When last we left our intrepid heroes, they were wandering the resplendent paradise that was Penny Arcade Expo East 2010; we join their adventure now in progress…

• PAX East wasn’t all games and Enforcers — there were other creatives there, and they were clustered at two rows of tables outside the main theater space. This region was known as Bandland due to the fact most of them were musicians, but there were comicky types there as well; the previously mentioned Kris Straub, when not ambassading, plied his wares (including the too-awesome How The Jinxlets Saved The Space Zoo coloring book) alongside Blam-buddy Scott Kurtz.

  The latter had an Q&A panel on Saturday night that went an amazing three hours (helped along by a combination of in-the-palm-of-his-hand audience and sophisticated adult crunkifiers), and was hailed by all attendees as pants-wettingly funny (I, uh, was at the concert, so my pants stayed dry). The former joined the latter in a Sunday-morning panel devoted to Blamification that involved, in no particular order, time travel, frontier medicine, adultery, and stellar cartography; with any luck, the audio track recording will show up in May’s Blamimation. Hanging with them at most points of the weekend was the frighteningly young (and even more fighteningly talented) Mary “Cube Watermelon” Cagle, former Kurtz intern and current protégé. Rumor from an Enforcer was that a cosplayer was dressed as Cagle’s character Blitz, but alas confirmation remains elusive.

• Staked out next to Straub & Kurtz was Mr Bill Amend, 22 year vet of the newspaper comic strip wars, and guy out in front of the curve in understanding how web delivery works. Odds are, if newspapers died tomorrow, Amend would be able to translate his audience into a revenue-generation source more easily than just about any other syndicate creator (because, let’s face it, does anybody who actually seeks out Mary Worth have the drive and desire to seek her out on the wilds of the internet?) (besides Josh Fruhlinger). Amend managed to get in some commentary webcomickry during the Q&A portion of his Saturday morning session; speaking on the differences between print and web strips, Amend said:
  

  We have a whole lot more in common than any differences. I don’t quite understand when some of my print colleagues look down at webcomics. I also don’t understand when webcomics creators say print comics suck.

  Coincidentally, there was a nice, funny bit in Amend’s talk about getting the word “sucks” past newspaper editors. On the general topic of working in content that either syndicate or features-page editors might not approve of (and that includes heavily nerd-oriented references), Amend notes:

  One of the things I like about newspapers is I have a broad audience, and I can do these geeky things and be the one person that introduces [my readers] to it.

  Just in case you were wondering how an All Your Base or detailed Lord of the Rings quotation got into mainstream newspapers, it’s because nerddom has one of its own on the inside. As an aside, I’d love to include links to those very funny strips, but Amend’s webcomic-friendly tendencies haven’t yet prevailed on his syndicate sufficiently to get unlocked, searchable archives, dammit.

• Not exhibiting, but present for various parts of the weekend (and always delightful to interact with) were Brad Guigar, Jeff Rowland & Holly Post, Randall Munroe, and Rosemary Mosco.
• The remainder of Bandland was filled out with musicians who, while not webcomickers, mostly work from the same place — developing audiences via the internet, giving away a lot of content for free or nominal amounts, and relying on that personal relationship to sustain a livelihood. I have no idea to what extent Paul and/or Storm can draw, but who cares? Nun Fight hooked me the first time I heard it on The Sound of Young America, and now I am compelled to seek out out more of their work and give them money. It’s webcomics for my ears.
• In other news, Rebecca Clements has a new Secret Mystery Diary; don’t let her catch you reading it!
• In other other news, all the cool kids will be at Wondercon in San Francisco this weekend; tell them I said “hi”.

The world keeps turning, and with it changes cover the face of webcomics like unto a shattering storm across the face of the waters. Or something.

• It’s the End Times for Little Dee, and if you think that sounds overly apocalyptic, keep in mind that this storyline has already seen the most evilly benign character ever get married, and two other characters get same-sex (although cross-species) married. I wonder what the scoop on the remaining weeks of the strip might be:
  

  Here’s the scoop. I Should have book#4 off to the printer by the end of this week. The last strip of Dee will run on Tuesday, April 6th. I will begin taking PRE-SALES starting on April 5th or 6th, at which time I should have an estimate of when the book will be back from the printer.

  That’s it. I’ve been waiting until i had solid information before posting anything. Oh, and my mom already asked for the final strip, so if you wanted it, no luck there. I’ve been considering doing a final print of some sort, maybe as a fundraiser to help pay for the book, I will keep you posted.

  Warm up your browsers, and be ready when that one hits in two weeks.

• The First TopatoCoan Empire (that’s my new faction name in Civ IV) continues its growth apace, with the addition of Sister Claire. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s relentlessly cute and just the right amount of blasphemous, as one might expect from the tagline Pregnant nun, Holy Crap! Welcome to wacky times, Sister Claire creator Yamino! Also, you might want to check out the interview with KC Green at the TopatoCo main page — it’s a good ‘un.
• Speaking of interviews, Hurricane Erika has a fun audio interview with Stumptown Trade Review, hereabouts. And speaking of Stumptown, the non-union British equivalent, the UK Web & Mini Comix Thing, kicks off this weekend in London-Towne; if anybody goes, tell John Allison I said “hi”.
• Speaking of shows, as of this writing my wait for an acknowledgement (not even a room, just an acknowledgement) from the SDCC hotels is … 98 hours! Fearing the worst, I’ve been going through my spam filters, as perhaps it was misdirected (which never happened any previous year, but whatever), only to find the usual inducements for RREAL Rol*x w4tche$, and products to make [my] meat spear causing her moaning all nite. Unless Travel Providers are branching out into the world of black-market Canadian pharmacies, I don’t think I’ve missed their notice.

On any other day, the newly-revealed poster for Scott Pilgrim vs The World (“An epic of epic epicness”) would get pride of place up top, but this isn’t any other day. This is the day (well, okay, last night) that John Keogh, after many teasers, has dropped the last Lucid TV on us, and it’s a masterpiece. Last one to leave Jim Belushi Memorial Hospitul, turn out the lights. And may I note that the flashing logo on the side of JBMH will always remind me of one of Chuck Jones’s better sight gags.

• In other news, I’ve been meaning to mention this for a couple days now — Jim Zubkavich has been responsible for a lot of projects with his UDON Entertainment studiomates, and as of a week ago, that includes a new mini-series that is a) licensed from b) a fighting video game series that c) I’ve never played. I still enjoyed the hell out of it, because as Chris Sims rightly notes, You can never have too many ninjas.
• Last up, a philosophical diversion. Anonymous (as you will see in a moment) writes:
  

  Hello Gary,

  So recently I’ve been trying to get under control the large (for me) amount of hits one would get when they google my name, for a couple of reasons, mostly being the fact that they were created during an adolescent time of my life (my adolescence) and would like them to be kind of, well, removed. With the internet being like an infinite attic that everyone can shuffle through I would like my presence to be something more conscious, if you know what I mean. Could you please take a few seconds out of your day and just delete my last name ([redacted] from [redacted]) from the post copied below? I would be most grateful!

  [link redacted]

  Thank you!
  -[redacted]

  This is actually a bit of a dilemma for me — while it would be trivially easy to remove one word from one post, we at Fleen have had a long history of not retroactively de-publishing content. No matter how stupid, abusive, or misinformed the content (and that’s from us; the comment threads can get downright evil), it stays up because it’s a record of what actually took place. Corrections have been logged, of course (very minor things like typos and bad punctuation without notice; more weighty things like rewordings or retractions via strikethrough), but no comment or posting has ever been taken down.

  There is one caveat to that last statement, actually. At the height of the Todd Goldman Shitstorm of Aught-Seven, with lawsuit threats a-flying, one poster contacted me with a request that a comment be deleted because he’d submitted it from work, and was afraid if the lawyerin’ got out of hand, his employer might terminate him. I did so, and he resubmitted the same comment from his home computer, so the net effect was zero (aside from the chill in the air that expressing an opinion can be dealt with so harshly).

  Anonymous’s request reminds me a lolt of the story of “Peter”, who legally changed his identity to get away from Google searches; I take it as a given that the words and works that we craft should be things we are willing to stand behind, but must we be tagged with associations forever? I also take it as a given that everybody — every. body. — was an idiot as a teenage for instance (you really can’t help it, what with the hormones and the brain not being all the way cooked). Anybody with a smidge of self-awareness looks back on those years and slowly shakes their head with a muttered comment thanking [insert thankable entity] that they aren’t like that anymore. Heck, I find the process of growing, changing, and maturing (kicking and screaming all the way) means that any random interval of the past, from last week to third grade, is likely to leave me wondering how I could be such a dick back then and I hope I’m not like that now. So the line about an adolescent time of my life rings true for me.

  Ultimately, the full identity of Anonymous isn’t part of the story — not like a more prominent figure would be. And while the no-depublishing rule was something I set in stone for myself when Fleen started in 2005, if we are to grow, change, and mature, then we must be willing to revisit our ironclad beliefs as situations and circumstances warrant. Request granted, and we’ll take such considerations under advisement in the future.

For those that enjoyed the Jess Fink covers yesterday, we’ve got more eyecandy for you today (this time from Hurricane Erika), along with some process porn. Is it weird that I, who creates no visual art, cannot get enough of this image-building? Anyway, it all builds up to a tentacle-rich conclusion, and should be available in time for TCAF.

• Okay, not exactly webcomics, but I’ma go with it anyway. Andrew Farago, the oft-mentioned on this page curator of the Cartoon Arts Museum and champion of [web]comics in general, wants to raise some money for the museum and is willing to put his pride on the line to do so:
  

  In honor of the Cartoon Art Museum’s current exhibition, Batman: Yesterday and Tomorrow, CAM Curator Andrew Farago is turning back the clock to 1989. Or, to be more specific, he’s turning his head back to 1989. If the Cartoon Art Museum receives $5,000 in donations between now and the evening of April 2, Farago will shave the famed Bat-Symbol into his hair at the Museum’s annual WonderCon weekend fundraising party, just as many Bat-Fans did in the months leading up to the release of Warner Bros.’ 1989 Batman film.

  “My mother thought it was a bad idea 21 years ago, and I’m sure she’d still think it’s a bad idea today. I’ve had plenty of bad haircuts before, but this is the first one I’ll be getting for a good cause,” said Farago.

  Not mentioned in the press release is the reaction of Farago’s wife, who will likely find the prospect of a Bat-Head husband to be either irredeemably stupid or rad beyond all measuring; I’m betting on the latter, actually. Donations can be made through CAM’s website, Facebook pages, tinyurl, or by mail to the Cartoon Art Museum at 655 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94105 (please indicate “Bat-haircut” in the subject line, and don’t forget to deduct it from next year’s taxes).

• So we’re less than a month until the Jesus Pad completely changes comics (both print and web varieties) or doesn’t. In the meantime, I have to believe that those that might be most impacted are publishers currently trying to distribute for-pay material electronically, but not going through any of the mega storefronts to do so.

  Case in point: iPulpFiction.com, distributing some fairly big name authors, at really low price points, what appears to be be online-only material. At least, their new graphic novel, The Cobweb Dective Club is described specifically as “an online graphic novel”, and I can’t find any references to eventual dead-tree versions (while they’re advertising the iPad as a viewing platform, near as I can tell, they maintain their own payment system).

  General question for all of you early adopters — if you buy an iPad and oh look, no iPhone tethering to avoid having to purchase a second data plan — are you likely to then also pay to third parties, or will the ongoing costs drive you more toward free content? I’m trying to get a sense of what you’re willing to purchase.

• Quick reminder: Danielle Corsetto signing in Dallas tomorrow; details here.

Know what sucks? Getting caught up at work after being sick and letting things slack for a day or two, on top of feeling like I spread my sickness to half my co-workers. Actually, a few of them have probably spread past sicknesses to me, so I guess it all works out in the end. Let’s get caught up together.

• Remember K-9Lives, the short film née webcomic? Got some news on that front from creator Doug Wilson:
  

  K-9Lives: Episode2 has recently been released online to co-inside with the second book collection from the series entitled K-9Lives: Clue Clucks Clan. [Editorial aside: Ooog, not so sure about that title, Doug]

  This second animated episode of the adventures of a dog/cat conjoined odd couple follows the success of the first which played at festivals such as the Marbella International Film Festival where it was awarded runner up for best animation. Douglas will be attending Bristol Small Press Expo in May, and all items are available online through his website.

  [Wilson] is also writing and drawing a graphic novel, The Von Spleen Experiment.

• Mixed media, indeed: Franklin Einspruch travels the country, and does a webcomic about the experience in the form of the poetic, verging on infinite canvas paintings known as The Moon Fell On Me. Oftentimes they’re about the journey (example: the prettiest anybody’s ever made the New Jersey Turnpike at I-70), and oftentimes it’s about food and/or foodstuffs. That was good enough for Public Radio Kitchen (an online space for public radio fans with a food passion, via WBUR in Boston) to have a chat with him on the subject of food and art. Neat stuff.
• I’m assuming at this point, you all know about Anthony Clark, aka Nedroid, right? Colorist of Dr McNinja, creator of Beartato and Reginald, painter of robots and dinosaurs? He also does some awesome collaborations with Emmy Cicierega (usually on LiveJournal under the nom de plume of Laserpony Studios), and it’s Emmy I wanted to point you to. She’s doing awesome retro art of a lady named Doris, and you need to check them out. Doris: prim and proper, and aware of what the haps are. Somebody pay this woman many dollars to keep creating this stuff.

Have you seen this? I hope you’ve seen this, because it’s really a cool prospect: James Kochalka + video game studio = playable James Kochalka world:

I’ve teamed up with the great little indy video game studio Pixeljam to make my Glorkian Warrior videogame. I’ve been dreaming about making this game for years, and Pixeljam are really talented. The game is going to be awesome.

Dare I hope that if Glorkian Warrior is a success, we might get a playble Monster Attack by Eli Kochalka some day? I think I just blew my own mind.

Anyhoo, videogames don’t develop themselves, and everybody involved would like to, you know, eat during the development phase, so it’s fundraising time. Kochalka’s got a Kickstarter page set up and in nearly 1/3 of the way to the $10,000 goal that will allow development to go forward. There are goodies for backers up grabs that include original development skteches, original paintings, and more. I defy you to tell me that you can watch the video on that page and not want to kick in at least ten bucks — and if you can, perhaps the Glorkian Warrior will some day defeat the final boss that will allow you to once again feel joy.

• Do you read Girl Genius? ‘Cause there’s big things happening over there as we get to the first big fight of Volume Ten (co-creator Phil Foglo once told me that Girl Genius will run about twenty volumes, so this could well be the big mid-point battle that reveals the depth of the challenge in front of the heroes). The Unstoppable Airman Higgs has been kicking around the background for going on three years now, and he’s suddenly become a lot more interesting.

  Professors Foglio and Foglio have a habit of promoting bit players to important status, but this … this feels like a big reveal. The casual way a lowly airman talks to a Tarvek (a prince, head of a secret order that may conquer Europa, and a pretty powerful spark) is … intriguing. And that profile of him in the second panel of the latest page looks … familiar? There’s a little bit of Bill Heterodyne in that face, and there’s a missing heir to contend with. I think we just had a major game-changer dropped on us.

• Presumably in the mania leading up to their book tour, the lads at Penny Arcade have taken their game-creating skills to the next level. No longer content with Staredith [via Google cache], presumably because you need a Meredith, they have now invented The Game. Confound your friends and disturb complete strangers today!

You need to read that title out loud, in the voice of a newsreel announcer; click the picture for an example and then try to get that voice out of your head. When you’re done listening to the news of yesteryear, stick around YouTube for a moment and check out the video trailer for Raina Telgemeier’s SMILE, which is due for release so soon that I can barely stand it. Yes, I keep bringing this book up. No, I’m not going to apologize. It’s terrific and the world must know.

• As long as we’re playing with A/V capabilities, let’s take a listen to a podcast: The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe is a creature after my own heart — ruthlessly rational, determined to shine the light of reason on pseduo-science of all sorts, and not above a bit of snarkiness in the pursuit of those goals. Show #236 features Jon Rosenberg, who’s been known to address skeptical audiences from time to time … something about writing a webcomic that settled the answer of the existence of God definitively by having two characters eat him. It’s a pretty general-purpose interview, not so much about the webcomic, more about science, influences, and Rosenberg’s worldview. Jon, for his part, comes across as reasonably normal, which makes me wonder how much he drank from the bottle of Scotch Baio prior to the interview.
• Got a double dose of Scott Kurtz news for you — in about two weeks time, those of you in NoCal will have two opportunities to see him do the formal talk thing, at a pair of fairly prestigious venues. To start, he’ll be at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco on Thursday, 11 February from 7:00 to 9:00pm for a talk and signing. It’s free, but it’s a museum, and the suggested donation of $5.00 isn’t going to break you. Give ’em $10 if you can.

  Two days later, Kurtz will head up to Santa Rosa and the Schulz Museum; that would be the museum devoted to Charles ‘Sparky’ Schulz, the most wildly successful, influential, and vaguely depressing strip cartoonist the world has ever known. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess this is about the most exciting possible invitation for any working cartoonist.

  On Saturday, 13 February, Kurtz will be speaking and teaching. The fun kicks off at 10:00am with a 1.5 hour Master Class for Adults, then continues as Kurtz becomes the latest Cartoonist-in-Residence; he’ll be talking from 1:00pm with meet/greet and signing to follow. The Master Class requires registration and a fee, which can be arranged by calling (707) 284-1263. For the general presentation, ten bucks gets you in the door, five if you’re a kid.

• Oh yeah, then there’s this: the Android (Operating System) Android (mascot). Andy Bell first dropped hints to me about these guys way back at SDCC 2009, and I’ve been anxiously waiting to see how they would turn out. Answer: Awesome. As the owner of an Android phone, I want one.

I gots stuff to take care of, so let’s do this.

• Want a free copy of SMILE? There’s a giveaway in progress, which holds out the possibility of a free book in exchange for the story of your most embarrassing dental experience. You’ve got just over a month to get your entries in, so make ’em good.
• Little Dee is busting out all the old one-shot characters; I expect that this buildup to the end will encompass everyone who’s ever appeared in the strip. As long as we get more Rogues, I’ll be happy.
• Speaking of Little, Little Gamers now ha an iPhone app for you to download and enjoy; perhaps this will convince the authors of webcomics-scrapers that they should knock it the hell off.
• Myth Adventures occupied a fair amount of my mindspace from my early high school years, and the Phil Foglio-adapted comic version was one of my earliest regular purchases. Like Buck Godot before it, Myth Adventures will be running 3 pages a week at Foglio’s website (starting here), but with eight issues to get through, it’ll take a couple years to get through the whole thing, so it you enjoy it, might I point out that you can short-circuit the excruciating wait and just buy the whole damn thing in one go? Why yes, I might.
• Finally, I have a new goal in life: to find circumstances where I can legitimately use the phrase homeopathic blow job in casual conversation. Chris Onstad, he tasks me.

Everybody saw how the American Library Association announced the Caldecott, Newbery, and Printz awards yesterday, right? Today the Young Adult Library Services Association of the ALA announced their annual list of Great Graphic Novels for Teens. There’s the requisite Huh moments to be found, but on the Top Ten list, one may find two items from the realm of webcomickry: Tom Siddell‘s Gunnerkrigg Court Volume 1: Orientation, and Jeremy Love‘s Bayou. Toss in a mention on the main list of the Dave Roman/Raina Telgemeier-scripted X-Men: Misfits 1 and you’ve got a pretty respectable showing. Well done, all.

So. Dave Kellett. Ignore the weapons-grade punnery that pervaded his strip earlier in the week, he’s got something good to talk about; two things, in fact.

• Thing the First: Dave’s lovely and talented wife, Gloria Calderón Kellett is an actress, screenwriter, and playwright of no mean talent; on Monday, she’ll be reviving her show Skirts & Flirts in LA for One Night Only to benefit the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. Both Kelletts are in the show, along with a considerable number of their severely talented friends. Tickets are twenty bucks, and if you’re of legal age you get free vodka. I saw the show when it ran in New York, and it were damn funny. Go.
• Thing the Second: Dave can talk well. That seems like a minor thing, I mean most everybody manages that on their own, but what I mean is that he has one of those moderately rare brains that allows one to organize thoughts, put them into a compelling order, and make them sound interesting on the fly, which is a pretty neat trick. If you read this page, there’s a pretty good chance that you’ve heard Dave on a majority of the Halfpixel Webcomics Weekly podcasts (now on indefinite hiatus), but hearing him go one-on-one is a different beast altogether. Tom Racine of Tall Tales Radio did exactly that, sitting down with Kellett for a lengthy, rambling (but not random) podcast interview. It’s worth a good listen.

Just now noticed, and worth a read right now now now: Great, by Ryan Armand, who gave us the sublimely beautiful Minus. Starts here, hit “next” 58 times until you’re caught up.

It’s a day to be blessed with gifts, if you’re a webcomicker, or a webcomics fan, or just if you’re me. Let’s run ’em down.

• Over the weekend, news broke that Ben Costa’s Shi Long Pang is one of the latest recipients of the Xeric Foundation‘s grants; look for the wandering Shaolin monk to have his way into print significantly eased by the award. Hooray!
• Also over the weekend, Phil & Kaja Foglio must surely have been gratified (perhaps even a little mystified) to see that Girl Genius is up for consideration at The Washington Post‘s comics blog as Best Comic of the Decade. Considering that every other nominee appears to be a strip that runs on WaPo‘s comics pages, somebody must have gone further afield that is the usual case in these sort of polls.

  Oh, yes, it’s a poll, and it’s awaiting your vote — you know what to do. Make this not only a victory for a long-form, independently-produced, full-color, full-page comic, make it such an overwhelming victory that none may dare challenge the Foglios again. Oh, and start saving your pennies because Girl Genius volume 9 just wrapped, which means that a book collection is on the horizon (and volume 1 is getting set for reprint in March– in color this time!).

• You thought the Twelve Days of Hipsters was awesome? Check this out: Octopus Pie Christmas Special! Singing! Dancing! Cat barf! Yaaaaay!
• Received in the mail today: an invitation from :01 Books to join their review copy list, which means I’ll be able to bring you timely writeups of new work by webcomickers the likes of Gene Luen Yang and Tracy White. Big thanks to Gina, Colleen, and all the folks at :01!
• Also in the mail today, a gift from Rich Stevens, who found exactly what I didn’t even know what I needed and sent it along as a gift for the holiday of my preference. This one keeps on giving because I now have the URL for the artists that created this glass, meaning that I can purchase more of these to form a matched set. And guys — they have moustache pint glasses and champagne flutes. I now understand what leads people to “register a china pattern” to ensure they have matching designs on their formal dining table. I have found my signature design and will follow this imperative to the ends of the earth (or at least the glass cabinet of my bar).
• And finally, if you’ll forgive me for being slightly maudlin, thanks to all of the creators that entertain me so tirelessly, the readers who write in and tell me I’m doing something useful, and the friendships that webcomics have brought me — these are the real gifts that I’ve recieved and I treasure them above all. Except the moustache glass, that’s better than anything ever.