[tap, tap] This thing on? Trying to figure out if what I think was a shift of PHP will keep WordPress running; Brad Guigar ran a guest piece from Phil Hofer at Webcomics Dot Com a couple days back; it’s behind a paywall so I’m not going to quote it, but it’s something you should look into. Pre-emptive apologies if I break anything here.

• In the meantime, y’all saw the announcement from Hope Larson yesterday about her collaboration with Rebecca Mock, right? Cover and story for Compass South are at Comics Alliance, which looks to combine Larson’s always-sharp writing with Mock’s lush art¹, which is going to be an absolute delight in combination. Best news: it’s the first book of a series! Worst news: because of print lead times, it’ll be summer 2016 before we see it. You know what? It’s a fair trade.
• It appears that I will be presenting at TopatoCon, alongside Frank Gibson and TopatoCo’s own Holly Rowland on the topic of cocktails (see yesterday for details). Guys, I am so excited about this. Come see us nerd out on booze-mixing! Learn my feelings on falernum! Ice! Stirring vs shaking! And if you’re very good I’ll share the recipe for the Pineapple Maki which is made in a pineapple and is delicious.

  The original session title, Let’s Drink About It with Harrison and Bowman, now seems inaccurate, so I’m going to suggest Frank, Gary, and Holly Save Boozemas as a substitute. Presumably it will take place same time/place (Saturday, 26 September, 5:00pm — 6:30pm, Room One), but stay tuned here for any possible updates.

Spam of the day:

Bartender was very friendly and made… I’ve come here on many occasions for dates as well as business lunches/dinners. The atmosphere is cozy and relaxed and the decor is beautiful and…

If you can’t tell me what the bartender made, then never darken my email inbox again.

_______________
¹ I love Larson’s work and think she’ll go down as one of the most important comics artists of the century, but her art style can tend to the sparse. I don’t want to say it’s minimalist, but she definitely gets across her ideas with a high-contrast, let-the-reader-fill-in-the-details-in-their-brain approach. Mock’s art is more detail oriented, perhaps less restrained?

So about the time that I was writing about Ryan North starring in a webcommerical for arguably terrible computer vendor Lenovo, North was answering a philosophical question. Namely, Can Ryan North, a giant of a man, find a hole so deep that he cannot get out of it? The answer apparently being Yup, for about 40 minutes, which was Storified for the historical record.

That would not be the end of it.

The Internet, having been entranced by North’s ordeal (we do, as a culture, seem to have a fascination with people stuck in holes), was not letting go. First The Guardian reported it as a fairly straight news item, almost no smirk detectable. The Toronto Star joined in this morning, and a text adventure produced last night allows you to replay the entire thing ZORK style. As usual, the final word was provided by Rich Stevens, who noted that North got into the hole with his faithful hound Noam Chompsky:

@ryanqnorth The fact that your dog stood by and let you fall down the well leads me to believe his philosophy is …

LASSIE FAIRE

Now let’s all put our heads down and think about this for a while.

In other news:

• Dammit, a program at TopatoCon that I was really looking forward to (cf: yesterday) is canceled due to the presenters not being able to attend. We’ll miss you, Chris and Benjamin. Now, because I am helpful, and because I have spent a number of years slowly learning from one of the best bartenders in the business, I’m willing to volunteer to fill in for Ben & Chris and run the session on the history, theory, and practice of cocktails. There will be a number of people at TopatoCon who are at least as knowledgeable about mixed drinks as I am, and I’m sure we can do a credible job. Showrunners, how about it? Let’s save Boozemas!
• While we’re talking about comics and drinks, you’ll find both at the Cartoon Art Museum’s Night of 1000 Sketches, a fundraiser to benefit their move/celebration of 14 years at their location in The Mission. Artists from around the Bay Area will be drawing (and drinking), sketching for attendees in exchange for donations (US$10 and up) to the moving fund. Details on tickets and such will be forthcoming, but the date will be Thursday, 10 September, so mark that on your calendar now.

Spam of the day:

Make all your fantasies come true. Personal Preview expires 08/18/15
Ashley Madison is the top rated married-dating company in the U.S., dedicated to your pleasure.
PS: We have been featured in Maxim, USA Today, and Sports Illustrated!

I know that I mentioned this particular spam earlier, but given that the 10GB data dump of Ashley Madison’s userbase occurred earlier today, this is an especially bad time to be trying this particular attempt to … what? Get me to sign up to an entirely insecure service?

Oh, and that PS should include other locations you’ve been features, like Krebs On Security, Techdirt, and the twitterfeed of Securitay. Sucks to be you.

Tuesday as busy day? Very odd.

• We start, as we have done with increasing frequency over the past five months or so, with TopatoCon, on account of they keep announcing stuff. Today it’s fact that ticket sales are now live and the preliminary programing schedule is now up.

  There are some unfortunate conflicts in the schedule, such as Saturday afternoon when the Let’s Drink About It guys will be talking cocktails (oooh!) at the same time that Christopher Hastings will be leading a workshop on writing sketch comedy. This is tragic, because Hastings is a creative mixer of drinks and would greatly enjoy the LDAI session, but one can’t have everything (I’ll go there on your behalf, Chris, promise).

  It’s also ironic that on Sunday afternoon, there will be discussion with Wes Citti and Tony Wilson about how to Play Nice With Others at the same time that David Malki !, Spike, Kate Leth, and Randy Milholland will be talking about how Internet People are basically dicks who’ve forgotten how to Play Nice With Others.

• Speaking of small conventions heavy with indie-type creators, SPX have announced the Ignatz Award Nominations for 2015, and there are a couple of names that stand out. Specifically, Jillian Tamaki is all over the damn thing (and deservedly so), with nominations for Outstanding Artist, Outstanding Anthology or Collection (both for SuperMutant Magic Academy), and Outstanding Story (“Sex Coven”, from Frontier #7).

  Other webcomics types include Emily Carroll for Outstanding Artist (Through the Woods), Sophie Goldstein¹ for Outstanding Graphic Novel and Outstanding Comic (both for The Oven), and Box Brown for Outstanding Anthology or Collection (An Entity Observes All Things). The category of Outstanding Online Comic itself has nominees

  • Lilli Carre, The Bloody Footprint
  • Lauren Weinstein, Carriers
  • Rebecca Roher, Mom Body
  • Blue Delliquanti, O Human Star
  • Ariel Ries, Witchy

  Best of luck to all the nominees. The Ignatz Awards will be presented at SPX, 19 September, in Bethesda, Maryland.

• Speaking of longtime webcomickers who are looking to spend more time making webcomics and less time at the day job (okay, we weren’t, but work with me), David Morgan-Mar (PhD, LEGO®©™^etc) is about to join your ranks. Having spent more than a dozen years making more than a dozen comics with literally an infinite number of updates, Morgan-Mar has decided that the drudgery and unrewarding nature of the day job² is less fun that making comics and other creative things, and you can help make it possible:
  

  News: Hey folks, I have good news! I have talked with my manager and HR department at work, and confirmed that I can reduce my working hours to 9 days per fortnight. That means I could spend one full day every two weeks making more creative stuff!

  But I have a mortgage and bills to pay, and am very risk averse. So I have posted a goal of raising US$750 a month on Patreon to partly offset my resulting loss in income. If I can reach this goal, I will make this move and dedicate a day every fortnight to making more comics, books, podcasts, videos, and other cool stuff. This will include raising the number of new Irregular Webcomic! strips to 4 per week.

  And if I can get to the dream goal of $1500 a month, I can quit my day job one day per week, and Irregular Webcomic! will return to a full 7 new strips per week. Spread the word! And please consider supporting my Patreon. Thank you to all of you

  For reference, Morgan-Mar is presently at just under US$450/month, or 60% of the way to goal. And honestly, if there’s anybody that should be able to be a full-time creative, it’s Morgan-Mar. The dude’s got more ideas per cm³ than anybody else on the planet. I can’t wait to see what he can come up with when he can spend full days on his ideas instead of a stolen hour or two.

• Kickstarts? Kickstarts! Alina Pete is doing a card game based on the concept of the tarot, sitting about 18.5% of goal as she comes into the back third of the campaign time. This one needs a big bump if it’s gonna get made. On the other end of the spectrum, Ryan Sohmer is looking to make three books of Least I Could Do and is about 35% of the way to goal since launching yesterday. The Fleen Funding Formula (mk II) doesn’t apply to either project due to the low backer counts, where predicted results and actual results diverge violently.
• I have serious problems with Lenovo these days due to their terrible, terrible decisions re: privacy-invading design decisions in their consumer line of laptops, so they are very lucky that Ryan North is a likable dude with an adorable dog and he’s willing to promote their ThinkPad line⁴. I am sorry to say that I don’t trust the company you are promoting, but we are still cool, Ryan.

Spam of the day:

Do you have any tips for rookie blog writers? I’d certainly appreciate it.

Footnotes, man. Readers dig footnotes.

_______________
¹ Goldstein is also listed as a member of the Jury, but please note two things about the Ignatz rules: the Jury is anonymous, even to the other members, during the nomination process, and while Jury members may not nominate their own work, there is no prohibition from one Juror’s work being nominated for an award by his or her fellow Jurors. I trust that Ms Goldstein recused herself from any decision that would have resulted in her own nominations.

² Working on image-processing for a corporate research arm and helping to set the ISO standards for image definitions. Such boring and unappreciated scut-work! Might as well work retail.

I almost said all of that with a straight face. Next time for sure!

³ That’s a “power of three”, or cubic centimeter, not a footnote.

⁴ Which line doesn’t seem to have been affected by Lenovo’s terrible, terrible decisions — which is actually even worse, because the ThinkPads are mostly aimed at corporate customers that are best able to detect and mitigate such terrible, terrible decisions. The consumer-grade laptops that Lenovo sold pre-compromised are hitting the demographic least able to defend themselves. Never buying another Lenovo product, but man, Chompsky’s cute.

TopatoCon, that is. For starters, there’s more names on the exhibitor’s page — I noticed Kevin Budnick, Gillian Goerz, Jonathan Griffiths, Phil Kahn, and Stacey King in addition to the previoiusly-announced guest below the cut — and there’s news of a pre-con concert!

TopatoCon proudly presents:
THE DOUBLECLICKS
FEATURING MOLLY LEWIS

To kick off our convention weekend, we’ve invited some of our favorite musicians to play a concert that’s open to the public!
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25

8 p.m., Doors open at 7:30
Academy of Music Theatre
274 Main St
Northampton, MA 01060
TICKETS

$15 General
$12 Students

Purchase at the box office, by telephone at (413) 584-9032, ext. 105, or click here to order online.

Reminder: this is before the con even starts, and you’re entertained; further, those that have never seen The Doubleclicks or Molly Lewis before can sample their (considerable) talents and have the opportunity to meet them the next day (although Lewis isn’t listed on the exhibitor site yet, I doubt she’s getting out of town immediately after the show) and buy all their stuff. That’s at least a win-win, possiby a win-win-win-win.

In other news there’s a pair of comics that tell stories about being in comics. The first is from Maki Naro, and tells of his righteous irritation at yet another “contest” for illustration/comics pros that amounted to spec work; he actually submitted it to the contest-holders in question, which I think is brilliant and laudable. The other is from Faith Erin Hicks (h/t: Heidi Mac at The Beat), and tells of how you can only break into comics by knowing the secret handshake and living in a big city oh wait no, that’s not how it works. Both of them are worth your time.

Spam of the day:

You are requested to claim your pending commission
payout in the amount of $7,302.29 earned since
you registered for our programme.

Best regards,

“Ashley”

Bite me, “Gary”

(more…)

So I hopped into WordPress to make some quick notes and Something Was Wrong. Instead of the usual editor, it rendered as a bunch of bare, unformatted text, like something from 1998 or so. It wasn’t browser-related, as I got the same result on three different browsers on two different computers and an Android phone; something was definitely off on the back end. A quick trip to the host verified that the database was consistent, and my next attempt at logging in brought back the regular dashboard. Yay, me.

The lesson here is one of two things:

• Taking ten minutes to dick around in different browsers and dig out host credentials is enough for transient weirdness to resolve itself

or

• The mere act of thinking I’d better get Phil Hofer on this is enough to reach through space and cause cranky WordPress installations to behave.

Either one’s good.

• And since we’re talking about back ends of webpages, Clay Yount is trying to make it easier for people to put up webcomics without needing to know all this backend stuff. If that thought appeals to you, be sure to check out a series of tutorials that Yount’s put together as a result of experimentation to make Squarespace into a platform for webcomickry. Check it:
  

  At the beginning of the year, I released a Squarespace template for webcomic artists. The response has been pretty good, and hopefully some of you have put it to good use. I’ve gotten some feedback, and the two biggest complaints are that the (recently increased) $18 per month developer account is too expensive, and the template is too hard to customize for someone without a lot of coding skills.

  Since I released the template, Squarespace has made some important updates to their platform that have allowed me to create a new easier solution that doesn’t require a custom template and just uses some copy and paste code. This means it’ll work with ANY Squarespace plan including the $8/month basic plan. I’ve put together some video tutorials to help you get the basics of a site up and running in about 30 minutes. I’ll be adding some more videos as I complete them, and am willing to take suggestions for tutorial topics. If you are a web developer and want 100% control, you can still use my original template as a launching off point, but this new solution is incredibly versatile and I think it is the best option for 99% of people.

  There follows a collection of templates, video demos, and code samples which will allow you to set up ads (Google and Project Wonderful), chapter divisions for your archive, blog posts, and wrap it all in customizable CSS. Take a look, make suggestions as to what you’d like to see next, and remember — Yount shared this with the community, so maybe toss him some thanks?

• While we’re talking community, a community is seeking contributors to a new anthology — Elements — of speculative fiction comics work on the theme of Fire, with the goal of producing comics by creators from ethnicities and cultures that don’t get the same play in comics publishing as white dudes. The announcement from Black Girl Nerds is here on Twitter with more details at their website.

  Key points: submissions are open until 30 August, the anthology will be all-ages, and its open to all who identify as creators of color¹, with a goal of having lots of different viewpoints/experiences represented in the final product. As always, please read over the guidelines and submission instructions so you don’t screw something up and have nobody to blame but yourself.

• One more on the theme of doing things for the good of a community: the warring personalities of Dante Shepherd/Lucas Landherr occasionally stop trying to murder each other and cooperate to achieve some mutually-beneficial aim; most of these lulls in psychological violence revolve around trying to make STEM education better. The problem is, these sorts of undertakings take time and money, and those that give out grants are capricious and … actually, there is no “and”. They’re just plain ol’ capricious.

  Anyhoo, it’s third time’s the charm for Landherr/Shepherd, and this year’s iteration of the NSF grant application is at a stage where it needs help:

  The STEM education component relies on the collaboration with K-12 educators who would be able to get involved (even from a distance) with the research conducted and help directly craft the STEM modules produced. As such, providing proof to the NSF that there are K-12 educators who would be on board with the grant would be a tremendous boost to our chances of receiving the grant.

  We are NOT allowed to submit letters of “support” as part of the proposal – but we can submit letters of “commitment” by which educators can express their desire to work with the research program. So we are asking that any K-12 instructors who would be interested in collaborating, especially those involved in biology or physics classes, to write a short letter of commitment as part of the proposal submission.

  The grant, if awarded, would allow us to conduct this research and produce 30 new STEM modules over the course of three years — so even if next year would not perfectly align with your needs/interests, expressing commitment for a future summer would also work well.

  As always, these grant proposals come together extremely quickly at the end, so we need to have a scanned or PDF or word processor copy of your letter by next Friday, August 21. If this is possible and you are interested, please let me know via email at sciencetheworld (at) gmail (dot) com, and I will do what I can to make this as easy for you as possible. [emphasis original]

  There it is; if you know somebody that does K-12 education on STEM topics, point ’em towards the guy with the lab coat and Red Sox hat.

Spam of the day:

I have a proposal for you. I will furnish you with the details when you reply. Thank you and God bless you.

Sorry dude, I’m married.

_______________
¹ Anybody whining But what about me, it’s not my fault I’m a white dude will just have to content themselves with 90% of the industry being made by and for people just like you. Take that weak shit and go bitch about how oppressed you are with Bill Willingham.

There are a couple of offshoots of webcomickry in other realms of expression that caught my eye today, plus the list of SPX exhibitors is live. Let’s go down the list, shall we?

• I had never heard of the Rorschach Theatre before today; it’s in Washington DC, and since 1999 have been less of a place and more of an event. See, Rorschach turned its lack of its own space into a sort of mission statement and found ways to tailor productions to the various spaces that hosted them. They’ve got performance space these days, but still treat the innovative use of space as a sort of calling card.

  And if you’re innovative about space, you get to stage things that wouldn’t necessarily fit on a traditional stage, like Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, or their next production: TRUTH & BEAUTY BOMBS: A Softer World. The recently-wrapped bit of surreality has been adapted to live performance (with previews starting 4 September and running until 4 October, reservations now open), and given that this is about as experimental as theatre can get, the costs of mounting the production need covering. Think about it: usually plays start from things like a script and characters¹, but they’ve got twelve years of webcomics to adapt.

  Which is where you come in; starting, oh, now-ish, you can help defray the costs of playwrights, actors, designers, directors, stage crew, technicians, fight choreographers (!), costumes, props, construction, insurance, etcetera, etcetera, via that most webcomickish of all mechanism: the Kickstarter. The play is going on regardless; the funding from the campaign will help to backfill the company coffers so that they can do innovative work like this in the future. Want tickets? You can get a pair at the US$50 tier (actually cheaper than directly buying the tickets). There’s t-shirts, meet-and-greets, and friggin’ walk-on roles up for grabs.

  If you ever wondered how Emily Horne & Joey Comeau’s work could somehow be made weirder, this is the answer, and now we all have the opportunity to show the creators that they aren’t making a huge mistake. I’m not going to be in DC anytime soon, but heck if this isn’t the sort of thing that makes me smile — I’m kicking in ten bucks, will you?

• Marian Call has been mentioned on this page previously, because when you put her musicality together with partner Pat Race, you get all kinds of cool nerdery. I’m still not over how awesome Space Weird Thing was, and now Call & Race are back with a new video that features Marian Call (in the role of Marzipan) and Marian Call (as Strong Bad) in a note-perfect cover version of Sensitive to Bees from Strong Bad Sings and other type hits, which I have an actual copy of. Whatever you are doing right now, stop doing it and go watch the magic. It’s magical.
• As mentioned above, the SPX exhibitor list is now up, and there are both a number of web-/indy-comics types, as well as people that will be bouncing from Bethesda up to Easthampton for TopatoCon the following week. In addition to special guests like Kate Beaton, Noelle Stevenson, Gemma Correll, Matt Bors, Scott McCloud, and Spike, SPX will include people such as Aatmaja Pandya, Amanda Scurti, onetime Fleen contributor Anne Thalheimer, Anthony Clark, Audrey (and presumably also Jamie), Becky Dreistadt & Frank Gibson,

  [inhale]

  Blue Delliquanti, Box Brown, Carey Pietsch, Carla Speed McNeil, Catie Donnelly, Chris Yates, Clay Yount, Colleen Venable, Danielle Corsetto, David McGuire, Dustin Harbin, Eric Colossal & Jess Fink, Evan Dahm, Isabelle Melançon & Megan Lavey-Heaton, Jeffrey Rowland, Jon Rosenberg, KC Green, Matt Boyd, Meredith Gran & Mike Holmes, Molly Ostertag, Penina Gal, Rachel Dukes, Dave Roman, Ross Nover, Sam Bosma, Sara McHenry & Tom McHenry, Tony Breed, and Yuko Ota & Ananth Hirsch. Check ’em out, tell ’em I said hi, and let me know who I left off the list.

Spam of the day:

In days gone by, should you stood a bankruptcy or even a foreclosure, getting approved with an car finance was like pulling teeth

Days gone by? Are we talking like the pre-lidocaine era?

________________
¹ Oh please, oh please, let ASW recurring character Ryan North be part of this play!

I received two pieces of text today that I thought should be shared. One is completely and utterly plausible, which is hilarious in that it’s not meant to be taken seriously but is better than the thing that it spoofs. The other is just sad. See if you can guess which is which!

Item 1:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Renowned Horrorman Kris Straub Reveals Development-Ready “Nightmares Park”
August 11, 2015

Seattle, WA – Kris Straub, creator of Candle Cove (now in series development at SyFy) and Broodhollow (not in development because period piece = too $$$) is giving idea-birth to a new horror legend: Nightmares Park.

“It’s basically just Jurassic Park but I replaced the dinosaurs with nightmares,” said Straub as he typed this. “It’s pretty much just going to be Jurassic Park but about dreams.”

When the sleep research conglomerate Oneirosyn licenses their dream-realization technology to a theme park company, they end up creating the world’s most terrifying attraction: a place where everyone’s worst dreams become real… but safely behind glass. That is, unless the man the cages are wired to falls asleep.

“It doesn’t make a lot of sense as a device, but there had to be a way for things to go wrong,” said Straub. Straub was talking again. “Maybe I should do it where the guy has to wake up, and that makes the nightmares escape. But then that implies that it’s just his own nightmares. I wanted it to be everyone’s nightmares. That will pay off better later.”

“The best Straub in horror is back,” said me.

Kris Straub is not Peter Straub’s son but he once saw The Talisman at an airport bookstore.

Please release this press release immediately, like it said at the top. Thank you.

Item 2:

Attention: Facebook User,

Thank you for your using “facebook.com”

We are oblige to congratulate and notify you that your Face-Book Profile was used by you or someone else to register an Account with Facebook and has emerged you as one of the Luck Winners in Category “A” which subsequently won you $500,000.00 US Dollars. Your fund has been insured and its ready for the immediate release to you without hitches. Details of your Winning are:

Winning #: FB392-US7720
Batach #: 0024892JT
Serial #: DT119027834SZ

Do be informed this is not a fake notification – Its real!!

And all I have to do is send my full name and passport number to Reverend Somebody Or Other in Singapore? Because the fact that I refuse to have a Face-Book¹ account in no way makes me suspicious that this is anything other than completely true.

But my point — and I do have one — is that as somebody who gets his fair share of the internet equivalent of cold calls, Straub’s up there is actually very good on the helpfulness scale. Let’s pretend for a moment that Straub isn’t making a joke², and treat the fake press release as if it’s real. He included:

• A title that gives me an idea what the release contains
• A location for where things are happening
• A reference point so I’d know who he is and what else he’s done, with link
• A quick description of the thing being announced
• A more detailed description

… all in the first 131 words. After the details graf it becomes more jokey, but the first half? That’s exactly how you get a press release read. The standard press release contains those elements, but is written in such a stuffy — almost ritualistic — style that it’s almost impossible to to do anything with them other than run them as a block of text that clashes with the feel of everything else on the page. The very easy voice that Straub used in both the informative and the jokey parts caught my attention as much as the gag. If this were a real thing, I would be running the crap out of this news. It’s not a real thing and I’m still running the crap out of it.

Here’s where I’ll let you in on a little secret: it isn’t easy to break the tone you thing a piece of writing requires. The content can follow all the rules it needs to, but the tone? That’s where you can make something drab into something memorable.

Late last year, I was asked to contribute a very short bit to a textbook (I’ll be able to tell you more when publication happens). Even though I was approached primarily because I have a fairly individual voice on this here blog, I fell back into a formalist, academic style that I wasn’t happy with and just wasn’t me.

In my effort to fit into what I thought was the expected idiom, I struggled for hours to put together a few hundred words. Luckily, I have an excellent alpha-reader³ who pointed out the many, many tortured constructions I’d subjected my poor words to, and who yelled at me because it didn’t sound like me.

Fresh document. Twenty minutes later (during which time no darlings were killed because I had no particular fondness for that first draft), I had something that sounded like me, that wasn’t a struggle to put together, that got the key ideas across, and didn’t fit in with the other 14 contributors (most of whom have “Dr” in front of their names) worth a damn. After it got subjected to an editorial pass to make it fit the house style better it still sounded like me. It’s gonna clash with a few hundred pages on either side, but it’s mine, and in large part that’s what the lead editor wanted.

None of us wants to read a press release by Kris Straub that follows the official rules; we want to read something that reads like Straub. And I swear to glob, if there were an identity-theft scam that didn’t follow the Official Scam Style Guide, I’d be ever so slightly more likely to respond. Find your own style in your communication — written and drawn — and work to make it as sharp as you can. Being able to write/draw in different styles is something to cultivate, but not just because you think it’s what’s expected. Find that means of expression that’s unique, that only cooks inside your brain, and use the hell out of it.

Spam of day:
See above.

_______________
¹ In my head, I hear that pronounced as C Montgomery Burns would do, or perhaps Judge John Hodgman when he talks about Bases-Ball.

² I am actually weighing in my brain the probability that Straub is actually announcing a thing that he is doing by making it look like he’s fake-announcing at thing that he isn’t doing. Schemes inside of schemes with that guy, I tells ya. But in all seriousness, I could see Straub doing a series of stories/comics/podcasts/whatever built around this very concept, and I very much want him to do so.

³ Need something professionally critiqued? Contact her. She’s highly skilled, unsparing when you need to be smacked about something not working, and utterly reliable. But please note the word professionally and don’t complain about her fee structure. Making you a better writer is not an act of charity.

The fine folks behind the next great webcomics-centric convention (that would be Holly and Sara) released a bit more information, including an updated exhibitor list, information on where to stay, and transportation options. Let’s dive in.

On the Exhibitor page I spy a few new names, including Z Akhmetova, Lex Cornell, Shelby Cragg, M Dean, Sarah Tacey, and Jim Zub. There are some corrections as well, with the former Skullmandible now listed as Cohen Edenfield (Skullmandible), and Kori Michele as Kori Michele Handwerker. Also, Jeph Jacques has confirmed that he will be there after all. Compare to the previous exhibitor list, which is below the cut.

Also, the hotel listings and directions are now up, the latter of which includes something that I’ve never seen before: a con-provided rideshare forum, so that if you happen to be passing by one of the airports or rail stations, you can maybe pick somebody up for a cut of gas money and tolls.

Naturally, one should take all possible precautions in utilizing this method of transit, as this discussion between showrunner Sara McHenry and exhibitor Dante Shepherd shows:

So far two TopatoCon exhibitors have signed up on the attendee rideshare spreadsheet. Working with cartoonists is fun and cool always

Will I have to mention that my truck does not have AC and I like to stop to give drifters rides too if I sign the list

I think that’s an assumed level of risk.

(Dunno if I’d trust that Shepherd guy if I were you — he claims to have a pseudonym to separate his comics from his academic career, but how much do we really know about him?)

Still to come: programming, events, and fun things to do in town. Stay tuned to this page for information as it become available.

Spam of the day:

Protect Your Deck from Winter,

As soon as I get a deck, I promise to get back to you so we can protect it from winter in the middle of August.

(more…)

Well, no, not really, but that was a concentrated burst of good stuff I got to talk about last week, so maybe I’m feeling a little nostalgic. Then again, nostalgia is a disease, so let us look forward, not backward¹.

• Speaking of nostalgia, I got to spend some time on Saturday night with an old friend in an old familiar place; the Peculier Pub is not only a key location in the history of Goats, but it’s the location where more than ten years ago Jon Rosenberg gently strongarmed me into starting this here blog².

  Sharing beer and scotch with the soulkeeper was a too-uncommon-these-days treat, and we even got to talk a little webcomics along the way. Namely, Jon is fired up for his forthcoming Tales of the Drive guest story for Los Angeles resident Dave Kellett, and his reason for doing so can be summed up in one word: Nosh. Everybody I’ve spoken too about TotD seems to be Noshphilic, so if LARDK ever gets to make, say, a Drive movie or series, we know who the first action figure will be.

• Also at the drink-up: once and future associate editor of The Nib Matt Lubchansky and I got to talk about the impending funding-out of The Nib’s print collection, Eat More Comics. Specifically, we spoke about how Lubchansky had been drawing all the custom portraits for high-value backers that afternoon.

  More specifically, we spoke about our priorities in stretch goals (Lubchansky wants to see backers get bonus exclusive comics from Zach Weinersmith, R Stevens, Gemma Correll, and Matt Bors; I want to see the higher page rate for the creators). Even more specifically, Lubchansky is grateful for the efforts of Make That Thing on the production/fulfillment end, as it means that Eat More Comics will premiere at SPX³ and he won’t have to mail the damn things from his apartment. Everybody feel good for Matt Lubchansky!

• From Heidi Mac, news that the Society of Illustrators has announced a new venue for the 2016 MoCCA Fest, seeing as how the very neat space they found this year is being chopped up for condos. Next year the Fest heads uptown to Metropolitan West, which is an event space that seems classy, airy, open, and will no doubt get chopped up into condos sometime in 2018.

  Panels will (as they were this year) be held at a nearby upscale hotel — this time, Ink48 (which being part of the storied Kimpton chain, is a place that knows how to treat people right). Metropolitan West is at 46th Street across the street from the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, and Ink48 about two blocks away at 11th & 48th. That corner of the island isn’t especially well served by subway, meaning that the streak of slight inaccessiblity for Manhattan shows remains intact.

Spam of the day:

Natl Gun Assoc, “You Must Have This [flashlight] to Survive a Crisis”

I’m a little surprised and suspicious that the National Gun Association wants me to have a flashlight more than, you know, a gun.

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¹ Upward, not forward, etc, etc.

² For which I will be in equal measure grateful and resentful for the rest of our lives.

³ A mere 38 days after the campaign ends, possibly less than a month after the Kickstarter check clears.

I was tempted to break with the pattern of :01 Books week here at Fleen, particularly since the prediction that I made eight days ago has come to pass, where Raina Telgemeier now holds fully half of the latest New York Times Best Seller List for paperback graphic novels. Suffice it to say that this domination of the graphic novel sales channel is unprecedented at the level of an entire company, much less a single creator. Whatever superlatives you feel best describe this situation, I assure you that I feel just as strongly. Everybody feel good for Raina!

But theme weeks are theme weeks, and so we’re going to spend the rest of today on Maris Wicks, who has a history in educomics — we saw her team up with Jim Ottaviani in 2013 to tell the stories of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas, and she spends her non-comics time as a program educator at the New England Aquarium. This time around, she’s tackling the marvel of science that defines us — the human body, from stem to stern, in the informative Human Body Theater.

Now let’s get something out of the way — some people are not going to like this book. It acknowledges the existence of things that they are uncomfortable with, things like sex, puberty, genitals, HIV, menstruation, erections, pee, poop, farts, and snot. It includes everything from primers on cell theory, atomic theory, and the nature of visible light, as well a thorough discussion of the major systems of the body and their functions. Some people are not going to want their kids (the book is easily acceptable for children 10 and up) to learn about how things work on the inside, preferring them to treat such matters as fit only for a sense of shame. Those kids are the ones that need this book most of all.

Because beyond the simple, factual discussion of things that provoke that shame reaction, Human Body Theater is a terrific guide to gross anatomy, how everything from the histamine reaction to the autonomic nervous system works, and how to keep it working properly. There’s nice asides about the importance of hygiene and nutrition, and in the chapter on sensory function, acknowledgment that not everybody gets to have a body in perfect working order and that’s okay.

For example, color blindness means that you have more trouble picking out matching clothes, actual blindness means you use assistive devices or animals, and deafness is countered with sign language. It’s a particularly nice touch that Wicks includes both Braille and ASL alphabets and plants the idea Yes, this is more challenging, but people adapt.

Along the way, Wicks demystifies all the stuff that your average 10 year old is probably entranced and grossed out by in equal measure: blood, farts, burps, snot, pee, and poop (this is looking a lot like that earlier shame list) all get attention that sends the message This happens to everybody; just be cool and be polite. Some of those kids may not yet be aware of things like erections, but they’re treated as matter-of-factly without getting overly explicit. The young reader is going to come away with the impression that bodies are weird, complicated, wonderful, with lots of cool stuff going on when you stop to think about it.

The older reader is going to learn as well — you may have forgotten (or never been taught) about the musculoskeletal, cardiopulumonary, digestive, excretory, endocrine, reproductive, immune, and neurological functions of the human body, and this book is as good an overview as I’ve seen. I’m thinking it belongs in middle-school health classes, and very possibly in the anatomy and physiology section of the EMT classes I teach¹.

Human Body Theater releases on 6 October, which is enough time to remember how to pronounce things like mitochondria and metatarsals. One last time, we at Fleen thank Gina Gagliano and everybody at :01 for the review copies

Spam of the day:

Hi fleen.com admin, i see you need some fresh content. Daily updates will rank your page in google higher, content is king nowadays.

Yes, because nearly 4800 words about six books in five days isn’t fresh content. Bozo.

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¹ Heck, I know baby EMTs who can’t tell you about the three kinds of muscle, how they differ, and where they occur. It’s all here in a couple of full-color pages that makes everything clear and obvious; if HBT included a full discussion of terms like distal and proximal and the planes of the body, I’d make it mandatory reading for A&P.