The rumor and innuendo swirling about was damn near impenetrable. Suddenly, a mysterious message appeared in my inbox, promising shadowy secrets in webcomics, and for once it didn’t come from Eben Burgoon. Who could the beardy figure in that photograph be? The possibilities are endless, although the filename — prof_smith — offered tantalizing possibilities, but nothing concrete. Then I just read the email and it was all obvious:

[W]e’re making a PHD movie! — Jorge

Yeah, probably shoulda just read the damn thing first ‘stead-a getting all worked up. Jorge Cham (for it was he that sent the not-very-mysterious email) tells us that it’s not yet decided how/when/where the movie rolls out, but if they went to the trouble to find a guy that’s such a dead ringer for Professor Smith, I’m guessing that the project is planned well enough to see completion on time, under budget, and without any hint of procrastination. Jorge would never procrastinate. Besides, if you look closely enough at the picture, there are playback controls, so I’m betting a significant chunk of the film is “in the can”, as they say in Hollywood (or Hollllywood as Bullwinkle tells us is correct, with “three or four Ls”).

Now, the only question is if Cham plays the (thus-far nameless) POV character in the movie.

In other news:

• New books have been announced by Rich Burlew and Paul Taylor. They would be, respectively, the special-to-Dragon-magazine monthly strips that ran outside of regular Order of the Stick continuity, and the post we-kicked-the-calendar-machine’s-ass strips from Wapsi Squre. For good measure, Burlew will be donating $1 per copy of Snips, Snails, and Dragon Tales bought or pre-ordered this month to the Japanese Red Cross for earthquake and tsunami relief.
• Per The Beat, the nominations for the Stumptown Awards have been announced, to be held on 16-17 April in conjunction with the Stumptown Comics Festival in Portland “Stumptown” Oregon¹.

  What I found refreshing is that that Stumptown Award jury, in contrast to pretty much every other comics-related awards program — has essentially drawn no distinction between webcomics and not-webcomics. Carla Speed McNeil’s Finder: Voice (cf: here) looks to be the most-honored work, and it’s a web-to-print creation. But look at the multiple nominations for Emily Carroll’s His Face All Red, which is purely a webcomic.

  Carroll’s not up for Best Artist That Doesn’t Use Paper or Best Colorist That Works In Pixels, she’s up for Best Artist and Best Colorist, period. Heck, Ben Costa’s nomination for Best Colorist nod is listed as for Pang: The Wandering Shaolin Monk, but is that for the book or the webcomic? It doesn’t matter, and the Stumptown Awards are the first to really erase that distinction. Bravo.

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¹ Stumptown, Stumptown, Stumptown, smock!

Bigbooté.

• Because I work in New York, I was able to obtain a copy of this article on paper, and will forthwith be framing that sumbitch and keeping hard by Fleen’s Action News Desk. Clearly, I have approached all of my hack webcomics pseudojournalism completely wrong, and in future this bastion of reportage will be my model. I will no longer ask webcomickers about their work, their inspirations, or how they hope to inspire or interact with their readers. From now on, the emphasis is on how much they love the gossip¹.

  Readers of this page may recall that Dave Kellett (that would be the creator of Sheldon and Drive, not Dave Kellett, Osteopath) was invited back in October to give a talk at Ohio State University’s triennial Festival of Cartoon Art, and did so in response to a talk that Bill Watterson had given at the same conference 21 years earlier. It’s taken a while, but Kellett’s talk is now available on the Youtubes in five parts. The most important thing established: Kellett’s crush is Watterson, given that he returned repeatedly to a photo of Watterson at the drawing desk, turning the projector of the auditorium into his own public crush wall. Adorable!

  In other news, Scott C has produced visual documentation (and it is now mine, sitting on my desk in my home) of notroious partiers Mister Banzai and Mister New Jersey gossiping with and mutually crushing on a pair of Red Lectroids; clearly one is John Whorfin, but who could the other canoodler be? Not John Bigbooté, since he has no glasses. Our inside sources say it may be John O’Conner, John Gomez, John Yaya, John Littlejohn, or even — gasp — John Smallberries.

  Okay, I can’t actually keep up the tone any longer — it makes my brain hurt. It’s a bit difficult to put the info from the website, but I believe every member of Pizza Island is going to be a featured guest at the MoCCA Fest in four weeks, Dave Kellett’s talk was erudite and funny, and Scott C rules. That is all.

• It’s been a long, long time since we first laid eyes on Nate Simpson’s comics work; back then it was apparently (judging by file names) called Waldo then, and now it’s known as Nonplayer. The writing’s a bit tighter, the art as gorgeous as it ever was, and it’ll be hitting the comic shops next month. Check ‘er out.
• Got a tweet yesterday (from J Baird, of the Create a Comic Project), reproduced here in its entirety:
  

  @fleenguy Here’s a news item: Lulu has released its API. You can publish to your own site with them solely as a backend. It’s free! #luluapi

  It took a bit of digging from there, since the main Lulu site didn’t have mention of this that I could find, but here’s what I know so far (via the Lulu Developer Portal):

  The Lulu Publication API allows individuals and publishers to use the Lulu backend to publish print-on-demand and electronic books programatically. Upload and publish books in any format (paperback, hardcover, eBook), get free ISBNs (or assign your own), sell on Lulu.com, Apple’s iBookstore, and other leading retail channels.

  Interesting. There’s quite a lot of technical documentation, but as I don’t have a developer’s account (nor have need of one), I suspect that there are subtleties that I’m as yet unaware of. Fingers crossed that we get a good FAQ-style summary of the API’s features, but it looks like e-books can be done perhaps more simply than they were before this release. Not everybody wants to go to the trouble of producing their own in various formats, naturally, but right now I don’t have enough info to tell you more than interesting. Maybe very interesting?

• Speaking of interesting, may I refer you to a link? Why yes, I believe I may. Your guess is as good as mine, but 26 April at 10:00pm EDT is when I’m going to try very hard to be near a computer.

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¹ Jesus Tapdancing Christ.

Woke up this morning to the news of an 8.9 earthquake off the coast of Sendai, Japan; for reference, Richter scale is logarithmic, with each full integer representing a ten times increase in energy amplitude [see the comment below]. The Loma Prieta quake that hammered San Francisco in 1989 was a 6.9, meaning the Sendai quake was literally 100 1000 times stronger. Aftershocks of this quake have measured as strong as 7.1 and the news of the devastation just keeps getting worse.

Come back Monday for web-based laugh-chuckles. In the meantime, keep thought for those affected around the Pacific in whatever way you do; watch out for charity scams, and maybe say thanks to the engineers and architects that designed all the structures that didn’t collapse.

Long-time readers of this page may recall the name of Olaf Moriarty Solstrand, which ranks as possibly the best name to come up on this page — it’s just impossibly badass. In fact, if Solstrand and fellow Norwegian Øyvind Thorsby were to create a metal band, they would be halfway to success just on the basis of their names alone. But Solstrand has more to contribute than just a great name; you may recall his 100 Ideas in 100 Days initiative, his master’s thesis on the social dimensions of webcomics [Norwegian text], or his scripting of Disney’s Donald Duck comics. Today, he’s come back to us with data from an experiment on usability:

As part of the progress of coding a webcomic portal (not available anywhere in English yet), I decided to do some cheap usability testing on a couple of existing webcomic portals to figure out what conventions exist and how people use these websites. So I went to UserTesting.com (excellent website, by the way) and set up a user test where I asked the participants to go to DrunkDuck.com and ComicGenesis.com — which I assume are the two really big amateur webcomic portals out there — and do a couple of simple tasks (the most important one, “find a comic that looks interesting”).

Solstrand’s results are narrow (three testers took him up on the challenge, but consistent: three testers that don’t read webcomics at all found Drunk Duck easy to search and navigate, and Comic Genesis difficult. Certainly, a more directed task would be helpful (for example, how accurate are the filter categories on Drunk Duck?), but more in-depth investigation isn’t necessarily Solstrand’s priority (after all, they aren’t his websites). The videos make for must-see viewing (if you’re in charge of user experience for either of those portals), or at least an interesting curiosity (if you’re anybody else). As always, we at Fleen thank Solstrand for his research.

In other news, there are a number of talented creators that are looking for reader involvement of financial natures. Let’s run ’em down, shall we?

• By now, everybody in the world (and their dog) has undoubtedly heard about Evan Dahm‘s Kickstarter campaign to fund the second printing of Rice Boy. Not only is Rice Boy Dahm’s signature work, it’s one of the best graphic novels of the past decade; furthermore, if we help Dahm replace the rapidly-dwindling stocks, it will undoubtedly mean he’s got the financial wherewithal to keep with his comic making, just as Vattu has reached a critical point.

  Heck, while you’re at it, make sure to pick up the recently-released Order of Tales, book 3 while you’re at it (I’ll be getting mine at MoCCA or whichever show Dahm does next, as I like purchasing in person from him).

• Also on the world+dog list: praise for Daniel Lieske‘s Wormworld Saga, which you may recall debuted on Christmas Day and instantly captivated all who read it. Lieske dropped me an email with news of his own plans:
  

  You reported about the Wormworld Saga in the past so you might be inclined to help spread the news about the big leap I’m currently making by collecting funds for the creation of a Wormworld Saga App. I’m really trying to tackle this thing the independent way. It’s exciting times!

  Exciting times, indeed. Let me quote from the two most important bits of Lieske’s Kickstarter pitch:

  It took me the whole year 2010 to create the first chapter of the Wormworld Saga. I’m working on the project in the evenings besides my day job as a computer games artist. I time-tracked every single minute that went into the creation of the first chapter and I know for sure that I would be able to create 4 chapters a year if I could quit my job and work full time on the graphic novel.

  and

  The app is NOT meant to replace the free online version of the Wormworld Saga graphic novel. I firmly believe in “freeconomics” and the Wormworld Saga app is designed to be a premium content for true fans of the project.

  So go visit and decide if you can help or not; Lieske’s work is beautiful, and the prospect of four chapters a year (chapter 1 is 36 screenfulls, and each screenfull is about a page) would mean a hell of a lot of good comics get made.

• Lastly, no Kickstarter this time, just an appeal to help clear out some existing stock so that new stuff can be made. Chris Yates makes photocomics and the finest wooden jigsaw puzzles on the planet. Today, word came that the scrollsaw that he uses to make those puzzles gave up the ghost and will have to be replaced. We’ll make this simple: no scrollsaw, no new Bafflers!

  I can speak personally to the quality of Yates’s work (having commissioned three Bafflers, and been blown away each time), so if you think that him (and his able assistant, Dan, a stellar fellow in his own right) being idle is a criminal waste of talent, browse through his store and see if you like anything there. Every purchase brings us closer to the day his mind-bending flights of fancy can be made solid once more.

We’ll just let Chris Hastings get straight to the important bit:

“Oh let me tell you, it’s a totally legit magical hammer, for sure,” says Hastings. “Just like those other ones you’ve seen [in the teasers] with scary Juggernaut and the other scary guys. Yep. Totally real magic scary hammer.”

Okay, I don’t know squat about what’s happening in the Marvel Universe presently, I don’t know anything about Fear Itself (the line-bending crossover that will change everything, and nothing will ever be the same!), but I do know three things:

1. Writing a Deadpool miniseries for Marvel is kind of a big deal for Hastings
2. I’m going to have to pick those issues up, come June
3. That quote above is likely verbatim; it completely captures the speech rhythms that Hastings uses on a daily basis. He really is that dryly funny all on his own.

Also of note is how Hastings got this writing gig, courtesy of Marvel editor Jordan D White:

I, myself, am a fan of Chris’s work on Dr. McNinja, which is why I reached out to him very soon after taking the reins of [this series], and I have not been disappointed. He came up with a great spin on the Fear Itself situation for Deadpool to hit up, with tons of crazy twists and Deadpooly goodness.

This is why Chris Hastings is now a Marvel Comics writer. Because he is a PROFESSIONAL, and he BEHAVES LIKE ONE.

All that cold air is very dry. Arid, even. Itchy. The Weather Channel claims a relative humidity of 61%, but this is clearly a lie. Let us seek solace from the discomfort in some soothing webcomickry, yes?

The most amusing thing of the past twenty-four hours is clearly Kate Beaton’s simultaneous love letter to Fargo‘s Sheriff Marge Gunderson and coffin-lid slamming on the entire sordid Charlie Sheen affair. As there is nothing better than Sheriff Marge Gunderson, and once again Beaton captures the essential soul of a character with a few pen-strokes. It’s marvelous work.

• Less amusing, more philosophical in nature: Aaron Diaz¹ answered a couple questions on his Formspring account that got to the heart of art and commerce. I’ve had thoughts of a similar nature regarding creators and patrons in the past, usually when print cartoonists would argue that artists should have to sully their hands with commerce or deal with audiences. But really, it’s only been for a short period of time (coincident with the rise of mass media) that artists have been able to hide from the business end of things.

  From the rise of nonessential things that served to show how rich you were (antiquity through to the Renaissance-Enlightenment border), artists depended on that patron king/emperor/temple/doge/pope/whatever. For a century or two, they dealt more with businessmen in the middle (gallery and salon promoters, factors, agents, and suchlike), broadening appeal beyond the single patron that must be appeased to a slice of society (or Society, if you will) that had to be appeased (which probably made such appeasement both easier and more difficult at the same time).

  Then along came Hearst and Pulitzer and syndication — while there were layers of gatekeepers (who all took a cut), the audience exploded, meaning millions of (possibly engaged, possibly disinterested) micropatrons who didn’t necessarily know they were patrons of your art. Now we’re back to maybe the salon model (only without the intermediaries taking their piece of the action), and the micropatrons are becoming millipatrons or centipatrons.

• On the topic of philosophical bloviation, there was a series of impenetrable articles linked from ¡Journalista! (the now-defunct blog of The Comics Journal) entitled The Cave of False Consciousness. I didn’t care about them, but Shaenon Garrity did a sweet set of cartoons summarizing their key points (while using the phrase “sucks balls” a lot), but hadn’t finished when ¡Journalista! (and TCJ’s online presence in general) went belly-up.

  But now TCJ is back, and I see that Garrity’s listed as an upcoming contributor to the new iteration of the site. This gives me hope that she’ll get to finish her analysis (a reconstruction of a philosophical deconstruction? with pictures!), or that at least they’ll put her cartoons back, since the old link to them is dead and searching gives no indication that they still exist. I get it, out with the old, the king is dead, etc., but there was some damn good content in the old TCJ/¡Journalista!, and it would be a shame to think it’s gone for good now.

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¹ The Latin Art-Throb.

Old age catches up with the best of us, and creativity pales as we become more jaded to life’s wonders. Things that were once shiny and new become HELL meh! and we wonder if we’ll ever feel wonder again.

Guys. Malachai Nicolle turned 7 years old yesterday.

Here’s hoping that despite being in the webcomics game now for nearly 20% of his life that he hasn’t reached that point of being jaded yet. Although all bets are off once he reconsiders the girls are dumb viewpoint.

• In other news, a couple of things are pressing my That’s SO Wrong button, but none of them exceeds today’s A Girl and Her Fed. If you haven’t seen it yet, I have four words for you: Morgan Freeman narrates porn².
• Not pressing the button yet (but surely it’s coming, just as the seasons follow each other): You Damn Kid [no permalink yet], which returns today with what I think of as a character strip. See, sometimes Owen Dunne does strips that come from who the characters are and how their personalities clash (undoubtedly just this side of real life), and sometimes he does strips that don’t require that background.

  We’ll see more of both in the coming weeks, as new strips run on Mondays and old strips run on Thursdays. Although, those with long memories should be warned that there may be some changes:

  You may also notice revisions in some of the old strips – an allowance for the standards of some new advertisers. Your understanding for an old hack trying to make a living is appreciated. And besides, the originals in all their boob and boner glory will be available in book form.

  Also, while writing this, I received a note from Owen Dunne confessing to feeling guilty seeing YDK listed on the links over there to the right when he’s on hiatus. I will use this guilt to get more comics from you, Mr Dunne … you can never stop now.

• I received an email from one J Simmons yesterday (presumably not J K Simmons, the famed portrayer of white supremacist psychopaths, non-white supremacist — yet Hitler moustache sporting — newspaper editors, and candy), which read a little something like this:
  

  I have a web comic, and thought you’d be interested in sharing an article I wrote comparing the different types of comic art boards that can be bought in a typical art store.

  Not being a regular consumer of comics-making supplies myself, I was pretty surprised that Simmons found that comics board is pretty widely varying in size. Not just finish and grain, I knew that, but that so many variations of size exist, when the industry seems to want one standard size for submission. Very odd, but always willing to share when a creator has helpful advice for the community.

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¹ There’s a branch of my family, surname of Fugit, but I don’t think it comes from the latin.
² Why, Otter, why? Why must I find you so funny? I am trying to be a grown-up here.

Let’s start off with a few Updates on Emerald City Comicon (kicking off … nowish) attendees, shall we?

• Evan Dahm will be bunking with Magnolia Porter in Artist Alley, table L-06.
• Scott C (and goodness, have you seen his new site?) will also be there today, AA table D-05, although the ECCC guide doesn’t list that table being assigned to anybody. If in doubt, obtain the services of any passing Sherpa.

In non-convention related news:

• Everybody be happy! Jess Fink‘s Chester 5000 XYV has a release date. Waaaay back around [American] Thanksgiving 2009, both Chester (and the time-travel self-makeout guide We Can Fix It) were acquired by Top Shelf and were due “next year”. Then about a year ago, they were due in August 2010, and by May they had been pushed to “next year” (i.e.: 2011). But now there’s an actual hard (heh, heh) date for Chester, at least:
  

  Top Shelf’s May releases, THE HOMELAND DIRECTIVE, CHESTER 5000, & GINGERBREAD GIRL are now available in Previews.

  I’m afraid I don’t have a better date for you than May, but hey — solicited through Previews means it’s really, truly on the way. Asked about We Can Fix It, Fink tells us she hopes it’s this year, but at the moment we just know it’s in the future. Which is kind of appropriate if you think about it.

  To celebrate, there’s a new, self-contained Chesterverse story, and it’s a bit of a heartbreaker. That’s really Fink’s talent — to take real human emotions and effectively mix them with wonderfully smutty up-sexings. And though I never thought I’d say this, as long as you don’t hit the “previous” link and only read forward from that landing page, this Chester story is Safe For Work.

• Anybody got a good idea what the weather in Ottawa will be like next week? I never seem to be sent there for work in warm times. Along those same lines, next week’s updates may be late because the posts will have to cross the international border, and you just know that the Customs guys are sticklers.

For the past couple of years, one of the most successful and generally-agreed-upon-as-fun events that’s occurred in proximity to the MoCCA Festival has been the Drink & Draw Like A Lady meet-up. At least, that’s the report that I’ve always gotten, as (not being of the XX chromosomal persuasion, much less a lady) I haven’t been.

Event brainstormer Hope Larson won’t be at MoCCA Fest this year, but she’s passed organizational duties on, and arrangements are being ably handled by the likes of Raina Telgemeier and Lucy Knisley. If you are a lady who loves/makes/sells comics, head over to 192 Books (Tenth & 21st in New York) on Friday, 8 April, starting at 7:00pm.

• Have you guys been enjoying the between-chapters break at Curvy? It’s been sexy and occasionally SFW guest strips all week, from the likes of David McGuire, Erika Moen, and Megan Gedris. More than just a chapter break, these strips also honor ten years of webcomickin’ by Curvy creator Sylvan Migdal. If Curvy is the first of his work that you’ve read, go familiarize yourself with earlier works like Spork, Rho, Mnemesis (don’t be put off by the fact that the first page says “The End”), Ascent, or Where the Typos Og.
• I believe that I may have mentioned in the past that there are certain no-longer-updating pages that I always go back and check; I don’t care what anyone saw, some day Vera Brosgol will get the sudden urge to finish Return to Sender, and I’ll be ready when she does. Occasionally, these acts of extreme optimism pay off, as this morning when I noticed the following:
  

  Because there are more heartwarming childhood memories still to share … You Damn Kid returns on Monday, March 7 2011.

  Yes!

  Owen Dunne’s had — and returned from — numerous hiatuses (hiati?) in the past, but he’s always come back, and I’ve always been waiting when he does. Maybe it’s because something in his work speaks to me. Maybe it’s because the first webcomics purchase I ever made was the YDK print collection and a sketch of Jethro and the frog rocket wiener. Welcome back, Mr Dunne; also: Clippy!

• Let’s finish up with a quote that I found yesterday after reading Axe Cop: Bad Guy Earth #1:
  

  “Zany” clearly does well on the Internet, and another graphic-novel-compiled webcomic, Dr McNinja, definitely embodies the word. It’s memo-olific, with pop-culture references flying a mile a minute. I super enjoyed realizing, “Hey! That’s a He-Man quote!” and patting myself on the back for being clever and “in”. The pace of this comic is super fast, and my mind was whirling in glee at some of the outrageous stuff that happened.

  That was reigning nerd-goddess Felicia Day, in the March 2001 edition of “Horsepower” (which runs on the inside back cover of Dark Horse comic books) in reference to the upcoming fourth overall/first from Dark Horse Dr McNinja print collection. Hey, Chris, now that you’re all buds with Ms Day, can you get her autograph for my wife? Awesome.

Okay, so Em-City. Lotta webcomics folks heading out that way, including some that I almost certainly missed, so let me know about any obvious omissions, yeah? Most of those folks have been helpfully putting up maps to show where to find ’em, and they all have something in common: a tendency for the arrows to point towards the lower-left corner of the booth space.

For the sake of convenience, because it’s got the most names pre-written on it, I refer you to the TopatoCo map [PDF] and add that most every other webcomics person of interest not written on the map is within a brief walking radius of the smiling Topato in booth 202. We’ll use that as our navigational starting point, because it’s right by the entrance.

• Put your back against the wall and stare directly at the TopatoCo booth, then let your gaze wander leftward and across the aisle. All four Halfpixel üdes are at booth 102, adjacent to the Sam Logan/Jeph Jacques Argument Annex in booth 203; special guest Mary Cagle joins said Düdes. Nestled in the bosom these two booths is the Red Bull Top Fuel Fun Machine (booth 104), with the exception of Ms TMI Tuesday, who can be found oversharing at booth 207 with the Weregeek.
• Not sure where 207 is? No problem. First of all, look at the TopatoCo aisle opposite the wall of the convention center. On the other side of it, you’ll see The Library Guys and Mister Mumbly Eyebrows at booth 206, and behind them you’ll find The Historian & The Hurricane in booth 208, as well as Angela Melick and Joel Watson (I, uh, ran out of nicknames) in booth 307.
• Having visited the Melick/Waston Axis of Awesome (Nickname! Still got it!), do a 180 and you’ll see the Blank Labellers in booth 210; merely rotate leftwards again and walk forwards until you see all the Steampunk cosplayers, and you’re in Foglio country (not to be confused with bat country), booth 110. Rotate again until you once more face the mighty Unshelved/Biff booth and the once-mysterious 207 will be directly in your sightline. Alternately, you can stand alongside the gaslamp mafia and walk towards the back of the hall two aisles, and you’ll be at the Webcomic Bucket Brigade, booth 116.
• Since you’re hugging the left wall and all, this might be a good time to visit Artist Alley, where you can find multiple Bobs — both Angry Flower (E-14) and White (L-06) varieties — along with Let’s Be Friends Again (A-11), various members of Comics Bakery (G-10), my sporting bet nemesis (G-14), and the Chancellor of Iron Crotch University (I-07).
• Finally, you’ll have to brave the far side of the hall to visit Alaska Robotics, off in booth 906, the veritable hinterland. It’s okay, they’re from America’s Frontier, they can survive on their own just fine. We should also note that Scott Kurtz wants you to remember that Saturday is Classoline Alley Day at ECCC, when all and sundry are invited to nudge their wardrobes up a notch or two. If you’re not sure what constitutes “classy”, quietly observe Latin Art-throb Aaron Diaz back at the TopatoCo booth, but please — no sudden motion; he startles easily.

Now that we’re all caught up, let’s move on to fresh territory, shall we? Actually, let’s revisit recently-covered territory; in comments on this site, one may observe a pair of missives that are worth your attention.

• In reference to the difficulties of getting the Erfworld books delivered, Darren Gendron helpfully notes that any business with China around the Lunar New Year is a dicey proposition. File that one away for next year, those seeking overseas printing.
• In reference to the wanton destruction of his sites, Friend o’ Fleen Lore Sjöberg (link still dead, but it’ll be back someday) thinks out loud about a madcap new idea he’s having. From his Tumblr, the possibilities of new forms of electronic media enjoyment:
  

  I want you to be able to treat my digital creations — pictures, words, music, video, whatever — the same way you do mp3 files. I want you to be able to download them as files, mail them to your friends, stick them on the portable or stationary device of your choice and enjoy them how you want.

  I want you to be able to read them online if you have a net connection, but I want you to be able to pack them up and carry them along with you in case you don’t. Maybe you want a simple, no-frills reader on your smartphone, and maybe you want a pretty custom skin for reading them on your home computer, and maybe you want random Lore cartoons to come up on your screensaver.

  I think in a decade or so this sort of thing will be much more common. Websites and PDF files will still exist, but encapulated data with rich metadata that can be sorted and rendered according to the needs of the reader will be the standard for any sort of serious data stream.

  I’ve done a little poking around, and I’ve found something that I think will work for now. It will render in at least 75% of current browsers in operation, and more like 99% of browsers that don’t have my name in them. It will be reader-friendly, generous with metadata, and extremely portable. I hope you’ll have fun reading it, and I hope other people will join in the fun as well.

  I’m just going to dive in and see if I can make something neat. With a little luck and a little free time, you’ll see the first steps in a few days.

  Call me crazy, but that right there is what you call a Manifesto, with a capital Man! I am going to be really intrigued to see what Lore (who is a very clever guy) can do along these lines, and even more intrigued to see if, in that promised decade, we’re all casually using LEM (Lore’s Encapsulated Media) as the default content format.