Lots of things going on today, so let’s just jump into it.

• Kelly Tindall has been around the webcomics game for a while, what with Strangebeard for three-four years now, and the diary comic Adventurers (which follows the everyday excitement that life offers when you’re a kid; it starts with his daughter aged one year). The former got its first print collection a while back, and a campaign is running to do the same for the second now. It’s down to the home stretch and right on the bubble of succeeding or not — which is something that happens to [web]comics projects every day, so why am I paying attention this time?

  Short answer: Tindall’s got some really cool friends who are supporting him. The foreword to the Adventurers collection will be written by Darkwing Duck creator Tad Stones, and every order will include mini prints by animator Elliot Cowan and comics legend Tim Sale. If creators that skilled like Tindall’s work, you ought to give it a serious look.

• Speaking of Canadian gentlemen in the webcomics game, Karl Kerschl has recently found time in his schedule to get back to The Abominable Charles Christopher and that means the story of our favorite big-hearted sasquatch (and all the side critters in the forest) is coming to an end. From Kerschl’s twitterfeed:
  

  50% off ALL Abominable Charles Christopher books! Gotta make room for the next volume! https://werehouse.ca/collections/brands/karl-kerschl …

  Catch that? Next volume. I am clearing space on my bookshelf in anticipation already, but it’s a hard decision as to what needs to go in order to fit in Charles Christopher’s third hardcover. It might have to be the comprehensive reprints of The Spirit.

• Still with the Canadian dudes, Ryan North is less than a week from the release of his second chooseable-path collaboration with some hack named Shakespeare, Romeo and/or Juliet. He’s been running art excerpts over at his Tumblr (a tiny fraction of the illustrated endings and waypoints from some amazing artists), and on release day, he’s having a party in Toronto:
  

  REMINDER: I’m throwing a BOOK PARTY next week, with COOL ARTISTS, and you should come!! https://www.facebook.com/events/1602452860067750/ ..

  That would be on Tuesday, 5:00pm to 8:00pm at The Beguiling, with a half-dozen of the contributing artists. I’m still collecting signatures from the artists in To Be Or Not To Be: That Is The Adventure, so getting a head start on that would be great if I could be in Toronto which I can’t.

• In case you don’t love Rich Stevens enough, consider the following:
  

  I don’t actually remember when I started my comic, so I just celebrate Quitting Day

  Dude knows what’s important — the day you stop working for The Man¹. That day, bee-tee-dubs, would be today:

  ??? I just celebrated 14 years since quitting my job to do comics. Today is a good day to join my store email list! https://confirmsubscription.com/h/i/0FB98FB2EAA783F3 …

  [Those three emoji at the start of the quoted tweet, which may not render for you, are captioned as Shortcake, Pile of poo, and Love letter, respectively. Dude also knows his brand.] Happy Quittiversary, Rich.

• And finally, readers of this page know that I recommend what I like, and I don’t expect you to plunk down cash on something that I don’t feel is worth it; I won’t ask you to lay out money or effort on something that I wouldn’t. But today, I’m going to ask you for a small amount of effort that I can’t do myself.

  FedEx is giving out a series of grants to small businesses, chosen by popular vote, with winners getting up to US$25,000. Voting is open to anybody with a Facebook account, which never fails to annoy me when it’s used as a universal identifier because not all of us have Facebook accounts, dammit. And by us I mean me and I know that makes me a weirdo.

  But I’m sharing this with you anyway because I learned about this grant contest via Rosemary Valero-O’Connell (who I may have mentioned once or twice in the past couple of months), as she’s part of a comic artists collective that’s part of the contest.

  You can vote for Out Of Step Arts by clicking here, once per day, until 13 June. As of this writing, they have fewer than 80 votes, and that is not going to cut it. If you’ve got a Facebook account, give a click, spread the word, and repeat for the next eleven days. Do it for the children.

Spam of the day:

Re: Your Current Debt

Is measurable only by scientific instruments that can see very, very small things. If you were really a financial-services firm you’d know that, wouldn’t you, “Bridget from cardholder services”?

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¹ Not that all iterations of The Man are as Manny as others. Case in point: Spike Trotman is no longer the sole employee of Iron Circus Comics.

Like one of those flowers that’s all pretty and colorful dripping in nectar and then WHAM it’s snacking on insects.

The flower, in this case, is a series of monthly Drink (nectar) and Draw (pretty, colorful) events, to be hosted by TopatoCo in the run-up to TopatoCon II (the TopatoConenning). I’m actually not sure who the insect is in all of this, other than the possibility of the hangover one is likely to have after a night of drinking with cartoonists¹.

The fun (and oh my, it will be fun) will go down on 8 June, 6 July, 10 August, 7 September, and 12 October, which is to say either the first or second Wednesday of each month, with different guest creators each time. The first one being just a week away, I feel I should share that it will feature KC Green², starting at 7:00pm and running until 10:00pm. As will surprise absolutely no one, it’ll be held at Eastworks in Easthampton, and will feature a cash bar, prizes, games, and fun.

Guests for subsequent Drinks and Draws have not yet been announced, but I did notice interest from various cartoon-type people in the original announcement, and mentions of desiring to attend future dates. It would be premature to try to hold anybody to a specific date. Keep an eye on the TopatoCon twitterfeed for definite announcements over the next several months

Oh, yeah, and this guy will be there next week, and likely in the following months. What more could you want?

Spam of the day:

New Golf Club – Never Hit a Bad Shot Again!

Seeing as how I never intend to play golf, I guess I don’t need a special club to avoid bad shots.

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¹ Honestly, I’d rather go round-for-round with Tokyo salarymen.

² Who remains the most fearless cartoonist I’ve ever seen work — bare paper, brush, no pencils, no prep, just straight from his outer synapses to permanent record.

Things are starting, things are discontinuing, things are changing. It’s almost like time exists so we don’t have to experience all possible quantum superposition states simultaneously, causing fractured perceptions of reality and widespread insanity! So, in roughly chronological order of when they occurred:

• Advanced notice: The Nonadventures of Wonderella by Justin Pierce is a gem; I don’t talk about it much on account of it updates on the weekends, but it’s never not worth reading, and frequently is the most biting (not to mention hilarious) cape comic currently in production. And come August, there’s gonna be some changes:
  

  August 27, 2016 will officially be the end of the weekly one-page schedule. From then on, I’ll update when I have a completed story to post. Based on feedback, people seem to enjoy longer comics as much as, if not more than, the shorties. But that raises a few questions, and while a lot of this is in the ether for me, I think I can answer:

  Much like Octopus Pie, I suspect that we, the Wonderella-loving public, will get net more comics than before. My advice is to stay in the habit of checking the site on Saturdays (since that’s still when new comics will drop), follow Wonderella on Twitter, or take advantage of the fact that — popular announcements in the technical press aside — Justin Pierce understands that RSS is hella useful.

• Congratulations in order:It was closing in on midnight Saturday night, east coast time, when the news came from Nashville (courtesy of the incomparable Terry Moore in my case, who was kind enough to live-tweet results) of the NCS awards ceremony. The newest laureates for Online Comics are Los Angeles resident Dave Kellett (Short Form, for Sheldon) and Drew Weing (Long Form, for The Creepy Casefiles of Margo Maloo). I was pulling for Meredith Gran for Long Form but honestly — when your competition is named Weing, Kellett, Holbrook, and Boulet, you can’t say you’re in bad company. Congratulations to Kellett and Weing.
• Pretty!: It’s been a while — three years, to be precise — since the creators at Benign Kingdom released one of their famous art book collections. Too long, I say! But the attention required to coordinate so many creators (at its forming, B9K had six principals: Yuko Ota, Ananth Hirsh, KC Green, Evan Dahm, Becky Dreistadt, and Frank Gibson; they’ve since pruned themselves down to a more manageable three as Ota, Hirsh, and Green have moved on), combined with the time taken up by so many other projects (the six named above must have released between them a dozen and a half print projects, literally thousands of pages worth), means that some things get back-burnered.

  Time for the front burner, then. The Kingdom is back, with a brand-new series of four art books (or one hardcover collection), this time from Dahm, Dreistadt, Dustin Harbin, and Meredith Gran (who’s just all over today’s post). I actually saw a number of pieces that Gran’s done for her book at the Octopie launch party last week, but as the B9 book hadn’t been announced yet it wasn’t yet the time to discuss.

  In any event, it’s the usual handsome, high-quality art on offer, with a campaign that’s off to a bit of a slow start, most likely due to having launched on a holiday. It’s also worth noting that this iteration of the books is being printed in the US, so delivery will be at the end of the summer; that’s a tremendously fast turnaround, leading me to conclude that the books and layout are complete, awaiting only that sweet, sweet Kickstarter check to tell the presses to make with the printing.

• Holy heck: It’s been twelve years since a spider tried to kill Jeff Rowland and failed? Time friggin’ flies. I still recall seeing Rowland’s necrosis get done up all cheerful-like [warning: gross] by Vera Brosgol at SPX some months later, and now I’m wondering where the hell the intervening time has gone. Glad the spider failed, Jeff!
• Pretty! redux: Not the least because in the intervening years, you’ve turned TopatoCo into a vital resource for dozens of independent creators, including (as of today) new TopatoCo Pal™ Ursula Vernon’s art prints. Some day, I sweart I’m going to get the full set of animal saints, weather them to look old, put ’em in fancy distressed frames, and sneak them onto the walls of the local cathedral.
• All good things: Christopher Baldwin has been doing webcomics for about forever, in every imaginable genre, but for a lot of us he’ll always be best known for Little Dee. Following a comprehensive re-run of Little Dee (with commentary), Baldwin ran twice-weekly new, classic Dee strips starting last November. Since then, he’s finished one sci-fi epic (Yontengu), started another (Anna Galactic, his fourth following Spacetrawler, One Way, and Yontengu), released a Little Dee OGN, and started planning for what comes next. And that’s enough work that something’s got to give:
  

  So, today is going to be the last day of daily “Little Dee” strips for now. [I]t has become harder and harder (and less fun) to focus and come up with “Little Dee” strips, and I wish to put it aside before I start putting up sub-standard work.

  If you wish me to send you an email if there is more Little Dee material to come, email me here, and I’ll add you to an email list….

  The past six months of extra Little Dee has been a gift, and thank you for it, Christopher. We’ll be waiting when you decide to revisit the forest and that deeply goofball family.

• And not the fancy Himalayan kind, either: Today marks eight years of chalkboards (oh glob he looks so young) and children¹ from your favorite semi-pseudonymous chemical engineer, Dante Shepherd/Lucas Landherr². Happy Strippiversary, Dr Shepherd/Landherr, good luck on the currently-running Kickstart, and here’s to more chalk-encrusted comics from what is almost certainly not a rough-hewn murder basement.

Spam of the day:

thingCHARGER — Use THIS To Charge Your Devices Without Cables or Outlets

I do have things to charge, but no cables or outlets? This is gonna turn into a a thing that tries to spin some of Tesla’s more theoretical devices into a grand conspiracy by the electric companies and smart phone makers, isn’t it? Maybe next time pitch your through the aether magic charger at a guy that didn’t get a degree in electrical engineering?

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¹ Apologies to Andy Partridge.

² He’s like Two-Face, only without the murderous tendencies and numerical obsession!

I mean, for those of you in the US; others don’t celebrate Memorial Day on Monday and so this will serve as a reminder that there likely won’t a post on Monday, what with parades and cookouts and such.

• Those others include Our Friends To The North, Canadians, such as the immensely skilled Tony Cliff¹, who got to share some good news yesterday:
  

  We’re delighted that Disney has bought the film rights for @TangoCharlie’s amazing DELILAH DIRK graphic novels: http://deadline.com/2016/05/delilah-dirk-and-the-turkish-leuitenant-graphic-novel-disney-movie-1201763479/ … !

  Here’s hoping that Disney don’t ignore the most important fact about Ms Dirk: she is no princess, or if one must treat her as such, she is of the self-rescuing type. Please, please, please don’t make the semi-enthusiastic (but mostly unflappable) Mr Selim the hero of the piece. It’s Delilah’s show, and while he’s no mere sidekick, he is definitely the junior partner in adventure. Thankfully, it’s planned to be live action, so there need not be an I Wish song up front for Delilah to lay out all her hopes and dreams.

  Congratulations to Tony Cliff and also to the movie-going girls of the world, who will hopefully soon have one more swashbuckling hero of their own to look up to (with the obligatory note that option does not necessarily mean gets made any time soon. We’re still waiting for BONE, for goodness sake, not to mention Amulet, Agnes Quill, Odd Jobs, Last Blood, The New Kid, and You Damn Kid. The options on Nimona and Castle Hangnail are too recent for anything to have happened yet).

• Speaking of Memorial Day weekend, the National Cartoonists Society are having their annual meet-up/party, and around 30 hours from now we’ll know who this year’s honorees for webcomics will be. To refresh you, the nominees for Online Comic — Long Form are The Creepy Casefiles of Margo Maloo (Drew Weing), Drive (Los Angeles resident Dave Kellett), and Octopus Pie (Meredith Gran, her second nomination in the five cycles the awards have been offered). The nominees for Online Comic — Short Form are Bouletcorp (Boulet), Kevin and Kell (Bill Holbrook), and Sheldon (LArDK, again).

  If I have my records right, only Meredith Gran and Vince Dorse have been nominated twice in the NCS Online — Long Form category, and Dorse has previously won² (and also isn’t nominated this year). The lesson seems clear: get two nominations in Long Form, and you win, so I’m going to preemptively congratulate Gran, while wishing all the nominees the best of luck.

• Speaking of Dorse, his two nominations were for Untold Tales of Bigfoot, which has wrapped up its run as a webcomic and is seeking a new existence in print. You know where this is going — the Kickstarter’s been up for a couple of days, and while only about 100 people have gotten in while the gettin’s good, Dorse’s extremely modest goal of US$8000 means he’s more than halfway there with nearly a month to go. It’s really a neat story, check it out.

Spam of the day:

Strathmore Professional Network — Congratulations! You’ve been selected to Join

Join what? The Bristol Of The Month Club? I don’t actually draw comics, so that’s not the most … what? Oh, it’s a sleazy Who’s Who ripoff that will not only charge me money for the privilege of including it in an allegedly prestigious directory that nobody will ever see, but will also facilitate the theft of my identity? Yeah, no.

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¹ Also including Christopher Bird who commented on our story regarding his Patreon to correct our suppostings regarding the finances of Al’Rashad. Namely, he and illustrator Davinder Brar worked that project without pay, hoping for sales down the line. Fleen regrets the error.

² Interestingly, over Meredith Gran, the last time she was nominated.

For those wondering, the Octopus Pie Volume 4 launch party last night was a lot of fun; I’m not going to do a write-up here, as much of what I was told by Meredith Gran, Mike Holmes, and fellow attendee Evan Dahm hasn’t been announced yet. Rather than run the risk of mentioning things they want to announce on their own terms, I’ll just say that they’re all working on Cool Things that you will love. Look for them on the con circuit this year and ask ’em yourself what they’re up to.

Instead, let’s talk about other things that have come up.

• At the launch party, I was pleased to make the acquaintance of a young lady that came because (as she put it) she’s grown up reading the likes of Gran, Beaton, Munroe, and other lights of webcomickry. She had stickers of her original character (Bus Man … possibly Busman, or Bus-Man¹) and sent me a PDF of a short story she recently completed on her Tumblr. Her name is Sam[antha] Schroeder, you can see her portfolio here and her comics here.

  There’s so many people making comics — at every stage of their individual artistic journeys — that finding one whose work you want to share is always a Good Thing; I’m sharing Schroeder’s doodles and comics (there’s not much there yet) because I think it’s great to follow somebody from the beginning. A few years one and she’ll probably be embarrassed by this work, but that’ll only be because of how much she’s progressed.

  The story I mentioned is a sweet-natured look at what it’s like to be a not particularly grim reaper² who’s wondering about whether all those reapings are fair. It’s charming, and you can find it at these links.

• It’s been not quite five years that Tyler Page (creator of Nothing Better) has been working on his medical memoir, Raised on Ritalin (of a piece with other personal stories about health, like Tracy White’s How I Made It To Eighteen or even Raina Telgemeier’s Smile), which recently hit its final chapter. It’s a book that’s undoubtedly changed in the time it took to produce, and it’s now possible to read the entire thing at once.

  And for those of you that hate hitting the Next button a few hundred times in a row, you can get a hardcopy:

  HERE IT IS: @Kickstarter for Raised on Ritalin – A Graphic Novel/Memoir about #ADHD by tyler page http://kck.st/1WfH1k4 #kickstarter

  It’s probably partly a shift in the openness with which people are now willing to discuss mental illness, partly changes in psychiatric diagnoses and treatments, and partly who I hang out with these days, but things like ADHD and depression weren’t things I knew that people had — actual people, that is, people I knew personally — before about a dozen years ago. A lot of your favorite creators have been open about the challenges they face with psychiatric conditions, and that’s a tremendous help for people that don’t know why their brains work the way they do. Lots more people need to get that help, and Raised on Ritalin has to potential to provide that help.

  It’s not just the story of Page’s diagnosis and what ADHD means to him personally; it’s a biography of the disease and the drugs that are used to treat it, as well. It’s an important story, and it’s only going to get to the places it needs to be³ if it’s in a printed and bound form. And that will only happen if a measly US$6000 gets raised in the next month or so.

  Page is already about 40% of the way to goal, but he really needs to go way over goal — that’s what will allow not only physical improvements to the book (he cited better paper, for one), but to print enough copies that the people who don’t yet know that they need it will be able to find it in places that can help them³ in the future. If you know somebody that lives with ADHD or any other mental condition, if you want to learn more (because you’re a good person and have a sense of empathy), you could hardly find a better starting place that Page’s book. Pledge, spread the word, and share your copy when you get it.

• Happies Birthsdays. The aforementioned Raina Telgemeier (I did mention her … just scroll back up and you’ll see) and Becky Dreistadt are having birthdays today. Actually, it’s a good deal more extensive that just two people; 26 May is apparently the most popular birthday in indy/webcomics:
  

  @beckyandfrank @CoryCasoni @TomTomShimShim @JNoze + @the_kochalka @NickBertozzi @bannister01! #birthdaysquad

  To be clear, in that tweet Telgemeier is replying to Cory Casoni, who is not one of the co-birthdayists; that still makes for at least seven people celebrating today, which makes today The Best. And you can get in on the celebrations, either by tweeting and maybe getting an advanced copy of Telgemeier’s next book, or by sending Dreistadt a picture of a cat to make her happy.

Spam of the day:

New York Comic Con

Nope, we’re done. Don’t find my presence to be helpful to your strategy of selling people to advertisers? I don’t have to read your emails any more. Bye, now.

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¹ However you spell it, Bus Man has the best superpower for an urban environment ever; whenever he needs to get somewhere, regardless of schedule or time of day, a bus will pull up and it will be an express to his current destination.

² She’s still a reaper, mind you, but not the doom-and-gloom kind.

³ Libraries, therapist’s practices, school counseling offices, etc.

This one, as you probably suspected, tonight to the east of the East Village, in honor of Meredith Gran’s fourth collection of Octopus Pie. The fifth will be the last, wrapping up the remainder of the series. It’s not going to be long, and I urge everybody to start working through the stages of grief now to get a head start. Me, I’m still bargaining, figuring if I say enough nice things to Mer tonight she’ll decide to keep at it.

Speaking of Meredith Gran, know where she’ll be in October? I do:

TopatoCon would like to welcome special guests @cassieclare @granulac and @tomtomorrow !!! http://topatocon.com/exhibitors-and-guests/

Gran, Tomorrow, and Clare join previously announced special guests John Allison, Holly Black, Sarah Andersen, and Ryan North. Reminder that creators have until Friday to apply for exhibitor slots so get on that and I’ll see you there.

Spam of the day:

Carlos Vives & Shakira in “LA BICICLETA”

On the one hand, I really don’t know how I wound up on the distro list for a bilingual recording-industry PR agency; on the other, I think both bicycles and Shakira are pretty nifty. It’s a dilemma.

Mixed bag today.

• Well, there goes that. I have attended every iteration of New York Comic Con since its inception on a cold, snowy, overly-crowded February weekend (nearly a full year before this here blog launched), either working the CBLDF booth, doing my reportage, or both. The Javits Center is finally becoming navigable again, and while webcomics have almost entirely absented themselves from the floor, there are still a few to be found.
  

  Dear Gary Tyrrell,

  Thank you for applying for a Press Badge for New York Comic Con 2016. We have reviewed your application and based on NYCC’s Press Registration requirements, we are unfortunately unable to provide you with a Press Badge for NYCC 2016. Due to the growth of the Show and demand for Tickets, NYCC is utilizing a more intensive application process for qualifying members of the Press.

  While you do not meet our criteria for a Press Badge this year, we encourage you to attend NYCC 2016 as a Fan. If you would like to attend NYCC as a Fan in 2016, please complete our Fan Verification process at NewYorkComicCon.com/FanVerification. You may also apply for a Press Badge again in 2017. [emphasis original]

  Well, they spelled my name right, at least.

  I think I’m okay with this¹. It’s not been entirely clear if the “Fan Verification” process (which has come in for criticism for being overly intrusive) would have applied to press badges, but if it did I’d have been declining the opportunity to give up all my personal info again to glob knows who for glob knows what purposes. Also, I find the implication that Reed Pop will possibly give me a press badge in the future hilarious; I don’t fit their Big Media focus anymore and that’s not going to change in the future. I don’t begrudge the folks at Reed for that, by the way — it’s their show, they can extend free admission to whomever they wish.

  To be honest, the crush of huge, barely-comics comics shows has been something I’ve braved to see people I want to see in as large a grouping as possible, and that’s something I still do at San Diego². Heck, I can see more people I care to see at MoCCA or TopatoCon, and I suspect I’ll be heading to SPX more regularly, and adding TCAF to my rotation. Easy transportation via the train right outside my front door aside, the appeal of NYCC had reduced to the point I was doing a single day trip per year anyway, and I don’t see myself spending fifty bucks to continue that. Been cool, NYCC; see you around.

• Happier news: tomorrow will see the release of three webcomics-related trade paperbacks. The third Unbeatable Squirrel Girl collection (Squirrel You Really Got Me Now, by Ryan North and Erika Henderson, with an assist from Joe Quinones and Chort Zubaz) drops from Marvel, and the third Wayward collection (Out From The Shadows, Jim Zub, Steven Cummings, and Tamra Bonvillain), and the fourth Octopus Pie collection (with new strips printed for the first time, from Meredith Gran) both come to you courtesy of Image. As a reminder, Gran is having a pop-up celebration tomorrow night on the Lower East Side. Good stuff, straight to your friendly local comics shop.

Spam of the day:

Secret Brain-Enhancer Used by the Elite

Why, yes I’d very much like to see results like improved memory and brain from your completely opaque, no-disclosed-ingredients, unregulated smart pill that will absolutely not poison me.

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¹ Apart from the Seemingly Random desire to Capitalize Words. What the Heck?

² Although there’s no speculating how much longer that will last. If I lose the home base of the Dumbrella booth, it may not be worth the travel time and cost any longer.

Warning: we’re talking about the seamy underbelly of creativity today — finding the money to make things while simultaneously not starving to death in the gutter.

• It looks like we’re getting Big Data after all! Well, okay, Ryan Estrada’s radioplay/podcast about the heist to steal the Keys To The Whole Internet was done, completed, finito, and when has that guy ever made a thing and not shared it? Regardless of the state of his crowdfunding campaign he was always going to release it, it was just a matter if he was going to so much as break even after a year and a half’s effort and thousands of dollars of upfront costs. That means we’re going to get stretch goals now, which … let’s just have Estrada tell us himself:
  

  Big Data is funded! I posted “stretch goals” that… let’s be honest here… are just stuff I’m doing no matter what. http://tinyurl.com/stretchability

  Free comics! More fancy voice talents! Estrada’s going to do more audio drama! The only question is are you going to toss him a couple bucks now, or after Big Data blows up into the next Serial?

• Know who else doesn’t make things contingent on crowdfunding, he just goes out there and makes stuff and then engages in commerce to invite you to buy it? Howard Tayler, that’s who. Today marks the preorder availability of Schlock Mercenary book 12, including the chance to have a dapper man sketch in your copy of the book, with delivery expected in mere weeks.

  See, the drawback — to the extent that there is one — of crowdfunding is that you don’t have the money to produce the thing until the check clears, so even if the thing is already made and you’ve got handshakes with the manufacturer, you can’t sign the contract and say Go until they get paid, then you get on their schedule, then you wait … and that’s best case. Me, I’m guessing that Tayler¹ did a bunch of math, figured out what a print run should look like for immediate orders plus reasonable stock for the future, and that the presses are already whirring.

  That’s why you’ll get your book in July, which means it’s got to get here, and get sketched in, and sent out in five to nine weeks². That’s as close to instant gratification as you’re going to get in webcomics.

• Speaking of instant gratification — sometimes how fast you get something is entirely up to the fans. Readers of this page will recall the high regard I have for Al’Rashad: City of Myths, as written by [comics commentator, Toronto politics observer, and lawyer] Christopher Bird and illustrated by Davinder Brar (illustration freelancer and teacher).

  It’s a damn good story, it’s nearly 300 pages long (serialized over about four years), and it’s just the first part of a trilogy. Thing is, lawyerin’ and teachin’ don’t leave a lot of time to make comics on the webcomics grind, particularly if it means (as it would for Brar) giving up freelance jobs to have the time to draw a comic that isn’t paying anything for years (if ever)⁴.

  Enter the Patreon to fund the production of Ra-Boka: Kingdom of the Bound (that would be the title of the second story). And, crucially, the funding goals start off modest, but as they increase they radically increase the pace of production. We’ve all seen Patreons that set goals of one extra comic a week or at least ten comics a month, but Bird & Brar³ start from a low target of $125 (I’m not sure if that’s US dollars, as Patreon is an American company, or Canadian, as Bird & Brar are strong and free), providing one page a month, to $2500 (three pages a week, 12 – 13 per month).

  It’s a hell of a range, and given that Ra-Boka is also projected to run nearly 300 pages, which means the story could take not quite 24 years to tell … or a year and a half. This is very much a case where a couple hundred people with a couple bucks each could make the difference between seeing a story on a schedule that would make even George RR Martin blanch (much less the third part of the trilogy) and seeing it unfold at warp speed before the last season of Game of Thrones hits.

  Time to dig in for that couple of bucks, kids — the first story was damn good (supra), you could see both Brar and Bird progressing in their craft during its run, so I expect the second (and third!) to be even better.

Spam of the day:

We are pleased to inform you of the released results of the Microsoft Iberica S.L Sweepstakes Promotion in conjunction with foundations for the promotion of software products organized for Software users.

This Program was held in Barcelona- Spain; Wherein your email address emerged as one of the online Winning emails in the 1st category and therefore attracted a cash award of EUR344,000.00 and a Mac laptop/iPhone.

Microsoft ran a sweepstakes and is giving out an iPhone? BALEETED.

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¹ By which I mean Howard’s wife Sandra, the logistics/business wrangler of TaylerCorp, and the one that makes sure that Art Boy gets all his stuff made and sent where it needs to go.

² Cue Dolley, Jane, and Lily. Dabney can eat it.

³ Together, they fight crime.

⁴ But Gary, I hear you cry, couldn’t Bird just pay Brar out of pocket like he must have for Al’Rashad, or like Estrada’s always doing? Yes, I suppose, but 1) Shut up, nobody is obligated to go into debt to entertain you for free; Estrada is unusually generous, but that does not create a binding precedent; 2) Bird’s got a wedding coming up and I doubt his fiancee is willing to serve guests pigs in blankets instead of a meal in order to make a comic for free reading on the internet; and 3) Seriously, if that’s the way you think, re-examine your priorities in life.

The transition week between TCAF and VanCAF is wrapping up, that second CAF is set to launch tomorrow, and there will be (as previously noted) oodles of deeply skilled comickers hanging around The Roundhouse for the next two days. Let’s mention a couple of things for those of you that aren’t in the Saltwater City.

• Surprise: New Softer World, new Softer World, new Softer World. And not the only one! From Emily Horne, the non-Joey Comeau (and most likely saner) half of ASW:
  

  It’s been about a year since we sank this ship, and for the next couple of weeks, we’re raising her up again. Watch this space over the next few Fridays to see the last of the extra comics we promised in our Kickstarter!

  For any of you who missed the Kickstarter, Anatomy of Melancholy will be available for sale very soon. We’ll post in this space the moment it’s available!

• Surprise: TopatoCon Part The Second is just about five months out, and applications have been extended a week. Want to be part of the weirdest gathering in the Pioneer Valley? Now’s the time to make your plans.
• Surprise: It’s sunny out after a dreary week, and I get to go chase the squirrels out of my beans. They apparently don’t want to eat the new and fragile bean plants, but they’re digging the hell out of the surrounding soil and undoubtedly messing up the roots. Friggin’ squirrels.

  What? I never said they’d all be about webcomics.

That’s all. We’ve earned a weekend of respite. Be good to each other, people.

Spam of the day:

Ovarian Cancer Patient Wins Huge Verdict Over Talcum Powder Usage

My guess is that if you’re getting talcum powder on your ovaries, are probably applying too much.

Generally behind on everything and about to post a quick note to that effect when I got an email from Fleen Senior French Correspondent Pierre Lebeaupin reminding me about a story tip he’d sent earlier which I’d teased, and intended to run by now. Never doubt the motivating power of FSFCPL, people! Also, he finds things to talk about that not only would I never see, but it’s hugely unlikely that anybody in the US comics press would. So let’s dig in together, shall we?

Thanks to the work of Becky, self-proclaimed Maliki’s human Swiss Army knife, Maliki has made a big push recently to post English language strips. They are not translated in chronological order however, so your best bet is to follow @Maliki_officiel for newly posted translations.

Moreover, Mali herself has made an effort to post on a regular weekly schedule since January (the schedule was rather … sporadic before), and those get translated as well, so you can expect new content to read every week, too. Happy reading.

See, this is why it’s always worth reading his emails. The Becky mentioned (who may or may not have good hair) is a [possibly real person inspiring a] character in Maliki, described here:

Maliki is a young woman with pink hair and pointed ears. This comic follows Maliki’s daily life full of spontaneity and originality, while also taking her back to her childhood memories.

A quick once-over through the English language strips reveals a story that appears to be largely autobio-inspired, but with some fantastical elements (like the occasional fairy or catgirl). So basically like Bouletcorp, only set in Bretange, and featuring a cast of recurring characters.

It’s pretty, it’s fun to read, and if the English strips seem a bit scattered — jumping between art styles and story points — that’s due to the fact it’s not being translated in order. And that’s okay! The somewhat random nature and irregular patterns makes it more addicting, like how the very occasional win on a slot machine makes you want to plow more quarters in.

The English archive goes clear back to 2004, and features everything from three- or four-panel strips to splash illustrations, to as much vertical scrolling as it takes to tell a story.

And as always, we at Fleen thank M. Lebeaupin for his sharp eyes and willingness to share the good stuff with us.

Spam of the day:

Raina Telgemeier: hello Gary

Call me crazy, but I don’t think the real Raina is emailing me from Poland to share links to malware sites promising me slutty g-string girles [sic]. Just a hunch.