Nasty bit of weather we’re having. Let’s talk some webcomics and wrap up the week.

• I had just about given up on Planet Karen, what with the a period of hiatus before Karen Ellis’s fire, then a long fallow period after the rebuilding, but she popped back up yesterday with a slice of life and today with some musings about Alan Turing. Since Ellis works about a month behind her actual life, the bio on Turing that she read last month was coincidentally run today, the day that the British government apologized for its shameful treatment of Turing.
• The announcement came nearly six months back: xkcd would have a book! Now we have confirmation from Randall Munroe’s blag that the book will be in the xkcd store next week, and that a limited book tour will be there to support the launch. The twist: the tour will involve only three stops, and the ticket pricing is variable, based on demand, and will serve as a fundraiser (along with some of the book’s profits) to help build a school in Laos.

  Details here, along with links to the ticket sites for the tour; unfortunately, I’ll be unable to attend next Saturday’s New York event (apparently to be held in a penthouse in Tribeca), so if anybody wants to report on it for Fleen, be sure to let us know.

  Oh, and side note — the sign-in for ticket purchase (“auction”, really) didn’t work for me with my (according to Google, officially-supported) browser (Opera 9.64), so you may have to try IE to get anywhere. You an always wash your hands afterwards.

• Alexa Kitchen might be the youngest pro cartoonist out there (and personally speaking, a really sweet kid), but I think that Howard Tayler‘s daughter Keliana (previously known by the nom de internet of “Kiki”) may now be the youngest pro webcartoonist:
  

  Keliana as we have long called her in blogs, has been working on a mixed media coloring method involving Copic markers, Prismacolor pencils, and a blending agent called Gamsol. The colors really have to be seen in person to be appreciated. The scan doesn’t do this picture justice.

  Anyway, this is the very first of our collaborations. Yes, there will be more. I’m sure they will get better with time. But this is the first, and as of this writing only collaboration between Kiki and I. The picture is up for auction, and my girl and I will be splitting the proceeds 50/50.

  With more than two days left, that auction is up to nearly $300 as of this writing, meaning that young Ms Tayler may be seeing some real concrete benefit from having my evil twin as her dad. I’m sure there are all kinds of intangible benefits, including a solid, loving upbringing and lots of dad-time, but now we’re talking the possibility of multiple benjamins in the immediate future, with the possibility of an ongoing income stream. Neat.

• Devoured Worst Song, Played On Ugliest Guitar last night; in all honesty I feel like I wound up in a different place than I expected to be. The book was described as containing an extensively annotated collection of the first few years’ worth of Achewood comics, and while it is extensively annotated (more on that in a minute), it contains strips from 1 October 2001 to 7 May 2002 — far less than years worth. The cover features the spaceship that Roast Beef rode to the moon, which series doesn’t appear in this book; the title is the same as that of the self-published second book, but this contains slightly fewer strips than the original Volume 1. I wonder if this volume was originally meant to be about twice the size and the title/cover reflected that former state.

  But let’s get this out of the way — ending up in a different place than I’d expected is not the same as ending up in a bad place. The notes attached to most strips reveal Chris Onstad’s feelings towards these early efforts; in a word, “uncomfortable”, enough so that that first three months worth of strips are in a second section, labelled Before We Were Achewood. The author acknowledges Achewood finally becoming Achewood with the strip from 10 January 2002 and the introduction of the cats.

  (Although curiously, several weeks worth of strips from the end of 2001 and the start of 200 are omitted, including the introduction of Blister — we weren’t promised a comprehensive collection of every strip, this is a curious group to be left out, and hopefully to be found in a future volume.)

  The strips run from there to early May, when Beef takes the turn from being a placeholder to being the guy who sucks (plus he got depression) then BOOM. Cliffhanger. We’ll watch Beef become truly Beef in the next book as he becomes revealed as a programmer and his relationship with Ray is established.

  Interspersed throughout the book, Onstad recounts how each of the inhabitants of 62 Achewood Court (Philippe, Mr Bear, Teodor, and Lyle) came to live there, along with a recounting of how Lie Bot came to be Lie Bot, and a promise of the stories of the cats in the next volume. Also, we find out what Teodor’s dirty talkings actually say behind the censor bars! Guys, it is so dirty.

  All in all, WSPOUG isn’t the book I was expecting, but it’s still Achewood, which so rarely goes where I anticipate anyway. And honestly, shouldn’t that be enough for anyone?

Well, two out of three ain’t bad.

Today marks twelve years of David Willis doing webcomics, starting from Roomies!, through It’s Walky!, onto Joyce and Walky! and Shortpacked!; The Bangmark Quadrilogy, as it were. Throughout that time, from the goofball college humor strip to the sci-fi strip, the relationship strip, and the toy fetishist strip, he’s walked the balancing act between The Funny and The Drama, and indulged perpetually in a carnal desire for Transformers.

Then Willis caps the good times off next weekend by gettin’ married on Talk Like A Pirate Day. Readers are invited to speculate whether Mr Willis will be dressed in the traditional tuxedo, as a pirate, or perhaps as Batman. Y’know, a tuxedo could be justified as “millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne cosplay”.

At the same time, John Allison is but one day away from wrapping up the second of his related strips, Scary Go Round, to be followed by an interval of light music, then onto the start of his own webcomic trifecta. Assuming no disasters on par with the bird flu, Allison will be appearing at SPX in Bethesda, Maryland the very week of his own eleven-year stripperversary, making both Allison and Willis among the oldest of old hands in this young medium.

Given the way this recent SGR strips have been sending off characters (Eshter, The Boy, and Sarah to separate universities, Shelley to London), there are several possibilities for the focus of the next strip: stay in Tackleford with the younger generation, or perhaps with Amy & Ryan. Off to Wales with Tim, off to colleges with that crowd, off to London with Shelley (arguably the center of the past two strips, but surely writing somebody that capricious is tiring after a while). Once again, readers are invited to speculate wildly on Allison’s plans, with the satisfaction of knowing that we’ll all find out how wrong we were in about 10 days time.

For those of you that haven’t been following what may be the most significant story out of PAX, let me sum it up in two words:

“Swine Flu”.

Confirmed cases of H1N1 among attendees, with reports trickling in from around the country, are being tracked at Penny Arcade. From a PR standpoint, having to say Our event has spread disease to the four corners of the continent is never high on the “to do” list, but kudos to the PA folks for providing information on flights & trains taken by those known to have been afflicted. That they take the effort to do so while they themselves (along with fellow cartoonists) are afflicted is laudable.

Maybe they’ll rename it “Gamer Flu”. Maybe Jack Thompson will take it as a sign of heavenly retribution on degenerate murder-simulator-loving sociopaths. Maybe there will be missing/late/guest strips across webcomicdom.

While “Patient Zero” is yet to be identified, please enjoy some pertinent information from the King County (Washington) Department of Public Health and some more from the CDC. Putting so many people together all weekend, perhaps contagion is inevitable but I can’t say it enough — cover your coughs and sneezes with your upper arm/shoulder and wash your damn hands.

And because — judging from every time I use a public restroom — nobody knows how to wash their damn hands, here’s the deal:

1. Turn the water on as hot as you can stand it
2. Wet your hands thoroughly
3. Get more soap than you think you need and lather up
4. Scrub aggressively — get between fingers, underneath the nails, and along the nail beds
5. Keep this going at least as long as it takes you to hum the alphabet song; alternately, you may use the chorus to Re Your Brains, the intro to Layla, or you may be a little teapot twice … just keep going for at least 20 – 25 seconds (and longer is better, assuming you don’t get into OCD territory)
6. Rinse thoroughly with hot water
7. Dry

Next one of you bozos I catch turning on the water, waving your fingertips near the stream, then leaving? We’re going to have words.¹

• You know who probably knows how to wash his hands so they know they’ve been washed? Harvey Pekar. I had a really awesome talk with that guy once about jazz that left no doubt in my mind that no man can stand against him when he is resolute in his opinion, much less mere germs. Marshall Willenholly has an interview with Harvey about his new webcomics project over at MTV Splash Page.

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¹ The words will be on what remains of the label on a broken beer bottle.

Gah — why do long weekends just make Tuesday seem like Monday squared? Fortunately, there are things that make the day worthwhile.

• Jumped the gun a little on yesterday’s celebration of Octopus Pie‘s return, since it didn’t go live until the evening hours my time. No matter — two Chuck Jones references (how I love thee, The Dover Boys), a “bicycling” fat kid that I swear I’ve seen in my neighborhood, some of Meredith Gran’s best facial expressions ever (in that second page, I’m not sure if Eve on the bench is nervous, or disgusted by what she might be sitting in), and one or two complaints in the comment box about why don’t you give me my free entertainment when I want it why why why. Any one of those is worth the price of admission by itself.
• And hey — after not sleeping for about four – five days, also a new Dresden Codak from Gran’s studiomate, Aaron Diaz. About, appropriately enough, sleepwalking. And the danger of non-secured laptops.
• Anybody catch Tom Siddell‘s stream the other night? Count the webcomics references if you dare — first person to identify all characters gets a no-prize.
• Big things coming out of Transmission-X tomorrow: Butternut Squash returns from hiatus and joins up on the T-X page, Aardehn shifts from Mondays to Wednesdays, and Eric Kim‘s Streta joins the collective.
• Finally, a piece of prose, without so much as an illustration, that I wish to commend to your attention; for some time, I have held the opinion that when he’s hitting on all cylinders, Jerry Holkins may be the most evocative writer alive. Oftentimes, this gift for wordplay is given in service to frivolous, if hilarious, things. But given the opportunity to write about something close to his heart, Holkins brandishes words with the precision of surgical instruments:
  

  I have always felt that I was too conservative in naming your brother, in naming him comfortably, in giving him a name without sufficient destiny. I determined that this would not be your fate, Ronia. You also have a Q, in Quinn, so that when you are forced to append some meaningless form or other with your middle initial, you will deposit a Q thereupon – unleashing it, very nearly unsheathing it, young lady, to dazzle thine enemies.

  I need you to be thus armed because I fear your mother and I have played a trick on you; we have brought you to a place where hidden weaponry is sometimes necessary. In our defense, and I recognize that it may be insufficient, this was the only world available to us.

  Fleen congratulates Brenna and Jerry Holkins on the birth of their daughter, and Elliot Holkins on his new baby sister; learn what they have to teach you, Ronia, and know that they love you.

Priorities:

1. Leisurely breakfast — check
2. Take dog to dog park for runnings and butt-sniffings — check
3. Clean shoes thoroughly — check
4. Not write anything for the webcomics blog because most of webcomics is taking off today with the exception of Meredith Gran dropping 11 pages on us — dang
5. Celebrate the achievements of the organized labor movement and the benefits derived from it Drink beer — in progress

Happy Labo[u]r Day, kids.
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Perhaps because of a WordPress upgrade, all of Fleen’s Project Wonderful slots are open. Please, feel free.

Long weekend? Finishing up early? Not bloody likely. I had a bunch of stuff in the mailbag I wanted to talk about, and instead you get quick stuff from the top of my head. Next week will be better, I hope. At least, next week I hope to be past the point where I think that a tequila IV is a good idea.

• Enjoy PAX,those of you there (and those that aren’t, check out what’s happening on your mobile device).
• Bellen shifts schedule — expect black&white 3-panel strippery Monday through Thursday, and splashy color double-sizes on Fridays.
• Octopie megaupdate #1 due on Monday … 11 pages worth, from what I hear. Given that the last update was on Wednesday, August 12th, the most we would have seen in the meantime under the former 3/week schedule would have been … 11 pages. Hey, lookit that — exactly as much free entertainment, produced in a way that the artist is happier with, and likely leading to a more cohesive storyline. I think that’s what’s called a win-win-win-win. If you can’t remember between now and Monday, RSS-up and enjoy it when it hits.

It appears that I got the release date wrong for Achewood Volume 2. Although Things From Another World (closely associated, possibly owned by the same people as publisher Dark Horse) lists the publication date as 2 September (yesterday!), it was not at my local shop. Dropping by Borders, they have the book listed for pre-order for the 16th, and Amazon.

Bottom line, looks like I won’t get Worst Song, Played on Ugliest Guitar for another two – three weeks. Even more disturbing, as I was just typing this, my Freudian subconscious invented a book called Worst Song, Played on Ugliest Guigar (I swear to God this actually happened) and I do not want to know what that means.

But despite these trials which might reasonably be expected to break the spirit of any man, I am in a tremendously good mood today, because my local shop did have a copy of Kazu Kibuishi‘s just-released Amulet Book Two: The Stonekeeper’s Curse and oh boy is it good.

For starters, don’t sit down with this book unless you have a lot of time free; it clocks in at more than 200 gorgeously-illustrated, beautifully thick pages (I’m a sucker for the physicality of books — and when a compact trim size like this is dense and heavy in the hands, I’m over the moon), but may well be the fastest 200+ page read ever. There’s no pausing here, as the story forces you from beginning to end at a brisk pace, with no time wasted (but with the narrative not being rushed either).

Then comes the compulsive re-reading, as this story draws you back and demands that you go over it again — first in individual pieces, then in large chunks, then from front-to-back again. I’m on pass #4 and anticipate at least a dozen before I can put it to the side. If you do not wish to have elements of plot revealed to you, stop reading now and call this review a five-star rave. For those willing to risk it, spoilers ahoy.
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Which means that Fashion Week is nearly upon us. Thankfully, I won’t be coming into the office most of next week, so I get to avoid the crowds that are dressed in black, reeking of too much money and other peoples’ work. True story — I once asked a cop on guard duty outside the main tent if he got that gig by being supercop or by pissing off his desk sergeant. He thought a moment before answering, “A little of both.” Here, there is no runway, there are no tastemakers that annoint the ridiculous and see how many go along with it. There’s just stuff that I think is cool, and you can either agree or not. Let’s start the show!

• Oh my stars and garters, Patched Together (who have already brought you Paul Taylor‘s Shelley and Monica figures (and will be bringing you David Willis‘s Amber figure) are now gauging interest in Ursula Vernon‘s Biting Pear of Salamanca, perhaps better known as the LOL WUT Pear. Let ’em know if you want one.
• Speaking of garters, know who has none? Julia Wertz. That’s because garters absolutely do not go with the hopelessly unstylish garment known as the hospital gown. To raise money to defray her medical bills, Wertz is having a bash in Brooklyn that promises “free booze n’ snax!” to all who attend. 282 Broadway, 8:00pm on September 18th (that’s a Friday, so no need to fake being sick at work the next day) — come for the comic reading, stay for the medical horror stories!
• Interesting experiment over at Something*Positive: every strip in the month of September (there are two so far) will take place in the same day of story-time. October first, I’m going to be re-reading all of them to figure out how the story’s world changed. Given that the little blue psychohorror is actually being — quiet? Potentially remorseful? — I’m guessing that the changes will be nothing good for at least some characters.

  By the bye, if you ever meet S*P creator Randy Milholland and provide him with enough larynx-soothing liquid refreshment, his voicing for Fluffmodeus (yes, that’s its name) is both frightening and hilarious.

• New strip alert: Like his Applegeeks cohort Ananth Panagariya, Mohammad Haque does a journal-ish comic on the side (Panagariya with co-creator Yuko Ota, and Haque with co-creator Jessica Watson). Check out The Watsons while it’s still got that new-strip smell.
• Further proof that Topatoco is a Real Boy Grown-Up Company publisher now: book signings and other events are now a semi-regular occurence in the secret lair of reclusive genius Jeff Rowland. Next Friday, Little Gamers creators Pontus Madsen and Christian Fundin (son of Farin — sorry, geek joke), will be signing their fourth book and you can come if you wanna:
  

  “We believe we have obtained the proper permits to allow Pontus and Christian into our town for a few days,” said TopatoCo president Jeffrey Rowland. “The police and fire departments have been notified, power grid secured, emergency items stocked, and everyone over the age of 65 has been vaccinated. If all necessary safety precautions are taken and all recommended action items are performed in a timely fashion, this experience should prove to be calm and orderly.”

  TopatoCo urges all attendees to bring along any sprays and/or unguents they may need for the event, as the house supply is expected to go quickly.

  6:00 to 9:00 pm, Eastworks, September 11th, 2009, and may God have mercy on your souls.

Could the final times of webcomickry be upon us? Nah, I’m guessing there’s more stuff tomorrow. But for now:

• Today is the last day before Amulet 2: The Stonekeeper’s Curse releases, hooray! Even better is the knowledge that the series is only just getting started, what with the news over the summer that Kazu Kibuishi‘s almost-all-ages story got extended to seven books (with a rumor of an even ten being a possibility).
• Today is the last day that I must suffer being without the annotated Achewood collection; like last year’s The Great Outdoor Fight, Worst Song, Played On Ugliest Guitar gets the hardcover treatment and what looks to be a beautiful job of book design (kudos to publisher Dark Horse for the obvious love they put into their hardcover collections … their Wondermark collections show just as lavish attention).

  Plus, unlike the continuous narrative of The Great Outdoor Fight, this time we get the alt-text, and annotations from creator Chris Onstad. Honestly, that last has me a little worried, as I’m not sure how much I want to know about the inner creative process that drives him — yes, I’m curious, but on some level, I’d like to think that work like yesterday’s strip just comes straight out of his subconscious, sui generis, without any tawdry explanations as to how (as if it were a replicable process).

• Yesterday was the last day one needed to make do with earlier releases of Tyler Martin‘s ComicPress plug-in for WordPress. The new version (that would be 2.8 for those of you keeping score at home) features menubar customization, author & user pages, a feature to link strips directly to specific merchandise items (i.e.: Buy This Print), members-only content, .SWF file support, links to related content/strips, and much more.

  There’s a reason why ComicPress has become so widely used, and everybody that uses it (or did use before creating their own site solution, or is thinking about using it) ought to take a moment to thank Martin for his contributions to our little medium. It’s pretty damn lucky that his hobby supports your art, innit?

• Finally, today is the last day that I look upon periods as a scarce resource. Look for me to use them more liberally, starting tomorrow.