this is the true scion of the Famous Original¹ Fleen and you should accept no substitutes.

• Tangential To Webcomics (Performance Division): The Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco remains a friend to comics of all sorts including webcomics, not least because curator Andrew Farago does webcomics himself. Farago and his fellow staffers are responsible for one of the busier events calendars in the Bay Area, with lots of skilled and well-regarded creators dropping by to say hi. As part of their regular Third Thursday late-night hours, CAM will be hosting the preview night of The Videogame Monologues prior to performances in San Francisco and New York.

  The following week, as part of an ongoing exhibition, CAM will host a reception for the graphic novel adaptation of The Thrilling Adventure Hour. TVM kicks off at 5:00pm on Thursday, 18 September, with a suggested donation of US$5. TAH’s fancy reception is a ticketed event (with prices starting at US$75, mostly tax-deductible), taking place Saturday, 21 September at 7:00pm, with snacks and drinks provided.

• Tangential To Webcomics (Booze Division): September in New York City is where you want to be if you like combining comics and sophisticated adult-type beverages. The Society of Illustrators has long known how to do a reception/happy hour right, and they’ll host one on Wednesday, 25 September at 5:00pm as part of their currently-running exhibition of Peter Kuper’s work in their dedicated MoCCA Galllery.

  Also, Kristen Siebecker (inaugural showrunner of the MoCCA Festival) continues her wine-demystification classes, with two special ladies-only workout-and-wine events next Wednesday, 11 September at 6:30pm and 7:15pm at Uplift Studios in Manhattan. Exercising off the alcohol before you drink it is the definition of guilt-free, right? For those that prefer to not moderate their sins, her regular class will be on Wednesday, 2 October at the West Elm Market in Brooklyn. This class will examine the classic pairing of wine and cheese and starts at 6:30pm.Each of Siebecker’s sessions costs US$45, but you can get a 10% discount on the wine-and-cheese class if you use the code EMAIL10.

• Tangential To Webcomics (Instrumental Metal Division): Jeph Jacques made goal on his Deathmøle album Kickstarter in mere hours about three weeks ago; since then his crowdfunding total has been on a steady upward crawl and it crossed the US$100,000 mark about an hour ago. The Fleen Funding Model says to use the predicted total from Kicktraq at the 24-36 hour mark as a base figure, and it’s highly likely that the final total will fall somewhere between one-sixth and one-third that value.

  For Jacques, that base figure was US$400,000, giving an expected total in the range of US$67K to US$134K. Permanence is solidly in that range already, and it’s just a matter of how high the usual last-few-days frenzy³ carries him; it’s pretty unusual for a webcomic-related project to fall below the 3.0 ratio², but if anybody can do it, it’s Jacques’s fans.

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¹ See also: Famous Original Ray’s.

² Remember, lower ratios are good.em

³ Stretch goals will help, as Jacques has already drawn light porn, and now has to produce a 20 page comic for backers. One smart stretch goal in the US$120K slot and he’ll have money thrown at him from now until the campaign end next Tuesday.

This was supposed to be a day of catching up on things, and instead it’s a day of nursing a spine that’s determined to insist that it is the boss of me. Ow. Let’s see what some young’uns with presumably good backs are up to.

• As previously noted, it was a weekend with several important cons, at least of one — PAX Prime — which is still going on. As anticipated last week, word came regarding the new artist of The Trenches, and it turns out to be Strip Search alumna Monica Ray¹; congrats to Dan Stefanidis who emailed me on Tuesday with a guess that the line weights and color palette reminded him of Ms Ray’s work.

  Continuing their habit of throwing projects to people who don’t end up working in-house (cf: the Penny Arcade Personality Pins, as drawn by Tavis Maiden, whose Kickstarter is down to its final two days), not only will Monica Ray be drawing The Trenches, she’ll find fellow Artist Ty Halley on writing duties.

  Given the trend in the ten weeks or so since Katie Rice was declared the winner², it appears that nobody lost that first season, except those of us who were looking forward to the traps. Certainly not audience- and crew-favorite Cool Guy “Nick” Trujillo who took the opportunity of the Artist Reunion panel at PAX Prime to propose to his girlfriend and simultaneously raised the bar for all future PAX-related proposals.

  In any event, Ray, Halley and Trujillo are all disgustingly young and presumably have backs that do not give them trouble, for which they should be grateful. Also, apropos of nothing, Strip Search Artist Abby Howard, who also just moved to Seattle, should know that thanks to a sketch she did at PAX this past weekend, I finally have found an image that I think is important enough to get tattooed on my body. Oh, Robert … so dreamy.

• Know who else is young and had a good weekend? Howard Tayler, born on the 29th of February, and thus between the 11th and 12th occurrences of his birthday. Last night, he failed to break his streak of winless nominations for the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story; he can take some solace from the fact that he is the only person to be nominated for this award every year since it was introduced in 2009³.

  Oh, and also from the Hugo that he won in the category of Best Related Work, for his part in the podcast series Writing Excuses.

  Now I’m speculating here (Tayler being my Evil Twin only gives me so much insight into his thought process), but I feel that this award might mean even more to him than Best Graphic Story; Tayler’s a pretty self-effacing guy and as much as Schlock Mercenary is where he made his bones, he’s grown to be more than a single-creation creator. He’s done both illustration and writing in the SF/gaming world, and Writing Excuses is all about providing advice and mentorship for future writers, and I just get the feeling that it’s where he might allow himself to feel a bit more pride.

  You done good, Howard; you’re the best nemesis I could hope for, and I’m thrilled that we’re not the sort of mismatched pair that annihilates each other if we come into contact. Assuming that we truly are opposites, I’m guessing that today’s discomfort means that your back is in stellar shape and I’ll let you have that one today. Tomorrow though — I’m expecting you to take your fair share of this stiffness.

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¹ Her dinosaur/rollerskates comic was possibly my favorite piece of art produced in all of Strip Search season one, and you can get an absolutely beautiful print of the comic, cleaned up and reworked for color, is available from her store and you should get it.

² And who just started her year in residency at Penny Arcade, and who has already worked on the PA Presents Project Fairway Solitaire.

³ I’m not about to do a comprehensive search of Hugo history, but this may make Tayler the only person to be nominated every year of a permanent award’s existence. While there are some other repeats in new awards — such as Best Fancast, existing for two years, featuring a number of repeat nominees, and in fact won both years by the crew of SF Squeecast — the key there is new awards. Hugo rules, as I understand them, will require a vote after three iterations to determine if these awards become permanent.

Dead water heater? Of course! Netbook bricking itself and requiring a Linux reinstall? Why not? But dammit, I’m going to tell you something today if it kills me¹.

• For starters, it’s another three-con weekend for fans of webcomics; you have your choice of stalking meeting your favorite creators at Dragon*Con² in Atlanta, WorldCon 71 in the guise of LoneStarCon3³ in San Antonio, or PAX Prime⁴ in Seattle.

  At Dragon*Con you can see possibly the most aggressive cosplayers and sexytimes atmosphere of the annual con circuit — including the obligatory kilt blowing. At WorldCon you can see the Hugo Awards — or join the live stream — where Howard Tayler will either continue or break his streak as the Susan Lucci of the Best Graphic Story category. PAX Prime will feature the first reunion of Strip Search artists since the show revealed Katie Rice as the winner.

• Assuming you need more than that, how about some hot, hot porn?
  

  Smut Peddler 2014 begins next week. Submission guidelines, invited line-up, deadline, and planned release date. Watch for it, folks.

  Countdown to quality, lady-friendly sexytimes? Starts now.

And I realize that I am tempting the metaphorical demons of fate itself by saying this, but I hope that tomorrow will be back to normal, just in time to slide into the long weekend here in the States. See you then.

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¹ It very well may kill me.

² And with con co-founder/accused child molester Ed Kramer finally going to trial — and legally separated from the legal entity that owns D*C — a shadow that has hung over the show for some years is finally lifted.

³ Who had their own kerfuffle last week, as it was noticed that they were going to be showing the largely-unseen and deeply racist Disney film, Song of the South. Questions were raised as to what context the film would be shown (it can definitely be watched in the context of an artifact of its times, with a frank acknowledgement of how poisonous much of its content is to modern eyes), as well as whether or not the film could possibly be legally licensed (Disney does not want Song to be associated with their name and has kept it locked up in the vaults for decades). In any event, con organizers nixed that idea.

⁴ The tenth consecutive PAX, for those counting.

I have no idea what’s been going on in webcomics because of work issues; long story short, yesterday was an absolute horrorshow that kept me isolated from life¹. Randy Milholland could have gone on a naked bear hunt on the show floor of the Toronto Fan Expo and I wouldn’t have heard about it. So I’m writing off anything that happened Sunday or Monday, and making a real quick survey before I have to deal with the remainder of this gig and I see….

New, mysterious artist(s) at The Trenches replacing Mary Cagle? Robert Khoo acting all mysterious? It’s Tuesday, all right. Theories as to the mysterious new contributor’s identity in the comments, at least until Khoo decides to let us know. Probably an announcement will be made at PAX Prime this weekend or something, so it shouldn’t be long.

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¹ I was on-site at my client from 6:30am to 6:10pm, during which time I did not see the sun; I didn’t get a break until 1:30pm and I had a total of 25 minutes in which to eat (at the mysteriously-empty company cafeteria, which managed to give me a low-grade case of food poisoning). We’re now at least two hours behind in a two-day class because the technical environment was not what I was promised, and we don’t start until 1:00pm today just because. I’ve spent most of the time since end of class yesterday either sleeping or wishing I had some Judge Harlan’s Parts Unknown Tonic and flour water. This entire thing is sass in the main and I am ready to tear off somebody’s entire middle.

Friday afternoon, hooray. Here are some places you may want to go or things that you may want to pay attention to.

• “William Tallman”¹ has announced some changes at Reptilis Rex², which should result in a bolder, more experimental strip:
  

  [T]he next few weeks will see some changes in Reptilis Rex. Firstly, the schedule will be changing from “Monday –- Thursday” to “Sporadic!” I added the exclamation point in there to soften the blow. Did it work? Hooray!!!! Part of the reason for this is because my family is going to be growing by one in the next few months, and I know that, for a while at least, time will be a commodity I simply don’t have enough of. Like money, or self esteem! Secondly, (and this is the stretching legs part), I wanted to try out a larger format, and that means more work, which means not-so-daily updates. But it is my hope that the expanded format will allow me to tell bigger, better stories. My goal is to update at least twice a week with double-sized strips …

  We at Fleen dig Reptilis Rex big time, and getting the story in bigger (albeit less frequent) chunks should allow “Tallman” some interesting storytelling possibilities. Now if only he hadn’t ended up such a terrible cliffhanger today, with Snive (or “Robert” as he prefers to be called when in mammal drag, but I think he looks more like a “Greg”), coming to a crisis point. He’s been on the verge of breaking away from Krel for some time, and he may have finally achieved that in the worst possible way. Sure, Krel on the surface is an impotent, incompetent, self-important bully, but he used to be a hated dictator with power and perhaps a taste for genocide. How he might react to Snive’s anger is … terrifying, actually.

• New Achewood, second in the space of a week. It’s a flashback to the Small Times of Ray and Beef, but I am cautiously optimistic.
• Ignatz Award nominations out, with the most indy-oriented wing of comics coming together to honor its own (as is not uncommon with the Ignatzen, there is little to no overlap with the other major awards). Good luck to all the nominees, especially those for Outstanding Online Comic: Annie Szabla, Ken Dahl & Gabby Schulz, Sam Alden, Gabrielle Bell, and Jillian Tamaki. The Ignatz Awards will be handed out at SPX next month.
• Freelancers! Want to help make it harder for the bozos who (inadvertently) contribute to the content of For Exposure? Answer some questions for Katie Lane of Work Made For Hire and you can help set the expectation that your work is worth money:”
  

  If you freelance will you take a moment and help fill out this sheet on what your rates are? http://bit.ly/14Ex5QX

  I want to use it as a resource for people who might ask for free work. They can look at the sheet & realize, “Oh! I can afford that.”

  Or, alternatively, “Oh, I didn’t realize I was asking for $3000 worth of work!”

  My modest suggestion? Take the free out of freelance. It may sound silly the first thousand times people call themselves feelancers, but the idea that there’s a fee associated with your effort is a notion worth sounding silly for.

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¹ Who, as my previous research has conclusively proved, is actually David Willis.

² And goodness, has it really been running for 18 months and I’ve neglected to add it to the blogroll over yonder to the right? Time to fix that.

So there was a tweet earlier today from Oni Press supremo James Lucas Jones to the effect that :01 Books associate marketing manager Gina Gagliano is the absolute best, to which I responded This is mathematically provable. Before I had a chance to crunch the numbers, Ms Gagliano obviated any need for me to do so, as today’s mail brought review copies of Derek Kirk Kim [Edit to add: and Les McClaine]’s Tune: Still Life and Paul Pope’s Battling Boy.

But that’s not all, because she also sent along a matted print of Battling Boy and a T-Rex, to which I can only say, Thanks Gina, and sorry T-Rex, you are no longer the awesomest dinosaur in the world of comics. It’s gonna take some time to savor these books, so look for reviews of Battling Boy and Tune: Still Life in the coming weeks.

• Speaking of the twitters, does everybody remember about a month back, when some Scandinavian webcomics types hit the road for a casual drive to Mongolia? By the next day they were hanging in the vicinity of Prague; in the four weeks since the occasional tweet and approximate location update on their progress map assured us they were still alive and unconsumed by feral animals, although details were scarce on the blog. There were four or five days of updates through to about Romania, then a jump forward to 28 July in Uzbekistan, then nothing for two weeks.

  Last night (around 8:30pm GMT-4) however, the tweetstorm began:

  http://fms.ws/DPLFh Ulanbataar?

  The position map actually put them on the outskirts of Ulanbataar, Mongolia’s capital. Some eleven hours later:

  Finally made it to Ulaanbataar!!! Boom! First shower since Russia!

  Finish line kit, we f’ing made it!! Now, three days of fun in UN, and handing in the car tomorrow :)… instagram.com/p/dCHlYXEN96/

  We had to tow the UNO the last 350k, and recharge the battery every 40 minutes. Adventure!!… instagram.com/p/dCH9PMkN-e/

  Amazing camp has been had, waking up with this view…. najs. #teamventure #mongolrally instagram.com/p/dCIKcZkN-m/

  Finish line steak! :D @ Blue Sky Tower instagram.com/p/dCIjuYEN–/

  Finish line champagne. #mongolrally #teamventure #abataarworld instagram.com/p/dCQ7BYkN4F/

  That was followed by a posting of the first videos from the trip, and presumably a hearty period of sleep. Congratulations to the members of Team Venture for the safe conclusion of their adventure, along with the hope that they picked up some good drinking stories and maybe an interesting scar or two.

  Expect to hear more details about the adventures had along the way, and the wagers on who the next webcomics-related team will be to brave the Mongol Rally starts … now! I’m calling dibs on a team made up of Jon Rosenberg, Paul Southworth, and any other webcomickers with three small children, just for the relative opportunity to catch up on sleep that bribing ex-Soviet border guards and dodging bears would offer.

• For those looking for a comics-related adventure that involves slightly less death defiance, may I recommend Columbus, Ohio in November? The triennial Festival of Cartoon Art¹ will by coincidence be occurring about the same time as the grand opening of a new facility at the Festival’s home, the Billy Ireland Carton Library and Museum at Ohio State University.

  As a result, this year’s iteration of the FCA should be one of the best in memory, with a murderer’s row of speaking talent, an impressive-as-all-hell program schedule, and a registration cost of seventy-five bucks. Considering that registration is capped in range of hundreds², not tens of thousands, if you attend you’ll be in immediate proximity to some of the greatest creators and commenters on comics alive.

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¹ The last occurrence of which featured Dave Kellett’s address on the changing nature of comics and a stack of interviews that eventually made it into STRIPPED. Which, why look, will be screened for FCA attendees.

² Specifically, 275. At any major comics convention, there are more than 275 Homestucks waiting in line to get Andrew Hussie’s autograph.

I love it when creative types are creative in more than one way, and I mean that as sincerely as I’ve ever meant anything in my life. Case in point: Andy Bell has more creatures, critters, robots, and things in his head than he can reasonably contain, and within the room I presently occupy, I see them in the form of vinyl toys, paintings, stickers and printed books. Were I to move to the kitchen and open the freezer, I’d see them in the form of ice cubes; somewhere upstairs is a zipper pull shaped like meat, and there are also sculptures and plushes and things that I don’t own. Specialization is for insects.

• But, Gary, I hear you cry, that’s one webcomicker type that works in multiple interesting ways. Who else? Glad you asked me, Sparky; how about Jeph Jacques, one of the proverbial¹ giants of webcomics, has launched a project close to his heart: a Kickstarter to record his next Deathmøle album in an actual studio, leading to CDs and possibly vinyl.

  The Permanence campaign cleared goal in an entirely predictable 2.5 hours, no surprise there — until you consider that it launched in the dead of night when not so many people were paying attention, and that 2.5 hour mark was at approximately 2:15am. In the twelve hours since, the project has closed in on spitting distance of US$25,000 and is well on track for six digits of total given that there’s still 29 and a half days to go. Heck, even if metal’s not your thing, check it out just for the names of the backer tiers, and keep an eye out for stretch goals once Jacques has a chance to think them up.

• Okay, that’s two. What else you got? How about voice acting, a topic that is near and dear to my heart? I trust that you have all seen Natasha Allegri’s complete Bee and PuppyCat, yes? And you noticed Wallace, right? And you noticed that Wallace was voiced by Frank “Becky and Frank” Gibson, right? This makes our Frank the sixth (and possibly best) Frank Gibson at IMDB, officially qualifies him for a Bacon Number of 3 (via Tom Kenny), and makes him entertainment industry royalty. Yay, Frank.
• These examples are somewhat obvious, Gary; can’t you come up with something that stretches the idea a little? Straight to the breaking point, if you like. Look, merch design is a part of the webcomickin’ game, and thus the push of Penny Arcade into the world of cloisonné pins is just another bit of merch. Except what they’re making isn’t just merch, it’s a social ecosystem with rules, artistic and business partners, and a touch of fanaticism for good measure:
  

  If you have pins from a previous show (Boston or Australia) you should bring them [to PAX Prime] to trade or just to show off. I saw a guy in Australia holding a cardboard sign on the last day that said “Will trade dignity for PAX East pins!” If you do have some pins from another show to trade I can promise you they will be like gold at Prime.

  Like a lot of social ecosystems, I’m not sure that I want to get in on this one — I have enough completist tendencies that the “Gotta catch ’em all” impulse would likely become dangerous to my sanity, my wallet, or both. However, I will state here and now that anybody cared to set me up with a Robert Khoo and/or Brian Sunter, that would be awesome. No particular reason, nope. Definitely not a secret shrine in my basement, no way. Honest.

• Finally, if you want to get a good idea of what kind of multi-modal² creativity exists/mutates/is possible in webcomicking and beyond, the annual symposium³ to such ideas will be kicking off in the DC Beltway ‘burbs the weekend after next. Intervention is back for its fourth iteration, having hit that self-sustaining point far quicker than is usual for the smaller-scale, single-hotel type shows.

  The guests and programming are eclectic, the participants range from audience to enthusiasts to major pros, and the cross-pollination of creative energies are going to be considerable. For those looking to step into other areas of creative expression, it ought to be of considerable interest.

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¹ Literal as well. How large is Jeph Jacques? In that photo at the top of the page, the Cintiq in the foreground is the new 57 inch prototype.

² Oof, what a horrible word. Sorry for that.

³ In the original sense of the word: drinking party.

I have but two things for you on this, a rather nice Friday afternoon:

• TCAF exhibitor applications for 2014 now available. Showrunner Chris Butcher may be chilling in Japan right now, but the organization he built is on top of things and the process of curation for next year’s show is well in hand. If you want to make sure that your application is as good as possible, never fear: applications will be considered until 18 October (individual creators) or 15 October (publishers and those requesting multiple tables), so no worries about getting shut out if you didn’t apply in the first twelve seconds. As a side note, TCAF has expanded in recent years from one weekend every other year to a weekend every year, and in 2014 it will add a Friday’s worth of non-exhibition content (that would be 9, 10, and 11 May, 2014).
• Boulet, for whom this page has a deep and abiding respect, not least for this ability to crank out a lot of gorgeous pages very quickly, dropped something fairly amazing on the internet today: an epic (and I don’t use that word lightly) vertical-scrolling pixel comic titled The Long Journey. How long is it?¹ Long enough that the image at the top of this post is one sixty-fifth of the full comic. At least partially in honor of slightly more than nine years of ‘net-based comics, it is (like much of Boulet’s work) sprawling, contemplative, philosophical, and absurd in equal measure. Go read it now and understand that while the infinite canvas² has much potential to annoy, sometimes it’s downright sublime.

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¹ That’s rather a personal question, sir.

² Shhh! Nobody tell E. B-White!

We told you a few weeks ago about Kazu Kibuishi and his commission to redo the covers for the Harry Potter books; he made the trip to New York for the final image unveiling (and to meet readers and fans). The cover images for the seven books, plus the slipcase and spine art, can be seen at the Scholastic website, alongside the original Mary GrandPré illustrations. They’re beautiful, choose iconic moments from the story to choose, and typically depict Harry in a state of acting rather than a state of being, if you take my meaning.

But it’s a picture in a tweet that makes me really appreciate the work that Kibuishi’s done.

You may recall from our discussion that he proposed doing back cover images as well as front covers, and Scholastic agreed; the back cover for Sorcerer’s Stone was shared a few hours ago and it took my breath away. The close up figures and faces of Harry and his parents could be neighbors to Emily and Navin, it’s so in line with his style; at the same time, it’s unmistakably Harry, Lily and James Potter, their postures and body language conveying all that the longtime (or first time, for that matter) reader knows (or will know) about that family.

As it turns out, I recently passed my hardcovers of the Potter books onto a niece and nephew who weren’t yet born when the books finished; I may need to pick up the boxed set when it releases just to have the visuals in my home.

Further recognition:

• Jeph Jacques hit the Big Round Number (strip count) of 2500 on Monday, and today he hit the Big Round Number (years) of 10 today, in the midst of a story arc that I think he could spend a year or so on without it getting boring¹. It’s been a long, long journey for Jacques from strip number one, with the requisite drama and upheaval both in-strip and in real life. Here’s hoping for exactly as many more Big Round Numbers (strips and years) as he finds he has to share².
• Speaking of Jacques, one of the things that impresses me about him is his desire to be creative in multiple media; while the comic is what gets the attention, I have the feeling he could happily compose and record music for Deathmøle pretty much forever. Likewise, the very funny Chris Hastings is never one to rest on his laurels, stretching out to the lighthearted side of comics writing for Marvel with Deadpool and the recently-announced Longshot miniseries³.

  He’s also, for most of the past year, been studying improv, which I feel has only sharpened his comedic instincts, and for the first time he feels he’s ready to share his new skills with the public at large. If you’re in Manhattan tonight, Hastings and his team will be in the improv competition known as INSPIRADO.

  It’s okay, I didn’t know that was either, but he explained it to me a while back. Two teams compete to perform comedy based around challenges taken from the letters I N S P I R A D and O, and it’s possibly — likely, even — that the word is not completed due to failures of one or both teams. If I recall his explanation correctly, the O stands for Oh shit as the challenge becomes impossibly hard, and it’s rare that a team reaches ultimate victory. We at Fleen join all right-thinking people in wishing Hastings and his team the best of luck, and we would totally be there if not for this stupid day job.

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¹ Namely, the state of artificial intelligence in his world. Specifically, he’s dealing with the concept of robot offense and robot punishment, which is downright fascinating.

² Also butts.

³ Hastings shared with me some of what he’s doing in that miniseries, and even as a not-particularly-familiar-with-Marvel reader, it sounds frickin’ hilarious.

One of the things that I now recall speaking with Christopher Butcher about on Friday night over copious drinks was the forthcoming plan for a dual book launch for Ryan North (and Wm Shakespeare, and you)’s new book, To Be or Not To Be, and also This Is How You Die, edited by Ryan North, Matt Bennardo and David Malki !.

My recall was prompted by the good Mr North, who announced that the then-nebulous details are now solid: The Beguiling, the world-class comic store managed by Butcher, will host the Choose Your Own Launch Party this coming Monday, 29 July, from 7:00pm to 10:00pm in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Two venues, side by side, will host the two books, and you can choose which is more worthy by your presence and participation.

On the North side of the party, you can engage in choose-your-own live readings from the book and Shakespeare rap battles! On the Malki ! side¹, you can get a completely accurate prediction of how you will die and play a game which is absolutely, positively, legally not Pictionary with MoD cards.

Kickstarts!

• We have one that’s been teased for a while from the intrepid Amy T Falcone to launch her new comic, Clique Refresh, and which — in the way of Strip Search alumni — funded out almost immediately. It’s a new trend being seen in Kickstarter, pre-funding webcomics and their content for a period of time (typically a year), and hopefully seeing content at the end of that time in print.

  I think that this leap of faith approach to webcomics can work where the creator is a known quantity with work you can see, looking to make a change in project (always a risky prospect, one that may lose you audience). In this way, it’s in contrast from a stack of failed dead-tree-floppy comics that tried to Kickstart completely unknown creators with no body of work to judge by.

  Hopefully, the latter won’t try to emulate people like Abby Howard, Maki Naro, and Ms T Falcone, because while I may (have) backed people that have given me comics and want to shift to other comics, I will likely never back somebody that promises that their very first comic will be super awesome you guys even though I’ve never written one before and I haven’t found an artist yet, trust me.

• On the more traditional approach to Kickstarting — here’s a production of something physical from material already produced — allow me to point you to Christopher Baldwin’s third (and final, sniff) volume of Spacetrawler (getting a head start on the finishing up of the strip, which is rapidly approaching), and Tom Dell’Aringa’s comprehensive omnibus, collecting the full five year run of his comic in a reworked, single-story format. If you’re going to back just one surprisingly deep comedic sci-fi webcomic collection that takes place in space, you’re screwed Bunky, because there’s two here that deserve your attention.

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¹ You have no idea how badly I want there to be a hip-hop rivalry between “northside” and “malki!side”.