It’s just coming too fast at us. Here’s what we’ve got:

• TCAF and VanCAF are, for now, not cancelled or postponed; they’re a bit further out than other events and we may have a better idea in a few weeks what the finally-got-their-ass-in-gear actions being taken now have accomplished. From the combined statement:
  

  The health and the well-being of everyone involved is our paramount concern. We are closely monitoring updates from Centres of Disease Control, Emergency Management Agencies, the Public Health Agency of Canada, local health agencies, and other official sources for the latest risk assessment. At the time of writing (March 11, 2020), public health officials in Canada have assessed that the risk of COVID-19 transmission remains low, and they have specifically not requested that events be cancelled. We encourage individuals to seek direct updates from public health officials going forward. Regular updates from the Public Health Agency of Canada are being posted on their official website.

  We encourage creators to make the best choices for themselves, and weigh the pros and cons of any actions. If exhibitors at either show wish to cancel their participation, they may do so and receive a refund of table fees. We only ask that exhibitors please contact the appropriate email address (info@vancaf.com or registration@torontocomics.com) as soon as possible to allow us to open up space on our waitlist. If you are exhibiting but unsure of your travel arrangements, please plan accordingly and book flexible travel options that will allow you to cancel or postpone with minimal financial penalty.

  Closing mass gatherings that are happening now and for the next few weeks is the best we can do, and to quote an epidemiologist I saw online today, now is the absolute most uncertain time about what’s going to happen next; a month ago or a month from now, the effects of current actions would have been/will be much more predictable. One day at a time, folks.

• You know what you don’t need to venture out into the world to get? Webcomics. Gene Luen Yang has had to 86 his book tour for Dragon Hoops (proper review coming soon), so he’s doing one virtually on The Grams. Here’s the talk about the coach that inspired him to make the book, here’s a book trailer, here’s Yang learning the history of basketball, and the latest is about athletes, superheros, and writing for DC. The two most recent have reader questions, and Yang wants you not only to submit your own questions, but also tell him what cosplay to draw you in. He’s a rad guy.
• More webcomics! John Allison may be on pause from the Tackleverse at the moment (at least until the Charlotte Grote miniseries hits comic shops next week), but he’s doing an epilogue to his last comic series — the very, very good Steeple — online for the next bit. If you didn’t read Steeple, a) what’s wrong with you, and 2) it’s the story of Billie, a young priest who finds herself in a remote seaside town where the local Satanists are only the fourth or fifth biggest challenge to her faith. It’s really good. You can get the extra comics that will run in the back of the collected trade (out in May) starting here, and a successor series, The Silvery Moon, will run here through summer. MWF updates, first four up now.
• For those new to the working away from all humans deal, Beth Barnett is doing a diary comic on social distancing, which is the term you want to search for on her Twitterfeed. If you enjoy it (you will), drop her some thanks, compare notes on lifting, or (if you’re brave and have time) inquire as to her feelings on the Sykes-Picot Agreement. Oh, and visit her store! Good stuff there.

Spam of the day:

Your Card has been temporarily suspended.

Call me suspicious, but I kiiiinda doubt that American Express would be emailing me from @wecome.xjez.com. Also, if you’re going to copy the text from an actual AmEx email that says Your account information is included above to help you recognize this as a customer care e-mail from American Express, you maybe might want to include something that looks like account information? Even just a name and a fake first-and-last digits card number? Oh, and you might want to get rid of the boilerplate text that says We kindly ask you not to reply to this e-mail but instead contact us via Customer Care. You really suck at this.

We’re going to be seeing a lot more of these:

It is with the safety and well-being of our community that we have made the difficult decision to reschedule the MoCCA Arts Festival. We are currently working with Metropolitan West to find a suitable replacement date.

Now here’s the important part, because it looks like we aren’t going to get coherent guidance from the White House:

While New York is not officially calling for events of large gatherings to be canceled, many have been and we do not know what the next few weeks will entail. We recognize the amount of work and finances our exhibitors put into their tables and are trying to minimize the burden on them.

The curve-flattening is going to be on thousands of individual entities making decisions like this one. It’s going to get more widespread, and quickly, before it starts to ease.

In the meantime, we have made the decision to move forward and continue to judge the Awards of Excellence. In addition to the cash prize and Wacom tablets for Gold and Silver medalists, the Society will feature the award winners in an exhibition at the onsite Gallery we build at MoCCA Fest.

And there’s going to be a lot more of this at-a-distance events. Good luck to everybody under consideration for the Awards of Excellence, hope that the cash and tablets help you continue to create and sustain your career as we all figure out what the next howevermany months are going to look like. For example, a zine that was to debut at ECCC this weekend is now becoming available online, with print to be available in the near future. Gentlesentients, I give you Deep Space Zine.

In the meantime, pretend you’re T-Rex and only have stubby, vestigal pokin’ sticks:

Spam of the day:

We can put your website on 1st page of Google to drive relevant traffic to your site.

Searching “fleen” puts us at the second entry on page one (behind a bullshit entry at Urban Dictionary) and searching for “webcomics blog” has three separate results that point to us. So there.

Yesterday, we mentioned that fans of STRIPPED check their emails, on account of the hivemind known as Freddave Kellett–Schroeder had sent emails to Kickstarter backers of that fine movie (and it’s second Kickstart to finish production) to let them in on a secret: they apparently didn’t have enough travails in the four years or so it took to make the movie, so now they’re making a series:

Story/Line will be a love-letter to the art of cartooning, featuring in-depth, thoughtful interviews about the craft. These will be deep conversations, in the style of a PBS or BBC interview. Each will be beautifully shot in 4K, with one of the best crews in Los Angeles. Among our four Kickstarted interviews, we’ve already scheduled with Academy Award-winning Directors Chris Miller & Phil Lord (Spider-Verse, The Lego Movie, and every other great movie from the last decade), and Eisner-Award-Winning cartoonist Scott McCloud (The Sculptor, Understanding Comics, 24-Hour Comics Day).

So they’ll be channeling their inner Bill Moyers, or hopefully Graham Norton; Norton gets the absolute best out of his subjects via the simple expedient of boozing them up for the talk. Look into this, Freddave! They’ve got one interview in the can (and on their own dime) so far — Jake Parker of Inktober fame — and the campaign is to get another four interviews for general distribution to backers, with a secret additional interview mentioned.

Here’s where I think their rewards tiers are a little hecked up — to get that last, secret, interview, you have to be a backer at a high level; at present, it requires US$30 or more to get the Parker + four interview series, but US$85 to get the secret interview (or US$300 if you want a bunch of Sheldon e-books and an original comic to go along with ’em). That’s a pretty big jump from five interviews to five interviews, uncut footage, a poster, and the secret interview unless that secret interview is amazing.

Then again, they got Watterson on audio for STRIPPED and the Los Angeles resident Dave Kellett half of Freddave Schroeder-Kellett attends fancy industry parties with the likes of Lin-Manuel Miranda and Taika Waititi, so who knows? I want to make it clear that I have no idea who the secret interview is and I think I just convinced myself to up my pledge after typing that last sentence. Well played, Freddave Kellett-Schroeder! Well played.

Update to add: Third interview announced. Raina.

Spam of the day:

justin l____ district manager at Primerica Financial Services would like to connect on LinkedIn.

This is actually from LinkedIn, which means it is definitely spam. I have no damn idea who Justin L____ is, and have had no relationship with Primerica except once more than 20 years ago when the local office called me in for an interview “for an executive position” that turned out to be a room full of people being encouraged to join and push penny stocks on cold-called dupes. Ever see The Wolf Of Wall Street? That.

I gave them about 20 minutes to get to the point then got up, said I was asked to come in for a job interview and instead you’re trying to get us to join some kind of Amway cult (which tremendously offended the woman at the front of the room) and walked out.

So yeah — get lost, Justin.

That would be two different fallen; the first would be Michael Payne of which more was said in the Breaking News Bulletin earlier today. The second would be the latest round of cancellations, of which there are two to mention at the moment:

• You may have noticed that Matt Inman and his compatriots in the Exploding Kittens empire have been planning a boardgame convention in Portland, known as Burning Cat, for the weekend of 16-17 May. Lots of Inmanian weirdness planned — enormous cards to play EK with, a giant vending machine shaped like a fuzzy cat, a two-story tall firebreathing cat monster — and guests including Bill Amend and Sarah Andersen.

  Yeah, PDX, which is kind of right next to one or two of the (as of this writing, based on latest information) worst-hit hotspots of COVID-19&sup2. I didn’t see any estimates of attendance, but any large gathering that involves widespread travel at this point is probably a bad idea; this afternoon, Inman, et al, called it off and the first ever/second annual Burning Cat will be next year. Kudos to them to making it all simple — everybody is fully refunded, this year’s ticket holders will be contacted for early bird purchase next year, pretty much the same deal with exhibitors. That’s how you do it.

• Fleen Senior French Correspondent Pierre Lebeaupin dropped an update via comment after hours on Friday:
  

  Not sure that is worth a full correspondent dispatch, but as a complement I can report that Paris Manga, which was to take place this weekend, has simply been cancelled, among many other events in March. Indeed, I don’t know how the authorities are managing the situation on your side of the Atlantic, but on this side the French government has prohibited all events totaling more than 5000 people in a closed space. Application was swift, too: the decision was taken Saturday, February 29th, and as early as Sunday some events had to adapt (e.g. Japan Tours Festival only accepted attendees who had bought their tickets in advance, in order to ensure they would remain under the gauge), or in some cases simply not reopen on Sunday. It goes without saying many creators here are financially affected as well.

  The answer to how authorities are handling the novel coronavirus is, bluntly, not well. Cancellations are left to local discretion and I’ve not seen anything resembling a guidance as to permissible crowd size². Things are happening at the last minute, as a general rule. For example, my wife is in the final semester of her return to university and due to graduate in May; today we got a postcard talking about the time and location of the commencement ceremony, and I imagine literally nobody has any idea if it will actually happen.

• Also unknown: MoCCA Fest, 4-5 April at Metropolitan West in Manhattan. While the bulk of confirmed cases in New York have been in Westchester County and associated with a single individual, and Manhattan is (as of this writing, etc) sporting approximately 1 confirmed case per half million residents, you never know what could happen in the four weeks. Until we at Fleen hear that it’s nixed, we’re going to report on planned goings-on, including guests and exhibitors, in the coming weeks.

  Just one caveat — last year’s exhibitor list was severely underpopulated, as it turned out the exhibitors had to supply info directly and many apparently didn’t know. If you’ve got a table, be sure supply your info so we can find you.

• Helping to mitigate even in the face of events getting called off: C Spike Trotman has declared a virtual event will take place with everybody at home, where you can touch your own face (wash your hands first) or shake hands with your roomies (wash your hands first) to your heart’s content. PajamaCon:³
  

  We’re planning three days of livestreams on the Pajama Con Twitch channel March 13th–15th, 12pm–6pm CST. The livestreams will be like a talk show or live podcast where we feature creators who also had to cancel their ECCC appearances. Joining us so far will be Steve Leiber, Chris Roberson, Lin Visel, Genue Revuelta, C Spike Trotman, Kate Leth, and we’d love to invite more. We’ll also be promoting on the Iron Circus Twitter account using the #pajamacon2020 hashtag, and will update this page with more information as our plans come together.

  We plan to announce a schedule by Wednesday, March 11th, so that is the due-date to apply!

  So, get on that. And, as Spike points out, there are other convention-alternatives, including #VVSN Very Very Shopping Network and Oni Press #ECCC2020 Pop Up Store, plus I’ve seen a guerrilla PDX comics get-together distributed event planned for this weekend, with creators taking four-hour blocks at retailers around town. No fees for exhibitors or attendees to PDX Pop Up Con, but get your application in by end of day tomorrow for possible inclusion on 14-15 March.

• Finally, if you’re a friend of Freddave Kellett-Schroeder, you should be checking your email. Just sayin’.

Spam of the day:

I don’t want to scare you….
But I do want to wake you up to the fact that corona could be the most dangerous epidemic this country has seen since it started.

Fuck on off out of here with that shit. You don’t care about a godsdamned thing except separating fearful people from their money. Also, you apparently have never heard of smallpox, you fucking parasitoid.

_______________
¹ Namely, Seattle and San Francisco. Of course, it’s likely that everywhere has far more cases that have been reported due to the slow rollout and insufficient numbers of tests.

At this point we’re probably better off skipping testing for anybody that’s not symptomatic except for healthcare workers (don’t want to spread it, but don’t want to require self-quarantine and removal from duty on the basis of a casual contact that didn’t take) and so we may never know the true extent.

I’ll tell you this, though — it’s at least two orders of magnitude of diagnosable cases than the approximately 600 that have been test-confirmed in the country so far.

² And as an EMT, I’m getting guidances from both the CDC and the New Jersey state Department of Health, in addition to that of the local hospitals we deal with.

³ Originally announced as ComfyCon, but it was pointed out that’s not a generic term, but rather a specific name used by Danielle Corsetto and her convention wife Randy Milholland for their con-from-home, and has been since 2014. Spike immediately and graciously apologized for the “con” fusion and rebranded.

From Andrew Rothery (who you may remember from here) approximately 20 minutes ago:

After fifteen years, one week, and a day, Michael Payne has chosen to bring his webcomic Daily Grind to a close. A special farewell update went up on Monday, and The Daily Grind Iron Man Challenge is officially over as of Tuesday, March 10th. Andrew Rothery, whose strip TRU-Life Adventures happens to turn nineteen on Thursday, March 12th, is the winner.

Cue the Robert Downey Jr. video clips.

A moment of silence, if you will, for the last of the valiant competitors. Ave.

Update to add: Just saw that Payne commented to this effect two days ago, making Fleen officially the breaking source of this news. Go, us.

• I am speaking, obvs, of David Morgan-Mar (PhD, LEGO®©™ ^etc)’s new comic project which turns out not to be Genesis II or Planet Earth. Pity. From Planet Of Hats:
  

  Now, I am not committing to a regular weekly update for this. I’m not planning regular updates at all. For now, I’m going to squeeze in some drawing of new strips when I have time — I anticipate roughly once a month or so. If that changes, I’ll let you know.

  But that said, yes, we’re off on a brand new continuing mission!

  Encounter At Farpoint is a double episode, so I’ve split it into two comics. The second half will be along in a month or so.

  At the rate of one episode per month or so, it’ll be roughly four years before we get to the good stretch at the start of Season 3; on the other hand, it also means we have roughly until November of 2023 before we have to deal with the horror that is Planet Of Space Irish, so that’s okay. If you’re looking for decent episodes, check in around April next year, November next year, February 2022, or September 2022.

  For the best episode ever¹, you’ll have to wait until Summer 2030, unless Morgan-Mar steps up the pace, abandons the project, or we are reduced to a post-atomic horror not unlike that depicted in this month’s featured episode. Fun!

• Side note: This is normally when I’d be telling you who all would be at Em City, but a) I’d have to tell you about all the people that opted to sit this one out because of the novel coronavirus prevalence in Seatte, and 2) earlier this afternoon Reed!POP announced they’re postponing:
  

  We have been closely monitoring the situation around the COVID-19 virus in Seattle, and, after many hours of conversation internally and consultation with local government officials and the tourism bureau, we have decided to move next week’s Emerald City Comic Con to Summer 2020 with date and detail announcement forthcoming.

  I think this is probably the right decision, particularly given the financial hit so many creators were going to take whether they went (to diminished crowds and spending potential) or not (having to eat the costs of hotel and booth cancellations).

  To all of our fans – you will receive a refund on your tickets, no further action is needed on your part. Due to the volume, we expect you will receive your refund in 30 days. We appreciate your patience and understanding.

  That’s good, although I hope they offer the possibility of people keeping their badges for the reschedule date or otherwise offer them to the existing badgeholders first.

  Also, I notice nothing in there about exhibitors and booth costs being refunded; it makes a certain amount of sense to assume that they’d want back in at the later date, but if there’s a conflict, they shouldn’t be penalized. People clear their schedules to exhibit at ECCC, and if the new date is one they can’t make, they deserve a refund on the booth and they shouldn’t have to wait potentially months to determine if they can’t make the new dates. I’d really like to see a statement that all booth costs are being refunded now, but as soon as new dates are decided, creators will have an appropriate amount of time — say, 10-14 days — to plunk down the money to get the same booth back.

  Fleen wishes the best to all the creators who made a difficult decision (and reminds you — lots of airlines started allowing ticket cancellations without penalty in the past couple of days; if you were told to eat a penalty before, ask again), especially those who now have to scramble to figure out where an expected chunk of income will come from. If you’ve got a favorite creator, check out their store.

Spam of the day:

On February 11, 2019, Transformco purchased substantially all of the Sears Holdings assets*. As part of that sale, Transformco acquired Sears Holdings’ customer information, including personally identifiable information.

Turns out this is actually legit, but damn if Transformco didn’t set off my bullshit detector for sounding like the fakest-ass name of 2020. Weird.

_______________
¹ You may have your own opinion on this, but have that discussion elsewhere. This was TNG’s finest hour.

Updates to two things that happened yesterday:

• Matt Lubchansky, new Herblock Foundation Prize Finalist, appeared in the pinnacle of sort-of pop culture fame — as the clue in a crossword puzzle. It looks like USA Today releases its puzzles outside of the paper on at least a one day delay, and I gotta warn you that it’s a crappy piece of webpage programming¹, but still: from 1 March 2020 onwards, Lubchansky will be known as Matt “17 Across” Lubchansky, and I can hardly think of a better nickname. Whatever the timing, clearly The Powers That Be are aware of Lubchansky’s relevance and are adjusting the culture in response.
• Warren’s out. I really thought she’d stay in until the next debate and unleash her wrath on Biden; she’s still gotta be nursing a grudge for when he gutted the bankruptcy reform process she’d spearheaded. I also really hope that the final debate rules will allow for candidates to tag in a partner, on account of Screamy Orange Grandpa would be absolutely dismantled in record time by a Warren with no restrictions and out of fucks to give.

  Regardless of what else happens, Sanders has a platform that is substantially the same as Warren², and he’s got my support, and there’s still time to email Rosemary to donate to Sanders and get amazing art simultaneously.

Spam of the day:

Prime Web Traffic 2764 Pleasant Road Bld APMB # 934 Fort Mill SC 29708

That address is literally a mail drop. Not giving me a lot of confidence here, spammer.

_______________
¹ At least in my Chromium-based brower; I’m still waiting for it to load the puzzle from Sunday so I can type in M A T T. Might be better in Firefox?

² I find myself largely in agreement with the logic of one Mr David Malki ! as to the abilities/outcomes of Warren v Bernie, but coming to a different conclusion. Namely, that she is more likely to get stuff done than Bernie, but that he is more ambitious in his goals; he concluded that you have to shoot for the less likely, but more transformative outcome and I think you need to grab improvements wherever possible. Or, to put it another way, I hope like hell that Bernie actually can enact his priorities by means of mobilizing mass support, but institutional power has done a damn effective job of ignoring the shit out of mobilized mass support as long as I’ve been alive.

I also think that Wall Street and your average billionaire regard Warren as more of an existential threat than Bernie, in that they’ve largely ignored him for his career, and they fought her tooth and nail at least twice before she was even elected.

With any luck, she’ll lead a party coup to replace the utterly worthless Chuck Schumer as Senate {at least Minority, please please please Majority} Leader.

Namely, wash your hands a lot (hot water, plenty of soap and water), don’t touch your face, cover your coughs and sneezes. You know, all the stuff you’re supposed to do in cold season, flu season, and every other season because we are trying to have a godsdamned society you filthy animals.

Yes, I was talking to you. As long as I ride on an ambulance for free, I get to remind y’all to please do your part to not spread the contagion that may kill me. Also, I write about webcomics and have some things to point you towards:

• The Herblock Foundation, which celebrates and promotes the work of the legendary political cartoonist, has announced the winner and finalist of their annual prize for excellence in editorial cartooning. The winner was Michael de Adder of New Brunswick, Canada, who you may recall was entirely coincidentally laid off about two days after running this cartoon.

  The finalist was webcomics’ own Matt Lubchansky, whose work is frequently seen at The Nib, where they are the associate editor and an integral part of the process of producing the finest in nonfiction cartooning today. As a side note, Chef José Andrés was chosen to present a lecture on behalf of the Foundation. Curiously, all three of the honorees are famously willing to get up the nose of Screamy Orange Grandpa, and good on them for it.

• As long as we’re speaking of presidential politics, there’s an opportunity to mix some primo art acquisition with political action. Rosemary Valero-O’Connell, who we at Fleen may have mentioned on some few occasions, is offering up original pencil pages from Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me (we at Fleen love that book), with all proceeds going to the Bernie Sanders campaign.

  Full disclosure: unless she drops out, I’m supporting Elizabeth Warren; as far as platforms go, hers and Bernie’s are distinguishable only in degree, and more similar than any other that have been proposed. In terms of what they can actually get accomplished, I think the ultimate legislation that either can expect to enact (with Bernie starting further along and inevitably having to negotiate towards the middle, and Warren starting closer to where either would end up anyway) would be pretty much indistinguishable.

  I’m supporting Warren because I think she has a better chance of executing on her plans¹, but if she decides to drop out I’ll vote for Sanders gladly². I’ve given money to Warren and likely will again, I don’t feel that also giving to Bernie is a contradiction. It’s not like I’ll have any chance to really affect the nomination, seeing as how New Jersey is in the last tranche of states to vote, on 2 June.

  Now grab your copy of Laura Dean, pick out your favorite page(s), and don’t you dare pick any that I did.

Spam of the day:

Solar fountain pump with 4 Nozzle Spray settings to create a relaxing environment.

Is this a bidet thing? If so, I’m curious about the solar aspect.

_______________
¹ Not to be confused with executing Mike Bloomberg’s aspirations which was totally sweet to watch.

² If neither Sanders nor Warren gets the nomination, I’ll do what I’ve done in very nearly every presidential election of my life and vote against instead of voting for.

Sometimes, a detail jumps out at you and catches your attention, and it leads to something that leads to something and before you know it, something secret and disturbing is revealed. Down the rabbit hole we go.

David Morgan-Mar (PhD, LEGO®©™ ^etc) hitting a Big Round Number last Friday prompted me to go check out the stuff that he’s doing that isn’t Irregular Webcomic — his ongoing series of proofs that the Earth is not flat, his lengthy list of creative endeavours, his personal blog. It was at the latter that something jumped out at me that led me … some unsavory places.

From the blog entry dated (remember, Morgan-Mar is in Sydney, meaning he is many hours ahead of almost everybody reading this) 3 March:

On the way back, I popped into my local art supply shop to get some new felt tip markers and drawing paper, because I planned to spend today doing some drawing. This is for a secret project which should be completed tomorrow, and which I’ll announce in the next few days. And drawing was pretty much what I did for the rest of the day.

For a guy that’s famously a photographer¹, this reference to markers and drawing paper caught my eye. To the best of my knowledge, the only drawing he’s done has been his recap comic of old-school Trek, Planet Of Hats. It very much a comic you read for the writing, but it noticeably improves over its run, at least as much as some other famously rough starts improved in their first 110–120 strips.

Morgan-Mar’s got a Patreon, where the most recent locked posts just barely reveal the text:

Some character study sketches for a secret project

and:

Super-duper sneak preview, definitely patrons only! A thing that will go public this weekend.

and a post title:

Star Trek stirrings

Put the pieces together, people! Morgan-Mar has clearly fallen back into the Gene Roddenberry trap, and being the completist he is, there’s only one possibility: having exhausted all the original Trek episodes, the animated series, and the original cast movies, he will naturally move on to recap G-Rod’s next live action projects, Genesis II and Planet Earth.

Which, if you’ve never seen them, oooof, maybe don’t? They’re both essentially the same story, with Leading Man Dylan Hunt (played by two different actors) waking up in a primitive future of mutants (GII)/a primitve future of mutants and also a society where women rule and men are slaves (PE). Several characters repeat between the two stories (Yuloff, Haper-Smythe), several actors are cast in both (like Majel Barrett), and Ted Cassidy — best known as Lurch from The Addams Family² — managed to do both, cast in both as the looming giant Isiah.

How bad are these? In Genesis II, Mariette Hartley reveals that she’s a despised, twisted, evil mutant by displaying her two belly buttons. That’s about the high point for character and drama, and apart from some stuff that ‘splodes real good, nothing of value to be found in either. There’s a third, Strange New World, but that one features multiple hibernating characters waking up on a spaceship and no Majel Barrett or Ted Cassidy so it’s barely worth mentioning. Also, I didn’t see that one.

And this, I’m certain, is what Morgan-Mar is going to inflict on us. At least I hope it is, because the alternative would be he’s about to start recapping Tne Next Generation and hoo-boy, the first 50 or so episodes of that were stinkers. You got the first Borg episode, the wargames with the Picard Maneuver, Data on trial for his life, and the rest³ should be blotted from memory. At least Genesis II has Alex Cord with a sweet ‘stache, and the general … Seventiesness of it all can be explained by the plentiful cocaine Hollywood was awash in. Maybe if it is TNG, Morgan-Mar will skip the bad episodes and jump ahead to when they got the collars on the Starfleet uniforms and/or a beard on Riker. We can only hope.

Spam of the day:

Tim Skwiat just wrote a brand new free report showing you the top 14 foods to boost your thyroid, and he’s giving it away for free

Do these idiots not know that having too much thyroid activity is also a health problem? They don’t, do they?

_______________
¹ He’s got multiple photo-based webcomics, he’s one of the experts that determines what international photographic standards actually are, and he’s now got a shop of some of his best photos from around the world.

¹ Although he also voiced characters like Moltar on the original Space Ghost and the Gorn in the original Trek. The connections are right there in front of you!!

³ Planet Of The Joggers! Planet Of Women In Charge (guess Roddo finally got that story made)! Planet Of Don’t Do Drugs! Planet Of Space Irish! The Ship Full Of Space Idiots That Kidnap Geordi To Make It Go! And others that I can’t be bothered to look up!

So on the one hand, the majority of my work is done from home these days, so I’m practically in self-quarantine away from the big, bad COVID; on the other hand, I teach a lot of classes where the exercises are group projects and the chances that the student will succeed in exercises drops when they aren’t there in the room together. Seeing as how a) the success rate can be mitigated if they’ll just communicate with each other¹, 2) I get paid whether they play nice with each or not, and π) I get to pet my dog during the day, I’m okay with it. Everybody who has to leave the house/put on pants more than three times a week, stay safe.

• Speaking of petting my dog, one of the best things that happened at SPX last year was running into the altogether excellent Jeffrey Rowland and having some time to talk to him. Although he’s been preoccupied with running TopatoCo to the exclusion of almost everything else², he expressed a desire to get back to regular cartooning.

  Which he’s done, and which has hit the point of regularity that I feel pointing it out to you will not bring unfortune upon his head, like unto the gods striking down a mortal for the sin of hubris. There was a strip back in September, and then a half-dozen since mid-February, so I’m a say he’s in the groove.

  Mulder Lessons (also found mixed into Rowland’s twitterfeed or on the Grams), is a two-character, four-panel affair. Rowland’s dogs, Mulder and Howard, discuss life with an existential fatalism not seen since Charlie Brown and Linus got into it. Suitably, the strip is drawn entirely from the POV of these two small dogs; people are shown from the knees down and are as mysterious as Charlie Brown’s teacher with the wah-wah trumpet voice. Check back regularly for wisdom on squirrels, planes, the nanny state, and How Things Work. Much like the real Mulder, who I got to pet at SPX, Mulder Lessons is delightful.

• Speaking of delightful, Chris Hallbeck decided to channel his inner Ryan North with a Choose Your Own Comic today over at Minimumble. It’s got cowboys, and a showdown, and love with presumably smooching. Hooray!
• Finally, a word about Snapdragon, the new graphic novel from Kat Leyh. It’s a charming story about growing up and finding yourself (the titular Snap discovers she’s at least a bit of a witch; her neighbor Louis begins transitioning to Lulu), growing as a person (Snap’s mom is working — probably as a bartender, and in college, and something else we’ll get to a minute), and finding out who has your back (Lu’s older brothers are rowdy and obnoxious, but never question or belittle the transition). Oh, and most of the characters are people of color, which is badly needed representation. But mostly I want to talk about small details.

  See, there’s a witch in the woods; she collects roadkill and sends the spirits of the forgotten animals on their way, and then articulates the skeletons because people on the internet will pay big money for those. Nobody’s fool, old Jacks the witch, as she lovingly reconstructs those skeletons, which are nicely accurate. Leyh could have easily fudged details, but she’s got more respect for her readers than that (also, at least one of them will be into vertebrate anatomy, guarantee it).

  The degree to which Leyh pays attention to the details hit me when it’s first hinted that Snap’s mom, Violet³, is going to fight fires. There’s an offhand reference to dropping by the station for training that’s not explained, but in that scene (and a couple others), Vi’s wearing a job shirt.

  A job shirt is a quarter-zip pullover with reinforced collar and elbows, handwarmer pockets, and others for radios, pens, and assorted gear; they’re common duty wear in the fire service and EMS. They’re comfy as hell, durable, and instantly identify emergency services to each other even if you can’t see a Maltese Cross or Star of Life embroidered on the left breast, or patches on the shoulders.

  Over the next 100 pages, it gets revealed that yes, Vi is one of those crazy people that will run into buildings on fire, but Leyh trusts her readers to put together the context as it’s presented. It’s emblematic of the degree to which Leyh constructed her story to show everything that needed to be shown, but not hit her readers over the head with it.

  I caught it immediately, somebody with a parent or older family member or friend that does the lights-and-sirens gig gets a little high-five for figuring out the context before the f-word gets used, and everybody has it revealed by the end. There’s other places where the little details reveal what’s going on, but spoilers. Read it for yourself and see how many you can find.

Spam of the day:

The law could change anytime, get your concealed carry certification

Have I ever mentioned how very glad I am to live in New Jersey, a state that makes it difficult to carry a weapon under nearly any circumstances, and not because you have Dirty Harry revenge fantasies about killing brown people? I am very glad that you have to keep your murdertoys out of my state, you constantly-referenced upstanding law-abiding gun owner, you.

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¹ They absolutely refuse to do this.

² Good for all the creators that get paid as a result, but stressful for Rowland.

³ The family has one tradition — girls are named after their mom’s favorite flower.