Holy crap, Kate Beaton original for sale to benefit a good cause!

I used to work at the Maritime Museum of British Columbia when I lived in Victoria. Like most museums, it is pretty underfunded and relies on the kindness of many volunteers and a dedicated staff to keep it running. I was always impressed by the hard work and generosity of everyone involved, and having worked in several museums I know it is the same story country wide. This is getting into the leanest part of the year for museums, before the summer traffic and after the winter doldrums. So, hopefully, I thought perhaps this could help.

Sexy Mermaids, y’all. As of this writing (with nearly six full days to go on the eBay auction), the only Kate Beaton drawing ever to be placed up for sale is going for US$450. Hey Kate please remember that I called dibs on E For Effort if it ever goes up for sale I totally did. As a side note, please direct your browsers to Beaton’s new site (with archive links!) at Hark! A Vagrant (harkavagrant.com).

In other news:

• NEWW shirts at the Octostore (no relation to the Octomom, I promise). Oh man, it will be so embarrasing if somebody else shows up at the Webcomics Weekend wearing the blue one the same day I do. Then again, what are the odds?
• Speaking of NEWW: check the evidence at Jeph Jacques Twitpic collection. It looks like a revival film festival at the arthouse theater!
• Speaking of art, new gallery show in the depths of Brooklyn, starring Ryan North, Chris Onstad, and Chris Hastings. Guys there is no part of that sentence that is not awesome. Titans of Small-Town will be presented by ROFLCon and Barbarian Group on Saturday, April 11 in the very hip Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Details forthcoming, but for now we are be promised that the show will feature limited edition prints, original art, and a Q&A session with the artist dudes themselves.
• Can webcomics and big-time publishers last in partnership? Joey Manley has some thoughts.

Quickly, Robin! To the Linkmobile!

• New weekly comic at Modern Tales, and MT editor Shaenon Garrity does her customary interview with the creator, Aaron Neathery over at TalkAboutComics.
• Speaking of TalkAboutComics, Eric Millikin points us all towards Interface: The Journal of Education, Community and Values out of Pacific University Oregon, where Maria Walters overviews our lil’ world to formal academia. Corduroy jackets with patches on the elbows optional.
• ‘Member way back when I thought the TV Tropes list of long-running webcomics was fairly complete? You people keep proving me wrong; this is good, as it will hopefully make for a more comprehensive resource.
• Matt Boyd talks to American Born Chineseauthor Gene Yang. Awesome stuff, particularly the bit in the middle about Cousin Chin-Kee and finding your tribe.
• Speaking of awesome stuff, Paul Taylor‘s getting close to the final sculpt proof of his Monica collector’s statue. Those interested, pre-orders have been met and production moves forward.
• Need to congratulate/console somebody on their beard? David Malki ! will give ’em a phone call for free.
• Planet Karen photoshop files safe! Also, fourth anniversary of the strip! Double hooray!
• Finally, for those who don’t follow Ursula Vernon‘s LiveJournal, the people in today’s episode of The Devil’s Panties are Ms Vernon, her sweetie-pie Kevin, Panties creator Jennie Breeden, and K. Brooke “Otter” Spangler. We’ve heard Vernon’s take on this trip, and her gentleman’s, now it’s time for words + pictures. Pull up a seat and grab some popcorn, kiddies … this is gonna be good.

First of all, we at Fleen were pleased to hear from Karen Ellis, who corrected an assumption made in our posting three days back. Due to luck and prior planning, Ellis managed to save almost all of her original art. The status of her Planet Karen Photoshop files is still in question, but on balance this was about the happiest occasion I can recall where I was told I was completely wrong about something. More on Ellis’s current situation may be found at her comic.

• In other news, I have a new graphic for surreptiously installing as the background on random computers. Yes, I am evil.
• Speaking of evil, you can now proclaim your status proudly as ComicSpace moves into merch production/fulfillment:
  

  We’ve entered into individual relationships with a number of artists we know. We’ve consulted with them about what kinds of designs we think we can sell (generally, designs that appeal to hardcore fans of a particular webcomic but can also catch the eye of somebody who has never heard of that webcomic). We’ve licensed the right to print a limited number of designs by these creators. We’ve paid 100% of the manufacture/screen-printing costs. And now we’re selling them — at the ComicSpace store, on the creator’s websites, across our ad network (1.1 million potential customers per month and growing), at our convention booths, and sharing the revenues. It’s kind of like Threadless’ model, except there’s not really a contest, and the creators still own their intellectual property at the end of the day, and the individual pay per shirt is better. [emphasis mine]

  Interesting. This appears to be a new model (please correct me if I’ve overlooked a previous iteration that’s similar), and one with a great deal of potential for getting around the “could make money if not for the upfront costs” dilemma (c.f.: yesterday’s post). Can’t wait to see how this experiment turns out.

Edit to add: For those that don’t read the comments below, we are informed by Jeffrey Rowland that Topatoco has quietly been in the “front the money for the creators and take a cut from the back end” business for a year now. While it is disturbing that I failed to pick up on this earlier, it’s reassuring to know that my speculation about helpful business services for webcomics (search this blog for “Aduz”) is not completely baseless.

Webcomics notes the peaceful transfer of power and welcomes our new benevolent overlords with comics to note the occasion, and art of both the printed and wooden interlocking varieties. As a side note, that puzzle from Chris Yates is (as of this writing) going for less than the fair market price of his other Baffler!s of similar size and complexity, so hey — bargain time.

Speaking of bargains, if you’re in the market for a warehouse manager, the one that used to run the Achewood store is looking for a job. Hey Chris Crane, I don’t know how you feel about cross-continental commutes, but it sounds like Topatoco is growing by leaps and bounds these days and they could maybe use a hand.

Do you like process tutorials as much as I do? Probably more, considering that I can neither draw nor use Photoshop. In any event, there’s a very nice process tutorial today from Nedroid — all about building an image in CS4. If you want some Q&A about said process, it can be found in Mr Oid’s LiveJournal.

Answer: This unretouched photo shows a standard postal envelope (complete with postmark) dwarfed by his enormous hand. Your only choices are to submit to the Nexus of All Webcomics Realities, or to be crushed. There are no alternatives. Now that we’re done being terrified, let’s move onto some news.

• Missed it: Pilli Adventure now available en Español.
• Seasonal Merch Alert: Valentine’s Day is now officially less than a month away, so if you want to get something to express your feelings to your special dude or lady in a webcomics motif, now’s the time. Roast Beef seems not to have anything smoochin’-related, but you can find find examples of the craft from Wondermark, Eros, Inc, Octopus Pie, and quite probably others, but those are the ones I’ve noticed.
• WOOO HOT NAKED ACTION WOOO: Ask Dr Eldritch decides that after a fairly serious 500 comics, the theme for the next 500 should be ladies gettin’ naked. Seriously, fully two–thirds of the comics since #500 have featured young teens ogling a naked lady. Honestly, Ask Dr Eldritch creator Evan Nichols — isn’t there enough of that on the internet already?

For those of you who missed part one, what follows is a list of what webcomickry I personally found interesting enough to lay down American cash money. Last time it was books, this time it’s other merch, and once again ’tis items I paid for in 2008 regardless of actual release date.

Original Strips That Gary Liked Enough To Buy In 2008

• Little Dee, 24 & 28 March, 20 October
• Octopus Pie, #176, #195
• Planet Karen, 31 January
• Sheldon: 16 January, 27 March

Other Visual Arts That Gary Liked Enough To Buy In 2008

• Vera Brosgol, Braid Hair and Tandem Bike (prints)
• Carly Monardo, Walking the Ostrich (print)
• Octopus Pie, Ugly Winter Hats — Grey X-Mas (painting)
• Ursula Vernon, The Taxman (print)
• Wondermark, #191, #219, #245, #394 (prints)

Items That Gary Commissioned

• Berg’s Craftsmanship In Wood, a freakin’ coffee table to store all this stuff in
• Rene Engström, sketch drive drawing
• Carly Monardo, print of my dog
• Chris Yates, two custom Baffler!s

Miscellaneous Stuffs That Don’t Fit Into Another Category, But Gary Liked Them Anyway

• Achewood, greeting cards for dudes, t-shirt
• Wondermark, 2009 calendar (similar to the 2008 version)

Original Strip That Was Bought For Gary As A Birthday Present Because He Has The Best Wife In The World

• Sheldon, 3 May 2007

Barring any last-minute purchases, that should take care of 2008. My resolution for 2009: Stop trying to support this nascent artistic movement single handed, but first let me see if any of those laser robots are still available.

Edit to add: Dammit, I knew I’d forget something. I just realized that I wrote out this post while drinking from my Pub Stub pint glasses, which were obtained in 2008. Come to think of it, I probably forgot to include them because I was drinking from them.

The holiday (or, if you prefer, Holiday) season is upon us, which means it’s time to find gifts for those on your lists. It’s too soon to say how the ongoing brand dilution is affecting webcomics, but I’m cautiously optimistic. During previous economic downturns, movies, comics, and other relatively cheap entertainment did pretty well — golden age, like.

Today, movies and comics are pretty pricey (although I haven’t gone out and adjusted for inflation or anything, I have a feeling that today’s $10.50 movie ticket is more expensive than the 10 cent matinee with cartoon, serial short, newsreels, and a feature) and big-name comics are likewise trying to support creators in a modest manner, which neccesitates a dollars-per-page cover price that’s a little on the high side. But webcomics — they are mostly free and feature creators worthy of your support, especially when you find designs that would be so awesome to have a loved one unwrap on a religiously-signficant morning (tree optional) and wear to services.

• If you feel like getting something a little more … all-ages appropriate? — there are still options. For all that he seems like a cynic with a crippling coffee addiction, Rich Stevens actually has one of the fluffiest hearts I’ve ever known; case in point: video kitties out the wazoo. There is so much concentrated cute here that I’d get diabetes just from the trailer, were it not for the presence of Hitlercat about five seconds in. But rest assured, when that kitten murders us all, it’ll be adorable. I’ll see your adorable kittens Mr Stevens, and raise you greyhound puppies.
• For me, one of the highlights of the last couple Flight anthologies has been the Igloohead and Treehead offerings by Scott Campbell, who you may recognize from the new Frontalot CD cover, or (if you’re in San Francisco) the Imaginary Friends show running at Gallery 1988 (which also stars fellow Flighter Israel Sanchez and nightmare monger Andy Bell). Some new photos from the show are up at Bell’s LiveJournal, and they look great.
• Speaking of the Left Coast, and art shows therein, James Kochalka will be bringing paintings and even a few songs to Giant Robot LA for “Little Paintings 3” on Saturday the 15th at 6:30 pm. The paintings in question are mostly 2″ x 2″, with a few up to 6″ x 6″ (for those of you outside America, that’s about 5 cm and 15 cm, respectively), with the show running until 10 December.
• Finally, Best of the Year lists are starting to show up — Tucker Stone kicks off the annual crop of webcomics tallies at Comixology. I particularly noted item #4 on his “best of” list: Kate Beaton, anything, and everything, by Kate Beaton. Considering that she doesn’t do a comic, per se, it should tell you something about the quality of her work that it gets recognized as often as it does. I can pretty much promise that nobody besides Stone will completely agree with this Year’s Best list, so let’s get bickering.

Latin Heartthrob Aaron Diaz dropped some hints about this to me when we had dinner back in September — it’s The Dresden Codak Show (in color)! According to Diaz, it’s not Dresden Codak the webcomic brought to live action — the title is the same, and many of the big themes will be present, but it’s a different story for a different medium. But don’t take my word for it — drop by APE this weekend and ask him yourself.

• Jeff Rowland‘s got yo’ notability hangin’ (‘long wif a two-week supply of IGNINT MCNUGGET): his leg has been immortalized on Wikipedia, under the topic of warning seriously awesome icky photos “necrosis”.
• Free lesson of the day: Howard Tayler shares some hard-earned wisdom on shipping, while freely acknowledging that most of the hard earning was done by his wife, Sandra. To wit — how to ship a thousand packages in six hours, from a series of blog posts by Sandra during the process.

  Short version: you don’t just ship packages at a rate of 167/hr by showing up on the big day. Things start weeks earlier with order collection, getting said orders into a useful order, getting the inventory whupped into shape, getting all the postage arranged, before finally stuffing stuff into stuff-holders.

  To be clear — following exactly these instructions will not work for you the way it worked for Sandra and Howard. You’ll have to work out your own methodology to keep massive shipping events under control, but stealing ideas from Sandra is probably a very good starting point.

Hey, did you see this thing over at Octopus Pie where originals are now up for sale? If it’s a strip in the post-digital production period (basically, since August) and you’re the first to hit the buttons, you can have it for 150 clams. If you’re after a strip that’s digital, already sold, or you don’t have that many bivalves, you can get a print of anything for only 25. I made my early holiday purchases — how ’bout you?

Speaking of Octopie, did you notice the style homage over at Bellen earlier in the week? The Boxster is doing his comic in the styles of other webcomics this week and next, leading up to Halloween. A’course, the use of disguises for characters has a long and distinguished history in webcomics. Halloween 2000, anyone?

Finally, I think it’s fair to say that User Friendly doesn’t get much mention in webcomics circles; creator JD Frazer has always seemed to float more in the Linux nerd circles — it’s a classic case of have no general audience appeal. You either live and breathe this stuff and it’s the one bit of cultural ephemera that caters to your tribe, or it’s not for you. There’s a comfortable niche to be occupied being a premiere (or even exclusive) supplier of laugh-chuckles to a tribe — just ask the guys at Unshelved (although a lot more people have direct personal interaction with, and understanding of what is done by, librarians than with the running of an ISP).

But even with a webcomic that exists off to the side (as it were), there are things you have to pay attention to. Case in point: a comprehensive, hardcover, ten-year strip collection. That’s more than 1000 pages (at least, that’s what the ad says … the product description says 1000 strips, but it also says all the cartoons, so I’m believing the page count), and unless it’s on really crappy paper, I’m guessing about 7.5kg of dry weight. If you’re the sort that reads UF (and contrary to what many, even this page, may have said, the strip has improved since it debuted), put on the shelf next to your Far Side or Calvin & Hobbes slipcover editions.

If my math is correct, today Howard Tayler becomes the fourth (somebody check me on that updated to add: the recently concluded Funny Farm ran for 3594 strips) confirmed webcomicker to hit 3000 strips (although Tatsuya Ishida is closing fast). If I’m still correct, he’s the second (maybe? Anybody know if JD Frazer ever punted a day?) to do it without ever missing an update or running a guest strip, completing 365.24 days a year of pure, continuous cartoonery (sorry, Chris Crosby — that blizzard clearly was out to deny you your place in history). He’s done it with a continuous up-trending in the complexity and audaciousness of his plots (including killing and bringing back a major character without it feeling like a cheat), and his art‘s improved by leaps and bounds.

My estimate is that in those three thousand days, when sick, injured, or playing hooky to play dad, his buffer hasn’t fallen below 19 days. He cannot be killed by conventional means (of this we have empirical proof), and apart from the fact that he won’t let me buy him a beer, I can find no reason why I’m not proud to have him as my evil twin. Well done. Now get back to work on the strip for October 3rd.

• Speaking of round numbers, Lucas Teodoro da Silva’s 8 1/2 by Eleven hitting four years and 700 strips tomorrow.
• Not exactly webcomics, but friend of our medium Josh Fruhlinger (the Comics Curmudgeon) has shown what acting snarky will get you — an opportunity to record a snark-track with MST3K alumni. Nicely done, Josh!
• Everybody been following the comickry that Dark Horse puts up on MySpace every month? September’s installment will feature works by Chris Onstad and Liz Greenfield. Look for them to go live on Wednesday.
• Hey! Toys! One-offs that nobody else will ever own! From what I’ve seen at cons, that’s a major draw for the vinyl toy crowd, and it shouldn’t prove to be any different if the artist works in wood. Get in on the ground floor now.
• Heh. LibrArian swag. Awesome.