It appears that not all hotel wifi infrastructures are equal, nor all areas of the city of Las Vegas¹ equally covered by cellular data services; while in town to attend/cover the NCS Reuben weekend, it appears I will be able to communicate with the outside world only via voice or by connecting my computer to a wire like some caveman. This may delay my being able to talk about the winner of the first NCS division award for a webcomic (to refresh: Matthew Inman, Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, and Jon Rosenberg are the nominees) as I have a disturbingly early flight on Sunday morning. I’ll do what I can, because I love each and every one of you.

After a particularly unsatisfying flight² that put me in a mood midway between grumptastic and grumplicious, I was pleased to find myself in the late afternoon by the pool, talking with Dave Kellett³ (well known to readers of this page) and Chris Sparks, whom I had not met before, and who has been spearheading the Team Cul de Sac project. He had a copy of the book with him which he allowed me to peruse. This sparked several realizations:

1. There are a lot of big names in this book; a lot a lot
2. The drawings and paintings contributed are uniformly terrific
3. The best one in the book isn’t by who you think

A lot of attention has been paid (and rightly so) to the fact that the reclusive Bill Watterson contributed an absolutely marvelous painting of Petey Otterloop, which you have likely seen already (if not, it’s up above). But the image that stopped me in my tracks, that made me take a deep breath and check the sidebar to see who painted Alice with a magic wand in front of a night sky full of stars?

Danielle Corsetto.

Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find an image of Danielle’s work anywhere to share with you, so you’ll just have to buy the book and check it out for yourself. Alternately, it appears that it’ll be up for auction (along with the rest of the contributions) in two days, and hopefully the auction site will not get a photo up during the auction, because then you’ll see how wonderful it is and bid against me. You bastards.

The other thing that my conversation with Dave and Chris made me realize is, in hoping to get a weekend away from EMT activity and people in distress and such, I’ve flown a few thousand miles to hang out in a room that will be dominated by elderly cartoonists. Attention old syndicated dudes: please do not make me glove up this weekend, thank you.

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¹ One thing I will never get used to in Las Vegas: unpacking your suitcase full of clothes which were packed in a place with a reasonable humidity, which when pulled out in the dry desert air feel damp. Ick.

² Which, when I think of it, was infinitely easier than the trip my ancestors made on their way from Germany to western Pennsylvania, then on to the untamed wilderness of Kansas not that damn long ago. So on the one hand I feel bad for being so upset about being jerked around by an airline, but on the other hand, they managed to jerk around me and their own employees, who were just non-informed about the situation as I was.

United, you are not a good airline, and the people that worked for Continental prior to your merger are chafing under your cruel yoke. Let them work as they once did and you will find your customers much happier which should be a win for all concerned, assuming you are not total sociopaths.

Also, and I did not think it was possible to say this, but after spending more than 120 minutes total on hold with you over the past 18 hours or so, I have come to hate Gershwin. I used to love Rhapsody in Blue, United, but now it is ruined for all time.

³ Who makes the most disturbingly adorable faces when taking photos to text to his daughter just before bedtime. It occurs to me that she will never know a time when you couldn’t say goodnight to Daddy by sticking out your tongue and crossing your eyes and sending that to his iPhone. I think we’ve got a societal safety valve right there.

I’d also love to recount the discussion we had about Drive over dinner, but that would mostly involve me listing out questions I had for Dave and Dave saying, That’s a goooood question. Can’t tell you yet. a whole lot. Read Drive, so that you may share in my misery of anticipation.

Before we get into this, I think I have to thank Zach Weiner. But Gary, I hear you cry, Mastering Comics is by Jessica Abel and Matt Madden and Zach Weiner has nothing to do with it, so why thank him? Right you are, Sparky, and if you’ll simmer down for just a moment I’ll explain.

See, Mastering Comics: Drawing Words and Writing Pictures Continued (hereafter MC, and thanks as always to Gina Gagliano at :01 Books for the review copy) is, perhaps more than any book I’ve reviewed previously, not for me; it (and its predecessor) are textbooks, intended to be used in semester-long classes to teach people who are serious about comics the breadth and depth of skills necessary to that goal. I am the furthest from that person you can be and still love comics.

But Zach wasn’t a physicist or a mathematician when he decided to pull texts on those topics and start reading; he goes through, chapter by chapter, learning what he can, translating it to his own experiences, doing the exercises, and sharing what he learns. If he can do it, I can tackle the relatively easier task to telling you about a book.

Not that I wish to minimize the contradictions inherent in that task — if MC is skewed to the serious student (and keeping in mind, it’s not the introductory text), me being not being able to follow along isn’t an unreasonable thing; likewise, if I find it easy to absorb, that’s not necessarily a virtue. I decided to follow a rule of thumb from grad school¹ and figured if I could make sense of the first 40% or so of each topic and then get progressively lost, it was probably properly balanced.

On average, I followed the first 38% of each new topic.

Interestingly, I did better as I progressed through the text, as Abel and Madden made excellent use of repeated examples. Perspective, point of view, page layout — all were tracked from the earliest, sketchiest presentation, then refined further and further as more techniques were introduced. Inks, shades, and colors built upon a two panel excerpt of an outer-space story that followed a dozen or more different pathways and made me recognize subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) differences in end results that I’d never have noticed previously.

For me, the last-third portion of each discussion invariably came about when Photoshop tools and techniques were discussed. As I’ve mentioned more than once on this page, I am no kind of artist² much less a digital artist, but even here I was able to learn. The fundamentals of color reproduction are less mysterious to me and I have more of an idea what artist friends mean when they talk about “flatting” or “tones”.

Most interesting to me was the fact that about halfway through, Abel and Madden began talking about webcomics and essentially never stopped. Rather than define them as some kind of distinct beast, they became just another means for practice, and pretty much all of the remaining exercises involved incremental progress to a webcomic, culminating in posting that sucker for all to see. However, the ease of distribution and low barrier to entry of webcomics didn’t push out more traditional techniques; interleaved with the extended webcomics exercise were assignments to work up longform and shortform stories, make a mini, and even bookbinding.

Where I was able to fully engage once again was roughly in the final quarter of the book. Interspersed with the topics of production, Abel and Madden introduced material on professional concerns — schedules, collaboration, publishers and editors, agents, funding, distribution, marketing, publicity, even contracts and lawyers — all the things that might be shoved to the side in a purist exploration of capital-a Art. Those that want to make comics purely for themselves may find this section of less use, but for everybody that wants to be working in comics, I suspect it will be the most critical.

Mastering Comics belongs on the shelf of every serious student of the craft of comics; for the enthusiastic fan of the art, maybe not so much as books meant for more general (even “civilian”) audiences. For those wanting to learn by doing, and see how the skills required by webcomics relate to other forms of comics, it’s as indispensable as How To Make Webcomics or Making Comics (both of which are given their props in Mastering Comics). And if you happen to understand all the parts that baffled me, let me know how good they are. I suspect: very good.

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¹ It was universally agreed that everybody should be able to follow along with the first third of your presentation, you should lose half the audience in the middle third, and by the end if you hadn’t left everybody scratching their heads and trying to work out the math, you hadn’t really figured out anything new.

² Although back in the day, with a t-square, drafting triagles, a compass, and engineering paper, I could construct circuit diagrams that were far more aesthetically pleasing than they strictly needed to be. I blame A Canticle for Leibowitz.

How about an open question: which webcomic should be the next one to get Munchkinified now that Penny Arcade is getting the Steve Jackson treatment? The most obvious candidates are already incorporated: Axe Cop is a full game and Skullkickers is a fifteen card supplement (as is Penny Arcade). Me, I’m holding out for the Moustache Fighting League supplement¹.

Naturally, one wonders exactly how long it will be before gamers bash together some rules to cross-breed the PA Munchkin set with the existing PA card games-slash-expansion, or the forthcoming Paint The Line game². I’m guessing somewhere between twelve and eighteen hours.

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¹ Holy dog, are those strips really more than seven years old?

² In lieu of the audio tracks by Kris Straub for Paint The Line 2 (which appear to no longer exist), please accept this unboxing video of the Paint The Line card game.

Understand that I’m trying to get to the point that I can do a review that’s worth something before I get on a plane on Thursday and fly to Las Vegas for the NCS weekend o’ debauchery entirely wholesome fun. It’s stressful trying to get all my work done prior, but on the flipside, how many opportunities will I ever have to wear a tuxedo in Vegas? I’m considering realxing my long-held policy of being good at math long enough to sit down at a blackjack or baccarat table for one hand¹ because I will never come closer to being James Bond in my life.

In the meantime, here are two things that may be of interest to you.

• On the one hand, it’s likely that World+Dog has already told you that John Allison will be taking Bad Machinëry to Oni Press:
  

  Starting in early 2013, Oni Press will begin collecting John Allison’s popular webcomic Bad Machinery into a series of books. Allison began Bad Machinery in 2009 as an extension of his online strip Scary Go Round. This will be the first time any of the material has seen print.

  Which isn’t quite true, as I have here in front of me a copy of A Feral Flag Will Fly, which is a “limited edition sampler” collecting The Case of the Team Spirit and The Case of The Good Boy². However, AFFWF does not resemble Allison’s previous books (cf: here and other offerings in the Scary Go Round oeuvre), which are digest sized objects of solidity and glorious color.

  It’s good to know that Lottie (my fav’rite character from Tackleford since Dark Esther stole my heart and my goodness has it really been five and a half years since the trip to Wales?), Shauna, Sonny, Linton, Jack, and Mildred will be seen as they were meant to be seen (not to mention that punchlines like this will make much more sense). Everybody feel good for a) John Allison, b) Oni Press, and c) me, because I will get to give money to a) and b).

• I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Dante Shepherd has given over Surviving the World to one of his favorite bands this week, in honor of their new album dropping today. That band would be Hallelujah the Hills, the album would be No One Knows What Happens Next, and they’ve announced an experiment in participatory art-making today that sounds terrific.

  It works like this: make up any rhythm and melody you like for the phrase — You can escape your fate but it’s not considered polite — in any form you like. Do it a cappella, get together some friends and get all barbershop on it, whip up an orchestral arrangement complete with theremin and expladophone, get a friend to beatbox behind you, anything.

  Now record it, and send it to Ryan from HTH, who will take all the submissions and make it into a song. Furthermore, everybody that gets a song snippet in by 1 June will be entered in a drawing for the complete HTH catalog on CD. Personally, I can’t wait to see what kind of music will result from the pieces that Ryan (it looks like Ryan’s family name is Walsh, but like all good collections of artistic types, HTH has more than one Ryan.

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¹ Which will most likely be lost to the house. See? Good at math.

² Along with the aptly-named The Short Preamble.

Contest withdrawn with apologies. Well done, McSweeney’s.

Finding inspiration in various places, some of which involve audio and/or video; if you are someplace that might not appreciate sound coming from your computer, have a care which links you click on.

• In an act of responding to overwhelming negative feedback (although not having the balls to admit it), McSweeney’s Internet Tendency has backed off some of the stupider implications of a contest it’s announced to underpay cartoonists. Firstly, the contest as she exists:
  

  We were sitting around and someone said, “We should have a contest for comics on our website.” Someone else said that sounded like a good idea, and no one talked us out of it, so that’s what we’re doing, having a contest for comics, with a $500 first prize for the best collection of three comics. [emphasis original]

  So that’s a bit less than US$170 for each of three cartoons, which have to be original and not already seen elsewewhere, although the creator at least retained all rights including future distribution. It’s the “original” part that stuck in a lot of craws, though, as it was worded thusly:

  All examples must be previously unpublished. We’re interested in launching something/someone new, rather than providing a megaphone for something that’s already out in the world. [emphasis original]

  … which reads an awful lot like the traditional, Hey, kids! Exposure! argument that accompanies a lot of attempts to get creative work on the cheap¹. The truly horrible part is that the contest in question had, some hours earlier, read very differently:

  We were sitting around and someone said, “We should have a contest for comics on our website.” Someone else said that sounded like a good idea, and no one talked us out of it, so that’s what we’re doing, having a contest for comics, with a $500 first prize in return for a promise to deliver two or so original comics per month over a twelve-month period for the enjoyment and delight of our audience.[emphasis original]

  Twenty-four comics, not eight. Less than twenty-one dollars per comic. Although I confess that I’m somewhat surprised that McSweeney’s backed off the twenty-four comics version of the contest, as the pay is far closer to what they normally offer at the website². I’ve seen no acknowledgment by McSweeney’s (as of this writing) that the change was made as a result of the overwhelming negative reaction, nor even that the change was made at all. Make of that what you will.

• The sort of work that the contest may attract will be, I suspect, mercenary and done not because the creator feels it of worth, but feels it may be of some (minor) economic advantage, maybe, possibly, if very lucky. That thought made me think back to Neil Gaiman’ address to the graduating class [sound, vision] of the University of the Arts last week. The relevant part starts at about the 6:32 mark, and goes something like:
  

  I don’t know that it’s an issue for anybody but me, but it’s true that nothing I did where the only reason for doing it was the money was ever worth it, except as bitter experience. Usually, I didn’t wind up getting the money, either. The things I did because I was excited, and wanted to see them exist in reality have never let me down and I’ve never regretted the time I spent on any of them.

  If you’re a creator, or if you’re not, go listen to the entire thing; it’s twenty minutes well spent³.

• Finally, on both the inspirational (in a natural wonders of wildlife sort of way) and the warning of future disaster fronts: Friend of Fleen and semi-itinerant vagabond Lore Sjöberg would like you to know both what Walmart-resident peacock calls sound like, and what the apocalyptic future portended by the Apple Store is like (this week). Prior to playing either, I recommend you crank the volume all the way to right and break the knob off.

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¹ Let us recite together from the Wisdom of R Stevens, as quoted on this page many previous times: People die of exposure.

² From their internet submission guidelines:

PAYMENT
There will likely be none. If there is any, it may come very late or in unusual currency.

³ Likewise, there’s a lot of very similar wisdom to be found in another recent commencement address, at least until the value of failure gets distracted by Jizztoberfest.

Those of you on the Pacific end of North America — at least those in the temperate rainforest zone¹ — might consider dropping into the inaugural Vancouver Comic Arts Festival next weekend in the lovely Yaletown section of Vancouver, BC. More specifically, here: 181 Roundhouse Mews (which between you and me sounds like a random collection of words and not an actual address), from 10:00am-5:00pm on Saturday and 10:00am-6:00pm on Sunday. I’d be there except I’ll be in Las Vegas. Dang.

Let’s congratulate VanCAF on doing a few things right, shall we?

1. The date, times, and location are right at the top of every single page of the website.
2. The actual convention-convention is just the culmination of a series of readings, panels, and workshops featuring local cartoonists, with a goal of involving the entire city.
3. In keeping with the community involvement/outreach/integration mission, it’s free to attend, and exhibitors are being charged what I would call an entirely nominal rate of $75 (Canadian, naturally).
4. They’ve got an impressive lineup of guests, including the Van-local Cloudscape Collective, Joey & Emily, Camilla D’Errico, Doc Hastings, the Jeph ‘n’ Sam blood feud, and David Malki ! (this week, the ! stands for Aaaahhhh, I’m covered in poison ivy!).

If that weren’t enough to entice you, a whole stack of web/indy creators have been intrigued enough to count themselves as exhibitors, including (but not limited to) Ed Brisson, Barry Deutsch, Becky and Frank², Tyson Hesse, Steve LeCouillard, Jenn Manley Lee, Dylan Meconis, Angela Melick, Emily Partridge, Ryan Pequin, Doug Savage, Katie and Steve Shanahan, and Anise Shaw. And those were just the names that I recognized on a fast scan.

At last check, VanCAF may still have been a few volunteers shy of optimal staffing, so cut them a little slack if there’s an occasional hiccup — it is a first-time show, and hot on the heels of several established festivals; with a bit of careful nurturing, it could become the Pacific Northwest equivalent to TCAF. In any event, drop by, tell your favorite creator I said hi³, and let us know how it went. Given the talent on deck, I have a feeling the answer to that will be Pretty awesome, Gary. Pretty awesome.

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¹ As opposed to the desert zone, the winemaking zone, the glacier zone, or the murderous drug cartel zone.

² And oh boy, are Becky and Frank working on some amazingly cool stuff right now, which can hopefully be shared in the coming months.

³ If that favorite creator is Angela Melick, throw her a snappy right-hand rule salute.

[Editor’s note: Am I really so stupid as to not have pressed “Publish” after writing this yesterday? Yes, apparently I am. Sorry about that.]

Wherever I go, I like to have enough command of the language to obtain, with minimal chance of screw-ups¹, any or all of the following:

• Train tickets
• Lodging for the night
• Food
• Beer

Despite not really enjoying myself at the time, I had four years of French back in high school, and it remains stubbornly lodged in my hindbrain to this day². Although I have no need to obtain goods or services in French at the moment, it does prove useful in that it’s allowed me to get a basic read of Hurricane Erika’s latest comic, which is found in the virtual pages of 17 mai, a French-language anthology on the subjects of various kinds of sexual orientation-phobia.

Cue the attack dogs. While you’re at it, kick up my regards for Ms Moen and her willingness to talk about the perceptions and assumptions of sexual identity after spent spent literally years getting shit on by people who decided that she was a hateful, oppressive, trans-phobic traitor to the cause because of this comic. Oh, and literally years of getting shit on by people who decided that she was insufficiently conforming to the proper way of being a[n] <insert sexual orientation and/or identity here> for their comfort. Whatever, haters, Erika’s got her eyes on what’s important: gettin’ laid.

So if you read French (even poorly), check out Queer [it pisses me off that I have to say that, depending on where you live/work, you might not want to read this honest, brave, funny comic until you’re away from judgmental eyes, but there you go]; even if you don’t, it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out what’s happening (I especially like the tut-tut body language of the Identity Police in the second-to-last panel), and Moen’s promised to post the English version in a few days, once she’s ready for the latest round of poo flung in her direction. If you like the comic even a fraction as much as I did, maybe let her know? Your appreciation is probably a moderately effective poo-brella.

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¹ Screws up? I saw what you did in Adventure Time #4 (out yesterday) with respect to the plural of “Desert Princess”, Ryan North.

² Along with enough Japanese and maybe half as much German as would be necessary to accomplish the four-fold task outlined above. The less said about my semi-disastrous tendency to lapse into tlhIngan Hol when confronted with the more guttural phonemes of Dutch, the better.

They were five and got along with each other in the way that five year olds do, which is to say, sporadically. When they met again, it was tense, but somehow they’ve made it work for the past five years. Guys, in case I haven’t said it enough¹, Octopus Pie is terrific and I love it and Meredith Gran loves us in return, on account of she’s given us pre-Octopie character sketches to celebrate this, the five year anniversary of the strip (technically, it was on Monday).

I love how grumpy² proto-Eve looks in most of these, and how surprisingly complete Hanna is at this early stage– although there are echoes of Gran’s earlier, college-era art style³ and maybe some hints of Lilo & Stitch. It’s been a rollercoaster ride of friendship and growth for these two crazy kids and their ever-expanding circle of bros and maybe-bros, the sort that typify a heartwarming rom-com, if Hanna and Eve weren’t completely immune to that kind of shit. It’s some of the best independent comics work around, and it just keeps getting better.

On the off chance that you love webcomics and the people who make them, and you’re in the Easthampton, MA area, and you don’t already work at TopatoCo, there is an opening to work at TopatoCo. Applicants should be aware that although it is not specifically mentioned in the job posting, TopatoCo has a reputation as a work hard/play harder environment and those that cannot bring themselves to participate in irregularly-timed, spontaneously declared dance parties might not fit in with the corporate culture. Also, you may find yourself called upon to contribute to the fulfillment of special requests on packing slips, which just might overlap with the dance party thing, maybe, why not?

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¹ And I pretty much say it constantly, and it still might not be enough.

² Possibly grumptastic, and in at least one case, grumplicious.

³ Take five minutes and check out her thesis animation, Polar-oid, then come back.

They will show you what you need to see.

• Firstly, Colleen Doran, has long been second to none in her vigilance regarding creators rights issues, although she recently announced her retirement from an active role in such¹. A’course, she’ll continue to point us towards people that are continuing that fight, and did so today:
  

  I strongly advise you to read this article at The New York Law Journal, “Sounds Like a Broken Record: Analyzing legislative failure and the copyright doctrines of work for hire and termination”. It addresses the Jack Kirby case (which, I still believe, may be a lost one,) as well as other serious problems with the application of the work for hire doctrine and the “instance and expense test”.

  There are also very important words about independent musicians and self funded projects.

  Disclaimer: I Am Not A Lawyer, but I found the article in question to be pretty readable with a bit of patience (and some back-and-forth to the footnotes, which start on page 4 — at least, on my browser with my font size). Much of it applies to creators interacting with large publishers, but the bit that may make readers of this page want to do some research is the second paragraph from the bottom of page 3 (or, if you prefer, the ‘graf between footnotes 38 and 39):

  Indeed, it is not just major corporations such as record labels that stand to be impacted by the Copyright Act’s present shortcoming, but start-up companies, young entrepreneurs and, in some instances, struggling artists themselves who have truly sought to commission a work for creation at their own risk and expense. Consider the case of an independent musician who tours or initiates a fundraising campaign via Kickstarter.com or simply waits tables to save money to record a studio album with no outside contribution from a record label or otherwise, an increasingly frequent scenario in today’s DIY-oriented music industry. Under the present formulation of the Copyright Act, such independent artists could stand to lose the copyright interest in their own commissioned recordings. If the recordings are not works for hire, then the session musicians, engineers and/or recording studio that the independent artist paid to help create the recordings may terminate their effective assignment of rights to the artist in 35 years. That works a great disadvantage to the self-funded musicians.

  There’s your homework assignment kids: read carefully, determine what constitutes “works made for hire”, and which end of that definition you may end up on with respect to your projects.

• Now that you’ve gone and edumacated yourself on the intricacies of intellectual property law, how about a quick demonstration from somebody who’s Doing It Right? America’s greatest living editorial cartoonist, Stan Kelly of Kelly’s Komix, has moved beyond seething disdain for modern things like the internet and recorded a video detailing his process. Creators, take note how communicating with your audience can help convey some of the nuances of your work so that your point of view isn’t accidentally lost beneath layers of meaning. Fire up the video in one window and the comic in another, and try to keep up.

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¹ Although I suspect this will only mean a retirement from actively trying to influence government and legislation; when she sees something particularly egregious or recognizes a situation parallel to her own experiences, I imagine we’ll get more of her finely considered opinion and instructive anecdotes.