Weirdly, not everything to do with comics and webcomickers centers on southern California; here, then, is a list of comics-related things that have nothing to do with SDCC.

• For example, those of you in New England will find that the showrunners of ConnectiCon scheduled directly against SDCC. CTCon had a reputation as a webcomic-friendly show for a while there, but their guest list doesn’t seem to reflect webcomics as a category this year — webcomickers are lumped into the Online Media category, which at least puts the creators of webcomics like Sister Claire, Dueling Analogs, The System, or Bittersweet Candy Bowl on par with, say, George Takei.

  They don’t, however, put links to sites in their guest lists. They also seem to think that Jamie Noguchi is going to be there when he appears to be opposite the Dumbrella booth. On the other hand, CTCon is hosting Super Art Fight and that’s always stupidly fun.

• For those of you a little further west and north of Connecticut — that is to say, Schenectady, New York — may find yourself at the Schenectady County Public Library-sponsored Electric City Comic Con, which is small-scale, a first effort, free to attend, and features the incomparably awesome Jess Fink and Chris Giarrusso. Libraries are great.
• Further west (a lot further west) — San Francisco this time — the California College of the Arts is hosting a series of events in association with their MFA in Comics program. Mike Mignola was there last Friday, Spike Trotman will be there tomorrow (along with an opening reception), Paul Madonna will be there next Friday … it’s a whole Friday thing. Lectures start at 6:00pm, and are free to the public at the Timken Lecture Hall, 1111 Eighth Street in the city of Saint Francis.
• Okay, fine, SDCC. Nobody from webcomics appears to have made any sacrifices to the blood god yet, setup appears to have been conducted in good order, Rich Stevens appears to have the product of the show, and Jon Rosenberg appears to be enjoying himself.

  Oh, and help me start a rumo[u]r. I say that this photo means that Jim Zub has been tapped to write a new Hello, Kitty ongoing. I have attempted to contact Mr Zub to confirm that this is what’s going on, and I have not received a denial, which I’m choosing to interpret as a confirmation. You heard it here first: Zub on Hello, Kitty, now with Japanese demons, skull-kicking, and awesome, awesome fight scenes … tell me you wouldn’t buy the crap out of that.

Spam of the day:

I do not know what you are saying

Shhh, shhh, just relax, you’ll be fine.

So the USPS has gotten its act together and finally decided that Michigan and New Jersey are not the same place and I have my Inspector Pancakes rewards! The photo today was going to be the FRIEND TO LITTLE DOGS medal with my dog, but when he saw me place the medal on the floor near his paws he freaked the fuck out, gave the panicked yelp you only hear when you trip over a dog in the dark, and snapped in the direction of the medal as if to say I’m not mad at you but get that thing away.

I see two possible explanations for this:

• Inspector Pancakes author Karla Pacheco’s legendary awfulness is so pervasive, it incorporated itself into the medal and my loyal hound detected it, like how dogs can see the invisible ghost monsters that try to steal your soul and which are only discouraged by random staring and growling at empty air¹.
• The loyal hound is a retired racing greyhound, who was distressingly good at racing and kept on the track for nearly three years (168 starts). He lacks the scars that most greys have from being in the middle of the pack where collisions with other dogs and the side rails occur, so he was out front a lot. He was almost certainly photographed with medals — shiny, shiny medals — around his neck following his wins (still wearing his loathed racing muzzle).

  If there’s one thing I’m certain is awfuller than Pacheco it’s the dog racing industry, which treats these gentle creatures as a crop to be bred, used until useless, and then disposed of² like yesterday’s garbage. Screw you, greyhound racing industry; my guy got the hell away from you and I’m mortified I inadvertently brought back such traumatic memories in him.

• Speaking of existential horror as I write this the exhibit hall at the San Diego Convention Center is forming itself into the center of All Things Nerd for the next five days; SDCC Preview Night starts in about six hours, and I encourage you to follow Rich Stevens, Jon Rosenberg, Andy Bell, Chris Yates, and Jon Sung for news on everything happening in the grinder of the showfloor.
• Let’s leave behind the terrible things and move onto information that may actually be helpful. If you’ve been keeping an eye on proposed copyright policy — as one does — for the past couple of years, a term that’s been popping up with increasing frequency is orphan works. An orphan work is basically a creative work for whom there is no clear copyright holder, and with copyrights basically extending unto the heat death of the universe, this leaves vast swathes of work untouchable — Fair Use isn’t easy to determine, nor licensing for derivative works, nor even simply bringing the damn things back into print/release. As things stand presently, it’s unknown what their status is, and that makes it risky to try to do anything with them.

  From time to time, various remedies have been proposed, and each time somebody gets their metaphorical panties in a knot over whatever is being proposed. Sometimes it’s copyright holders, sometimes it’s remix-friendly technologies, sometimes it’s trade groups, but almost every time, somebody starts screaming that the proposed solution is the worst thing ever. This results in a big stink for a week or so, then orphan works disappear for a period of time until they come back again — kind of like Brigadoon.

  The latest proposed solution to orphan works has caused the latest freakout, this time full of declarations that artists are inevitably going to get screwed — which may or may not be true based on the latest proposals, but which is also likely out of proportion to any probable outcome.

  Enter Katie Lane, lawyer to the creative community and general smart person when it comes to intellectual property issues. She thought that this latest iteration of proposal/freakout/refractory period was odd, so she went and looked at the recently-released report on orphan works from the US Copyright Office; generous soul that she is, she’s shared her interpretation of the situation, the proposal, the likely outcomes, and how much it’s all a cause for concern. You can read the whole thing here.

  It’s worth your time because orphan works are a concern for the creative community, but panicking and overreacting are not the ways to get policy that works in your favor. It’s absolutely an issue that needs a broad and vigorous discussion, but one based on what’s actually being proposed rather than the shadows of the monsters hiding behind the legislative proposals. She’s even done you the favor of pointing out where the most important sections of the report are, but I’m going to make you read her post to find that. You can cheat by reading Lane’s assessment of the report, but only reading my gloss of Lane’s assessment of the actual report is just lazy.

Spam of the day:

Nitrocellulose from Hebei Jinwei Chemical Co., Limited With the combination of durability, compatibility and unsurpassed drying speed.

I don’t think I want any nitrocellulose, especially with a fast drying speed — when that stuff’s dry, it’s an explosive.

_______________
¹ Good luck with that, invisible ghost monsters! I sold my soul to Rosenberg for a dollar!

² Thankfully, greyhound adoption is well-established, but there are still tens of thousands of dogs a year that are simply put down. If you’re looking for an awesome dog that will love the crap out of you, look into the greyhound rescue closest to you!

Everything has to do with Kickstarter today, even the fact that the US Postal Service has apparently taken a package (in fulfillment of a Kickstarter) meant for delivery from TopatoCo/Make That Thing headquarters in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts to The Fleenplex in scenic downtown New Jersey, and sent it through Western Michigan. USPS: not good at maps.

• To start, I find that I have inexplicably omitted discussion of KC Green’s Kickstart for the final print collection of Gunshow comics which is a serious oversight, me. Even more inexplicably, more than a full week in, Gunshow vol 6: Doomed To Repeat It sits at 86% funded, which means that in the 21 days remaining it will easily eclipse goal, but why so slow to meet funding? Just go check out the video — I was going to put a still from it up top of this post, but I couldn’t choose just one and don’t want to spoiler it in any event — and you will want to give Green all your money ever.
• Next up, Gordon McAlpin (onetime sporting bet nemesis) is Kicking the third collection of Multiplex and off to a good start a bit more than — I want to say a day and a half or so — into the 24 day campaign. Go, look, support.
• I have to believe that David Malki ! is somehow abusing the Kickstarter process by setting up a campaign with a goal of one dollar, perhaps trying to set a record for most overfunded in history? He’s sitting at about 95,000% of goal as I write this, but I can’t get mad because I eventually realize that Malki !’s Kickstarter campaigns are really odd performance art pieces where he has to build and do stuff. Consider:
  

  US$325 “CUSTOM DICE BOX” [4d6 + Coloring book + Postcards + PDF] – We’ll design an incredibly elaborate laser-cut wooden case, containing your own official set of 6-sided, color-coded Roll-a-Sketch dice. Just regular dice, but in a REALLY nice box.

  US$4895 “CUSTOM CHESS SET” – You and I will roll some dice on Skype, and together we’ll create a full chess set of 32 custom characters. I’ll tell my wife Nikki to sculpt all of them for you. The money then goes towards my divorce proceedings.

  It’s really almost a cry for help, but involving creating things and doing things that he wouldn’t force himself to do without money. I’m actually very okay with this, as long as he doesn’t actually make his wife construct 32 custom chess pieces. Or, if you don’t want to pledge to the Kicker and just want to get a Roll-A-Sketch without visiting a convetion, you can purchase those at his store for the duration of the campaign.

• Howard Tayler¹, thankfully, is not running a Kickstarter just now. Instead, he’s going to be at the Salt Lake City (the one in Utah, as opposed to all the other Salt Lake Cities) Public Library this Saturday talking about Kickstarter and how to run a successful crowdfunding project.

  Unlike 99% of public talks on Kickstarter and running a successful project, Tayler’s talk will not be a useless parade of crap; this is because unlike 99% of people that opine on Kickstarter and how to run a successful project, Tayler has actually run multiple successful projects on Kickstarter. Anyway, check it out if you’re in town.

Spam of the day:

I don’t see many commenters here, it means you don’t get many visitors. I know how to get laser targeted

At last! Something not to do with Kickstarter! Also, you know who gets laser targeted? Sniper victims. Noooo thank you.

_______________
¹ My evil twin, etc.

I mean, it’s SDCC week, people are already traveling to SoCal for the nerd prom, and a billion items have come up in the past couple days. Okay, these are each going to be brief because it’s like seven things.

• New SDCC offsite events In addition to all the programming mentioned last week, there are things happening outside the convention center. Singer-songwriter Marian Call (cohort of Alaska Roboticist Pat Race and famed portrayer of Top Space Man) will be part of a show called Space Time on 10 July (that’s Friday) at 7:00pm. Know who else will be there? Molly Lewis (aka Ground Control) and Bobak “We Are Go” Ferdowsi.

  Lewis will also be part of BAMF, the Bad Ass Music Festival, held 10-12 July in nearby Ruocco Park, alongside such luminaries as Kirby Krackle, Paul and Storm, and The Doubleclicks.

• Future plans for The Response Matt Bors follow up on earlier announcements of what’s going on with editorial cartooning at Medium via an announcement at The Response. Short version: It’s a finite project, through the end of July, and more conversations will occur between now and then.
• The AV Club loves webcomics Scott McCloud’s The Sculptor got cited as one of the best piece of media (not comics, all of media) for the first half of 2015, while John Allison, Noelle Stevenson, Ryan North & Erica Henderson, and Gemma Correll were cited as being part of the best of print for the same timeframe.
• Kickstarts Magnolia Porter wins the Most Adorable Kickstarter Video, Like, Ever award … oh, yeah, and it’s part of the launch for Monster Pulse’s second print collection, Phantom Limbs. It’s no secret that Monster Pulse is one of my favorite webcomics (just check out today’s update to see why — wow), so I’m urging everybody to back this one because I want my book, dammit.

  And if that weren’t enough, longtime editorial cartoonist Tom Tomorrow announced his Kickstart via Make That Thing, and it’s a doozy. Twenty five years of strips will be constructed into a 1000 page, two-volume hardcover collection, with an estimated mass of nearly 7 kg. Such a huge collection needs a huge goal, and with less than 24 hours elapsed, Mr Tomorrow has exceeded the US$87,000 needed and is closing in on US$100K. And can I say holy crap, somebody took him up on the US$10K reward tier? This one’s gonna be metaphorically and physically huge.

Spam of the day:

Dr.Oz bikini secret

Man, I can’t find even one picture of Dr Oz in a bikini. Laaaaaame.

I don’t know if it’s because yesterday was Canada Day and Canadians are still dealing with the aftermath of their celebrations, or because tomorrow is the observation of Independence Day and Americans are getting a head start on their celebrations, or because San Diego preview night is less than a week away, but it is dead out there today.

(Actually, I do know why it’s dead out there today. It’s combo of:

• The news that Sonia Manzano¹, aka Maria from Sesame Street has announced that she’s retiring from the show after 44 years and we’re all preoccupied with thinking how much she influenced our lives while feeling bad for future generations that won’t get the same experience. Also, what about Luis? Oh my glob are they going to split up? Is Maria going to die? Next it’ll be Bob that goes away and they may as well pack up the set, I can’t even.
• The fact that my internet is hell of acting up today, with certain sites — minor sites, like Gmail — intermittently refusing to load, while the work laptop is just fine when it’s on VPN and the phone is just fine when it’s on cell data. Yep, this one’s on you, Verizon, and since your phone process makes it basically unpossible to actually reach a human being (much less one that knows how to actually fix things), I’ll just have to ride this one out and I hate you².)

So let’s look at some things coming up a bit later in the month, yeah? They’re both at the Cartoon Art Museum because good on them keeping up the programming while simultaneously prepping for their involuntary move of location.

First up, Thursday, 16 July from 5:30pm to 8:30pm, CAM will be holding a master class in Comic Book Storytelling, conducted by Alan Gordon (who’s worked on some indie comics called Fantastic Four and Captain America). It’s going to set you back US$50 (US$40 if you’re a CAM member) and will teach you scripting and storyboarding.

And then a couple weeks later, from 27 July (that’s a Monday) to 31 July (Friday), you can send the late pre-snotty stage kids (call it 10 – 14) with intermediate art skills to Cartoon Boot Camp, each day from 11:00am to 1:00pm³. This session is on Constructing Comics, and will teach the full set of skills: developing a story, rough layouts, illustrating, and creating a final comic. They’ll look at different formats (comic book, comic strip, manga) and create an original during the week. This one costs US$135 (US$100 for members) and includes basic materials, but feel free to send your sprogs with their own sketchbooks and tools.

Both classes are at the Cartoon Art Museum, 655 Mission Street in San Francisco, which I must stress is a great space. If you possibly can, take the opportunity to check it out before it has to pack up for new digs. Oh, and if you’re going to be at SDCC next week, be sure to drop by the Cartoon Art Museum booth (#1930) and toss ’em a few bucks drop by to see curator Andrew Farago at one of the panels he’ll be moderating (Comic Strips in the Modern Era on Friday; Working Together: Writers and Artists and Kids’ Comics on Saturday). Feel free to thank him for the great work the museum’s done, too.

Oh, and remind me to drop a note of thanks to Sonia Manzano for teaching me to count to ten in Spanish when I was wee. My favorite number is still ocho.

Spam of the day:

Gut Bacteria Responsible for 170 Digestive Disorders — Go here to eliminate toxic gut bacteria and eliminate digestive problems in 2 minutes a day

You know what else my gut bacteria are responsible for? Keeping me alive. I think I’ll maybe not take your snake oil and maybe die as a result, thanks though!

_______________
¹ How did I not know until today that she was in Death Wish with Jeff Goldblum? Kids, do not go exploring her complete filmography unless your parents are around, okay?

²That you refers to the incompetent human being that Verizon won’t let me reach, not you personally. You’re lovely.

³ Actually, the reservation page says it’s until 2:00pm, not 1:00pm. Better check what time you need to be there to pick up your kid so you don’t get done for abandonment or something similarly stupid.

Man, before we even get to the fact that it’s Canada Day and wish well to all our friends north of the border¹, there’s so many things to be happy about. I can’t even decide which would be most important, so I’m just going to hit these in chronological order.

• In the past few days (call it a month or so on the early end), I’ve received packages full of joy from three separate Kickstarts: Evan Dahm’s lovely illustrated edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (now available via TopatoCo), Jon Rosenberg’s long-delayed² Goats book four, and Zach Weinersmith and Boulet’s Augie and the Green Knight, all of which are more beautiful than could have been hoped. Thanks for those, guys!

  For those keeping track at home, this brings my Kickstarter backing record to 49 projects, of which 1 was designated “no reward”, 36 fulfilled, 5 are due for future delivery, 3 are late less than a month (it’s the first, after all), 3 are in the vicinity of a year late (two for what I consider to be good reasons, one I’m mentally writing off) and 1 partially fulfilled three years back for a project that’s gone tits-up. Call it 36/44 success rate, or 81%, which I expect to bump up by the end of the month, and again by end of summer.

• Meanwhile, yesterday David Willis started dropping hints of a new comic which hinted at the future erosion of his famous buffer. Then he dropped the proverbial other shoe:
  

  So on May 27, as I was trying to preregister for BotCon through my phone because our damned Time Warner wifi was having outages AGAIN, Maggie got back from the doctor, noted that there was, in fact, an Ultrasound due that visit despite our expectations, and then handed me this little printout, saying, “Here’s a picture of our baby.”

  And after pausing a bit, she pulled out another little printout and said, “And here’s a picture of our other baby.”

  It’s Twins! David and Maggie become at least the third webcomic couple to bring twins to bear³; previous twin-having webcomickers Jon Rosenberg and Ryan Sohmer were at press time reportedly pointing vaguely in Willis’s direction and laughing hysterically that at least they got to practice on single kids before having to learn how to be parents to twins before weeping uncontrollably. I think that means Welcome to our totally fun club!

  We at Fleen congratulate Willis on his impending great fortune, and are calling for predictions as to how far his buffer will slip. We’re taking 85 days in the pool.

• But the news that will resonate outside our community hit after things wrapped up on the east coast; reports were seen (first in Deadline, later in other corners) that both Kris Straub and Jeff Smith have new Hollywood deals. Straub’s case is perhaps further along, as it was announced that Max Landis will be producing a horror anthology for SyFy, the first season of which will be Candle Cove. Straub has struggled in the past to be recognized as the author of this particularly unsettling piece of fiction, with occasional claims that the short story was in fact true from people who are overly credulous, misremembering their own childhoods, or possibly both.

  Meanwhile, a production firm named a vet of AMC to head up their TV unit, and one of the first projects that’s being examined is an adaptation of Smith’s RASL. A story that mixes art thievery, dimension hopping, Nikola Tesla, and existential horror, RASL is about as different a followup to BONE as could be imagined. It would be a while before we see it hit the screen, but in tapping RASL and Candle Cove for adaptation, it appears that the entertainment complex is showing a willingness to explore wholly original ideas and has an idea of who might be a good source for them.

  Which got me to thinking what webcomics would make a good TV series. Achewood or Wonderella could absolutely rule on [Adult Swim], A Girl and Her Fed could do well on a basic cable channel with experience in showrunning (say, A&E or AMC), and I’m convinced that the Henson Workshop people could do something really good with Monster Pulse. I’m not sure how far we are from effects being able to do justice to any of Overside stories, but Skin Horse maybe could be made to work. Any other ideas? Leave ’em in the comments.

Spam of the day:

cheater detox

I know those words, but can’t figure out they mean together.

_______________
¹ AKA future ruthless overlords.

² The campaign for which coincided with, more or less, a high-risk pregnancy and birth of special-needs twins, who have defied every possible odd to be happy, healthy, distressingly clever young men. Well done, Team Babies!

³ It appears having a long-running webcomic must now be added to the contributing factors for having twins, such as being a twin yourself.

Okay! This is a bit late, seeing as how SDCC 2015 preview night¹ is a week from tomorrow and all, but the whole unable to sit upright thing yesterday put a crimp in our posting plans. Mea culpa, and let’s do this. As usual, this is a list of programs and panels in/around SDCC that I think will be of interest to the readers of this page.

Special Program For Those In Town Early
An Evening With Raina Telgemeier
TUESDAY 6:00pm — 7:00pm, San Diego Central Library
The appeal of this panel should be self-evident.

Each Day Starting Thursday
The Cartoon Art Museum will be holding its annual Sketch-a-Thon at booth #1930, with top-flight creative talent putting in one hour shifts and sketching for a suggested US$10 donation. See the booth for daily schedules.

Thursday Programming
Comic Book Law School 101: Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda
10:30am — 12:00pm, 30CDE
The first of three sessions on making creators sound less like they don’t know what the hell they’re talking about re: matters of law, copyright, and so forth. Go to all of them.

Breaking into Comics Right Now
12:00pm — 1:00pm, Room 28DE
Go for the very clever people on this panel — Charlie Chu of Oni, Gina Gagliano of :01 Books, Matt Gagnon of BOOM! Studios, Ed Brisson, Sam Humpries, and Jim Zub in the moderator’s chair.

Comics for Impact: STEM Education
12:00pm — 1:00pm, Shiley Special Events, San Diego Central Library
I’m of two minds about this one; on the one hand it’s got Jorge Cham (PhD) and others from the world of academia, but on the other it lacks Dante Shepherd/Lucas Landsherr, who is as we speak working off a grant to produce comics for STEM education. It’s also got Alan Gershenfeld of E-Line Media, who are the people that bought out all of Joey Manley’s sites/expertise and then never did anything with them in the webcomics sphere again. I suspect it will be about 85% really good and about 15% faintly infuriating.

First Second: What’s in a Page?
1:30pm — 2:30pm, Room 4
:01 honcho Mark Siegel talking with :01 authors Scott McCloud, Gene Luen Yang, Rafael Rosado, and Aron Steinke. Not optional.

Sergio & Mark Show
3:30pm — 4:30pm, Room 8
Year after year I recommend this, and year after year do you go? Why you gotta make me feel neglected here? Sergio and Mark are comics’ great storytellers (that is, telling stories about comics and those that make comics, occasionally in the form of comics).

Comic-Con How-To: Art Theft Law: Prevention, Protection Prosecution
4:30pm — 6:00pm, Room 2
Sad to say, this is an important one. Learn how to make art thieves cry.

Comics Journalism: It’s About Ethics in Comics Journalism
6:30pm — 7:30pm, Room 24ABC
Guh, I hate that title, but Heidi Mac’s on the panel and she’s always good.

Artists as Brand: Rise of the Artist Entrepreneur
7:30pm — 8:30pm, Room 8
Oddly, there are no webcomics types on this panel — Spike anybody? Brad Guigar (who teaches a class on this)? David Malki !? — but I’d be interested in hearing what they’ve got to say.

Webcomics Advocates and the Webcomics Gathering
8:30pm — 9:30pm, Room 4
Key point: the hosts will, quote, will give any webcomic creators in the audience 30 seconds to promote their comic to the crowd, end quote.

Friday Programming
Spotlight on Scott McCloud
10:00am — 11:00am, Room 9
I’m trusting that it’s only the earliness of the hour that put this panel in one of the modest-sized rooms. Last year McCloud interviewed Gene Luen Yang for his spotlight; this year Yang returns the favor.

Comic Book Law School 202: Selling the Sizzle
10:30am — 12:00pm, Room 30CDE
Marketing, licenses, transfers of rights, and everything you need to know so that somebody else doesn’t end up owning your house.

Cartoon Network: Adventure Time and Steven Universe
11:00am – 12:00pm, Indigo Ballroom, Hilton San Diego Bayfront
Start lining up now; the Indigo Ballroom is the new Hall H. Ian Jones-Quartey and Rebecca Sugar will be there (hi, guys!), along with Estelle (Garnet is the best), Zach Callison (Steven), Jeremy Shada (Finn), John DiMaggio (Jake), Olivia Olson (Marceline), and Adam Muto (co-executive producer for AT). Too short a time for so much awesome.

Scott C and The Great Showdowns: Super Happy Hollywood
2:00pm — 3:00pm, Room 29AB
I understand that Mr C will have a limited supply of the third Great Showdowns collection with him in San Diego.

Spotlight on Katie Cook
3:00pm — 4:00pm, Room 32AB
Gonna just quote from the description because it pretty much says everything you need to know: Katie will be doing a rapid-fire Q&A with the audience while taking audience suggestions for drawings that she’ll be doing live on stage. Be on hand for what promises to be a fun hour of discussion, drawing, cats, and Katie!

How to Crowdfund
3:00pm — 4:30pm, Room 2
Every year they have some variation on this panel, and every year they neglect to invite George Rohac, Spike, anybody from Breadpig, Make That Thing, or any of the post-crowdfunding info services like AFter The Crowd or BackerKit. Get smarter, panel committee!

Spotlight on Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki
4:00pm — 5:00pm, Room 29AB
It’s been a heck of a year for the Tamaki cousins, and it ain’t over yet.

In Your Own Time: Webcomics on Your Own Schedule
5:00pm — 6:00pm, Room 29AB
Longtime comics pro-gone-webcomicker Mark Waid, webcomickers turned dead-tree-bestsellers Allie Brosh, Matt Inman, and Lora Innes. I really wish I could see this one.

Orphan Black: BBC America Official Panel
5:45pm — 6:45pm, Room 6BCF
I am mentioning this so that Rich Stevens knows where to send a case of his cleverest t-shirt.

Saturday Programming
Comic Book Law School 303: And Another Thing
10:30am — 12:00pm, Room 30CDE
Advanced topics; if you want to argue fair use or parody without being completely wrong, you need this session. To make use of this session, you really should have attended the previous sessions.

Working Together: Writers and Artists
11:00am — 12:00pm, Room 28DE
Yeah, it’s still early on post-Eisners Saturday morning, but look at the panelists: the Tamakis, Kelly Sue Deconnick & Steve Lieber, Asaf Hauka & Boaz Lavie (of :01’s The Divine), moderated by Andrew Farago. Listen to everything they say and do things they way they say it.

Spotlight on Allie Brosh
1:30pm — 2:30pm, Room 24ABC
In conversation with Felicia Day, with a focus on Brosh’s next book (Solutions & Other Problems, coming in October and hopefully including her dogs).

Camp Out with Lumberjanes!
2015 3:30pm — 4:30pm, Room 8
Oh man, I love Lumberjanes, you guys.

HBO Presents the Comic-Con International Masquerade
8:30pm — 11:30pm, Ballroom 20 (ticketed) with overflow in Room 5AB, Room 6, and the Sails Pavilion
Hosted, as always, by Phil & Kaja Foglio.

Sunday Programming
Spotlight on Jeff Smith
11:00am — 12:00pm, Room 4
Jeff Smith is the best. Tell him I said hi.

Spotlight on Matthew Inman
12:00pm — 1:00pm, Room 28DE
Cats, dogs, a goddamned Tesla museum, and very likely Exploding Kittens, seeing as how the game should be shipping while SDCC is going on.

Spotlight on Raina Telgemeier
1:45pm — 2:45pm, Room 5AB
Raina Telgemeier is practically a publishing category of her own; she’ll be talking to Jenni Holm of Babymouse about career, her influence on building up an entire new generation of comics readers, and hopefully a sneak preview of her next book.

Chip Zdarsky: A Life
3:00pm — 4:00pm, Room 7AB
Dear glob I wish I could see this. Brimp on, Chip!

Markiplier and Red Giant Celebrate Keenspot’s 15th Anniversary
3:00pm — 4:00pm, Room 4
Keenspot will not have a panel at SDCC about the time that the sun goes cold.

Whew! That’s quite a lot! As always, please let me know if I missed anything.

Spam of the day:

H?ow d?o you d?o ass punisher

Gotta say, that’s the first time I’ve ever been called ass punisher. I’m a little disturbed by it.

_______________
¹ Which I will not be attending, as they still haven’t told me if my press credentials were approved or not. Given the invites I keep getting for things like accredited-press-only interview pools, I’m guessing they were approved but that’s only a guess.

And not to throw shade or anything, but I applied online for press access to NYCC on Saturday and got approval yesterday, a full three weeks before the promised response date. Point: ReedPOP.

Will post when I’m able, and thank you for your understanding.

One of those days where the happy just comes pouring out of people. I think that Andy Bell summed it up nicely:

also all these Androids are legally married now <3 pic.twitter.com/Bdby0SQRTs

— Andrew Bell ? (@deadzebra) June 26, 2015

my feed is so full of rainbows it looks like a leprechaun made sweet love to a unicorn and pulled out early. love it.

— Andrew Bell ? (@deadzebra) June 26, 2015

Webcomics happenings and dramas and such can wait until Monday, along with a discussion of the webcomics-related panels at SDCC (Thursday’s and Friday’s schedules are posted; by Monday we should have everything ready for dissection).

In the meantime, hug somebody you love and be glad that today we’re all a little more equal.

We’re in that lull before the sudden rush to San Diego; the Thursday programming was just announced, and we’ll dig through that (along with Friday – Sunday) looking for interesting sessions to recommend in the coming days. In the meantime, here’s some other news.

• I don’t know what’s more impressive — that Dante Shepherd has personally done 2500 fumetti at Surviving the World (plus guest strips & such), that he’s done twenty-two separate strips on the topic of creeping people out, or that he’s managed all that, two children, multiple cross-state moves, an academic career, an alter ego, and a PhD while looking like he’s still young enough to need to be carded. Congratulations, Dante, and please keep your human experimentation on your side of the fence.
• It’s been a while since we mentioned Shaenon Garrity, Radness Queen of the East Bay and Surrounding Environs and one third of the Nexus of All Webcomics Realities¹. Much like Stan Sakai, who quietly knocks it out of the park with each new issue of Usagi Yojimbo, to the point where it’s barely worth mentioning, Garrity and her co-creator C Jeffrey Wells continue to kill it on Skin Horse; she’ll also get back to Monster of the Week eventually, maintains a near-lethal concentration of weaponized tiki in her backyard, and is raising up a small human being.

  She also edits and writes about manga, but alas that last one is somewhat coming to an end:

  It falls upon my bowed shoulders to announce the news: House of 1,000 Manga is ending. After five years of weekly columns, the time has come to move on. Among other things, we’re kind of running out of manga. We have a lot of manga-related articles planned for the future, and I’ll continue writing for Anime News Network, but this column is retiring after years of service.

  Dammit, I love House of 1000 Manga; I don’t read it week-to-week, but in enormous binges when my defense are low and I need to absorb vast amounts of batshit insanity, because just as Garrity writes about sincere pinnacles of art and craft, she also digs down deep into the weird stuff, glob love her. Drop her a note to thank her and Ho1KM collaborator Jason Thompson, won’t you?

• Via Heidi Mac: SPX has announced its first guests, and it’s no surprise that conquering-the-world-just-now creators like Kate Beaton (Step Aside, Pops! will be releasing just about exactly as SPX is under way) and Noelle Stevenson are in the first tranche, along with Luke Pearson. If the female:male ratio of the guests remains consistent with this first announcement, maybe Pearson can be on a panel about what it’s like to be a male creator in comics.

Spam of the day:

We are reaching out to you today because based on your location we have new positions available.The current positions are filling up fast and have a base pay of $6.5k/month.

Now wait a second, Sparky — your subject line said the pay was $2K to $3K a month; it may be a while since I’ve done any higher mathematics, but I seem to recall that $6.5K is not in that 2 to 3 range.

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¹ The other two thirds are Ryan North and George.