They’ve started putting up the programming schedules for San Diego Comic Con 2017, starting with Wednesday night and Thursday, the traditional two weeks in advance. We’ll be digging into things that are of possible interest¹ to those who read this page (which really means whatever caught my eye). Let’s dig in.

Special Program For Those Who Maybe Don’t Even Go To SDCC
Marian Call solo show
FRIDAY 7:00pm — ??, Summit Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Santee
An evening of music; tickets $10 to $20, or pay-as-you-wish at the door. It’s a ways out, you’ll probably want to split a cab. It’s not going to be a wide-ranging show like previous years, probably because she’s going to be part of W00tstock the night before; hey, Marian, tell John Hodgman I like his work and respect his moustache.

Thursday Programming
Real World Retellings
10:00am — 11:00am, Room 29AB
Nonfiction, from a panel including new father Box Brown, presumably talking about André, Tetris, and (not out until February) Andy Kaufman.

Creators, Libraries, And Literacy
10:00am — 11:00sm, Shiley Special Events Suite, San Diego Central Library
You won’t be on the floor for the start of the show, but you’ll be listening to Raina Telgemeier, Molly Ostertag, and others talk about about the importance of libraries. Cool.

Comic Book Law School 101: Help Me Understand
10:30am — 12:00pm, Room 11
The long-running legal education series returns; this session is on the basics of IP law. Attorneys attending get 1.5 credits of California continuing education.

Spotlight on Jeff Smith
11:00am — 12:00pm, Room 32AB
Because if you don’t love Jeff Smith, you don’t love comics.

Discover The Impact Of The Web On Mainstream Comics
1:00pm — 2:00pm, Room 28DE
Making the jump from webcomics to print, with Molly Ostertag, John Allison, and multiple namechecks of BOOM! in the description. No mention of who is moderating, but if it’s somebody from BOOM!, I will give a dollar to whoever asks them why, if they love comics and web creators so much and have the cash to spread around booze, they pay them so poorly and only after considerable effort.

Editing Comics
1:30pm — 2:30pm, Room 4
Editors are great, the panel includes people like Cassandra Pelham (she edits the like of Raina, and Mike Maihack) and Mark Siegel (runs a little shop called :01 Books is all), and it’s moderated by the invaluable Christopher Butcher.

Writing From Life: Turning Personal Experience Into Relatable Stories
3:00pm — 4:00pm, Room 29AB
Ooh! Gemma Correll and Tillie Walden!

The Mark, Sergio, Stan, And Tom Show
3:30pm — 4:30pm, Room 8
Same time, same room, same day as last year and every year prior. Because Sergio, Mark, Stan, and Tom friggin’ rule, that’s why.

Spotlight On Erica Henderson
5:00pm — 6:00pm, Room 32AB
John Allison talking to Erica Henderson? No brainer.

25 Years Of Bob The Angry Flower
5:30pm — 6:30pm, Room 4
Stephen Notley on a quarter-century of what was always a webcomic, even when there wasn’t a web.

Superhero Family Feud
6:00 — 7:00, Horton Grand Theater
Gameshow, with writers of various superhero fare eager to prove who knows the most about comics, characters, and capes. I can tell you from personal experience that Ryan North digs down deep to come up with the characters — some only seen for a page or less! — that he has encounter Squirrel Girl. Do not bet against him.

Spam of the day:

GPS devices: Monitor performance as well as location

My location is here in my office chair, and my performance is outstanding.

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¹ Handy hint: the Web tag is useless and has approximately zero to do with webcomics.

• Words+Pictures, right? That’s McCloud 101, and it’s on the web …

  Let me back up.

  Back at Comics Camp, one may recall, I had a talk about the history of webcomics, where I took a pretty expansive view of what constitutes a webcomic (despite, at this late date, the fact that it’s still a terrible word). The emphasis on collaboration, on individual vision, were as important as any other aspect. Homestar Runner is a webcomic, I declared, and I stand by it.

  So what to make of a still-being-released-in-big-chunks sort-of-story, sort-of-multimedia-experiment being run at (of all places) Vox Media’s sports site? What Football Will Look Like In The Future is the putative title of Jon Bois’s article¹, which very nearly immediately mutates into something else². Something going by the name of 17776.

  Something involving love, time, communications limited by the speed of light, the average windchill at the 1967 NFL Championship, tornadoes, Nebraska, and some satellites, one of which doesn’t fully exist yet. Be sure to watch the video at the bottom of the first page through carefully, and enjoy the list of future Presidents of the United States.

  It’ll take some time to read, and longer to get a handle on what’s happening, but take the half hour or so. It’s webcomics.

• Speaking of webcomics, Katie Lane³ will be hosting a webinar next Friday, 14 July, for webcomics creators (and others) on her favoritest thing in the world, contracts. Specifically, what you should watch for in the contracts you sign.

  The fun kicks off at 12:00 noon PDT, and it’s free, but does require registration; if you don’t find anything at that link, all the slots are taken and you miss out, so browse over sooner rather than later. And remember: Katie Lane is not your lawyer unless you pay her, but if you think you need a lawyer, she’s probably a damn good one to consider paying.

Spam of the day:

Get the Ball rolling with 90% off until tomorrow …

This email comes from “ilouboitin”, which I think comes from somebody overseas misreading the logo of famed over-expensive shoemaker Christian Louboutin.

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¹ A plausible enough situation, given that Bois has also written on the death/future of basketball.

² A note about that mutation — after your first visit, you don’t start from the pretense of an article about the death of football; you jump to a page that lists out the chapters of the story, presently standing at two. Like many things in life, you can only be sucked into this story once (unless you switch browsers).

³ Light-ning Law-yer!

Okay, it’s day after a holiday, but that’s not why I’m late. I’m late because I spent the day yesterday under the weather
and I’m just now getting caught up. But I couldn’t let these stories — some days old! — go by.

• Spike — we’re done with the initial C, we’re done with the Trotman, we all know who I’m talking about — has launched the latest Iron Circus Comics anthology of wonder over Kickstarter way. Tim’rous Beastie, a collection about little anthropomorphic critters having adventures — was announced in December, went through submissions in January, and per Spike’s Twitterfeed, has all of its contributor’s work finished and received by editor Amanda Lafrenais to do her magic.

  Nothing left to do but fund the printing bill on that sum’bitch, a process that started Monday night, and which is presently (as of this writing) 72% complete. Per the FFFmk2, look for a final funding of US$40-58K, or 2x to 2.5x goal, more or less.

  Uncharacteristically for Iron Circus, this is a lean campaign with only three pledge levels (PDF, PDF+book, early bird PDF+book with discounted shipping) and one stretch goal (a fancier cover at 125% of goal) along with the customary unlimited artist bonuses (US$10/page for every US$10K over goal). Evan Dahm, Ryan Estrada & Rachel Dukes, KC Green, Abby Howard & Eli Church¹, Sloane Leong & Lauren H, David McGuire, Jemma Salume, and Jessi Zabarsky, along with Lafreais and Spike.

• As long as we’re on Kickstarts, the Foglios are Kicking the newest Girl Genius collection, with the customary soft launch (they went live on 27 June, but didn’t start talking about it until the next day, and only notified past backers several days after), short run (18 days), and fast turnaround (rewards at due to go out in September).

  It appears to be somewhat simpler than the past campaign or two — the fancier rewards are things they’ve done before and have a decent idea of what production times will be — and hopefully the efforts of putting together thousands of sometimes complex fulfillment packages won’t drive them insane.

• 2017 is going to go down as the year of finishes; so far we’ve seen Dr McNinja and Octopus Pie conclude well-loved decade-long runs, and there’s at least one more on the horizon. Sometime this year, John Allison will be putting up the chairs of the ScaryGoVerse and turning off the lights:
  

  Hard Yards will be the last story set in the little Tackleford universe we’ve been visiting nearly every day since 1998. While I still love the characters, I feel like I’ve done almost all I can with them, and for the last two years I’ve been trying to find ways to create a satisfying end to things, or a possible way to continue that felt somehow the same, but new. In the end I’ve had to settle on ending things.

  I don’t know exactly when the last strip will be, just that it will be before the end of 2017, so I’ll let you know when we get into the final straight. In the meantime, as you were.

  We’ve come a long way since Rich, Shelley, and Tim first appeaared; it’ll be nineteen years that the every-widening gyre of characters centered on the ginger ninja have been engaged in their wordplay and skylarking. The good, the bad, the indifferent (frequently the same character, just at different times) have had their time and if we don’t get Britain’s weirdest little town, at least we’ll still have Giant Days (as of today, 28 issues and better each month)².

  I won’t weep; it’s better for Tackleford to end without diminishing. If Allison finds down the road that he has more stories to tell from that end of his imagination, the weirdness magnet that is Tackleford will still be there³. It’s harder still to be sad when one realizes what’s coming next: Desmond comics, from Desmond Comics [SFW, but contains Desmond].

  So if you happen to be in San Diego in a couple of weeks, do look Mr Allison (and Mr Fishman) up and thank him for all the weird times; me, I’m clearing a spot in the links list over there to the side for whatever comes next, because it’s going to be great.

Spam of the day:

Final Notice Regarding Your Payment Info

[next day]

Final Notice Regarding Your Payment Info

[next day]

Final Notice Regarding Your Payment Info

I’m starting to think that “Greg” doesn’t actually understand the world “final”.

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¹ I tried to find a website for Church, but the name may well be un-Googleable. Searching for eli church cartoonist brought up a lot of serviceable cartoons featuring Noah’s Ark.

² Although Giant Days would seemingly have its own expiration date: if I understand correctly, the British university system is built around a three-year course of study, and Esther, Daisy, Susan, and Ed have already seen their second Christmas together.

³ And Lor’, what I wouldn’t give to see Shauna and Lottie grown to adulthood some day.

Brandon Bird is many things — an artist who follow weird drives and cravings wherever they lead, the finest portrayer of late American culture’s one agreed-upon touchstone, and mad pelter of mini marshmallows¹. And, as was promised via the medium of a Kickstarter campaign completed last October, he has caused to be birthed into this sinful world, like unto a new savior, a Jerry Orbach Art Car:

I suspect that if Jerry Orbach were alive today to see the car, he’d probably treat it with the same sort of amused bafflement that he held for the coloring book. Amused bafflement is a pretty pleasant emotional cocktail, if you think about it.

That’s from the Jalopnik story from last Friday, where the news broke; you should go check it out for the photos and also a sweet quote from Bird about what Jerry Orbach meant to him and his artistic development. The JOAC is not complete save for some sweet rims (Jalopnik is taking suggestions), and there’s still no word if the horn plays the Law & Order doink-doink sound, but come on … one simply does not raise twenty grand, more or less, to build a Jerry Orbach Art Car and leave out the doink-doink sound.

It’s a holiday — THE holiday, even — here in the States tomorrow. I may or may not post. In the meantime, be well, try not to blow off anything vital with fireworks, and definitely see you on Wednesday.

Spam of the day:

Looking for a Checking Account with the Right Features for You?

Already got one. And since you’re the same people sending me other come-ons, I also do not need security cameras, senior apartment living communities, rehab options, my oil changed, or sexy Asian singles. Thanks.

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¹ You, uh, had to be there.

Readers may recall a ToS change at the once-relevant, now mostly moribund LiveJournal a couple months back that said any postings had to comply with Russia’s draconian internet content laws, the enforced part of which indicates that acknowledging the existence and humanity of LGBTQ folks is injurious to morals and children. Buncha folks nope’d out¹ and closed their accounts; I bothered myself to write my first LJ post in eight and a half years and gave ’em the finger².

As gestures go, it was slightly satisfying and probably accomplished nothing; two and a half months later, it’s still there. But what if you had the ability to not only post in protest, but to do so under the official stamp of approval of LiveJournal itself?

Enter Ryan Estrada:

I hope this isn’t the worst mistake I ever made. http://frankthecomic.livejournal.com/25276.html

Most of the post is text in an image, so allow me to transcribe:

What do you do if a site you once loved is used by the Russian government to silence critics and punish journalists …

… but they forgot to take away the permissions and login credentials that allow you to post comics to their site featuring their mascot?

If you want to find out, you may want to click the link above while the loophole and link still work. [emphasis original]

Let’s be clear, the loophole that Estrada is mentioning is not just the credentials, but the fact that his you get to make comics featuring Frank the Goat contract was never canceled, meaning he has the legal right to do what he’s done. It’s not vandalism; it’s official LJ content.

As of this writing, approximately two and a half hours after Estrada posted the link, the comic is still up. And just in case LJ or some censorious thug at the Kremlin decides to take it down, I added it to the Wayback Machine a little while ago, where it will live forever.

In the meantime, spread the link.

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¹ From Matt Inman’s comic The Terrible And Wonderful Reasons Why I Run Long Distances, which has spawned an entire series of organized runs.

² And in case LJ ever makes good on killing my account for my transgression, here it is at the Wayback Machine.

What’s that? Oh, just a story in Entertainment Weekly about Ngozi Ukazu signing representation with George Rohac, as :01 Books announces that Check, Please! will be published as a two-volume series. You know, just another Friday in Webcomicstan.

Key bits:

The first volume, which hits stores Fall 2018, will collect the first two “Years” of the comic, while the second will collect the latter two, and is set to be published in Fall 2019. Both books will feature extra content not included in the Kickstarter editions.

It’s not clear at the present time if Ukazu will run Kickstarter editions of Year Three and Year Four, or if by that time the first :01 volume will be so close that it’s not worth doing. Speaking as a reader for whom obsessive completionism is a lifestyle, I can see a demand for separate Y3 & Y4 editions that match on the bookshelf of existing readers, along with new readers jumping on the combo versions.

In any event, it’s kind of hard to imagine a combo platter of unstoppable awesomeness more inevitable than Ukazu + George + :01, and I am really interested to see what other self-published works :01 will snag up for new editions in the future. Unless I’m misremembering, this is the first case of non-French material that’s been obtained for republication rather than being commissioned as a new work. Very interesting.

Okay, enjoy the long weekend, Canadians (1 July) and Usians (4 July). Catch you next week.

Spam of the day:

CANNABIS GUMMIES Without a Prescription in All 50 States

Man, I can barely manage a handful of regular gummies without my teeth starting to ache. I ain’t going near gummies that will get me hepped up like I’m on goofballs.

It’s not that there’s nothing going on in the Wide, Wide World o’ Webcomics¹, but we are in a momentary summertime lull before SDCC² and the rest of the major con busy season. I mean, I could point you towards the updated tour dates for Meredith Gran³ and Mike Holmes — in fact, I think I will — but there’s only so much of your time I can occupy there. Or you could take five minutes to watch the second episode of animation from The Nib, that works.

Done? Okay, let’s make fun of spammers and see what crops up between now and tomorrow.

Spams of the day:

Bonus! $350 after your first 150 rides driving with Lyft!

Figuring that any ride will take the drive a minimum of 15 minutes (from notification until drop-off), US$350 for 37.5 hours labor, or less than US$10/hour. Minus gas, insurance, and the rest? I think you actually come out negative on this deal.

Some DNA testing can be done from home

I did one of those home DNA spit tests once, on account of being adopted, I was sick of telling my doctor I didn’t know if there was a family history of various diseases. Still don’t know, but I am reliably informed that there’s a 68% change that I’m obese based on my genes. I am a super-skinny dude. I’m starting to regret not doing what I seriously thought of doing at the time, which was to let my dog drool into the collection tube just to watch the lab freak out.

[New SMS] You Received a Glance from Gelya (from Kazan, Russia)

I have received roughly thirty-seven variations of this spam with different combos of name and Russian city. Apparently, Russian mail-order brides really dig me.

Confirm Your Account with us

This one’s great — a big graphic that says ACTIVATE YOUR ACCOUNT in block letters, not even bothering to make up a lie about which account or with what company. Balls nasty.

Garytyrrell 2 messages marked as unread disobeys

Oh, no, the Facebook account I don’t have is threatening me for leaving messages unread.

Vital to Your Wellness: Good Dental Health

Not to brag, but I just went to the dentist on Saturday and she told me my hygiene was excellent. I like my dentist, she is quick and painless.

Juicy Couture Tracksuits

Nnnnooope.

Knives that are too large are very impractical and tremendously difficult to control. Ecclesiastes 12:17 (The Message) Old King Solomon said it all

King Solomon used swords; I don’t think he was overly concerned with a knife being too large.

I’ll immediately snatch your rss as I can’t in finding your email subscription hyperlink or e-newsletter service. Do you’ve any? Please allow me recognise so that I could subscribe. Thanks.

I think I just got sexually harassed.

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¹ There’s not a good visual for the agony of defeat in webcomics, so please accept the original instead.

² Programming details coming soon!

³ Octopus Pie volume 5 (final!) out now!

Know what else is awesome? One of the greatest, most enabling guys in [web]comics, Christopher Butcher, is getting a new job. He’s been great at managing one of the best comics shops in North America, and he founded one of the great comics shows in the world. Now he gets to hunt out new talent in North America and Japan, and Publishers Weekly has the story:

Chris Butcher, longtime manager of The Beguiling comics bookstore and founder and artistic director of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, is leaving The Beguiling and has been named a consulting editor-at-large for Viz Media.

In this new consulting role for Viz Media, Butcher will scout acquisitions and new talent and new publishing projects, while splitting his time between North America and Japan. In addition Butcher will also scout for original non-Japanese comics projects.

It couldn’t happen to a nicer, more qualified guy. Congratulations to Butcher, and to Viz for recognizing skill when they see it.

In other news:

• New animation from The Nib.
• Matt Furie is reclaiming Pepe from fucking Nazis.
• Tickets are now available for Marian Call’s SDCC-adjacent concert.

There’s, uh, not a lot extra to say about any of those. Enjoy ’em.

Spam of the day:

Search free coupons for toilet paper discounts

How much toilet paper do you think I use?

Iverly! Oh, my yes, Iverly is back today and perhaps more before too long! Jeffrey Rowland has been keeping creators in rent money but DANG if I haven’t missed his take on comics. Read it from the beginning.

Onwards …

We mentioned XOXO co-founder Andy McMillan during the Comics Camp Roundup Extravaganza last month, and in that time he’s been busy. The Liberty Foundation has been communicating with the world via the occasional tweet, and the website is now up and running. The first big reveal on what they plan to do will be at an official launch party, tonight, in Portland, from 6:0pm, at Outlet PDX.

McMillan’s plans and intentions will be made clear this evening, but we can share the general outline:

The Foundation will begin by offering a number of fellowship awards. Under the guidance of our advisory board, we will be prioritizing awarding our fellowships to a diverse and representative group of artists working in contemporary fields such as film, music, podcasts and audio storytelling, writing, comics, tabletop and board games, and video games.

Our fellows will each receive a $60,000 cost of living grant and support for health insurance costs for one year. These grants will not be project-based, but rather aimed at giving creators a chance to step back and make decisions based on curiosity and long-term growth rather than dire and immediate need.

The second aspect of the Foundation supports this goal by providing an extensive coaching and support program to help artists maintain momentum, focus on their work, and grow it into a sustainable business. This will involve workshops and tutorials focused on business development, marketing, financial planning, and legal support.

The processes of application and selection are to be announced, but I can tell you this — I discussed things with McMillan during and after Comics Camp, and I have made a pledge of financial support to The Liberty Foundation; as such, I will be covering it lightly in future, to avoid any potential conflict of interest¹. If creating a mechanism to aid artists past the building phase of their careers to where they can self-sustain and grow is something you’re interested in, drop him a line. The more people on board with this, the more people contributing and participating, the better.

Spam of the day:

This coupon is waiting for a trip to sears.com!

Amazingly, this appears to actually come from Sears and not, say, Brandon Bird.

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¹ And any coverage that I do provide, I will add a disclaimer.

Not that less big is an indicator of inferior quality in any way! It’s just that two of the books we’re talking about are gargantuan; they are bookzillaesque.

• The less big book in question is the print collection of Mary Cagle’s Let’s Speak English, a diary account of her 2.5 years teaching English to elementary students in Japan. Loved the comic while it was running (roughly October 2013 to summer 2016), backed the Kickstarter earlier this year, and received my copy over the weekend, ahead of the promised July delivery date.

  It’s a fun book for a one-sitting read-through, watching Mary-sensei adapt and learn alongside her students (most strips seem to show her interacting with second graders, who are fearless about asking her anything). It doesn’t appear to be in her store yet, but will presumably be added after fulfillment is wrapped up; in the meantime, maybe check out her Patreon?

• The first big book is Evan Dahm’s illustrated edition of Moby-Dick, and like the eponymous white whale, this thing is a monster. As you can see from the photo up top, it’s too big to even fit in the picture. Seriously, though, it’s a serious book.

  To give you a sense of scale, I have a slipcased two-volume annotated edition of the complete Sherlock Holmes stories, and a slipcased one-volume edition of the complete Lord of the Rings; Dahm’s Moby-Dick is larger and heavier than either¹. That copy that Fone Bone carries around that’s the size of his entire torso? It’s this book. The binding is thick and substantial, the pages are heavy stock, the slipcase is the thickest I have ever encountered, and the edges of the pages are dyed black.

  The entire effect is BLACK and WHITE in stark contrast, with the page composition matching. Heavy, beautiful BLACK letterforms² against stark WHITE pages. Each illustration is BLACK ink on a WHITE background, or in the cases of the titular whale, so much BLACK on a WHITE background as to appear to be WHITE ink on a BLACK background. In each case, fine crosshatching gives an effect somewhere midway between engraving and woodcut, underscoring the time of the book and its mood perfectly: brutal and aggressive, full of contrast and anger, like Ahab and the White Whale themselves.

  Some illustrations are manic, some contemplative, some presage disaster, all are insanely detailed. Individual characters, both named (mates Starbuck, Stubb, and Flask; harpooners Queequeg, Tashtego, Daggoo, and Fedallah) and unnamed (many, many crew) are recognizable and distinct. I’m certain that certain background characters are, in Dahm’s mind, the same individual that is followed from post to post, job to job, about the Pequod.

  I’ve never read Moby-Dick, and travel for work necessitated I not dive into it just yet; I did spend a couple hours on Saturday afternoon when it arrived paging through to the illustrations, and reading the surrounding pages for context. This will be a book to luxuriate in, to spend weeks reading; the US$45 it cost in the Kickstart is a bargain, and if you are a fan of either literature or design, you should be grabbing this at the first opportunity when it goes into Dahm’s TopatoCo store.

• The second big book is related to TopatoCo as well; I was perusing the listings of what comes to the comics shops this week, and I was surprised to see a 25 year one-volume collection of Tom Tomorrow’s This Modern World comics. One may recall that TopatoCo subsidiary Make That Thing did such a volume via Kickstart in 2015, which looked like this.

  However, the promoted book is via IDW Comics, not TopatoCo. I inquired with TopatoCo and learned that Mr Tomorrow did a deal with IDW in the course of the campaign, and that TopatoCo’s position on the matter is Godspeed, ye who have to lift 50 pound book sets. Those of you wishing to save on gym memberships, apply at IDW, Diamond distributing, or perhaps your local comics shop.

Spam of the day:

If Your Dog’s Breath Smells Bad – Do This

Brush them? I mean, I’m just spitballing here.

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¹ Also, it contains 100% less Tom Bombadil.

² Dahm devotes notes to his choice of typefaces, and the intent to honor the original.