Thanks to a frustrating, blinkered, blind adherence to arbitrary rules on the part of various IT types¹ that make it impossible for me to do my job² , possibly of possibly my entire career, has struck me today. How bad? I actually spent a good ten minutes this morning calculating whether or not I’d be beaten by Security if I pitched my laptop out a third floor window and screamed YOU CAN BILL ME (laced with appropriate profanity, naturally) in front of horrified customers.

So, Monday.

But I’ll not leave you wanting. By coincidence, today’s classic episode of You Damn Kid (which will eventually permalink here, unless I miss my guess) neatly parallels my feelings today, substituting for the titular Kid’s Dad. I don’t want to be an old man, much less the Old Man, but there you go. I would also be remiss if I didn’t point out that Owen Dunne has a placeholder on the front page of YDK that promises

YDK TV
Starts Monday, June 12!

… which would be today. Nothing yet, but still quite a few hours left in the day.

And while we’re waiting to see what Dunne has cooked up, let’s also whet your appetite for a fresh field report from Fleen Senior French Correspondent Pierre Lebeaupin, who spent the weekend at Lyon BD:

I did get to meet authors and glean interesting info from them, to visit expos, to attend panels, etc. Oh, and I managed to ask Scott McCloud a few questions, too.

Oh, good — glad those two go to meet. Better mood, more news tomorrow.

Spam of the day:

Je demande pardon qu’est intervenu … Chez moi la situation semblable. On peut examiner.

Good to know that French spam has as little regard for sensical reading as English spam.

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¹ And I work in IT! Hey, IT guys making my life miserable — there’s a reason why we’re hated, and it has to do with you not even helping your colleagues. Jerks.

² While simultaneously putting me in violation of other rules for not doing my job.

One of the nicest features of The Nib is that the wide range of cartoonists they deal with regularly means no matter what’s happening in the world, somebody can drop a couple of pages on it, like 8-10 hours after the news hits. As far as editorial cartooning goes, it’s a huge amount of visuals — instead of one panel, there’s frequently a dozen or more. Case in point: Tom Humberstone’s report on yesterday’s UK election, which was not called (for him, at least) until the wee small hours.

And when there’s just a little more time to coordinate, editor Matt Bors and his staff can get multiple cartoonists to all comment on a timely issue. Case in point: Lucy Bellwood¹, Brittany Long-Olsen, Zack Giallongo, and Sukjong Hong offer four different responses to the question What happens if the ACA goes away?

Fittingly, three of the four are women; as Long-Olsen notes, women are charged more for healthcare than men. Also notable (and perhaps inevitable), all three women tell stories that relate to reproductive issues: pre-cancerous cervical cells; the direct costs of childbirth (complicated by c-section); the likelihood of children losing coverage. I don’t think it was intentional that Giallongo was left to ask What will happen to me? instead of What will happen to my [potential future] family?, but that’s the role he found himself in². No disrespect intended; diabetes is no joke.

Anyway, point is — four viewpoints, sixteen panels, one clear editorial voice in favor of acting in a timely manner to comment fairly and accurately on what’s happening. This is precisely what we need these days.

Spam of the day:

Kevin Harrington, financial expert, offers a way out of debt

Let me guess: pay Kevin Harrington money, going into debit if necessary?

________________
¹ Adventure cartoonist!!

² By sheer coincidence, the Senators currently crafting a tax cut disguised as healthcare legislation are all dudes asking But what about me? while gutting the reproductive care that falls more heavily on women. But I’ll bet you all the money in my pockets against all the money in your pockets that when the bill becomes available, it covers boner pills. Betcha.

Because there must be things going on that are more cheerful than the death of the American institutions of self-governance. Perhaps our neighbor to the north can help.

• Oh my goodness, has anybody told Kate Beaton about this yet?
  

  There may be volleyball and Val Kilmer in Top Gun sequel

  This is the best news. Nobody, and I mean nobody, appreciates beach volleyball like Kate.

• Speaking of Kate Beaton, word came yesterday that she and a bunch of other (all Canadian, at least for now) comics artists are getting a new line of beautiful new prints from Toronto’s Papergirl Press. The Pushpin launched with more than a dozen artists, existing art and new originals, nearly 50 different pieces in all. Prices range from US$15¹ (for 5 x 7² King Baby designs) up to US$150 for a poster-sized screen-printed artists proof of a Michael Cho Batman design³.

  The creators represented by Pushpin (from [web]comics you have your Ryans North, your Chips Zdarsky, Kagan McLeod, Jeff Lemire, Johnnie Christmas, and Valentine DeLandro; illustrators include Chloe Cushman, Christian Northeast, Dani Crosby, Julia Breckenreid, Sarah Lazarovic, and Jay Dart aka Granduncle Jiggs) have all been enthusiastic on the sosh-meeds about how thrilled they are with the new endeavour, so it’s fair to say that unless Pushpin becomes sudden so popular that they can’t keep up (or Canada Post decided to mutilate all the packages in shipping), your choice of Fine Art For Your Walls should bring you pleasure.

  Just please, despite the name, do not affix these to your wall with actual pushpins. They deserve better than that.

Spam of the day:

28?Hot Girls and Their?Pets

Uh-huh. Let’s not.

_______________
¹ With the option to purchase in Canadian dollars or Euros as well.

² Or 12.7 x 17.8, if you prefer centimeters to inches)

³ This is a rare piece not produced by Pushpin, and limited to existing stock. The in-house items are all giclée on heavy cotton-rag paper.

Two books arrive on that day¹, a mere three weeks away, from ladies that know their way around comics. Let’s take a look, yes?

• First of all, you didn’t really think that I was done with my love for Meredith Gran’s Octopus Pie after yesterday’s series-end tribute, did you? Because there’s a whole stack of comics that remain unprinted after last year’s four Image collections. Gran let us know that that’s about to be resolved:
  

  I’m thrilled to announce Octopus Pie Volume 5 will be out on June 28th! A giant, 336-page final collection. here’s a look at the cover [see above]

  Diamond ID APR170837, if you wanna order it at your local comic shop. I’m also hoping to tour it in the US a bit. news on that soon

  What Gran and Image have managed here is, frankly, amazing. She was still working on those last pages through May, and now less than a month after the final update went live, a full-color book is going to be printed, distributed, and in stores. Congratulations to Gran again for the series, and to Image for having the faith in her to rush this collection out while we’re all jonesing hard for it.

  Octopus Pie, vol 5 by Meredith Gran, with colors by Valerie Halla, will be priced at US$19.99. Pre-order it now at your local comic shop or bookstore or we are not friends any more.

• Secondly, I have mentioned my love of Hope Larson’s comics many, many times on this page; last year’s Compass South was her first author-only long work, and it is possibly more compelling than when she both writes and draws. Since my interview with her at SDCC last year (and, coincidentally, about a year of projects with her working with various artists), I’ve come to the realization that one of her great strengths as a writer is in understanding her artists.

  When she does a book by herself, the words and pictures marry beautifully; but no less than understanding her own artistic abilities, she understands what her collaborators can bring to the page and she both pushes them and gives them room to soar. A more dour tone would undercut the bright visuals of Goldie Vance; just a little more or a little less urgency in pacing (and/or snark in dialogue) would render the most beautifully-drawn Batgirl lifeless.

  And it’s clear that the nineteenth century dialogue — which reflects modern sensibilities for young women chafing at societal roles while still ringing true in the ear — undergirds a sensibility and attitude that evokes the world of Four Points to a degree that plays off Rebecca Mock’s art beautifully. The slight exaggerations of Mock’s characters combined with a loving accuracy of settings and objects evokes both time-appropriate caricature and photography. If printing technology 150 years ago had been slightly different (and more colorful), David Malki ! wouldn’t be dealing with engravings as his creative fodder; he’d be playing with Mock’s designs.

  Compass South ended on a minor conclusion; not a cliffhanger, it could have stood alone or set up a sequel (or even a series); Knife’s Edge is that sequel as Shakespearean story patterns play out against a time when the age of sail gives way to steam. There’s turmoil in the world, with great wars in Europe just subsiding and the greatest war yet seen about to break in America; the boundary between civilization and frontier is still fluid, and there’s room enough to escape from society and make yourself into someone new in a different corner of the world.

  And if you’re a pair of long-lost twins finally reunited after adventure and heartbreak with your father, with treasure and infamy both dancing just at the edge of your reach? This is the time and place to seize destiny by the throat and do all you can while you can. We get to share in Larson & Mock’s high adventure on 27 June, also US$19.99 (a bargain at twice the price). Pre-order, not friends, etc.

Spam of the day:

Premium Military Eye Wear Designed for the Outdoors

In my younger days when I had many college classmates doing the ROTC thing, it was widely accepted that military eye wear was heavy, ugly, 1950s-era stuff that acted as reasonably effective birth control on account of nobody wearing it would ever get laid. Pass.

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¹ Wwweeellllll not quite. Bookstores see new releases on Tuesdays, comic shops on Wednesdays; one of these two will release on the 28th, the other on the 27th. Close enough.

Wow.

Just … wow.

This last arc at Octopus Pie opened in the aftermath of Olly’s Organix burning down and Eve Ning at a crossroads. Her life was upended (not least from a health scare), and it turned into a series of old recurring characters from her life trotting out for one last appearance. But as heartfelt a wrap-up as Meredith Gran gave us, there was still one voice to go, and in yesterday’s final installment we heard at last from Olly.

Olly. He’s a jerk (although his wife seems to love him). He’s exploitative, hucksterish, almost completely devoid of charm. He’s barely kept his business afloat all these years, and wouldn’t have if not for Eve. And it falls to Olly (Olly!) to deliver the final lesson (once you stumble over his utter inability to find a stand-in for female strength beyond Wonder Woman [or] the star of a skin care commercial) and it’s a damn good one: There’s more.

More time to grow. More time to decide. More friends. More good times. The celebration at times felt more like a wake or a farewell party, but one that was for our benefit. Olly (Olly!) is here to remind us Eve’s not dying or moving away, she’s just shifting jobs and will see all these people (some more, some less) tomorrow and the day after; we just won’t get to see it.

And, because he’s Olly, he’ll make a gesture that is at once kind of magnanimous, kind of panic-inducing, and ultimately very, very small. There’s depths in Olly; he was never just the cartoon semivillain, any more than anybody else in the cast was just the [fill in the blank]. Olly (for glob’s sake, Olly!) reminded me of that.

Because what Meredith Gran accomplished over ten years and 1026 pages of pure magic was a master class in comics, their ability to tell any damn kind of story you want to, and especially to provide a playground for your characters. Eve Ning isn’t who she was back in strip one; neither is Hanna, or Marek, or Will. Jane and Marigold, Julie and Park, Larry and Puget Sean and America frickin’ Jones, all of them¹ — they didn’t exist in a timeless, changeless story setting. By fits and starts, on camera and off, they lived and breathed, cried and loved and hated and indifferented².

For ten years, they were the circle of friends just adjacent to your real-life one. For ten years, I’ve been picking a storyline to start from and clicking Next over and over again, reading for hours, because the arcs don’t clearly have an ending point … the first strip of one arc feels like it follows directly on the last of the previous because it does. Life’s like that; we put arbitrary markers on some days, but really it’s a continuous stream of experiences.

For ten years, Meredith Gran has invited us along for the ride as her characters — grumpy, ridiculous, infuriating, sympathetic, violent, baked to the gills, righteously indignant, and every other emotional state possible — have interacted. If you’ll allow me a slight digression, think about the classic cartoon shorts of the 1940s and 50s, and the difference between characters do funny things and and funny characters do things.

Classic Disney shorts involve characters with very little distinguishing personality put together, and then they do things. The things are (potentially) funny. Classic Warner Bros. shorts involve characters that are all personality thrown into a situation³, then reacting and interacting according to their essential natures. They do things, sure, but the things they do are secondary to the interactions, which is where the funny comes from. Damn near every webcomic is, at its heart, Disney in aesthetic. Octopus Pie is Warners all the way, with the added bonus of organic (Organix?) growth.

So thank you, Meredith Gran. I thought about pasting in 1026 thank yous here, one for each strip, but I think you’ll take my meaning just as well from one. Thank you for sharing your stories, thank you for never resting on your craft, thank you for somehow making every single damn strip better than the one before it. Thank you in advance for whatever you do next. Thank you to the bits of you that are Eve, Hanna, Marek, Jane, Marigold, Julie, Will, Larry, and all the others.

Olly, too. Can’t believe I’m gonna miss that guy.

Spam of the day:

Discover the Best Rates for Burial Insurance

I swear, whoever convinced AARP that I was 50 seventeen damn years ago is responsible for this crap in my inbox. This, and ads for hip replacements, in-home health aides, walk-in bathtubs, and golf-based retirement communities with staffs of smiling brown people. When I find the person(s) responsible, they will learn that causing irritation to older gentlemen is a risky endeavour.

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¹ Except Manuel. He’s exactly the same. But then again cats aren’t exactly noted for their potential for personal growth.

² Shut up, it is too a word. You can verb any word you want.

³ Normally with just one initiating event; everything spirals out of control from there.

Fleen Senior French Correspondent Pierre Lebeaupin alerted me on happenings in French webcomics at the start of last week, but also asked me to hold the story as it was known that more details were coming down the pike. The tail end of the story arrived at the end of the week, so let’s turn it over to him and get caught up on Continental goings-on.

• After 500 pages of an harrowing story inspired from her own experience, Laurel has recently concluded Comme Convenu (non-spoilery ending). Congratulations to Laurel for bringing this story to its conclusion!

  Now it is clear this is leaving a sizable hole in the daily trawl of many readers. And while we’re expecting to hear what she’ll be working on next, it turns out she’s been expecting, period.

  Everyone, please welcome Valerian, who [on 1 June] joined his big sisters Cerise and Hermione. And congratulations again to Laurel, as well as to Adrien Duermael.

• Thomas Pesquet has been regaling us with photos from the ISS for the last six months, but [2 June] he is set to land back on Earth. But fear not! For Marion “Professeur Moustache” Montaigne is busy narrating his odyssey in comic form in a new book to be published in November. Yes, Commander Hadfield, you too have given us fantastic photos from space, but have you had a 200-page comic made about you? I don’t think so!¹

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¹ Ok, ok, he’s told us his story in illustrated form. Good enough. Sorry Commander, please don’t hurt me.

Gary again, with two thoughts:

1. Commander Hadfield has never hurt anybody; he’s a friend to all. Nevertheless, I will be most intrigued to read Pr Moustache’s GN, for a litany of fairly obvious reasons.
2. A footnote! Oh, FSFCPL, you are making a hack webcomics pseudoeditor very happy.

Okay, third thought: welcome, Valerian. I hope that we can make the world less stupid and cruel by the time you notice what it’s like. Your mother and father will love you unconditionally, but give them the occasional full night of sleep, and they spoil you rotten.

Also, grow up safely and quickly so that you can see what looks to be a completely bonkers Luc Besson movie named after you². It’s either going to be completely kickass or incredibly stupid, but either way it’ll probably make The Fifth Element look like a model of understated restraint and I can’t wait.

Edit to add: Octopus Pie just ended. Too soon to get my thoughts wrapped around that fact. Tomorrow, promise.

Spam of the day:

Bionic Steel Hose

Is this some kind of robo-Real Doll thing? Because, ew.

_______________
² Seriously, have you seen the trailer? Bonkers.

Dunno about you, but for me this first weekend of June is gonna be all-EMS, all the time. It’s time to get smarter and practice the skills you hope you never need, which is a time-consuming process. If you have anything to announce between now and Monday, maybe drop me an email or I’ll probably miss it. What kind of anything? Oh, you know, new comics, appearances, that sort of thing.

• New comic! Maybe nobody has had a hand in more different webcomics — and certainly more updates, given that mezzacotta has an update in its archive for damn near every day from the Big Bang until today¹ — than David Morgan-Mar (PhD, LEGO®©™^etc), and since he wrapped up Planet of Hats a few months back, he’s obviously ready to start another².

  Thus, a note at the bottom of Irregular Webcomic t’other day about the next project:

  Eavesdropper is a new, original webcomic story.

  It is a collaboration between Darths & Droids authors Andrew Shellshear and David Morgan-Mar. Andrew is writing the story and David is drawing the artwork.

  The comic will launch on Wednesday 14 June, 2017, and update weekly every Wednesday.

  That’s all we know so far. And since Morgan-Mar himself is about to embark on a couple weeks overseas travel with limited email access, that’s all we’re going to know until just before Eavesdropper, uh, drops. Morgan-Mar’s art chops have come a long way since he decided to learn how to draw, and given his tendency towards paronomasia (look it up), there’s a better than even chance that the title refers to clumsiness around actual roofing features.

• Those in Ann Arbor, Michigan have a treat in store at the Downtown Library: an exhibit of Ben Hatke’s original artwork launched yesterday and runs through 31 August, in conjunction with his upcoming appearance at Ann Arbor Comics Art Fest (formerly the Kids Read Comics Festival). A²CAF³ runs Saturday and Sunday, 17 and 18 June, at the Downtown Library, and is free and open to the public.

  Hatke will be featured at a reception on Friday the 16th from 6:00pm to 8:00pm, and again at a Q&A on the 17th at 4:00pm. On the off chance that the firebreathing creator of Zita the Spacegirl, Nobody Likes A Goblin, Mighty Jack, Little Robot, Julia’s House For Lost Creatures (and much more) doesn’t catch your fancy, A²CAF will also feature appearances by Zach Giallongo, Kean Soo, Katie Shanahan, Lee Cherolis, Raina Telgemeier, and many more. Did I mention that it’s free? It’s free.

Spam of the day:

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The only question I’ll answer is what my favorite PornHub search term typo is: lebsiam, because it’s actually two typos in one. Which, come to think of it, is probably a porn genre for spelling nerds.

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¹ Okay, technically as far back as 1 January 9999999999999 BCE, which is about 73% of the way to the Big Bang. Close enough.

² He’s the embodiment of the notion that it’s not hard to come up with ideas, it’s hard to find the time to act on them.

³ That’s A-sqaured, not a footnote.

Thursdays, man. Thursdays.

But I would feel absolutely terrible if I didn’t at least point you to some very good news for Molly Ostertag; we’ve mentioned the recent Kickstart for the second volume of Strong Female Protagonist and also the release of Shattered Warrior, two projects on which she ably handles art duties.

But Ostertag doesn’t get to tell a story visually as well as she does — even when written by another — unless she’s a hell of a strong story composer herself. Getting to write as well as illustrate a full graphic novel was just a matter of time, with Scholastic doing the honors in publishing the upcoming The Witch Boy (on, appropriately enough, Halloween Day). I haven’t seen an advanced copy or anything, but I’m pretty damn confident that it’s going to be great.

I’m not alone. Seems the development team at Fox Animation has similar opinions:

Fox Animation has preemptively picked up the feature film rights to The Witch Boy, an upcoming graphic novel by Molly Knox Ostertag.

[The] Witch Boy centers on 13-year-old Aster, whose family raises all their girls to be witches and boys to be shapeshifters. Anyone who dares cross those lines is exiled. The boy hasn’t shifted, and he’s fascinated by witchery. When a mysterious danger threatens the other boys, Aster knows he can help … but as a witch. With the help of a non-conforming friend, Aster will have to find the courage to save his family while also be true to himself.

I’m not sure what I’m more delighted by — that the gender metaphor will resonate in a bunch of 8 to 12 year olds, that the rights were obtained this early, or that it’s Ostertag’s solo debut. I’ve said it about other creators and it applies here as well: as good as Ostertag is in her mid-20s, I can’t wait to see how damn good she’ll be in her mid-30s. There are going to be some gods-damned amazing comics dropping every friggin’ week by the time Scott McCloud’s target year for a female majority in comics — creators and readers — arrives¹.

We’ll include the obligatory disclaimer that rights/options/etc don’t mean that anything will happen quickly (or at all)², but you know what? Fox had to write Ostertag a check. Her name recognition just went up, meaning that her next publishing contract negotiation just tilted a bit more in her favor. She wins, we get to read The Witch Boy no matter what, and it’s a sunny day out. I’m declaring victory and going out to walk my dog.

Spam of the day:

Club Access LocalMILFsMHP Ad-Partner

On the one hand, Nnnnnope. On the other hand, I’m kind of curious what MHP stands for.

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¹ 2024, according to McCloud. I’m on record that he was wildly pessimistic in thinking it would take that long, and pessimism is not a characteristic I normally ascribe to him.

² Given the current state of book challenges and censorship attempts, I can see a story about witchcraft and a boy wanting to engage in Girl Things will rile up the fundamentalist outrage machine. Bring it.

We’ll get the sixth one out of the way first.

• I woke up today with one of my all time favorite Something*Positive strips at the forefront of my brain, and wanted to go read it again. Here it is — Lizard-Happy. Man, what a great little moment Randy Milholland wrote there. I’ve loved this strip since I first read it what, two or three years ago?

  Nope. More than seven. How the crap did this strip run more than seven years ago and it feels so much more recent? Pretty sure this is proof that time is accelerating, a situation for which the laws of physics make no allowance¹.

  The conclusion is clear: physics — mayhap the universe itself — is broken, and all is about to come crashing down. Time, space, mass, energy all coalescing into a monobloc and everything we’ve ever known or love erased not just from existence, but probably from ever having existed in the first place.

  Not sure how that happened, but it’s probably something one of Milholland’s very performative I used to be your fan until I found out [something completely irrelevant] type followers did, just to spite him². Either that, or I’m just older than I thought.³

• Five things, then. Katie Lane⁴ dropped one hell of a resource on the creative community via twitterage earlier today:
  

  New Post!! 5 Things to Know Before You Sign Your Publishing Contract

  Which turns out to be the first of five topic-specific emails from an online training course that Lane is offering on understanding publishing contracts. The First Thing is this:

  In any publishing deal, you’re in charge. That’s because a publishing contract is you giving the publisher permission to use your work. They need permission and you’re the only one they can get it from.

  Man, I love that; no matter how a publisher may try to spin things to where you act out of fear, the lesson is that it’s not a failure to say no; it’s an inalienable right, and your ultimate protection. Key thoughts from Lane:

  Every term in the contract is a request:

  • May we have the right to make merchandise?
  • May we publish your book for a royalty that’s 10% of the cover price?
  • May we have the right to publish the next book you write?

  Just because they ask doesn’t automatically mean you have to say yes. With every request for permission in the contract, ask yourself:

  • Do I want to give them this permission?
  • Do I trust the publisher to use these rights effectively?
  • If I give the publisher my permission, and I don’t like the results, what options does the contract give me?

  [emphasis original]

  Much more, as the kids say, at the link. The Next Thing will be Only give them the permission they need, and can use, but if you want to see that, Lane requires you to do something. I’m not saying that she’s following the smack dealer model of first taste’s free, but to get Things Two through Five, you’ve got to sign up for the course. And if she is, she’s a pretty bad smack dealer, because the entire course is free. If you’ve ever signed a contract, may sign a contract in the future, or are possibly signing a contract right this very minute⁵, jump on that link and get smart.

Spam of the day:

Check out hotkate97
Kate posted naked pictures and selfies of herself so you can decide if she has the type of body that you would be willing to make love to. Her selfies and pics will be available for you to view until tomorrow morning around 10:15. Kate is allowing you to see her naked pics until tomorrow: Again, Kate is not wearing clothes in any of these pictures that she wants you to view.

Whoever is sending out emails for hotkate97 is more than a little desperate.

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¹ Trust me on this, I just read all about what time is.

² They flock to him, like nobody’s business. I think he needs to hand out more beatings, as a warning to others.

³ Nah, definitely the broken universe.

⁴ Light-ning LAW-yer!

⁵ To whatever degree the concepts of past, future, and present mean anything now that Milholland pissed off that used-to-be-reader and got spacetime all broken, that is.

Things just seem to get weird on the day after a Monday off. Case in point: Penny Arcade had something going on earlier today, where if you (from my experimentation) didn’t set the URL to include both the secure https:// connection request and include the www. prefix, you got redirected to some educational company. I’ve been over their site and can’t figure out what the hell they do, but it sure isn’t comics about vidjagames.

Anyways, the P-A tech wizards seem to have done their thing; I notice that leaving off the https://www. now causes the missing URL elements to be added back in, and no more redirects. Fun!

I also had a nontechnical blow-up, in the sense that some unexpected things came together from different directions. On the one hand, The Other Gary Tyrrell informed me that we now apparently share an IMDB credit: him to being part of a particularly ridiculous sports event, me for being part of a particularly Malkidian short film¹ and apparently there’s an actual actor in there from a low-budget slasher short. So that put Malki ! on my radar today.

Then I saw today’s Wondermark and its technobabble materiel du jour, “Tyrellium”. Contrary to what you might be thinking, this is not a reference to either me or The Other Gary Tyrrell, because of Tyrrell’s First Law². It must be related to the Tyrell Corporation. Anyway, two Malki ! attention-grabs in as many days probably primed me to read Wondermark a bit more closely than typical, as I saw a terrific story about how he (that would be David Malki !) wound up contributing to a neat alternate reality game-type deal for Disney. It’s a nice discussion on how creativity can take many forms, and I recommend it to you.

Spam of the day:

Wear Glasses ? Your Eyes Are Headed For Serious TROUBLE

Oh no! Glasses secretly destroy your sight, according to this spam I got that talks about QUANTUM VISION.

I swear, scammers, please find a word that indicates your claims are utter bullshit besides quantum. It’s embarrassing.

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¹ Ten years ago? Sheesh.

² Two Rs in Tyrrell, dammit.