I continue my befuddlement at the the programming decisions. It’s just … yeah. But on the bright side, this will be the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing, so that’s cool.

Saturday
How To: Absurd Scientific Advice For Common, Real-World Problems
10:00 — 11:00am, Room 4
Given the similar timing we saw yesterday, it appears that Randall Munroe is a morning person. He’ll be talking about his forthcoming book, How To, which will doubtless involve some questionable logic, safety, or rationale. Wouldn’t have it any other way.

Comics Arts Conference Session #9: Focus on Carey Pietsch: Comedy And Fantasy In Comics With Clint McElroy
10:30 — 11:30, Room 26AB
Carey Pietsch has been doing a bang-up job on her The Adventure Zone graphic novels, and McEldad Clint has proven to have a pretty good eye for writing comics. I’m guessing that the early start is what makes the organizers think that the relatively small Room 26AB is sufficient for anything McElrelated? Same logic that put Justin in the similarly-sized Room 32AB for a dinnertime start on Thursday.

Comic Book Law School© 303: Super Lawyers Unite!
10:30 — 12:00, Room 11
Session three gets into the thornier issues around intellectual property, which expected to include licensing comics for television streaming services, online and social media IP protection, the 12 biggest copyright and trademark myths, Dr Seuss vs. ComicMix, and memes: tributes or infringements?

Sesame Street Puppets Live!
11:30 — 12:30, Horton Grand Theatre
I can tell you everything you need to know in five words: Big Bird will be there. Also The Count, Grover, Bert, Oscar, and Elmo.

Quick Draw!
11:45 — 1:00, Room 6BCF
Hey, organizers? I know that having Mark Evanier host a battle of Sharpies between Sergio Aragonés, Scott Shaw!, and this year’s sacrificial lamb special guest, Disney legend Floyd Norman, is gonna be great. It always is. But y’all need to invite Lar DeSouza. Dude’s, like, Roadrunner fast.

IDW And Oni Press: Rick And Morty vs Dungeons & Dragons
12:00 — 1:00, Room 25ABC
Looks like all of Zub’s appearances this year are going to be D&D related? That’s cool. He’ll be with editor Chase Marotz and Wizards Of The Coast game designer Nathan Stewart.

Innovations In Comics
1:00 — 2:00, Room 9
Did I mention that Shing Yin Khor is repeating her Space Gnome Mercantile Exchange again this year? You can trade her a good rock, or a handwritten copy of your favorite poem, or a cutting from a succulent for some awesome stuff. And if you’re a previous trader with the Gnome, you can get special stuff. I mention all this because if you can’t find the Space Gnome at table O-04, you can stalk her at this panel, or one of the others she’ll be at. It’s easy to miss her, she’s tiny.

Anyhoo, she’ll be talking with Panelists Jordan Plosky (founder, ComicBlitz), Atom Freeman (Sales & BizDev, ComicHub), and Nick Coglianese (founder, Key Collector Comic App) to talk about technology, ideas, and innovations on the horizon. Moderated by Brett Schenker (founder, Graphic Policy).

Ask Me Anything: Pick Educators’ And Creators’ Brains On Comics In Classrooms
2:00 — 3:00, Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library
Gina Gagliano and Mark Siegel on the same panel? Talking about comics in schools? Yes, please. Also featuring Meryl Jaffe (Johns Hopkins), Derek Heid (Temecula Valley Unified School District), Tracy Edmunds (curriculum development consultant), Ben Costa, and James Parks, with moderator/educator Talia Hurwich (NYU).

Women Rocking Hollywood 2019: Women-Powered Projects And The Push Towards Parity
2:00 — 3:00, Room 7AB
At various times in the history of this-here blog, I have mentioned that Los Angeles resident Dave Kellett is married to TV showrunner-producer-writer-story editor-and-everything-else Gloria Calderon Kellett. I believe that I have, on multiple occasions, mentioned that in that particular household, Glo is the funny one. She’ll be talking with Alison Emilio, Liesl Tommy, Catherine Hardwicke, Cheryl Dunye, Jen McGowan, Angela Robinson, and C Fitz. They are, between them, responsible for the likes of How I Met Your Mother, One Day At A Time, Twilight, Queen Sugar, Rust Creek, True Blood, Professor Marston And The Wonder Women, ReFrame, and The Walking Dead. Moderated by journalist Leslie Combemale.

Invader Zim
2:30 — 3:30, Room 24ABC
Sam Logan’s been writing a bunch of Invader Zim comics, and he’ll be part of the panel talking about where the series has been and where it’s going. Naturally, Jhonen Vasquez will be there, writer Eric Trueheart, and Oni publisher James Lucas Jones.

Becoming a World Builder: How To Start Making Science Fiction And Fantasy Comics
3:00 — 4:00, Room 29AB
This is the real nerdy stuff here, digging in and making a whole world for your story, knowing that your readers will only see a fraction of it. Marc Bernardin, Spike Trotman, Richard Starkings, Ariela Kristantina, Clive Hawken, and Jim Zub — Wait, is that right, Zub’s on this? It’s not D&D related. — talking to moderator by Kiersten Wing.

“Get Drawn In” To The Next Generation Of Digital Comics
4:00 — 5:00, Grand 12 & 13, Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina
Shing Yin Khor again; I think this is her fourth panel of the show so far? Anyway, this is about a streaming platform called Graphite, and their Chief Content Officer, Tom Akel, has gathered up some folks to talk about it. That’ll include creators Nick Seluk, Ryan Benjamin, and Leeanne Krecic, along with publishers Filip Sablik (tell him BOOM need to pay their fucking creators) and Robert Napton (Legendary).

Rolling The Dice: Where Comics And Role Playing Collide
5:00 — 6:00, Room 28DE
How playing let’s pretend in groups greases the creative muscles for story making. Includes Kieron Gillen, Spike Trotman, MK Reed, and Jim Zub (back firmly on D&D-related ground). Moderated by Ivan Salazar and Jose Sagastume.

Kiki’s Delivery Service Screening
7:00 — 9:15, Horton Grand Theatre
This movie is a damn masterpiece, and the screening is in honor of its 30th anniversary. Later in the month, it’ll be simulcast to theaters across the country, so if you can’t get tickets for this showing, you’ll have a few more chances.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
7:45 — 8:45, Room 6BCF
It is nearly eight pee-em, and now is when you trot out Andy Samberg, Melissa Fumero, Terry Crews, Joe Lo Truglio, Dirk Blocker, Joel McKinnon Miller, and executive producers Dan Goor and Luke Del Tredici? This is weird, right?

NXonNetflix Presents the Comic-Con 2019 Masquerade
8:30 — 11:30, Ballroom 20
Consecutive late night number three for Los Foglios, as they fulfill their annual duties hosting cosplay’s greatest competition. Doors open at eight, but tickets are handed out at noon at the Masquerade desk outside the ballroom. Overflow seating (no tickets required) in Room 6A and the Sails Pavilion.

Happy Birthday, Troma
9:00 — 10:00, Room 25ABC
Okay, Troma and their low-budget, schlocky (I mean that in the best possible way) movies are legendary. But you know why you want to see this very late night presentation? Because Chuck Tingle will be there, buckaroos. He’ll be part of the panel, moderated by Megan Silver, talkig with Troma impressario Lloyd Kaufman, WWE wrestler Dolph Ziggler, actor/director Trent Hagga, writer James Rolfe, producer Patricia Swinney Kaufman, and more. Get pounded in the butt by the shared love of tongue-in-cheek splatter films.

Spam of the day:

The most simple and cheapest digital organising system on the market with 64GB storage capacity.

It’s a USB thumb drive. I’ve got like a dozen of them in reach as I type this, up to 128GB in size. You are not impressing me.

Getting caught up, what with yesterday being a holiday and all. The Thursday programming list went up a little while ago, and here’s what’s happening at Comic-Con two weeks from today.

Friday
The Factual And The Actual
10:00 — 11:00, Room 32AB
Starting things off early on Friday, with Randall Munroe, John Hendrix (The Faithful Spy), Don Brown (Rocket to the Moon! Big Ideas That Changed The World #1), Dylan Meconis (Queen of the Sea, review coming soon), Jim Ottaviani (Hawking), and Rachel Ignotofsky (Women In Art) talking nonfiction and nonfictionish comics, moderated by Judy Prince-Neeb (Chula Vista Public Library).

Comic Book Law School© 202: Let’s Make A Deal (or Three)
10:30 — 12:00, Room 11
The legal education continues, with this session on income-related topics: licensing, and agreements covering merch, manufacturing, and distribution, and how contracts govern it all.

Bedside Press: What’s Next?
12:00 –1:00, Room 25ABC
Remember yesterday when I thought we’d never see Scott Kurtz inside the San Diego Convention Center again? Well, today it’s Kris Straub that’s returned, talking about projects coming from the Canadian small press, along with fellow creators Amanda Deibert, SM Beiko, Steenz Stewart (editor extraordinaire, hire her after the Lion Forge implosion fiasco), Lilah Sturges, Ashley Robinson, and pubisher Hope Nicholson.

Feminist Comics That Rock
12:00 — 1:00, Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library
Meanwhile, we’ve got a just as compelling session in the same timeslot as the Bedside talk, over at the library so it’s pretty much impossible to hop between the rooms and catch half of each. Raina Telgemeier, Peggy Burns, Claudia Aguirre, and Jennifer Holm, moderated by Candice Mack (LA Public Library). Not that I’lll get to either, as I’ve got an interview lined up at 12:15. Grrrrr.

LGBTQ+ YA Graphic Novels
1:00 — 2:00, Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library
If you were at the library for the noon slot, stick around for Rosemary Valero-Connell (Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me), Sarah Graley (Kim Reaper), Claudia Aguirre (Morning In America), and Lilah Sturges (Lumberjanes: The Infernal Compass) in discussion with Amanda Melilli (ALA Graphic Novels And Comics Round Table).

Steven Universe
1:00 — 2:00, Ballroom 20
But if you’re a Steven Universe fan, you weren’t in any of those sessions listed above, because you’ve been in line for Ballroom 20. Shelby Rabara (Peridot) moderates, with Estelle (Garnet), Michaela Dietz (Amethyst), Deedee Magno Hall (Pearl), and Rebecca Sugar. Songs! Laughs! Trailer for the movie!

America’s Best Comics Editors And What They Do!
1:30 — 2:30, Room 8
I love the nuts-and-bolts discussions of how thing get made. I can’t think of anything that would keep me from listening to Jann Jones (Legendary), Henry Barajas (Top Cow), David Mariotte (IDW Publishing), Chynna Clugston Flores (Image Comics), Shannon Eric Denton (WildStorm/DC Comics), Sarah Gaydos (Oni), and Elizabeth Brei (IDW) talk about the editorial process!

Spotlight on Ursula Vernon
1:30 — 2:30, Room 24ABC
Godsdammit! Except this. Because as I believe I have established, I loves me some Digger, and everything else that Ursula Vernon creates.

A Conversation With Sonia Manzano (AKA “Maria” from Sesame Street)
2:00 — 3:00, The Theater, Comic-Con Museum
No lie Maria was one of the moral lodestones in my early education. Unfortunately, the Comic-Con Museum is like 5 miles away at Balboa Park, so this ain’t happening. Just as well, I need to get lunch sometime today.

Graphic Novel Or Illustrated Book: You Make the Call
2:00 — 3:00, Grand 12 & 13, Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina
It is one of the rules of this page that you should see Karen Green, Columbia University librarian, speak whenever you get the chance. She’ll be talking with creators William Stout, Armand Baltazar, and Mark Wheatley, along with JC Vaughn (VP Publishing, Gemstone). Unfortunately, I’ll still be at the Vernon retrospective.

Kids And YA Graphic Novel Publishing: Behind The Scenes
2:00 — 3:00, Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library
I am becoming convinced that somebody said, Hey, let’s put every single panel Gary would want to see overlapping in one big block on Friday, at the far corners of the city! Why else would I miss out on hearing :01 Books publisher Mark Siegel, with Tracy Hurren (Drawn & Quarterly), Maya Bradford (Abrams ComicArts), Andrew Arnold (HarperCollins) and moderator Carla Riemer (librarian, Claremont Middle School).

Science And History in Comics
3:00 — 4:00, Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library
This is getting ridiculous. Maybe if I find food I can eat on my walk from the Vernon retrospective on my way to the library, I could hear Jim Ottaviani, MK Reed, Ben Fisher, Emily S Whitten, and moderator Tracy Edmunds.

Spotlight On Kurt Busiek
3:00 — 4:00pm, Room 28DE
Mentioning because the spotlight will be controlled by Scott McCloud, who besides being a genius has been buddies with Busiek since middle school. Nothing better than watching two old friends catch up and shoot the shit.

Graphix Fix: Great Graphic Novels For All Ages
4:00 — 5:00, Room 32AB
Scholastic Graphix superstars including Jim Benton, Sarah Graley, Jennifer Holm, Varian Johnson, Shannon Wright, Jon J Muth, and Raina Telgemeier. I suspect the room may be too small.

Comics Law: Disney, Malibu, And The Uncensored Mouse
4:30 — 5:30, Room 24ABC
This sounds legit fascinating: a discussion of a court case where Disney stomped on a publisher for printing public domain Mickey Mouse newspaper strips. Tom Mason (editor of the reprints), Dave Olbrich (publisher of the reprints), Nat Gertler (About Comics publisher), and Michael Lovitz (IP attorney).

Best And Worst Manga Of 2019
6:00 — 7:00, Room 4
I’m not making it to the show floor at all on Friday, am I? This one’s always fun, and features Brigid Alverson (my good friend and fellow pixel-stained wretch), Christopher Butcher (who has a birthday today, go wish him a happy one!), Megan Peters, Rob McMonigal, and Deb Aoki. Lots of experience and impeccable taste on this panel, find out what they loved and what they hated.

Creator Origins: A Candid Conversation On LBGTQ Comics Creation
6:00 — 7:00, Room 9
I’ve lost track of how many panels have caught my eye today … twelve? Fifteen? [Editor’s note: this is number seventeen, and we’ve got a still to go.] Megan Townsend (GLAAD) taking to Joe Glass (The Pride), Clive Hawken (Delver), Spike Trotman (Iron Circus Comics), and Ivan Salazar (comiXology).

Comics Of The Internet: The Memes, the Myths, The Legends
7:00 — 8:00, Room 9
It’s about comics that go memetically viral. Sounds a lot like one that happened last year on Sunday, and even also features Hope Nicholson, this time with Jose Sagastume, Ivan Salazar, and Kris Straub.

MAD vs New Yorker Cartoons: Which Are Funnier?
7:30 — 8:30, Room 24ABC
Oof. Too soon?

TGIF Keenspot Panel Party Hosted By Rob Potchak
8:00 — 9:00pm, Room 28DE
I’m not entirely certain that Keenspot shifting from their traditional very last timeslot of the con is actually doing them any favors, considering they’re now up against Friday night food, parties, and the friggin’ Eisner Awards.

The Girl Genius Radio Play
8:30 — 10:00, Room 8
Yepper, somebody is bound and determined to ensure that Phil and Kaya Foglio don’t get to bed at a reasonable hour at all this year.

The World Of Drive
9:00 — 10:00, Room 9
Oh, come on! Look, I stand second to no man in my love of Drive, and the work that Los Angeles resident Dave Kellett and his colorist Beth Reidmiller have put in to make it such a great strip. And I really, really love what happens when LArDK talks with his directing partner, Fred “Not The Beethoven One” Schroeder. But if I’m awake after this day at 9:00pm, I’ma be wherever the impromptu Comics Camp reunion is happening, with booze close to hand.

Spam of the day:

I horny as fuck and need that sweet reiease I’m e2/f with pouty lips and a tight pussy.

Is e2 something like twenty-exty-six?

It’s that time when we find out what’s happening in the programming tracks of San Diego Comic Con, and something about this year seems … odd. Did programming always go so late? Sure, some screenings and replays and such would start well after the convention center was mostly empty, but I can’t recall actual panels that started at 9:00pm in previous years. Or maybe it’s just stuff that I noticed because it has some interest for me being thrown into such late slots? We’ll figure it out together, friends. Onward.

Thursday
How to Get News Coverage
10:30 — 11:30, Room 8
Quoting: A lot of publishers have no idea what to submit to the press, how to submit it, and why they are being overlooked for coverage, so please yes go learn from these people and make my inbox a little more civilized. Comics journalist Rik Offenberger moderates Tim Chizmar, Glenn Hauman, Jez Ibelle, Heidi Mac, Alexander Raymond, Rob Salkowitz, Francis Sky, JC Vaughn, and Josh Waldrop, with independent comic creators Ed Catto and Holly Golightly.

That’s … yeah, twelve people is about six too many for any panel.

Comic Book Law School© 101: IP Law Basics, Simple as 1, 2, 3 . . .
10:30 — 12:00, Room 11
The annual seminars on IP law relevant to comics, each worth 1.5 credits of California MCLE. IP attorney Michael Lovitz focuses on the basics of intellectual property rights available to creators and business owners and will provide attendees with the foundation needed for understanding which rights are available to creators of comics, games, films, and other creative works, as well as insights on how best to safeguard ideas, creative works, characters, brands, and names/titles, from genesis through publication and distribution, and beyond.

Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks in Conversation
1:00 — 2:00, Room 28DE
Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks talking about lots of stuff, including presumably their collaboration on Pumpkinheads, out from :01 Books in August.

The Making of a Graphic Novel Publisher: Random House Graphic
2:00 — 3:00, Room 28DE
Gina. Emmer-Effin. Gagliano.

D&D: All Bards
3:00 — 4:00, Horton Grand Theatre
The last time Jim Zub played D&D on stage, he shaved his head to get into character. This time he (and all the other players) will play a bard and no combat allowed! There’s no telling how weird this may get, especially considering Sam Sykes and Chuck Wendig (they live-tweeted a weird story that became an actual movie!) will be there, along with Paul Krueger, Pierce Brown, and EK Johnston.

Webcomics: Truth in Four Panels
3:30 — 4:30, Room 4
Not really sure if I get the premise — four panel comic strips are more credible than news? — but I guess we can listen to JR Gervais (YoungCannibals.net) and Eddie deAngelini (CollectorsComic.com) explain. Moderated by Jeremy Wein (founder, NYC Podfest).

Artist as Brand, Rise of the Artist Entrepreneur
5:00 — 6:00, Grand 12 & 13, Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina
I desperately wish Brad Guigar could be at this panel, just to get his impressions afterwards. Greg Spalenka (artist/educator moderates Daniel and Dawna Davis (founders of Steam Crow, publisher of monster products), Melissa Pagluica (writer, comic book artist, author of Above the Clouds), Ray Chou and Vincenzo Ferriero (founders of Mythopoeia, Skies of Fire), and Ashleigh Izienicki (illustrator).

How to Make a Webcomic You’ll Actually Finish
5:00 — 6:00, Room 9
Maya Kern (Monster Pop!) is talking on many of the same topics as that last session, judging from the description: This panel offers a presentation that examines comic making through the lens of [career, and work/life balance] sustainability, with a Q&A session at the end.

Working in Comics: The Folks Behind-the-Scenes
5:00 — 6:00, Room 23ABC
The 5:00 hour is getting crowded. Sarah Gaydos (E-I-C at Oni Press), Shing Yin Khor (Kickstarter Thought Leader 2019), Cara O’Neil (social media strategist at Dark Horse Comics), Chloe Ramos-Peterson (library market sales representative at Image Comics), Nancy Spears (VP, Sales at DC Publishing), and Michele Wells (VP and executive editor for DC Books for Young Readers) talk about the non-writing, non-drawing work of comics. Also please note? The folks doing the work that get you your funnybooks each Wednesday? Women.

Will Eisner: Defending Comics/Graphic Novels as “Real Reading”
5:00 — 6:00, Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library
Really crowded; dang, I think this is the one to see in this hour: Parents and administrators are still fighting the concept of comics as literature, and the educators on this panel have excellent methods for addressing these challenges. Moderated by John Shableski, panelists include Erin Hill, Lisa Harrison, Joe Onks, Nichole Santangelo, and Amy Pitotti.

Passion into Cash: Animate Characters and Make Money
6:00 — 7:00, Room 11
Listing this because it appears that Scott Kurtz, who I thought would never set foot inside the convention center again, is setting foot inside the convention center. Innnnteresting! Also Cory Casoni, Laura Williams-Argilla (director of product management, Bits at Twitch), and Dave Werner (Adobe experience designer, YouTube illustrator and animator).

Comics PR and Marketing 101
6:30 — 7:30, Room 8
Lotta smart people: comiXology head of content Chip Mosher moderates Alex Segura (Archie), Spike Trotman (Iron Circus Comics), Hope Nicholson (Bedside Press), Kel McDonald (The Stone King), and Ivan Salazar (comiXology).

Condensing an Idea: Making the Difficult Palatable
6:30 — 7:30, Room 26AB
Again, lotta smart people on this one, and in direct conflict with the smart people on the last one. Damn, SDCC scheduling, why you gotta be this way? How to delve into complex worlds and come out the other side with stories we readily consume. Panelists include Kurt Busiek, Jon B Cooke (Comic Book Artist), Randall Munroe (xkcd), Dani Colman, Tea Fougner (editorial director for comics, King Features Syndicate), and moderator Barbara Dillon.

From OSHA Violation to Superhero: The Lab Accidents That Will Most Likely Give You Superpowers
7:00 — 8:00, Room 6DE
There’s nobody listed in the description so it could be a complete bust, but I love the title.

Spooky Kids
8:00 — 9:00, Room 23ABC
Mariah McCourt (Stitched), Lilah Sturges (Lumberjanes), Shing Yin Khor (The American Dream? A Journey on Route 66), Louise Simonson (New Mutants), Che Grayson (Noble), and Amanda Meadows (Lionforge senior editor) talk about spooky stories for kids, but this is getting ridiculous. You can’t stay on the floor until the show’s done and do this panel and eat diner before 10:00pm at the earliest. I may have to go by Shing’s booth and slip her some snack bars so her righteous hanger doesn’t cause her to change to her Lumberjack Form and wreak havoc but then again that would be spooky.

Webcomics Advocates: The Webcomics Gathering
8:00 — 9:00, Room 9
We see this one every year, but usually a bit earlier in the evening. Brendan Creecy (Brax the Alien Rocker), Patrick Scullin (Super Siblings), Eddie DeAngelini (Collectors), Ambrose Quintanilla (Gopher-It Comics), Daniel Sansonetti (Daniel’s Way), and moderator Kristen Parraz (Comadres y Comics podcast) talk webcomics. Features the 30 second lighting round o’ advice, but seriously — can you believe they’re starting this late?

The Storyteller’s Guide with Satine Phoenix
8:00 — 9:00, Room 32AB
Can you believe they’re starting this late with a friggin’ McElroy Brother on the dais? Moderator Satine Phoenix and dungeonmasters Travis McElroy (Adventure Zone) and Kailey Bray (Damsels, Dice and Everything Nice) improv a story in real time.

How the West Got Weird Again
9:00 — 10:00, Room 23ABC
And we’ll wrap with what will be the first of a couple of late nights for Phil Foglio, what with his traditional hosting duties at the Masquerade on Saturday. Western stories crossed with zombies, monsters, aliens, etc, moderated by David Boop, with Jonathan Maberry (Joe Ledger series, V-Wars), Foglio (Girl Genius), Eytan Kollin (The Unincorporated Man), and Naomi Brett Rourke (Straight Outta Tombstone).

Spam of the day:

eCards via fubar

Somebody ought to tell you what your company name means.

So this will perforce be on the shorter side.

• Firstly, everybody in the States enjoy your day off, maybe take some time to consider what freedom in this country actually means, and if you’ve got fireworks in your future please be careful¹. If you wanted to watch fireworks with other comics folk, the Cartoon Art Museum in San Fancisco is hosting a viewing party.
• Secondish, we’ll probably see a release of San Diego Comic Con programming tomorrow or Friday; I’ll be sure to bring that to you when it drops. In the meantime, may I remind you that the Will Eisner Spirit Of Comics Retailer Award nominations have been released? And that Pat Race and Aaron Suring, the generous gentlemen behind Alaska Robotics Gallery (and Juneau Mini-Con/Comics Camp, and more involvement in the arts scene of Juneau than can be recounted here) are nominees? Indeed, they’re the first nominees on the page! Okay, alphabetical order and all, but I like to think it’s also because they’re the best.
• Thirdwise, if you ever wondered what I sound like, I was on a podcast with my excellent friend Jon Ferocious J Sung² and my new friend Besha. Come listen to me achieve Peak White Guy! And if you find the discussion that Besha and I had around unfortunate medical experiences, find me in person (preferably with booze to hand) and I’ll share the story that I didn’t tell, of the Most Unfortunate And Embarrassing Patient Packaging Challenge Of All Time. It’s a corker.

Okay, that’s it. Be well, friendos.

Spam of the day:

Request: dazhe if you are not interested predlozhenie please pereydite the link and there “Jump to the platform,” I’ll be very blagodaren is my bread

I’m not sure if the translator algorithm is flaky, or if the spammers can’t spell/use recognizable grammar in Russian as well as English.

_______________
¹ I’m on EMS holiday duty tomorrow night, and I’d rather not deal with anybody that’s blowed up, thanks very much.

² You may remember him from such internet image searches as This party’s better than it seems and God Hates Jedi. He’s been a significant part of the Dumbrella at SDCC efforts until fairly recently, when he and his wife decided to reproduce themselves. Apparently carrying around a toddler in a BabyBjorn in the pathogen-rich environment of the San Diego Convention Center for four days is too big of an ask. Whatever, J.

But a week in which The Nib finds its existence is in upheaval-slash-transition is anything but rational. That being said, better late than never with the news: Gene Yang’s next book has a release date. We’ve known about the title (Dragon Hoops) and the elevator pitch (the story of the basketball team from the high school where Yang used to teach in Oakland) for years — he shared them when we spoke back in Aught-Sixteen.

But now we get the full launch announcement, in Entertainment Weekly¹ no less, with quotes from Yang and a set of preview pages. Yang’s art has lost no steps in the years that he’s let others do the drawing (Sonny Liew on The Shadow Hero, Mike Holmes on the Secret Coders series, Gurihiru on the Avatar: The Last Airbender series, various artists on Superman and New Super-Man), and the story …

The story’s different. It’s not just the story of the basketball team at the Oakland high school where he used to teach, their history, and their run for a state championship. It’s a story about his relationship to comics and creativity, to teaching, and to sports. It’s treading into Raina Telgemeier territory and that is terrific news. Yang put a lot of himself into the stories in American Born Chinese but this time he’s literally on the page, captions talking to the reader about what’s going through his mind as he acts out his life on the page.

It’s particularly an interesting tack to take, making Dragon Hoops not just about the team, but also his struggles to find a story — then finding a story just across campus in the gym — while simultaneously admitting that he’s never been a sports guy and actively shies away from the culture of captial-S Sports. I think it’s not coincidence that Yang breaking out of his comfort zone would have coincided with his term as the fifth National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, where his efforts were summarized in his Reading Without Walls Challenge:

• Read a book about a character who doesn’t look or live like you.
• Read a book in a format you don’t typically read — graphic novels, poetry, audiobooks, plays.
• Read a book about a new subject you don’t know much about.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see this theme in Dragon Hoops; we’ll all find out together on 17 March 2020, when 448 pages (!) of comics wisdom drops from :01 Books.

Spam of the day:

Thank you for registering at Hotel Tino – Ohrid

Blah, blah, click the link, set up your account, blah. Ordinarily, I’d chalk this up to a clumsy attempt to get me to go to a virus-ridden hellsite, but it appears to be a legit business. Looks like one of the other Garies Tyrrell has forgotten again that my email is not their email. Hope they get their reservation honored.

_______________
¹ Remember when a new graphic novel announcement would trickle out with maybe a small mention in Publishers Weekly or at The Beat? Now it’s the Los Angeles Review Of Books, or EW, or Premiere, or some other mainstream culture publication, if it’s not Washington Post or New York Times. Don’t ever tel me that comics as a medium is dying.

I got the news in an email from Matt Bors on Friday evening:

After three and a half years, First Look Media has decided to no longer fund The Nib at the end of July and me and my team will be let go as part of a broader shift at the company.

Well, shit.

I have mentioned The Nib more than a few times since it launched, because it is unique (and I’m using that word precisely). They publish editorial comics and nonfiction comics and reportage comics, but a wide variety of creators (some of whom, disclaimer, are personal friends), most of which I love and a few of which I actively despise¹.

You know what? Good on The Nib for not catering to me 100%, for making me confront what I consider to be lazy or obvious cartooning in service to crappy or self-indulgent worldviews. Matt Bors and his editorial team have done amazingly good work, and more importantly they pay cartoonists.

And, hell, he’s been through this before, when Medium decided to drop them; at the time, Bors ran a Kickstart and printed a book and found a new home at First Look. Since he got there, he’s ramped up the quality, ramped up the breadth of cartoonists and reporting, and took a few shots at Glenn Greenwald, Michael Tracey, and other faux-left provocateurs. They launched a magazine which is very, very good, and a subscription program in concert. They were bringing in eyeballs and doing damn good work. But First Look Media is pivoting to video (a thoroughly discredited idea) and jettisoning The Nib in the process.

But this time is different. Bors isn’t looking for the next billionaire-whim media startup to settle in at and get cut from:

This will be a major setback but I will be devoting all my time to continuing this publication with contributions from all the editors and cartoonists who have made this publication what it is.

To assure you about where the print magazine is at: the fourth issue of the magazine is at the printers now and will be shipped in early July. The fifth issue, the Animals issue, is in the works and I will be printing it independently.

To be honest, this was a shock. When I got the letter, I thought it was going to be the notice that with the fourth issue of The Nib magazine going to print, it was time to pony up and subscribe to see the fifth and subsequent issues. Seems like I’m not the only one that was determined to help The Nib survive; in a post today at Medium (irony!), Bors tells us:

I founded this publication almost six years ago to highlight political and non-fiction comics in a media environment that doesn’t support them. So I’m not ready for the funeral yet and I’m sorry if it sounded like one. I just needed a minute.

As news of all this broke we had our single biggest day of membership signups. Hundreds of new supporters pledged — on a Friday night no less. I feel emboldened by that.

I refuse to walk away from this project or let it die after the successes of our last year. There are are too many of you who have expressed support and written to say how important it is to you. There is too much going on in the world that demands biting political cartoons and non-fiction comics. [emphasis mine]

The surge in memberships is continuing, and it looks like Bors just might be able to carry off his own pivot — The Nib wasn’t established enough to go to a full-bore subscription site when Medium dropped them, but the word is out now. Hell, non-comics-specific publications like The AV Club are covering the story, and not as part of comics coverage … it’s a general news story.

As for the cartoonists of The Nib, even with the upheaval that’s going to be dropping in the near future, they’re still cranking out relevant, informative, timely cartoons — here are just two from today. You’ll see work of this length every once in a while from The New Yorker or maybe Vanity Fair, but you’ll see multiple instances each week at The Nib.

I’m a subscriber by virtue of the Kickstart, and I’ll be continuing that sufficient to keep getting the magazine in print. I mean, hell, I pay US$15/month to the service that backups up my opinion-like screeds, I may as well do at least as much to support the dozens of cartoonists from around the world that do such good work. If you value the same, join me.

Spam of the day:

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Note: Our Ladies are seriously attractive ????

Okay, A) You can’t just type in the phrase This message is from a trusted sender in the body of your email and expect me to take it seriously, and 2) If you’re trying to get me interested in your porn-based phishing attempt, maybe don’t take stylistic cues from T-Rex???

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¹ And it’s not like he ever commissioned Ramirez or Garrison.

This review is late; I’ve been delayed in a getting a copy of Island Book by Evan Dahm, but now that I’ve got it and read it, my mind is full of ideas. This review is also early; I really should give this another week or so and let all those ideas coalesce into something more definite, but I don’t want to wait. I want to tell you about this remarkable story and why you should want to read it. And, appropriate for a book that takes place largely on and adjacent to the ocean, Mild spoilers ahoy.

Island Book draws from all of Dahm’s previous work. Although it’s not a story of his Overside setting, it could be part of Overside — the characters are not human, they feature fully-realized cultures with distinct hallmarks, and the eyes express intentions in a clear way. Everything has a backstory, which is largely unrevealed.

We know only as much of the history of Tarrus or the War-Men as the characters in-story see fit to remark upon; what they would take as ordinary and everyday (say, the significance of a mantle the main character wears, then discards as she embarks on adventure) isn’t explained any more than you or I would start the morning with a declaration of And now I will commute to my job in my automobile, which is powered by an internal-combustion engine and around the operation of which some of the most powerful trade forces in the world have organized themselves, as we all know!

And though parts of Island Book go back half a decade or so, I’m not sure he could have completed it until after his edition of Moby-Dick. The boats and winds and the nature of being on the ocean aren’t the sharply-defined realism of Melville’s novel, but they are a simplification of them, a cartoony version that draws the same essential truth in broad strokes. It’s just as a caricature artist must have a formal grounding in anatomy and the rules of realistic representation to know where and when to ignore those rules and keep things simple, but plausible.

But the clearest relation to Dahm’s earlier work would be his edition of The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz. Sola, our POV character, is swept away to color-coded lands of distinct people, who are mostly aware of each other but don’t really interact. She eventually returns to an Uncle figure (her parents, like Dorothy’s are dead) having learned some about the world and found an appreciation of home. The travels from place to place, where something happens, then something happens, then something happens, sometimes at a fast pace and sometimes slow, but always pushing the story to the next beat with a clear focus on what the story needs.

Like the first Oz book, this first Island Book volume (if the 1 on the spine means anything) serves to introduce us to the world of oceans and the Monster that all seem to know and seek out for different reasons — to conquer, to find inspiration, for pure knowledge — and then place the players back in their starting locales until it’s time for the next adventure. In case you never read the dozen-and-a-half books that L Frank Baum wrote set in Oz, they all start with Dorothy getting swept back into the Fairy Lands from Kansas¹ and getting a subset of the band back together again, until whatever new challenge presenting itself was overcome.

And like the Oz books, there’s a fabulous foundation in this first book, for as many journeys as Sola chooses to make, with whichever friends (some she hasn’t made yet) suit a given story. The Monster may have its secrets revealed or not. New islands may be discovered, or not. Sola’s people may decide she’s no longer cursed and evil² or not. I suspect the future adventures will be more about journey than destination, and that they’ll be just as charming as this first one. I’m looking forward to watching Sola grow into the woman that she’ll be, and the mark that she’ll leave on this world of ever-shifting waves.

Island Book, by Evan Dahm, is published by :01 Books and available wherever books are sold. 288 pages, full color, ages 8 and up. Fleen thanks Dahm for sharing those first two dozen pages all those years ago, and for delivering on their promise in a big way.

Spam of the day:

iBlocker: the digital solution to any security problem. The padlock with a fingerprint.

Wait, isn’t this that padlock that had screws on the outside of the casing that let you disassemble the lock in about twelve seconds, making it the perfect tangible representation of security theater? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, no.

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¹ Or wherever; in one, she was on an ocean voyage with Uncle Henry to Australia when swept overboard. Eventually, she just moved with Uncle Henry, and Aunt Em, and Toto, and a Kansas friend or two to the Emerald City to save Baum the trouble of dreaming up another variation on Chapter One to get her back to Oz.

² Did I mention that? They’re totally jerks to a preteen-equivalent girl for something she had no control over.

Travel must happen, vengeance must be planned, I’m swamped. We’ll be back tomorrow.

I mean, when KC Green first drew Question Hound on fire in his house, that was a seminal moment in internet rough laugh-chuckles, right? It’s always been there, part of the background of online culture since small times, right?

Nope. 2013. By the time the political conventions came around and The Nib paid Green to respond when the Republican Party tried to jump on the meme-wagon, it just felt like those two panels had been around forever. And that, per New York Magazine in their profile of Green and his efforts to keep some control over his creation, was the proverbial final straw.

We don’t often know where memes come from. We don’t often remember that an actual human had the thought, and the skill to commit it to a medium that we can partake in. Sometimes that ignorance means that somebody else grabs the joke and makes a killing and gets all I made this about it. Hell, what with Disney’s approach to intellectual property — cough, cough, Jungle Taitei — it’s practically expected.

But Green’s got a legion of fans that call out when people use his stuff. He’s got takedown letters for Zazzle and Etsy and wherever bootlegs show up. He’s got a merch company that will help him turn the tables on thieves by making the stuff that they think they can sell and selling it himself after he gets their stuff taken down for infringement. And heck, having a big enormo Kickstart don’t hurt for establishing the legitimacy of your control of what you made.

It’s a never-ending process, but Green’s more associated with This Is Fine than Kate Beaton is with I Had Fun Once And It Was Awful, or Matt Furie was with Pepe (at least, until he starting suing MAGA CHUDs and winning). Heck, he still has his association with Dick Butt, though he’s decidedly more cool about that.

Anyway, take ten minutes and read the story. It’s the story of a man who finds essential, funny truths, and has the tenacity of the cockroach when others try to claim his insight for their own profit. It’s a good one. Then go take a gander at today’s BACK, it’s full of sincerity.

Spam of the day:

We want to show appreciation to those that have been loyal to us from the start by offering you an insane, one time 78% off discount today on the nations most popular CBD oil.

In this blog, we obey the rules of double-blind testing of meds to show safety and efficacy. Come back when your product is evaluated by the FDA and you have to provide lab proof that what you claim is in the bottle is actually in the bottle. Until then, you’re no different from the supplement and homeopathic types.

Hey. Question for you. Why are women so damn good at comics? I mean, why are there literally so many more women whose work I am excited to follow than dudes? Is it because dudes held the entire industry to themselves for so long, only letting in other dudes that looked and thought and wrote like them, resulting in staleness and homogeneity? And women, long excluded, had to up their game and be so much better than dudes who could get published just for showing up?

• Case in point #1: Dylan Meconis. She has a wicked edge to her stories, one that treads the line of humor and messing with you for being a chump, whether she’s exploring the French Revolution (via vampires), the Age Of Reason (via werewolves), or comic/SF convention culture/cliche (via the apocalypse).

  And today, her latest graphic novel hits the stores:

  This book is full of:

  • cool nuns
  • 16th century infographics
  • recycled folklore
  • embroidery trash talk
  • questionable chess strategy
  • shameless pandering to the lutist community
  • identity crises
  • dubiously symbolic flora
  • mysterious pinnipeds
  • loud young redheaded women

  There is also:

  • one (1) nun who’s kind of a jerk
  • one (1) hot lad who probably knows how to do Sword Stuff
  • one (1) fake saint and her relic, which is in point of fact a dried fish head

  Not to mention your standard royal exiles the inconvenient alternate claimant to the throne that would be the lead talking point in most elevator pitches. We’ve seen that before, but embroidery trash talk? Yes, please. There is more raw creativity in that description than in most ten-year runs of dude-centric comics.

  Additionally, I can state unreservedly that it’s gorgeous, having been present to see some of the pages painted in late April 2018. Queen Of The Sea is part of Candlewick’s expansion beyond children’s books and YA prose into the graphic novel space, and they are not screwing around. Grab a copy as soon as you can and join me in reading it.

• Case in point #2: Shing Yin Khor, who wrangles watercolors, powertools, and emotions with equal facility. Their memoir of traveling the historic Route 66 releases on 6 August, retelling a road trip with their dog Bug in search of their passions in life (including, but not limited to, giant muffler man statues, roadside dinosaur statues, and what it means to be American). They’re working on her next book, a graphic novel about the Chinese contributions to the American west, particularly in and around lumberjackery. And they just got announced as one of the featured guests for SPX this year:
  

  #SPX2019 SPECIAL GUEST: Ignatz winner Shing Yin Khor @sawdustbear, a Malaysian-American cartoonist and installation artist exploring the intersections of race, gender and immigration. Their forthcoming graphic novel, “The American Dream? A Journey on Route 66” is out in August.

  #SPX2019 SPECIAL GUEST: Cartoonist Rosemary Valero-O’Connell @hirosemaryhello who’s opening eyes with her latest, Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me w/ writer, @marikotamaki. Past works includes Lumberjanes. Her illustrations work has been shown in galleries internationally.

  #SPX2019 SPECIAL GUEST: @marinaomi is the award-winning cartoonist of 4 graphic memoirs and the Life on Earth YA graphic novel trilogy as well as founder and admin of the Cartoonists of Color, Queer Cartoonists, and (soon) Disabled Cartoonists databases. http://MariNaomi.com

  #SPX2019 SPECIAL GUEST: Ignatz Award winner for Promising New Talent, @biancaxunise! Her body of work focuses primarily on the daily struggles of identifying as a young black feminist weirdo in modern society and has been featured in The Washington Post, The Nib, BBC and more.

  Checking out the Special Guests page at SPX, there’s a dozen names so far, more than half of whom are women — Emily Carroll is there, Eleanor Davis, and Raina Telgemeier. The dudes there are interesting, too — Eddie Campbell and Jaime Hernandez are essential in any conversation about comics, Box Brown does astonishingly detailed documentary comics, Ed Piskor and Kevin Huizenga are amazingly accomplished — but the women are the ones whose next work I’m dying to see.

• Case in point #3: Abby Howard does comics that hit that Kate Beatonesque sweet spot. Just detailed enough to get across the story point or emotion she’s shooting for, just esoteric enough in topic that nobody else is doing the same thing, and absolutely hilarious when funny is what she’s shooting for. Her long-running autobioish Junior Scientist Power Hour may not always be true to life — I’m not convinced her cat Spoons really went on a hero’s journey that took place in a magical realm entirely contained in Howard’s ass — and it may have been fallow while Howard was working on her utterly charming Earth Before Us trilogy, but it’s always been great reading.

  And now, it is coming to an end. She’ll keep up the journal comics on her Patreon, and the previously-uncollected JSPH strips are getting the print treatment, courtesy her new Kickstarter campaign. If you didn’t pick up her first JSPH collection, you can get it along with the new one at an advantageous price!

  It’s been a while since we busted out the Fleen Funding Factor, Mark II, but the math projects that JSPH2 will finish in the range of US$39K-58.5K (on a goal of US$30,000), with stretch goals ranging up to US$65K. She’s at 41% of goal since launching yesterday and 28 days left to go, but I need anybody with an interest to pledge so that this one completes, because if it doesn’t I might not get the original art I pledged for, and that would be a tragedy.

Spam of the day:

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! Get a FREE Backpack While Supplies Last
This message seems dangerous

Similar messages were used to steal people’s personal information. Avoid clicking links, downloading attachments, or replying with personal information.

I was going to do a Seuss-rhyme her to express my ire, but man that’s one hard style to emulate. Guess I’ll have to content myself with Fuck you, scamming scum.