So I have this deal with Becky Dreistadt and Frank Gibson: when I back their Kickstarters and qualify for a Becky painting, I tell her Do mine last. I know you’ll get to it when you can, clear out everybody else’s before mine. I know that she’ll always have literally a couple hundred paintings to complete, and I have long suspected that not having the pressure to get all! those! paintings! done as quickly as possible means that I’ll get something worth the wait.

Case in point — tiki greyhounds, which I received yesterday and caused me and my wife to squeal with such delight that our own greyhound was startled. It is honestly the most happy-making art I’ve ever seen in my life and I wanted to share it with you all.

• Speaking of Kickstarters, one started a few hours ago and is (as of this writing) approaching the 82% funding level with most of 21 days still to go. I speak, naturally of Johnny Wander Book 3² by Yuko Ota and Ananth Panagariya, and I applaud them for a couple of things:
  • The book is basically done; we’ve seen things like Yuko’s design work for the cover over the past month, and Ananth has put together many, many books; the campaign is basically to manage pre-orders, not to support the creators while they make the book.
  • And also to put an earlier book back in print; while there are still copies of JW volume 1 to be had, one of the things you need to do as an independent publisher is make sure you keep enough inventory on hand for the next _____ months of selling.
  • Panagariya and Ota are doing something I’ve been wanting to see for a while — they’re compressing the time for the campaign down to just three weeks. I’ve often wondered if longer campaign times allow interest to wane, and if a shorter one would create a sense of urgency because you need to do it now or miss out. I don’t think anybody would actually be crazy enough to put up a Kickstarter for the 72 hours I once suggested as an experiment, but I’m betting that the right project with the right audience could make a killing on a one- or two-week campaign. After all, in the time it’s taken me to write the last three paragraphs, the campaign has cleared 87.6%, and will likely be at goal by the time I’m done writing.

  Anyway, JW volume 3, it’s wonderful stuff (almost as wonderful as tiki greyhounds), go get in on that while the getting’s good.

• I followed a link over the weekend (sorry, can’t recall who posted it, but I suspect it was probably Colleen Doran) to a law blog with a focus on marketing and technology, where I discovered something that does not yet appear to be entirely settled case law: can an offhand comment in an email suffice to create/change contracts? Even to the extent of giving up copyrights? The particular case cited by the author, Eric Goldman, seems to indicate not, but there appear to have been other cases that decide in the other direction. Goldman says he hasn’t yet decided to implement a standard disclaimer on his emails, but thinks that it might be a good idea. For those of you who like boilerplate:
  

  Nothing in this email is intended as an offer and the author disclaims any intention to make an offer or create an enforceable agreement through any email messages. Any agreement with the author of this email must be in a signed paper document!

  As always, please consult with a trained legal professional if questions of rights or contracts are something you have to deal with, and make sure you don’t give anything away by accident. Giving things away by accident makes tiki greyhounds sad. =(

• Know what makes tiki greyhounds happy? 97% and rising.

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¹ Because nobody will appreciate a good gander at this like The Tiki Queen of the East Bay. Please note that I do not seek to challenge her for tiki collection supremacy, as she has devoted her home to tiki in a way I could never match, and that’s before you consider the contributions by both Sergio Aragones and Stan Sakai.

² Disclaimer: I provided a blurb for JW volume 2, and I happened to see Ota and Panagariya just yesterday. Feel free to read into those whatever you’d like.

I first noticed it in Ryan Estrada’s twitterfeed, taking time out from his honeymoon to point out a photo of the Obamas with a copy of Kean Soo’s Jellaby. Subsequent consensus is that the photo is from 2008, and it looks as if the First Lady is holding the book for one of her daughters, but honestly none of that matters. What matters is that the Obama girls have excellent taste in reading material.

As long as I’m noticing things via other people, here’s a thinky essay on creativity by Linds Redding (with whom I was not previously familiar), pointed out by Colleen Doran (who really is frigteningly clever and you should pay attention when she’s got something to say; cf: all about bad publishers). Redding talks about his time in the advertising game, and an exercise in creativity that required brainstorming and then walking away from ideas overnight:

This human powered bullshit filter was a handy and powerful tool. Inexpensive, and practically foolproof. Not much slipped through the net. I’m quite sure architects, musicians, mathematicians and cake decorators all have an equivalent time-honed protocol.

But here’s the thing.

The Overnight Test only works if you can afford to wait overnight. To sleep on it. Time moved on, and during the nineties technology overran, and transformed the creative industry like it did most others. With the new digital tools at our disposal we could romp over the creative landscape at full tilt. Have an idea, execute it and deliver it in a matter of a few short hours.

Or as the bean counters upstairs quickly realized, we could just do three times as many jobs in the same amount of time, and make them three times as much money. For the same reason that Jumbo Jets don’t have the grand pianos and palm-court cocktail bars we were originally promised in the brochures, the accountants naturally won the day.

Pretty soon, The Overnight Test became the Over Lunch Test. Then before we knew it, we were eating Pot-Noodles at our desks, and taking it in turns to go home and see our kids before they went to bed.
plummeted.

The other consequence, with the benefit of hindsight, is that we became more conservative. Less likely to take creative risks and rely on the tried and trusted. The familiar is always going to research better than the truly novel. An research was the new god. The trick to being truly creative, I’ve always maintained, is to be completely unselfconscious. To resist the urge to self-censor. To not-give-a-shit what anybody thinks. That’s why children are so good at it.

There’s more history, some analysis, and then Redding gets to what I think is the key thesis:

This hybridisation of the arts and business is nothing new of course – it’s been going on for centuries – but they have always been uncomfortable bed-fellows. But even artists have to eat, and the fuel of commerce and industry is innovation and novelty. Hey! Let’s trade. “Will work for food!” as the street-beggars sign says.

This Faustian pact has been the undoing of many great artists, many more journeymen and more than a few of my good friends. Add to this volatile mixture the powerful accelerant of emerging digital technology and all hell breaks loose. What I have witnessed happening in the last twenty years is the aesthetic equivalent of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century. The wholesale industrialization and mechanistation of the creative process. Our ad agencies, design groups, film and music studios have gone from being cottage industries and guilds of craftsmen and women, essentially unchanged from the middle-ages, to dark sattanic mills of mass production. Ideas themselves have become just another disposable commodity to be supplied to order by the lowest bidder. As soon as they figure out a way of outsourcing thinking to China they won’t think twice. Believe me.

Redding is more mourning what’s been lost than looking for where to go next, but I think there’s a decent prescription to be derived from what he’s had to say, in several parts:

1. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Give them away. Repurpose that tweet into a comic. Don’t be afraid to burn more gags than you could use in a week. Hell, use ’em all in one strip, your brain will bake more cookies.
2. That old, pre-industrial model? It’s nice work if you can get it, but you’ll have to work far harder than you ever would working for The Man, more than likely. Seriously, the word “easy” should be banished from your vocabulary, because your chances of achieving real satisfaction and comfortable circumstances are just as slim on your own as they are hitting the jackpot working for somebody else. It’s going to be tough either way, but if you’re going to have to work that hard, it may as well be for you.
3. Remember that the easiest way for somebody to take advantage of you is with your active cooperation; failing to educate yourself (or letting others convince you it’s not important) counts as active cooperation, by the way. Figure out what you don’t know and find a way to learn it, or hire somebody to work for you to do those things.
4. Don’t trust anybody that says they have a recipe for your success, even me¹; take all advice with many grains of salt, decide carefully what works for you, and never stop re-evaluating your plan.

Okay, that’s enough for you to think of over the weekend. See everybody on Monday.

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¹ Especially me.

I guess given how long I’ve been doing this¹ and how much I’ve written², I suppose it was inevitable that one day would events would conspire to suggest the theme “Randy”.

• First up, the Toonseum continues to have some of the most aggressively eclectic programming of any museum I’ve ever heard of (remember their collaboration with the Musuem of Uncut Funk?), and are continuing that tradition on Saturday, 1 December with the Kids Christmas Cartoonfest. Holiday special episodes³ run from noon, there’s a singalong at 4:30, crafts all day, storytelling, and Santa. Five bucks per person.

  So how does this fit into the “Randy” theme? Because the special guest for the afternoon will be actor Ian Petrella who appeared in A Christmas Story as … Randy! Oh, stop acting all disappointed that it isn’t Ralphie, you’ll still buy a ticket for the Red Ryder BB Rifle raffle.

• Secondly,and more Randy-oriented, Uncle Randy has a present for you. I believe that I’m on record as greatly admiring all the comics by Randy Milholland, but I’m especially taken by the (approximately annual) Super Stupor comics, as they take up stray strands from the (very occasional) Super Stupor online comics and spin them out to wonderful stories that really make cape comics appealing.

  Seriously, I’ve enjoyed Super Stupor #1-4 more than any superhero comic from the big publishers in maybe ten years because Milholland does more to make me care about characters in a one-shot issue than the past seven decades of neverending same-old interspersed with continuous EVENTS! THAT! CHANGE! EVERYTHING!

  It’s been long enough since Super Stupor #4 that I was wondering if #5 was ever coming along when lo and behold: yesterday Milholland dropped the first page of what would have been issue #5, but instead he’s decided to post online for free.

  

  Which means two things:

  1. Come back to the Super Stupor site for the next, I’ma say twenty days or so, and enjoy the story. Based on this first page, it doesn’t appear that Milholland’s using his established characters to the same degree as previous issues, so if you don’t know who Toy Boy, Punchline, Arch-Angela, Rumble Bee, Eye-Sore, or Big Killhuna are, you’ll do just fine.
  2. I need to get in touch with Randy and find out how much he wants for the art of this first page (and here I thought I’d never want a drawing of Mitt Romney in my home). If you enjoy the story, you might want to buy a little something from him, too.

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¹ Going on seven years.

² Goodness, if I skip Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day, I’ll round out this year with 2000 posts; I wonder how many words that comes to.

³ Oh man maybe they’ll have A Christmas Special featuring He-Man and She-Ra! Or — dare I hope? — The Star Wars Holiday Special featuring an especially coked-out Carrie Fisher and Bea Arthur!

Until, you know, the nor’easter shows up later today; ordinarily it wouldn’t be a concern, but I’m looking at this one tree that I’m certain thinks it got left out when all the cool trees got knocked down by Superstorm Sandy last week. There’s also a boil water order for my town, the furnace is acting up now that it’s really getting cold out, I see snow coming down, and — most horrifyingly — I have to go the the MVC and renew my driver’s license. But at least Donald Trump is in a deep existential funk over the election, so I guess it all balances out.

• In the meantime, I’ll note that while I was without power last week, the ninth iteration of Child’s Play launched, and has accumulated US$300,000 in the first week. Good start, nerds, let’s see if you can better the US$3.5 million (give or take) that was the 2011 tally.
• More numbers I missed last week: Chris Hallbeck hit Maximumble #500 last Thursday, which when considered with its companion piece Minimumble (approaching #250) and original-flavor The Book of Biff, means that Hallbeck is drawing five panels of comics per day (one in color), five days a week, and I can’t recall the last time he missed an update of any of the three. Taking them all together, he’s put up 2403 updates and that number goes up by fifteen every week. Oh, and he managed to get his kid on national TV this morning; not bad for a man who is nearly 37% eyebrows by mass.
• Readers of this page who like comics and booze¹ may recall² that at the end of the summer I pointed you towards a New York City event aimed at teaching wine newbies how to tell good stuff from bad hosted by Kristen Siebecker. The next session of Popping Your Cork (with an emphasis on drinking good stuff at Thanksgiving) will take place next Wednedsay, 14 November at 6:15pm, spots are filling fast, and if you use the discount code THANKS20 will get 20% off the session price. Spots are going fast, so sign up now if you want to look all fancy come the 22nd.

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¹ I know, what are the odds?

² If all the comics and booze haven’t destroyed your memory.

It seems to me that our system would work a lot better if voting were based on Zach Weinersmith’s “votey” button, which brings up a reward when you point at it. Vote, get a ranting, naked Weinersmith in return. Democracy!

Things coming up:

• UK alert! Scott C and Olly Moss will be doing a joint signing at Forbidden Planet in London the day after tomorrow. Also, sharp-eyed viewers may have noticed Mr C on television last night, in accordance with prophesy.
• Of webcomics-specific happenings, one of the more well-received (by both attendees and exhibitors) of late has been the annual Webcomics Rampage at the Austin, Texas output of Dragon’s Lair Comics. This year’s info is newly released, with David! Willis! sharing both the invite list and programming on his Tumblr. The fun runs the second weekend of December, with both a fullTexas contingent of creators, and also those from less Texasy climes.
• Via Scott McCloud’s twitterfeed: a touching reminder for all of us that have dogs in our lives that nothing lasts forever. I’m putting the world on notice: when my greyhound¹ dies, I am gonna be a mess. Think of this moving remembrance by Claus Daniel Hermann as the less poop-oriented counterpart to this equally aware-of-canine-mortality offering from Matthew Inman, which has a few naughty words and had my wife laughing so hard that she possibly met the clinical definition of respiratory compromise.

  In conclusion, dogs rule. Vote dog!

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¹ Healthy, happy, but twelve and a half years old; also, my first dog.

I have a feeling it’s going to be a quiet week in webcomics, what with a fair number of the New York/New Jersey contingent either still affected, or out helping others. Case in point: Meredith Gran, in a bit less than a day, managed to raise more than US$550 for the rehabilitation of Prospect Park, and the twitterfeeds of lots of creator types reveal they’ve pretty much immediately moved from the Hooray, power’s back! stage to the Let’s help those still without stage. Lots of people helping to clean out inundated houses, deliver food and supplies, and generally try to make life easier for those that got hit hardest. Bravo.

• The stories of what happened during Superstorm Sandy will not be compiled in full for some time, but for me the main reference point for personal experiences (maybe even more than my own, as I came through pretty easily) will likely be the diary-type sketches that Kate Beaton did. If you want to know what the aftermath was like, in all its dramas (small and great), frustrations, moments of clarity and charity, click on the very tall strip and take a journey to the Village, early last week.
• In less storm-related matters, Christopher Baldwin hit a round number over at Spacetrawler today — 300, to be precise — with a little good old fashioned mayhem, Aussie-style. Spacetrawler’s various players and plot threads are careening ahead with no break in pace, and I’ve a feeling the big blowup and tragedy we know is coming (remember, the story started with Nogg informing Martina’s dad of her death). It’s a neat trick, letting everybody know how the story ends before you even start, but still making the ride all exciting-like.

Power’s back, town’s not too badly off¹. Going to catch up on everything that happened this week and see you all on Monday.

In the meantime, if you know of creators in the swath of the superstorm, this might be a good time to throw some commerce their way; if you’ve already done so, please be patient regarding any delivery delays. Me, I’m gonna spend some time tomorrow dropping some money at Wild Pig Comics — who were to be hosting a webcomics multicreator signing this weekend — since everybody needs commerce to kick back in and I needs me some funnybooks after the past four days.

Speaking of kicking, if any of you know Michael “Heckuva Job” Brown, feel free to give him a right good kicking on my behalf for his incredibly stupid comments of the past few days. Yes, “Brownie”, the people of New York are dependent on electricity-based “modern conveniences” like ventilators and oxygen concentrators; part of what I’ve been doing in my town for the past few days is sharing our supply of O₂ cylinders with people who would die without them. Ass.

PS: Anybody that knows me in the Central NJ area that needs someplace to plug in a device or a hot shower, call.

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¹ Although there’s probably 40 families here in my town of 13,000 with various degrees of trees into their homes; some will require repair, some will have to be demolished. As bad as it is, we got off lucky.

No posts until those situations resolve, dammit.

Strong Female Characters.

Power and internet still holding, yay. Hopefully you (yes, you personally, not the vast, impersonal, generic “you”) are safe and dry and well. What happened over the weekend before Sandy decided to draw a bead on the Mid-Atlantic coast?

• Several neat bits from Meredith Gran, as she took a look back on her process of writing and how she relates to her characters that should be mandatory reading for anybody that does a story-type strip. She’s also started sharing the webcomics made by her students at SVA, with the first two showing loads of potential. Look for more from her along those lines in the near future. In the meantime, give a good look to Post Hoc by Wyeth Yates and The Bell Blues by Aatmaja Pandya.
• Speaking of “Yates”, Chris Yates (no relation) has just released the first-ever transparent Baffler!s for sale and oh man they are tasty. Only 50 total will be for sale right now (the remaining 50 next year), 25 each of the completely transparent and “First Frost” (with random transparent and opaque paint splatters). Actually, 25 of the completely clear and 24 of the First Frost on account of I just bought one¹. Clear Baffler!s are so awesome, they get their own store page.
• Know who this page hasn’t mentioned in far too long? Rebecca Clements; she’s been on an extended sabbatical from comics, but now she’s back and cranking up the pretty pictures to near-dangerous levels. First up: an enormous summation of what she’s been up for for the past year (living and working in Japan), offering up prints of her best comics, as well as a few originals. If you appreciate the most whimsical art this side of the late Theodore Geisel would do well to welcome Clements back and hope that they can keep up with her renewed burst of creativity.

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¹ Booyah.

Seriously, Hurricane/Tropical Storm Sandy is looking to be pretty damn unpleasant come Monday. Stay safe, all in the way of the storm track.

• Speaking of disasters of one form or another, everybody’s red-haired pal (no, not Jimmy Olsen) Zach Weinersmith dropped some good news on us last night via Twitter:
  

  Presenting, a “Starpocalypse” Teaser, from SMBC Theater, written by James Ashby http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=…

  Warning: shirtless James, who, as previously established, is History’s Greatest Villain, primarily for the whole shirtless thing.

  Anyhoo, a trailer to finally showcase last year’s Kickstarted project that exists in large part to write circumstances where James is blown up in space. But more than just destroying James, Starpocalypse will feature a very balls-intensive FSM, orgasm hats, pointless despair, hot lady aliens or androids or something with purple hair and weird eyes whatever, and big-ass space battles. And hopefully a lot of destroying James.

• Via Chris Hastings:
  

  NEW BOOK NEW BOOK NEW BOOK

  I might be reading too much into this, but it appears that Hastings may have a new book. Release is set just prior to whichever winter solstice-adjacent holiday you prefer, so best pre-order it if you want to make somebody’s Decemberween joyous.

One last thing, if I may be serious for a moment — wherever the storm hits (and despite the fact that I have people that I like a great deal or even love throughout that probability cone, I am wishing as hard as I can that Sandy veers towards any of them instead of me because I am almost as great a villain as James), take care and be aware that you may have to care for yourselves for a while.

In particular, ambulances cannot go out when winds are high, because they are all great big top-heavy boxes on wheels that will roll over until they smash into something if the gusts hit just right. If you’re in the path of high winds, count on EMS response being delayed/suspended during the worst of the storm, and even after there may be significant obstructions. Stay indoors, don’t get hurt, and with any luck we’ll all see each other on Monday.²

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¹ For the record, I chose this title early yesterday after getting my third advance prep briefing for emergency ops in re: Hurricane Sandy. Then Rick Marshall up and uses the same name in tweets and links it to Doctor Who before I can. Damn you, Willenholly, for stepping on my gag! Daaaaaamn yooooooou!

² Except James, unless he puts on a damn shirt.